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 jail analogy to clarify what renunciation actually means: even a prisoner not currently in pain is still confined, and we need that same recognition about saṃsāra. After briefly reviewing the two causes for refuge — fear of saṃsāra’s sufferings and trust in the Three Jewels — and the practice of watching body, speech, and mind, he moves into an extended analysis of the three types of suffering. He distinguishes the basic renunciation any animal has from pain, the deeper renunciation non-Buddhist yogis develop by seeing samsaric pleasures as unstable, and the hardest renunciation — from the all-pervasive suffering underlying even subtle meditative equanimity. He admits he himself finds it difficult to see ordinary pleasures as truly suffering. The session closes with a verse on upholding liberation’s banner.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 11 SoP.mp3
UUID: d19455ea-f97a-4d94-b0eb-fc4fff066d95
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Stages of the Path (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2004 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.9 minutes
Words: ~3,767
So when listening to Dharma teachings, it’s very important to adjust our motivation. If we have the right motivation, then listening to teachings on Buddhism becomes very powerful and very beneficial. If we don’t have the right motivation, then its benefits will be very limited. So the motivation that we need to generate in order to listen to the teachings properly or most beneficially is that we’re doing this in order to we’re listening to the teachings in order to understand them, order to be able to put them into practice, in order to be able to become a Buddha and be able to benefit all sentient beings. We should be thinking in brief that we’re listening to the teachings to be beneficial towards all sentient beings.
So in this way, the at the beginning of doing anything positive and at the end of doing anything positive, we need to do two things. So at the beginning, we need to develop the right motivation, thinking that we are doing this in order to be of benefit to all beings, all sentient beings, through becoming a Buddha. Then at the end of whatever action it is that we have done, we need to dedicate or commit that action towards becoming a fully enlightened Buddha and being beneficial to all beings. So this means that not only do we develop the right motivation at the beginning, but when we end it, then we dedicate the positive action towards that that final outcome. So it’s important to remember to do one thing at the beginning and one thing at the end.
Your sister, she didn’t have to meditate on that this morning because she thinks she wrote down meditation this morning. So we don’t you don’t have to go over that again in meditation. So last week, we were talking about refuge or going for refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and the Sangha. And last week, we were talking about how developing this refuge depends on what are called the causes for refuge. And the first cause for refuge is said to be the fear of saṃsāra or the sufferings of saṃsāra.
Once we’ve developed this fear of saṃsāra or terror at the sufferings that beings, including ourselves, have to go through in saṃsāra and in particularly the lower realms, then we’re able to develop a sense of refuge. So the two causes for refuge are said to be the fear of the sufferings of saṃsāra and a belief in the qualities or the protective abilities of the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. But if we first of all don’t understand the suffering of saṃsāra, then we can’t develop fear for the suffering of saṃsāra and we don’t develop a sense of refuge. So the thing that we need to develop then is what’s called the an understanding of what’s called the precepts, the advice that’s given in order to protect a refuge. So we need to develop an understanding of that advice.
Some of that advice refers to the treatment of the images that we have. It also says that once we’ve gone through refuge to the Buddha, then we don’t try and find refuge in other objects or we don’t think that other objects can save us from suffering or stop our suffering. That’s one of the types of advice that goes with refuge, but there’s many other things. But it says though that what we need to understand most of all or what we need to develop in ourselves most of all is an understanding that the Buddha’s way showing us how to see suffering is by explaining to us what is going to cause suffering and what is going to cause happiness. So if we don’t do like the Buddha explained, if we don’t follow the Buddha’s advice and stop doing negative things that are going to cause suffering and start doing positive things that are going to cause happiness, if we don’t abandon what we need to abandon and practice what we need to practice, then it’s not as if the Buddha has another ability to stop us from experiencing the sufferings of the lower realms or experiencing the sufferings of saṃsāra.
The way that we are liberated from saṃsāra is by following this advice. So because this is the refuge, following the advice of the Buddha then we really need to make sure that we’re aware of what’s called our three doors which means the doors of body, speech and mind which means what we’re doing, what we’re thinking and what we’re saying. We need to become very aware of what we are doing, thinking and saying. Once we’re aware of what we’re doing, thinking and saying, then we’re able to make sure we don’t do anything, say anything or think anything negative, and that we do things, say things, and think positive things. So then, as it says in the root text from Reviewing the Stages of the Path, we then pray.
