Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 6-minute closing Q&A, Geshe Pema Tsering opens with a wry observation — getting tired from focusing on the next lifetime or Buddhahood is far better than our usual exhaustion from chasing this-lifetime concerns. He then fields a question about whether pre-Buddhist Tibetan practitioners developed bodhicitta, explaining that the Bönpos did not, and that after Guru Rinpoche arrived he drew on the rich sūtra literature to organize these methods into a systematic whole. The session closes with a preview of the coming weeks: a guided walk-through of the two main approaches to cultivating bodhicitta — the seven-point cause-and-effect practice, beginning with recognizing all beings as one’s mother, followed by the exchange of self and others, known as tonglen.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 SoP 2004 05 09.mp3
UUID: 7dce0e9f-b629-444e-8ce7-b022adff4c2e
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Stages of the Path (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2004-05-09
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 6.0 minutes
Words: ~359
He said, are you too tired to have questions? And guess it’s a good thing that you’re tired because it’s a good thing to get a little bit tired focusing on something other than this lifetime. Because most of the time, we get very tired focusing on this lifetime. So if we get a little bit tired just focusing on the next lifetime or achieving Buddhahood or becoming a liberated being then that’s probably a good thing. He said, yes.
It is a big responsibility, all sentient beings. So you I’m doing something to benefit all sentient beings. Okay. Last chance. Any questions?
He wants to know if you’ve got one, Jackie. The the exchange itself another Yeah. Both. They did lots of different things. He said, well, he thinks in the start off to start off with, they would have been Bönpos, so they wouldn’t have been developing bodhicitta.
Then I said I think you were talking about Buddhists and he said okay well after Guru Rinpoche came Guru Rinpoche had a great understanding of the sutras and in the sutras there’s many different explanations for how to develop Bodhicitta so he would have taught in many different ways based on the sutras. This was just a very organized way of looking at it. Before Guru Rinpoche came, he said that there were Bönpos and they didn’t do it. He said that’s very good idea. He said that’s a really good thing, and it’d be good for people who come to that to come to the next few weeks because he’s gonna go through the seven points of of what’s that?
Hang on. I’m getting confused. There’s two seven points of mind training in this one, isn’t it? The seven point cause and effect focusing on the mother, right? Then after that, the exchange of self and others, which is tonglen.
So you go through it and then they can have a commentary on it as well. And if you can meditate on this, it’s really good. Can it? Tough for me? Everyone else is alright? Okay.
Now I’ve gotta sing.. No questions, Joe. He’s very surprised now.