Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Why is the practice of exchanging self for others called a “secret” instruction? In this 91-minute commentary, Geshe Pema Tsering introduces the second main method for generating bodhicitta — equalizing and exchanging self and others, drawn from Śāntideva’s Bodhisattva Way of Life — explaining that it is withheld from those with strong self-cherishing because it risks provoking an adverse reaction rather than insight. He works through two key verses: that all happiness arises from cherishing others and all suffering from cherishing oneself, and the contrast between the childish who work only for themselves and Buddhas like Śākyamūni and Milarepa. The session’s central argument is that our identification with our own bodies is purely a product of mental habituation — and what habituation produced, habituation can reverse, making equal care for all beings genuinely attainable. Suited to practitioners already familiar with Mahāyāna teachings.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 18 2009 07 30 BP.mp3
UUID: 40b10316-7971-4cf0-970e-321b4215f353
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Middle Lam Rim (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2009-07-30
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 91.4 minutes
Words: ~6,430
So, again, I guess Geshe-la is instructing you as to give yourself some good motivation and with intention of establishing all sentient beings in the state of enlightenment. I myself must attain enlightenment. In order to accomplish that, I’m going to study and practice these teachings on the Lamrim properly. And in this way, we give ourselves a good motivation. Alright?
Let’s go. And then we start with the Heart Sūtra, please. So of the two another one. An iPod. An iPhone.
So of the two ways that the the two methods that we have to produce the bodhicitta, we have already gone through the main one one of the main ones, which is the seven the instruction on seven point cause and effect. And and today, start with the next the second main way to produce bodhicitta, to give rise to bodhicitta, which is equalizing and exchanging self and others. So so as for this explanation on how to train the mind through equalizing and exchanging self and others, We have this main topic is is the training based on the text by Śāntideva. Śāntideva then was one of the main proponents of this way of training one’s mind of producing bodhicitta. Then this this topic has three parts.
Again, thinking about the advantages and the disadvantages of exchanging and, not exchanging oneself and others, self and others, again, respectively. The advantages and disadvantages respectively of exchanging and not exchanging self for others. Then secondly, demonstrating that one can generate, that one is able to generate this mind if one familiarizes oneself with it. And thirdly, the stages of meditating on how to exchange oneself and others. So again in discussing equalizing and exchanging ourselves and others when we’re talking about equalizing and exchanging ourselves for others we’re not talking about actually exchanging oneself with others.
What we’re talking about is changing one’s self-cherishing, putting that aside and instead taking up the mind that cherishes others. And that’s what we exercise. This is the exchange that we are exercising here. We are giving up one’s own self-cherishing attitude and we are taking on the mind and attitude that cherishes others. So so again, Geshe-la, again, is explaining.
So what is it that we are talking about? We’re talking about mind that cherishes oneself and and and or self-cherishing and the cherishing of others. So what is that self-cherishing mind? What is the self-cherishing attitude? Is the mind that that is thinking of oneself as extremely important, the things of oneself as being very precious, as being very important, and things to oneself, I must have everything that is good.
I must have all things good. I must have all things pleasant. I must have all everything that is good and pleasant and comfortable, and I must avoid everything that is painful and and discomfort and uncomfortable and and unpleasant and suffering and so on. And and this is thinking of of oneself in such a way without giving any regards to to others. And and this then is the mind that that of the mind of self-cherishing, that cherishes oneself more than anything else.
And then we want to get rid of that, and we want to take on a mind that is cherishing others more than anything else. So in in thinking about the advantages of exchanging and the disadvantages of not exchanging oneself with others, then we have again, there’s a three topics to that. The first one being to quickly accomplish the two wellfares. And then goes on and stops there and says again, to quickly accomplish the the the well-being, the perfect well-being of both oneself and others, it is appropriate, it is reasonable to exchange oneself with others. And, again, in order to to explain that and to indicate that we give we’re giving this verse from the Bodhisattva Way of Life, which reads, whoever wishes to protect himself or herself and others quickly should practice this secret instruction, which is exchanging oneself and others.
