Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A Buddha statue hidden inside a closed, decaying lotus — this image opens Geshe Pema Tsering’s 60-minute commentary on the Sublime Continuum as he works through the text’s nine similes for how Buddha nature exists in all sentient beings yet is covered by adventitious afflictions. He first flags a translation problem with “clear light” (better rendered “luminous clarity”), then walks through each of the nine similes — honey surrounded by bees, gold buried in filth, grain in its husk — to establish that obscurations are removable, not intrinsic to mind. He explains the doctrinal stake: understanding this gives practitioners the conviction to pursue the truth body. The session closes on why Buddhas teach at all — seeing Buddha nature even in hell-realm beings, they employ every available method, like a beekeeper parting bees from honey, to help clear what obscures it. Suited to practitioners studying the Sublime Continuum text.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 13 2005 07 21 SC.mp3
UUID: 99bcb6b4-1526-480a-8a30-d99f5c031a6b
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Sublime Continuum (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-07-21
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 59.9 minutes
Words: ~4,205
Okay. So please Uh-oh. He said, yeah. But they should probably have a lot to to to have their mind go all over the place because they have to think about lots of stuff. Anyway Oh, yeah.
So just briefly try and I guess I said just briefly try and focus your motivation before you listen to the teachings because by developing the Buddha nature, by developing the Buddha potential, you progress along the path to Buddhahood and by doing so can benefit all sentient beings. Mhmm. Okay. So the next thing that we’re going to look at, we’ve talked about how maybe how to a brief description description of how the nature of the mind is clear light. Mhmm.
I mean, it’s so well I took him into Mhmm. They’ve translated in here as clear light, haven’t they? Yep. Okay. So that really doesn’t work because it’s not a light.
Yeah? Luminous clarity is probably longer, but more precise. And I was actually thinking that perhaps light light clarity might work. Bright clarity. Bright clarity.
Yeah. Bright clarity, but clear light doesn’t work because it’s not a light. We have the if you think clear light, have it’s a light. Right? It’s not a light.
Okay. So we’ve discussed how the nature of mind is luminous clarity or bright light a bright clarity or whatever. And now what we go on to look at is on page two of the translation we have in the number two a two b, establishing that obscurations are adventitious by way of nine similes and nine meanings. Okay. So in this in this section that is establishing that obscurations are adventitious by way of nine similes and nine meanings.
We have four different sections. The first one is the similes of the obscured and the obscurations along with their meanings. So when it says, similes of the obscured and obscurations along with their meanings, the obscured is that that which is obscured and that’s talking about the Buddha nature and the obscurations are the afflictive states of mind and the wisdom obscurations. Alright? So, so we have that which is obscured, the Buddha nature and that which is obscuring it, which is the two different, obscurations of knowledge and wisdom.
And then And then, there is how the nine how the nine things that are obscured or the nine similes for what is obscured are manifested through eliminating the nine obscurations. How you how the that which is obscured becomes manifest when that which is obscuring it is removed. The third one is the similes of the obscurations and their meaning and the similes of the obscured and their meaning. There’s anyone in each? Get Okay.
I guess they just said if you if they can hear you, it doesn’t matter if they can hear me. And I said, maybe someone who speak there’s none in that cupboard there. He said, I said, maybe someone who speaks Tibetan will want to listen in the future. Anyway, uh-uh. A a.
Double a. Yep. Double a. Hero, you can’t sacrifice your your translator machine. Oh, I I wouldn’t have allowed you to do that, I don’t think.
That’s a big sacrifice. Too small, anyway. That that would be not nice for you. No. It’s okay.
Go get some of you. Because I actually think mine’s gonna run out soon anyway. It’s going to red. There should be some at Buddha House somewhere. Well, that’s not very helpful, is it?
I mean, do we really need this? Mine’s about mine’s about to run out to you. Okay. Can we carry on with that? Yeah.
Yeah. He’s no. Wrong language. It comes and it comes He reckons if he holds it tight in his hand, it’ll make it hot, and more will come out. Yeah.
