Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. “Self-cherishing is like a headache — it doesn’t help you and it doesn’t help anyone else.” In this 70-minute session, Geshe Pema Tsering uses that blunt image to anchor a systematic case that all 84,000 negative emotions reduce to one root: self-grasping. He works through the bramble-bush analogy — seeking embodiment to feed a false sense of self is like running naked through thorns — quotes Śāntideva on suffering and happiness, then offers a practical countermove: “hit the pig on the nose,” catching self-importance the moment it swells before it runs havoc through the mind. A Q&A follows on the six root delusions, three grades of doubt, and why Buddhism’s teaching on selflessness does not deny that the self exists at all.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 17 2005 09 04 MT.mp3
UUID: 7ef26e2c-8a51-4f3c-8408-5f2e0173a26e
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Mind Training (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-09-04
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 70.1 minutes
Words: ~5,359
Please take a moment to look at your motivation and try and focus on the idea that you’re listening to these teachings on mind training in order to be able to put them into practice, in order to be able to develop your ability to work for the benefit of others, and to diminish your self-cherishing, so that you can lead, all sentient beings out of suffering and establish them in a state of, Buddha by first becoming a Buddha yourselves? Sorry. By first achieving the precious state of Buddhahood yourself. I thought that was mine. So we’re talking about the problem with self-cherishing and thinking about ourselves and being selfish and why it’s something that we need to get rid of and why it’s good to focus on others and have compassion for others.
And the first the line of the tape you’re up to says, self-cherishing is like a headache. It doesn’t help anyone. So if you have a headache, it’s not helping you, and it’s not helping anyone else. So self-cherishing is said to be like a headache, and it doesn’t help anyone. So what’s been happening is that since forever, we have mistaken mistakenly ascribed a self to something that doesn’t have a self.
So we’ve come up with this idea that there is a permanent abiding individual, independent entity within us somewhere and having fixated on that have done everything that we can in order to make that self or that atma okay at the expense of others and in the process we’ve created enormous amounts of negative karma and kept ourselves in saṃsāra. So, what we’ve done is we’ve thought, Okay, there’s something there and I’ve got to protect it, but in fact there hasn’t been anything there and there’s never been anything there. So, we have, through the force of this self identity or this sense of self, we have gone on to take rebirth again and again so that we are reifying or bringing into being our sense of self through taking a body. And those bodies that we have said, Okay, this is me. I have this form, this is what I am.
The bodies that we’ve become so attached to, if we actually took the bodies apart and put the substances of the bodies in front of us as opposed to the form they take, we wouldn’t be so attached to them. So if we had a pile of, what’s it got here? Okay. So we have, snot, pus, blood, bones, no, what do you call bile, and membranes and everything. If we took the body apart, that’s what would be.
But when it comes together in a form, we think this is me, this is something that I have to hold very precious. But what we need to understand is that this sense of this identity that we have attached to the body is fake. It’s not something that’s actually there. It’s something that we’ve ascribed to it and it’s not something that we can actually find when we go looking for it. So, this body that we take can have different forms depending on where we’re born.
If we’re born in a hell realm, then we’ll have the body of a hell being. If we’re born in the human realm, we’ll have the body of a human. And, but we will always be embodied in some way or another and become attached to that body or think of that body as being, ourselves until the karma for body runs out and then we have to take another one. So we develop this sense of I, usually based on the idea of our physical being, and then create a lot of karma that keeps us in saṃsāra based on identity. Great.
So having this fixation on itself and thinking that therefore we need to become an embodied being is said to be as intelligent as taking your clothes off before you run through prickles. Alright? Our prickle bush. So, it’s said to be that if you’re running through a prickle bush and you don’t have clothes on, you’re constantly getting spiked, alright? And the more that you fight against the spikes, the more likely that you’re going to get hurt because they get caught in you and you’re experiencing constant pain in that way because you’re stuck.
