Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute session, Geshe Pema Tsering uses a cup-and-tea illustration to clarify a subtle point: the absence of “cupness” in the tea is a permanent, uncompounded phenomenon — unchanging moment to moment — yet if the cup breaks, that specific emptiness ceases, even though emptiness itself endures. He then covers the object of intent (synonymous with Buddhahood) and its three aspects — the Buddha’s heroic mind, abandonment, and realization — before examining “achieving through armor,” in which each of the six perfections is practiced within every other, yielding thirty-six practices. Extended discussion of the perfection of generosity follows: it is a mental factor, not a physical act, and its karmic fruit depends entirely on the practitioner’s motivation. A closing Q&A works through the distinction between mundane aggregates and the contaminated appropriate aggregates of Ārya beings.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 08 ST4 2003 05 29.mp3
UUID: b2a9f97b-1ac0-4670-b366-fb9424a47ec3
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Seventy Topics (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2003-05-29
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.9 minutes
Words: ~2,503
Okay. So So the reason he said the reason that he thinks it’s explained in this way is that in the three realms you have all these different compounded phenomena that’s the place they’re associated with. The next one, uncompounded suchness or uncompounded emptiness, is talking about how one form of uncompounded phenomena is actually emptiness. So if you’re looking for where emptiness exists no. If you’re looking I’ve gotta ask again.
How do you if you say how does compounded phenomena abide, it abides in the three realms. If you say how does uncompounded phenomena abide, its its nature is emptiness. That’s why they describe the number eight and nine are described thus. The four common concentrations are meditative concentrations that are common to both Buddhists and non Buddhists, and those on paths and those not on paths. They are divided into two types.
There is contaminated common concentrations and uncontaminated common concentrations. Uncontaminated common concentrations are unique to Ārya beings. So the ten exclusive powers of Subduers, or ten exclusive powers of Buddhas, describes ten different powers that only exist in the continuum of Buddha superiors and don’t exist anywhere else. And he said there could also be focusing on So under the heading of number eleven, you could also put a division of eleven where each of the ten powers is focused on individually and finally all ten powers together could be focused on. But he doesn’t remember what the ten exclusive powers of victorious ones are.
Do you guys need to know? And also is it in the translation? He said you you’re supposed to meditate on them at some stage, but he doesn’t remember them. But you’re supposed to meditate on them in in a in an order from one to ten. Is it in a it’s not in the translations or in a Oh, he’s he’s gonna he’s gonna remember it.
And he’ll tell you next week? So you you do it one by one. Okay. So the next bit, the observed objects of all phenomena and so on, that quote is from the Jewel Ornament of Clear Realization, and that is showing the source for the things that they talked about previously and divided into eleven. Now the boundary of this is all established bases, or it is established on all established bases.
Established bases is a synonym of an existent So that’s the synonym of objects of knowledge as well. That was it. Yep. So the next one, number six is the object of intent Definition of the object of intent is the final result that is engaged in as the object of intent What this the final result is Buddhahood is engaged in as the object of intent means that any practice that is undertaken is undertaken with this as the aim so it’s the final aim of any practice where it says that is engaged in means that which is practiced and the object of intent is the thing strived for as well So it’s it’s mutually inclusive or synonymous with Buddhahood. There’s three different divisions to to an object of intent.
There’s the great heroic mind of the Buddha, the great abandonment of Buddha, and the great realization of the Buddha. So what a great heroic mind includes is bodhicitta, limitless compassion and limitless loving kindness. Those are the things included within the great heroic mind. The great abandonment is true cessation. It’s the abandonment of obscurations to liberation and the abandonment of obscurations to omniscience.
The great realization is seeing the emptiness of all phenomena, seeing the true the ultimate nature of all phenomena. That’s what’s meant by great realization. So the border of this is is Buddha. The ground of a Buddha or just yeah. No.
It’s Buddha. No. The ground of a Buddha. Because these things don’t nobody else has these things, so they can only exist on the ground of a Buddha. I’m sorry I made a mistake before.
When I said before that there was four achievings that were described. They didn’t start with objective intent, That wasn’t an achieving. There was achieving through armor, achieving through engagement, achieving through collections, and definitely-exiting achieving. Sorry, objective intent wasn’t achieving. I thought he said the next four, but he said the last four.
