Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The vivid story of Buddha Śākyamūni developing bodhicitta while being whipped in hell anchors this 46-minute commentary by Geshe Pema Tsering on the Ornament for Clear Realisations. He is working through Chapter Four’s treatment of the Mahāyāna path of accumulation, explaining its defining characteristic — the arising of uncontrived bodhicitta — and the five practices that build toward it: faith in the Three Jewels, joyous effort in the six perfections, mindfulness, calm-abiding meditation, and wisdom recognising emptiness. He distinguishes sharp, middling, and dull practitioners, then examines what makes the path possible — which rebirths and states of mental stability serve as its basis — before turning to the ethics, sense-restraint, and study practices that gradually lead the mind to spontaneous, effortless bodhicitta.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 OCR 2005 02 10.mp3
UUID: 80c9acf0-a09c-4245-8652-e7dea8922d73
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Ornament for Clear Realisations (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-02-10
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.7 minutes
Words: ~3,302
Please I should start with it. Please develop the motivation that in order to attain complete enlightenment, in order to lead all sentient beings to complete enlightenment, that you are listening to these teachings this evening. And from listening to them, you will develop understanding of them and be able to put them into practice in. So we finished the definitions. We finished the characteristics of the applications, the complete the application of all aspects or the complete application.
And as we’ve finished the definitions, that means that we are up to the fourth out of the eight topics of this fourth chapter, the application and complete aspects. And that means we are up to what’s called the Mahāyāna partial concordance with liberation. And the Mahāyāna partial concordance with liberation is a synonym of the path of application. Okay. So Geshe-la said, within this section that deals with the Mahāyāna partial concordance with liberation, there’s a couple of pages that list quotes from both sutras and the commentaries to sutras.
The sutras and sutras includes the quotes from the root text of the Ornament of Clear Realization. And after these few pages that list the quotes, this commentary by Jñānagarbha gets to the section which is called the meaning of the text. And this gives an overview of everything that’s mentioned in the text. It instead of just quoting different passages, it actually tells us what the meaning of these texts, the loci and topics is. Okay.
So the original text or the text the the root text says, skill in perfectly accomplishing the signless, great generosity, and so forth. In this, the realization of all aspects is asserted as the partial concordance with liberation. So then it goes on to say, faith observing the Buddhas and so forth, joyous effort in the objects of practice, generosity and so forth, mindfulness, the perfect thought, non-analytical meditative stabilization, and the wisdom that knows all phenomena. So these are the five general practices that defined, that are focused on when we attain the path of seeing, sorry, the path of accumulation. And so the path of accumulation is defined as that which leads to liberation, which is partially in concordance with liberation and leads to liberation acts as a base for liberation.
It is characterized by a focus on these five different skills or five factors. And the first of these is called faith. Now it says faith observing the Buddhas and so forth. The so forth in that includes the Dharma and the Sangha. So it’s having faith in the Three Jewels and putting the Dharma into practice.
Joyful effort in the objects of practice, generosity and so forth means having joyful effort in the six perfections. So practice of generosity, ethics and so on. Mindfulness is described as the perfect thought, and that describes mindfulness is the perfect thought, and it means a perfect thought is described as that which is clear and unmistaken. Now the next one, what’s called non analytical meditative stabilization. No.
It’s funny because in Tibet in Tibetan, and I am guessing in Sanskrit before, it says, faith, effort, mindfulness, non analytical no. Faith, effort, mindfulness, meditative equipoise, and wisdom. And it says these are the nature of what needs to be focused in order to become a Buddha. Then it says Buddha, etcetera, joyous effort, etcetera, the excellent thought, etcetera, analytical meditation, etcetera, and all phenomena, etcetera. No.
All phenomena. It doesn’t say etcetera there. And then it’s I guess it was just explaining how the two link up. Alright? But in the translation, they just linked them up and done away with the need for commentary.