They work better when they walk. Mhmm. Mhmm. Mhmm. Alright.
So the nine things that are obscured are actually No, sorry. The nine obscurations are actually afflicted emotions or afflicted states. Once you have purified those or gotten rid of those, the Buddha nature is cleared of its obscurations and is able to manifest, to to present itself clearly. So there is nine similes that are explaining nine obscurations. This one.
Mhmm. Mhmm. And so then similes of the obscurations and their meanings means the similes for the nine things that obscure the nine afflictive states and what that means. What why the similes mean that? And the next one, similes of the obscured and their meanings.
Sorry. Keep stopping. I haven’t finished. Similes of the obscured and their meanings. There’s also nine similes for the nine states the nine nine sections of the Buddha natures, sections where where the obscurations have been removed.
Not sections. The nine things that the nine Buddha natures that remind when they have been removed. Alright. So even though you can’t divide the Buddha nature, you can’t divide the Buddha nature into the Buddha nature that is obscured by this and the Buddha nature that is obscured by that. Right?
What you have got is like nine levels of obscuration. And once you remove one level of obscuration, you can say it’s the Buddha nature that’s obscured by eight things instead of nine things. So you have a Buddha nature that’s obscured by nine things, a Buddha that’s obscured by eight, seven, six, five, and so on. Yeah. Mhmm.
I have to apologize. My brain’s fried. So anyone wants to swap brains with me. That would be good. But okay.
The next bit of the text says that we have a brief explanation of these similes and an extensive explanation. The brief explanation refers to two lines from sublime continuum that say, because lineage exists, all embodied beings are ever endowed with the essence of Buddha. The word they’ve used for lineage here is the same word that they sometimes translating as nature. Yeah. So they sometimes translate it as nature.
They sometimes translate it as essence or potential. Alright? It’s but it means type. So the Buddha type or the Buddha lineage. And so because that exists, all embodied beings are ever endowed with the essence of Buddha.
So the essence of Buddha Yeah. It needs to be changed. It’s like I’m something like a child. He needs this is going red. Oh, yeah.
So when that goes red Yes. Alright. So we’ve got a quote quote in the Sublime Continuum that says, because the lineage exists, all embodied beings are ever endowed with the essence of Buddha, which is unlike the essence of other things because because Okay. Because Buddha Uh-huh. Right.
Okay. So essence of Buddha is different from essence of water or essence of other essence. Sorry. Essence of Buddha. The essence of of Buddha isn’t like other essences in because it isn’t present in the thing that it is the essence of.
So usually you would say, for example, that the essence of water contains the essence of water. The reason that you would say water contains the essence of water is because water is changing in every moment. The substance or the cause for the water is in part the water itself, the cause for the next moment of the water. But cause for being a Buddha is the Buddha nature, but once you have attained Buddhahood, then the Buddha that remains after attaining that isn’t the cause for being a Buddha because it already is a Buddha. Right?
So the cause for water is in water because water is impermanent and changes constantly. Yeah? But because a Buddha, has already accomplished what was the cause of being a Buddha or the potential to be a Buddha, you can’t say that a Buddha has this nature. So the essence of Buddha is in all sentient beings, but not in Buddhas. Mhmm.
Alright. So the next thing that we need to look at is how if the Buddha essence or Sugata essence exists in a continuum of all sentient beings, in what way does it exist in a continuum? And then it says that it abides the way that it abides is is as the Buddha essence which is enveloped by or enclosed by afflictions. And because it’s enclosed by afflictions, it’s said to be understood by nine similes, and these nine similes have nine meanings. And this is explained in the Sublime Continuum.
So there’s that the sublime continuum says then as it says, abiding within the covering of afflictions, it is to be understood through. Alright. So when it says it is to be understood through similes, we want we need to know what is to be understood through similes. And and then what we’re trying to understand is the way that the Sugata essence, the Buddha nature is enclosed within the afflictions of our mind. So the way that the afflicted states that we have encompasses or encloses the Buddha nature that we have in our mind stream.