Sorry. Okay, so the reason that it’s called achieving through armor is that when doing these practices so achieving the like practices that are undertaken in order to attain the object of intent right which is the ground of a Buddha so in doing these practices there can be harms that come up to the mind of the practitioner like seeing things as being truly existent or ignorance or self grasping things like that but because if they are doing these this practice doing these achieving then there is no way that these minds can harm them that’s why it’s called the achieving through armor because armor acts as a shield to the body then these practices act as a shield to the bodhisattvas mind and so that none of the negative influences can harm the mind. The definition of achieving through armor is a bodhisattva’s yoga conjoined with a vast intention desiring to practice inclusive of the entire six perfections such as generosity and so forth within each of the six perfections and what this means is that that within the practice of each of the six perfections the other six perfections are also practiced so if someone is concentrating on this perfection of generosity for example then they are also practicing the whole of the six perfections within the practice of the perfection of generosity and likewise through the other five practices so that it ends up being thirty six practices So the bit where it says the vast intention is referring to the scope of the activities engaged in considering that they have these different layers.
Each of these different perfections are actually a mental factor. So that means when, for example, we’re talking about the perfection of generosity, we’re not actually talking about the act of giving someone something it’s not a physical action that’s a perfection of generosity the mental factor that says I am giving this away I am passing this over is the actual perfection practice The physical act isn’t what we’re talking about here. Okay, so when we’re talking about, for example, the practicing the perfection of generosity, we talk about three aspects of generosity: that is the giving, the giver, and the receiver. So we have to take all those things into account. So there’s these different spheres when we’re talking about the perfection of generosity.
Okay, so there’s these three different aspects to the practice of giving. There’s also three different things that are considered to be that we can give. So that comes into the thing that’s given, right? They are physical objects Dharma and refuge so among these and Dharma is considered the best thing to give and refuge is when you can help someone from suffering or you can help someone from being killed. That’s the giving of refuge.
And once again, the practices of generosity and etcetera, but here we’re talking about generosity, again, colored their importance and their power is colored by our motivation when we’re doing these actions. So if we’re giving something with the thought and we have developed bodhicitta in our mind stream then that giving becomes a cause for us to achieve enlightenment. If we’re doing something and we have developed renunciation in our mind stream, then that giving becomes a cause for our liberation. If we have developed the idea that we’re not working for this life, we’re working for the next life, then that giving becomes a cause for us to get a rebirth as a God or a human. But if we are just giving with the idea that maybe someone will think that I’m a nice person for giving or maybe you’ll get something back for giving then it only has a very limited outcome.
Our actual act only has a very limited outcome. So we stop there, and if anyone has any questions. Oh, wow. Three hands at once. But she never asked, so she can go first.
I was trying to work out the difference between the five mundane aggregates and the five contaminated appropriate aggregates. Yes. Okay. Hang on. I’ve gotta find the spot.
This is under eleven divisions of the observed object. There’s a slight difference between the two in that for example a Hīnayāna Arhat has the — whatever, that’s not gonna help you — the five contaminated appropriate aggregates but they don’t have five mundane aggregates. So for the five mundane aggregates are those aggregates of beings who have not achieved the path of seeing of any of the three vehicles, but you can achieve the path of seeing and still have contaminated appropriate aggregates. So they’re really the same thing in different beings’ minds? Is that sort of like they’re just the same sort of thing except one’s in our mind and one’s in the Ārya’s mind. So but they’re not minds?
They’re minds. Sorry. They’re the aggregate. So that’s the form. So it’s form. So the first mundane aggregate is form. Yeah.
In my form. Yeah. Where the first contaminated appropriate aggregate is an Ārya form. Is that right? Okay. So it works like this, right?
The for example, the form aggregate, yeah, of a Hīnayāna Ārya. So that’s a Hīnayāna person who’s on the path of seeing meditation or is a foe destroyer. Their form aggregate is a contaminated appropriate aggregate but not a mundane aggregate. So mundane is like say my form. So because you have taken that form because of the power of karma and delusion then it becomes a five one of the five mundane aggregates.
