Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 63-minute talk, Geshe Pema Tsering zeroes in on the fourth of the six perfections — joyous effort — making a key distinction: patience means bearing difficulty without anger; diligence means being genuinely happy about it, as happy as, in his vivid phrase, a hot elephant plunging into a lake. He covers three types of joyous effort and cites sutras comparing a bodhisattva’s commitment to laboring for eons as vast as the grains of sand in the Ganges. He grounds his argument in a diagnostic observation: we lack diligence because we have never truly understood how good nirvana is — we know how a new car feels, but not that. The session closes with the four noble truths as the analytical path to that understanding, and a lively Q&A.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 2005 05 01 MT.mp3
UUID: f4e13d0d-bbcb-4423-bad5-35f76a5805b9
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Mind Training (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-05-01
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 62.7 minutes
Words: ~5,357
Oh, yeah. Right. Okay. So, please develop the motivation that you’re listening to the teachings in order to attain understanding of them, be able to put them into practice, become Buddha, and lead all sentient beings beyond sorrow to the state of being Buddha. By developing this understanding, then that can enable you to develop abilities which can lead you to move towards becoming a fully perfected Buddha.
In that state, you can do the utmost to be a benefit to all sentient beings. Okay. So today, we’re talking about the fourth perfection, which is the perfection of diligence or the perfection of joy in effort. This practice says to, at the beginning of this section, says to remind ourselves that in developing diligence or this having joy in the effort, developing a sense of joy in the effort we need to put into to become a Buddha, that this is necessary in order to attain enlightenment as quickly as possible and therefore be of ultimate benefit to all sentient beings. So it says to remember this when we look at the the development of this diligence, we look at the development of taking joy and doing all the engaging in all the things we need to engage in.
There are three different types of joyous effort. There is the diligence of the diligence like a armor, like a set of armor, the diligence of the diligence of collecting all that is virtuous, and the diligence that takes joy in doing things for other beings. So from it’s said that then from all of these three that we are able sorry. By engaging all of these three, now that we’re then able to to put ourselves in situations to do things that are going to be of enormous benefit to other sentient beings. But not only to be able to do that, but be really happy about doing that.
So if we’re not happy about doing it, then we’re not training in diligence properly. So it says that all of the virtues or all of the positive qualities we can develop come about through diligence. And what diligence basically entails is the ability to get rid of laziness or active laziness or passive laziness that is being distracted by things that don’t mean much that are concentrated on fleeting pleasures in this lifetime. So, it’s the ability to get rid of those distractions and that kind of laziness and engage in activities that are going to bring ultimate benefit. Engage in activities that are going to let us become or lead us to becoming truly happy beings and be of benefit to other beings as well.
So if we think about this, if we think about the fact that there is no real benefit, there is no lasting benefit from engaging in positive from engaging in activities that try and make ourselves happy in this life. There’s no lasting benefit from that. And the fact that there’s lasting benefit from working towards nirvana, there’s lasting benefit from working towards Buddhahood. So if we think on that again and again, if we meditate on that again and again, then we’ll develop this really strong this strong sense of joy in being in in practicing Dharma, in engaging in these activities, the six perfections. And by developing this strong sense of joy in practicing Dharma, then we’ve developed diligence.
We’ve developed joyous effort. So the definition or the characteristic the fundamental characteristic of joyous effort or diligence is to be really happy about it. It says, like extremely or strongly happy, to perform virtuous actions. Right? So this means to be really the same and have the same joy in performing virtue that we often do in performing, non virtuous actions.
Did that. Can you hear? I don’t know. Me go check. Eshel stick it on your lip.
Is that better? I don’t I don’t know how to I can’t turn it up. There’s nothing wrong. You have to do that. If I talk I think it’s because Geshe-la’s talking down into the microphone, and I’m trying to project my voice.
I should stop that. I should start mumbling. Alright. You can hear? Okay.
Alright. So this is the main definition or the main characteristic of joyous effort or diligence. It’s taking joy or being happy about performing actions that that lead to Buddhahood, performing and practicing Dharma. Okay. So Geshe said, we we can understand how this works in in just in our basic basic experiences of everyday life as well because if we don’t want something, we don’t wanna work towards it.
