Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A seed contains the power to grow barley or apples, yet we cannot see that inner capacity — only the gross result. Geshe Pema Tsering uses this image in this 26-minute Lamrim commentary to explain why karma’s subtle workings ultimately require trust in the Buddha’s word, even when we cannot perceive them directly. He first walks through the six realms and the near-impossibility of achieving precious human rebirth, then identifies ethics — specifically abandoning the ten non-virtuous actions of body, speech, and mind — as its cause. An extended Q&A covers why animals cannot practice ethics, the distinction between love and attachment, and why children absorb ethical habits differently depending on the karma they carry from previous lives.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 06 SoP 2004 02 22.mp3
UUID: a2956afb-5cee-4d04-8892-e511c11c5d7b
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Stages of the Path (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2004-02-22
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 26.0 minutes
Words: ~2,049
And then it said that there’s six different existences that we can be reborn into. That is the realms of gods and demigods and humans and animals and spirits and being in like a hells. So out of all of these existences to be born into, not only were we born into a human existence, but a human existence with all of the right causes and conditions that came together for us to be able to practice the path. And this is almost impossible and is a very precious thing that we’ve achieved And now the next thing that we need to know is what was the cause for us to achieve this human rebirth and how do we achieve a rebirth or a good rebirth in the future. Now I said that the cause for achieving a precious human rebirth is ethics, correct ethics, and not only correct ethics, also understanding of practicing the six perfections of generosity, patience, and effort, and so forth.
So if we want to know how this is possible then we need to understand how difficult this is, then we need to watch our minds and see how difficult it is for us to be ethical at all times and how difficult it is for us to practice ethics and then by watching that then we can understand two things we can understand how amazing it is that we achieve this body in the first place and then we can understand what we need to do in order to achieve that in the future But if we don’t think about it then it’s not easy for our mind to go towards behaving ethically without putting in effort So we need to put in the effort to develop that state for the future and to understand how difficult it would have been for us to develop this, to achieve this body now So because of this because of this of what we need to do in order to achieve a precious human rebirth and what we did in order to achieve this one, we need to think on this again and again until it happens that we abandon attachments to the things of this life and start focusing on practicing Dharma or practicing with the focus on at least the next life, but more preferably liberation or Buddhahood.
So we don’t stop thinking in this way we don’t stop thinking about precious human rebirths and how we achieve them and how we need to achieve them and what we need to do with them to take the essence until we’ve developed that understanding until our mind has changed so much that we cease to be attached to the things of this life. So, yeah, just as he said, did you say so we do it until our mind’s completely changed? Okay. So we’ll stop there for today. And if anyone has any questions.
Okay. So there’s many different types of ethics we can talk about depending on what type of practice you’re doing. But in general, us, the best ethics that we should try and abide by are what’s called the abandoning the ten non virtuous actions. It’s the best path of ethics for us. Now, non virtuous actions are the three non virtuous actions of body, which is to kill, to steal, and to practice sexual misconduct.
And then there’s the four non virtuous actions of speech, which is to slander, to use harsh words, to lie, and to talk like with no purpose incessantly chatter. And the three non virtues of mind are said to be craving after things that we don’t have. Yeah. And like all covetous coveting is if someone else owns it. It’s like having a mind that wants says I want that.
I want this. I want that. And then also a harmful mind, a mind that wants to harm others and our own wrong views, like saying thinking that karma and the Three Jewels and so forth don’t exist. So you need to practice abandoning them. Okay.
Yeah. It’s true that it’s very difficult to achieve human rebirth if you aren’t a human, right, because the cause are human okay. The cause of being a human rebirth is ethics, but for every cause we have that cause had to have a cause yeah so a cause has to have a cause which create the cause which makes it very complicated and the cause for experiencing a human rebirth is to have practiced ethics because practicing ethics is practicing a virtuous action or a positive action. And the results of that is a positive rebirth. And if we don’t practice ethics, then we’re practicing negative actions and the results of the negative actions are negative rebirth.
So that means that the only beings that are to practice the only beings that are able to practice positive actions in terms of ethics are gods and humans. Now this means that it’s very difficult if you’re in the lower realms to get out of the lower realms. And the cause for you to get out of the lower realms must have been something that you did that was positive in a previous existence as a human or a god. Right? And then your karma to be in the lower realms has run out and you get another chance because of the things you did previously to come back as a god or a human in which you can practice ethics as either of those things so because of this that’s why there is more beings in the lower realms and it’s one of the reasons it’s very difficult to get a human rebirth or precious human rebirth but yeah the other thing I guess I’ll say was that the cause for having a human rebirth is ethics and the cause for having a precious human rebirth is ethics both of those things Okay.