We have this idea that please bless me to develop the following understandings because it’s taken from Guru Puja. So we’re asking we’re requesting the Lama or the Guru to grant us blessings that we may be able to, as it says, become aghast at the searing blaze of suffering in the lower realms, and take heart in refuge in the three precious gems. And it says, we seek your blessing that we may eagerly endeavor to practice the various means for abandoning what is bound to misfortune and accumulating virtuous deeds. And then because this is a commentary on the Guru Puja, it then explains the visualization that we should be doing while we’re saying this prayer. This visualization is this, we have imagined the teacher inseparable from the meditational deity in front of us.
And from this, the image that we have of this being, then light comes out it pervades us and all other sentient beings. And as this light pervades us and sentient beings, gets rid of all the negativities, all the obscurations that sentient beings have that stops them from being able to be ethical in this way, doing positive actions and not doing negative actions. And so it gets rid of all of those obscurations and once it’s gotten rid of all those obscurations, then realizations come about. So once we get rid of things that are obstructing us to understanding, obviously understandings come about. These understandings come about in the form of compassion or any of the realizations up until we reach enlightenment.
So we imagine that this is happening, that the negative obscurations are taken away from sentient beings’ minds and all the positive realizations develop in their mind streams. And then when we see this happening, when we visualize this happening, then we get very happy. So these instructions on how to avoid the sufferings of the lower realms and to in going for refuge comes under what’s called the the instructions of the lowest being or the instructions of the lowest motivation. So this isn’t the end of the story. This is just the beginning.
But when we talk about these things, we talk about developing renunciation from the lower realms and deciding that we don’t want to experience the sufferings of the lower realms. It’s not as if this isn’t important either, because if we don’t have this development of understanding, then there’s no way we can go on to practice the higher levels of motivation. So we need, first of all, to develop this renunciation of the lower realms. In order to do this, then we need to have an understanding of the sufferings of the lower realms, and having had enough understanding of the sufferings of the lower realms, go for refuge. We want to practice, we have this idea that we want to practice a great scope, we want to practice the Mahāyāna, but if we want to practice that, then we have to practice this scope first.
It’s not as if this is a unique practice to the lowest that nobody else needs to do. Everybody needs to practice in this way or everyone needs to develop these understandings if they want to develop these understandings and be able to develop the motivations of the middle and higher scopes. So it’s very important to develop this understanding in the beginning and we need to take this understanding with us as we go through. This means is practicing virtuous actions, getting rid of negative actions, and in this way, then going for refuge to the Buddha. And this one.
Okay. Now the reason that we developed this idea of wanting to achieve a positive rebirth in the future, wanting to develop a to create the causes for achieving a human or God rebirth is because this lifetime doesn’t last for a very long time. So we need to it’s not stable, it’s not something that we can rely on, it’s something that has to come to an end. This means that we need to develop the causes for establishing ourselves in a positive rebirth in the future. So this is the main reason that we need to develop the motivation of the lower scope.
But to develop on from the motivation of the lower scope, we then go on to the explanation of how to think about the next verse in Reviewing the Stages of the Path. It says at the beginning then that in order to develop the mind or motivation of the middling scope there’s two things we need to do. First of all, we need to develop the mind training, the mind desiring liberation or the mind desiring nirvana, and then also we need to train in a way that accords with achieving that goal. So first of all, to talk about how to develop renunciation or the mind straining toward or wishing to achieve liberation. Then as before we imagined that the teacher inseparable from the meditational deity are visualized in front of us and this is focus for our meditation.
Then we go through the next phase of developing the mind of renunciation. In order to do this, we’ve already talked about how going for refuge to the Buddha, Dharma and the Sangha gives us the ability to stop experiencing the sufferings of the lower realms. If we follow the instructions or the guidance of the Buddha and abandon negative deeds and practice positive deeds then we don’t create the causes for experiencing the suffering of being an animal, a spirit or a hell realm being. So we’ve talked about how that happens but once we’ve done this, it doesn’t actually get us out of saṃsāra. This merely that motivation and merely practicing these kind of positive deeds doesn’t create the causes for us to reach liberation or achieve nirvana.
Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, I forgot to say something else. If we want to get out of the sufferings of saṃsāra, and I was thinking, did he? Yeah, he did explain this next bit.
If we want to get out of the sufferings of saṃsāra, then we have to create the causes to get out of the sufferings of saṃsāra. Every kind of rebirth that we have in saṃsāra, whether it be as a god or a human, that’s nominally called a positive rebirth. Or if it’s in the lower realms of suffering, then whether it’s in what’s called the top or the peak of saṃsāra, if we’re in the subtlest level of meditative concentration, or if we are born in the lowest of the hells, then we are still trapped in what is called the three realms of saṃsāra. And as we are trapped in the three realms of saṃsāra, then our existence is still under the sway of what are called the three different types of suffering. That is the suffering of suffering or manifest suffering, the suffering of change how things keep changing from good into bad and the third one is what’s called all pervasive suffering.
So any experience that we have in saṃsāra, even though maybe in a relatively good rebirth, still is qualified or still has these two these three different types of suffering. Okay. So because of that, our experience, is by its nature, these, as a samsaric being, our experience is by its nature one of these three the suffering of suffering, suffering of change or pervasive suffering that means that even the positive actions that we do are said to be an instance of the truth of suffering. So even though we may do something and establish it as a cause or turn it into a cause for us to get out of saṃsāra and to experience nirvana or to achieve full enlightenment, that action is still said to be the truth of suffering. By its nature, still suffering because we are still doing it as samsaric beings.
Its result may not be suffering, but the action itself is still by its nature suffering or dukkha because of the being performing the action. So this means, if we think about it this way, that getting out of suffering, getting out of this experience of discontentment or abject suffering or whatever it is we experience is very, very difficult. It takes a lot of effort because this experience of suffering is to be like an ocean or a very big lake in terms of its expanse in that it is deep and it is wide and it is difficult to cross and difficult to stop. It’s like we are completely surrounded by this experience of suffering and we need to get out of it. Being reborn as a god or a human doesn’t stop us experiencing suffering even though it may be temporarily not present.
So the mind that we need to develop is similar to that of a being in jail. Even though the being in jail may not be experiencing manifest suffering, they’re still in jail. And so they need to get they have a mind wishing to get out of jail. And in similar to the fact that they have this thought, I want to get out of jail, this consciousness thinking, want to get out of jail, then we need to have the same mind thinking, I need to get out of Samsāra, because it’s like a jail of suffering. And we need to develop this mind in a very or develop this idea in a very forceful, strong manner.
If we develop this idea in a forceful and strong manner, then meditate on it, then we’ll be able to develop renunciation. Now, this mind that or this thought or this idea that seeks to get away from the suffering of suffering so he said that there’s three different types of suffering. The first one being suffering of suffering. This idea that I don’t want to experience manifest suffering or manifest suffering is a pretty simple and easy to develop idea. Even animals have it.
Animals have this, if you like, renunciation or a sense of striving to get out of suffering. They’re in pain, they don’t want to be in pain. If they’re ill, they don’t want to be ill. If they’re hungry, they want food. They have an instinctual or an easily developed idea about not experiencing suffering and trying to find any way to stop experiencing manifest suffering.
It’s a very natural or something that easily comes about even in animals, this idea of not experiencing suffering or renouncing suffering. So in order to develop this kind of renunciation, in order to develop renunciation of pain, to become a renunciant from pain, it’s pretty easy. It’s not something that we have to work out a lot to develop. We don’t have to go through different meditation techniques to see the faults of saṃsāra or to focus on impermanence or death. It just comes about naturally.
Not even and it isn’t even peculiar to humans. humans have these different abilities to concentrate and to develop intellectual ideas and they don’t even need to use those in order to develop a renunciation Now as for this developing renunciation from the second type of suffering, what’s called the suffering of change and what the suffering of change which we usually view as being happiness or pleasure in the saṃsāra form. As for developing renunciation from these kinds of sufferings, and then there’s beings that aren’t or meditative practitioners that aren’t Buddhists that develop renunciation from this kind of suffering or what we usually view as being pleasure. They can see the faults in it. They can see the problems with it, how it’s not stable, how it doesn’t develop true happiness in them.