If we don’t like money, we’re not gonna put in a lot of effort to get money. If we don’t want a new car, we’re not gonna put in a lot of effort to get a new car. And if we don’t want a new computer, we’re not gonna put in a lot of effort to get a new computer. He’s just having a dig at me there. Anyway, so we need to want what it is that we we need to like what it is we are working towards.
If we have no interest or if we have no joy in the thing that we’re working towards, we’re not gonna work wanna work towards it. There will be no reason for us to work towards it. So Okay. So what’s happening here is then, we’re talking about having the same joy or the same happiness in working towards nirvana, working towards Buddhahood, working towards developing renunciation from Samsāra, working for the benefit of others as we do in working towards things that we want or are attached to at the moment. So if we’re working towards getting money, that’s attachment.
That’s something that’s binding us to Samsāra. If we’re working towards getting a new car or a new computer, then that’s attachment. That’s something that’s binding us towards Samsāra. The new car or the new computer or or money don’t make us ultimately happy. nirvana and Buddhahood do make us ultimately happy.
So the feeling is the same. This idea of I really want this, this is going to make me happy is the same. The problem is that the things that we usually think are going to make us happy aren’t. And this makes that energy that did that feeling of I want to work towards, this is going to make me happy, problematic. Alright?
Because it doesn’t work. But we have that same feeling for nirvana, for Buddhahood, then we’re we’re we are working towards something that will make us happy. So something becomes attachment and destructive, not necessarily depending on the the feeling, but on depending on the thing that we think that we’re relying on. Alright? So if we have that kind of sense towards nirvana and Buddhahood, that’s that makes sense because the objects that we’re working towards that we are wanting to get are going to make us happy.
If we have that feeling towards a new car or a new computer or a new house or money, that’s a problem because none of those things are actually going to bring us happiness, true happiness. So the the perfection of diligence or the perfection of joyous effort is described as being really happy about having a having a thought or a way of thinking where you’re really happy about spending countless eons. Oh no. Yeah. Three countless eons.
So, very long time in a in a hell state in order to be a benefit to one sentient being, in order to lead one sentient being out of suffering. Alright? So, it’s not being able to withstand withstand a very, very long time in a very difficult situation. It’s being happy about it. So the previous perfection that we were looking at patience is learning how to deal with situations.
It’s learning how to, not react with anger, to be patient when we experience things. This perfection is taking things one step further and being happy about whatever happens. It’s being happy about working for others, taking joy in working for others even if it is in this in this very extreme situations. So the perfection of this joyous effort is said to be this, that we can spend eons in hell for in order to benefit one sentient being and be happy about it. Right?
That’s the perfection. That’s the end goal. But in working towards that, we keep developing our ability to be happy and working for others. So this is the type of joyous effort that we need to develop in order to become a Buddha. It’s the perfection of joyous effort.
And if we look at the life stories or the the many life stories, the Jātaka tales or the life story previous life stories of the Buddha, Śākyamūni, then he spent many lifetimes engaging in joyous effort. He spent he was reborn in hell. He was reborn in all these other different places and all these different situations in order to help beings and to develop this to develop his joyous effort, his diligence. And so the if we look then where we’re at, then it’s not going to be anywhere near the same. And Geshe-la says if we’re anything like him, that to abide in in suffering for the sake of another sentient being for a couple of minutes is difficult.
Right? But if we’re able to do it maybe for, a couple of months or a year or something, then that’s like a that’s a really amazing thing to be able to do. So we’re talking about is Buddha is being able to do this for eons in order to benefit sentient beings and not just bear it, but be happy about it. That’s the key, being happy about it. So if we can happily bear the suffering of another being, then we’re getting somewhere we really should be very happy about that.
So it’s training in that, training in being happy about taking on the suffering of other beings. So said he thinks that the major problem for us, the main reason why we can’t develop, we don’t have this ability is because we don’t understand just how good nirvana is. We don’t understand the positive qualities of nirvana or we don’t understand the positive qualities of Buddhahood. And because we don’t understand just how good it is, we’re not very encouraged to work for it. Alright?