And so the first thing that it’s it’s it says that because it’s something that’s enclosed, the way that we understand it is through similes or metaphors. Sorry. Sorry. Not metaphors. Sami.
So the first thing that we have given that we’re given as a simile is that of a it says a discolored lotus. So it says, within a discolored lotus, there resides a Tathāgata body complete with clear signs and exemplifications. Alright. So this this this colored lotus thing no. It actually means a closed lotus from what I can tell.
So the the outside of a lotus is gonna be one color, but when the lotus opens up, you yeah. Yeah. Yes. Don’t give it a biggest trouble to the outside. Alright.
So so the outside of a lotus can get discolored, but the inside of a lotus doesn’t usually get discolored. Yeah? So usually, if there’s any pollutant in a lotus that’s on the outside, so then the lotus if the lotus is completely closed off, that’s when they call it discolored. That’s what it’s talking about, that’s closed. And if you open if the lotus that’s like this then opens, then you can see there could be a Buddha statue in there that you hadn’t seen.
This is the simile that’s used to describe how the Buddha nature exists in our continuum and is enclosed by or enveloped by negative emotions. That is that we can’t experience the Buddha nature until we have cleansed or purified the afflictive states, and then it shines forth. The same way that if a lotus was closed around a Buddha statue, we wouldn’t see the Buddha statue, But then if the lotus opened, we would. But this is the weird thing is, this is what I can’t translate properly, that the word that means for a lotus to open is the same word that means to clear. So it’s this whole the both of them something’s becoming clear.
The lotus becomes clear is how you say it in Tibetan. So this whole idea of the mind being cleared and the lotus being cleared becoming clear is this is a is the simile. This one. There may be a how’s that? Is it a what have they got here?
Delapidated. That’s good. Because I hope the only word that came to my mind was crappy. Then a dilapidated hive. There’s still honey.
That’s the next one. So there’s all of these other ones as well, other other similes. Within a husk, you have grain. Within filth or dirt, you have gold. A precious treasure can be hidden beneath the earth.
Something that will grow into a shoot. The shoot of a wishing tree is concealed within a seed, and you can have a precious Tathāgata image or precious Buddha image wrapped inside rags. So the idea with all of these is there’s things there that we can’t see. There’s things there that we can’t experience. There is potential and something very precious in places that may be covered in filth and we can only see the filth and we can’t see the preciousness.
Alright? The next thing it says, within the womb of a hag, which is an interesting translation for a I don’t know how they get hag okay. Yeah. So so what it’s got is like for the ones that they’ve translated as rags, it’s got, like, bad clothes. And the one that they’ve translated as filth, it’s got, like, bad earth or whatever.
Right? So then when it comes to bad or, like, yucky woman, they’ve translated it as hag. Right? Fair enough. Yeah.
Yeah. Great. I’m just trying to figure out how a hag would be giving birth to anything. But anyway, obviously, very fertile hag. There exists a child who can become a universal emperor, and a universal emperor is a wheel turning emperor.
Right? So someone Chakravatin. And precious Tathagatas image exists within its clay mold, so that we don’t see it. We only see the mold, but we don’t see what it can come out of it. So and also, you could say that the potential for the image exists in the clay before it’s molded molded into something.
So similarly, in the continuum of sentient beings, there exist nine elements of Buddha, the Sugata essence, but they’re covered by the nine different adventitious stains. Jeez. Alright. So these nine similes are described within the next two verses of the sublime continuum.
It says, a Buddha within a decaying lotus, honey surrounded by bees, grain in its husk, golden filth, a treasure beneath the earth, a shoot and so on in a small fruit, a victor’s image in rags, a ruler in an ugly woman’s womb. Mhmm. Ugly woman’s womb in an ugly in a ugly woman’s an an ugly woman’s womb. A precious image existing within a clay mold in just that way obscured by the sands of the adventitious afflictions, there abides this element of Tathāgata within all sentient beings. Decaying lotuses close-up.
