Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Opening with Śāntideva’s observation that suffering has one redeeming quality — it crushes pride and kindles compassion — Geshe Pema Tsering uses this 45-minute session to unpack all three types of suffering. The bulk focuses on the suffering of change: because we mistake it for pleasure, we pursue it relentlessly and accumulate the negative karma that keeps us cycling in saṃsāra. He addresses whether saṃsāra has an end, citing Lama Tsongkhapa and Sera monastery’s position that it does, and explains how the quality of the last thought before sleep shapes overnight karma. Brief remarks urge compassion rather than anger toward all parties in an ongoing war. The session closes by introducing the definition and tenfold classification of Mahāyāna precepts.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 ST3 2003 03 20.mp3
UUID: 5080e2b1-7dcc-4f5d-9207-e11424312e09
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Seventy Topics (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2003-03-20
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.9 minutes
Words: ~3,137
Said that if suffering has one quality, But anyway, Śāntideva said, suffering if suffering has one quality, it is that sadness destroys pride and generates compassion for beings in saṃsāra. If you want to abandon wrongdoing, you’ll you will like virtue. So if we concentrate on suffering, if we concentrate on our suffering, then we will understand that we have a lot of suffering and therefore we won’t develop a lot lot of pride about ourselves because we will not feel anything to be proud of because we’ll see how much suffering we’re in. And likewise, if we have understood our own suffering and how much it pains us, then we will be able to understand the suffering of other beings. And then by understanding their suffering, we’ll develop compassion towards them.
And also, if we think about suffering, then we have to think about the cause of suffering, which is accumulation of negativities. And once we’ve thought about the cause of suffering, then we’ll wanna get rid of the cause of suffering. And by getting rid of the cause of suffering, we’ll understand that we have to perform virtues and therefore we’ll develop a liking for virtues. So therefore, the suffering of suffering actually has this quality. Suffering of suffering we can understand explicitly so because we understand it explicitly then we have the urge not to to have this suffering in our lives and to do anything we can to stop this suffering the other two types of suffering that is change and all pervasive suffering are much more difficult for our minds to get around especially the suffering of change which is actually a bit insidious in that we think that it’s pleasure so therefore we actually encourage the suffering of change in our life so that it makes it a very difficult and destructive type of suffering.
So all of the negative karma that we accumulate and all the mental afflictions that we have in our mind come about because of the pursuit of the suffering of change. Because we see things that are actually the suffering of change as being something that’s pleasant and desirable we develop attachment towards them and we’ll do anything we can in order to achieve those the suffering of change or the way we perceive it as being pleasure. Because of all the things that we do in order to gain this pleasure, which is actually the suffering of change, then we create all the negativities that cause us to abide in suffering. So all pervasive suffering is not something that we can perceive directly. All pervasive suffering has existed since the beginningless time and will exist until we achieve arhatship and become a foe destroyer so why it’s called all pervasive suffering is because it pervades every bit of existence from beginningless time up until the point where we get rid of suffering and become a foe destroyer.
That’s what it means by pervasive. So that’s why it’s called all pervasive suffering. But the worst out of all these three is actually suffering of change, because the suffering of change is the reason that we accumulate all the afflictive emotions and all the karma that we have accumulated that continues to make us suffer and continues to keep us in saṃsāra because we don’t understand that it is actually suffering and see it as pleasure and things to be desired then we do all these things and we accumulate all these negativities in order to achieve it there isn’t actually a moment in our mind stream that we aren’t accumulating karma whether it be in positive karma negative karma or neutral karma we have a continuous stream of moments since beginningless time up until now each the cause of the other that that each of those is being accumulating one of the three different types of karma. So there isn’t any time in our existence since beginningless time up until now that we haven’t been accumulating karma, and most of the time that we’ve accumulated karma, we see it as being it has been negative karma because it’s been driven by affliction and delusion and this desire for the suffering of change.
If we want this cycle to stop, then we have to develop a liking for positive karma. Out of these three positive karma, negative karma and neutral karma, the thing that we accumulate the most of is negative karma. In order for us to accumulate positive karma, have to concentrate really hard on developing an actual type of bodhicitta and then doing things with that motivation in our mind. In order for us to create negative karma, we don’t have to do very much. It doesn’t take very much effort for us to create negative karma.
Neutral karma comes along with those, but it doesn’t happen usually as much as negative karma. Neutral karma is things like sleeping. Most of the time when are asleep, are creating its neutral karma. So, actually, when we’re sleeping, we can be creating any of the three different types of karma. It can be positive, negative or neutral.
