Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Opening with Lama Tsongkhapa’s line that good paths arise from good ways of thinking, Geshe Pema Tsering traces the meditative sequence from renunciation to bodhicitta in this 44.5-minute session. Drawing on the “Reviewing the Stages of the Path” section of the Guru Puja, he unpacks all three types of suffering: manifest suffering (illness, aging, death); the suffering of change — ordinary happiness that dissolves because it is not happiness by nature; and all-pervasive suffering rooted in the five psychophysical aggregates. He argues that renunciation must become as automatic as hunger before it can expand into concern for all beings. He then lays out the prerequisites for bodhicitta — equanimity, loving kindness, great compassion — showing that the friend/enemy distinction rests entirely on shifting emotions, not on anything inherent in the other person.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 SoP 2004 05 16.mp3
UUID: 591443d2-c28b-4fa9-b698-a27f3d130486
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Stages of the Path (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2004-05-16
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.5 minutes
Words: ~4,033
Okay. This morning, again, think that you’ve already done meditation. So we don’t need to do a meditation to start with, but what we do need to do is to develop the right motivation. In order to develop the right motivation, we should think about a quote from Lama Tsongkhapa in which he said, Good paths and and realizations come about through good ways of thinking. Negative paths and negative understandings come through negative ways of thinking.
What this means is that everything we experience, everything we’re about to understand or we try and understand depends on our motivation. In actual fact, the best motivation that we can have, what he was talking about in this quote, is the motivation of bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment. That’s the best type motivation we can develop. If we are unable to develop this type of motivation, then we should try and develop the motivation that we are doing whatever it is we are doing in order to achieve liberation from Samsāra. Also, if we are unable to develop this motivation, then we should try and focus on the sufferings of the lower realms and then we should develop the wish to be born in a positive environment in our next life.
The text that we’re actually going through today is Reviewing the Stages of the Path from the Guru Puja. Now, within this Reviewing the Stages of the Path there are three different sections. There are three different types of being whose motivation we’re talking about. The stage that we’ve actually arrived at is the motivation of the greatest type of being or the greatest type of motivation. Because we’ve arrived at this stage, it’s a definite that we should try and develop the mind of bodhicitta or the idea of bodhicitta before we start doing these teachings.
Geshe-la thinks that you probably have a good idea about what bodhicitta is because it’s been talked about many, many times before. But just to give you a rough overview, bodhicitta or the mind of enlightenment is this idea that we completely get rid of attachment or completely get rid of thinking about our own benefits, what is going to benefit ourselves personally and focus on the welfare of all other beings. The ultimate way for us to focus on the welfare of all other beings is to have this idea of leading them to or establishing them in a state which is completely beyond sorrow and completely qualified with happiness, which is completely drenched with happiness. In order to bring that about, there’s no other way we can bring that about apart from becoming a Buddha. In order to lead all beings to this state, we ourselves have to achieve enlightenment.
So when we develop this mind in an uncontrived manner and when it comes about spontaneously then that’s what we call the mind of enlightenment, the bodhicitta. So in order for us to develop this mind, this idea of leading all sentient beings to a state beyond sorrow, to enlightenment and ourselves becoming a Buddha in order to bring this about, we need to first have an understanding of personal liberation. We need to first have this idea that we ourselves don’t want to be immersed in Samsāra, we don’t want to be experiencing the sufferings of Samsāra, the negative reality that we experience in this state. We ourselves want to get out of that. Without developing this personal need for liberation, it’s almost impossible to develop the idea of getting other sentient beings out of that state.
First of all, we need to look at the faults of saṃsāra and we need to understand the faults of saṃsāra clearly. So in order for us to develop this mind of seeking liberation, this mind striving for our nirvana, then we need to understand what Samsāra actually is by its nature, that Samsāra actually is suffering. We need to understand that there is nothing here we should be happy about or attached to. What we need to do in this case is to develop our ideas about suffering to understand exactly Samsāra’s nature and this nature of suffering. Now, when we talk about the direct experience of suffering, we have some experience.
Of course, don’t have direct experience that we can remember of the sufferings of the hell realms, sufferings of the spirit realms and the sufferings of the animal realms but we do have direct experience of the sufferings of the human realm because we can experience it. Within the human realm, have these three different types of suffering. We have the suffering of suffering or manifest suffering, we have the suffering of change and we have all pervasive suffering. From amongst these three, we understand the suffering of suffering or manifest suffering very well. This is put simply the experience of illness, experience of discomfort, the experience of loss, the experience of aging and the experience of death.