So so it says non-analytical meditative stabilization. So the way that it says it in Tibetan then is to say faith, which is mind that observes the Buddhas and so forth. Joyous joyous effort, which is taking joy in this practice of the six perfections. Mindfulness, which is a thought that is not mistaken and clear and holds its object. No.
Mindfulness is having a clear unmistaken thought. Alright? Not holding objects. That’s the next one. Non non analytical meditative stabilization.
Meditative stabilization is that which holds the object of meditation. And in this instance, because it’s a meditative contemplation, it is non analytical. It’s another way of saying calm abiding or tranquility. Then there is where the wisdom that knows all phenomena. So this is another way of saying a recognition of emptiness.
So these are the general practices that are associated with the path of accumulation or the Mahāyāna partial concordance with liberation. And from within within this path, there’s said to be no. From within the collection of those who have developed this path, there’s said to be three different groups. There’s those that have a sharp capacity, those that have a middling capacity, and those that have a dull capacity. So the ones with a sharp capacity are those who excel in these five characteristics.
The ones with a middling capacity are those who are middling these capacities. And the ones with dull faculties are those that don’t have these capacities anywhere near as much as the other two. Now, those with sharp faculties who have these five factors very strongly, they become Buddhas very quickly. And those with middling those with middling those with a middle a middling capacity and these five factors to an alright degree become Buddhas slowly, but they do manage to do it. And those with dull faculties who don’t have these five factors very strongly, sometimes they’re even known to lose their bodhicitta because working for the benefit of all sentient beings becomes very difficult, then they go on and work towards their own liberation.
Then having attained their own liberation, they come back and work for others. So this is a long way around. They’re their beings with their dullest faculties, but these are three different levels. There’s those with dull, medium, and and sharp faculties. And so from amongst these three, those who are said to be followers of the Ornament for Clear Realization and practicing the Ornament for Clear Realization are those with their sharp faculties.
And then based on those sharp faculties and their ability to practice the teaching set out in Clear Ornament of Realization, then they will achieve quickly and without being sidetracked. So then, if we go into the actual description of these quotes from the root text, then this section that deals with the description of the quotes from the root text has different sections in it as well. There is that which acts as the base, the section describing that which acts as a base for the path of accumulation, and this section which describes the dependent. Something acts as a base, and that which depends on the base is the dependent, which is the path of accumulation, and it describes its nature. Then there is the sign, then there is the etymology.
So from amongst those, the first sort of thing that we’re going to look at is the base. The base, again, has two different sections. There is the physical base and the mental base. Okay. So this describes how what sort of body you need in order to or what type of rebirth you need in order to develop the path of accumulation and what type of mental capacity or mental base you need to develop the path of accumulation.
So when it says base here, it’s talking about what is necessarily a cause for developing the path of accumulation. So when we think about a physical and a mental base for developing this, we could also think of it as being a cause for developing it. Okay. So in terms of the physical base, according to the Vaibhāṣika or the particular school as described in the Abhidharmakośa, then it is possible for all beings of these six different realms to develop the Mahāyāna path of accumulation for the first time. This is called in the Vaibhāṣikas.
And it is only possible for the men and women of the three continents to develop the Hīnayāna path of accumulation for the first time. So from their perspective, they’re a Hīnayāna tenant school. From their perspective, it is easier to develop or more people are able to more beings, sorry, are able to develop the Hīnayāna path of accumulation than are able to sorry, are able I’ll start again. From their perspective, more beings are able to develop the Mahāyāna path of accumulation than are able to develop the Hīnayāna path of accumulation. Okay.
