Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Using Tsongkhapa’s image of the body as a water bubble, Geshe Pema Tsering opens this 45-minute session by tracing the logic from impermanence to motivation — why negative karma leads to lower rebirths, why aiming for a good rebirth alone is insufficient, and how bodhicitta (aspiring to Buddhahood for all beings) multiplies the merit of every action. The commentary then works through the Seventy Topics text on serial application: how it differs from complete-aspects application, its thirteen divisions including the six perfections and the “non-thingness of entities” (emptiness), and why it cannot extend to the Bodhisattva’s final moment of continuum. It closes with the four types of momentary application, including the distinction between “non-fully-ripened” and “fully-ripened” — two framings of the threshold instant before Buddhahood. For students engaged in systematic study of the Abhisamayālamkāra.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 ST10 2003 10 23.mp3
UUID: 5e54728e-0e55-4c30-8e4e-056c7341a71b
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Seventy Topics (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2003-10-23
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.9 minutes
Words: ~3,460
Okay. In the foundation of all good qualities, Tsongkhapa said, with this life or this body and the other aggregates as impermanent as water bubble, remembering how quickly it decays and death comes, and how after death, just like a shadow follows the body, the results of black and white karma follow. So what the so this is referring to the fact that this life that we have there, our body and the other aggregates that we have collected, they they they don’t last very long. We think they last a long time, but they don’t last very long. It’s the same way as, like, a bubble on top of the water.
It only if if we watch it, it’s very fragile, it they the bubbles on top of water, and with just one bump, they they disappear. And this is the same with our with our life. At some stage, life is going to end. At some stage, the the the life force is gonna finish. Right?
So we have to remember how quickly this happens. We have to remember how quickly our our our body is going to decay, how how how quickly death comes. Quickly we have to quickly remember that. And once we understand that once we understand that, then we also have to understand that death isn’t the end. If death was the end, then that would be okay.
We could do whatever we want. Right? But death isn’t the end. What happens after we die is that because of the power of our karma and because of the power of our afflictive emotions, then we take rebirth in another place that is conditioned by our karma and by our afflictive emotions that conditions our rebirth. So we we we have to go on from the from death into the next rebirth.
We have to be forced into another life, and we take this life in dependence on this karma that we have created. So if we know all this and and we understand all this, then we’re not gonna want to do anything negative because just like a shadow follows the body, this black and white karma that we have accumulated comes with us after we die. It doesn’t end just at the time of death. So given that this is the way things are, we don’t wanna create any negative karma because the the thing about negative karma is that it creates the cause for us to definitely be born in the lower realms. Yeah?
And there is no way that we can do negative things and not have as their cause birth in the lower realms. So what we need to do is to set up a situation which where we’re doing things that don’t cause us to be born in the lower realms. We need to set up a situation where we’re doing virtuous things in order to get a good rebirth. But we shouldn’t be doing virtuous things just with that as our motivation, just with the idea of a good rebirth as our motivation. And the reason for this is that a rebirth another rebirth in Samsāra isn’t ultimate happiness, isn’t going to help us in the long run.
We need to set up a situation where we’re going to experience happiness in the long run as well as in the short term. So what we need to do in order to accomplish this is to set our motivation that we will achieve either full enlightenment or liberation. And then we don’t actually have to worry about what will happen in the next life because if that’s motivation, then we’re setting up the situation for us to achieve a positive rebirth anyway. So we don’t need to focus on the next life. If we focus on liberation or enlightenment, then we will get a positive rebirth.
If we do this, then every action that we do becomes a virtuous action. If we set our motivation as this, every action we do, it becomes a virtuous motivation a virtuous action. Okay. So it’s not good enough either if we’re just doing this for our own purposes, if we’re just doing something and dedicating it to ourselves attaining enlightenment or ourselves attaining liberation. We need to be doing everything that we’re doing in order to establish all sentient beings in the state of Buddhahood, in order to be able to get all sentient beings to become Buddhas.
