Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A subtle terminological distinction opens this 44-minute session: Geshe Pema Tsering clarifies why the sixth perfection (wisdom, defined as understanding emptiness of one object) differs from the tenth (exalted wisdom, a mind grasping all paths at once). He then works through the Buddha’s ten powers — from knowledge of which actions produce which results, to awareness of every being’s inclinations and faculties, to precise knowledge of all past and future lives of every being. The four fearlessnesses and four individual correct knowledges follow briefly. A Q&A section closes by comparing Buddhist and Christian heavens, tracing how worlds arise from collective karma, and introducing the two obscurations that block ordinary mind from Buddha’s omniscience.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 ST8 2003 08 28.mp3
UUID: 80c9bdaf-dca6-4426-bece-76b793a59321
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Seventy Topics (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2003-08-28
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.4 minutes
Words: ~3,368
There is four more perfections that are added to this. That’s the perfection of method, the perfection of power, the perfection of prayer or aspiration, and the perfection of exalted wisdom as opposed to wisdom. So I shouldn’t have asked. I was as I was just asking so I could translate clearly what the difference between the tenth perfection, which is translated as exalted wisdom, and the sixth perfection, which is wisdom, what the difference between those two things are. Now the wisdom is usually referred to as the wisdom the perfection of wisdom is understanding emptiness.
That’s usually referring to a mental factor. It’s a mental factor that understands the emptiness of inherent existence, emptiness of inherent existence. And it’s only with reference to one object, that is the emptiness of inherent existence of something. Yeah? The exalted wisdom or the the tenth of the perfections is a mind that can be either a main mind or a mental factor that understands all of the different paths, not just that one aspect, which was the perfection of wisdom with regards to emptiness.
This is a mind that understands all different paths. Hence, it’s an exalted wisdom and not just one type of of of understanding as the wisdom perfection is. Mhmm. And we have the wisdom we have wisdom. We don’t have the perfection of wisdom, but we have wisdom, but not not this exalted wisdom, which is an understanding of all the different parts.
Okay. So that’s the end of the minds that are or the the the aspects that are in Buddha’s minds that are similar to Bodhisattva’s mind. So the qualities that Buddhas have that are similar to Bodhisattva’s, and now we’re up to the thirty nine aspects of a Buddha’s mind that nobody else has apart from Buddhas. Okay. So so the way that it’s set out in Tibetan isn’t quite the same as English.
In Tibetan, it starts by going in Tibetan, it starts by going through the categories that are included within these thirty nine aspects. So he was talking about the ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, the four individual correct knowledges, the eighteen unshared attributes He he says, you look very intense, like you’re listening intensely. Okay. The four individual correct types of knowledge, because I don’t wanna say knowledges. The eighteen unshared attributes of Buddhas and the aspect of thusness, the self-arisen aspect, and the aspect of Buddha.
Guess what? He was saying, you all look so intense. Like, you go, yes. Yes. I’m getting all this.
I’m getting all this. He said that everyone’s going like this and I was thinking, man, I don’t understand stuff. He said it’s not something that you just get by hearing. You have to keep training your mind, and you have to keep working at it before you get an idea of it. Oh, yeah.
And this one. No. So the first power that a Buddha has that nobody else does or no no other non Buddhas have is the power which is an exalted knowledge of sources and non sources. What these sources and non sources refer to is the direct causal link between a positive action and a positive outcome, and a negative action and a negative outcome. So a source is is is a cause, and it’s the the understanding of what the cause of something is and what the result of that cause would be.
The other aspect of the power, which is an exalted knowledge of source and non sources, is non sources means that if you don’t have something, you won’t have a result. So if you don’t have a positive action and you don’t have a negative or don’t have a negative action, then you won’t have or negative result that accords with that action. The second one, the power which is an exalted understanding or knowledge of the fruition of actions, means that Buddhas understand when a specific fruition’s cause was implemented. A specific outcome causes, Buddhas understand this very subtly. So they understand the the very subtle intricacies of cause and cause and result.
I went through this, and I’ve missed something in the translation. Can has anyone got the other translation? We’re looking both. It’s being sought. Yeah.
