Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The image of four thieves slipping through unlocked doors anchors Geshe Pema Tsering’s 45-minute Lamrim session on the root of saṃsāra and the ethics needed to escape it. He opens by establishing self-grasping — the mind’s habit of treating “I” as supremely real — as the single source of all negative karma and suffering. He then traces the logic in reverse: uprooting self-grasping requires wisdom, wisdom requires śamatha, and śamatha requires pure ethics. The bulk of the session examines the four obstacles that destroy ethical conduct — ignorance, disrespect, unconscientiousness, and afflictive emotions — describing each as a thief that steals virtue, then naming the corresponding antidote. A brief Q&A closes with the practice of rejoicing to accumulate merit and the distinction between placement and analytical meditation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 13 SoP 1994 03 21.mp3
UUID: 3ccf2751-ed9a-47ab-9d33-b3d77e6b2a25
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Stages of the Path (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 1994-03-21
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.0 minutes
Words: ~3,598
Requested the Three Jewels to grant refuge. So that’s the same as us as well. Because we don’t know what liberation is, because we don’t know what enlightenment is, because we don’t understand the sufferings of saṃsāra properly, then what we do instead of going to refuge to the causes for developing these things, we strive very hard to create the causes for saṃsāra. We perceive saṃsāra to actually be a place where we can achieve happiness, so therefore we work really hard in order to attain those results. And so because we perceive things to be this way, because we perceive that we can get happiness out of saṃsāra, it means that we put a lot of effort into creating the causes for saṃsāra.
We put a lot of effort into developing the situation to be reborn in saṃsāra. And we spend a lot of effort and a lot of time and invest a lot of energy in creating these these causes. So what we need to understand then is what is that it is exactly that we need to do, what it is that we have to do in order to attain happiness. Because what we’re doing at the moment is we’re doing all of these things in order to get happiness in saṃsāra, but most of the things that we’re doing are non virtuous or neutral actions. We hardly ever do anything virtuous or anything positive.
Most of the things we do are either non virtuous because we’re trying to strive after temporal happiness or neutral. So if we actually want to create the causes for true happiness, we have to start doing virtuous actions. At the moment, it’s very difficult for us to do virtuous actions. So this is what we have to recognize. We have to recognize most of our actions are negative or neutral.
And even from amongst the positive actions that we perform, most of these positive actions have as their goal, happiness in this lifetime. So we do things in order to make ourselves comfortable, in order to make ourselves, happy, in order to in order that people will perceive us as being, good practitioners or good Buddhists to do good things. So we have this idea of it’s a virtuous action, but the reason we’re doing this virtuous action or this positive action isn’t that powerful. So by doing this, then we are actually creating the causes for experiencing the lower realms, and we don’t have the we don’t have the insight into seeing that that’s what we’re doing. So the reason for this is because of grasping itself.
It’s because we consider ourselves to be very important to be the supremely important thing, which means that we need to develop the ideas or the cause for attaining the the elimination of that grasping of self. And so what we need to do then is to to work hard to do something virtuous, to to work hard to do things that are positive. And this relates or relies on our motivation for doing those things. At the the best motivation that we can develop is the motivation that we are doing something in order to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. Otherwise, we should try and do things in order to achieve liberation from the suffering of saṃsāra for ourselves.
So this means that we should develop this idea that, or this motivation for listening to these, Lam Rim teachings or the graduated path teachings. We should develop the idea that we’re doing this with the purpose of achieving enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. Because the actual action of listening or teaching these teachings is virtuous, but we make it very virtuous action or a truly virtuous action by developing the right motivation. So we should think I’m listening to these in order to be able to understand them, order to be able to put them into practice, in order to be able to develop myself, in order to eventually attain Buddhahood and be able to lead all sentient beings beyond sorrow, establish them in a state beyond sorrow. So we should try and work with that motivation or develop that motivation for listening or teaching these this text.
