Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A lively dispute between Geshe Pema Tsering and his own senior teacher opens this 45-minute commentary from the Seventy Topics series, centring on whether nondual momentary application constitutes a realization of emptiness or merely co-exists with it. Geshe Pema Tsering relays the resolution through a vivid analogy — red, blue, and yellow clothes on the same person are still that person — showing that the different labels (non-fully ripened, fully ripened, nondual) all describe one mind realizing emptiness in the final moment before Buddhahood. Q&A then covers prostrations performed with a stable grasp of emptiness as a powerful purification practice, resentment as a form of anger dissolved by patience and compassion, and how bodhisattvas on the path of accumulation retain all Dharma knowledge effortlessly once bodhicitta is developed. Best suited to practitioners already familiar with Abhidharma philosophy.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 ST10 2003 10 23.mp3
UUID: 7ebb309b-1ef0-4ce8-b9ed-773d5029ce84
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Seventy Topics (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2003-10-23
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.9 minutes
Words: ~2,480
Strong meditative concentration, but if they focus on one uncontaminated object, for example, then they know all uncontaminated objects. Yeah? They only have to understand one to understand all of them. So when it says a similar type, it means all uncontaminated objects. The next one’s pretty easy, as far as it goes.
A bodhisattva is yoga that is a direct antidote to the knowledge obstructions in a manner of being conjoined with the wisdom directly realizing emptiness. This basically means it is the wisdom understanding emptiness. Now this is the actual characteristic of the the momentary application at the end of the continuum. Yeah? The actual it’s the actual characteristic because what the bodhisattva is doing at the end of the continuum is meditating on emptiness.
So this is like the defining characteristic of the the meditation or the bodhisattva’s mind at the end of the continuum. Meditating on emptiness. It’s the thing that the tool that is used in order for the other side is to get rid of all that they need to abandon, whether it be obstructions to omniscience or obstructions to liberation. But at this stage, they’ve gotten rid of everything, and they’re only up to the last of the to omniscience. So in the next moment, they’re going to become a Buddha.
They’re going to become omniscient. So they’re just getting rid of the the last things to be abandoned. So this is the wisdom realizing emptiness is getting rid of the last things to be abandoned. Although the wisdom realizing emptiness has been the tool for getting rid of all the other things that needed to be abandoned. Okay.
The last one. The last definition, it says the nondual momentary application. Now this is basically talking about a realization that comes from the Cittamātra or the mind only school’s point of view. Bodhisattva is yoga that a direct antidote to the knowledge obstructions in a manner of being conjoined with wisdom directly realizing the emptiness apprehended and apprehended being different substances. This is basically the realization of nonduality.
It’s not the ultimate view of emptiness, but that realization is also in the continuum of Buddhas and in the continuum of bodhisattvas at this level. So this is why it’s described here. It’s not the ultimate view of emptiness, but it’s also in the continuum. Application, fully ripen moment application, moment application without characteristics, and non dual moment application are all the same thing. They’re just different ways of explaining the same thing, and they’re all referring to the meditation on emptiness that occurs at the end of the continuum in the moment before someone achieves Buddhahood.
So Geshe-la reckons I’m too tired to argue with him, otherwise I would. Okay. The he the the this creates kind of a doubt in your mind. Honestly, I would because this is life. Anyway, this creates a doubt in your mind because we’re dealing here basically with a meditation on emptiness.
Yeah? And so when there’s a doubt in your the doubt comes about because one of these meditations and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings on emptiness is said to be non dual or the realization of the lack of duality. But from the Praxis Geeko point of view, this isn’t a realization of emptiness. But the non dual perception isn’t a realization of emptiness. So why is it described as a characteristic of the last moment of a continuum?
I guess, I think that this is a reason to have a doubt. I wish I wasn’t tired. Okay. So that would be saying that the understanding of emptiness is the lack of duality, right? And the lack of duality is presented from the Cittamātra point of view.
And the Cittamātra point of view doesn’t explain emptiness. Yeah? So you don’t have to explain the lack of duality. So you can’t actually say that nonduality is a momentary application. And I said, yeah, but Maitreya said, yeah?