That needs to be our motivation for doing anything. We’re attaining enlightenment in order to be able to establish all sentient beings in the state of Buddha Buddhahood. Now what that means is that every action we do with this motivation not only is multiplied in terms of the virtue accumulates by all sentient beings, which is measureless, it’s also multiplied by the qualities of the Buddha’s, which is immeasurable. So we have immeasurable sentient beings achieving immeasurable qualities. So it’s a very vast motivation that we’re aiming towards.
And if you have immeasurable sentient beings achieving immeasurable qualities, you’re left with a very big benefit. So in order for us to achieve in order for us to establish all sentient beings in the state of a Buddha, yeah, then we have to achieve enlightenment. Yeah. And so this is the reason that we’ve come here to study. This is the reason that we’re meditating.
This is the reason we’re trying to practice Dharma. So we should think this the purpose for me coming here tonight, the purpose for me doing this is in order to establish all sentient beings or limitless sentient beings in the state of Buddhahood, which has limitless qualities. So in order to establish them there, I’m going to achieve enlightenment. May this be a cause for that, and should meditate on that for a few minutes. We’ve gotten up to this stage.
We’re talking about serial application. Now just to remind us, the definition from the beginning of the text of serial application is a bodhisattva’s yoga conjoined with the wisdom that serially cultivates the aspects of the three exalted knowers for the sake of attaining steadiness with respect to the aspects of the three exalted knowers. Right? Okay. So Right.
Now there’s four different types of application that we’ve been studying. Yeah? Alright. There’s the application of all aspects. Yeah.
Then there’s the peak application, the serial application, and the momentary application we haven’t come to yet, but it’s four different applications. Now the complete aspects application, the chapter number four. Right? Now what that’s about is all of the all of these types of applications, a hundred and seventy three aspects here, altogether. Yeah.
So it’s basically those hundred and seventy three different meditations and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings that are all those different qualities that are talked about in their complete aspects application can be come out in different ways. So when we talk about complete aspects application, that’s doing all of them at once, meditating on all of them at once. When we talk about serial application, it’s doing them in order, in an ordered way, in order to attain steadfastness or or stability with regards to those understandings. Okay. So a complete aspects application, yeah, what that is, is the compendium of all of these different qualities, all of the different yogas or practices that are together.
Yeah? Because all of those qualities are included within the mind of a Buddha, are included within the path of Bodhisattvas. So when they’re doing these practices, they have all of those qualities together. It’s a compendium of all of those. When we’re talking about serial application, it’s going through one of them in a in a series, like meditating on one, going on to the next, meditating on the next, and so forth in a series.
This enables this the Bodhisattva to to have stability with regards to these objects. The serial application doesn’t pervade as much as the complete aspects application, however, because the end of the continuum of sentient being, the last moment of the continuum of sentient being, does not include serial application at all. Yeah? So because it has to be a compendium. It can’t be as a it it can’t be in, you know, cereal.
Yeah. It it has to be it has to be a com combination of all in order to produce the mind of a Buddha. The divisions of the thirteen topics of serial application, divisions of these are hundred and seventy three and are divided into thirteen different aspects when they are focused on serially. The first six of these are the six beginning from the serial application of perfection of generosity through the serial application of perfection of wisdom. So you have the serial application of perfection of generosity, then the serial application of the perfection of ethics, then the serial application of the perfection of patience, then the serial application of the perfection of it’s word for word and the serial application of the perfection of effort, serial application of the perfection of meditation, and a serial application of the perfection of wisdom.
Okay. So so, for example, the first one of those that we’re talking about, the serial application of the perfection of generosity. Serial now the serial application of the perfection of generosity doesn’t mean that the fact that it says that here doesn’t mean that the perfection of generosity isn’t practiced in the compendium of the one hundred and seventy three different aspects that is practiced in terms of the complete aspects application. Included within the complete aspects application, there is the perfection of generosity. When Bodhisattvas are in compendium, they have all of those different aspects together in their practice, then the perfection of generosity is there.
What this means is that the focus is just on the perfection of generosity. In in a serial manner, first of you start with the perfection of the practice of perfection of generosity. But the two are almost pervade each other, so anything that’s in one, apart from the last moment of continuum, is in the other. So you don’t have to explain that for all six because you know them. So the next three, seven, eight, and nine, the serial application of the recollection of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha is the practice of refuge.
