Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Geshe Pema Tsering opens this 63-minute session with a striking claim: the confidence required to pursue enlightenment would, in any other context, border on arrogance. Moving into the actual practice of the Seven Points of Mind Training — the second point, after covering death, impermanence, and karma the week before — he argues that mind training is the supreme path for all three scopes of Lamrim practitioner. He clarifies the Buddhist meaning of virtue (what the Buddha taught leads to positive results, with no Victorian moral overtones), then maps out a meditation session’s structure: seven-limb prayer, inviting Buddhas and gurus, comfortable posture, twenty-one counted breaths. A Q&A covers Buddhist analysis of cloning — same karma mechanics as any rebirth; the Dalai Lama’s DNA might produce a farmer — and why speech is harder to control than physical or sexual conduct.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 07 2005 06 05 MT.mp3
UUID: a2b8f7a1-460b-4dc0-be61-9710102bd943
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Mind Training (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-06-05
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 62.7 minutes
Words: ~5,745
Alright. So, all sentient beings want to experience happiness and don’t want to experience suffering. In this way, they’re just the same as us. If we, look at the way that we are and we look at most of the things we do, then we’ll notice that most of the things that we do are to avoid suffering and to make ourselves happy. And, then if we look at other beings, then we’ll notice that that’s exactly the same thing they’re doing.
They’re exactly the same as us. So in in order for us to get out of suffering, in order for us to show all other sentient beings how to stop suffering, then we need to become a Buddha. So in order for us to do that, in order for us to attain the unsurpassable enlightenment and from that state be able to lead all other beings, to out of suffering and to enlightenment, then we first need to follow the Buddha’s path and part of that is to train our minds. So that’s what we’re looking at here, the training of the mind, the seven points of mind training. So please take your motivation and try and develop or have the idea that you are listening to these teachings in order to develop understanding of them, in order to be able to put them out put them into practice and, by so doing, develop bodhicitta, the mind wishing to attain enlightenment for all beings and become a Bodhisattva.
So last week, we looked at the preliminaries to mind training. So we looked at the things that the parts of the path that come before the development of bodhicitta and the development of the mind seeking enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. So we looked at things that looking at death and impermanence, shortcomings of Samsāra and karma. karma. And so, that’s the first of the seven points of mind training and that’s what’s called the preliminary to the actual practice.
Now, today we’re going to start, the actual practice, which is the second point of the seven points of mind training. Okay. Right. So the way that we go about starting to implement the actual practice of mind training is by using first of all, the preliminary practices as base. We then train in what are called the two bodhicittas, Ultimate and Conventional bodhicitta.
The way that we begin to train in Ultimate and Conventional bodhicitta is by developing the confidence that we can. Developing the first of all the will and then the belief that we can actually do it. So there’s this word in the text that often means arrogance and is often used in a derogatory way. But they’ve used it here in a positive way to indicate how much just how much confidence we need. It’s confidence that in any other context would come across as arrogance.
Yeah? But that’s the strength of the confidence that we need in order to apply ourselves to the developing, of this mind of enlightenment. So it’s a very strong type of confidence. And the way that we develop this strong type of confidence is by going over the different parts, meditating on the different parts or training our mind in the different parts of the collection of the collection of conditions that have come together to enable us to legitimately have this confidence. Alright?
So the first thing that we need to look at them is the fact that some how or other through positive prayers in the past, through having performed, performed very positive constructive deeds, through having, practiced six perfections and made stainless prayers, that is prayers that weren’t tainted by our own, egos, then we have, found us we find ourselves in a in a lifetime where we have all of the causes and conditions for having a precious human rebirth. And this is a very, very rare situation. It’s a it’s a, a peculiar situation that we find ourselves in, that it doesn’t happen very often. So we need to remind ourselves of this. Okay.
So this is the training. This is part of the training. In terms of mind training, is part of the training that we need to do. We need to convince ourselves through logic and through experience that this is the case, that we do have this peculiar experience, we do have this opportunity that we must have done something very special to get. And not only that, but now that we have this amazing opportunity, there is really no reason why we should waste it.
