Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A donkey-driven water wheel — buckets rising and falling with no will of their own — is Geshe Pema Tsering’s central image for samsaric helplessness in this 35-minute session. He closes the patience section of his Lamrim commentary with a verse about remaining equanimous even if every being in the three realms were attacking us, and explains the accompanying visualization of purifying light from the Buddhas. He then shows why no samsaric experience — not even bliss in the god realms — is real rest from karma. The practical core distinguishes three types of patience, names patience with suffering as the hardest, and argues that reframing pain as karmic purification is more useful than wallowing. A Q&A closes with advice on taking medicine with positive motivation and how to help a dying person by praying rather than giving way to grief.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 07 SoP 2005 04 24.mp3
UUID: fa13bb0d-1b99-403f-a59e-18801e076389
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Stages of the Path (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-04-24
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 34.6 minutes
Words: ~3,064
Okay. So before we start, try and develop the right motivation. That is that you’re listening to the teachings in order to be able to develop understanding of them, put it into practice and attain enlightenment in order to lead all sentient beings to that state. So today we’re looking at the end of the teaching from this text on patience and then going on to the beginning of the teaching on effort or diligence. So we just went through at the end of last week a verse from the root text which says, should even the myriad beings of the three realms without exception become angry at us, humiliate, criticize, threaten or even kill us.
We seek your blessings to complete the perfection of patience not to be distraught but to work for their benefit in response to their harm. So this is talking about the three realms. When it says the three realms, it’s talking about the desire realm which is where the bulk of sentient beings exist. The form and formless realms also which are levels of reality that develop from meditative concentration. And it’s saying that even if every single being were to turn against us and to seek to harm us, we’re trying to develop patience so strong and so perfected that we could abide equanimously when they were attacking us and not feel angry or react angrily to these beings.
So and this is definitely a big ask and something that we may not necessarily be developed to do at the moment. So, process or the point of saying this prayer, the prayer that we’re going through, the Lamrim prayer, is that we’re asking for inspiration, inspirational blessings, to transform our minds so that we can achieve this state. So, says this request for inspiration, request for blessings is accompanied by a visualization in which while we’re saying these prayers, we imagine the Buddhas and our Gurus in front of us and then we imagine light coming from them and getting rid of all negative obscurations or any obstacles to us developing that state. And not only us, but we imagine ourselves being surrounded by all other sentient beings. So we imagine that this light goes into our heads, purifies our mind stream and pervades the minds of all other sentient beings.
We’re visualizing that all sentient beings are able to get rid of all of the things that could stop them being able to practice patience and stop them being able to perfect patience, and by perfecting patience, attain liberation. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Alright, because in Samsāra, it said that us and all other sentient beings are continually cycling cycling without control. So that means that sometimes we’re born it says in the highest of the, formless realms.
So that means we’re born or we create an existence for ourselves, A very subtle mind where we don’t experience any manifest suffering. And but when the karma for that runs out, we can be reborn in lower states and it says as low as the hells of Avichi which is the lowest type of hell that you can be reborn in. So we are as beings in Samsāra, we are, we are thrust through all of these different places. We’re sometimes born somewhere, sometimes born somewhere else, depending on our karma. Depending on our karma and the the delusive thoughts with which we create this karma.
So it means that we don’t have any autonomy or independence, from our karma and our delusions and that we, can’t really choose where it is that we’re going to be reborn in Samsāra. Where we’re reborn is a result of the actions that we’ve done. We can’t perform an action and then decide to be not to accept the consequences of that action and be reborn somewhere else. So it gives a number of analogies for what our existence in Samsāra is like. The first of all first of them is like a a fire wheel.
Okay. So it’s like that constant spinning, and we don’t know where we’re going from there. And so we can sometimes be up, sometimes be down, sometimes be up, sometimes be down. So it’s yeah. It’s like a fire stick or a Catherine wheel.
Okay. And sometimes and or we’re like this These are very metaphors that you don’t usually come across in modern day Adelaide. Anyway, the next one is in India, they have this way of getting water out of the the well, they used to have. They don’t even know it in India anymore, I guess. A way to get water out of a river by a a wheel with buckets in it that was propelled along by a donkey.
Yeah? And there and the and the wheel would pick up the water and come up to the top, and then it would empty out into a thing and then go back down. Right? So we’re like one of them the buckets. There we go.
Up and down and up and down and up and down and have no control over what’s happening. Anyway, the next one is in India, they have this way of getting water out of the the well, they used to have. They don’t even know it in India anymore, I guess. A way to get water out of a river by a a wheel with buckets in it that was propelled along by a donkey. Yeah.