Is it just I just wanna know what this is for the next one. Four and three. Number four. Oh, no. Oh, no.
Number four. Number three is fine. Yeah. Strength comprehending various resolutions. Yeah.
Thanks for helping. Not you. But okay. So what this is referring to, it’s not that I I yeah. No.
It’s our dispensation, what an individual student’s dispensation is, is best way I can think. So if someone’s focus or someone’s tendency is towards achieving Buddhahood, then Buddhas know this. If someone’s tendency is towards being a human, then Buddha knows this. If it’s towards being a hearer, they know that. They know exactly where they’re going or where they’re focused on.
This means is that Buddhas can know how to teach people how to help them. If someone is focused on becoming a human or is a human and is just focused on that, then they understand that. Geshe la said, If someone is focused on going to hell, he said, ‘Wait a minute, nobody will want to go to hell, ‘ so that’s nonexistent. But if someone is focused on becoming a god, if they’re focused on achieving different levels of the path, they understand all of this. Okay.
So the next one, the power which is an exalted knowledge of the various constituents. Mhmm. Constituents or constituents is a way of saying, like, the things that make up different areas. The Tibetan word is sometimes translated as realm as well, but it can act to mean both the things that make a realm and the realm itself. This is saying is that Buddhas understand the different realms and the different things that make up the different realms.
They understand the desire realm or the things that make up the desire realm. They understand the form and formless realm. They understand the different realms within those different realms. They understand all all of these things. Okay.
The next one is the power which is an exalted knowledge of who are superior and inferior faculties or who have superior and inferior faculties. So all beings are not the same. There are some beings that have no faculties because well, not no faculties, but they have very low faculties because they are in an unfortunate rebirth. There are people like that. There are beings that have very, very sharp faculties, beings that have duller faculties, beings that have a faculty intent on one certain goal, beings that haven’t entered the path, beings that haven’t understood emptiness, beings that have entered the path but don’t have bodhicitta.
So there’s all these different types of faculties that beings can possess, and the Buddha understands all of those. Oh, who has all of those? So the next one is the power which is an exalted knowledge of paths that proceed everywhere. So this means the Buddha knows the cause and the exact route that beings will take going to every single destination. So that means whether it’s Buddhahood or whether it’s to liberation or whether it’s to hell, whether it’s to being an animal, whether it’s to suffering, whether it’s to happiness, all of these different paths that beings can take, Buddhas know those in intricate detail, and no other beings actually know these things all of these things in intricate detail.
The next one, the power which is an exalted knowledge of the thoroughly afflicted and the completely pure. So this means that Buddhas understand exactly what it is that needs to be practiced and exactly what it is that needs to be abandoned. They know every single situation that everybody is in and what are the things that they need to do to get rid of get rid of negativities and to accumulate positivities. So they understand all of that completely. The next one is the power which is an exalted knowledge of former states.
So that means that the Buddhas understand not only where they were in their last life, but completely all the way back. They have knowledge of all their former incarnations, so they can go backwards for as long as they want to understand where they were. Sorry. And it wasn’t just their personal previous lives that they their personal previous lives that they understand. It’s the previous lives of all beings.
Yeah. They also understand where all beings will go after they have passed away and gone on to their next life. That’s number nine. Number ten is the power which is an exalted knowledge of the extinction of contaminations. The Buddhas here know exactly the negative things that need to be gotten rid of, exactly the obscurations that need to be cleared away, exactly the the the way that which which people should do this.
Okay, so this was a confusing statement that I’m going to say to you guys: The Buddhas have abandoned all our faults. Now, on the surface, I said, That’s not possible otherwise we will be Buddhas. Geshe la said, no, no, they have abandoned all the faults that we have. But in the text, it says, the Buddhas have abandoned all our faults. What it means is that the Buddhas have abandoned all the faults that we have, and they have no faults that are similar to the faults that we have, but they are unable to abandon our faults for us, because we’re the one that has to get rid of the faults from our own mind streams.