There’s it would be a terrible shame to waste such an opportunity. So the way that we don’t waste it, the way that we make the most of this opportunity that we have is by not frittering it away focused on things that will only benefit us in this lifetime that mean nothing at the time of death, but by focusing on the practice of Dharma, by focusing on, a spiritual path that will have effects repercussions beyond just this lifetime. And then from amongst all of the different spiritual paths that we we could focus on, there’s many different, Dharma paths that we could try and follow, it makes sense to try and do the best one, to try and do the one with the most, expansive results. And in this case, it’s it’s obviously talking about developing bodhicitta and attaining Buddhahood. All right.
So the next thing that we need to focus on, the next thing that we need to, train ourselves in remembering, train ourselves in train ourselves in developing this as a ethic for which we by which we live, is the idea that, when we die, we don’t know when we’re going to die or we can’t give anyone a certain time of when we’re going to die. But when we do die, the thing that will have the most the only thing, sorry, the only thing that will help us is the positive action that we’ve done, is the good karma that we’ve accumulated. So at the time of death, we propelled into our next lifetime depending on the potential force of the karma that we have accumulated in that life and in our previous lives. So the karmic potential manifests or throws us into another lifetime. So if the bulk of or the strength of the negative things that we’ve done is greater than the strength of the positive things that we’ve done, this means that we would end up in a not so nice rebirth.
And if we, the strength of the positive things that we’ve done and the strength of the mind, the positive mind that we die that we die with, is stronger than negative things that we’ve done, then we end up in a positive rebirth. We end up in a rebirth that has a certain amount of happiness and pleasure within it. So this we can’t control the time that we die because this is from a very complicated very karma starts off simple, becomes very complicated, from a very complicated structure of a very complicated set of karmic potentials. Does that make sense? So, all of the different things that we’ve done will have a potential that can carry us forward, but because we do so many things and we’ve done so many things it’s very complicated.
So we can’t say when we’re going to die but what we can do is decide to do positive things that will have beneficial results and that means that at the time of death we can find ourselves in much more positive rebirth than if we just let ourselves fall into negative habits. And then it says from if you’re going to do something positive you might as well do the most positive thing you can. And this idea of doing anything that’s motivated by the wish to get all sentient beings out of suffering is said to be the most positive thing that you do. Anything that you do with that motivation is said to be the most powerful, have the most powerful karmic potential, because of the the expanse of the wish. Alright.
So, I just had to clarify something that Geshe-la within this because it says it talks about, these two different types of karma or these two different types of, potentials that we have in our mind stream. And they one of them is usually translated as virtue and non virtue. And I was I’m worried about the, implications that implications that that word virtue may have in the minds of people who are coming from different traditions and everything like that, because I read something in a book about a virtuous young woman or something, right? And I was like, Phew. Anyway, so as I said, Geshe-la, can you please clarify what this word means so that we can get rid of any confusion?
And he said, this word virtue, the word that’s usually translated as virtue, doesn’t have these these connotations of like a there’s no, like, restriction restriction on it as it may have in English. It it basically means it’s the definition. The definition that’s given for it is it’s something that the Buddha explained in the sutras, would lead to a positive repercussion. Alright? So that’s definition.
The Buddha taught that by performing this action you would have positive repercussions. That’s the definition of it. So basically the simplest way for us to think about it is that it’s anything or the potential from anything that was good karma. Alright. So anything that we do is either anything that we think, say or do physically is either good karma or it’s either bad karma.
Alright? And this good karma is something that it’s appropriate to do, something that it would will benefit people. And anything that we do that’s bad karma, that means that we’ve done something that’s inappropriate, that’s going to harm others, that’s going to harm ourselves. So what we’re trying to do is focus on doing as many creating as much good karma, doing as as much good karma, as we can and stopping ourselves from doing bad karma. Alright.
So, then from amongst all these, if we want to get the biggest impact, we want to do the thing that is the strongest good karma because there’s good karma and then there’s bad karma, but there’s different degrees of good and bad karma. There’s, bad karma that is very intense and there’s good karma that’s very intense. And the most intense good karma that we can create is anything that we do motivated by this mind seeking to attain enlightenment, to lead all sentient beings out of suffering. So this idea of doing something that is the most positive thing that we can do that will have the most positive or the best repercussions for us, and they talk about developing the mind of enlightenment, developing the wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. So this actually links up with the first of the three motivations that we talked about last week, the wish to attain a good rebirth.