And, again, the Shalab was in saying, whoever and the the the Tibetan goes like this. The first verse is saying it starts with literally. Okay? Word by word is whoever, oneself and others quickly wishes to quickly protect or or give refuge. The word for protection here is the same word that is used for refuge also.
Protection here is the same word that is used for refuge also. Kyob. So, again, if I stop there, this word Kyob, which is to protect, to obtain refuge. Protect from what? Protect from suffering.
Protect from cyclic existence. Protect from every suffering of the entirety of cyclic existence. If whoever wants to do that and wants to do that quickly, for everyone, for oneself and others, ought to then to do to engage in this practice of exchanging self and others. If you exchange self and others, then you quickly attain this protection. And Geshe lah is saying the last line of the Tibetan verse, the last sentence, it says, again, one should one should practice this instruction, which is secret.
That’s the last line of the verse of the Tibetan verse. So Geshe-la is going through that and saying, again, what what what is what is meant here by secret? Usually, we keep secret. What we do is that we keep secret our own faults. If we have faults and shortcomings ourselves, we keep it hidden from others.
We hide it away. We keep them secret. So here, again, we we want this instruction is instruction again that is to be kept hidden, to be kept secret. It’s not to be carelessly taught to just anyone, neither casually nor carelessly taught away to anyone, given away to anyone, but not because it has That’s not the case here. Instruction is secret because if it is taught carelessly or to just to just anyone, to just any student, to just any disciple, then not only it won’t be it won’t be beneficial, but there is there is a danger that it might actually be harmful to the student, to the disciple.
So again, if it is taught to just anyone, if it is taught to people who have a very strong self-cherishing mind and have and have completely no regards for, no concerns for anyone else. If it is if it is taught to such people, this instruction can can can cause an adverse reaction in those people. Those people might say, oh, this is all rubbish, and, I I want nothing to do with it. And they might actually, you know, become even angry when they hear such things. There are people who might become even angry when they hear such things.
And and and and then what we have is a lot of great harm, that those persons are experiencing in this way, experiencing great harm. So we have to teach this this instruction to those who are fond of the Dharma, who are inclined towards spiritual practice, not only just any Dharma, who are fond of the Mahāyāna Dharma, of the Mahāyāna teachings, who have a faith in it, who have a liking for it, who are inclined towards the Mahāyāna teachings. To such people, these instructions might might be given. So, again, to to those who have who aspire and who who who have faith and who are fond of the Mahāyāna Dharma, yes, we teach this instruction. To those who don’t aspire, who have no faith, and do not have any inclination aspiration, then we keep them we keep it away from them.
And then and then we we move on to the next topic which is the actual the advantages of exchanging the disadvantages of not exchanging oneself with others. And we read again another verse which says all the happiness there is in in in the world arises from wanting happiness for others and all the suffering there is in the world arises from wanting happiness for oneself. What need is there to say anymore? The childish work for their own welfare. The Muni is for the welfare of others.
Look at the difference between the two. So, again, Geshe-la is going through the verse. The first half of the verse is then saying, again, every happiness there is in in in the entirety of cyclic existence. Again, every happiness there is in this world is is the result of wishing happiness for others, of of of wishing others to be happy. And, again, every suffering every suffering there is, every pain, every discomfort there is is the result of wishing happiness for oneself alone.
But but it’s not quite like that now, is it? Every happiness there is, we accomplish it for ourselves, isn’t it? We do it. And every suffering there is is is the is the fault of someone else, isn’t it? No.
Happiness, and we all need to accomplish happiness. So we all we all we all working at it, isn’t it? But we the happiness that we are accomplished for ourselves is not really happiness now, is it? This this thing all these these things which are which pertain to this present life alone are not really happiness now, are they? So, again, this is what we are we are involved with, and yet we need to do we need to accomplish something which is more than that.
So what we we we need to be able to distinguish, to recognize what is suffering and what is happiness, what is real happiness or lasting happiness. We don’t really know the difference. We don’t really know what suffering is, and we’re we don’t really know what lasting happiness is. We don’t really know what this stable lasting happiness is. So we when we’re talking about happiness, usually, we can talk about two different kinds of happiness.