We can’t we don’t understand nirvana. We don’t understand Buddhahood. So making ourselves, encouraging ourselves to work towards these things is difficult. On the other hand, we understand how good it feels to get a new car or a house or something like this. So it’s easy for us to to work towards those things.
It’s it’s easy for us to be attached to the things of saṃsāra because we know about them. We’ve had experience of them. We don’t examine to see that those things don’t last forever and they actually make us more miserable, but we we know about the temporary happiness that we can get. So we strive for that temporary happiness even though it doesn’t really help us. So this distraction, attachment to the things of this life, to the things that the temporary happinesses of Samsāra stop us from being able to perceive the true happiness of nirvana and the true happiness of Buddhahood.
If we knew about those, if we understood those properly, then working in this way wouldn’t be a problem. We’d be very, very happy about working in this way. I’m sure he said something else, I said, did you say something else? He goes I said, what did you say? And he goes, I was talking about ethic.
I mean, sorry. I was talking about diligence. Were you not listening? And I was like, yeah, but that’s not helping. Anyway, there was one thing he said that I forgot, and he went over what he said and anyway, I don’t know what it was.
Sorry. So, he just told me all the things I did remember. Anyway, that if we see the positive qualities of nirvana, and if we see the negative qualities of Samsāra, that we see that nothing in Samsāra, no matter how much effort we put into achieving it, actually continues to make us happy. If we understand that and we understand that nirvana is the cessation of suffering, if we develop an understanding of this, this leads to the renunciation. This leads to a mind’s the the development of an intention to get out of saṃsāra, a strong intention to get out of saṃsāra.
And if we develop that strong intention to get out of saṃsāra, this this joyous effort is is really easy. It’s it’s not a problem. If we if we understand what it is, what nirvana is, we understand what saṃsāra is, working to get out of saṃsāra isn’t gonna be a problem. Mhmm. Mhmm.
Mhmm. Mhmm. So this this this is this type of this type of Mhmm. This type of diligence or this type of joyous effort that we’re talking about here is a is a type of diligence or joyous effort described as armor like, joyous effort or diligence. And it’s called armor like diligence or joyous effort because if we have this, we we can withstand anything.
We can we’ll be happy about any working, really hard in, in any of these areas for any sentient being. So in a sūtra called Okay. So most of the Buddha’s sutras are actually responses to questions that were asked by his students. So this particular sūtra is called the sūtra requested by in Tibetan, it’s a bodhisattva called Lodro Miché, and I don’t know what that is in Sanskrit, which is the usual title for sūtra titles are usually given in Sanskrit any Sanskrit anyway. In Tibetan, his name is Lodro Miset, and asked the Buddha a question about developing diligence.
And the Buddha replied by saying that since beginningless time, without interruption, that we’ve been working really hard for our own benefit and not getting anywhere. We’re still in Samsāra. If we were able to develop that kind of effort, not just for a month, not just for twelve months, not just for a few years, but for as long as it took in order to benefit any sentient being. Even if that time that we were the time we were trying to benefit any sentient being went for as long as if each grain of sand in the in the Ganges River was a year. Does that make sense?
So if if each one of the piece in the pieces of sand grains of sand in the in the Ganga was represented a year and the time we were supposed to be working to benefit one sentient being was as long as there are grains of sand in the Ganges, then we can develop a mind that would want to work for the benefit of that sentient being for that long. This one? Mhmm. There’s another sūtra though that’s called the collection of the perfections in which Buddha says something similar. Uh-huh.
Uh-huh. Uh-huh. So in another sūtra, in this sūtra called the collection of the perfections, the Buddha said a very similar thing. He said that from beginning this time up until now, we’ve spent many nights, days and nights working for our own benefit and it hasn’t helped. In order to really be beneficial to other beings and ourselves, we need to start working for the benefit of others, to attain enlightenment for the benefit of others.