And then he said, but what he meant was, and this is the bit I’m having trouble getting, right? What he meant was, this understanding of non duality is present in the continuum of a being who has understood emptiness, right, or realizing emptiness directly, but it’s not emptiness. So now, said he said, so the definition is this is why and he said that is why in this commentary, which is the Abhisamayālamkāra, this is why Gyaltsab Je says, a bodhisattva is yoga that is a direct antidote to the knowledge of obstructions in a manner of being conjoined with wisdom directly realizing emptiness of apprehended and apprehended being different substances, right? And it doesn’t say that it’s straight out just the realization. And it’s very interesting that there isn’t any else quote from that in this bit.
Okay. So the explanation is that the actual mind at the end of the continuum is an uncontaminated momentary application without characteristics. Non fully ripened momentary application, fully ripened momentary application, non dual momentary non dual momentary application are different ways of explaining it, but the actual essence is the third one, the momentary application without characteristics. I don’t understand. I’m I’m really struggling because this is, like, difficult.
Anyway. Okay. So it said I said that it says here that these two things pervade each other, and one is nondual momentary application, the other is momentary application without characteristics. So isn’t that saying nonduality and emptiness are the same thing? And Geshe-la said, no, you absolutely don’t understand and you’re not getting it at all.
And then because he said that the actual definition is characteristic. Yeah? And then these other things that come along with it are pervaded by the characteristiclessness. Does that make sense? So it’s an understanding of nonduality that it has as its essence characteristiclessness, But I’m waiting for more.
Okay. Okay. Okay. So Geshe la says that the it’s it’s like, for example, if there was if I was wearing red, then you say, okay. That’s Ruth wearing red.
And if I was wearing blue, then you’d say that’s Ruth wearing blue. And if I was wearing yellow, you could say that’s Ruth wearing yellow. But then in actual fact, they’re all different ways of of being Ruth. Talking about myself in the third person’s way. Alright.
So so so in actual fact, it’s a different way of explaining the same thing or it’s a different way of experiencing the same thing. So it’s to say non fully ripe in momentary application, fully ripe in momentary application, momentary application, nondual momentary application. It’s all different ways of saying momentary application, and momentary application is the mind meditating on the realization of emptiness. It’s just a different way or a different label to put on that in order to understand it. So there’s only one So there’s only one real meaning, and that is the mind realizing emptiness.
So the mind realizing emptiness has these helpers. It has this helper in terms of a non fully ripened momentary application, and a fully ripened momentary application. So they’re the same sort of thing as saying the red clothes or the yellow clothes or the blue clothes, they come along with it, but they don’t define it. So so they’re realizations that are in the continuum of the being who is meditating on emptiness at that point. I’m not gonna keep arguing.
Okay. So I’m sorry, I tried not to, but I couldn’t resist. And I said, okay, if that’s the case, then why isn’t the nondual application in the serial applications and not the momentary application because if it’s not an understanding of emptiness, why is it the end of the continuum and not in one of the serial applications, yes? And Geshe la said, the serial applications are things you do in order, but they don’t go to the end of the continuum because the end of the continuum has to be a focus on emptiness, and there’s different understandings of emptiness. It’s not focusing on anything else.
So this nondual momentary application is a different understanding of emptiness, but it’s not the ultimate understanding of emptiness. I said, you guys said that’s cool, and I’m not saying anything. Okay. Because it was based on a teaching by the Buddha, and the Buddha was talking to a certain audience. So there’s actually many, many, many, many different types of minds that are helpers to this understanding of emptiness at the end of a continuum, but the Buddha only pointed out three to be focused on in terms of meditation for Bodhisattvas at that point.
So so the Buddha only explained certain things in certain areas. He didn’t explain usually everything to everybody at the same time. So this is based on one of those teachings. So that’s why it’s like this. Yeah.
Which Sangha do you know? He said he you shouldn’t have to worry because she’s actually gonna she’s probably gonna take you through guided meditations and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings on emptiness, so you just concentrate on what she’s saying. So he said whether it’s placement meditation or analytical meditation, whatever they say tell you to think about, you think about that. So therefore, you’ll be guided through it. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. You are actually able to do that. The way that you do that is by getting the idea of emptiness very clearly and stably in your mind. And if you can do a prostration with that idea of everything being empty very clearly and stably in your mind, that’s when you get rid of the eons.