Alright. So that’s why they keep saying decaying lotuses. And they don’t kind of usually die that way. Go. Then it says, why do we need to know this?
Why do we need to know these nine similes and their nine meanings and that the obscurations are adventitious and that they can be removed, and that by removing obscurations, we let the Buddha nature manifest, more strongly. And then it says the reason that we need to know this and we need to know this thoroughly, and we need to be convinced of this, is that it is by having the Buddha nature and by first of all having Buddha nature and then having understanding that the stains of afflicted states are adventitious, enables us to want to put in the effort or encourages us to put in the effort to attain the wisdom, truth, body or the dharmakaya. We develop a conviction by understanding that we have the Buddha nature that that we can get rid of the stains or the afflicted states to want to work towards attaining the truth body of becoming a Buddha. They call it a nature body. Alright.
So then the next thing that we need to look at is a topic titled how the nine obscurations are manifested through eliminating the nine obscurations. So this is described in the next couple of verses from the Sublime Continuum. And it’s described described by explaining that once we free ourselves of the eliminated no. Once we free ourselves of the afflicted stains, that as they are adventitious can be removed, we then are able to experience Buddha nature more clearly and is able to be developed or clarified. So the way that we do this then is what the next two verses explain.
They say, suppose they were abiding within a discolored lotus, a Tathagatas ablaze with a thousand signs. A person possessing a stainless divine eye upon seeing it would extract it from the covering petals of the lotus. So what would happen then if someone had this divine eye, which means they’re able to see through things that would block the vision of ordinary beings, they could walk past a lotus that was covered up, that had what do you call it when a lotus does this? Cloth. Cloth.
Thanks. I was thinking there must be some complicated word. Alright. So what if if there’s a closed lotus and there was actually a Tathāgata or Buddha statue statue inside, most people wouldn’t be able to see that. They’d only see the the tattered closed lotus.
They wouldn’t be able to perceive what’s in it. But if someone had the ability to see through things, which is what their divine eye is, then they could immediately see the the statue and open their lotus in order to remove it. Right? That that would be what they can do. It’s there’s the word sometimes means statues.
Oh. Oh, There’s not supposed to be any difference between a statue and a Tathāgata. All statues of the Buddha are Tathagatas. Does that make sense? Yeah.
So they use it interchangeably sometimes. Okay. A person possessing so so someone walking past it could pick it up and they would be able to see what was actually happening inside that and be able to extract it. Now in the same way that that could happen, then the next verse says, similarly, even in those abiding in the realm of unrelenting pain, the Sugatas see with Buddha eyes their real nature, and out of compassion remain until the end of cyclic existence without obstruction, acting to free them from obstructions. So the realm of unrelenting pain is the lowest of the hells, the Avicii hell.
So it’s saying that Buddhas can see the nature of the minds of beings in the hell realms, and they can see the nature of the minds of beings in in the highest point of saṃsāra in the formless realms. They see and because they can see the nature of everyone’s minds and they can see this Buddha essence, then they that’s what inspires them to work for the relief of the suffering of all sentient beings. So they’re constantly working to relieve the suffering of sentient beings to develop that Buddha nature and to remove the obscurations that stop the Buddha nature from being able to shine through. So their their understanding and their perception, enables them to see into the mind of beings and see the Buddha nature in the mind of beings in the same way that someone with the perception that could see through flower petals would see the Tathāgata in a folded up ugly lotus, worn out lotus. Yeah.
So this is what inspires the Buddhas to work for this the the liberation of sentient beings, and how they work for the liberation of sentient beings is to develop their Buddha nature, to wake awaken their Buddha nature by, teaching the Dharma to get rid of their obscurations. So the way that the Buddhas work to develop the Buddha nature, to awaken the Buddha nature in the minds of other beings, is first of all to recognize it. If they didn’t recognize the beings had a Buddha nature, they wouldn’t have any means for leading sentient beings to Buddhahood. So the first aspect of their their process by which they awaken the Buddha nature is to recognize it. And they see this Buddha nature in all sentient beings’ continuums from the lowest hells to the highest of the God realms.