We can talk about which is this usually, it’s temporal happiness. The happiness that pertains to this present lifetime alone. And we talk about, again, this lasting happiness, unchanging happiness. And, again, this this when when we talk about happiness, all that we that we really we are really talking about is this temporal happiness. And we know nothing of lasting happiness.
We know lasting happiness, which is then the happiness of liberation and enlightenment. And the the fact is the fact is that these things which we which we call happiness, the so called temporal happiness, They are all in the nature of they are all what they actually are is the suffering of change. They are sufferings of change. And and and, also, they are all pervasive compounded sufferings. This very aggregates that we have, they are all pervasive compounded sufferings.
So, again and so and this is what we spend our lives working for, striving for. And this this this so called things which are sufferings of change or all all those things which are in the nature of pervasive compounded suffering. The so we we we regard we we hold that which is actually suffering, and we regard that as happiness. We call it happiness. We call happiness what what is actually suffering, and we strive for that.
We work for that. And and and all that we are accomplishing really is just suffering. This one. And Geshe-la goes on to say again, without accomplishing this practice, this exchange of self and others, again, there’s no way one can attain enlightenment. It is not possible to attain enlightenment.
Now it is it is still and yet it is still possible to attain liberation. So, again, even though one might not be able to attain enlightenment without this practice, again, we have our Arhats, our Arhats, our Foe Destroyers who have attained liberation, and they have not accomplished such practices. So, again, when when we talk about this secret practice, this secret instruction, again, when it is also secret also it is also kept secret, kept away from such such beings as Arahants for destroyers whose whose only disposition, whose only inclination is to attain their own liberation, their own welfare alone, and who who do not who are not inclined, who are not disposed to, how to say, accomplish the well-being of others. So, again, to such beings also who are not able, so to speak, to to hear such instructions, to listen to such instructions again. To them from them, we we we keep these instructions secret and hidden.
So again, this this exchange of self or other is something which is very hard to produce. It is so hard to produce that again these Arhats, Foe Destroyers are not able to listen to it, not able to to to lend their ears to it. So, again, because it is such a difficult instruction, again, it is kept hidden. So, again, but we we ourselves, we we have we we have, you know, we have faith in the Mahāyāna teachings. We have you know, we aspire towards the Mahāyāna teachings.
So so, you know, so it is allowed then for us to talk about these these instructions, you know, to to be taught these instructions. And Geshe-la was just joking, then in this way, then we are we are superior. We are we are better than the Arhats, Foe Destroyers. So again, so again, we we all have, you know, we all have faith in in the Mahāyāna Dharma. We all we all we all like it.
We are all really able to to to hear such teachings, and and, you know, we won’t be contradicting it. We won’t be averse to such teachings. There is no there is no one amongst us who will who will be directly opposed to such teachings, who will say, oh, this this is rubbish. Who will listen to it and say, this is rubbish. This is this is not right.
There’s nobody here who will say that. We are all we are you know, regardless of our capabilities, we we are all we can all accept it. We can all see as something good, and and we can all have faith in it. So, again, Geshe is reading the second verse. Again, what need is there to say anymore?
Again, the childish work for their own welfare. The Munis for the welfare of others. Look at the difference between the two. And Geshe-la was gonna say, again, so there’s really no no need to elaborate here. Again, the childish, Geshe-la was gonna say ourselves.
We work only for our own welfare, and we have been doing so since time immemorial. We have been living every life we have been going through, again, concerned only with our own well-being alone. And then the Munis, you know, the Buddhas, they have worked for the welfare of others. And and, again, all you have to do is is look at the difference between one and the other. And then so we can we can look at the example of, you know, Jetsün Milarepa, and any other enlightened being that we we can think of.
Again, they by by cultivating this attitude that that is intent on the welfare of others, again, they have attained, you know, supreme enlightenment. And then and we think of the childish ones. We think of ourselves. We have since time immemorial all the way up until now, we have been concerned only with our own welfare, only with our own well-being, and then just look we are at now. And then and and and then in the future again, we’re gonna keep on doing that.
