Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Geshe Pema Tsering works through three of the twenty-one qualities of the Dharmakāya in this 45-minute commentary, opening with a sharp contrast: a practitioner’s mindfulness covers only the current meditation object, while a Buddha’s encompasses all phenomena simultaneously. He then moves through the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment — the four thorough abandonings (explained as joyous effort toward virtue), the four legs of magical manifestation, the five powers and forces, the seven branches of enlightenment, and the Eightfold Path of Superiors. Two clarifications stand out: “correct view” means understanding karma rather than emptiness, and “correct livelihood” for a bodhisattva means work directed toward liberation, not one’s occupation. The session closes with the four immeasurables and the eight emancipations, culminating in “liberation cessation” — the subtlest absorption in which all gross consciousness ceases entirely. For practitioners with Abhidharma background.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 08 ST10 2003 11 06.mp3
UUID: e57fa291-61e6-4758-b797-3334d5a6177b
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Seventy Topics (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2003-11-06
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.0 minutes
Words: ~3,165
Of main minds or consciousness. Yeah? And there’s many other different mental factors that come along, which aren’t feeling. So all of those mental factors which aren’t feeling are included within the close placement of mindfulness on phenomena. That’s what the phenomena there refers to.
Okay. So this means that these beings have this mental factor, alright, or a a side mind, if you like, which has recognition, which has mindfulness with regards to the different characteristics, that is the impermanence, emptiness, and so forth of all physical forms. Yeah? Whether they be of any of the senses, of all feelings, of all the the consciousnesses that they experience, and of all the other mental factors that they experience. It means that they experience they remember this, and they have wisdom about that.
At the same time, they’re completely conscious of every single thing that is happening with regards to external phenomena and internal internal phenomena. This understanding, this mindfulness, only comes about after what while one has developed one has developed renunciation because it’s synonymous. It’s one aspect or definition of a path, and the smallest path entry into a path is into the Hīnayāna path of accumulation, which is start is defined by the development of renunciation. So once we have renunciation, we have these close placements of mindfulness. Okay.
So the difference between the four close placements of mindfulness in the continuum of being on the path of preparation and so forth and being who is Buddha, Though the difference between their first four close placements of mindfulness is that in a Buddha’s continuum, this mindfulness is with regards to all objects at all time. And with in the continuum of a being on the path of accumulation, it only refers to the things that they are specifically meditating on at that time. So if they are focusing on one thing, then they have complete mindfulness of that thing. Whereas if it’s a Buddha, they have complete mindfulness of all things at all time. Okay.
So the four thorough abandonings is the thorough abandoning that does that is non generation of non virtues not yet generated. The ones that aren’t generated, they don’t generate anymore. They’re finished with them. They don’t even come about. The second one is the thorough abandoning abandoning of non virtues already generated.
So things that have come about are not done anymore. Yeah? The thorough abandoning, that is the generation of virtues not yet generated. So anything that is virtuous has is generated, and their thorough abandoning that is the increasing of virtues already generated. So it means that the non virtuous actions that haven’t been generated don’t get generated.
The non virtuous actions that had been generated in the past cease to be generated. The virtuous actions that had not been generated in the past are generated. And the virtuous actions that had been generated in the past are increased. So that’s just the name that they’re given, the thorough abandoning. Their definition or their nature is actually effort.
Yeah? Enjoyous effort. So in joyous effort, there are said to be two things that need to be abandoned and two things that need to be generated. So the definition, their nature is, in fact, is effort. So they’re called abandoning, but in actual fact, they refer to that which is to be abandoned and that which is to be generated, the two different aspects of the practice.
Okay. So the first then then we have the four legs of magical manifestations or the four legs of magical manifestation. Thought it was the first time I heard it. Okay. The first of these is the leg of magical manifestation of aspiration.
This this means that the different words are the word that’s usually translated as aspiration. It’s a word that’s like the intention or that no, it’s not intention because that’s the other one. It’s like the applying yourself to something. It’s not just I want to do it, but applying yourself to as well. It’s the desire to do something, the wish perhaps to do something in a kind of integrated wish, just an idea, but actually putting that into practice.
The second one is effort, which is what we’re talking about before. That is liking virtuous actions and doing them. The third one, intention, is actually a mental factor. The mental factor that precedes all action is called intention. And then the fourth one is analysis is the development of wisdom.
Okay. So then there’s the five powers, the power of faith, the power of effort effort, the power of mindfulness, the power of meditative stabilization, and the power of wisdom. So the next four are the five powers, and then the ones after that are called the five forces. Now there’s there’s effort, mindfulness, meditative, stabilization, and wisdom. Usually, the difference between a power and a force is, for example, with faith.
If there’s a being who has the power of faith but sometimes has developed doubts, like in so, in general, they have developed the power of faith but they sometimes have doubts come up, then that’s what the power of faith is. It’s the ability to generate faith even though sometimes doubt is experienced. The force of faith is the state when the doubts no longer come about. The force of faith stops doubts from coming about in any way, shape or form. That’s, in general, the difference between a force and a power.
