Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A student’s blunt question — “Isn’t getting rid of the form aggregate literally suicide?” — anchors the opening of this 45-minute session. Geshe Pema Tsering uses it to sharpen a core Lamrim point: the path eliminates causes, not results. Drawing on Lama Tsongkhapa’s small Lamrim, he traces how reflecting on the three types of suffering and their origin in karma and self-grasping builds renunciation, how realizing emptiness brings liberation, and why bodhicitta is still needed for full Buddhahood. The second half resumes the Seventy Topics series at item thirty-four, covering aspects of a Buddha’s mind stream: the three doors of liberation (emptiness, signlessness, wishlessness), three paths of manifestation, five paths abiding in present happiness, nine supramundane paths across the form and formless realms, and four paths of abandonment realized during the sixteen moments of the path of seeing. Suited to students already following the series.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 ST8 2003 08 28.mp3
UUID: b74fa7e2-050a-45a0-a7b6-ab06c66bf8c9
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Seventy Topics (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2003-08-28
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.9 minutes
Words: ~3,665
I I’m So that took a bit longer than usual. Okay. But in the lam rim, the small lam rim, by Lama Tsongkhapa, he says that if you don’t think on the shortcomings of the of the truth of suffering, then you will not develop mind seeking towards liberation. And if you don’t think on the truth of the origin origination of suffering, the truth of the origination of suffering Mhmm. Then you will not you will cut through the cause of saṃsāra.
So what this means is that saṃsāra’s nature or the nature of the first truth, the truth of suffering, is that it has no qualities and it is completely saturated with shortcomings. And if you keep thinking on that, if you think on that again and again, then you’ll come to understand that there is nothing in saṃsāra to work towards, and you will instead develop a renunciation from saṃsāra and start working towards liberation. Likewise, if you think again and again on the origination of suffering and how this cause of self self grasping makes us suffer in all these different ways, if you think on that many times, then you will develop the ability to cut through the root of saṃsāra, which is this grasping at true existence. If you don’t think about it, however, then you won’t be able to cut through this grasping at true existence, which is the root of saṃsāra. So so if we wanna understand the first noble truth, the truth of suffering, we don’t actually have to think very far away.
We don’t have to send our thoughts very far away because the truth of suffering actually exists in our in our being, in our body, in our in our aggregates. Within the the five aggregates, the aggregate of of of form, the aggregate of feeling, the aggregate of discrimination, compounded aspects and consciousness, we have all the different types of suffering that can exist. So we know from our experience that there is suffering in these five aggregates, so we don’t have to do any complicated processing in order to understand this. So the reason that this is suffering, that our our five aggregates are the truth of suffering, is because they come about as a result of karma and delusions or karma and and negative emotions. The as As a result of these things, they can’t be anything but the truth of suffering.
If we’ve done good things, if we’ve created positive contaminated karma in the past, then we end up with a body as a human or a god at the moment. And as a human, we create all different types of karma. We create contaminated positive karma, contaminated negative karma, neutral karma, all of these things we’re constantly creating. So as a result of that, we have different kinds of experience. We experience different levels or different intensities of suffering as a result of our multitude of different types of karma that we have accumulated.
So as humans, as people who have achieved a human existence, and we have these different types of karma that we’ve accumulated and are experiencing results of. Those who were born in the lower realms, they actually go to the lower realms because their throwing karma was a negative type of throwing karma, and that has sent them to the lower realms. And most of the things that they will experience in the lower realms will be the result of negative things they’ve done in the past, negative contaminated karma, and hence, they will experience samsaric existence in negative fashion or in a type of suffering and suffering of suffering. If we achieve rebirth as a human, then our suffering suffering is much less than the suffering of the lower realms. As a human, we have the experience of some aspects of of happiness and and pleasure.
If we were to be reborn as a god, we would experience more happiness and pleasure and less of the the suffering even than as a human. So we don’t even though we may consider some of the experiences in the god in the human realm as being happiness, as being pleasure Mhmm. Then they’re not stable. We cannot rely on them. They’re not a stable type of happiness.