Is it is in other words, saying the practice of refuge. If you’re remembering or if you’re recollecting the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, then you’re going for refuge. It’s the same thing. The next one, some reason, ten in this translation, chopped up the serial application of. It’s put recollection of morality, but it’s the same thing.
Serial application of the recollection of morality. The next one is serial application of the recollection of giving. These two are two of the perfections: generosity and the perfection of morality giving is the same thing as generosity. In this instance, it’s not actually the practice of the perfections of those aspects, but it’s the recollection of how important those are and the recollection of giving and the recollection of practicing ethics. So it’s a bit different from the six perfections practice, but not very much.
The serial application of the recollection of the gods. I guess he thinks this is referring to the serial application of the recollection of the of emptiness or the cessation of true true cessation. Yeah? But he hasn’t ever seen it described clearly in a text, so he doesn’t know. But that’s what he thinks it means.
And that last one is your application of the entity of non things. Okay. The last one, the serial application of the entity of non things. Yeah? Now non things means the lack of inherent existence of things.
So the the serial application of the the entity or the the the the the of of the being of of non inherently established things. Right? So it’s another way of saying emptiness. Non things is non inherent existent things. Entity, you understand.
And the entity is the nature. Yeah? So it’s the non inherent existence of things. He said another way that he thinks that he could explain it is to say that the serial application of the recollection of the gods refers to the understanding of emptiness, and the serial application of the entity of non things refers to the nonduality of objects, object and subject. Okay.
So the non things is that Okay. Okay. So with this, it says application of the entity of non things. Right? The reason it says it’s but then what’s non phenomenon?
That’s not helping you at all. Geshe la says we generally think that things exist. Yeah? And so this is saying when it says non things or nonphenomenon, it means that they don’t inherently exist. It doesn’t mean that they don’t exist at all.
It just means that they don’t inherently exist. Yeah. So the the the the boundary of this is that it exists from the Mahāyāna path of accumulation up to but not including the end of the continuum. So it’s a moment before the end of the continuum. It goes up to the moment before the end of the continuum.
Oh, yeah. I think so. Two or diamonds, do you give us? I’m doing. I’m That’s no problem.
Two twelve log landings. Okay. Which one? Why would they put it that way? Is it just that they spoke that way?
What do you which bit? Well, Syria. Yes. Weird. It looks weird in Tibetan, too.
So why would they have written it that way? Is it is it because they just is that one right now? The it’s it’s it’s it’s straight from the straight from the straight from the mouth of Maitreya. So anyway, Okay. You’re in trouble.
That’s two nights in a row. Alright. Okay. Getting me debating with people. Now I’m just it’s okay.
I’m just it’ll be fine. Now okay. I think part of the problem is in English. Alright? What Geshe la is saying is that there is that it should be something more like the serial application of the non thingness of entities.
Yeah? Okay. So the non thingness of entities. So if you say the non thingness of entities, then that means that you say, are entities inherently existent? No.
They’re not. But do entities exist? Yes. They do. So you’re not saying that it doesn’t exist, and you’re not saying that it you’re not saying that hang on.
Now I’m getting confused. You’re not saying that it does exist. Yeah? No. You’re you’re not saying that doesn’t in you’re not saying that doesn’t exist inherently, but you are saying that it does exist.
Okay? So the yeah. So the non thingness of entities. I’m gonna write that down to you. So so in the root text, it says, Those are generosity through wisdom, recollection of the Buddha, and so forth, and the entity of the lack of thingness of phenomena.
That sounds more like the non thingness of entities, Yeah. And he said that in the the root text, it’s a lot clearer. So when it says the lack of thingness of phenomena, it’s just talking about emptiness. So is that okay. Is the is is does that make sense in the Tibetan? Well, that’s the wrong language.