And there and there and the wheel would pick up the water and come up to the top, and then it would empty out into a thing and then go back down. Right? So we’re like one of them the buckets. There we go up and down and up and down and up and down and have no control over what’s happening. So, it may seem like a rest but it’s not actually a rest because there’s no way that we can stop the process of creating karma and experiencing these results.
If we could stop that process then that would be a rest. But we can’t stop that process. Even if we’re in God realm and we’re experiencing in a heaven and we’re experiencing all these different amazing types of bliss. They’re constantly changing. They’re still changing.
They’re still today. They’re still tomorrow. And they see experiences that we had have in those states in one day become those that we’ve had in the next day. Right? So we’re still passing through those experiences.
So, because we’re still passing through those experiences, what we experience in the future depends on what we do now. Whether we do positive or negative things now determines what we experience in the future. So, there’s no rest from this constant and this is, from this constant, creation and experience creation of the causes of karma and experience of the results of karma. You can’t say it.
I thought I just figured out that I was using the word karma. Alright. So I said that to my home because you couldn’t say that in if the real meaning of karma. Anyway, so this is this is a process that we’re going through constantly. And so we don’t have a rest from that.
The only way we can have a rest from this is getting out of Samsāra or getting out of the process of creating causes and experiencing their results. There’s no other way out. So Geshe-la says lots of times he hears about people in on on the planet going for holidays. Yeah. Having a rest.
And he says that there’s places where you can go and have a good rest or he hears about things where there’s like a nice place to rest and he goes, they think they may be resting, but they’re not really. Okay. So sometimes we may be having a really good time, like a picnic. Oh, okay. The Tibetan ex they’re always in Tibetan teachings and Tibetan people speak their best their best idea of fun is a picnic.
Alright? It’s like you could have be having a really good time like a picnic. So that’s that’s always the example that’s given of the most fun. Anyway, so sometimes we could be having a really good time at a picnic, and then after that we can experiencing intense suffering. Something very negative can happen to us.
So, there’s always this constant toing and froing. We have really good days, we may even have a really good week, and then we may experience some kind of suffering. It’s a steady There’s never actually a rest because there’s never a stop to the results of karma. Sorry. So if we if we had real independence or autonomy, we could wake up in the morning and decide today’s picnic is going to be very fun, and, nothing bad is gonna happen at this picnic and enjoy the day.
Right? And we could stop ourselves experiencing any kind of suffering. If we actually had independence or we had autonomy, then we could decide how we’re going to experience every day. Okay. So, if we really did have independence, we could experience anything, any kind of happiness that we wanted to.
Now, the reason that we don’t experience happiness all the time is because we have to experience the results or even the actual minds themselves of the afflicted emotions, the destructive emotions that we experience. So if we were able to get rid of all of those and every experience that we have would be a pleasant one, be a happy one. If we were an Arhat, now an Arhat is someone who’s destroyed the negative emotions. The word for it in Tibetan is literally translated as foe destroyer. So the foe that the Arhat has destroyed is the negative emotions.
So having destroyed the negative emotions, then they are able to experience true happiness and happiness that doesn’t change, isn’t affected by these negative emotions. This description of the development of patience where we are that we’ve been through in the last couple of weeks where we are learning to not react to any of the things that happen to us whether it’s people attacking us whether it’s the suffering we have to experience is said to be it’s called the key instructions or the heart instructions of the Bodhisattvas because in order to practice patience you need to develop strength of mind. By developing strength of mind then that enables you to develop the strength of mind it enables you to develop the other perfections as well. So in general, there says to be three different types of patience that we need. We need patience against those who seek to do us harm, patience against suffering and patience in perfecting or practicing Dharma.
So this teaching of doing this visualization and trying to withstand suffering and the suffering of saṃsāra and attacks of other beings has dealt with the first two types of suffering but it doesn’t particularly talk about the patience with regards to practicing Dharma. It doesn’t particularly or directly talk about patience with regards to practicing Dharma But it does talk about the qualities of the Three Jewels and the process of karma where positive actions have positive results and negative actions have negative results. It also talks about having to keep working at the development of bodhicitta and the expansion of bodhicitta. So in this way although it doesn’t deal with the patience you need to practice Dharma directly it does deal with them indirectly. Indirectly.
So, these are the three things to remember when we’re practicing patience: to be patient with those who seek to harm us, patient with the suffering we experience, and patient with our practice of Dharma. Okay. So out of these three, Geshe-la says that he would personally think the most difficult thing, to practice patience with is suffering. Alright? Because even if we experience a tiny bit of suffering, so this a little a little example of discomfort, we’re trying to think of ways to deal with it.
