Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The session opens with a precise mapping: each of the ten bodhisattva grounds, Geshe Pema Tsering explains in this 44-minute commentary, corresponds to a specific layer of abandonments — from the coarsest at the first ground down to the subtlest at the tenth. He walks through how a bodhisattva cycles between meditative absorption and active merit-making until each ground’s obscurations are cleared, ending with the tenth-ground dissolution of the finest grasping at reality and the arising of omniscience. Along the way he defines Mahāyāna precepts as any speech that points toward developing or increasing bodhicitta, unpacks the four levels of the path of preparation (heat, peak, tolerance, supreme mundane quality), and lists the five powers acquired at the heat and peak stages. Student questions prompt a useful aside on sharp versus dull faculties across the three vehicles, and why arhantship is a somewhat shorter road than Buddhahood. Aimed at students working through the Abhisamayālamkāra’s Seventy Topics framework.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 ST4 2003 05 15.mp3
UUID: 75865e86-670f-4810-adbf-835f904d5645
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Seventy Topics (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2003-05-15
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.2 minutes
Words: ~2,434
Is also related to the ten grounds because the great of the great ones are then divided into coarse and subtle, and if we do this we get ten, and each of those is related to one of the ten grounds. So the abandonments on each of the ten grounds is related to one of these ten, from the way that we can see things with the big, small and big, middle and small. So that means, for example, on the first ground, we abandoned the great, great coarse ones. And on the second ground, we abandoned the great, great, subtle ones. The third one, great medium ones.
And the fourth ground, great small ones, and so on. Okay. So what this means is that on each of the different grounds, the ground starts off by the abandonment of something and a path of release so that you start abandoning the things that you’re supposed to abandon for that ground. When the being arises from the meditation which has finished abandoning whatever it was they’re supposed to abandon on that ground, they then go about doing virtuous things and trying to create merit. So they meditate on bodhicitta, they try and practice its perfections and try and create as much merit as possible.
Then they get to the stage where they realize that they can abandon something from the next ground. So at that stage, they go back into a meditative absorption and that meditative absorption starts to eat away at the abandonment from say the third ground when they’re on the second ground and then when they actually get to the part where they’ve abandoned it that’s when they go on to the next ground. So when the things actually abandoned that brings on the next ground. And in actual fact, there’s all these different other ways we could actually talk about the path of meditation as well. We’ve been given two different presentations of ways of seeing it, but you could talk about it in terms of the qualities that are acquired on the different paths.
So you could say on the first ground they achieve this quality and that quality and that quality and then they go on to the second ground and achieve these different kinds of qualities. So by way of the qualities that are achieved on the different grounds you could describe the path of meditation as well. So yeah, but we won’t go into all of those details. If you got the idea of the ten grounds and what’s actually going on the ten grounds, that’s enough to Otherwise, we’d have to go and get other texts and drag them in and go through all the different parts of the path of meditation. We won’t worry about that now because it’ll take a long time.
Okay. So the next part of the text is actually just an overview of what was gone through in the precepts because the path of meditation is the last of the divisions of precepts. Then they say the boundaries of the precepts part of the boundaries of precepts is that it exists before people enter the path and and it goes all the way up until the ground of the Buddha So the reason that the precepts or the instructions exist before the path of seeing is I’m sorry, before the path of accumulation is that teachers can actually teach on the Mahāyāna path without having entered it themselves. So if someone is teaching on the Mahāyāna path and they haven’t actually developed bodhicitta, uncontrived bodhicitta in their mind stream and therefore enter the path of accumulation, then they are part of these precepts which instruct on Mahāyāna without being on one of the paths themselves. So we should go back to the definition of what a Mahāyāna precept is.
