Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Precise physical instructions for the moment of death — lie on the right side, pinky finger closing the right nostril, breathing only through the left — open this 41.5-minute session with Geshe Pema Tsering on the fifth and final force of the Seven Points of Mind Training: familiarization. He explains how to alternate giving-and-taking (tonglen) with meditation on emptiness as death approaches, then uses a vivid analogy — searching for a hundred-dollar bill on your lap — to show that investigating any phenomenon, even death itself, yields nothing findable from its own side. The session closes the main body of the Seven Points text. A Q&A addresses why the mind must avoid grasping a new body in the bardo, and how to support practitioners who lack the mental capacity to engage with Dharma practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 26 2005 11 20 MT (3).mp3
UUID: 26002f95-ca5c-4ca4-b348-87bb6e67788d
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Mind Training (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-11-20
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 41.5 minutes
Words: ~1,880
And then can I say again? So what destroys that self grasping is that is that mind that realizes, how to say, selflessness, lack of inherent existence. And then resolution. And then the text says, just like before, like before one has uninterruptedly and alternately, how do you say, meditated on the two minds of enlightenment, the relative and the ultimate mind of enlightenment. And then so may I in the Bardo, while in the Bardo, also remember, recollect and practice the two minds of enlightenment, the relative and the ultimate.
And again and again, we should remember and think in this way. So then again, now the last force, the fifth force, which is the force of familiarization, okay? So then the text says, just like before, the main practice is the is the is the training on the two minds of enlightenment, the relative mind of enlightenment, which is the mind that wishes to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings and the ultimate mind of enlightenment, which is the mind that understands all phenomena to be empty of inherent existence. So then now we’re going to more specific instructions, and then the text is saying that then by the time of death, one, how do you say, lays down on the right side, right, with one’s hand. One’s right hand is supporting one’s, how to say, cheek?
Cheek. Cheek? Face. Face. And then in the Small finger.
The small finger? Pinky. Right? Pinky. Pinky.
It’s is, how do you say, closing the right nostril, right? So that’s the position at the time of death to adopt. And then we should breathe. Of course, we should breathe for the left nostril, yes. And this is the what you said to be the conduct to be adopted during the transference of consciousness.
And then on that while remaining on that posture, one, as how do say, one starts firstly meditating on loving kindness, which is the wish to for all sentient beings to have happiness and causes of happiness. And then while have meditated on loving kindness, one while exhaling and inhaling through the left nostril, one practices the two aspects of giving and taking. And then again, I say so, giving to all sentient beings, one’s groups of virtue and all the happiness and so forth, and and taking from them all all suffering, all the cause of suffering, all the afflicted emotions that they have, all the negative karma that they have. I’m practicing this way. And then so and then have you meditated on giving and taking?
And how do we meditate on the ultimate mind of enlightenment? And then the text is saying that we should think of Samsāra and nirvana as being how do say coming out of the of of, how do say, as being the root of that of this confused, deluded mind. And then Geshe-la explained. So Samsāra and nirvana here is explained to is referring to all all phenomena, contaminated phenomena, Samsaric phenomena, and nirvana, and everything that exists, all existing phenomena. So all existing phenomena come out, they are rooted in this deluded mind.
And the mind itself, this mind itself, is always has been always and primordially has has has never moved away, has never been anything different from the dharmakaya or or the dharma body, which is to say, which is is explained, which is the same as saying that that mind itself is also lacks inherent existence. Existence, that mind itself is also empty. So then and then is explaining that so then Samsāra and nirvana, they are the root of the deluded mind. That mind is is the Dharmakāya, which is is in the nature of emptiness. So look at this.
And then thinking thinking this way thinking this way, we we also think we also have to think that death itself, dying itself, that thing that we call dying or death is also not truly existent. It doesn’t exist from its own side again. Yes. And like this, we should reflect in this way. We should think in this way.
So then, And so, there is death. But as with every other phenomenon, if we analyze and investigate it, and if we look for it, we will not find it. There’s nothing to be found in there, and and as it is with other phenomena. It is empty. So as it is with with birth, with abiding, and with cessation of of the phenomena, we we see that there is actually nothing there if we investigate, if we search for it.
