Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Opening with a sūtra verse naming three doors to liberation — the emptiness of the entity, its cause, and its result — Geshe Pema Tsering uses this 43-minute session to map the full architecture of the wisdom path. He distinguishes temporary antidotes to negative emotions (compassion against anger, detachment against desire) from the one direct antidote that uproots them permanently: understanding emptiness. He then walks through the Buddhist philosophical schools in ascending order — Vaibhāṣika, Sautrāntika, Cittamātra, Autonomy, and Consequence — showing how each subtler view of selflessness presupposes mastery of the coarser one. Impermanence is the indispensable gateway: realising it simultaneously dissolves the notions of a permanent, unitary, and independent self. The session closes with a technical analysis of the path of meditation of achieving and its five defining characteristics. Suited to practitioners already familiar with Tibetan Buddhist philosophical categories.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 07 ST6 2003 07 03.mp3
UUID: daf8ff0a-3ff3-4fd8-80f7-9541dd8501dd
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Seventy Topics (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2003-07-03
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 43.0 minutes
Words: ~3,143
Okay. So, in a sūtra, the Buddha Śākyamūni said, there is no validity to true existence. There is no birth to a true result. True results are not generated. Those who don’t know, wander into a cyclic existence and the one who has great compassion, that is the Buddha, has taught many ways for them to understand.
What I was talking about in the first place that there is no validity to true existence, that there is no birth to a true result, and a true result is not generated. What this is referring to are what’s called the three doors, the three doors of understanding the true nature of reality, the three doors for understanding how things actually exist the first one is that the actual entity itself is free of inherent existence is empty of intrinsic existence the second one is that the cause for any object is also empty of inherent existence and the third one is that the result of any action is also empty of inherent existence So because without this understanding of the true nature of reality that beings wander in saṃsāra and because in order for them to get out of saṃsāra or cyclic existence they need to be aware of these three three doors to liberation then the Buddha — that is — Geshe la is using the wrong language — Buddha Śākyamūni and the other Buddhas they taught different ways for us to understand compassion and understand the wisdom understanding emptiness to get a grip on the wisdom understanding emptiness so the one who has great compassion or the ones who have great compassion is referring to Buddha Śākyamūni and any other being who has developed great compassion in their mind stream so any of these beings all of these beings have taught in many different ways in hundreds of different ways they’ve taught us about emptiness and method so emptiness is wisdom and compassion is method they have taught us about emptiness and compassion or method and wisdom in hundreds of different ways they had to have the compassion in order to be able to teach about the compassion and for us to be able to get out of saṃsāra then we need to understand emptiness.
So when it says: the one who has great compassion has therefore taught hundreds of different ways to understanding what this is referring to is the different ways the Buddha is taught. If we practice or we first of all analyze and learn the different the hundreds of different ways to understanding and then put them into practice with compassion or the method then we can achieve liberation from suffering and therefore not wander in cyclic existence anymore so that was the reason that they taught these hundreds of different ways because we could apply all the different ways to we could use all the different logical reasonings in order to understand emptiness Okay, so because we have these hundreds of different analytical methods for understanding emptiness, for example, the one we were talking about before, looking at the cause and the actual thing and its result and seeing that all three of those are empty of true existence and also that their nature is empty of true existence and that they are not defined by their own characteristics if we use all these many different ways then we should be able to develop an understanding of emptiness by developing an understanding of emptiness we won’t have any more self-grasping and because we don’t have any more self-grasping then we won’t have the negative states of mind like desire and anger and pride and these things coming about because of the understanding of emptiness will completely stop them so therefore we will get free from saṃsāra So in general when we’re trying to train our minds, when we’re trying to apply antidotes to particular negative thoughts, then we use an antidote that’s going to work on that negative thought in that instance so for example if we think about compassion when we feel anger then that should negate the angry type of mind or the angry thoughts if we feel if we work on detachment when we feel attached or desirous towards things then that should negate that negative emotion so that’s the way that we usually work with things is on a moment to moment basis what that that kind of mental training can do is deal with our emotions in the short time our negative thoughts in the short term but actually understanding the true nature of reality understanding and the emptiness of inherent existence means that we apply the direct antidote to the cause for those negative emotions which is self grasping Okay, so this practice that we do in terms of stopping those negative thoughts or ways of thinking when they arise by applying their temporary antidote is of immense benefit.
Not that it’s not a negative thing, it’s of immense benefit to our mind and it helps us to train our mind but it’s not the thing that gets completely rid of these negative emotions. The thing that gets completely rid of these negative feelings or thoughts is understanding the nature of reality, understanding emptiness. That’s the direct antidote to these. So when we’re talking about the mind understanding how things are empty of inherent existence, what we’re talking about here is consequentialist middle way school’s point of view about the way that things don’t inherently exist or only exist because of the labels that are put onto them. That is, they don’t exist from their side at all, they only exist because we label them such.