But the Hīnayāna Aryas or Hīnayāna Superior Beings they have contaminated aggregates but they are not taken by the power of karma and delusion. Does Buddha find aggregates? Sorry, guys. I’ll get back to you. Yeah.
So, like, in the aggregate of feeling Mhmm. In the case of ordinary beings like yourself Uh-huh. It’s pleasant, unpleasant Uh-huh. Or neutral. They they only have pleasure.
Only pleasure pleasure or happiness. They don’t have the division, he said. Okay. There’s a tip. Doesn’t matter.
But he’s not saying you put the tip there. He just went, oh, I think there’s a tip. But it’s not me. It’s not him. No, no.
It’s not you. It’s him. He said it’s not it’s not you. It’s not her. Okay.
So if someone has developed renunciation in their mind stream, then when they give something to someone, they will have the thought, first of all, this will benefit them, and then they will also have the thought by doing this, may this be a cause for me to achieve liberation because they have no attachment to saṃsāra. So by giving this, I’m creating merit. May that merit be a cause for me to attain liberation. So it’s because once you’ve given something, it’s not the actual action that actually becomes a cause for you to achieve enlightenment. It’s the merit that you receive from the giving.
So therefore once you’ve given then you say may the merit that I get from giving become a cause for me to attain liberation. But because the thought towards liberation and having turned away from saṃsāra is already in the mind stream, then that’s the thought that comes up when people with renunciation actually gives things. Yeah? Goosebump? Yeah.
Hang on one second. Rob, did you still have a question or because I where I’ve ignored you twice. My question was Alright. Okay. I didn’t mean to.
Yep. I don’t know how it’s gonna help me at all because I think that Keith wanted to know Uncompounded space is an uncompounded phenomena is an uncompounded phenomena. Just an example. Yeah. Because uncompounded phenomena is a synonym of a permanent.
So therefore emptiness and uncompounded space and all other permanence are uncompounded phenomena. Okay. The absence of Geshe-la on you, the absence of the combination of Geshe-la and you as being one phenomenon. The absence of a combination of you on Geshe-la’s phenomena. Does that make sense?
You and Geshe lah? The absence of non-human from Geshe-la, the absence of non-human from you, all of these things are permanent. So there’s many non compounded objects. Anything, but not anything else. So for every compounded phenomena, there’s an uncompounded phenomena that you can derive from it.
So for example, yeah, he just said like there’s no the absence of Anthony on like on top of Geshe la. There’s no Geshe la. There’s no Anthony there. There’s no Okay. So everything that doesn’t change from moment to moment, everything that we can’t feel, touch, smell hear or what’s the other?
Yeah there’s another one. Taste, yeah. All of these things are non compounded phenomena. He said trust me, smells. Yeah.
He said because The absence of cup in the tea, right? The absence of okay. Cup. Right? Cup, not okay.
The absence of cupness in the tea. The absence of teaness in the cup, inside the cup, not in the, you know, is a non-compounded phenomena. The tea itself is a compounded phenomena, so that’s why you can smell it. So the tea is a is a compounded phenomena and or a or a an impermanent thing. Yeah.
And the cup is an impermanent thing. Yeah. Or a compounded phenomena. But the absence of cup ness in the tea, yeah, is a permanent thing and an uncompounded phenomena and the absence of which way are we going? T ness in the cup is an uncompounded phenomena and a permanent phenomenon.
It becomes a substance from which you can make a cup, but it doesn’t it’s still empty of cup. I was just asking because sometimes this can get confusing. The emptiness of the cup, right, only exists as long as the cup exists. It doesn’t change from moment to moment. That’s why it’s called a permanent.
It’s not that it exists forever. So if you break the cup, the emptiness of the cup, yeah, it ceases to exist. But because it didn’t change from moment to moment, it’s called a permanent. So if you break the cup right, then the emptiness of the cup ceases to exist, but emptiness itself never ceases to exist. So that is there forever. What’s that?
If there’s things, then there is uncompounded things. So it existed since the beginning of this time until and he said, Yeah, so as long as there is something, then there is the uncompoundedness that’s associated here. How? Yeah. It’s mine, it can’t be.
It’s for example, immeasurable loving kindness. Yes. They’re all minds. There’s all four different types of immeasurables are all minds, so therefore they have to be impermanent. He reckons that we can get