So he says in this time this time though, he likens the time that we should spend to the drops of water in the ocean. Right? So last time, it was a grains of sand in the Ganges, and this time, it’s however many drops of water there are in the ocean, for that many years we should be prepared to work with sentient beings. He describes this idea as being the perfection of bodhicitta, the perfection of of the mind of enlightened, the perfection of the idea of working for the benefit towards enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. So there has this idea that we develop joy in the idea of doing whatever it takes for however long it takes for in order to lead all sentient beings out of suffering and don’t have it says, don’t have an instance where our our our compassion becomes deflated, our compassion sinks. So, without a without a moment of losing our compassion. So, this is the ideal that we need to train in. This is a this is the the Okay. So we even though we don’t have this strength at the moment, even though we don’t have this ability to be so happy about working for others’ benefit, working to lead sentient beings out of suffering, alleviate their suffering.
We can develop ourselves, we can develop our minds so that we take great joy in doing this. This is where our joy comes from. And if our joy comes from alleviating the suffering of others, alright, there is no end to that joy. Yeah. So we’re constantly we’re constantly becoming happy.
We’re constantly happy. And so the Buddha’s got a list a long line of great metaphors at the moment. He said, we should be as happy as a hot elephant running into a lake. So elephants, when they’re hot, they they they don’t enjoy it very much, and if they get if they can get near a lake, then wash themselves with water, they become very happy. So, this idea of work, the idea is that you have developed the ability to No, you develop the mind or a way of thinking that would happily spend Uh-uh.
That would happily spend eons in suffering states in order to help sentient beings. Right? That’s the idea that you’re working for and that’s perfection of diligence. But it doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to do it. Right?
Because if you develop the paradox is that if you develop a mind or a way of thinking that is happy about doing these things, then that’s a strong force that that will lead you into becoming a Buddha in a couple of lifetimes. Alright? So you develop the idea or the the ability or this bravery. The other word I should say is bravery to to be able to do that. But that force leads you to getting out of saṃsāra and becoming a Buddha very quickly if you have that diligence.
So if you have any questions, you can ask. Uh-huh. Uh-uh. Uh-uh. So Geshe-la said it took me a while to explain that.
Sorry. Because I was like, no. There’s only one bug left that’s a sentient being. And he’s like, and and and they’re worried because of what? Because Geshe-la said the whole we’re talking about six perfections here, and the motivation for developing the six perfections is to lead all sentient beings from suffering.
So he doesn’t think that they’d be that the bodhisattvas or Buddhas would be sad when the last being is just about to become a Buddha. They’d thinking, we’re nearly there after all these eons of striving for sentient beings. We’ve nearly reached our goal. So they’d be very happy about that as well. Said, if there’s no sentient beings, there’s no suffering.
So if you’re going to be if you’re not suffering, then you’re not going to be worried about not being happy because you’re not helping other beings. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Guess they said, They’re, retired.
Because he’s like because he’s got I don’t understand that’s not a bad thing. Because that was the thing that there’s like nothing left to do. It’s a lifestyle change and he’s going, it’s not bad. There’s nothing bad there. There’s no suffering that’s not bad.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Talking about helping others. Uh-huh.
Uh-huh. Or is he talking about gesture gesture. Uh-huh. Sure. Yeah.
Okay. So Geshe said he wasn’t really talking about either of those things. He was talking about developing a way of thinking that or a way of it’s not thinking necessarily, a way of being, yeah, that wishes to that is really happy. It takes joy in doing any of those things. Right?
So, it’s not necessarily doing them, taking it’s being happy about having the opportunity to do them or have having happy about the the happy about any of these things happening. Alright? So it’s not necessarily looking for times when you can do those things as having a mind that wants to do it. Right? So the first thing that you need to do in order to develop this effort is to develop bodhicitta.
Alright? So taking joy in the development of bodhicitta, looking at the benefits of bodhicitta, and looking at the faults of not having bodhicitta. Right? And once you’ve done that, then it’s the the idea of the six perfections is that you’re strengthening that bodhicitta. You’re strengthening that wish.