In order for us to understand this subtle view of the consequentialist middle way schools definition of emptiness, before we understand that, we have to be able to understand the autonomous school’s definition or concept of emptiness. If we don’t understand the concept of the autonomous school’s idea of lacking true existence or not being truly established, then we can’t understand the consequentialist school’s idea of things not being completely free of inherent existence so these two ideas are slightly different and in order to understand the more subtle consequentialist schools view, we definitely need to understand the autonomous schools first. Likewise before we understand the autonomous school’s version of emptiness that is that things aren’t truly existent before we can understand that as a concept then we have to understand the mind only schools view of emptiness that is that the mind and the object that is focusing on are not empty of separateness — so they have the same essence so we have to be able to understand that point of view if we don’t understand that point of view or the point of view of emptiness as presented by the mind only school the Cittamātra school then there’s no way that we can understand the point of view presented by the autonomous school Okay, so once again before we understand properly the Cittamātra or Mind Only School’s version of emptiness — that the mind and the object that is focusing on are empty of separateness then we have to understand the Sautrāntika or the Sūtra School’s view presentation of selflessness now the Sūtra School’s presentation of selflessness states that is what’s called the more subtle version of selflessness that is that a self is empty of autonomy, empty of the ability to exist by its own mechanism so that’s the Sūtra School’s version of selflessness sorry now before even we can understand that we have to understand the less subtle description of selflessness which is presented from the point of view of the particularists or the Vaibhāṣika school their presentation is what’s called the gross selflessness of persons and they state that a person is empty or a person lacks having a permanent and independent self.
So that’s what their gross form of selflessness is stating. So that’s the one that we need to understand in the beginning before we understand any of the others. Before we even try and work with this subtle understanding of emptiness, need to work with these three ideas that are essential to the grosser of selflessness, grosser concept of selflessness as presented by Vaibhāṣika school or the particularists now they say these three things that we are permanent, unitary and independent now the antidote to thinking that we are permanent is of course meditation and meditation and concentration on impermanence and seeing that we change in every moment the antidote to thinking that we are unitary or one thing is to look at our parts and understand our parts and see if we decide whether that is us or not then to understand that we are not independent or autonomous then we need to understand that if wasn’t for those parts there isn’t anything that exists apart from those parts so that’s understanding that’s an understanding of the lack of independence that we have that there’s no separate independent being within us so if we understand these three things then we have an understanding of the grossest form of selflessness as presented by the Vaibhāṣika or Particularist School So, in order to understand this, we need to develop a realization of impermanence.
If we have a realization of impermanence, then the concept of ourselves being independent and unitary will also cease to exist, as the concept of permanence did those three things are so connected that if we understand one of them then we understand the other two so when we understand impermanence we understand that we’re not permanent we understand that we’re not unitary and we understand that we are not independent. So, that means that understanding impermanence is the thing that we need to do before we understand any of the versions of emptiness. Before we have any understanding of emptiness, we need to understand impermanence after we’ve understood impermanence then we can go through the other stages understanding emptiness but if we don’t understand impermanence we can’t actually start with those so at this stage for us do meditations and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings on impermanence is incredibly beneficial and incredibly important. So this is from the point of view of wisdom. Now, as we were talking about before, how there was two parts to the Buddha’s teaching.
There was wisdom and method. Now, from the wisdom point of view, then we’ve established that understanding impermanence, meditating on impermanence and developing a realization of impermanence is the most important thing to do at the beginning. Now, from the method point of view then the first thing we need to develop is to turn our minds away from saṃsāra to develop a renunciation. Renunciation is the key to the method aspect of the Buddha’s teachings in the same way that impermanence is the key to the wisdom aspect of the Buddha’s teachings. If we think about it in terms of just saying, Okay, in order to attain enlightenment, need method and wisdom.