So then I say that just as if I were to look to search for one hundred dollars bill that was might be on my lap. And if I well, if I found it, then the one hundred dollars exists. There is a hundred dollar bill, but if I I didn’t find a hundred dollar bill, then I know that it doesn’t exist. In the same fashion as it would search for the hundred dollar bill, as I would search for the hundred dollar bill on my left. If I search for for a self or for how do say the production of a self or the abiding or for the cessation for a mind or for any phenomena, if you search for it and then investigate if they exist or they do not exist, you go looking for this answer.
And eventually, if you don’t find, then you know that they don’t exist. So then, guys, then again, I it’s not it’s not it’s not like this phenomenon do not exist. They are that they are in existence. It’s just that they do not exist the way they appear to us to exist. So all existence phenomena, all objects of knowledge, they they are they do not exist in the way they appear to exist.
But if we do not if we do not investigate, if we do not analyze this this phenomena, then we will not, how to say, be able to abandon this conception that they exist the way they appear to exist to us. And and, again, all the happiness and suffering and everything else will follow from that. And this one. Oh, yeah. So then process of death, in the process at the time of dying, then we should practice these two minds of enlightenment alternate alternate alternate.
Then the text goes on to say that if one is not able to practice in the way that was described right before, then one then one just how to say? It’s difficult to translate. So one one one places, how to say, one’s mind in a one relaxes one’s mind into a into a state, into into that into that emptiness, emptiness, into that non inherent existence of Samsāra and nirvana of all phenomena, of both Samsāra and nirvana, so which is the primordial dharmakaya, the uncontrived mind. So one places oneself, relaxes one one’s mind into that state, and then like this, how do say, while while while abiding in this stage of the emptiness of the mind and so forth when, let’s see, goes through the So then the text goes on to say that we should recollect this practice, and we should practice this we should practice this training, this mind training before, I’d say, before the actual time of death get used to it. And then from the many many different instructions on the about in respect to dying, this one, there is no one that is more wonderful wonderful or amazing than this instruction on the five powers.
So then yes. So then this No, no, no.
So then this this is the end of the teaching on the five powers and the end of the main body of the teaching of mind training on the seven points of mind training. And then so next weekend, we start with another main topic, and it’s the final divisions of this text, which is the measure of having trained the mind or the extent of proficiency in mind training. Let’s restart the next one. Okay. So now if anybody has any question?
Yes. Heather, please. So then I guess, so normally, usually, we do not meditate or practice these five powers. We just out of desire, attachment and other afflictions, we go on in this life just for the sake of of of happiness of this life. And like this, and if we go on like this, and we don’t think about that, we don’t think about the five and moving on like this, we will not be able to to overcome it.
But then so now so now what what we have to do is from now on, start from today , and start practicing. And then if we practice, yes, we’ll be able to come. Not not not to take a body, isn’t it? Not to take a body. Right?
Yeah. So then I yeah. So then I was explaining that what is meant by we should we we must not take a body in the. It says because if we take a body in the and then we we attachment for that body is going to to come about, and then we will again wish for the happiness or to experience pleasurable feelings, to have pleasurable feelings with the body and avoid unpleasurable feelings and so forth. And then Samsāra will follow, or the cycle starts again.
So we have to do is, how to say, stay. We have to we have to, how do you say, place our mind on on on the emptiness, on on meditating So yes. So yes, we have to abide in that that nature of the mind. Yes. This practice.
Yes. Calling you can see the condition Well, basically, what they are saying that those people who have, how do say, mental illness or mental disability, they they they are not able to practice the teachings. Basically, they’re not able to practice the teachings. It’s one of one of the prerequisites for practicing the the Dharma is to is to have all faculties intact. And so these people are not able to practice the Dharma because of that.
They’re not able to accomplish the teaching. So yes, it depends on their karma. I mean, if they will not be able to practice the Dharma in this life, they are going to be enact the previous karma that they have. So if they have a lot of good karma, then they will have maybe they will be born again as a human being, or if they have bad karma, they will be overwhelmed by bad karma. Yes?
So then, well, what you can do is talk with them. If if if, for example, they believe in the Three Jewels, if they believe in the if they are Buddhists, and then you talk about the Buddha, the the and the and you talk about, yeah, about. You think you think you’re going to to take the path that goes down, and then you think it’s it’s better to have to take a body. Mhmm. And and Yeah.
What was the question after that? So you you it