And it’s the same thing with if we have this sense of self and we go looking for a body because of it, and we create a situation where we think, okay, need to become embodied to because I’m me, then it’s like running into a prickled bush naked because in an embodied form, you always have suffering. In an embodied form, you always are going to experience discomfort of one form or another. So looking for it is like taking your clothes off and running into a bramble bush or something. This is why Śāntideva in the Bodhicaryāvatāra said: All the suffering in the world comes from thinking of ourselves, and all the happiness in the world comes from thinking of others. Text, says: ‘I don’t need to say much more.
Children think of themselves, Buddhas think of others. You look for the difference.’ What this means is that any experience of suffering we have in the world comes from the sense of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ and self-cherishing, holding on to that sense of ‘me’ and thinking that that’s the most important thing. And this is the cause for all of the negative karma that we create, which then causes us to which we then experience the results of as suffering. And all the happiness that we experience in the world comes from looking to others, from being compassionate, being selfless, doing things for other beings and not being caught up in ourselves, not doing things for our own benefit but thinking more altruistically. So, any experience of happiness that we have is a result of positive karma that’s come about through thinking of others.
And so then, Śāntideva says he doesn’t have to explain that very much. That’s, pretty obvious. And so what we need to know is that it says children think of themselves. Now children here means those without realisation, beginners who haven’t entered the path. And then it says Buddhas or the Munis think of others, they do things for others.
So we can tell the difference between the activities of a Buddha and the activities of an ordinary being when we look at who they’re focused on, when we look at who the reason for doing them is. And usually, the reason for doing things for ordinary beings is for themselves, and the reason for Buddhas to do things is always for others. So since forever, we have been going through different lifetimes and experiencing different situations, and being under the influence of all the negative emotions and all of the destructive states of mind, we have continued to create karma which perpetuates saṃsāra for us. But if we’re to look to the cause all of those destructive emotions, all of those negative states of mind, then we’ll find that it is grasping in a sense of self. Without a mind that grasps that sense of self, we wouldn’t experience any of the other negative emotions.
We wouldn’t experience, anger, desire, jealousy, aversion, anything. We could it all stems from the ignorance that perceives that there’s a self when there isn’t. So what happens once we’ve perceived that there is a self when there isn’t, is that we think that this self then is more important than everyone else or at least the mind, the way of thinking that whole that cherishes the self, that holds on to the idea of the self, and tries to protect it at all costs. That way of thinking, views all other beings as being a potential threat to that self-cherishing, as being a potential threat to the happiness that that self intends to hold on to. So everyone from all other sentient beings have been really kind to us, down to the smallest beings that have, have a sense of self, can be seen as individuals, then, we see all of them as a threat.
But we should remember that all of those also, all beings that are in Samsāra, hold on to this idea of self and they also have this feeling of, wanting to be happy and trying to, stave off suffering by focusing on themselves as well. But there’s no way that we can get out, we or any of those other beings can actually get out of saṃsāra and get out of the experience of suffering until we recognize this self-cherishing mind, this sense of self that we hold on to, this ignorance that perceives there is a self when there isn’t is actually this ignorance is actually incorrect and by changing it, then we break the bonds of saṃsāra. Without changing it, we’re stuck in saṃsāra. So what we need to recognise is that all of the beings, whether they be humans or non humans, that could possibly hurt us, that could possibly cause us to experience suffering or that we feel like are creating suffering for us. The reason that they are there, the reason that we’re experiencing that suffering isn’t actually the external beings.
It’s the causes that we’ve created experience that suffering. So, only source for all of our suffering, for all of the things that other beings inflict on us is our self-cherishing attitude. It’s the only reason, that we, experience suffering. Because we have this sense of, self and we’re holding on to that idea and seeing ourselves as being more important than others, we then create negative karma that we experience the results of as this suffering. But we can’t really blame anyone else for that.
The only thing that we can blame for that is our self-cherishing mind. It’s our self-cherishing mind that’s the source of all of those problems. So we need to know knowing that, we need to recognize it says recognize an enemy as an enemy. So we need we need to recognize who the actual enemy is, what the actual problem is. The actual problem isn’t anything external.