And so what they then do is they’re working they, sorry, they teach or they manifest the Dharma as ways and means by which all of the beings in saṃsāra, from the lowest hells to the highest of the god realms, can free themselves of the obscurations of this Buddha nature. So all the things that they do, all of the teachings that they give, all of the activities they they engage in, the the object or the purpose of those teachings is to get rid of obstructions and lead sentient beings, and by getting rid of obscurations, have the Buddha nature shine forth. And having the Buddha nature shine forth or manifest means that beings are becoming Buddhas. Thereby, they attain the nature body. They become free from staying and attain the nature body.
So so this whole process then starts with being able to recognize that all beings have the Buddha nature. This is the key to Buddha’s leading us out of Samsāra, and the key to their activities is to recognize the Buddha nature and working and at the same time working to free us of the things that obscure it. So the reason then that they this is described by the simile of the statue covered by the closed can you have a dilapidated lotus? A dilapidated lotus, then it’s because if someone had clairvoyance, they could clearly see that the that there was something in the lotus. In the same way, the Buddha’s without much effort can clearly see that all beings have this potential.
Decaying. Decaying. Yeah. Closed decaying lotus. Alright.
So then the next thing we’re looking at is the way in which they do this. So the first thing that we looked at is the way they recognize. They recognize our Buddha nature and that’s in the same way as if someone saw a statue in a lotus that was closed. Now the next thing is the way that they get us out of or they remove, help to remove our stains. And this is described in the next two verses where it says, suppose there were honey surrounded by a swarm of bees.
Upon seeing it, an expert in trying to collect it would employ a method to completely separate it from the swarm of bees. Similarly, this great sages upon seeing with the eyes of omniscience the honey-like lineage, the element of Buddha, and its bee-like obscurers act to completely remove them. So what you have happening here is that the Buddhas can see that we have the Buddha nature and they can also see what is stopping that Buddha nature from manifesting, what we need to clear in order to attain the result of that Buddha nature, attain the result of the Buddha potential. So the thing that we need to be rid of in order for the Buddha nature to manifest is our obscurations. So they employ a myriad different methods in order to separate us from our obscurations.
And this is the activities they engage in to do this. So this is likened here to tricking the bees away from the honey in order to get the honey. So there are people who are honey or beekeepers. There’s a word for that too. I can’t remember that.
They will what’s the word? An a A purist. Yeah. I met one once. Yeah.
Anyway, so they Alright. So, yeah, so they use all sorts of methods to to separate the bees from the honey in order to get the honey. And so this is what the Buddhas are doing. They’re using all sorts of methods to to separate our afflictions from our Buddha nature so that our Buddha nature can manifest and we can attain the truth body. So the commentary that to the those two verses says in brief that the Buddhas what so what they do then is that they know that through their omniscience and then their compassion, they know that if they show beings ways to remove their obscurations We don’t that will It’s a if they show people how to remove the obscurations, this will enable their Buddha nature to shine, and they’ll be able to attain the body of a Buddha, the truth the truth body of a Buddha.
So thank you. So what they do is they teach thanks. They they teach the they teach beings ways to do this. They know that if they show them ways to do this and this is the only way for them to get rid of these obscurations and attain this enlightened state. So the idea that is given here is that they develop ways, or they teach ways, that if beings adopt, then they are able to get rid of the things that are stopping them from getting the most from their Buddha nature.
So the analogy here is that they they get the bees to go away so that they can take the honey. So they they show us they show us things that if we engage in, we’ll get rid of our obscurations and then our Buddha Buddha nature will shine forth and become Buddhas. So the main thing that they’re doing is showing us methods to get rid of our obscurations. So we don’t focus on developing the Buddha nature as they sorry. The way they focus on developing the Buddha nature is by showing us how to get rid of the things that are obscuring the Buddha nature.
So yeah. Okay. So we can finish that. Woo hoo.