Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute commentary, Geshe Pema Tsering opens by correcting a translation error from the previous session: a Tibetan word he had read as “negative” turns out to mean “other people,” reversing the meaning of an entire passage. He then walks through the three stages of Supreme Mundane Qualities — Bodhisattvas developing realization of emptiness while ripening it in others; cultivating Bodhisattva clairvoyance at the middling stage; removing gross afflictive emotions at the highest stage ahead of directly perceiving emptiness. He clarifies why the Ornament addresses only the method aspect of the path of preparation. The session then introduces Signs of Irreversibility — twenty observable signs across the four levels of the path of preparation — with the striking caveat that only a practitioner already at that path can recognize these signs in another.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 09 OCR 2005 03 10.mp3
UUID: 91ee6112-75b7-4028-a420-3418eaabb657
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Ornament for Clear Realisations (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-03-10
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.8 minutes
Words: ~3,225
So please develop a good motivation that accords with the text. And that is that by listening to these teachings, develop understandings of these teachings. By developing understandings of these teachings, you’ll be able to put them into practice. By putting them into practice, you’ll be able to progress through the paths and grounds and attain Buddhahood. And as a Buddha, you’ll be able to lead all sentient beings to the state beyond sorrow.
So if you’re looking for up to, we’re up to the supreme mundane qualities on page ninety six. Okay. So we’re up to the supreme mundane supreme mundane qualities level of the path of preparation having gone through the peak level and tolerance level last week. So the Supreme Mundane Qualities level has three different stages, and it also has three different activities that are involved in it. Now at at the three different stages, there there there’s a different level of practice that’s engaged in.
So at the first level, the small supreme mundane qualities level, the Bodhisattvas are practicing on their own. They are practicing the development of the realization of emptiness motivated by bodhicitta on their own. They’re also encouraging their students to do the same, and they’re able to ripen the mind stream of their students or those who have a close connection to them to do the same thing. So not only are they establishing themselves at this level of the path, they’re also leading other beings to that level of the path. Right?
Now, this they’re not only just leading other beings to that level of the path, but the other beings that they’ve led to that level of the path are able to lead other beings, get other beings to that level of the path. I guess this is, for example, if someone there’s one person who’s on the supreme mundane qualities level of the path, they are doing that practice themselves, and they say they have a group of students. And they’re able to explain everything to this group of students based on the karmic connection that they have or the disposition of those students towards them. But there may be other people that they don’t have a connection to, that they’re unable to teach, or that do not have the time or the situation to be able to teach. So what they can do then in that case is say to the student, Oh, you understand this.
Go and tell that person over there. Alright? So there’s these different circles of how they’re able to influence people and how they’re able to develop the the mind streams of others. Okay. So that’s two things that they’re able to do at the at the small level of this supreme mundane qualities.
So they’re able to they’re by having focus on sentient beings, they’re able to ripen understanding in the continuum of other beings. Right? So teach them so they develop understandings. They come up they’re they’re able to develop up to to this level. They’re then able to encourage their students to benefit more beings.
Alright? By explaining to them how to how they can explain to other people. Okay? And then the third thing is that by having a very happy mind, or they have a very they’re very happy about being able to benefit beings and working this way. So there’s three different aspects.
Okay. Right. Sorry. I said, “Geshe-la, you just said this,” and he looked at me. That was where he pulled his face.
I went, what? I didn’t say that. I said, you did. And he said, no. I didn’t.
So there’s this problem because there’s there’s a a word in Tibetan that means can either mean negative or other people. Alright? And I was taking it to be that it was negative, and it was actually other people. And that’s crazy. So anyway, so forget what I said last time.
Scratch it from your memories, completely. Okay, so what was wrong with it? So there’s three different parts to this practice. First of all, they are abiding in that they’re working on their own understanding and developing it to the level of the supreme mundane qualities level. Right?
And then they are ripening that understanding in other sentient beings. So there’s two different aspects to part one what they’re doing. They’re working on themselves, and they’re developing that understanding in other beings. Yeah? When I said, If they do it to someone else, they get the students to do it to someone else, wasn’t right.
Because what it was supposed to do was that they can do it for everybody. They’re focusing on all sentient So whoever comes into contact with them, whoever’s working with them in that way, then they it works for that. So there’s not the two levels. It’s that they are helping the third rung of people that’s the people that their students may be helping, they’re helping them as well. Right?
Misunderstood the they are helping others. They’re not not helping others. Okay. So so there’s these different levels to it. First of all, they’re working on themselves.
They’re developing understandings in their own in their own mental continuum, and then they’re working on developing these in their mental continuum of others. That’s actually one section. The next section is that they are able to express that understanding and they are able to encourage people through that expression. They’re able to say, This is good what you’re developing this understanding, and they’re able to explain to them what they’re doing wrong and what they’re doing right. The third part is that they’re happy when other people are doing it.
Right? So that’s the third that’s the first level. That’s the level of the placing others in positive activities. Yeah? So no.