Alright. So if we want to attain a good rebirth, we might as well, use the strongest tools in our disposal and that is the mind of enlightenment, developing the mind of enlightenment. It’s the most positive tool that we have. And then the next is the capacity or the middling motivation, and this is the wish to get out of Samsāra, to attain nirvana. But even if we want to in general, when we talk about out of Samsāra, we talk about the practice of the three higher trainings.
The higher training in discipline, the higher training in meditation, and the higher training in wisdom, and about an understanding and putting into practice the Four Truths of the Nobles or the Four Noble Truths, the truth of suffering and so on. This is the general way that we talk about in getting out of Samsāra, developing our understanding of selflessness and therefore cutting the cause or stopping the cause for the creation of karma that perpetuates Samsāra. But again, the middle the middlingly motivated being. I’m not sure about that English but anyway, the the the the middle being’s motivation, the path of the middle being’s motivation. But this practice of developing an insight into conventional and ultimate bodhicitta is the best way that we can do that as well.
It’s the most direct way to develop an understanding of selflessness. So in this way, the mind training is also good for the second part of the path, right? The, wish to get out of Samsāra. And as the practice of mind training means to focus on turn the self-cherishing we have for ourselves into cherishing others, then this also means that it’s the greatest path to developing bodhicitta. So in this way, it is best way for us to practice or said to be the best way, the most the supreme way for us to practice all three scopes of the graduated path.
Mhmm. So not only is this a good thing to be thinking about when we are trying to when we are practicing mind training, to remind ourselves of, why it’s such a good thing to practice in this way. And not only is it a good reason to sorry, not only is that a good time to do it, to remind ourselves of these things, but when we’ve had enough, when we don’t want to train our minds anymore and we’re over it, then it can also be a good thing to go over these points again. To remind ourselves that practicing mind training is the best way for us to attain a good rebirth. To remind ourselves that practicing mind training is the simplest, most direct way for us to get out of saṃsāra, and to remind ourselves that mind training is the best way for us to develop bodhicitta, which will lead us to attain enlightenment and be able lead all sentient beings out of suffering.
So if we remind ourselves of these things when we’ve had enough, as well as when we are actually practicing mind training, then this will encourage us to remember importance and the Did I say importance? Yeah. Okay. Because it’s got this idea of holiness, but, again, I don’t wanna confuse anyone. Goodness.
The importance and the goodness, yeah, of, mind training. Yeah. If we think on these things. Mhmm. Alright.
So when we start approaching the actual practice of the seven points of mind training, the way to the way to train the mind in both the development of ultimate bodhicitta and the development of relative or conventional bodhicitta, then we look at two different sections to each of those practices. So we have a practice that is developing the mind of Ultimate bodhicitta and we have a practice that is developing the mind of relative or conventional bodhicitta. In each of those sections, we again have two sections because when we’re practicing, when we’re doing a Buddhist practice, we have the time where we are sitting on a cushion meditating or we’re in a session of meditation somewhere, and then we have the time after that. We have the time that’s called post meditation when we’re doing other things. But in post meditation, then we reflect on our meditation and on the things that we are developing an understanding of.
We process what we’re developing and understanding of. So this is called meditation and post meditation. Each of our practices has these two elements to it. It has a meditation section and a post meditation section. So here we have in the development of ultimate bodhicitta, a section that deals with meditation and a section that deals with post meditation.
And then in the section that looks at the development of relative or conventional bodhicitta, we have section that deals with the meditation for that, and then a section that looks at what to do in the post meditation stage of that Practice. Of that practice. Yeah. Mhmm. Alright.
So oh, sorry. One more thing, so I can get it clear. Okay. So, then the next thing that we need to look at is, first of all, when we’re talking about a meditation session, where we’re doing a meditation session on the seven points of mind training or the or the or mind training. So how to set up or how to go through the process for a meditation session when we’re focusing on developing bodhicitta.
Alright, so we already looked at that there’s two different sections to this practice. There’s section that’s in meditation and there’s a section that’s in post meditation. So there’s different meditations and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings that we can do within the meditative section of this. There is the Ultimate bodhicitta and Relative bodhicitta and the other things that come along. But all of those, we have the same process for the meditation session.