It’s our self-cherishing mind. So then this is why Śāntideva went on to say, this self-cherishing has caused us enormous harm, in hundreds of lifetimes in Samsāra. So if I’m gonna hold a grudge, it’s gonna be against it. And if I’m gonna destroy anything, it’s going to be self-cherishing, not working for my own benefit. So, what he’s talking about is that all of the suffering that we’ve experienced comes about from us holding onto this idea of self and holding it strongly and therefore, working for our own benefit at the expense of others.
So if we want to hold a grudge against anyone, if we want to, recognize, if we want to truly recognize who is our problem maker or who creates all our problems, then we need to turn our focus inwards and look to our self-cherishing mind. And if we want to destroy anything, then we need to destroy our mind, that sort of that way of thinking. We need to get rid of the way of thinking that leads us to perform actions at the expense of others, for our own benefit. So, we need in order to think of others, we need to get rid of self-cherishing. We need to get rid of selfishness.
Yeah. So it’s got this word here that says, like, obliterate self-cherishing. Okay, so what this means then is that and now you know, now you know where all your problems are coming from. The idea is that you can’t think that once you’ve recognised where your problems are coming from, you can’t go back. You can’t pretend like you don’t know.
Yeah? And then it says, so this means that in reliance on a teacher, in terms of being instructed on what to do and what not to do, then we can follow the Buddha’s teachings and get rid of the enemy. In getting rid of the enemy, we can stop to be under the sway of selfishness and of self-cherishing, and we can transform ourselves into into a being who focuses on others through destroying our ignorance, through destroying our self-cherishing, and developing our positive qualities. But now that we know that, we need to put it into practice and not just ignore it. Mhmm.
So it’s and when you can see this, what it means is whatever you’re doing, wherever you’re going, you have to be aware or become wise to the way that this self-cherishing mind works. And anytime you get this sense of Okay. So it’s like this this word that means, like, puffiness, like a puffed up. That’s me. I’m important.
And it’s like, anytime we we feel this, I I I, need this, I’m important, then we need to stomp on it. But the the way it works in essence it is saying every time we get puffed up, we stomp it down. So this means recognizing the enemy. And this this when we recognize it, we’re getting puffed up or when we recognize it, we’re thinking of ourselves and being selfish. If we keep this in mind, it means we can say it says, I know you.
I know what you’re doing. You’re the cause of all my problems. I’m getting rid of you. Mhmm. Mhmm.
Alright. So then the expression is, hit the pig on the nose. Alright? So what this means is, if you get a pig that’s coming into your yard, if the whole pig gets into the yard, you’re in trouble. Alright?
But if it just sticks its nose into the yard and you whack it on the nose, then it’s gonna run away. Yeah? And it’s the same thing for self-cherishing. If we get this idea of that self-cherishing and whack it on the nose, then we’re we’re not under the sway of it. It hasn’t run havoc through our mind.
Yeah? So the so the expression is hit the pig on the nose. So it says, in this way, the entire teachings of the Mahāyāna come down to these two points. They are teaching us in one way or another how to recognize self-cherishing and destroy it and how to try and work for the benefit of others. How to develop the mind that seeks to help and how to get rid of the mind that is being selfish.
That’s the entire Mahāyāna teachings, the entirety of these teachings can be condensed into these two points because that’s basically what they are telling us in many different ways how to do, how to stop, focusing on the idea of self, how to get rid of the ignorance of self and therefore self-cherishing, and how to work for the benefit of others. So this is the Mahāyāna. In terms of wisdom, we’re trying to get rid of our ignorance that misperceives reality and holds on to the idea of self. And in terms of method, we’re trying to develop bodhicitta, which works for benefit of others. So there’s many different ways it describes this.
There’s many different ways it explains the lack of a self and emptiness to us and there’s many different ways it describes for us to work on developing our caring for others, our wanting to work for others benefit. But these two points are the essence of Mahāyāna. So when we talk about the different negative states of mind that we can have, the different afflicted states, or the things that can afflict our mind stream, the obscurations that we can experience, then the teachings, the sutras and the shastras, the Buddhist teachings and the commentaries on them talk about or they all talk about they all talk about disciplining or destroying or pacifying these negative states of mind. That’s what the teachings describe, tell us how to do. And in the vaster sense, we can say that there is eighty four thousand different types of negative emotions and the Buddha taught eighty four thousand different ways to get rid of them.