So just just look where we are at, and you’ll see the difference. So, again, we can think of, you know, the Buddha Śākyamūni who, again, was was the son of a king. And then by by seeing by actually seeing the suffering of all the beings around him, then he he actually then generate renunciation in in bodhicitta and all that. And he has enlightenment in in in in dependence on that. So we can see clearly how he has generated this attitude, this attitude of cherishing others.
You know, for he was working really for the well-being of others. And now we think of of Jetsün Mila, and and we cannot we don’t we don’t cannot see in his life story such an example. You know, what we actually see is him actually harming a lot of murdering people and all that. And then he ends up spending the rest of his life at the top of a mountain in a cave all alone. So it’s hard for us to see or to conceive of him.
Where where is this attitude of cherishing all that’s coming from? We can we can we cannot really see that ourselves. And yet we shall also say we can rest assured that Jetsün Mila at the top or, you know, at at in the solitude of his cave has certainly has surely surely engaged in such meditations and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings of exchanging self for others. Has certainly done so. He has also engaged in meditations and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings on on on developed the wisdom that realizes emptiness, the mind that realizes emptiness.
So at times, he was doing a meditation on emptiness. At times, he would be meditating on bodhicitta. He was he would be meditating on equalizing and changing self for others. Without without these two, there is no attainment of enlightenment, and yet he has attained enlightenment. So we can rest assured that he has done so.
Even though we ourselves cannot see it, we cannot understand it, he has done so. Like this, you won’t be able to understand. Okay. And so again, therefore, Buddhahood and so forth are difficult to attain if one does not exchange oneself with others. And again, so again, Buddhahood is hard to attain without producing this mind, this exchange, and also etcetera here or so forth.
We’re making reference again to even liberation itself. Even liberation itself is harder to attain if without engaging in this practice. If one engages in this practice, then the attainment of any type of lasting happiness, stable lasting happiness is is made easier. So, again, and Geshe-la is going through the verse, which says again, if I do not exchange my happiness and the suffering of others correctly, Buddhahood will not be attained and there will be no happiness in Samsāra either. And then Then Geshe-la is saying.
With with regards to this verse, we we all think, oh, you know, we we are happy. I am happy. I have accomplished happiness for myself. You know, I have I have good food, good clothing, good house. I have I have money.
I have a good job. I have a, you know, I have a car. I have a motorbike. And we all think I have happiness. I’m happy.
Isn’t it? But all that is actually suffering. Again, none none of it is real happiness. If it was really happiness, tend to doubt if it was really stable, lasting happiness, was real happiness, then again, we wouldn’t be we wouldn’t be needing to do anything else attain any more happiness. It wouldn’t it wouldn’t deteriorate into something other than happiness.
It wouldn’t deteriorate into change into something that is suffering. And into it wouldn’t change into something that is undesirable, uncomfortable, unpleasant. There is not happiness. Because it does, it indicates only that it is in the nature of suffering itself. So again, just as it is expressed here, again, you should think of cherishing you should think of cherishing oneself as a door to all problems and cherishing others as the basis of everything that is excellent, of all excellences.
So, again, and Geshe-la is saying. So this then is what we are being instructed to to to think about, to train our minds again. We should think about the mind that cherishes oneself as the doorway to to every problem, every suffering, everything that is undesirable, unpleasant, uncomfortable, and so on. And, again, we should think of this this attitude that cherishes others as the base, foundation of everything that is good, everything that is happy, everything that is pleasant. So, again, Geshe-la is going to the next topic, demonstrating that one can generate this mind if one familiarizes with it.
So, again, demonstrate that one is able to generate this mind, to produce this mind if one familiarizes oneself with it. So first part of this topic and the actual topic itself. In the same way that fear used to arise in us even upon hearing our enemy’s name, but later later on, having come to an agreement, we become friends and generated great affection. We became friends and generated great affection, missing that person if they were absent. Likewise, by subsequently familiarizing the mind, we can become familiar with seeing oneself like someone else and others like oneself.