Alright? So developing effort after that is develop is starting from this idea of wishing to reach enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, and then it’s it’s it’s drive it’s developing the strength to do that, the courage to do that. Yeah? So you’re starting from that basis, and then you’re developing a stronger and stronger ability to do that. I remember what I forgot from half an hour ago.
Sorry. When I was saying that, I like, oh, that’s what I forgot. That’s what I forgot. Then I was having trouble remembering what Geshe had said to you. Anyway, so I so I can let it go.
The thing that he said, like, half an hour ago that I forgot was that in order to be here, in order to be listening to the teach these teachings, we have to have some kind of, imprint. We have to have had some kind of, connection with the teachings beforehand. We have to have it has to have clicked something in us in order for us to wanna be here. Right? And the idea is that we have to keep strengthening that, right?
We’ve got something happening there. We have some recognition that compassion is a good thing. We have some recognition that Buddhahood and nirvana may be a good idea, but because we don’t see it clearly, because we can’t see it directly and clearly, we still have doubts. So we’re in this in between stage. It’s not as if we have nothing to nothing to no recognition of the idea of nirvana, and it’s not as if we can see it clearly.
Alright? So we have an idea about it. We have had some kind of connection with it. So we think nirvana could be a good thing. Yeah?
But the doubts make it difficult for us to have very clear effort. So we’re trying to work through those doubts in order to see nirvana clearly. So we’ve developed some idea, but not all of it. Feel better now. Heather, before I think.
I was just gonna say that maybe that we’re sort of two point nine nine nine, you know, the long no. We’re point zero zero zero one. Uh-huh. Said, the idea the reason that they make such a big number is that you don’t start doing that. Because it’s it’s such an enormous idea of, like, there’s that many eons that you don’t think, well, is this this?
Am I that far along? How am I doing? Yeah. So the point is that if you have the ability to think of Buddhahood or you have the ability to think of liberation, you’re doing alright. To if you and mainly, he said if you have the idea of compassion, you’re doing well.
Yeah? So the idea is to capitalize on that. You have a unique opportunity that doesn’t come around very often and you need to capitalize on that. Yeah? So if you start thinking how far am I doing, then that’s point.
The point is how do you make the most of what you’ve got, yeah, or what you’ve developed so far. And I’m sorry for doing this chopping one thing. Other thing that I forgot to say from your thing because I got distracted by remembering what I’d forgotten was that he was saying it’s an attitude. It’s the development of an attitude. It’s not necessarily the development of an action, but the development of an attitude.
Okay. It’s it’s I’m having trouble with the translation of of this because I said it’s an attitude, and Geshe-la said and the word I used to translate attitude was a way of thinking. And Geshe-la said, we have to be careful because bodhicitta isn’t isn’t a way of thinking. It’s the result of a lot of thinking. Alright?
So it’s a it’s something that spontaneously it comes about. So an attitude isn’t it’s it may be something that we need to develop. I’m trying to think of how to translate. Something that we need to develop and bodhicitta is something that’s spontaneously present and doesn’t change. Yeah.
A way of being maybe. No. Because being is mind, so it’s a problem. Okay. First of all, we need to examine Samsāra properly.
We need to look at take an honest look at it and develop an understanding of exactly how Samsāra works and how there is no true happiness in Samsāra. Right? And understanding the suffering of Samsāra, the three different types of suffering of Samsāra leads us to want to find what the cause for suffering is. And if we look into the causes for suffering, we find that the causes of suffering are the afflictive emotions, the negative states of mind attachment, aversion, and ignorance mainly. Yeah?
So once we’ve understood that that Samsāra has a cause, right? And we can understand that that cause can be destroyed. We can destroy the negative emotions. Yeah? Then can understand liberation exists.
Alright? Then we need to look at what it is that enables us to destroy the negative emotions and the thing that enables us to destroy the negative emotions is developing an understanding of identitylessness or selflessness. Right? By this understanding of emptiness or identitylessness, we can cut the negative emotions at their root. Right?