We know these things and we don’t want to abide or we don’t want to experience these types of suffering. We have a mind that easily turns away from these kinds of suffering. It’s a natural response for us. On the other hand, the experience of the suffering of change and the experience of all pervasive suffering, we don’t recognize the suffering and because we don’t recognize them as suffering, we actually strive after them. We strive to create the causes for these.
Now when we talk about pervasive suffering, the reason that it’s called all no, sorry, first of all what we’re talking about when we talk about all pervasive suffering is what’s called the five psychophysical aggregates which are basically the combination of groups of things that make up us. So in this we’re talking about our form, we’re talking about our feelings or sensations, that’s the second one. The third one we’re talking about is our discrimination between this and that. The fourth one we understand is the formations that make up ourselves and the fifth one is our consciousness. So within these five we experience the self.
That’s how we experience ourselves. Now, the reason that this is called all pervasive suffering is because we have had experiences or the lifetimes that we’ve had since the beginning of this time have all been pervaded by these aggregates, by these groups of different things that make up a self, or we perceive as making up a self. This has come about with every lifetime that we’ve experienced since beginningless time up until now. Hence, it’s called pervasive suffering. It’s pervaded all of time and it pervaded all of our experiences.
Another way of explaining or labeling or giving a name to this experience is also to say about the compounded, the suffering of compounded phenomena. Now, the reason that it’s called compounded phenomena is because what compounds is our collection of karma with our experience of afflictive emotions and this together gives rise to the experience of the five aggregates and hence this experience of suffering. There’s also in the nature of compounded phenomena that everything that is compounded is to come apart so that’s part of this idea of the suffering of compounded phenomena as well. The suffering of compounded phenomena is actually the same as all pervasive suffering because the two things have pervaded our existence since beginning of time. Now, the other type of suffering we experience is what’s called the suffering of change or changeable suffering and this is actually what we usually term happiness or what we usually experience as samsaric happiness.
The reason that we call this the suffering of change is because by its nature these experiences aren’t happiness. By their nature they change, they can’t be relied on so we may experience some sensation of happiness through them but it’s not something that lasts as happiness, it’s something that is constantly changing into suffering because it is by its nature suffering. If it was by its nature happiness, it wouldn’t change into suffering, it wouldn’t end. Now, because we want something that is actually by its nature happiness, then we have to strive for liberation from Samsāra or enlightenment because these two things, the liberation from Samsāra and enlightenment are the only things that are actually happiness by their nature as opposed to something that looks like happiness but isn’t happiness by its nature. So this notion of all pervasive suffering, the notion of the idea that our psychophysical aggregates or the groups of things that make up us, what we perceive as making up us, are actually suffering.
And also the idea of the suffering of change that all of the experiences we have that we see as positive in saṃsāra like an experience of happiness like comfort or physical well-being, getting things we want and so on. All of those things are actually the suffering of change because we can’t rely on them, they don’t stay that way. Once we’ve developed an understanding of these two different ways that Samsāra is suffering, then what will arise in our mind is this idea of getting out of Samsāra, of seeking liberation from Samsāra. When we develop this mind, we start to try and get out of Samsāra. Now, in order for us to develop this mind, actually have to put in a fair bit of work.
We have to acclimatize our mind to this idea through meditation because we don’t have any habitual pattern towards this. We don’t have a habit of looking towards liberation while we do have a habit of looking towards saṃsāra. We need to do a lot of work in order to develop that idea. So, what we need to do is habituate ourselves with this idea so much that it comes about spontaneously, it comes about naturally for us in the same way that if we are hungry, naturally want food. We have this mind thinking, I want to eat.
I need something to eat. That comes about without any effort on our part. So, what we need to do is habituate ourselves to meditate on this so much and that the idea of striving for liberation spontaneously comes about with whatever we are doing. When this mind striving for liberation, this mind that’s called a definite emergence comes about spontaneously and naturally in us, then we will constantly be striving for liberation. So this mind comes about as what’s called the fruits of or the results of meditation that we are spontaneously looking towards liberation from saṃsāra.
Once we’ve developed that idea, once this idea is coming about in our mind naturally, then we expand that out and we think, Okay, it’s not just me that is experiencing this type of suffering. All other sentient beings are in exactly the same situation. They don’t want to experience suffering and they want to experience happiness. Then we acclimatize ourselves, we familiarize ourselves with this idea through meditation. Eventually, the results of this meditation, the fruit of this meditation, is that our mind spontaneously generates this idea.