They’re not true happiness, as was explained by the Buddha who said that the saṃsāra, these these aggregates that we have, are actually the truth of suffering. But we don’t understand that because we think that the happiness that we have in saṃsāra, the happiness of the human or the god realm, is actually stable happiness. We count that as as being stable and happiness that we can rely on. And because we don’t understand that that happiness isn’t stable and is, in fact, the suffering of change or pervasive suffering, then we don’t understand what it is that we have to try and alleviate. So out of these three different types of suffering, the suffering of suffering and the suffering of change and or pervasive suffering, the one that we seem most interested in and spend most and pay much most attention to is the suffering of change.
Now, the reason that we do this is because we perceive the suffering of change to actually be happiness. And in order to attain this happiness, we accumulate a heaps of different types of karma. We accumulate a lot of positive karma in order to get something. We accumulate a lot of negative karma because we’re desiring and grasping after things, and sometimes even neutral karma. So we’re accumulating all these different types of karma in our desire for some kind of happiness.
So because we’re chasing after this suffering or change, we’re creating situations where we’re going to experience more types of suffering, and we’re not actually working towards true happiness. So in similar way, we spend a lot of time in chasing after this suffering of change and trying to experience the suffering of change because we consider it to be happiness. The same time, we spend a lot of energy trying to avoid the suffering of suffering, and we accumulate a lot of different types of karma in in order to to avoid the suffering of suffering. So the third different type the third type of suffering is what’s called all pervasive suffering. The way that we explain all pervasive suffering is to say that all pervasive suffering is the five aggregates, the five aggregates that constitute or make our being up.
They are synonymous with all pervasive suffering. The reason that they are synonymous with all pervasive suffering is that they are the reason that experience pervasive suffering or we experience all different types of suffering. They’re all based on the five aggregates. We have these five aggregates because of karma and delusion. By the force of karma and delusion, we go from life to life to life to life.
Now, the karma and delusion sends us from life to life to life without us having any say in the matter, so we don’t have any independence or any autonomy with respect to karma and delusion. We have to go where the karma and delusion send us or deal with the situations they create for us. So that means that karma and delusion are the base or the reason for us to experience all the different types of suffering. If we look to the past, then since beginningless time up to now, every suffering that we’ve experienced has been because of this attachment or of this taking the five aggregates because of our karma and delusion. So the five aggregates that we accrue by way of karma and delusion are the reason that we’ve experienced all types of suffering in the past.
That’s that’s the base from which the suffering has come. If we look at if at the sorry. The five aggregates that we have also are responsible for the negative situations we’re going to experience in the future, the five aggregates are the things saying, come on, bring it on, in terms of suffering. They’re the things that act as the catalyst for that because of the karma and delusion that is inherent in them, then we have this experience in the future. If we look at all the suffering that we have now at any given moment, the base for that suffering is the five aggregates.
Hence, the five aggregates are said to be synonymous with all pervasive suffering. So so we think that these five aggregates that we have, we think that they actually are our friends, that they’re going to benefit us, that there’s something that can help us out. But in actual fact, they’re not. There’s something that harms us. So for example, if we think about if we take, for form aggregate and we think about the the way that we consider our body to be, we spend a lot of time and put in a lot of effort just trying to make our body feel good.
We think, well, I don’t want to stay anywhere that’s really hot, I don’t want to stay anywhere that’s really cold. I want to eat really, really nice food. I want to sit in a nice place. I need to get enough sleep. You know, we spend a lot of time trying to look after this form aggregate.
Because because we think that it’s a benefit to us, we think that this this aggregate is actually helping us. But in actual fact, if we can’t get rid of this aggregate, if we can’t get rid of the truth of suffering, which is inherent in that aggregate, we can’t achieve liberation. So grasping at this aggregate is actually doing us more harm than good. Grasping at this aggregate is stopping us from achieving liberation. So what we need to do is to get rid of the aggregate of form, the contaminated aggregate of form.
We need to completely get rid of that to destroy it completely so we don’t experience any suffering based on that. And I said to Geshe, isn’t that literally suicide? And he said, no. If you commit suicide, then you’re just gonna get another form aggregate, and it’s not gonna be as nice a form aggregate, and you’re gonna experience more suffering in that form aggregate. So getting rid of the result isn’t what you need to do.