Alright? The meditation session starts it has a beginning, the actual meditation and then an end. Yes? The beginning of the meditation means to set the scene for the meditation. And the way that they actually say to set the scene for the meditation is to do the yoga of transforming the abode into the divine abode by practicing the seven limbs.
Now, that doesn’t so I guess said, You know, you’re building a house. Why are we building a house? And he said, Not literally, but if you want a place to meditate, if you want a place to focus on something, then you to develop a nice environment to do that. So this is a metaphor, for what we’re doing in our heads. Alright?
When you start a meditation session, you’re setting up a mental space in which to practice Dharma. So we come into the meditation session all over the place. If we sit down, then we want to establish a space or a house for our meditation. Meditation. Yeah?
A place in our head for the meditation. And so the way that we do that is by focusing, on this, very short practice, the, seven Limb Prayer, which goes through making prostrations and offerings and requesting the Buddhas to stay and requesting the Buddhas to teach us. So that’s the way of setting the theme for our meditation practice. The first section of the meditation practice, we set the scene or the way that they put it is to build the gods’ house or build the divine abode. But what you’re doing is setting up a mental space to practice mind training.
Alright. So so this is this is the way you’re setting up a mental abode. And then when you’ve you’ve done that, when you’ve focused your mind through that that prayer, the next thing to do is to ask it says, ask the deities and then the Gurus to be present. So in this way, you’re asking for inspiration, you’re asking for the fit to so you’re developing the visualization of the Bodhisattvas and the Gurus. And then the next thing it says is it says, set up your house of set up your house of meditation.
And what this is this is talking about is making sure that our body is in a position in which we can meditate. The position that it says to meditate in is the traditional it says the comfortable crossed legged position. I said, I don’t know if all people find sitting comfortable, and he said, then they can sit on a chair. Okay. This one.
Down, you start with this prayer, the seven-limb prayer, and then you ask the Buddhas, the teachers, the deities to come so that they’re acting as an inspiration for your practice. And then you focus on the way your your physical being is and you make sure that you’re in a comfortable situation. The next thing to do after that is to focus on your breath. Now focusing on your breath and specifically it says here focusing on an in and out breath up to twenty one. So you count up to twenty one in and out breaths, go back and count again and this acts as a way to settle the mind.
So you first start off with seven Limb Prayer, seven Limb Prayer, then you invite the Buddhas and the Deities and the Gurus to come and then you make sure you’re in a comfortable position and then you focus on your breath. This is the preliminary part to the meditation practice. That’s all, and we can stop there. And you’re if you have any questions, please ask. Sure.
On what? Okay. You have to explain to me what cloning means because I’ve been watching trying to develop a personal point of view on that stuff and it seems like there’s a whole bunch of things going on. Which type of cloning? Because there’s ones where they split the cells and they just seems that they they I don’t I don’t know.
That they they doesn’t germinate into a person and they use the cells. Then there’s other ones where they’re like making sheep or you know, which which part of cloning? Hiya. Gin. We don’t play wise with you.
No. No. No. No. We’ve we’ve I’ve talked to Geshe-la about this before because I he wanted to know when there’s a thing on the television about stem cell research at what stage of development they’re using the stem cells, so he would know whether he thought it was good or not.
Alright. Okay. So the way I explain this to Geshe-la have to say is to say, that there’s a general way that people are born when their sperm and egg come together, but they’re using the DNA from someone to create another being. And when the moment, they’re doing it with sheep, but they could probably do it with humans. And that so you get people that are almost identical to the people that they came from and the identicalness is similar to the identicalness of identical twins.
Right? So Geshe said, from a Buddhist perspective, he doesn’t see that much difference between having a sperm penetrated egg and DNA penetrated egg. Alright? So if there’s life that comes from it, then that’s just a different type of throwing karma that that that they had their karma to be, come from a DNA penetrating an egg as opposed to a, from sperm. Yeah.
