Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A Śāntideva verse making enlightenment sound deceptively simple opens this 45-minute commentary, and Geshe Pema Tsering uses it to show why even genuine refuge in the Three Jewels — the most basic requirement — is harder than most assume. Atisha’s remark on entering a full Tibetan monastery (“many monks, no Buddhists”) anchors the point: refuge demands real conviction, not self-identification. The session then moves into the Seventy Topics, working through the Mahāyāna path of meditation of conviction: its definition, three root divisions (one’s own aims, others’ aims, both aims), the twenty-seven subdivisions traced to Maitreya’s Clear Ornament of Realization, and the nine praises owed to those who hold it. It closes on the path of meditation of dedication, distinguishing ordinary dedication from the special form directed toward enlightenment for all beings. Assumes familiarity with Lamrim terminology.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 ST6 2003 06 26.mp3
UUID: 46de3889-aca0-4558-8860-b9e38e398184
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Seventy Topics (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2003-06-26
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.9 minutes
Words: ~3,145
So therefore, all we have to do is have bodhicitta and do the myriad different positive things that Bodhisattvas do, and we’ll achieve enlightenment. Easy. So if we can do this, then the results will come about and it depends the results depend on the actions. Okay. So at the start, looks easy and then we think, okay.
What is enlightened behavior? I have to practice the six perfections. I have to first of all develop the renunciation. I definitely need bodhicitta, and then it starts looking more complicated. We start looking at the detail.
So, yeah, then we then we find out, okay. We have to develop In order to develop bodhicitta, we need to develop renunciation. renunciation is a mind that completely turns away from saṃsāra and only sees the faults in saṃsāra. At the moment, we don’t see much but the good things in saṃsāra, the qualities of Samsāra. So bodhicitta is this developing bodhicitta or having bodhicitta means that anything that we do is always for other beings.
Nothing that we do is for our own purpose. So to when that happens, when we have this idea that all our actions are for other beings and nothing is for our own purpose, and not only that, but we’re happy about that, and that comes about in an unfabricated manner. We don’t have to concentrate or analyze to to feel that way to or to have that mind, oh, then we’ve developed bodhicitta. So at the moment, it’s very difficult for us to get even give up the idea of not striving towards happiness for ourselves and and trying to make us ourselves avoid suffering. It’s difficult for us to get our head around that.
But bodhisattva, the beings who have developed bodhicitta, they actually give away their own body without thinking about it. It’s not something that’s very difficult for them to do. So we can see that it’s the mind the mindset is very different to to ours. So even this giving away bodies and everything, we should put that first to the side for a second because to be honest, we’re having trouble working for our own benefit, Really, we think we’re working for our own benefit, but we’re not. We’re not really working for our own benefit.
We’re working to give ourselves more suffering. We need to be in order for us to work truly for our own benefit, we have to develop renunciation. So we’re not even working for our own benefit yet. So the the the the thing is that we don’t actually believe in the Three Jewels. We don’t actually believe in cause and effect, and we don’t actually believe in liberation.
If we believed in all these things, then we were doing be doing everything that we could in order to attain them. It wouldn’t be something that we had to think about. It wouldn’t be something that we had to concentrate on or or or work at. It’d be the same for us as if we know if we go to work, we get money. It would be as clear as as that to us.
We wouldn’t be thinking about, will I get money? Will it happen? We would just know that it was gonna come about. So so the the fact that there is this this doubt and this lack of belief about whether we’re actually gonna attain liberation by our actions means that we have a doubt about the Three Jewels. We have doubts about whether they are what we think they are.
Because we have doubts about the Three Jewels, then we start doubting in some way or another whether there’s past and future lives, especially future lives. Because if we’re doubting about future lives, then we’re not going to be working towards future lives. We’re not going to concentrate on them. So so by this process, we don’t actually start we don’t start practicing very much. We don’t do very much work because there’s all these doubts and and questions that that we have.
So if we have doubts and we don’t actually have this belief, that means that we’re not not only do we not have faith in the Three Jewels or believe in future lives, but we’re not technically Buddhists. We’re we’re just people who say we’re Buddhist. We’re not actually Buddhist. So there was a story about Atisha. He went to Tibet, and he stopped in at a monastery on the way.
And he said, you know, there’s a lot of monks here, but there’s no Buddhists. There’s a lot of people who do all this practice, but there’s no Buddhist because there’s no refuge. So Atisha said about a whole monastery. So the monks in this monastery, according to Atisha, thought they had the responsibility to to do these to do all the practices they had, and they were doing a lot of what looked like Dharma practice. They were saying a lot of prayers and and they were living as monks and everything.
But because they didn’t have refuge, they didn’t have this the thought of refuge in their mind, then nothing that they were doing was Buddhist. Because every if there’s no refuge, there’s no there’s no Buddhist practice. Okay. So in order for us to not just be Buddhist by what we say but by our actual actions in our minds, then we need to have refuge. In order to have refuge, we need to have faith and belief in the Three Jewels.