When they talk about striving for Mahāyāna mind generation, what they’re talking about is striving in order to develop bodhicitta and then to increase bodhicitta. So any speech that describes a way for us to develop bodhicitta or to increase bodhicitta or to do anything with regards to the bodhicitta path is considered a Mahāyāna precept or a Mahāyāna instruction. So the the actual word in Tibetan for what they’ve translated as precept actually has the word for sound or noise or speech in it. So any words which are used to refer to ways in which we achieve bodhicitta, develop bodhicitta and use it as a tool to eventually develop Buddhahood, develop the state of Buddhahood. Any words which help us to understand how to do that are included within this division, this precepts.
So each of the three different vehicles actually has precepts which are or precepts or instructions which are related to them. So therefore any instructions, teachings or speech that’s given in order to, point out to people how to enter, abide in, or achieve the enlightenment of the path of a solitary realizer is therefore called solitary realizer precepts and likewise for the hearer’s vehicle. Right. Okay. So we’re now on to and in the translation I’ve got here, it says the next topic is called the four branches of definite discrimination, but that’s actually the quote that they’re using from the Clear Ornament of Realization and Geshe la actually said this section is called, is actually, the path of preparation.
So it says with regard to the four types of branches of definitive discrimination, that’s like a quote from the Clear Ornament of Realization. But the actual topic is what the definition is and that is the definition of Mahāyāna path of preparation. Alright. Now, with regards to this definition of Mahāyāna path of preparation, The reason it says a Mahāyāna mundane path is that it isn’t the path of an Ārya being. It isn’t the path of someone who has realized the true nature of reality.
That is in concordant with the clear realization of truth. Now the clear realization the clear realization of truth is the path of seeing. Yeah. Clear realization is a synonym of a path. So the clear realization of truth is the path of seeing and something that is in concordant with the clear realization of truth is another way of saying the path preparation.
So it’s a synonym for the path preparation. Okay, now abides in a class of clear realizes that arise subsequent to the completion of the partial concordance with liberation. Now, a class of clear realisers is a turn of phrase that’s used in definitions in Tibetan texts to indicate what like a bigger subset than something is. It’s like a it falls into that group. It falls into that group.
They have things that say there’s one expression. This one says it falls into a group, into something like that, right? And then later, the next bit says what it’s not. So it says it’s something like this and it’s not define it, by the boundaries on one hand, the the greater boundaries on one hand and then the smaller boundaries on the other. Right?
So what it says here is abiding in a class of clear realisers, that’s paths that arise subsequent to the completion of partial concordance with liberation. Partial concordance with liberation is another way of saying the path of accumulation. So what this is saying is that it’s a path that arises after the path of accumulation and it and yeah. So the way that Geshe la said it was that by saying that it is a non it’s a mundane path means that it comes before the path of seeing and by saying that it’s something that arises after the completion of the partial concordance with liberation means that it comes after the path of accumulation. So it comes after the first one, before the third.
Okay. And Mahāyāna partial concordance with definite discrimination. Partial concordance with definite discrimination are mutually inclusive. Definite discrimination is another way of seeing the path of seeing or realizing emptiness directly and something that’s partially concordant with that means that it partially understands it but has not seen it directly and therefore is mutually inclusive. It’s another way of saying the path of preparation.
Okay. So the divisions Okay. So there are four divisions of the the path of preparation: the heat level, the peak level, the tolerance level, and the supreme mundane quality level. On each of these levels, there is also a big, middle, and small. Or great, middling, and small.
So there’s another way of explaining the path of preparation and that is by dividing it by the type of the capacities of the people that are experiencing it. So therefore if someone with a dull faculty faculties is experiencing the path of preparation, then it is a small path of preparation. If someone with middling faculties is experiencing path of preparation, then it is the middling path of preparation. If someone with sharp faculties is experiencing it, it is considered a great path of preparation. Okay.
So on each of the heat level and the peak level of the path of preparation, they also talk about obtaining the five powers. Now the five powers are things, the power of faith, the power of armor like perseverance, the power of mindfulness, keeping the mind on characteristics of the four noble truths, power of combination of śamatha and vipassana, or calm abiding and special insight, the ability to remain the power of the ability to examine the void nature of the four noble truths. Oh, yeah. We’ll stop there. So What’s the third one?