So, also, I guess, the things that you’ve already meditated this morning, so that your mind should be clear, and then we should now develop this motivation. So in general, before the reason that we do these motivations in classes and at home, wherever we do the meditations and teachings and teachings and meditation, is in order to develop the right motivation for doing whatever it is that we’re going to do. So we should calm our mind and focus our mind on the idea of acting in order to benefit all sentient beings. So by doing this, then we’re able to focus our mind or develop our motivation strongly. And then whatever we do after that becomes a virtuous action, becomes a positive action.
So this is the main reason that we do this in order to develop the right focus for whatever action it is that we are going to perform. So the thing that we’re up to now is which way to train in getting out of or which way to train in the path of achieving liberation from saṃsāra. And in the text, it says that we imagine the teacher inseparable from the deity and they come comes out of the sphere of emptiness in front of us and through and we are requesting them to help us develop the experience that changes our mind around to see that all of saṃsāra is nothing but suffering so from this then we develop the strong urge to get out of saṃsāra, because we and to find, the root of what the root of saṃsāra or the cause, the main cause for what it is that we experience. Sorry, the main cause for us experiencing And so what this is referring to is self grasping. The main cause for saṃsāra is self grasping, our considering ourselves to be incredibly important and truly existent.
So the this is the path we need to follow, but the the main thing that we need to focus on in this instance is, the root cause of saṃsāra being self grasping. So in the Pramānavārttika, the explanation of valid cognition by Dharmakīrti. Then it says it says to understand no. The concept of other comes from establishing self. So from this idea, we have self grasping and other an aversion to other.
And from this idea, then we do all the negative things that we’re we were going we we do. All of the negative things come about from this idea. So what this is referring to is that all of the negative things, of the causes for saṃsāra actually come about because of our grasping at an inherent self or grasping at the idea of self. Through this, then we perform the actions that create saṃsāra. So this is this is what causes us to experience the sufferings of saṃsāra.
It’s just grasping itself. And so this is the same for all of us. We all have this idea of ourselves being incredibly important and other people as not being as important. So because of the idea of ourselves being incredibly important, then we perform all these negative actions. And through these negative actions, we experience their results, which is suffering, which is saṃsāra.
So it’s the same for all of us. We think, ‘I, I, I, I need this, I need that.’ And then as a result of these actions, we experience suffering. So from this idea of self, from this idea of I, then we develop the idea that I want to be happy, and I don’t want to experience suffering. And because of that idea, thought that we want to get rid of suffering and experience happiness, then we perform a whole variety of different actions, some of which are virtuous and some of which non virtuous. But they’re all based on the idea of self.
They’re all based on the idea that we need to experience happiness and we or I as a person don’t need to experience suffering. Now because of this, then we also develop these idea the feelings or the negative emotions of grasping of yeah. Grasping or attachment and aversion. So we develop hatred, and we develop attachment or desire. These two different ways of thinking all come about from the idea of self.
I just realized that there’s two little marks on my text, and I started from I got getting on to start from the wrong mark. So this is, revision. And he said, I told you that. And I was was like, yeah. But I Yeah.
It’s quite a lot. Yeah. Can’t believe it. It’s a valuable. Yeah.
He said he said, I told you that. And I was like, yeah. No. My mark’s here. And I just found a little mark.
Anyway Uh-huh. He said he said then he said, but doesn’t matter. Just tell him what I said. That’s beneficial anyway. The kitchen.
And it’s very important because, therefore, it’s okay. So he said that yeah. It’s important. Beforehand, he said Therefore, because we have this idea of I don’t want to experience suffering and I want to experience happiness, then we develop these actions or we perform these actions that are either virtuous or non virtuous depending on whether we which way we approach trying to experience happiness and trying not to experience suffering and they all take the form of what’s called karma and deluded karma and negative ways of thinking or afflicted ways of thinking. So the root of all of these is this grasping itself that comes about spontaneously or inherently for us in the way that we think.