So again, Geshe-la says, so using this this analogy, this illustration here in the same way that again we we all have had at some point early in our lives, we have somebody who we we disliked, who, you know, at at one point when we were very young, twenty, fifteen, fourteen, you you name it, whenever however, whenever it was, we had someone disliked that we disliked very much. And then, again, we could hardly hear anything said about that person without getting upset. And, eventually, as the as the years went by, we ended up befriending befriending that person. We ended up being, you know, in accord with that person, you know, or liking that person. And to a point where we become very good friends and to the point where when it came that if the person was not around, we would actually be wondering where where where is he?
Where is she? You know, what’s happening and so on. We would actually be thinking about the person wanting it to be close to us. So we we see that happen. We can all see that happening in our own lives.
And then in the same vein, we can all see again someone who, you know, earlier on we have liked very much. We were very close friends. And then eventually, you know, we we fought about something. We had an argument. And then we become, you know, to say that, arch enemies.
And nowadays, we we, you know, when we see when we cross ways with a person, we don’t even bother to look or to say anything. It’s always just just We can now see that happening. And so and all these happens again by the force of familiarization, by the force of habituation. All that is done with the mind. So it is a matter of we have familiarized ourselves, have habituated our minds in these ways.
And because this is possible and we can see ourselves for ourselves this happening in our lives and this is possible. So it is also possible to develop a mind that is cherishing all other sentient beings as the most precious and most important thing there is. A mind that that has completely given up, let go of any concern for oneself alone, and is then invested. It’s it is it is intent on the on accomplishing on the on is intent on the happiness of all other beings. So that is possible.
We are able to produce such a mind. And then, again, to again, to shed some light in this, are given from the Bodhisattva way of life, Śāntideva, again, we’re given another verse, which says, do not turn away from something because it is difficult. Yeah. Do not give up something because it is difficult. Through the power of familiarization, by the power of familiarization in this way, in this manner, again, and I don’t understand very well this English translation.
Again, someone, whom used to fear by merely hearing his or her name. Again, now if the person is absent, we, we are made uneasy. We are we dislike even when the person is if if even if the person is merely absent, we, again, we we dislike it. Is that alright? It’s just the arm has to go.
Just we do not like when someone No. Okay. We do not like when someone is not with us, who we used to fear when hearing his name. Yes. Thank you for that.
Or her name? Could be her name also. This one. It could be her name. This one.
This one. This one. Oh, yeah. So, again, in the next in the next little half verse is saying it is not all that difficult to posit my body as that of others. And in English, I was explaining what that means.
Again, we presently, we see this one body of ours. We regard it as you know, I I regard this my body as myself. I say this is me. This is I. This is what I am, who I am.
And and and, again, Geshe-la is indicating what this verse is saying is that it’s not so difficult to give up that notion and instead think of others bodies, other all be other beings bodies as myself, as me. So that’s what we do, you know, when when, this is how we all relate to our own bodies. When we if I am sick, I say I am sick. I am ill. I am feeling pain.
I am hungry. I’m cold. I am I’m I’m feeling hot. You know? I am unwell.
I am uncomfortable. This is how we this is how we relate to our bodies. We of it as ourselves. And, again, so we have do is is reverse that, and we have to generate this attitude that is concerned with with others. And we think, okay.
Others are sick. Others are ill. Others are uncomfortable. Others are hungry. Others are unwell, and so on and so on.
And then, you know, that’s you know, let me do something about it. Let me stop that. You know, if if all their sufferings ripen upon me, it’s alright. That you know, let let all their sufferings ripen upon myself, and so on and so on. And then, again, even in the in the Lama Chöpa itself, in the Guru Puja itself, have a prayer again, which is in which one is is praying to one’s Lama that one be able to take upon oneself all the sufferings and all the negativities of all sentient beings, and that one then gives away, sends forth to all other sentient beings every virtuous roots, every every virtue, every good deed, and every happiness.