Sorry. That’s the third the first level where it’s the small supreme mundane qualities level. Now when they get up to the middling supreme mundane qualities level, they’re not just developing the idea of the supreme mundane qualities level in other people’s continuum, and they’re not just developing the idea of focusing on all sentient beings in other people’s continuums. They’re also focusing on developing the clairvoyances. Clairvoyances in other and clairvoyances themselves, and they are leading other people or taking other people to the state where they’re developing clairvoyance themselves, the other people are developing it.
They are then able to express their understanding of the development of clairvoyances clairvoyances, and they are happy when other people do it. Okay? So these three things again. But like said, the thing to remember is this isn’t any old clairvoyance because there’s all sorts of, you know, all over the place clairvoyances that don’t really help you. This is Bodhisattva clairvoyance.
This one? Uh-huh. Okay. So at the last level, I think it’d probably hang on. If you bear with me for a second, I think it may help if I ask you some of these questions.
Okay. So at this level, they are working themselves on developing the knowable aspects. So they’re on developing their practice that leads to Buddhahood, directly to Buddhahood, as this is just before the path of seeing. They are working on developing that understanding themselves. The way they’re working on developing that understanding is by getting rid of negative states of mind, afflicted states of mind that would stop them from being able to perceive emptiness directly in the next level of the path of seeing.
They’re getting rid the gross negative states of mind, the afflictive emotions that grasp the inherent existence of things and so on. Not only are they doing this, they are encouraging others to do this and they’re engaging in activities that that’s a ripeness understanding in the mind streams of other beings, and then they’re also being very happy when other beings are able to do this. Okay. So the reason that they keep saying and they’re happy about it when other people do it is supposed to be to illustrate that then there’s no jealousy. So they’re trying to develop other people to the same level of understanding as as they have, and they’re doing it without any sense of competition or or jealousy.
So in this way, to to put it briefly, the clear realizations that are part of the the clear realization that is the Mahāyāna path concordance with definite discrimination or the clear realization that is the path of preparation is by its nature mainly a post meditation practice. So it’s not a meditative practice of meditative equipoise. It’s mainly a post meditation practice. So that means engaging in activities without the mind being meditative equipoise. Summit, reason for this is that it can generally be said that the path of preparation consists of the nineteen practices that we just went through.
So the ten on the first level, the heat level, and the three on the following three levels. So they’re nineteen levels. And because it’s generally involved with these nineteen activities, and these nineteen activities aren’t all meditating being in meditative equipoise, then it’s said that the path of preparation is mainly a post meditative exercise. Right. Now, it’s great when you’ve been doing this for like how long?
A year and a half? Two years? And I feel like, that’s what that means. Okay. So the definition then, the definition that we have, actually, which is on page ninety four.
Okay. Alright. So the definition that we have on page ninety four of there’s a definition of a Mahāyāna explicitly indicated in this case or on this occasion, and is a Bodhisattva’s clear realiser of meaning explicitly indicated in this case qualified mainly by a factor of method. Now the bit that I finally went, that’s what that means, is the bit where it says explicitly indicated in this case. So as straightforward as it may seem, that means that what it’s talking about here, right?
What the Ornament for Clear Realisations talks about here. Okay? So they’re clear they’re on the on the path of preparation, you have the meditation on emptiness. You’re developing realization of emptiness by meditating on it. Right?
But the part of the Ornament for Clear Realisations doesn’t say anything about that. Okay? What the Ornament for Clear Realisations talks about is the method aspect of the path of preparation. And these are these nineteen things that we are talking about here. So if it’s describing a post meditation state, then it’s not talking about the development of the realization of wisdom.
So it usually comes under the heading of method. Alright? So you have you’re developing method and wisdom. In meditative equipoise on emptiness, you’re developing wisdom. In all your other activities, whether it be meditating on bodhicitta, whether it be meditating on bodhicitta, whether it be acting for the benefit of all sentient beings, whether it’s working on a renunciation on a more subtle levels, all of these things come under the heading of method.
So the heart of the path of preparation that the Ornament for Clear Realisations actually deals with is only the method aspect. Alright? It’s not to say that there isn’t a wisdom aspect. It’s only dealing with the method aspect. So this and so therefore, in in actual fact, because the Ornament for Clear Realisations is talking about the the path of those of sharp faculties, what we’re actually talking about here is the it’s a description of the method part of the path of preparation of those with sharp faculties.
So you can’t say this is a definition of the path of preparation, right, by any means. You’re only talking about what is described here as the path of preparation. So it’s the method aspect of path. Okay. Okay.
So that was the end of path preparation. And now we’re up to topic number eight, which is called signs of irreversibility. And signs of irreversibility has three main sections, signs of irreversibility on the path of preparation, signs of irreversibility on the path of seeing, and signs of irreversibility on the path of meditation. And we will do the we will do the signs of irreversibility on the Okay. Right.