This is said to be the root of saṃsāra, the main cause of saṃsāra. And so in order for us to stop this grasping itself, then we need to be able to understand or perceive the way that things actually exist. That is, that they don’t have this true nature of self or this inherent self within them. And we need to develop the wisdom that understands this in our mind streams. So in order for us to understand this, however, we need to have a stable mind we need to have developed a form of meditative concentration called śamatha or calm abiding if we don’t have śamatha or calm abiding then we’re unable to perceive the true nature of reality or the way that things actually are directly.
We need that as our stable base for developing that insight. And before we’re able to develop this calm abiding or śamatha state of meditative concentration, we first of all need to have good ethics or or pure ethics. If we don’t have pure ethics, there’s no way for us to develop this calm state. In order for us to develop this strong base of ethics, then there is four different things that we need to stop or there’s four different things that we need to wipe out because from these four different things we create negative actions or we perform negative actions Now these four are, first of all, from not knowing. So in order to develop to stop not knowing, we need to develop understanding.
We also need to get rid of being non respectful. In other words, we need to be respectful. We need to stop, we need to be conscientious and not be unconscientious, and we need to, try and get rid of, strong, afflictive emotions. Because by these four things, this is how our ethics are stopped. Now positive ethics are inhibited.
Uh-uh. Uh-uh. So the first one of these, which is ignorance or not knowing. Now not knowing or ignorance is something that’s very easy for us to to fall into or to to to have. Because from beginningless time up until now, we have been in the constant pattern of not knowing things.
We haven’t perceived how things are. And because we don’t know what suffering is, we don’t know what happiness is, we don’t know what the causes of happiness are, and we don’t know what the causes of suffering are, it’s very easy for us to create to, through our ignorance, develop the causes for saṃsāra. So what we need to do in order to stop this tendency, in order to to to stop this mis miscomprehension or the misunderstanding is to develop understanding, to develop understanding, to develop understanding of what it is we need to abandon, what it is that we need to practice, what it is that are the causes for suffering, and what it is that are the causes for happiness. And the reason that we have always been miss we are always misunderstanding things, or we are always misperceiving things, is that we’ve always been under the influence of grasping an inherent existence. And grasping an inherent existence is the a mistaken perception, that is, like, the root to our, ignorance.
And the next thing that we need to abandon or the next thing that we need to stop is disrespect or being unrespectful. Now there’s many peep many different objects that we can be disrespectful towards. We can be disrespectful to other humans. We can be disrespectful to the Three Jewels. We can be disrespectful to Buddhas, bodhisattvas, arhats.
We can be disrespectful to our teachers. We can be disrespectful to all of these things without perceiving the qualities that these beings possess. Then we can behave very disrespectfully. It’s also very important that we don’t be disrespectful to sentient beings, to other beings, because we owe other sentient beings a great debt. Other sentient beings have shown us incredible kindness and should be the focus for our deep gratitude.
Even the countless numbers of insects in some way or another have a connection with us. And in this way, then we have a deep indebtedness to these these beings, even to the smallest beings. And so in this way, then we should try and develop respect for all beings, for realized beings and for all sentient beings because of our connection and because of their kindness that they have shown us. And the reason that we have this disrespect is because we’re too focused on ourselves, because we consider ourselves to be way too important to we can because of our self-cherishing ideas and we don’t think of others. So this development of respect for others is something that’s incredibly important.
If we develop respect for others then we are able to focus on others and to stop focusing on ourselves. Focusing on ourselves is being the most important thing. So we also need to be conscientious. We need to be aware of what it is that we are doing. Before we do anything, we should think about what it is that we’re doing and what benefit what we’re doing will have or what negative effect what we’re doing will have.
And we don’t tend to behave like that most of the time or we don’t tend to think like that most of the time because we have this really strong sense of I. Then before we perform any action, it’s usually based on I want this or I need that or I want to experience this. We don’t look at the things that we do. We are led along by our self-cherishing, by our need to benefit ourselves or our need to supposedly experience happiness. So it’s like we’re the slaves of that idea of self and the attachment and aversion that come about because of that idea of self.