So but he said that, that it’s still a life force going in there, right? So he said that but from a Buddhist perspective, it doesn’t mean that they’re the same person. So you have the coming together of these things, they have the throwing karma to be born into that situation and then they very similar they have the same physical they may have the same physical features as the other person but it’s not the same mental continuum, so it’s another human being in that case. It may give the scientists some insight into it if they think that it’s only physical form that brings about people. If they found two people that have the same DNA and they will have different traits, that they may give them some clue that there’s something else going on.
Like in terms of consciousness. Sure. But that’s the act of cloning, not the actual person. I guess I was referring to the person. I tried to explain the idea.
He was laughing because I said, you know, some people wanna make people exactly the same as them, and he’s laughing. But I said, but so you’re are you saying that if we took the Dalai Lama’s DNA, we won’t be able to make another Dalai Lama? He said, no. We might make a farmer, because it’s the mind, isn’t it? Yeah.
What are the seven you mentioned before meditation? Seven? Seven limb prayer. Seven. That’s what it is.
Okay. Yep. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Alright.
So, the seven-limb prayer, we say it every time before we have the teachings. Yeah? But it’s good to know what we’re saying. So Geshe-la said there’s seven limbs, seven parts to this prayer. The first of which is prostration.
Alright? Alright. So another word that, something gets lost in translation. The word that they translate as prostrate. Right?
When we say prostrate, we’re talking about physical action of lying down on the floor. This is only part of what the Tibetan word entails. Entails. It basically means an attitude of respect and humility, whether that and every physical or verbal or mental form that comes from that. Right?
So if you have an idea of I’m paying homage to these beings, yeah? Or if you do something physically to represent that or if you say something that’s going to represent that, all of those, come within, this word that’s in Tibetan is or homage, but it’s sometimes translated as prostrate. Okay? The first one. Second one is make offerings.
Alright? So it says, I present clouds of offerings. Right? Second one. The third one is to purify negative karma that we’ve accumulated in the past by taking responsibility for it saying I did it.
Yeah? And seeking not to do it in the future. So that’s purifies the strength of the negative karma from previous that we’ve done previously. The fourth one is to be happy about, it says rejoice. Anyway, rejoice in all the good things that we and others have done including the Buddhas.
Alright? The next thing is to ask the Buddhas to hang around until the end of Samsāra to help us. Yeah? And then the sixth one is to ask them to teach the Dharma so that we can be benefited, all sentient beings can be benefited. And the last of the limbs is to dedicate all the merit that we’ve accumulated through the other limbs Thank you.
And everything else we’ve done. Yeah. But that translation. I know, but So you don’t have to sing it. You can just read it.
Okay. Oh, yeah. Really? Yes. So it doesn’t mean that you have to start going around every time someone’s doing good, which I know I’ve seen Western Buddhists do a lot, say, I rejoice in your virtuous action, because that’s really annoying.
And in Tibetan, they have it as well which is like, there’s people can it’s in Tibetan culture as well that people use the same Dharma language to say that it sounds equally as weird. Geshe-la says, it’s just being happy about people doing good things. Alright? You know, it’s like someone’s, you know, you can say, I’m really happy for you. That’s great that you did that.
You know? It doesn’t mean you have to do a follow follow a formulaic approach to it. Actually, I’ve seen that because People go, I rejoice in what you’re doing here. Don’t know. It actually refers to all sex.
Yeah? Yeah. It does. But, because all of sex is motivated by desire. If you can have sex without desire, then fine.
But it doesn’t mean that you all have to become monks and nuns. It’s just saying that that’s the best thing to do. But you can deal with degrees. Yeah? You’re dealing with degrees.
So you’re doing the best that you can. Yeah? And so, it’s supposed to be better to be a monk and a nun than it is to be married, alright? But it’s definitely better to be married than it is to be a gadabout. Or to commit to to be adulterous.
Yeah. So there’s different degrees. There’s different degrees. And if your Geshe-la would have said that the hardest thing is, or the term virtuous is Yeah. And again, Okay.
So it’s not as if yeah. The the the actual word I mean, think it’s interesting because they actually translate it into English a lot of times as sexual misconduct. Right? But the way the Buddha presented it was any sex. Yeah?