However, at this stage, we’re talking about the mind of a Buddha. In the mind of a Buddha, there is no doubt, So therefore, at that stage, the forces and the powers are exactly the same. Geshe la is doing good memory tricks because he’s remembering all of them. The seven branches of enlightenment. The first one is correct mindfulness.
The second one, discrimination or phenomena. The third one, effort. And the fourth one, joy. And then we have pliancy of body and mind, meditative stabilization, and equanimity. Okay.
So the definition of the seven branches of enlightenment are the qualities inherent in the minds of beings from the path of preparation up. Alright? So these types of mindfulness and discrimination and so forth are in the minds of the of beings on the path preparation, path seeing, path of meditation and the path of no more learning or the Buddha ground. The beings on the path of accumulation don’t have this understanding. Okay.
And now this is a direct translation. He said, so correct mindfulness, you know what that is. Discrimination of phenomena, you know what that is. Correct effort, you know what that is. Correct joy, you know what that is.
Correct pliancy, that is the pliancy of body and mind. Correct managerial stabilization is calm abiding. And correct equanimity is the idea the lack of the idea of those who are close to us and those who are far from us. The Eightfold Path of Superiors is correct view, correct investigation, correct speech, correct aims of action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and meditative stabilization. Okay.
So this eightfold path of superiors isn’t actually talking about things from the point of view of emptiness. It’s talking about things from a conventional point of view where there is still cause and effect. Hence, we have the things that you do in order to have a positive outcome as opposed to a negative outcome. If you view things from the point of view of emptiness, there is no differentiation. But this is talking about things in a relative point of view when there is still cause and effect.
Okay. Sorry. The first of the eightfold paths of the superior is it says correct view. Yeah? Now this correct view is not referring to emptiness.
This correct view is referring to it’s not the whole bunch of them that are referring to emptiness. It’s the first one where it says correct view. It doesn’t refer to the view of emptiness. It refers to the view of karma, cause and effect, positive actions, negative actions and everything I said before, but not about the Eightfold Path in general, just the first one. Okay.
Correct investigation is investigating the nature of reality. Correct speech is doing speaking in a way that won’t cause suffering. Correct aims of action is to have as a view liberation or enlightenment. Correct livelihood is livelihood that is engaged acting in a way in terms of everyday experience that is not attached to suffering and attached to happiness and averse. What’s the word?
It doesn’t like suffering. So it’s the idea of looking for equanimity with regards to suffering and happiness. Correct effort is correct effort correct mindfulness is constantly remembering and not forgetting the certain things we were talking about before with close placements correct meditative stabilization is calm abiding. This Eightfold Path of the Superiors is called the Path of the Superiors because it only comes into effect once people have reached the Path of Seeing. It’s not always that Mahāyāna path of seeing that it is referring to.
Therefore, if someone has first of all gone through the Hīnayāna path and is then on the path of preparation on the Mahāyāna path, then they have these eightfold characteristics in their mindstream because they’re already an aria. They’re just not a Mahāyāna ārya or Mahāyāna superior, but they’re still superior. The next thing on the different aspects of the Buddha’s mind is what’s called the four immeasurables or the four yes, four immeasurables. What immeasurable means is it’s unable to be counted. That’s the definition of immeasurable.
So there’s four different types of things that are unable to be counted. There’s immeasurable love, compassion, joy and equanimity. Okay. So the the next thing to come out in this list of qualities of the Buddha is the eight emancipations. The the first three of these, which are emancipation of the embodied looking at a form, emancipation of the formless looking at a form, emancipation through beautiful form.
They are three things associated with not the form realm, but form states of mind. So form concentrations, form level concentrations, that are often associated with form realm, but we’re not talking about form realm here. We’re talking about levels of concentration. Then there are four that are associated with formless levels of concentration. That is emancipation of infinite space, emancipation or liberation of infinite consciousness, emancipation or liberation of nothingness, and emancipation or liberation of peak of existence.
Those four are linked up to the four levels of the formless realm. Right? The four levels of the formless realm are called infinite consciousness, nothingness oh, sorry, infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, and peak of existence. On top of those seven, there is another one called emancipation, liberation cessation, yes, or emancipation cessation because he’s using emancipation instead of the word we usually say liberation or moksha nirvana, yes. So emancipation cessation is the subtlest form of mind only.
So on the form level, we have grosser consciousnesses that actually have a form associated with them. On the formless level, there’s only subtle states of mind that have have no form associated with them. And so and therefore and and sorry. And finally, on the emancipation cessation or the liberation cessation, that final state of absorption, there is no gross levels of consciousness and no form at all. There is just subtlest levels of mind.
So in these different levels of the form and form they’re not form and form as realms as such because they’re not places where people were born, but they’re states of consciousness. Yeah? Okay. In those, it’s like a subtler and subtler form of meditative absorption that people are going through. And when they’re in the form form levels of of meditative absorption, they’re still aware of form.
When they get to the formless, their mind becomes subtler and subtler, and they’re not aware of form. They’re just dealing with consciousnesses, but there’s still gross levels of consciousness there. When they get to this final level, which is called liberation cessation, then all of the grosser levels of mind and all of the feelings, all of the discrimination, all of the consciousness, perception of outside form, all of those have completely been stopped, have completely been abandoned, and there’s just this subtle, very subtle concentration on the very, very subtle levels of mind. And when it’s at that stage, and it’s something that’s called a non associated composite phenomena. Right?
