Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A precise distinction opens this 44-minute commentary on the Seventy Topics: Geshe Pema Tsering draws a careful line between the sixth perfection — wisdom understanding emptiness, focused on a single object — and the tenth, exalted wisdom, a mind that comprehends all paths simultaneously. He then works through qualities unique to Buddhas: the ten powers (covering Buddha’s knowledge of karma and its fruits, every being’s disposition and faculty level, and all beings’ past and future rebirths), the four fearlessnesses, and the four individual correct knowledges. A student question comparing Buddhist and Christian heaven sparks a closing Q&A in which Geshe Pema Tsering explains how collective karma sustains each realm independently, introduces the two obscurations, and sketches the four bodies of a Buddha.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 06 ST8 2003 08 28.mp3
UUID: 97b1104a-bcbc-4aa0-811e-4262d8f07769
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Seventy Topics (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2003-08-28
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.8 minutes
Words: ~3,312
The usual six perfections. There is also generosity and effort, patience and so forth. Then there are four more perfections that are added to this: 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 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.
The perfection of wisdom is the wisdom understanding emptiness. That’s usually referring to a mental factor, so it’s a mental factor that understands the non existence of inherent existence, emptiness of inherent existence. It’s only with reference to one object, that is, the emptiness of something. The exalted wisdom, or the tenth of the perfection, 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 the mind that understands all the different paths, and 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, now we’re up to the thirty nine aspects of a Buddha’s mind that nobody else has apart from Buddhas. Okay. So the way that it’s set out in Tibetan isn’t quite the same as English. In Tibetan, it starts by going through the categories that are included within these thirty nine aspects.
He was talking about the ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, the four individual correct knowledges, the eighteen unshared. He said, You look very intense, look like you’re listening intensely. Okay, the four individual correct types of knowledge, because I don’t want to say knowledges, the eighteen unshared attributes of Buddhas, and the aspect of thusness, the self arisen aspect, and the aspect of Buddha. Is he’s saying, you will look so intense. Like, you go, yes. Yes.
I’m getting all this. I’m getting all this. He said that you everyone’s going like this, and they’re just 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 in it.
You can’t have to keep working at it before you get an idea of Oh, yeah. And this one. 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 or understanding 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, 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 was and what the result of that cause would be.
The other the other aspect of the power, which is an exalted knowledge of sources and non sources, means that if you don’t have something, you won’t have a result. If you don’t have a positive or action, then you won’t have a positive or negative result that accords with that action. 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, so when a specific outcome causes Buddhists understand this very subtly. So they understand the the very subtle intricacies of cause and cause and result. Went through this, and I’ve missed something in the translation.
Can has anyone got the other translation? We’re looking both. Being a SWAT. Yeah. Is it just I just wanna know what this is for the next one.
Number three. Number four. Oh, number four. Number three is fine, yeah. Strength comprehending various resolutions.
Thanks, I hope I did. Not you, but okay. So, what this is referring to, it’s not about disposition, what an individual student’s disposition is. If someone’s tendency is towards 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. What 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 would 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. The next one, the power which is an exalted knowledge of the various constituents. Is a way of saying 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 up a realm and the realm itself. Right?
So what this is saying is the Buddhas understand the different realms or the and the different things that make up the different realms. So they understand the realm of the the desire realm or the things that make up the desire realm. They understand the form 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 or not no faculties, but they have very low faculties because they are in a unfortunate rebirth, people like that. There’s beings that have very, very sharp faculties, beings that have duller faculties, beings that have a faculty intent on on some at one certain goal, beings that haven’t entered the path, beings that have entered the path but haven’t understood emptiness, beings that have under entered the path but don’t have bodhisattva.