If the last thought we have before we fall asleep is a positive thought, then our sleep becomes positive. If it’s a negative thought then our sleep becomes negative. But a lot of the time we have neither a positive thought or a negative thought before we fall asleep and we have neutral karma the whole time we are sleeping. So from the time we wake up, then most of the karma we accumulate is negative karma and we can actually investigate this. Most of the things that we do while we’re awake are in order to have pleasure and happiness in this life and because they are focused on this life then they become negative karma.
So, if we don’t have the mind of bodhicitta in our mind streams, then the karma that we accumulate in nature is negative. When we have the mind of bodhicitta in our mind streams, the karma that we accumulate in nature is positive karma. So therefore it’s very difficult for us to try and create positive karma in our mind streams because it goes against the nature of our karma. So it’s very easy for us to create negative karma. Okay.
So in the world, there is a more non-Buddhist than there are Buddhists, and amongst Buddhists there is more people who don’t have a strong belief in karma and cause and effect than there are people who do have a strong belief in cause and effect. So this strong belief in cause and effect becomes a very important thing to try and maintain in our mind stream. So if we think about it our lifetime then we can understand that we haven’t done that much that’s been with a good motivation and we’ve done a heck of a lot that has been done with a negative motivation. So we have to understand that even now we’re doing so many things without the correct motivation of wanting to achieve Buddhahood for the sake of sentient beings and try and concentrate on that a lot more. So there’s a lot of people in the world that don’t have any belief in in Dharma, and because they don’t have any belief in dharma, then all that they do is is is, like, negative actions. So because that they’re under this way of these negative actions and since beginning of this time, their mind has been turned towards this life and in seeking pleasure in this life, then it’s very easy for them to to do negative actions.
And because of this, we should really try and develop compassion for all these beings and think, may I, may I be able to turn my my turn my back or turn around my attachment to, my attachment to, negative object things and the pleasures of this life, and in the same way as that, may all other beings be able to do this and therefore be able to stop their suffering. So so then all the things that they’re doing are are coming about by the power of desire and delusions, which they’ve had in their mind since beginning of this time. And in order for them to be able to abandon their desire, may I, from this time forward, be able to abandon my desire because at the moment I’m doing most things because of the power of desire and I should investigate to see that this is happening Okay, So if we can’t be thinking that we can achieve enlightenment in this lifetime and in doing so turn our mind away from negativities, then perhaps we can think that we can attain liberation in this lifetime and become an arhat and in so doing turn our mind away from negativities.
And if we can’t imagine ourselves doing that, if we can think that whatever we’re doing will be a cause for a positive rebirth in which we can work towards either our arhatship or achieving Buddhahood. Okay. So in order for us to achieve this kind of effortlessness in doing positive things and get rid of our effortlessness in doing negative things, then we actually have to have developed bodhicitta in our mind streams. And that means entering the path of accumulation. So this could be very difficult for us to try and achieve in this lifetime.
We have to have enormous stores of merit in order to do this. So if we have the thought in our minds that okay, if I can’t do it in this lifetime, may I have a good rebirth in my next lifetime so that I can continue to practice and work towards achieving this development of bodhicitta and entering into the path, then this still becomes a very positive motivation. Okay. So it’s not until the forbearance stage of the path of preparation that we actually have no chance of going to the lower realms and experiencing the suffering of the lower realms. So we have to keep praying that we can come back in a positive rebirth until we reach that stage so we have to be doing things in order to generate a positive rebirth even up until we reach that stage Before we’ve reached that stage, then we have to have bodhicitta.
Before we have bodhicitta, we have to have realized renunciation. Before we have realized renunciation, we have to have refuge. And now and all of these are very difficult for us. So the the idea is that we can get all sentient beings out of suffering, and that means getting all sentient beings out of saṃsāra. But I mean, this can be a difficult concept to to grasp onto because if all sentient beings are out of saṃsāra, that means every single sentient being has achieved Buddhahood.
And that can be very difficult for us to grasp onto, and we can have doubts about this because it’s such a vast concept. So the thing that we should be concentrating on is that we achieve Buddhahood, and after we’ve achieved Buddhahood, then we can show sentient beings how to be free from suffering and how to achieve Buddhahood. There’s actually a lot of debate about whether there is an end to saṃsāra or not in texts. On one hand, people say that if there is an end to saṃsāra, that means that there will be no sentient beings, and there is no time when there will be no sentient beings. That’s the argument from one side.
The argument from the other side is that because all sentient beings have Buddha nature and Buddha nature is a cause for Buddhahood, then at some stage they will have to have the results of that cause and attain Buddhahood and therefore there will be no saṃsāra left. Okay. So according to Lama Tsongkhapa and according to the tenets used in Sera — Sera’s, in Sera’s what they call Yigcha, which is a Okay. So it’s not just in Sera’s the text books that they use, but in also in most of the other monasteries, they actually argue that there is an end to Samsāra. Therefore all sentient beings will be liberated from Samsāra.