What you need to do is to get rid of the cause. The cause for us to experience the truth of suffering is not the actual aggregate itself, which is its result. What we need to get rid of is the the reason that these things come into existence. The things that could be the reason these come into existence is because of karma and delusion. It’s the second noble truth, the truth of the origin of suffering.
So if we want to get rid of the result, we don’t start with the result, we start with the cause. And we have to look at the reasoning that’s established there because that is the only way we can actually cut through the cause for us to experience suffering, the cause of pervasive suffering, and that’s this karma and delusion. So this is why this is why Lama Tsongkhapa says in his quote that if we want to sorry, that if we don’t think again and again on the origin of suffering, then we won’t be able to cut the root of saṃsāra. Because if we don’t understand what it is that’s actually causing us to experience these different types of suffering and causing us to take the five aggregates as a base from which to experience all these types of suffering, then we can’t actually achieve liberation. So we need to look at what the cause for our suffering is.
Now, the cause of suffering is said to be karma and delusion. And amongst these two, delusion is the thing that causes us to create negative karma. So delusion is the root of the causes of suffering. So we need to look at what that delusion is, and that delusion is grasping at inherent self, grasping at true existence. And that is the thing that we actually need to get rid of.
Hello. So we need to get rid of this thing that is stopping us from experiencing true, stable happiness. The thing that’s stopping us from experiencing true, stable happiness is, our grasping at true existence. The way that we get rid of true existence, the grasping at true existence, is by meditating on emptiness. By meditating on emptiness, we come to the stage where we realize emptiness.
When we realize emptiness, we don’t grasp the true existence. Once we’ve realized emptiness, then the imprints the imprints established that established true existence also begin to fade away, and they fade away more and more and more until the they they’re completely gone. And at that stage, when the imprints of true existence are completely gone, we achieve liberation. And when we achieve liberation, that’s when we achieve stable, reliable happiness. So the problem with that is that it’s not enough for us to do to just achieve liberation.
We are beings of the, higher vehicle or the Mahāyāna vehicle, or we like to say that we’re the beings of the Mahāyāna vehicle. So, in order to fulfill that definition, then we need to work towards complete Buddhahood, not just towards liberation for self. We need to work towards the final outcome, not just the temporary outcome. In order to do that, then we need to develop we need to develop bodhicitta. In order to develop bodhicitta, then we have to develop the mind wishing to separate all beings from suffering.
So bodhicitta, what it is that we need to develop in order to develop bodhicitta. We’ve been thinking a lot about the faults of the five aggregates, how the five aggregates, it it cause us a lot of suffering, and how grasping at the five aggregates, about how thinking that the five aggregates truly exist and considering them to be very important, how many faults this this way of thinking has and how much suffering this causes. And just like we have this grasping at the true existence of the five aggregates and think about the think about the suffering that causes us, just like we do that, then all sentient beings also have this problem. All sentient beings grasping at the true existence of the five aggregates experience all these different kinds of sufferings. So they are the same as us.
They do not want to experience any type of suffering, and they want to experience all different types of happiness. So because they’re just the same as us, then we need to work towards something for their benefit as well as our own benefit. So this mind working towards all sentient beings’ benefit, achieving the highest goal in order to be a benefit to sentient beings, that mind is bodhicitta. And that’s the thing that we should meditate on for a few minutes. Geshe-la says, we don’t need the bell.
We can just use your stomach Yeah. Can talk a bit. I’m not standing today. Oh. Okay.
So where we were up to in the seventy topics was thirty-four aspects that are an exalted knower of aspects similar to those existing in bodhisattvas. Now what this is talking about is different aspects to a Buddha’s mind stream. We’re talking about Buddha’s here only because Buddha’s is the only omniscient, you know, or or all knowing beings. So this is referring to Buddhas only. Why it says similar to those existing in bodhisattvas mind streams is that bodhisattvas have these different types of minds.
But because the Buddhas have all different types of minds, or they have all different they know all different types of minds, then these understandings, although they exist in the in Bodhisattva’s minds, also exist in Buddha’s minds. So there’s thirty four different aspects of these that are divided into six different categories. Okay, so the first three of these thirty four aspects are what’s called the three paths of antidotes, which are in the continuum of Buddhas’ minds. They’re also called the three aspects of the three doors of liberation. So the three aspects of the three doors of liberation or just the three doors of liberation because, yeah, that doesn’t matter.