That was the first one: the fearlessness with respect to the assertion that oneself has abandoned one’s own objects of abandonment. So they because they’ve gotten rid of all the things that they needed to get rid of, they’re not afraid of any of the things they needed to get rid of, and, in fact, they’re happy. And so the opposite of being afraid was being happy. So so the first day of of they feel with respect to the assertion that they have abandoned everything. The fearlessness with respect to the assertion that oneself has realized, which comes along with the abandonment.
Fearlessness with respect to the assertion of what are others’ objects to be abandoned. We’d actually gotten further on, and that’s what I guess we’re saying. Third one, fearless with respect to the assertion of what are others’ objects to be abandoned, is actually said in the Tibetan in in Tibetan as fearlessness with respect to abandoning others, others’ faults. Alright? Now the fourth one, fearlessness with respect to the assertion of what are antidotes.
These things are looking the best of what we do. What does that mean? Okay. So with respect to we’re just not just could squeeze down to they’re not afraid of. Fearlessness with respect to I’m going to change that to they’re not afraid of, and what it is that they’re not afraid of is anything that they’ve applied antidotes to.
So once you’ve applied an antidote to something, then that thing doesn’t cause fear in them anymore. Also, once they’ve applied an antidote to something, then they’re not afraid of the thing that they’ve gotten rid of. Right? So, yeah, they’ve gotten rid of it, so, therefore, they have joy about having gotten rid of something. It’s not hard for them to get rid of things because they have the antidotes to everything.
So they’ve got antidote to all the problems. So they so they don’t have to be afraid of the problem. Halfway through that and say, oh, time’s up. Time’s up. But I didn’t say I said, I think it’s time.
Think we should stop. Okay. But we’ll finish with the four individual correct knowledge. This is the things So there was four individual correct knowledge, and they are pretty straightforward. Individual correct knowledge is Buddhas understand this personally knowledge of doctrines or knowledge of phenomena, knowledge of the meaning of doctrines, knowledge of definitive words, the the definitive meaning of words, and individual knowledge of self assurance, and that’s that they and they have confidence.
Confidence being defined in this context as knowing something to be true that actually is true as opposed to arrogance or pride, which is something thinking of something as being true when it’s not. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And this. If so, does anyone have questions?
Yeah. Okay. So if it’s a positive thing that we have an inclination or we are predisposed towards, then they will show us or teach us how it is that we can get there in many different ways. They’ll teach us in many different ways how it is we can get there. If it’s a negative thing that we’re predisposed towards, then they will show us how that thing that we are predisposed towards is is negative and why we shouldn’t wanna go there, and then and try and turn our minds away from that.
But they’re only showing us they will use that knowledge to show us different ways, the different paths that we can try and walk down, different paths to travel. It’s the same word. Same word? Yeah. I can’t even translate it.
You then also, you know, in Christianity, at heart, they also have a a a heaven and a paradise. Yeah. I guess this is not your business, and you I don’t care. Oh, no. No.
Is that the same between the Uh-huh. Paradise and the Christian’s paradise? Paradise. Mhmm. And also Uh-huh.
If we, everyone, as human being Uh-huh. Disappear from this art, is that the paradise also disappear or it still exists? But so you’re saying if everyone is in paradise. Yeah. I mean, if human being die Yeah.
If everything’s yeah. Yeah. If the paradise still exist. What paradise? The the The earth.
No. No. No. The the Oh, they’re god realm? Yeah.
The the the heaven. Right. Right. Okay. So they’re similar in some ways in that you arrive in both paradises by the accumulation of positive karma.
Yeah? You do virtuous things, good things. You get there. Christian and the this is yes. Sorry.
The Christian and the Buddhist paradise. They’re similar in that way, that they are the result of positive karma. They’re not similar in the fact that in the Buddhist Buddhist being born in a Buddhist heaven doesn’t mean that you stay there forever. You stay there until your karma runs out, and then you’re born somewhere else. It’s only a rebirth.
It’s not a constant. And in the Christian tradition, heaven is something that’s stable. You’re you’re born there, and that’s it. You spend the rest of eternity in heaven. Yeah?
In the in the Buddhist tradition, you’re only there until your karma runs out. Okay? That was the first first question. Okay. Now the earth exists because the karma of all of the beings on the earth, right, has caused the earth to exist.