We’re trying to think of ways to get out of that situation and to go back to feeling comfortable. So he would think that, this, patience in the face of suffering is probably the most difficult patience, different types of patience. So the other thing is that what we need in order to practice Dharma is not too much suffering and not too much happiness. If we don’t have too much suffering, then we’re not distracted from being able to do something. Right?
If we’re too immersed in suffering, then we can’t practice. And if we are too blissed out, then we’re not gonna wanna practice either. Alright. So if we think about it in that way, we need a balance of suffering and lack of suffering in in order to have the inspiration to wanna get out of saṃsāra, but not be too overwhelmed by suffering that we can’t get out of saṃsāra. Alright.
So if we think about it that way that a little bit of suffering is actually helpful to us because it inspires us to try and get out of saṃsāra, then that can help us deal with suffering, be patient with suffering. Okay. But the thing is, how we deal with suffering is actually the amount of suffering that we have actually again depends on how we deal with the suffering that we experience. So if we are able to transform the suffering that we experience and if we’re able to say able to think to ourselves well this is going to happen I’ve done negative things in the past I’m going to experience the results of those negative things and if I’m able to experience the suffering that’s the results of my negative actions in a human body. We’re not in the not in a lower realm.
In a human body where I have the capacity to transform it, where they have the capacity to exhaust these negative actions in relative comfort, then that’s really okay. That’s the that we could see it as like the blessings of the Buddhas. You know, they were able to, to experience suffering in a in a body and in an in an environment where we have the capacity to deal with it where we have the capacity to transform it as opposed to other environments where we would just be experiencing suffering continually and not have the capacity to transform it. So how we deal with suffering is actually more important than the experience of suffering. So if we experience suffering, then how much suffering we have doesn’t actually depend on our physical experience, it depends on our mental experience.
So and if you wanna think it the the other way then, if you are suffering, if you you do experience a physical, or mental, suffering or, discomfort or whatever it is, then how does thinking, oh, no, poor me. Listen to this. Look at this suffering that I’ve got. How devastating is that? How does that help?
How how does that help anything? It doesn’t it can’t help us, to add suffering to our already existing experience of suffering by wallowing in our suffering and it doesn’t help anyway it doesn’t it aggravates the problem as opposed to lessening the problem so if we’re able to transform the suffering that we have into an opportunity to purify and an opportunity to develop patience, then it can be used positively. If we keep asking why us and wallow in it, then all that’s doing expanding our suffering. Okay, and you’re allowed one question today. Who’s the lucky fellow?
Goes, whoever has a question. He said Yeah? Uh-huh. Okay. Geshe-la said, no.
No. You should take as much medicine as you can. So but the the thing is this, until the medicine kicks in, right? Then you could think I can’t do anything else about this now, right? So may this be a way to purify the negative karma that I’ve accumulated, right?
And the other thing is the motivation with which you’re taking the medicine. If you’re taking the motivation, if you’re taking the medicine because I wanna feel better, right? Just because of you, then that’s not as negative, that’s more negative, that’s negative, sorry. And if you were thinking, I’ve gotta get rid of this headache because I have things to get on with in order to help people, order to do things that are positive, then that’s a positive motivation for taking the medicine. So, it depends on what the motivation is for doing it, what would you do with your time now that you don’t have a headache and the way that you approach the time until the medicine starts working.
Uh-uh. Uh-uh. And so in that way, taking medicine is a positive action. And recovering from the headache is a positive action depending on what your motivation is. Okay.
So guess what he was talking about was when you have something you can’t do anything about. It’s better be quick because he said one. So if you come across death Uh-huh. You last is the man strong enough to keep insanity because you’re gonna feel so much suffering. So much grief.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Guess who said, there’s absolutely no reason why you should go insane because of people dying. There’s no one who’s not going to die and there’s no way that you can stop anyone dying.
Alright, whatever is a compounded phenomenon comes apart. Alright, whatever. What is ever is compounded becomes uncompounded. So physical body is never never going to last forever. Alright.
So you do all you can to help them and when you can’t help them, you have to be patient because that’s the way that things that’s the way that things go. So there’s no reason to get to he said there’s not even any reason to worry, let alone any reason to go insane. And so how you can actually help people when they’re dying is pray very much. Pray a lot.
Otherwise, going mad doesn’t help them. Okay. So if you can pray, right, and keep your mind happy, then you’re helping them. If you do anything else, you’re not helping them. Thank you.
Yeah. Yeah.