One gives that away to all those sentient beings that they be endowed with every happiness. So, again, this Lama Chopa, the the Guru Puja, which was composed by Pänchen Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen. Again, this he composed the Lama Chopa. He composed the Guru Puja. But this verse is a verse that he took away from the seven point mind training, a mind training text.
And then he took he took these teachings of mind training and inserted them into this liturgy of the Guru Puja. Then, Geshe-la was saying that the the benefit of of doing such an exchange, of taking upon oneself every such sufferings and then giving away every happiness and every cause of happiness, limitless. Again, the the the earth wouldn’t be enough to accommodate all the benefit that comes from engaging in such a practice, even just one moment of of just really involving one’s one’s heart, you know, reciting wholeheartedly reciting such prayers, really intent with one’s heart and mind, really intent on the meaning of this prayer. Doing it just once again, the benefit that will ensue from that is immeasurable. The the earth wouldn’t be enough to accommodate all the benefit, all the merit that would ensue from that.
And then we have the next topic, clearing up doubt. Again, so if you think as someone else’s body is not my own body, how could it be appropriate to generate the same attitude towards it? So, again, how can I possibly if if it they are others’ body, they’re not my body? How can I have this the same care and the same concern for other’s body? Born of our parents, and even though it is produced from parts of others’ bodies, we hold it to be I by the power of previous familiarization, by the power of habituation.
Likewise, if we familiarize with cherishing other’s bodies as if they were our own, we will generate also this mind. And, again, Geshe-la has said, so, again, this this body of ours, this body is the result of the union, the product of the union of our mother’s egg with our father’s semen. So it isn’t really our body. It was never our body from the very beginning. It was not ours.
It’s a product of something something else or somebody else’s body, other people’s bodies. And then but but for by the force of habituation, we ended up identifying ourselves with it, and we call this body ourselves. We call it I or me. This is I. This is me.
This is what I am and so on and so forth. And so and because these happen merely by the force of habituation alone and not by any other factor, but just by habituation alone, the same can happen. Again, if we start habituating ourselves, familiarize ourselves with the idea, with the notion that other other people’s, other beings’ bodies are also I, me, myself, and so on and so on. Because that is the case, we are able to do so. So, again, this body, again, this life is not ours.
It doesn’t really belong to us. It’s just because we have habituated ourselves to call it me or I, that it’s that we relate with in this way, but it’s it is it is out of our hands what happens to wheat, how long it will last, and so on. It’s completely out of our hands. It is not us. It is not ours.
And yet, so merely by habituation, we identify so much with it. And Geshe-la was gonna say, if we if we set our minds, if we if we if we really think about it, we can all see for ourselves how how this is actually the case. We can all understand easily understand how these bodies that we these bodies that we have, again, they are actually the result of the product of the union of mother’s egg with a father’s semen. And we can all see that. We can all understand that.
We can all understand how we come to call this body I, to identify with this body by through time, by the force of habituation, habituation, of a mental habituation. And, again, we can all see again how we have come to care and and be more concerned with it when we are sick, when we are you when we are in pain. So one, we think I am sick. I’m you I’m suffering and so forth and so forth. So, again, in the same vein, we can also generate the same the same attitude with regarding others bodies.
We can also train our minds, habituate our minds to think in in in the same way regarding others, when others are suffering, others are in pain, when others are experiencing any unpleasant situations, discomfort, and so on. We can have the same attitude and care for them and and and and do something about it. And then Geshe-la was reading the verse again from the from the Bodhisattva Way of Life that says again, just as you just as you are a drop of semen and blood from someone else, just from someone else is held to be I. Just as as the drop, a drop of semen and blood from someone else is held to be I, likewise, we should familiarize ourselves regarding others. And, In English, he was going through the rest of this.
Through through reflecting well on the advantages and disadvantages along these lines, a strong enthusiasm for this meditation will develop from the depths of of one’s heart. Having seen that, if you familiarize yourself with it, you can generate this attitude. You meditate on it. So, Geshe-la, this is telling us how important it is to meditate in these lines, to to cultivate this practice. It’s a very beneficial practice because it is in accord with reality.