So there’s when you’re dividing things into three different things, you have There’s three different things. When when phenomena are divided, they’re divided into three things. There’s consciousness. There’s form as in forms of the five sense objects, five sense spheres. And then there’s things called a non associated composite phenomena, which, for example, is a human being and, for example, is this state.
And time is another one. Things that don’t fit into consciousness or form. Okay. So this isn’t referring to there’s different form concentrations and formless concentrations that even non Buddhists can develop in their mind, but these ones here, the eight emancipations or the eight liberations, are not referring to that. They’re referring to the subtle levels of meditative contemplation in the minds of Aryas.
The most subtle of these is what’s called the liberation cessation or emancipation cessation. At this stage, the definition of this meditation is all gross imprints have been dissolved, and the subtlest level of mind is meditating on the subtlest understanding of emptiness in the continuum of a Ārya. Did that make sense? What’s that? The previous thing you were covering were in this case.
In the yes, this is twenty one different aspects of the mind of the Dharmakāya or the truth body. It says when it’s divided, it has twenty one. Geshe-la is going through them. He’s gone through the first three. Yes.
Only the thirty seven is described earlier, so I thought that was worth pointing it out. And then the second one was the four immeasurables and the third one has been these eight emancipations. Yes. Is that in I don’t think so. No.
It’s in what’s his face? I forgot your name. What’s his face? Graham? It’s in Graham’s I thought it was in there.
I saw it before. The list is The twenty one? Yes. The list of the twenty one is, but it doesn’t explain what the There are some explanations. He said Geshe-la said that it’s all in the fourth chapter somewhere.
Yes, He some of it and some of it. Yes. He thinks it’s mostly all in Chapter four. But yes, he just wanted to go through it now because it’s the definition of the Dharmakāya. It’s all in here, but it’s all in Tibetan.
But it’s not well, it’s not all in Tibetan. It says it’s got the Tibetan written and then the Sanskrit written and then the English written. So it’s there. I mean, I should type it up for you to be like yeah. If I get a chance next week, I’ll type it up.
Photocopy. Yeah. But there’s a lot to photocopy, and it’s all over the place. So I think there’s about well, you could photocopy the stuff tonight. Tell me when you’re your side.
Will we know you Yeah. You you know the Four Immeasurables, hopefully. Well, I don’t know if I do now that I think about it. But yes. So that was the Four Immeasurables.
The thirty seven things you’ve got on this page. Yes. So you’ve got that one. So it’s only really these eight things, isn’t it? I can leave this book in here with you for that.
That’s only one bit. Then I’ll try and get one for next week for the rest of them. Likes this book. It’s it’s like got all the numbers, every number that you but you gotta know how to read Tibetan to know where they are. But every number that you want.
The seven different ornaments of yogis who practice in cremation grounds is in here. What? The three cousins. The three cousins. Likes this because he said it’s it’s all the numbers there.
And, usually, when you’re trying to find numbers in text, you have to do a lot of looking around. I couldn’t believe that. Head ornaments of yogis in cremation grounds. Scariest thing is also Geshe la knew them. He goes, yeah, yeah, those ones.
No question? In this way is meaning way that you live your life, not necessarily a job. Not necessarily job. Yeah. But I’ll ask the question again in for me.
Okay. So he said that in actual fact, this refers to in this section when it says correct livelihood, it refers to what the bodhisattvas do. Yeah? So what the actions they’re doing. So the actions they’re doing that’s bringing them closer to understanding Buddhahood and isn’t creating any negativities, then those actions that they do is what’s called right livelihood.
Okay. So, yes, so for example, if someone’s working towards achieving the arhatship of a hearer or the arhatship of solitary realizers and the work that they do is this, is correct livelihood. In general, yes, I said, livelihood means work that you do, and oftentimes it means work that we do, business we do, etcetera. This it’s translated as correct, but it also sometimes is translated as perfect. Yeah?
So correct or perfect livelihood, and that means the best type of work that you can do. Does that make sense? So in general terms, this livelihood of work that we do is usually related to external things. But in this case, because it’s the best type of livelihood, the perfect livelihood, it’s working towards achieving enlightenment. So the work that they do in order to achieve that is their livelihood, and that’s called correct livelihood or best livelihood.
So Geshe la said that by studying this, the idea is that you start understanding that any of the work that you do in a temporary basis is not as important if you’re doing it with the motivation of getting something worldly as the work that you would do in order to achieve liberation or enlightenment. So by knowing this, then you can change your focus and start focusing on the stuff that will get you to liberation and enlightenment as opposed to the things that we generally focus on there. I said, but guess what this text and the way that we generally live our life don’t really connect, do they? And he was like, No, this is like mind training for Bodhisattvas. It’s not like a mind training text where we incorporate it into what we should do.
It’s like what Bodhisattvas should do. Does that make sense? But you’re doing a good thing because you keep learning this, you get good imprints. And when you’ve got the other situations, you go