In order to do this, we need to know what the Three Jewels are. We need to know what their qualities are, and we need to understand them properly. So if someone comes up to us and they say, you’re not a Buddhist, then we think, I am so a Buddhist. And and if they if they say it a few times, we think, what are they going on about? I am a Buddhist.
And so we we this is how we define ourselves. But then if we start thinking about it, thinking about what being a Buddhist means, about that that it means that we need to have this refuge, then we understand that being a Buddhist is very difficult. It’s a very difficult thing to achieve. So if we look at the definitions and what we’re actually trying to achieve here, being a Buddhist is incredibly difficult thing. So so in order for us to be Buddhists, we need to develop or we need to be really or or truly afraid afraid of of the sufferings of saṃsāra and especially the sufferings of the lower realms.
And along with that true fear, we need to have faith that the the Three Jewels can actually stop us from having those sufferings. So we need to have the the first of all, the fear and then convinced faith in the in the Three Jewels at the same time. Then we can say that we’re a Buddhist. So if we can see that actually saying I’m a Buddhist is a difficult thing to assert, then it makes sense that if we look at the quote from Śāntideva that we said at the beginning that all you have to do in order to achieve enlightenment is behave in an enlightened manner or have enlightened behavior, then we look at that once and go, oh, well, that’s easy. We think about how difficult it is even to have refuge.
We look at it again and think, oh, that’s really difficult. So so yeah. Oh, but it’s even though it it isn’t as easy as it looks, this quote is true. All we need to do to become enlightened is to behave in an enlightened manner. So or do and if we do the practices that we’re supposed to do and abandon the things that we we need to abandon, we will become enlightened.
It it is that easy. But the actual the actual practice, the actual putting these things into into our into our lives is the difficult part. From this, we have to understand that we’re actually struggling for refuge at the moment, let let alone anything else. So we need to focus on refuge. If there’s no refuge, there’s nothing else.
So not only do we say we’re Buddhists, we also say we’re Mahāyāna Buddhists. And so that leaves makes it makes the thing we’re saying even more difficult. To be a Buddhist, you just need to have refuge. To be a Mahāyāna Buddhist, you need to be working for the benefit of all sentient beings. So it’s an incredibly difficult thing to do.
So in order for us to try and be Mahāyāna Buddhists, if we’re going to say I’m a Mahāyāna Buddhist, then right now we should try and focus on the fact that all sentient beings just like ourselves are suffering don’t want to suffer in order for us to help them then by the force or the power of our own virtues and the virtues of all the five different types of Buddhas, may we quickly quickly achieve enlightenment in order to be able to stop them suffering or in order to be able to show them how to stop suffering. So now we have to meditate. Oh, okay. Okay. Right.
So we’re up to number six of the second category. So that is the Mahāyāna path of meditation of conviction. Now, definition of a Mahāyāna path of meditation of conviction is a Mahāyāna subsequent clear realizer convinced that the mothers are the source of the three aims. The reason I say kind of because the way the Geshe la is interpreting it in the Tibetan and the mother is in the singular instead of the plural. So it’s not referring to sentient beings.
It’s referring to kind of using mother to mean the root or the cause. He quoted from the another text called Madhyamakāvatāra, which is the Introduction to the Middle Way says, mothers are the cause, sons are the result or offsprings, it’s not sons, offsprings are the results. So in this case, the mother being the cause is like the Mahāyāna path of meditation of conviction being the cause. So it is the cause for what? The three aims that is the aims for self, the aims for others and the aims for both.
And from these three aims, because it is conviction that from these three aims, result will be Buddhahood. That mind when it’s a path of meditation, so a Mahāyāna subsequent clear realizer is a synonym of a path of meditation. That one is a path of meditation is a Mahāyāna path of meditation of belief. So it’s the conviction or the believing with no doubt in your mind that the path of meditation is the source of of the three aims or the cause of the three aims. So the three root divisions or the three primary divisions of the Mahāyāna path of meditation and conviction are those Mahāyāna path of meditation and convictions which are for one’s own aim, that is Buddhahood, and Mahāyāna path of meditation of both aims, that is the aims of self and others, and Mahāyāna path of meditation of others’ aims.
Okay, so even though these are talking about other people’s benefit and what they’re working towards is so the conviction of one’s own aims is that one will achieve Buddhahood, but we’re not talking about this in the mind of Buddhists. This is only in the minds of people on the Mahāyāna path of meditation that we’re talking about with these things. So so the way that these minds manifest in the mind streams of Mahāyāna path of meditation people, it’s one word, Tibetan. Yeah. Those on the path of meditation is that Mahāyāna path of meditation and conviction of one’s own aims is the conviction one will achieve Buddhahood.