We need to know the way, and we need to have insight. So if we just think of it in terms of those two things, it doesn’t seem that difficult. It seems something that we’re fairly close to doing because there’s only two things in fact that we need to achieve and then we’re Buddhas. But if we understand that before we have anything approximating wisdom, we need to have an understanding of impermanence, a realization of impermanence and we understand that before we have anything resembling method, we need to have bodhicitta, before bodhicitta we need great compassion, before great compassion we need renunciation and before renunciation we need an understanding of suffering then we can see that it isn’t in fact as easy as it first seemed it is a very long way to go it’s incredibly difficult to attain Buddhahood So even to develop liberation for ourselves, even to liberate ourselves from saṃsāra, according to the Prāsaṇgika or the consequentialist school, in order to develop liberation from saṃsāra we have to first of all develop an understanding of gross selflessness of the person then subtle selflessness of the person then the mind only school’s version of emptiness and then the lack of true existence and then that things are merely labeled and then and only then would do we actually achieve liberation that’s according to the the consequential school and according to the autonomous school according to the autonomous Svatāntrika school then we have to achieve an understanding that things aren’t truly existent so they say that that’s the final the final final view and that’s the only way that you can achieve liberation and likewise the Cittamātra school presents the idea that their view is the final one so in terms of us even even achieving liberation we have to develop this this high understanding of high highly difficult understanding of reality in order for us to even just attain liberation So in order for us to attain Buddhahood, we need to practice these two things: method and wisdom.
Method being the bodhicitta and the wisdom being the mind understanding emptiness. Now if we really want to achieve Buddhahood we have to practice this from the point of view of the consequentialist school so we have to develop an understanding of emptiness that accords with the consequentialist school’s presentation that is that things are completely devoid of true existence from their side. So because we need these two things, then what we this method and wisdom, then what we need to do is to think that I, who am not truly established or not established by my nature or truly established by my nature have to attain Buddhahood which isn’t truly established by its nature in order to be of the most benefit to sentient beings who are not truly established by their nature and I need to do this quickly so I can become omniscient and help them. And on this thought, we should meditate. Okay.
So we finished the path of meditation of dedication, and moved on to the path of meditation of achieving. The definition of the path of meditation of achieving is an uncontaminated Mahāyāna subsequent clear realizer clear realizer that establishes the imprint of the final realization which is its object of attainment. Now This one? Right. So now, an uncontaminated Mahāyāna, subsequent clear realizer.
Now to start with that, subsequent clear realizer is the synonym of the path of meditation. An uncontaminated means non conceptual. So up until now the path of meditation of rejoicing and the path of meditation of dedication and all the ones we’ve done beforehand relating to the path of meditation have all been in relation to conceptual thoughts and this is the first one we’ve done which is a non-conceptual thought. So that’s why it’s called uncontaminated. What does it mean by establishes the imprint is that because the Buddha’s mind is also non conceptual that this acts as what’s called the main cause for realization of omniscience.
This one? And the final realization is the is the attainment of omniscience. And yeah. So this is what it’s working towards. Okay, so the first of the divisions of five that are related to this topic is the path of meditation of achieving distinguished by way of entity.
Now the entity of path of meditation of achieving is its nature or its emptiness or its lack of true existence. This is talking about the path of meditation of achieving by looking at its true nature, which is emptiness. So the next one, a path of meditation of achieving distinguished by way of supreme result. The supreme results are referring to the attainment of Buddha or the attainment of omniscience. So what this is saying is the path of meditation is distinguished by the fact that it is the cause for attaining enlightenment because the path of meditation leads on to the ground of a Buddha.
Right. Okay, so the next one is a path of meditation of achieving distinguished by way of its function so this basically is referring to what the path of meditation of achieving does and what the path of meditation of achieving does is to ripen, the continuum of beings or to get them to understand, Dharma when they haven’t understood it or understand the nature of reality when they haven’t understood it. In order to do this, it’s working towards enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings and their own benefit. Their own benefit being that they will achieve enlightenment, benefit of all sentient beings being that they will have their continuum ripened by these actions. A path of meditation of achieving distinguished by way of temporal excellent qualities is referring to the fact that on the path of meditation, one already has amazing qualities that are getting better and better and understanding which is getting subtler and subtler.
So this isn’t referring to anything towards which they are working, but the actual qualities which the beings with these possess in themselves and which get stronger and stronger and more subtle and more subtle as they progress along the path of meditation. The fifth one, it says in here: A path of meditation of achieving distinguished by way of great aim the final excellent qualities and results. Now there’s a bit that they’ve left off for some reason because it should read something or maybe another way of looking at it would be that it could read something like a path of meditation of achieving distinguished by way of that it has the great aim which is to achieve enlightenment and it has the ground of the final excellent qualities and results. That means that the tenth ground is what’s called the resultant ground. So it’s referring to the fact that not only do you achieve the tenth ground of a Bodhisattva, but you also achieve Buddhahood straight after that.
Okay. So it’s there’s two things that it possesses here. It’s distinguished by way of having the great aim for the final excellent qualities — or Buddhahood — that’s one thing, and also having the resultant ground. The path of meditation not only has this working towards enlightenment, but within the path of meditation, there is the resultant tenth ground, which is the result of all of the different paths up until that point. So those two things are included within the path of meditation.
So the border the boundary of the path of meditation of achieving is it exists from the first ground through to the tenth ground.