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 that Buddha knows the cause and the exact route that beings will take going to every single destination. So that means whether it’s Buddhahood, it’s to liberation, 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 negative to 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 mindful 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. So and it wasn’t just 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 going on to their next life. That’s number nine. And number ten is the power which is an exalted knowledge of the extinction of contaminations. So 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 way that 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 of our faults. Now, on the surface, I said, that’s not possible. Otherwise, we will be Buddhas. Geshe la said, no, no, they’ve abandoned all the faults that we have. But in the text it says, the Buddhas have abandoned all of our faults.
What it means is 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 are the one that has to get rid of the faults from our own mind streams. So 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. I said the opposite of being afraid with being happy.
So so the first day of the fearlessness 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. So that was one we’d actually gotten further on, and that’s one that Geshe was saying. Third one, fearlessness with respect to the assertion of what are others’ objects to be abandoned, is actually said in Tibetan as fearlessness with respect to abandoning others’ faults. The fourth one: fearlessness with respect to the assertion of what are antidotes. This gets a little bit messy.
What is it’s like what does that mean? Okay. So with respect to, we’re just not we just could really like kind of squeeze down to they re not afraid of, right? Fearlessness with respect to, so I m going to change that to they re not afraid of. And what it is that they not afraid of is anything that they ve applied antidotes to.
So once they ve applied an antidote to something, then that thing doesn’t cause fear in them anymore. And 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.
There’s 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. Time’s up. But I didn’t say, I said I think it’s time.
Thought should stop. Okay. But we’ll finish with the four individual correct knowledge. Is the thing So there was four individual correct knowledges, and they are pretty straightforward. Individual correct knowledge of doctrines, or knowledge of phenomena.
Yeah? Knowledge of the meaning of doctrines, knowledge of definitive words, the 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 knowing something thinking of something as being true when it’s not.
This one? This one. Oh, yeah. And this So does anyone have questions? 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 negative and why we shouldn’t wanna go there and then 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 tread down, different paths to travel.
Mhmm. Is it any different between paradise and heaven? Paradise. Paradise and heaven. It’s the same word.
Same word? Yeah. I can’t even translate it. And then also, you know, in Christianity, apart with 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 Uh-huh. Paradise and the Christian’s paradise?
Paradise. Mhmm. And also Uh-huh. If we, everyone, as human being Uh-huh. Disappear Uh-huh.
From this art, is that the paradise also disappear or it still exists? So you’re saying if everyone was in paradise. Yeah? I mean, if a human being dies Yeah. Everything’s yeah.
Yeah. If the paradise still exists. What paradise? The the The earth. No.
No. No. The the Oh, the 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 the Christian and the this is yes. Sorry. The Christian and the Buddhist paradise. They’re similar in that way that they are the results 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, it is permanent.
That was the 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. Alright? 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? Maybe if you’re born in paradise, you’re a 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’s in order 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’s karma creates the earth.
So does that mean if we hope every human being die? Not just human beings though. Animals. Animals. Spirits?
I mean Everything. Everything die. Yeah. So that will be oh, goes away. No.
No. Heaven, earth, there’s no connection. 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. So there’s no connection Uh-huh. Between the earth and the paradise. Uh-huh. 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 it was explaining all these qualities of the Buddha that they know all different things. 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 God realms exist. If there’s something that Buddha doesn’t know, that’s a nonexistent.
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 a is a non it 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 black cloth or some kind of obscuration.
The all the Obscuration? O b s oh, I can’t spell. I was gonna try. So once we 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 not different from the Buddha. Mind and the Buddha are not different.
Yeah. Mind and the Buddha are not different. Yeah. Kind of. Okay.
So our mind and the mind of a Buddha have the same substance, but our minds are not the same as the Buddha’s because we have these obscurations. Alright? 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. So Buddha isn’t just mind. There’s four bodies to a Buddha, four aspects to a Buddha. Yeah?
There’s the two aspects of mind, which is the wisdom mind and the emptiness of the wisdom mind. There’s two physical aspects to a Buddha. That is the enjoyment body or 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 aspects to the Buddha, two bodies, let’s call bodies, two aspects of the Buddha that are mind and two that are form.
Right? So amongst 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 the 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.