Does that make sense in serial application? I asked you guys if that was okay, then I said to Geshe-la it was fine. And so this boundary of this serial application, it goes from the absolute beginning of the path of accumulation. So since once one has developed bodhicitta, right to the second last moment of the continuum. Now the reason that it doesn’t go to the end of the continuum is that the last moment of the continuum isn’t is the focus on emptiness has to be a meditation on emptiness.
Right? People have to achieve Buddhahood meditating on emptiness. Yeah? So if if they’re not meditating on emptiness, they can’t develop an omniscient mind. And if they are meditating on emptiness, they can’t be meditating on anything else.
Yeah? Therefore, we can’t have a serial application of anything because they can only be focusing on one thing. Right. Now, we’re up to the four topics of momentary application. In the root text or in the Abhisamayālamkāra, it says, four types manifest complete enlightenment in a single moment.
Now, the bit where it says manifest complete enlightenment in a single moment means the end of the continuum. It means that they’re about to, in the next moment, manifest complete enlightenment. Yeah? So that when it says in a single moment, it means in the next moment. Four types of characteristics.
All four in the text, actually says four characteristics. Right? So four so its characteristics have four aspects. Basically, it’s saying that there’s these four things. The non fully ripened momentary application, fully ripened momentary application, momentary application without characteristics, and non dual momentary application.
If you take these four ideas and put them together, then you have a definition of momentary application. There are four different aspects or four different ways of looking at momentary application, but they all pervade each other. They’re all talking about the same thing. They’re basically all talking about the same thing, but doing it in four different ways. The first way that it’s talked about is called non fully ripened momentary application.
The definition is the Bodhisattva’s Yoga, which is pretty easy. That is a direct antidote to the knowledge of obstructions in a manner of being conjoined with the wisdom. Okay. We’ll stop there. Ignore it.
Again, I can mix up what Geshe-la explained. Otherwise, it gets too confusing. Direct antidote to the knowledge obstructions. Yeah. There’s two different types of obstructions or what’s the other way they they translate it?
Are these two different types of veils that we have. We have the veil from negative emotion, and we have the veil of not knowing stuff. This is talking about the veil of not knowing stuff. You get rid of the obscuration of not knowing things when you achieve Buddhahood. Beyond being out of Samsāra, it’s the veils to omniscience, the things that stop us from being omniscient.
This means that by doing this certain practice, using this wisdom, then you are able to get rid of the knowledge obscurations and basically become a Buddha, become omniscient. Once we have uncontaminated, non fully ripened quality is actualized, it’s non contaminated it’s on the non contaminated grounds, nine, and ten, non fully ripened because it’s not not Buddhahood yet. Then it means that that that you actually realize all other types of uncontaminated qualities at the same moment. Now when it says the shortest moment in which an action can can be completed, that’s supposed to be one sixty fourth of a click of the fingers. Yeah?
So the next one says: Fully ripened momentary application. This is basically the same. It’s almost the same definition. The only difference is that says: Bodhisattva is a direct antidote to knowledge, obstructions in a manner of being conjoined with wisdom such that when one uncontaminated, fully ripened quality is actualized, those similar are also actualized in the shortest moment in which an action is completed. The only bit that’s different is that one says it’s fully ripened, the other says it’s not fully ripened.
And it’s basically saying that from one side, you can say that momentary application means that in the next moment, they’re going to understand everything through the power of having uncontaminated insight. Yeah? But the reason one side from one side that says it’s not fully ripened is because they’re not a Buddha yet. They’re going to be a Buddha in the next moment, but they’re not a Buddha yet. And the reason that it says it’s fully ripened is because they’re going to be a Buddha.
Yeah? So in the next moment, they’re gonna be a Buddha. It becomes fully ripened. It’s not fully ripened because it hasn’t happened yet, but it is fully ripened because it’s about to happen. Yeah.
Is that cool with everyone? Okay. Oh, yeah. Okay. And the the other thing to remember is that they are they are mutually inclusive.
They’re synonyms. Yeah? Because it’s describing the same thing in a different way. When it says in both of these things, when one uncontaminated fully ripened quality is actualized, those similar in type and to it are also actualized. Now what that’s talking about is that these people these beings, these Bodhisattvas have such strong meditative abiding