Anyway, basically, what they’re talking about is three different ways of explaining emptiness. So the first way that emptiness is explained in that’s translated as merely emptiness is the emptiness of any inherent entity. So entitylessness is the first way of defining emptiness. The next one is that there is an absence or a pacification or non existence of a valid cognition that establishes the cause for true existence. The reason it’s called signlessness is because of this valid cognition, so there is no valid there’s nothing that can be validly established as the cause for true existence.
The third aspect to this door of liberation is the nonexistence of the generation of a truly existent result, which is translated as wishlessness here. Okay. The next the next three of the three paths of manifestation, which is the liberation of the embodied looking at form, the liberation of the formless looking at form, and the liberation of the beautiful which eliminates obstacles. Okay. Now the three parts of man man manifestation, the way the Geshe was explaining it doesn’t quite fit with the translation, so you’re gonna have to bear with me for a few minutes.
The manifest the three parts of manifestation could be the parts that realize manifestation as opposed to true existence. So the first one, liberation of the embodied looking at form, seems to mean liberation of liberation that understands the selflessness of the form existence. Yeah? And the next one, the liberation of the formless looking at form is the is the the liberation or the path, if you like, the realization of the lack of oh, sorry, of the the form the the hang on. The lack of true existence of the form the form imprints that exist in the formless realm, where the formless beings don’t think there is any form, but the Buddhas and the Aryas are able to see that there is this imprint of form there, and hence, they’re able to see that that that imprint of form is a manifest manifestation and not a truly existent thing.
So it’s that understanding. The last one, liberation of the beautiful, which eliminates obstacles. Now liberation of beautiful, liberation of the good, what it’s talking about is the getting rid of the two obscurations, the obscurations to emptiness sorry, obstructions to omniscience and obscurations to liberation, when they are gotten rid of, then the lack of those obscurations is, something that’s considered beautiful or good, and it’s another type of liberation. So the next one, the five parts that abide in happiness in the present life are the mind’s understanding the four formless absorptions. So that is the four different levels of the formless realm, the different minds of those realms.
And then also the liberation of cessation, which is a synonym of true cessation, which is also a true path because it’s a true cessation. So the minds or the the the realization of these things are what’s called the five paths that abide in happiness in the present life. Alright. So so the next one is the nine supramundane paths, which are terminologically called supramundane paths because they’re not technically supramundane paths because they’re in the continuum of a superior, and superiors don’t exist in their form and formless realms, but they have these minds in their mind stream. Hence, they’re terminologically called this, but they aren’t actually this.
Right? Now, there’s nine different types of these. The first four are the four different levels of concentration in the form realm. So in the form realm you have the first level of concentration, the second level of concentration, the third level of concentration, and the fourth level of concentration. It’s the names of the different levels.
And then you have the four in the formless realm. The four in the formless realm are called the concentration that’s like sky, the concentration that’s like mind, the concentration that’s nothing at all, and the the peak of saṃsāra concentration. Those are the four of the formless realm. Then there’s also the absorption or the realization of emptiness, the cessation that comes after the realization of emptiness. So the next bit talks about the four paths of abandonment.
Now, it doesn’t give the actual paths, gives a definition of what they are. It says, the four characteristics not associated with the thoroughly afflicted object possesses included in the four truths, the objects of the aspect of Dharma forbearances of the uninterrupted path. Now what that means is, because it doesn’t mean much to me in English, is that the things that are realized to be empty in the sixteen moments of the path of seeing. Right? So we were talking about the path of seeing, the sixteen moments of the path of seeing.
The first four of those, which is the Dharma forbearances of the uninterrupted path, during these moments, ārya realizes or applies the antidote to the true existence of the four noble truths. And because of this, an understanding of the lack of inherent existence of the Four Noble Truths. And within the Four Noble Truths, we have all phenomena. Right? So that understanding, that understanding of the lack of inherent existence of the Four Noble truths are these four paths of abandonment, a path for every noble truth.
Okay. So the last thing is the ten paths of Buddhahood. That’s called the ten perfections. The first six of the ten