Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. “The rhinoceros-like arhat” — a striking image Geshe Pema Tsering uses in this 18-minute Lamrim session — anchors a discussion of why great compassion is indispensable for Buddhahood. He opens by contrasting two classical methods for cultivating loving kindness: recognizing all beings as one’s mother and Śāntideva’s exchanging self for others, also taught by Nāgārjuna. The session shifts into Q&A, where a student’s question prompts an explanation of why texts introduce great compassion before bodhicitta: as Candrakīrti states, it is foundational at every stage of the Mahāyāna path. Geshe Pema Tsering then sketches the fate of arhats — beings dwelling in nirvana for eons, utterly free from suffering, yet unable to reach full Buddhahood without developing the great compassion that encompasses all sentient beings.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 18 SoP 1994 04 04.mp3
UUID: 0f1787cf-a5ba-4df1-944b-a7fcd236edfd
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Stages of the Path (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 1994-04-04
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 17.8 minutes
Words: ~1,128
That we should focus on those that are close to us. His followers later extrapolated on this to say that if we focused on our mothers then that would be the most powerful version of that. That’s one type of meditation. The other type of meditation was described mainly in the entry to the Bodhisattva’s way of life by Śāntideva. This explains how if we were able to transfer the cherishing attitude we have to ourselves onto others, then that would be another way of developing this loving kindness.
This idea that was developed by Śāntideva is called exchanging self for others. The two different ways of developing this this love and kindness that finds all beings appealing is through exchanging self and others and through seeing all beings as being our mother or starting focusing on developing loving kindness for our mothers. Okay. Alright. So it wasn’t only Śāntideva that explained his exchanging self for others in this way.
In a couple of texts, Nāgārjuna in his Ratnāvali and the explanation of the Bodhisattva’s way of life and something else. It s like the wish fulfilling something. Sorry. I thought it was like a wish fulfilling jewel which was a path of a wave, and I was getting confused. But it’s a wish fulfilling jewel which is a path of the Dharma.
So these two different texts by Nāgārjuna, he explained the exchange of self for others as being a way to develop loving kindness that finds all beings appealing. Okay. So there’s a bit of time for questions. People have it? Have some?
Yeah. Why does the text start at great compassion and to sort of like sense that it’s coming back? You know, through the seven points. Oh, okay. Okay.
So it’s not certain that in every text or it’s not definite that in every text this is the way that it’s explained. In some texts they explain the way to develop great compassion and then they explain what great compassion is. In others they start off with talking about Buddhahood and work all the way back to understanding suffering and trying to practice the ten virtuous actions. It depends on which way they want to approach it. There’s many different ways that they approach it.
If they approach it in this way, we’ll be saying, Okay, this is what you want. Now you know what it is, you’ll need to know how to develop it. They may approach it in this way, which is in fact what the Four Noble Truths do. In the first one, it’s what it is and then how to get rid of it, then the results and then how to achieve that. The reason that they talk about great compassion, first of all, is because it is said to be, as Candrakīrti said, the great or the important at the beginning, the middle, and the end.
If there is no great compassion, there is no bodhicitta. So it is said that great compassion is said to be the basis for the Mahāyāna. And because it’s the basis for the Mahāyāna, that’s why it’s talked about first. So for example, bodhicitta is very important, but when you become a Buddha, you don’t need to go meditate or you don’t need to have bodhicitta anymore because you’ve achieved the goal of bodhicitta. But as a Buddha, you still have or you still have familiarity or you still practice not practice.
You’ve still perfected great great compassion. Okay. So someone who’s practiced the middle scope and achieves the goal of the middle scope, achieves liberation, or which is another way of saying nirvana. So what happens to these beings then is that they don’t experience any suffering of body or mind. So they experience a happiness that we can’t comprehend properly.
Their body and their mind are completely free from suffering. So whatever they do, they are in a complete state of happiness. Their experience is of this complete nirvana. They don’t achieve anything past that if they don’t have great compassion. Unless they have great compassion, they don’t develop past this state of nirvana.
That they don’t cease to exist either. They exist in this state of bliss. So they can they they are they continue to exist in that form and don’t need to die unless they choose to in different states of, like, form and formless. So in these form less and form states, which are realms of meditative concentration, or they can choose to exist in a in a a pure realm or or all sorts of places. It’s not possible for them to achieve complete Buddhahood unless they develop It’s not possible for them to achieve complete Buddhahood unless they develop great compassion.
But if they do develop great compassion, then it’s definitely possible for them to achieve Buddhahood. Is beings who exist in a state of nirvana for many eons because they have no need to they’re not in saṃsāra anymore they have no need to go back into no other experience they don’t need to experience anything else but this great bliss yeah or great happiness so they can stay like that for eons and eons and eons but if at some stage then they develop great compassion then they can go on to become a Buddha. So there’s two different types of these arhats. There is those who have are what are called pratyekabuddhas or solitary realizers or Geshe-la said rhinoceros-like arhats. And now what this means is because the reason that they’re called rhinoceros like is because rhinoceros just hang out by themselves, right?
What these beings do is they develop teachings and understandings up until their final lifetime and in their final lifetime they do all their practices or they do all their meditation by themselves without a teacher. Hence they’re called rhinoceros-like solitary realizers or solitary realisers. They develop an insight which is slightly more subtle than the insight of the other types of arhats or the other types of middle scope beings who’ve completed the path. But neither of them can actually develop full Buddhahood based on the motivation that they went into these practices with. That isn’t to say that they don’t have compassion because some of them have enormous compassion and they may even have what’s called immeasurable compassion.
But unless it’s great compassion, unless it’s this idea of all sentient beings, then they can’t there’s no bodhicitta, so they don’t go on to achieve Buddhahood. There’s no cause. There’s no reason for them to strive for Buddhahood. Does that make sense? Yeah.
Yeah. Do you have any other questions? I’m a good. I’m angry with it. Oh, so is there any more questions?
Last chance.