So there’s so there is three different levels to the signs of irreversibility. There’s irreversibility in the path of preparation, the path of seeing, and the path of meditation. Their irreversibility means that once bodhisattvas have attained that level of realization, they won’t slip back from that, the level of realization they developed. So there’s no way that they can lose the realization that they have developed and fall back into a into lower into lower levels. The beings who have sharp faculties develop signs of irreversibility on the path of preparation.
Beings who have middling faculties develop signs of irreversibility on the path of seeing, and beings with dull faculties don’t develop signs of irreversibility until they are seventh or eighth ground. Now, when we talk about signs of irreversibility, that means things or that we can establish as being a sign that this irreversibility has been developed. That was pretty redundant in English. Okay. So in the clear ornament of realization, it goes described the different signs of irreversibility.
No. First of all, he describes the different levels of irreversibility. So he describes the that that there is a branch and main the levels of irreversibility on the path of preparation, path of seeing, and the path of meditation. So then he goes on to go through these different levels and stages. So first of all, describes the divisions and then goes through the different levels and stages.
So, obviously, the first one that we’re we’re looking at then is signs of irreversibility on the path of preparation. Now there are twenty one there’s, sorry, twenty different levels. There are twenty different signs of irreversibility on the path of preparation. At the path at the heat level of the path of preparation, there is eleven. At the peak level, there is six.
At the the forbearance or patience level, there is two. And at the supreme mundane what do call it? Supreme mundane level, there is one. So the the definition of signs of irreversibility on the path of preparation is a perfect proof that serves to convince that the bodhisattva on the path of preparation who possesses it is irreversible from highest complete enlightenment. Okay.
Guess I said Uh-huh. He said, did that did did you translate it? And I said, yes. I just had to read it. And he said, but when you read it, was it was the meaning clear?
And I said, I don’t know. So then he said, well, I should explain it then. And so what he’s talking about is that there’s on the path of preparation, which is a level of realization, there is four different stages. Each of these different stages has three different stages. Alright?
So you have four different sections that have three different subsections in each, which equals twelve. Alright? So there’s twelve different bits of the path preparation. As one as a bodhisattva progresses through these different levels of realization, there are things that you in order to understand that that’s the level that they’re on, there are things that you can see in their physical behavior and hear in the way that they speak that act as irreversible no, that’s not the right word. Incontrovertible.
Incontrovertible signs that they have attained that state. So they’re clues or incontrovertible signs, not just clues, that a being has developed that level of realization. Right? Not only is it a sign that they have developed that level of realization, but they aren’t going to slip back from that level of realization. They’re a sign that they have developed that level of realization, and that level of realization will not disintegrate or downgrade itself in it.
They won’t they won’t lose any of their realization. They won’t go backwards. They won’t reverse. Alright. Now for those of you who are thinking cool, I’ll get to figure out who’s on the path preparation, well, you dip out.
Because the first one is turning away They have the mental capacity to turn away from grasping at true existence of phenomena such as forms due to realizing their non true existence. As said, guess so, that’s not going be very easy to see. Someone’s like, So, is that person grasping at true forms as forms as being fully existent or not? He goes, No, no, we can’t see any of these things. If you’re on that level, then you can look at it in someone else’s mind stream and say, Well, they they’ve realized that.
But until you get there, there’s no way you can tell whether they have these realizations or not. So in order to be able to see the eleven signs of irreversibility of those on the path of preparation, you have to be on the path of preparation yourself. Right? So if you hit the heat level of the path of preparation, you can look around and start going, oh, well, that guy’s got the eleven signs of irreversibility. Until you get to that point, you can’t see it.
So even if you’re in the path of accumulation, you can’t tell if someone’s in the path of preparation. You can tell if someone’s in the path of accumulation, but you can’t tell where they are above you, above your real realizations. So it’s hard to see these signs of irreversibility. Okay. So the first one then was not grasping at the true existence of forms.
The second one is removing all doubts about the Three Jewels. So this means that up until that stage then, is very subtle doubts, at least very subtle doubts about the value of the Three Jewels as a source of refuge. But at this level, on the heat level of the path of preparation, you’re able to eliminate all doubts about the Three Jewels being a true source of refuge. Oh, wow. Okay.
And then you also eliminate all you also then eliminate all ability or all the tendencies that would have led you to rebirth in a state a rebirth or a into a situation where you don’t have all of the eight leisures. So there’s eight types. In a precious human rebirth, there’s eight leisures and ten endowments. So this means that you eliminate all causes or tendencies to have these come about. So you may not necessarily then take rebirth as a human.
You could take rebirth in a pure realm or a god realm or something and still be able to practice Dharma if you have these realizations. But you would never have those eight things that could hinder your practice again. That’s what I’m up to. Yeah. Number two is eliminating — no,.
Eliminating doubts about the Three Jewels. Number three is, yeah, getting rid of the eight things. Oh, and did he say the next one? Yes. He did.
And the last and then number four is getting how practicing in practicing ourselves and getting others to practice. K. Number five is while focusing on sentient beings, practicing generosity and the other perfections.