And in what’s called the our own system or our own belief I don’t know, philosophy, we actually accept this because it is possible for beings to attain to develop bodhicitta in all sorts of states that doesn’t have to be restricted to being in a human state because it talks about, for example, Buddha Śākyamūni for instance starting on the path to becoming a Buddha when he developed compassion in hell. So having developed this idea of bodhicitta in hell, he then entered the path of seeing. So based on that story, or based on that description of his development of bodhicitta, then we have to agree with the Vaibhāṣikas and say it’s possible to develop bodhicitta in a lot more places than it is to develop just the Hīnayāna path. Okay. So the it’s thought then that because beings in the lower realms, whether it’s the hell realm or the pretas realm or the animal realms, have experienced a lot of suffering, that because of this suffering that they have, this may induce an experience of wanting to be free from that suffering, and not only for themselves, but because of very strong previous habits they may have developed in other states, that they may have this feeling of wanting all beings to be free from suffering.
If they have done a lot of practice or habituated themselves the concept of all sentient beings beforehand, and then they’re put in a situation where they experience intense suffering, then that may trigger an experience of bodhicitta. That may act as a cause for an experience of bodhicitta. Now when they develop that means that they cease to be in a negative rebirth instantly. Because when you develop bodhicitta, whatever state you’re in becomes a state of happiness because it ceases you you’re working for a sentient being. So even though they may still be abiding in the body of a a lower realm being, their experience becomes instantly becomes a higher realm being’s experience.
I’m sorry. I misunderstood that. Because as soon as you develop a bodhicitta state in one of the lower states, you die from that lower state, and you’re born in a positive state. Okay. So sorry.
If a being is in a lower state and they develop bodhicitta by experiencing intense suffering and thinking, may I and all sentient beings be free from this suffering? I worked. I will work to become a Buddha in order to free all myself and other sentient beings from experiencing this suffering, instantly because they’ve had this wish to be free from suffering, then they will die from in that state and be reborn somewhere else. Alright? They’ll their their their lower realm existence will end.
This doesn’t mean that there aren’t bodhisattvas who have chosen to be reborn in lower realms. But in order to choose to be reborn in the lower realm, you have to develop a perception of emptiness, then you can choose your rebirth. Alright? So there’s beings who choose to be have developed example, sorry, in a human realm, they have developed bodhicitta, and they may think by dying and going to an animal realm, our benefit beings, this can happen. But if you develop bodhicitta for the first time in the lower realms, you instantly die in that state and are reborn somewhere else.
Yeah. Do this. Yes. Okay. So there’s a story in one of the sutras about the Buddha’s previous lives, alright, where he was in hell, and he was a instead of, you know, in carriages or something — or chariots, they usually have horses.
Right? So instead of the horses, they had humans. They they had beings who didn’t beings who human like beings who didn’t have the strength to pull the carts. Right? And there was Buddha or the Buddha to be and his friend, and they were pulling a cart full of eight or something people, six to eight people.
And they couldn’t pull it, and every time they couldn’t pull it, the person who was in charge of the carriage, was one of the masters of hell, would whip them so hard that their heads would roll off. They’d experience the pain of having their heads ripped off. Then their heads would come back on, and then they’d whipped again because they couldn’t. Right? So this this was going on.
And the Buddha had been someone who practiced meditations and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings and things beforehand in previous lifetimes. Right? And then he found himself in this hell like situation, seeing his friend suffering in this way and having his head chopped off by this whip. Yeah? And that had developed a sense of great compassion because he thought if this it was his instant response to see another being suffering and then it extended out to all beings.
And once you’ve developed great compassion, it’s very easy to develop bodhicitta because the next step is to think how do I stop this. So great compassion is I don’t want these beings to experience suffering. I want them to be free from suffering for all beings. Yeah? And then the next step is how do I bring this about?
Right? So as you get on to how do I bring this about, and I’m going to do it, that’s bodhicitta. Okay? So to go from great compassion to bodhicitta is easy. And if you’ve had the habit of thinking about great compassion leads to bodhicitta in previous existences, if you’ve bought in a if you’ve you have a direct experience of great compassion, alright, then the habit you’ve developed beforehand will lead you to develop bodhicitta.