Third what? The power is? Armor like perseverance? No. Keeping the mind on the characteristics of the remembering the four noble truths is easier to say.
Pardon? Yeah. And then the fourth one was the combination of calm abiding and special insight. And the fifth is the power of the ability to examine the void nature or the emptiness of the four noble truths. Yeah?
Okay. There is a connection, but it’s that on each of those grounds, is there is things to be abandoned with regards to the desire realms, the form realm, and the formless realm. So that means on the the the coarse at the coarse level of the greatest of the great abandonments, that’s on the first ground, yeah, There are abandonments with regards to all three realms. He said there’s a lot to abandon because you’re getting rid of stuff since beginningless time in order to become omniscient. Yeah.
Yeah. It’s hard for both of them to. It doesn’t necessarily depend on which path they’re on. It depends on what they’re actually looking for because a being on the solitary realizer’s path isn’t actually aiming aiming for full enlightenment. They are aiming for the arhatship of the solitary realizer’s path.
But it doesn’t so much depend on which vehicle people are on, whether they can how easy it would be for them to achieve enlightenment. What it depends on is the faculties of that person, like some beings are said to have sharper faculties and and duller faculties, so that the sharper facultied being is it’s easier for them to realize emptiness, but not necessarily if you compare a solitary realizer and a bodhisattva. Okay, so they usually say that the brightest of the faculties of the three vehicles is those practicing the Mahāyāna path, like they have the sharpest faculties and the solitary realisers have the middling faculties and the hearers vehicle have the dullest of faculties. But within each of these vehicles then you also differentiate between those of duller and sharper faculties. So you can have a bodhisattva having duller faculties compared to another bodhisattva who may have sharper faculties.
He said, well, if you’re looking for a real shortcut then perhaps Arhat ship is a little bit easier to get to than Buddhahood because you only have to get rid of the afflictive obscurations and not the obscurations to omniscience. So it’s a little bit easier to become an Arhat. What your capacities are? Okay. Because the greatest, sorry, the smaller level of the heat path, and then as you go up through the other twelve becomes subtler and subtler and subtler, yeah, then the beings of all three capacities all have to go through this this process because it’s a it’s a process of getting a subtler and subtler understanding of reality.
Okay, so on the tenth ground, a being of the tenth ground goes into their meditative absorption in order to get rid of the things to be abandoned on the tenth ground of the path of meditation. Now, when they’re in this meditative absorption and they are eating away at these things that are to be abandoned, which are actually the finest of grasping at the true nature of reality which are obscurations to omniscience so the finest of the obscurations to omniscience which is from this school’s point of view grasping at the true nature of reality. Okay. So once those, things to be abandoned are abandoned here, then, their path of release that comes about after that is actually the path of no more learning and is omniscience. Is that okay?
You guys look tired. He said, are you tired? He said if you know bits and you don’t know the other bits, and if you’re trying to understand the bits you don’t know, it can be really tiring. Yeah. Good one.
Did you understand? Yeah. Oh, yeah. It’s really difficult, really complicated, really vast stuff to try and understand. Usually, they study years and months on one little thing to try and get their head around it.
So, you know, it’s difficult to understand. I know. I should say, eternal and unchangeable because there’s this word in Tibetan that means eternal, but it actually means eternal and unchangeable, and it’s usually translated as eternal or permanent. Hiya. Sorry, there’s crossover with the words.
Because they’re responsible for their ignorance, then they’re responsible for their actions. Dogs we’re a bit like dogs in some ways because we still have this idea of, want to eat, and we go and eat. But the difference is that we can differentiate between how we’re eating and with what mind we’re eating. So the dog is ultimately responsible for its rebirth as a dog, therefore, it is responsible for its action. He said, if you keep thinking I don’t wanna be a dog, then that’s a good thing.
Yeah. So is that okay? No. So yeah. This this gets all over.