The Mahāyāna path of meditation of others’ aims is great compassion. And Mahāyāna path of meditation of both aims is working towards the four bodies of the Buddha. So the secondary the branches of this primary division are that for each of the three, there is a small, middling and great type of Mahāyāna path of meditation and belief. So, yeah, for meditation path of meditation and belief for one’s own aims, there is a small, middling and great and likewise for aims of both and aims of others. So then there’s a what’s called secondary branches.
That is that in each of these nine, there is also a small middling and grade stage. So that comes to twenty seven all up. So the Geshe says you could also So this division into twenty-seven, of there being these three different types and then in each of the three, three, and then in each of the nine, three, isn’t actually something that Jetsunpa, or the guy that wrote the Seventy Topics, made up. It comes from Maitreya in the Clear Ornament of Realization. So the borders of the Mahāyāna path of meditation of conviction are from the first ground to the end of the continuum.
Okay. So the beneficial qualities of the path of meditation of conviction are — the definition is — sorry. An excellent quality that is attained through the force of cultivating the path of meditation of belief, which is the way which is the means of attaining it. So what this means is that by attaining the Mahāyāna path of meditation of belief, you attain a quality from doing that. You have a positive quality because you have attained this path meditation belief in the same way that if you realize great compassion, then you have the quality in your mind stream of being able to realize great compassion and working with great compassion.
So what this is referring to is the results of having attained the Mahāyāna path of conviction, which is quality in itself. Okay. So the divisions of the beneficial qualities of the path of meditation and conviction are the nine praises, the nine eulogies, and the nine laudations. Now what this means is that the person who has the path of meditation and conviction is a suitable object for the nine praises, for the nine eulogies and for the nine laudations. Now, a praise or a tö as it is in Tibetan is it means that somebody is worthy of veneration, is worthy of singing to and saying praises to.
So praise is fine. The nine eulogies And the eulogies, what’s a eulogy? Isn’t that when someone dies? It is a praise. Laudation.
Laudation. I thought it was when people died, and I was like, what? It’s not? Yeah. But it’s not it can be, but it just means a praise.
Okay. Right. Well, I don’t know where you got that one from. It’s probably perfectly fine, but I haven’t the the way I would say this what I’d say this word means is respect. So Geshe la said what this is referring to is if you put yourself down when you’re comparing yourself to this person.
So if you see yourself as being less realized, less realized, less beneficial than the other person and respect them, to be honest, as if they have higher realizations. That’s what these nine things are. So the the words usually translated as respect. So the the nine yeah. I suppose, Geshe-la is fine, but it that’s what it means is nine different ways of respecting people.
And laudations is the same has exactly the same meaning as praises. They’re just different types of praises. So the border of the Mahāyāna path of meditation — the beneficial qualities of the path of meditation of conviction are from the second moment of cultivating the path of meditation and belief through to the Buddha ground. Okay. So the next one is the path of meditation and dedication.
Now definition of the Mahāyāna path of meditation of dedication is a conceptual Mahāyāna subsequent clear realizer apprehending term and meaning generalities as suitable to be mixed that acts to transform either one’s own or others roots of virtue into a branch of complete enlightenment. I’ve got to ask one question. Right. Now conceptual Mahāyāna subsequent clear realizer. Now so subsequent clear realizer we said before is a synonym or mutually inclusive with the path of meditation.
Now this bit where it says apprehending term and meaning generalities as suitable to be mixed. Right? Okay. So this apprehending term and meaning generalities as suitable to be mixed is basically the way of describing a conceptual thought. So and then there’s another word in the Tibetan that says those who have those who have conceptual thoughts, which is almost which is a synonym of a sentient being.
So it’s like the apprehending term and meaning generalities are suitable to be mixed is a is almost a synonym of a sentient being. It’s being who has a subsequent clear realizer, which is therefore a person on the path of meditation. Then that being when they do something that can transform either their own or others roots of virtue into a cause, a branch is a synonym of cause for complete enlightenment, then it’s a path of meditation of dedication. And that’s what I need.
This one. Oh, wrong language. Is that fine? Does that make sense? This is just the way they said it basically.
He said, otherwise, the Bodhisattvas wouldn’t have anything to meditate on. So so basically, what the definition is is that what we’re talking about here is dedication the same way that we do dedication. So when a being on the path of meditation dedicates their virtues and the virtues of all other beings to their own enlightenment, that that’s what we’re talking about here. So in the path of meditation of dedication named special dedication, what this refers to is any type of dedication that we do, whether it’s that we dedicate something to getting something in this life, we dedicate it to having a good rebirth, we dedicate it to achieving liberation, or if we dedicate it to any other thing or being that we want to dedicate it to, that’s all dedication. But for something to be a special dedication, it has to be a dedication towards enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings to show them how not to suffer or show teach them how not to suffer.
Okay, so the next one, the path of meditation of dedication possessing the aspect of non-observation. Now, what this is, is a dedication towards being able to see emptiness directly outside of meditative equipoise. So that is being able to see emptiness as part of our subsequent wisdom minds as opposed to our meditative equipoise minds, which is only done as a Buddha.