Alright? That’s the vaster sense. But we can also subsume these eighty four thousand different negative states into what’s the next one down? Two hundred and twelve. Two hundred and twelve different negative states they can be classified into.
And then we can also make our classification smaller and talk about the six main negative states of mind in the twenty two Yes, the six root delusions and the twenty secondary delusions, we can subsume them into that smaller category. But then we could also say that all of the negative emotions can be subsumed into the class of the five poisons and the three poisons. Now, first of all, the five poisons then again into the three poisons. But if we are really looking at, how the negative emotions work and how the afflicted states of mind and where all our problems come from, we can actually lump them all into one, category and call that category self-cherishing and call that category self grasping. So, all of the problems, all of the suffering that we experience comes from this holding onto a sense of self, thinking that there’s a sense of self there there’s a self there when there isn’t.
So, all of negative states feed in, come out of that that way of thinking. So therefore, if we wanna look to the root of it or if we wanna, subsume all of our problems or all of our negative states of mind into one category, we can call that category self-cherishing. And this one. Uh-huh. Mhmm.
Mhmm. So this means that if we get rid of self-cherishing, we get rid of all of our problems. If we get rid of self-cherishing, we get rid of all of our afflicted states of mind. It also means that if our self-cherishing is strong, if our sense of self is very, strong and consuming, that we have a lot of problems. And if our sense of strong sense of self is strong and or kind of strong and kind of and we have kind of a lot of problems.
And it means that if our sense of self is waning, that we don’t hold on to ourselves as being that important anymore, that our problems are less. And it means that if we completely get rid of self-cherishing, we completely get rid of all suffering. Mhmm. Because it’s the root cause of all suffering. Mhmm.
Mhmm. So all faults, all problems come about in dependence upon the sense of self, holding onto an idea of self. And all of and then because we have this sense of self, then our body and our mind become the servants of that sense of self. They do things, we do things in order to feed the sense of self which is a mistake. And in that way, we develop the idea of a, we develop the idea of enemies and so on.
But the real enemy, the real problem is that self-cherishing. So we need to understand that. That’s the main thing that we need to get is this idea that our problems come from our self-cherishing. So if you wanna get rid of our problems, we need to get rid of our self-cherishing. So there’s two ways that we can do this.
We can have a self-cherishing where we think about our mind as being us and get very caught up in that or we can think about our body as being us and get caught up in that. But we’ll probably find that most of time we relate to ourselves as being our physical self. And so, one of the best ways for us to get over self-cherishing is to think of our body as being the servant to others. It says give the body to others, but it doesn’t mean Okay. Yeah.
So doesn’t mean give it says give your body to others, but it doesn’t mean chop it up and send it away. It means, get rid of the idea that your your physical being is the most important thing and and use your body as, as something that can be a servant to others. Śāntideva says that if you do this, if you get rid of your attachment to yourself and you view your physical embodiment as being something that can help others and use it as thinking, okay, this body is a servant for others, then, there’s nothing to be afraid of. Everything that you could be afraid of is based on this idea of protecting yourself. But if you’re you’re thinking that your body is there to serve others, then that means that your enemies disappear because you’re not holding onto this idea of self being so important that you set up walls and are trying to stop others.
But if you think my body is here to serve others, then you stop having people that can harm you because your body is just there to help others. So without any attachment to a physical self, you don’t have any fear. So I guess I said finding out who the real enemy is is not so easy. Yeah. Said because the problem is ourselves, and that’s tricky.
Really? Okay. So there’s some time for questions. Yeah. Uh-huh.
Okay. Okay. I know it’s just a test. It’s like, what are the six delusions? We have attachment.
Okay. Attachment, anger, pride, afflicted view. No. Sorry. Afflicted doubt.