And the other thing to remember is that you are able to get rid of all these negativities if you have that clear understanding in your mind when you’re doing it. But we’re dealing with beginning of time here. So however many eons we’re talking about here is multiplied out. There is no it’s exponential. He said, don’t worry, you’re getting negativities all the time.
So you’re purifying and then in the time that you stop purifying, then you’re creating more negativities that need to be purified. And if you get completely rid of it, and you’re up to credit your Buddha. So, yeah, if you completely gotten rid of them, no worries. So if you completely get rid of negativity, you’re an arhat, but you still got the imprints of the negativities to get rid of, then let’s get rid of by the you become a Buddha. So once you people have realized emptiness, yeah, then they’re not creating any more negativity.
So when they start practicing things, they’re getting rid of all of their negativities very quickly and with that very stable mind, and they’re not creating any new ones. And that’s when you’re really getting rid of everything very quickly. Yes. So when you’re doing if Aria was doing the at all how powerful it is. Just at the moment, it may not be enough to get us all the way to Buddhahood.
Yeah. Yeah. What are you resentful about? So the cause of resentment is anger, and the antidote to anger is love and kindness. And patience.
Yeah. So if you have this I think a a a grudge or resentment is this idea that those people did something before to me, and I’m not gonna forget it. Yeah? That’s what a resent resentment is. So it’s holding on to something.
So if you practice patience and practice compassion, then that disappears. Said that actually, this, because they said that there was a I I they’d heard that there had he heard that there was this it was a question. Had he heard that there was a slogan from one of the mind training things that says, whatever you do, don’t expect praise. Yeah? And he said, yeah.
But I don’t think that’s the problem here because if you’re dealing with resentment, that’s got nothing to do with getting praise from people. It’s about you thinking someone’s hurt you and holding on to that idea of someone hurting you. It’s not a matter practicing that slogan. It reckons it’s because of anger, and that’s the real source of it. The antidote to anger is patience and compassion.
Guess who doesn’t think so. Geshe la thinks that if you actually understand it properly, you’ll understand that every single thing that they’re saying to you has been caused by negative actions that you have committed in the past, and so any negative action that someone is doing is done by can be a cause for you to purify, right? So on the one hand, you’re having all your actions purified, and on the other hand, you’re getting the opportunity to practice patience, so therefore, this person is actually really helping you. So if you can see it like that, then you just get better and better because of those relationships instead of more negative and more negative. And he also thinks that if someone’s hurting you and you have absolutely no reaction to that, you are able to process that, then they don’t continue to hurt you.
The reason that these situations become more hurtful and more hurtful is because people are going backwards and forwards. If you have one person that stopped and is not reacting, yeah, and that is able to process things, then the situation doesn’t get more difficult, more difficult. The difficulty comes when there’s backwards and forwards happening. Yeah. Okay.
Yeah. It’s remembering to go for refuge to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Yeah? Yeah. Sure.
Yeah. Brilliant. Okay, now Bodhisattvas aren’t like us. Geshe la says the path of accumulation is about accumulating understanding, so not only have they studied there doesn’t necessarily have to be something that’s called the Abhisamayālamkāra, the Ornament of Clear Realization, but all the understandings that are held within it are understood by Bodhisattvas and not just understood but they don’t forget them. They understand everything clearly.
If someone has achieved bodhicitta, someone has achieved understanding of emptiness or mind realizing some kind of emptiness, then they hold everything that they know. And they don’t just study this, but they study huge amounts of other things that we couldn’t comprehend. They retain things but not in the same way that we retain things like if we want to memorize something we have to work hard at it yeah and so for Bodhisattvas to have developed bodhicitta they had to work really hard and it was really hard for them but once they’ve developed bodhicitta everything’s easy You know, everything they do, it becomes easier and easier and easier. So anything that they do after that, then they retain without a problem. They don’t have to work to retain it.
I like the notebook. Yep.