Right? So that’s all the animals, all the humans, all the spirits, all the beings that live on earth. By the force of their collective karma, the earth exists. Right? So the the god realms exist because of the force of the collective karma of the gods who inhabit that realm, which is a paradise.
Yeah? Now if you’re born in paradise, you’re god, or in heaven, you’re a god. So that paradise exists by the collective karma of the beings that are existing there. Right? So if there were to have Earth stop existing, there has to be no karma from a group of individual group of beings to cause earth to exist.
So there’s the connection isn’t there between the earth and the heaven. The the gods create karma creates the paradise, and the beings on earth karma creates the the earth. So does that mean if we hope that every human being die? Not just human beings, though. Animals?
Animals. Spirits? I mean Everything. Everything dies. Yeah.
So the the the the the the the the the the Okay. So the cause that establishes a paradise is a different cause to the cause that establishes earth. It’s completely different. There’s no connection between the two. And he said, well, we spent tonight talking a lot of time about the qualities of the Buddha and everything Buddhas know.
So if they know all this, then they know that god realms exist. So so it it was explaining, you know, all these qualities of the Buddha that they know all different things. They know they understand the existence of different worlds, why different worlds come into being, the beings in the worlds, the minds of the beings in the worlds. So by knowing everything, they know that exist. If there’s something that Buddha doesn’t know, that’s nonexistent.
Non existent. No. If there’s so there’s nothing that Buddha doesn’t know. Right? The thing that he does the thing that they don’t know, right, is a is is a non is doesn’t exist.
So they know everything. It’s double negative. It doesn’t work. Yeah. So they talk about in Buddhism, they talk about we talk about the two obscurations, the two veils.
Yeah? The two things stopping us from seeing things. The two types of veils. Yeah? The first one is something that stops us from seeing liberation.
Yeah? Stops us from experiencing liberation. The second one is something that’s called the veil to omniscience. Something that stops us from The veil. The veil or the Yeah.
Like cloth or some kind of obscuration. The all the Obscuration? O b s oh, I can’t spell. I was gonna try. So once you get rid of the veil to liberation or the obscurations to liberation, you experience true happiness.
Yeah? That’s like nirvana. Yeah? The other one, the veil to, omniscience means this you get rid of the things that obstruct you from knowing everything. So you have the mind has the ability to know everything.
Yeah? But because of obscurations, we don’t know everything. So you get rid of that, you know everything. You get you know everything, you also become a Buddha. So mind is different from the Buddha.
Mind and the Buddha is different. Yeah. Mind and the Buddha are different. Yeah. Kind of.
Okay. So our mind and the mind of a Buddha have the same substance. Yeah? But our minds are not the same as the Buddha’s. Yeah?
Because we have these. Right? So if we get rid of all our obscurations, our mind becomes like a Buddha’s mind, becomes a Buddha’s mind. Yeah? Once it becomes a Buddha’s mind, then we know everything.
Hence, god realms. Yeah. Yeah. So Buddha isn’t just mind. There’s four bodies to a Buddha, four aspects to a Buddha.
Yeah? There’s there are two aspects of mind here, which is the wisdom mind and the emptiness of the wisdom mind. And there’s two physical aspects to a Buddha. That is the enjoyment body or or the the the emanation body. So Buddha coming in a human or some kind of form like that is the emanation body.
And in the So so the the the So so there’s two two aspects to the Buddha, two bodies, let’s call call bodies, two aspects of the Buddha that are mind and two that are form. Right? So amongst the two that are form the two that are form, one of those is form that appears to ordinary beings, yeah, with good karma, and the other one is a form that appears to people who’ve realized emptiness. So the Buddha that ordinary any old beings can see is what’s called the Nirmānakāya or the emanation body. The Buddha the Buddha form body that Aryas or people who’ve realized emptiness and have compassion can see is what’s called enjoyment body or the Sambhogakāya.
And then there’s the two aspects to the Buddha’s mind, the wisdom of the Buddha’s mind and the emptiness of the Buddha’s mind.