Because it Geshe said it needs the strength of the the conviction of great compassion to lead to bodhicitta. But if you’ve developed the thoughts of leading to bodhicitta, it will bring that around. So that’s why they say that there’s it is possible to develop bodhicitta in hell. And this is the this is the story of how Buddha developed the Buddha Śākyamūni developed bodhicitta. It was in hell.
So yeah. Mhmm. Okay. So that is the description of the physical base for who can attain the state of the path of accumulation. Now in terms of the mental base, the mental base is said to be of three different types.
You can have the actual dhyana or the actual state of meditative absorption of the form and formless realms, the actual state, or what’s called the near attainments of the actual meditative stable meditatively stable states of the form and formless realm. So but these are still form realm minds, but they’re not what’s called the actual dhyana, the actual meditative state. So it’s after you’ve developed calm abiding and your mind is equal to the minds of the form realm, but it’s not a very subtle form of the form realm. It’s not the very subtle stage of the form realm mind. So when you first develop calm abiding, your mind is the same as the mind of the form realm, but not the very subtle stages of the form realm.
They’re gross stages of the form realm. So you can either have the preliminary post-calm-abiding pre-actual dhyana state or the dhyana state itself, or you can achieve the path of accumulation based on the concentrations of the desire realm a mind of the desire realm. So that is even in the desire realm, are able to develop certain mental stability, certain states of mental stability, and we can develop a path of accumulation in dependence on them or generate the path of accumulation in dependence on them. Okay. So the second one is the is the nature of the path of accumulation.
And we can define the nature of the path of accumulation by what leads to the development of the path of accumulation. So by nature, the path itself is said to be mainly focused on listening and contemplating, but also involves the development of wisdom that comes about through meditation. And so that is to say that although you develop a wisdom and focus on meditation, many people are on path accumulation. The main focus for their practice, the main wisdom that they develop comes about through listening and contemplation. And it says in the collective topics, What is the path of accumulation like?
It says it’s the ethics when through the practice of no, through ordinary beings’ practice of ethics, through their containment of the senses, through limiting what they eat to that is appropriate, neither eating too much or too little, through not sleeping in the beginning and middle I’m sorry, the middle I’ve got it wrong. Not sleeping in the first and last parts of the night, that is meditating in the first and last parts of the night as opposed to sleeping. Enjoying introspection, direct introspection. That means taking joy in being aware of everything that you’re doing. Again and again, coming back to ethical behavior, focusing on listening to the teachings, contemplating them, and meditating on them in order to develop wisdom.
So when a being does these things and habituates themselves in these states, then they will develop what’s called a clear knower. It will turn into a clear knower. And when this clear knower comes about, in this instance, the clear knower that is the unfabricated realization of bodhicitta, so that it’s bodhicitta that doesn’t need to be encouraged, bodhicitta that is spontaneously present and becomes the motivation for all actions. Then they have attained the Mahāyāna partial concordance with liberation. Now, this means that at that first moment when bodhicitta, uncontrived bodhicitta develops, whether it is when someone is performing an ethical action, whether it’s when they’re meditating, whether it’s when they’re listening to a teaching or contemplating a teaching, whatever it is they’re doing, then they that that will become the path of accumulation.
These things will lead to the path of accumulation. So once we’ve developed the path of accumulation, we continue doing these things, but they cease to be hard work. They have become habit. They have become what it is that we naturally do. So up until the point that we achieve this state, we need to put in effort, and then once this uncontrived bodhicitta develops in our mind stream, these things have at that stage, these things become so habituated and so natural to us that we don’t have to put in effort, and we do them gladly.
Okay. So then when that state has developed, when the actual state of the path of accumulation has developed, that also means that we have entered the path that leads to Buddhahood. That is to say, we’re abiding in the it literally says our mind has turned into the basket, which is the place to abide in in order to attain perfect liberation. But it means the state or the the way to abide in order to attain perfect liberation. Oh, I did.
How did Sorry. Perfect liberation, which is. So that by saying perfect liberation, it indicates that it’s a Mahāyāna path. Mhmm. Mhmm.