And then they’re able to develop levels of meditative concentration and turn their minds toward higher meditative realms through renouncing samsaric pleasures which are unstable and by their nature suffering. We’re talking about yogis who can develop the abilities of meditative concentration and they are able to see the faults of their fleeting worldly happinesses that we view as pleasures, and they’re able to develop renunciations from them. This is interesting because there are lots of people that call themselves Buddhist and have this idea of being better or more developed than non-Buddhist, but they’re not able to develop renunciation from these things that we usually call happiness but aren’t actually happiness by their nature. And Geshe la says that he’s a bit like this, not looking down on other people, he has faith in the Buddha, but he finds it very difficult to view things that we usually see as happiness or pleasure as being actually suffering by their nature and faulty by their nature. It’s difficult to develop this understanding of the happinesses of saṃsāra as being truly suffering.
But even though these beings may have been able to develop an understanding of the faults of the so called happinesses of saṃsāra which are actually the suffering of change, they’re not able to develop the mind of liberation, of striving to be free of saṃsāra completely. Their goal is to develop higher levels of meditative concentration that stop the suffering of saṃsāra for a limited time. Okay. So in order to develop a mind of liberation or a mind striving for nirvana or liberation purely, then we also need to develop renunciation from this. The subtlest levels of meditative concentration which are said to be equanimous by their nature.
That is, that they don’t have extreme suffering or extreme happiness in their nature. They’re equanimous or balanced. They’re said to be three different types of feelings: happiness, neutrality and suffering. These are said to be neutral feelings. Even though there may be an experience of this neutrality, extreme joy.
This contentedness is still said to be a part of saṃsāra because even though the mind, the very, very subtle mind that is said to be the peak of saṃsāra, a subtle meditative, concentrated state that people are able to abide in. Even though this may not have any sense of suffering there, any manifest suffering, it’s still said to be what’s called by its nature all pervasive suffering in this it comes about because of cause and effects and it’s still under the power of karma and delusion. It has no independence from the power of karma and delusion. So developing an understanding of this is very difficult But if we want to develop true renunciation, then we have to put in a lot of effort to be able to see that this very concentrated equanimous meditative state is by its nature suffering also. It is by its nature compounded through karma and delusion and therefore part of saṃsāra.
We need to develop the ability to be able to see even that. And then before we ask the teacher inseparable from the deity that are visualizing to grant us blessings to develop that understanding. When we have this idea that we don’t want to experience suffering and we want to experience happiness and we have this idea that means we have renunciation, then we have to realize that that is a very gross form of renunciation. And if we wanted to develop true renunciation, we not only have to develop renunciation from the manifest suffering or what we normally perceive as suffering, but we need to develop renunciation from the suffering of change which we usually perceive as happiness and also the subtle equanimous or neutral feelings of meditative concentration. To develop renunciation, we need to understand all of those things and have an idea of turning away from all of those things in order to pursue true happiness or the true happiness of liberation.
Because this is really hard, then we ask for the blessings of the teacher inseparable from the deity to develop this understanding. So in this way then we see that we can see pretty easily that developing renunciation is not easy. It’s very difficult, and we have to put in a lot of work if we wanna develop this realization. It’s difficult for us to strive towards achieving liberation in the main part because we spend most of our time striving towards achieving saṃsāra or creating the causes for saṃsāra. And the way we do this is by focusing on the temporary happinesses of saṃsāra as if they were true happiness and spending all that time working towards achieving those.
If we watch the way that our mind works, then we’ll see that most of the thoughts that we have or most of the things we think about are ways in which to make ourselves happy in the short term in this lifetime, ways in which to cause ourselves to experience temporary samsaric happiness in this lifetime. Focusing on that, we’re actually creating the causes for saṃsāra. We’re creating the causes for suffering. And the things that we’re striving for are not, by their nature, true happiness. Okay.
So then having thought this idea and having requested this teacher’s blessings and to develop this understanding, the next part of this prayer, the Reviewing the Stages of the Path, says, I have to read it because trying to translate poetry on the spot is tricky. It may sound a bit strange, but anyway, having abandoned the mind that views this unbearable prison of cyclic existence as a pleasure grove, we seek your blessings to partake to partake of the treasure of Ārya’s jewels and the three higher trainings and thereby to uphold liberation’s banner.