When our mind is spontaneously generating this idea that all sentient beings want to be happy, and that in order for them to be happy they need to be shown how to get out of Samsāra and in order to do that I need to become a Buddha, then that spontaneously generating mind is the mind of bodhicitta or the mind of enlightenment. Then we developed this idea of equanimity that just like us all sentient beings don’t want to experience suffering, they want to experience happiness. In order to bring this about. We ourselves need to achieve enlightenment. We need to become Buddhas in order to show them what to do.
Through development of bodhicitta or these minds of enlightenment, we think, Okay, that’s the reason that I’m listening to this teaching. That’s the reason that I’m contemplating this teaching. Through this reason then I’m also going to try and understand the teachings and try and put the teachings into practice and through this may I become a Buddha. So that’s the motivation that we should have for listening to the teachings.
So we’re up to the section dealing with the development of bodhicitta. And the first part of the section says, the door to the Mahāyāna, the door to the altruistic vehicle is said to be the development of this mind of enlightenment, the development of the bodhicitta. What this means is that when a being has developed bodhicitta or the mind of enlightenment, they become a Mahāyānist, they become someone of the Mahāyāna vehicle, of the greater vehicle. If they haven’t developed this idea, then they aren’t a Mahāyānist. So this includes even beings who have completed the different stages of the Hīnayāna, the individual liberation vehicle.
These beings have completely gotten rid of any of their negative ways of thinking, any of their destructive or harmful emotions and experience nothing but bliss and in fact great bliss. They are in a constant state of happiness and they have achieved what is called true happiness as opposed to the type of happiness that we may experience as samsaric beings. These people or these beings are very, very developed and they’re very, very developed. They experience no suffering. They have achieved true happiness and yes, without the development of bodhicitta, without the development of the mind of enlightenment, they still haven’t entered the mahayana, the altruistic vehicle.
In order for us to develop this mind of enlightenment and enter the altruistic vehicle then we need to develop what’s called compassion or to be more specific great compassion. When we talk about compassion there’s actually many different types of compassion and there is different aspects to even to great compassion but what we are talking about in general here and to be succinct or to explain it in brief then the mind we need to develop in order to develop bodhicitta or the mind that precedes bodhicitta is the mind of great compassion who takes as its object, that is that focuses on all sentient beings, all beings, without leaving any out and has this idea that all of these beings should be free or we wish that they will be free of any type of suffering at all and as a consequence experience nothing but happiness. Now, this mind isn’t an abstract concept. It’s a similar situation to as if the idea isn’t an abstract concept. It’s a similar idea to if we ourselves were ill, we had some kind of virulent illness that we couldn’t stop easily, we would instantly develop this idea or develop the wish to get rid of that illness and do whatever it takes to get rid of that illness.
That isn’t something that we need to work at. We wouldn’t need to work at developing that idea. The idea would come about spontaneously for us and so when we have the same thing happening towards all sentient beings, towards all beings that we think spontaneously they should be free of suffering, I wish they could be free of the suffering, then that mind, that way of thinking is what we call great compassion. So in order for us to develop this great compassion, in order for us to have this mind spontaneously coming about, before we can develop that, we need to develop what’s called loving kindness that finds all beings appealing. We say all beings appealing or all beings attractive, what that means is that you have a feeling for every single being without exception.
It’s not like you like some and there’s a couple that you don’t or there’s some that you leave out. The type of idea or the type of feeling that we’re talking about here is the same as if there was a mother who had only one son and was only able to have one child and was very, very devoted to this child and the way that she would respond to that child is that anytime that they were experiencing suffering, she would do anything to try and stop them from experiencing suffering and would do anything to try and alleviate that suffering and would put aside her own happiness in order to bring happiness for that child. What we’re talking about here is a way of thinking like that, a feeling like that but having it extended out to all beings without exception to any being with a mind, any person with consciousness or being with consciousness should have this feeling towards it. Mind that seeks to make happiness for all sentient beings in this very personal way is the prerequisite to the development of great compassion. And what has to precede this idea is the thought that all sentient beings are close to us, the thought of equanimity towards all beings.