So it’s very difficult for us to understand this because we’re talking about karma cause and effect and cause and effect is a very complicated vast thing. So that means that for every instant that we’re here there was a lot of causes and conditions that came into being for us to be here. And there was a lot of we are creating a lot of causes and conditions in every instant. It’s a very complicated thing, and we don’t usually see it in this manner. We don’t usually look at things in this manner.
We see gross causes for us being here. Like we understand that we came here on the basis of the sperm and egg from our parents. And that’s like the gross reason for us to be here. But we don’t understand the subtle reasons for us to be here. We don’t understand the subtle causes for us to experience this existence.
We understand, for example, that a positive action should have a positive result. But to actually see what the positive actions and positive results are is much more difficult specifically. It’s a similar thing to we understand that if we plant a seed in the ground that from that seed will grow something will grow if we have the right conditions like the water and the sunshine and there’s no extremes of temperature and the right earth for that seed to grow. We can understand that and we can see that, but we can’t see what makes a barley seed grow barley and what makes an apple seed grow apples. There’s the ability there, power of the barley seeds become barley and the apple seeds become apple that we can’t see.
So we can see the gross reasons why things happen, but seeing the subtle reasons why they happen is very, very complicated and very, very difficult for us to see. Okay. So we can see the gross causes of things. We can see the gross reasons why things happen. But for us to see the subtle reasons why things happen is very difficult.
It’s very complicated and very difficult for people with obscurations like ours to understand. So what it comes down to is we have to trust that Buddha understood what he was saying when he said that positive actions have positive results, have happiness as their results and negative actions have suffering as their results. We have to trust that he had that understanding because it’s very difficult for us to actually perceive that directly. We can understand things in gross ways that if there’s a very negative action we may be able to see that but in terms of negative actions having negative results and positive actions having positive results for us to see that on a very fine level is very very difficult so it comes down to trusting in what the Buddha said. And then also people like Nāgārjuna who explained the concept of cause and effect in very subtle ways.
So that’s how that’s how the cause for a human be human rebirth being ethics is explained. Okay. No, animals don’t have the ability to understand the concept of ethics, and therefore they can’t put them into practice. And he said, Well, what about when dogs and everything help humans? He said the reason that they’re helping them isn’t because of a concept of ethics and doing right and wrong.
It’s because of their attachment to that person. Yep. Now the difference between having love for someone and having attachment is that if you have love for someone, then you’re doing something for their benefit. And if you have attachment to someone, you’re not doing it for their benefit, you’re doing it for your own benefit. So it’s not a matter of getting rid of love, it’s getting rid of the attachment.
Because if you really are doing something from a pure place of love, it’s to benefit them and not yourself. Have you teach them? So there has to be both these things. If a child has practiced ethics in previous lifetimes, then it will come kind of naturally to them. They’ll have the habit of behaving in an ethical way and know, for example, that stealing is wrong or killing is wrong, but they may not always happen and they may need to be told this again.
So there’s these two different ways we can understand things. We can know things from habit and we can know them from being told. So with a child, you probably need both. So in our mindstream, we have these two different things. There’s wisdom from habits from previous lifetimes and wisdom from what we’re told in this lifetime.
Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Sure. Uh-huh.
Mhmm. Did you guys hear that? Okay. So there’s two different ways that it can come out. Right?
So can have a parent that can just say once to a kid, you shouldn’t steal. And because of the habits that the kids had from previous lifetimes, instantly get it. No matter what else happens, they instantly get it. And there’s other people, because they haven’t had the ability or the opportunity to practice ethics and then they need to be encouraged with that all the time so you may have one situation where someone needs to hear something once and then they’ve got it and it stays with them and somewhere some other situation where they can be told all the time and it’s difficult for them to do it, so they need more help. And it can be other situations where a parent may be saying to the kid, Oh, you shouldn’t be stealing, you shouldn’t be smoking, you shouldn’t be doing these things, and then doing them themselves.
And the kid may think, Wait a minute, they told me that they will think themselves, They told me not to do it, but they’re doing it. And then again, it’ll come down to their habits. They may have an intrinsic understanding through previous practice that what their parents are doing is wrong and not follow that. Or they may get confused by that because they don’t have that and then follow what their parents are doing rather than what they’re saying. Yeah.
So is everyone finished? Questions?