We’ve missed it Okay, sorry. So there is attachment or desire, and there is anger, and then pride, and then ignorance, and then afflicted doubt, and the sixth one is Thank you. That’s I’m thinking how do I say. Okay. If he’s thinking, are there Three Jewels or not?
Is there a karma or not? They’re very similar to the five poisons. Don’t know what five poisons are, so you’re way ahead of me. Yeah. The five poisons that talk about in Tantra, and the six afflictive states are the things that you talk about in Sūtra.
So you gotta transform the five poisons in Tantra. And the six things is just a category for Sūtra. You want more afflicted doubt? So Geshe said that we probably all understand what doubt is because we all experience it. But in specific specifically in this case, it’s talking about the experience we have when the Buddha explains or through the Buddha’s words, we hear about things we haven’t seen, that we don’t have a direct experience of.
So when we hear about things that we don’t have a direct experience of, so for example, if the Buddha said, there’s three different vehicles you can travel on, there’s five different paths that people in these vehicles go through, there’s beings in the hell realms, there’s beings in the spirit realms, and we can’t see these directly, then it’s very unusual for us to go, oh, yeah. That’s absolutely right. I have no doubts about that. Yeah. And we’re more likely to go, is that a hang on.
How do I translate? It’s like, okay. Is that for real or not? And we go, do I reckon or not? Yeah?
And then we’re going backwards and forwards in our mind. So, it’s just the instability of the mind when it’s looking at things that it believes but isn’t quite sure of, is doubt. Yeah? And when it tends away from, the Buddha’s teachings, it’s said to be afflicted doubt. So is it does karma work?
Maybe it does today, maybe it doesn’t tomorrow. Alright? So depending on where our minds are at. So, when our mind is tending away from that, it’s said to be afflicted doubt. Yes?
So, usually doubt stops when we see something directly or we become thoroughly convinced of something and our mind doesn’t change back from that. So, if we’ve seen something, we’re not going to doubt it. And if we have experienced something directly, we’re not going to doubt it. Or if we develop a conviction in it, we’re not going to doubt it. So, until we get to that state, we find our mind wavering from that conviction sometimes and that’s So it’s actually afflicted doubt that stops us from practicing Dharma properly.
If we had no doubts about the path, we wouldn’t be we we would become a Buddha very quickly. But it’s the doubts that we have that stop us from putting these things into practice, so convincing in a in such in a very straightforward manner. If we’re thinking, I think so, but I’m distracted so maybe not. Yeah? Then we’re not going to put into practice the Dharma properly.
So, what we experience are what’s called three different types of doubt. Is doubt tending towards truth, equanimous doubt, and, doubt tending away from truth. So we may have this feeling of, I think so, but I’m not quite sure. Alright? That’s doubt tending towards truth.
Then we have, well, fifty fifty, I’ve got I’m in two minds. I don’t know. It could be, it couldn’t be. Yeah? That’s the equanimous doubt.
It doesn’t know which way to fall. And then we have doubt leading away from the truth, is thinking, it’s possible that there’s such a thing as karma. It’s possible that there’s such a thing as Buddhahood, but I’m not quite sure. Yeah? I’d probably think no.
Right? And so most of the time, the way our minds actually work is that we are not convinced of Buddhahood or liberation, or the cessation of suffering. We don’t believe it. We can, say we believe it, but we don’t usually act as if we believe it. Alright, and those doubts that we have are what stops us from working towards that.
Even if they’re doubts that tend towards the truth. There was a first question. Yeah. Some people might say, I feel so unimportant. Mhmm.
Buddhism said, I don’t even have self, so I might as well just jump off a bridge. Did everyone hear that? No. Okay. So Some people may say, I feel so important, that’s unimportant, that if Buddhism says I don’t have a self, I might as well jump off a bridge.
So the response to that would be that Buddhism doesn’t say nothing exists. It says that the self that we exist in the way that we perceive it doesn’t exist. It doesn’t say there is no us, it says that the way we perceive ourselves is wrong, in the sense of a solid, independent, individual self generating self. It doesn’t exist. Yeah.