It is accord it accords with reality. The reality that all sentient beings are in actuality much more precious and important than oneself. They are very precious. They are very important. They are very beneficial to us.
It is important to hold them in high regard, in high esteem, and care and cherish them in this way. That’s why it is such a powerful practice. It’s such important beneficial practice. I forgot to to tell you in the beginning. Geshe has a meeting at quarter past nine in his own house.
We still have time. Yeah. So we have time for questions. Yes. Do you have any questions?
No? That’s embarrassing. You went you went to work today? Did you go to work today? Work?
Yeah. No. I said that Sunday, I did two hours of Sūtra reading down at TBH. And then a friend of mine, she rang me up last night to do another to finish it off, took another two hours today Yes. And then read it out loud.
Yes. My mind’s still in that. Alright. Yes. So that’s very difficult.
You get tired because of that. Pretty important diet last summer. Yeah. Absolutely. Yes.
Anybody has any questions? Just now, wasn’t it? Yes. Yes? So what we have to do, I’m gonna take this home with me.
So what we have to do is right now what we have is that we are, these bodies of ours are the product union of the egg and the sperm of our parents. Yes. They are. And then we habituate ourselves to calling it I. We we think of it as ourselves, and we hold it as being very precious and very important.
We are very concerned and centered around it. And we think, okay. You know, I I’m suffering. I’m ill and so forth. And, you know, I must avoid pain.
I must accomplish happiness and all that for this body. And everybody else does the same. Everybody else is exactly the same in this regard. So what we have to do, what we’re being asked, what we’re being told to train our minds to meditate on is is to give up this self centered attitude, this this concern with our own bodies, this this over preoccupation with our own bodies and and give that up. And instead, be as concerned with others bodies as we are presently concerned with our own bodies.
So we have to be concerned with others bodies. We have to be concerned with others’ happiness. We have to be concerned with others’ well-being. We have to be concerned with others’ pain and suffering, and we have to give up our own concerns for our own for for ourselves, for our bodies. That’s what we’re being told to do.
And the point, the whole point is that this body is the result, is the product of the egg and the sperm of our parents. It isn’t us. It isn’t ours. It is the product of someone else. It is something else.
But because we have familiarized ourselves with it, to thinking of it in as being I, as being me, because we have familiarized ourselves in this way, and because only by the only by familiarization alone, we have come to think of it as I, me, and we have developed this concern for itself. And I and and we are we care for it when we are sick and we are fearful and so on all because we are habituated with this I. Again, because because we have been able to habituate ourselves in such a way, in such a profound way, in such a powerful way with something that has that is completely unrelated to us. Because of that, we are being told that we can also do the same with regards to other bodies, which are just as unrelated to us as as our own bodies. So because this relationship of this I, this idea of I, regarding this body, is only a mental fabrication.
It is only the result of mere habituation alone, then we are being told we can also do the same regards to other people’s bodies. We can also habituate ourselves to being concerned, as concerned with other bodies as we are concerned with our own, as concerned with other’s well-being, with other’s welfare. And we can also come to think of other’s bodies as being I, as being me, and care for them as well as we as much as we are caring for our own bodies right now. That’s the point. So so, again, Geshe lah is saying that this body is not us.
This body is not what we are. The person, the self, is the composition of factors of the five aggregates. You know, the person is the composition of factors. The body is belongs to the aggregate of form. So, again, this body is just like a hotel.
It’s like he was saying. You know? You you you you pay your rent for one month, and that’s and that’s how much you have. After after that period of one month, that rent has expired, you’re kicked out of the hotel. And the same way we have, you know, our own contaminated actions, our own karma, and our own afflictions.
And once those causes and conditions have expired, we are kicked out of this hotel here. I wouldn’t know how to translate that. Are there Fakhsar Hotels in India? Okay. Nothing’s happening.
Just thought. I click. Come on. Any more questions? What are you doing with that?
I’m having a good time. Yeah. Sure. Georgie? Oh, yeah.
That’s not fun.