Because they won’t come up at all. And if we then can see that, we can go through that process. Right? Then, we can understand what nirvana is, the cessation of suffering. Yeah.
So, if we understand what Samsāra is, what causes Samsāra, how we can, get rid of the causes to Samsāra, then we can understand what the cessation of Samsāra is, and that’s nirvana. And that’s four noble truths. I said, I think time’s up, I guess. I said, it’s not so much whether you think time’s up as whether they have questions. Sure.
Mhmm. Mhmm. Okay. Right. Geshe-la said, the expectations that we have are in saṃsāra, but they’re not saṃsāra.
Right? The expectations we have is what he’s calling laziness because the these expectations we have are what distracts us from achieving enlightenment and liberation. Alright? Their their laziness in that they they make us lazy about working towards nirvana. Right?
And so if we’re distracted thinking, if I just have this and if I just have that, I’m fine. Alright? That keeps us from actually trying to get out of saṃsāra. So the problem isn’t so much no. The problem this is part of the problem that we have these expectations, but the fact that we have these expectations is our ignorance.
We don’t understand that none of these things are actually going to make us happy. We don’t understand that he said, we don’t understand that the house isn’t gonna help, the husband isn’t gonna help, the wife isn’t gonna help, the car isn’t gonna help. None of it’s gonna help. None of it’s gonna make us happy. We have this expectation or this this, idea that if, that they’re going to make us happy because we are caught up in Samsāra.
If we could recognize saṃsāra for what it is, we could recognize that all of these things are actually causes for suffering, not happiness. And if we could recognize that, then we’d be on our way to get out of saṃsāra. But because we don’t recognize it, we have hopes about him. We have a hope that things that are impermanent are gonna be permanent. We have a hope that things that actually cause suffering are going to cause us happiness.
And that’s the ignorance of saṃsāra. Mm-mm. And Geshe-la said, in actual fact, he thinks that having the right husband or wife, like getting the right one that they say will work, that we’re told will work. Well, you know, the one you’re supposed to get. Right?
And the right house and the right amount of money and all of those things. Yeah? That actually causes more problems than it’s than it solves. Because he said that if we have that situation, we’re gonna start being arrogant. We’re gonna start being miserly.
We’re gonna start being attached and doing everything we can not to get to lose them. Because once we’ve gotten something, have to work really hard not to lose it as well. Alright? So every single instant when we’re thinking this is mine, I’m not giving it to someone else. Single instant when we’re thinking I’m better than them because I’ve got everything that they said I should have.
Yeah? Every single instant when we’re thinking I have to work really hard to hold on to this. Yeah? They’re all causes for suffering. They’re all attachment.
They’re all aversion. They’re all miserliness, and they’re all all of those moments that we experience when we have all all that stuffs come together are actually causes for us to experience suffering in the future. Mhmm. So this is why one of the reasons why Samsāra has no good bits. No.
The the the American declaration of independence, We declare — what is it? — all men are created equal. Yeah. Sure. Sure.
Sure. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, you get living something Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And they say these things are self evident. We accept these truths as self evident.
So Geshe-la said, alright. So it’s life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Tell me one American who’s managed not to die in those hundreds of years. And then he said, and tell me and they’re trying to pursue wealth and everything in order to be happy. Yeah?
And he said, tell me one of them who managed to take their wealth with them when they died. And then and then he said and I said the last one was liberty. Yeah. And he said, really? So they have liberty, so they can choose what happens to them in their lives.
He said, tell me one of them that could choose what happened to them in their lives. George Bush. George Bush. Said George Bush. Now here’s interesting because not only does he think he has in he has independence or autonomy, he’s trying to give it to other people.
Right? And and and then he said that if he did have autonomy or independence, he wouldn’t have to go through wars to do this. He could just think it and it would happen. He could just say, I want this to happen and it would. Alright?
And so if you can’t think, I want this to happen and it does, then you don’t have true independence or true autonomy. Uh-uh. And he said he doesn’t seem to be getting rid of these problems. He seems to be making more of them. Okay.
Yeah. So if you go to page twenty six in the morning prayers section.