And so we’re not denying things completely. We’re just saying the way we think see things is wrong. So if if if we were saying denying things completely, it’d be okay, but we’re not. So the person who’s thinking, I’m going to jump off a bridge is the self, right? But it’s the he said it’s the is the merely label self.
So so he said the merely label self is thinking, I’m gonna jump off a bridge. So there is a self there. But the person thinking that isn’t what they appear to be. They that it appears to them that they’re a solid individual, but they’re not. So that’s the thing.
They’re they’re they’re the self, but not the way that they think they are. Hillary. Question. Okay. So the TTs don’t encourage you to doubt, they encourage you to question, and there’s a difference.
Because questions come about through doubts. You have response to having a doubt by asking questions. Yes? So you don’t ask questions for nothing. You ask questions because you have a doubt.
Yeah? And so the process of asking question and questioning is to clarify things for yourself, to get rid of doubts one way or another. Yeah? And so the process of questioning is to eliminate doubt. So your question is questioning is encouraged as a an appropriate response to doubts.
But to say it that that sense of the way that you use the word doubt isn’t into them. Right? To doubt, to encourage, to doubt. It’s encouraged to question about your doubts. Yeah.
If you don’t have any doubts, you don’t have any questions. But the idea is to not think, I’m not gonna deal with my doubts by asking questions so I don’t look like I’ve got any doubts. He said, no, that would be a bit stupid. It’s very important to deal with your doubts. That isn’t a good thing.
Sorry. He said, doubt is something that needs to be abandoned and then he said, it’s not a bad thing, it’s something that needs to be abandoned and there’s a difference. Because there’s some doubts that are beneficial. If we’re looking at reality and then everyone’s saying, it solidly exists, you need to buy things and that’s what you need to focus on. And we have a doubt about that, that’s beneficial.
Alright? That’s a beneficial type of doubt because it leads to reevaluating things and and re examining things. We If we have another type of doubt that someone says, you know, you should do good and try and focus on others and and try and help others and we think, I don’t know about that. That’s a non helpful doubt. Alright?
So, there’s helpful doubts and there’s non helpful doubts, but ultimately, doubts are something to be abandoned, alright, through the process of questioning. Yes, My English is not sophisticated at all. self-cherishing action. Sure. Mhmm.
Mhmm. Well explained. Mhmm. I could not figure it out for quite a long time. Those those, you know, English speakers explain, you know, this self-cherishing. People go, Oh, yeah.
You have to promise me you’re not gonna ask poor Rodrigo questions like this for six months. Okay? Alright. Geshe-la said, it’s not a metaphor. You made a mistake.
He said, don’t get confused and think too much about selfishness. They say what you need to deal with every time you think, if you think ‘I need this’ or ‘I need this’ or ‘I need that’, you need to get rid of that. It’s very subtle. Don’t get confused with selfishness. Okay.
So he said, I’m not talking about animals. I’m not talking about flying. I’m talking about every time you have this idea of I am here. I am important. I want happiness.
I want to get rid of suffering. That I I I I is the problem. So that’s what you should be focusing on. He said, Don’t think about examples. Just get on with it.
No. Take over examples. He said he said it’s not a shellfish. No. Not that example.
He said that I already gave you an example. It’s like thorns. So if you don’t get rid of self-cherishing, it’s like you’re going to experience walking through prickly bushes with no clothes on forever. Okay. Well, that’s it.
Then we can finish. Finish. Yeah. Oh, but, you have to see. So I would call before you got out of bed next Sunday morning for this class Because it hey?
The office. Call call Friday. Call Friday. Yeah. We’ll know by Friday.
It’s just that and also, if you can say prayers because our poor translator to be is stuck in Bangkok dealing with So yeah. Get him But maybe there’ll be a substitute translator while he’s stuck there. Alright? So call on Friday to see. We should by, like, next couple of days.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And say, please, can you get here quick? Because I’ve gotta go, and he’s not here.
Oh, yeah. Okay. So we give thanks for the teachings, by saying the prayer at the bottom of page twenty four in the morning prayers, and then over the page is the dedication and long life prayers.