But for us to actually get our head around that can be very difficult, especially if you’re watching documentaries about Africa with all the different animals on there and you’re watching how cruel they can be to each other and the way they kill each other, it can be very difficult to imagine that those creatures as well are going to achieve Buddhahood. It is a lot easier for us to concentrate on the fact that we ourselves may attain Buddhahood because if we watch our minds and look at investigate the way that our minds work, we can see that if we concentrate on trying to develop merit, then it it becomes easier and easier to develop merit. It’s a lot easier after you’ve done it for a while than it was at the beginning and if you do it for many years, you can see that it’s easier to generate something that you’re used to generating in your mind stream. And so if we look at it in this way, then we can see that continuing on and our realization is becoming stronger and stronger and our negativity is becoming smaller and smaller until they become subtler and subtler and we eventually achieve Buddhahood.
Okay. So therefore, have even though we’ve established that there is an end to saṃsāra, if we have trouble focusing on that as such a grand concept and if we concentrate on the end to our own saṃsāra and concentrate on ourselves attaining Buddhahood in order to be a benefit to all sentient beings, then the way that we can think about this is, okay, maybe it won’t happen in this life, maybe it won’t happen in the next life, but may I have the condition so that I can keep practicing and studying in order to get closer and closer to Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings in lifetimes to come and therefore be a benefit to all sentient beings. And with that thought in mind then we should meditate on that So what we’re doing is a combination of analytical meditation and placement meditation. So first of all, do the analytical meditation to get to ourselves to thinking about sentient beings and how everyone’s suffering and how the way to stop them suffering is achieving enlightenment and then when we have this thought in our mind may I achieve enlightenment very very quickly for the sake of all sentient beings may I myself achieve enlightenment we’ve got that thought centered in our mind then we should have placement meditation and just focus on that thought and not do any more analytical processing.
Geshe-la says it’s really important, especially at this time, that we we concentrate on having a really good motivation, and we have really good strong prayers because of the of the war and all the people that may die from it. The people that are actually going to be at war and the people that are actually having their country having war happen come to them, they’re exactly the same as us in that they want to be happy and they don’t want to suffer. So we should think like that and then you know there is just some people who are because of a sense of arrogance think that they know better and then because of that that that sense then that that this war is coming about. Okay. So but the thing is, even though we may think that these people seem to be agitating for and that think that that may be a negative thing then we shouldn’t actually get frustrated or angry with them because getting frustrated and angry with them will kind of destroy our own stores of merit and not be a positive thing.
If we learn to think anything about anyone involved in this situation, then we should be thinking about compassion and the fact that they’re doing everything because they’re under the power of karma and delusion. So that we should have compassion for everybody involved in the situation. So we finished. Yes, yes. We finished the division by way of similitude of mind generation. We didn’t do the definition of precepts, did we?
No. No. No. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
So we finished mind generation, we’re now up to precepts. Okay. So the definition of Mahāyāna precept is Mahāyāna speech that teaches a method for attaining the objective striving of Mahāyāna Mind Generation. The objective striving of Mahāyāna Mind Generation is complete Buddhahood. The speech that teaches a method for attaining this objective striving is anything that shows how to proceed along the paths towards a complete enlightenment, how to generate bodhicitta and so forth.
And the reason that it’s Mahāyāna speech is because of the thing that it’s referring to. So the division is first division by way of nature or entity is precepts instructing on the Mahāyāna and precepts of subsequent Mahāyāna teachings. Okay. So precepts instructing on the Mahāyāna, what that actually refers to is precepts that point out the qualities of bodhicitta and the way to achieve bodhicitta for beings who have not entered the path of accumulation and from there up. That’s like beings like us who want to develop bodhicitta and enter the path.
These are teachings that are instructing the way to do that. Okay. So precepts of subsequent Mahāyāna teachings, are teachings which instruct people on how to proceed along the path once they have generated bodhicitta and enters the path of accumulation. So any teachings that describe how to proceed from the path of accumulation right, up until the complete sorry, the until people have achieved a complete Buddhahood, they are included within precepts of subsequent Mahāyāna teachings. Okay.
So there is ten if we’re doing if we’re dividing precepts by way of instruction, by the way of the mode of instruction, then there’s ten different divisions. And so there are precepts which instruct on achieving, which are its own entity, precepts or teachings, which instruct on the object of observation, the four truths precepts which instruct on the basis, the Three Jewels precepts which instruct on efforts in non clinging, which instruct those which instruct on tireless ceaseless effort. Those which instruct on effort that thoroughly upholds the path, those which instruct on the five eyes, those which instruct on the six clairvoyances, those which instruct on the path of seeing, and those which instruct on the path of meditation.