We have to get rid of the idea that some people are our enemies or they aren’t our friends and others are our friends and we have to develop the idea that all beings are very close to us, all beings have a strong link to us. You have to meditate on that idea. This can be rather difficult especially sometimes when we may experience many enemies or many people seeking to do us harm. At those stages, it’s difficult to develop the idea that all beings are very close to us, so we have a personal link to all beings. Because in actual fact, all sentient beings are actually or all beings are actually close to us.
They have a close connection to us and the idea of an enemy, the idea of someone who wishes to harm us or the idea of those who are close to us and those who aren’t is something that we make up by ourselves based on our attachment and aversion or attachment and our anger. We have this idea that those through attachment or through obsessive craving that some people are actually close to us and we need their happiness for our happiness and we have this idea through aversion or hatred that other people aren’t close to us and we don’t need their happiness, don’t care what happens to them. Then we also have a third type of being which is like any old being that we don’t particularly have an attachment to and we don’t particularly have an aversion to. Although all beings are close to us in one way or another, we develop these three different categories that we put them into in terms of those that we consider friends or close ones, those we consider in the middle neutral about, and those that we consider our enemies or our foes. So we developed this idea of an enemy or a foe, and we developed this idea, although it’s not actually the case that any being themselves is seeking to harm us.
If we investigate, if we start looking at it, then we have to look at what it is actually that is seeking to harm us and within that being, within the being that we perceive as an enemy, we find all these negative emotions. We find things like hatred and desire and pride and maliciousness and it’s those negative emotions, it’s those destructive destructive ideas that are actually the motivating force to harm us. It’s not the being themselves, the being is afflicted by these negative emotions and therefore they are seeking to harm us but it’s not they themselves that is the problem. If we want to look for an enemy, if we want to look for something that’s harming us, we look towards these negative emotions instead. So there is in fact no being that is our enemy or beings close to us in one way or another.
We can take as an example of this the idea that some people, even within one lifetime, go from being our enemy to our friend or our friend to our enemy and there’s nothing intrinsic in them that makes our enemy or our friend. It’s just the negative emotions that they possess that makes them act in different ways. For example, someone can be For example, when we were a child, we may have had someone who was our sworn enemy and then once we were growing up, we become friends with them because of different circumstances. We may have another instance where we’re really good friends with someone when they’re a child and when we’re children and then when we grow up, we become enemies. This is because the negative emotions come into play and they or the destructive emotions come into play and cause us to be friends or cause us to be enemies when we were once friends.
So the one thing that we can be sure of is that there is no certainty about our relationship with anyone in that they could sometimes be our friend and sometimes be our enemy, not dependent on the being but dependent on the emotions or the afflictions that the being possesses. So if we watch the way that our life has gone, if we look at our own experience, we can see this and we’ll understand it. We may develop an attachment towards someone or liking for them and then through that liking we consider them to be a really good friend and we want to be a benefit to them, want to help them, we want to encourage them. In the same instance or in a different circumstance, we may develop an aversion towards someone, we may decide we don’t like someone and then in that case what would make us happy would be trying to harm them and we don’t want them to be particularly happy. We can see through our experience that it’s not certain. We sometimes have this strong attachment towards people and want them to be happy and other times we develop an aversion to them and don’t want them particularly to be happy.
So in order to develop this closeness with all sentient beings, then we may consider our mothers to be the closest being to us in this lifetime. The mother of this lifetime is probably the closest person that we have, considering the kindness they have shown. In order to develop this idea of all beings being close to us, then we develop the idea that all beings have been our mothers because our mother is probably the closest person to us in this life. Okay. So in order for us to perceive all beings as having been our mothers then we need to develop the idea that they have been through understanding that in different lifetimes everyone has been our mothers. Before we develop that idea then we need to start with the idea that all beings are exactly the same in that they want happiness and don’t want to experience suffering.
Developing that idea of equanimity with all beings, we need to get rid of the ideas of some people being close to us and some being our enemies. Okay. Alright. We need to develop this idea of equanimity through not thinking, Okay, these people are my relatives, these people are people that I have a connection to and there’s others that I don’t have a connection to. We need to develop a sense of equanimity with all beings and in order to bring this equanimity about, we need to focus on and we need to think about the uncertainty of the concepts of friend and enemy.
If we understand that friend and enemy aren’t certain concepts, no one is an inherent threat or an inherent enemy, then through perceiving this we will develop the idea that we want all beings to be happy that we have a close connection to all beings and through understanding all beings want to experience happiness and all beings have been close to us in one way or another, then we are able to develop idea of closeness to all sentient beings. So, we can stop there for today. If anyone has any questions. No.