And it’s easier for Westerners to go, oh, sexual misconduct, am I right? But it’s but but again, it’s degrees and we’re working with degrees, right? So if you can’t if you can’t become a monk or a nun because of your the way you’re living or what you’re doing and everything, so if you set restraints on you on your own behaviour and you don’t do things that harm others, then that’s a you’re getting there. It’s not as if we can do everything perfectly anyway. And Geshe-la said, In fact, if you think about the times that you’re in the more danger or the most difficult thing, he said, in terms of the ten non virtues, actually our speech.
Yes. Yeah? So he said all of the speech. So he thinks any of the things that you do with speech are more difficult than, you know, if you’re restraining yourself in terms of your sexual behavior in limited ways, then that’s a good thing, you know, you’re working there. But in terms of our speech, we’re just hopeless because he said, how many times do you you exchange words with people?
How many times do you just have rubbishy things come up in your head that you just chat about? How many times do you do we slip out lies? Yes. Yeah? So so he said that he thinks that even in terms of having the mental ones, the mental miss the mental non virtuous actions or the mental, negative actions.
There’s things like, wrong views and maliciousness and, and, covetousness. So when we experience those, we can work with them. Alright? We can work with them. We can say, okay, you know, I really want someone else’s stuff.
How’s that gonna help me? Or how is it going to help if I have this malicious thought against someone else? And in terms of wrong views that we can look at text, we can listen to teachings and that can turn and we can use the logic that we have access to to turn that around. But speech just happens before we even know it. Yes.
You know, it’s it’s something that we, we ponder on. Yeah. It’s just up, gone, out, and we’re and we’re we’ve done something negative. So he said that he thinks it it’s not the physical actions that we have to worry so much or the the mental ones. It’s the speech that we have to work on.
Oh, and also malicious minds. Sorry. The word malicious is very similar to the word that’s covetousness or wanting things. Malicious thoughts. Yeah.
Yeah. And guess that’s what we end up as being a slave to our covetous minds. Okay. So he’s he said Geshe said it’s not a matter of bearing it. It’s a matter of it’s a matter of understanding it.
Right? So he said that everybody dies. You don’t have a you you can’t stop people dying. You it’s something that happens. So if you can accept that that’s something that happens and understand that, then that’s the way that you are able to deal with it, right?
If you it’s not something that doesn’t happen. It’s not as if she’s the only that this is happening to her, happens to everybody. So this is the he said dying isn’t necessarily the problem. The thing is to try and help her as much as you can, to end up in a better place. Alright?
So he said, you die and then you take a new rebirth, you die and you take a new rebirth. So worrying about her dying or feeling pain about her dying isn’t going to help her. Alright? It’s much better to do things that will help her. Yeah?
So, when you find yourself doing that, if you can focus on doing something that will help her get a positive rebirth. So any, anything that you positively that you can do, any sort of a merit or any prayers that you can do, if you say I’m doing this for my mother, then she acts as the cause for you to do that. So then she is a positive catalyst or a positive thing for you to she she means she’s the cause you’re doing something positive, so she creates positive karma. Right? So anything that you can do that’s positive will help your mother.
So the like we were talking about today, the most powerful way to create merit is to focus on this mind of enlightenment. So if you, can think about, you think, okay, my mother who has shown me, immeasurable kindness in this lifetime whose kindness I can’t even, begin to, add up. Yeah? She’s is dying. Yeah?
And so, I need to do whatever I can to help this person of such immense kindness. But she’s not the only person dying today. And there’s other beings who are experiencing the same thing. There’s other other mothers that are dying, there’s other people that are losing their mothers, and all of those beings showed immeasurable kindness to their children. And not only that, but they may have been my mother in a past life.
Mean, so not just for this mother now, but for all people who are dying and, for all people who are suffering. Alright? May they all go on to a good place. May they all attain the causes to attain enlightenment and be free from suffering. And to bring that about, about, may I do everything that it takes to help my mother and for all other beings to get out of suffering by becoming a Buddha.
Alright? And if you think, may I become a Buddha so I can help beings like my mother? Then you’re focusing on bodhicitta. The more people that you focus on, the greater the positive potential from that prayer. Yeah?
And if you’re saying, I do this for my mother, then that’s the best way to help your mother. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Sure. Yeah. Guess that that’s very good. Okay. That’s really good.
That’s really good. Uh-uh. Alright. So if we go to page twenty six.