So we end up being powerless slaves that get passed around or or or or controlled by this idea of attachment and these ideas of attachment and aversion. Now the final thing that we need to stop, the final thing that influence us negatively is afflictive emotions or negative ways of thinking. The these are usually described as what are called the six root negative emotions and the twenty secondary root negative emotions. And now if we look at our mind stream, we’ll see that these, tend to pervade our mind stream or they tend to be very strong within the way that we think. So from the fourth of these negative four negative things, then it’s said that we, perform negative actions or experience, the results of negative actions in the form of suffering.
And in Tibetan, it literally says we bring about falling. And what the falling or the negativity the falling is described as is that falling into lower states of existence or falling into experiences of intense suffering like the the lower realms and so we this so it’s another way of saying we experience suffering or we experience or we perform negative actions. So it talks about negative actions and their results, which is suffering. So these are the four doors, the four, ways that we can experience this, and this is what we need to stop. So these four abandoning these four different things and practicing their antidotes is incredibly important.
If we want to practice Dharma properly, if we want to create the causes for experiencing happiness as opposed to creating the causes for experiencing suffering, then we absolutely and definitely have to get rid of these four doors to suffering or these four negative ways of thinking. So we need to these are these are negative actions, or these cause us to perform negative actions, these these four things, ignorance, disrespect, unconscientiousness and afflictive emotions or negative ways of thinking. They cause us to experience suffering because they cause us to perform negative actions. So this is something that we really need to focus on is stopping these actions. We need to really put in effort in order to get rid of these four doors towards the four doors that lead to suffering and negative actions.
So it’s like a example. If we have a house which has four doors, and we have many valuable things in the house that we wanna protect, then in order to protect those valuable things, we need to shut or lock the four doors so nothing can come into the house. No thieves can come into the house to steal these precious things. And these four negative negative actions or four negative ways of thinking, ignorance, disrespect, unconscientiousness, and afflictive emotions, are like four thieves that can come in and steal our happiness or come in and steal our causes for happiness. And we really need to stop those doors or stop or lock those doors so this can’t happen.
And the way that we lock these doors is by applying the antidotes to each of these four negative ways of thinking. That means that, for example, we use knowledge to stop ignorance. We use respect to stop disrespect. We use conscientiousness to stop the lack of conscientiousness, and we we use antidotes to fight our negative or to stop our negative emotions. Yeah.
So now I have put a good mark here. So I’ll be able to see it. Sister was really little and Oh, yeah. Okay. So if anyone has questions.
Thanks. Alright. Yeah. Jackie has a speed hand. Yep.
Uh-huh. It’s a way to get a really good result. So rejoicing is a way for us to create a good amount of positive karma without doing very much. So we don’t have to put in a lot of effort, but then we create very positive imprint or very positive karma in our mind stream. So even if we can’t do a lot of very positive actions ourselves, if we can see other people’s positive actions and be very happy about those and rejoice in those, then it’s a way for us to create the merit of doing those positive actions.
So it’s like Okay. So it’s like said, if if you wanna create lots of merit, then there’s nothing better than rejoicing in what other beings do. Very it creates also very much merit. Is that classified as a negative emotion, or is it just a If I translate frustration together, it comes across as lack of patience. Sorry.
It’s too hard to explain, wasn’t it? Because I was like, so impatience and impatience are both impatience in English. So I was like, instead of impatience and frustration being something yeah. Yeah. There’s some mention about He says by doing what you’re doing now, by by looking at we’re looking at these different texts, and they explain to us what it is that we need to do and what it is that we don’t need to do.
And by understanding that, then you’re able to do it, and you get rid of your ignorance. Yeah. Same thing. Okay. So there’s two different types of meditation.
There’s what’s called placement meditation and analytical meditation. In placement meditation, you’re getting rid of the ignorance that you have that that doesn’t understand calm abiding. Right? And in, analytical meditation, you’re getting rid of the ignorance you have towards analytical concepts. So with through through both types of meditation, you’re getting rid of ignorance.
Yep. Mhmm. If you don’t have a pure ethics, there’s no way you can develop a calm abiding. There’s no way you can contemplate correctly.