Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The pivot in perspective defines this 56-minute session: Geshe Pema Tsering shifts the Sublime Continuum’s nine similes away from what is being obscured — the Buddha nature — and toward what is doing the obscuring. A summary verse anchors the opening: remove the nine stains and a Buddha’s nature body is revealed. He maps each obscuration to its corresponding metaphor, moving from the three dormant poisons through their violent outburst, the subtle latencies of ignorance that even arhats and Bodhisattvas still carry, and the objects of abandonment across the Hīnayāna and Bodhisattva grounds up to the tenth. He then unpacks the first three in detail: attachment like a lotus that loses its bloom once familiar (illustrated with a lively aside about cars and misers), hatred like bees that sting to their own death, and confusion like a husk concealing the grain within. Suitable for practitioners following the series.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 17 2005 08 04 SC.mp3
UUID: 6ffdf432-49f6-4ac1-ae10-9f476e6e27a8
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Sublime Continuum (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-08-04
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 56.4 minutes
Words: ~3,960
Okay. So please take a moment to look at your your motivation and make sure that you have the right motivation. We’re looking tonight at the Buddha nature. So if we can have the idea that by listening to teaching on the Buddha nature, we’ll develop an understanding of the Buddha nature, we’ll be able to act on that Buddha nature through that understanding and practice the paths and eventually become a fully enlightened Buddha. Mhmm.
Mhmm. He hasn’t turned it on. Oh, yeah. Mhmm. So, pardon?
That just is so difficult. Yeah. So the how we went through last week, the nine similes that explain how the Buddha nature exists in the continuum of of all beings and the process by which we can awaken that Buddha nature and develop to develop towards becoming completely enlightened Buddhas. So the next section of the text then is a summary of this and it says, in summary, when the nine obscuring stains are removed, the nature body the abandonment of the two obscurations, is manifested. So what that’s saying is that the nature body or the realized sorry, the emptiness of a Buddha, the is the result of clearing away the obscurations that obscure the Buddha nature.
So when we, get rid of those, then we go from having a Buddha nature into being a Buddha. And this is said has been explained analogously through, the nine analogies that we just went through. That is or similes that we just went through. It was like a lotus, like sorry. It’s not Buddhism that’s like a lotus.
The obscurations are said to be like a lotus, like bees, like a husk, like the unclean, the great ground, a fruit skin, rags, a woman’s womb. It’s more like a hag’s womb, anyway, in a clay mold. And when they are removed, the Buddha nature, they’re analogous to the obscurations. And when they’re removed, that which is analogous to the truth body is revealed. And that has been explained in the nine similes as being like a Buddha’s emanation body, honey, a kernel, untarnished gold, a wish fulfilling treasure, a trunk of a tree, a precious image, a universal emperor, and a golden Tathāgata image.
So, this is saying then that by getting rid of the obscurations, we are able to leave the wisdom body or the truth body of a Buddha manifest. Seven. And there’s a quote in the middle now. One? Mhmm.
Mhmm. Mhmm. So this is why the next two verses of the sublime continuum say, within a lotus, bees, a husk, the impure, the ground, a fruit skin, rags, a woman’s womb, and clay. Is that like a Buddha? Honey, a kernel, So I don’t know why he’s repeated like.
It’s not like a light. Gold. Anyway, is that like a Buddha, a honey, a kernel, gold, treasure, and a tree? A precious image like universal emperor and like a gold image. These are the metaphors that we’ve gone through. And the purpose of going through those metaphors is that sometimes you unless you explain, through metaphors or similes, people don’t have a clear picture or a clear, grasp on something that’s a abstract concept.
And if you get the idea of what’s happening through similes, then you can apply the similes to the abstract concept. Okay. So we’ve been through the nine obscuration the nine similes from the point of view of that which is being obscured, of the process of, a process of purifying that which is being obscured and the nature of the thing that is being obscured. And the next thing to do is look at the nine similes from the perspective of that which is doing the obscuring. And so in this these the similes for the nine obscurations are the same or the nine obscuring stains, the same similes that we just went through.
But, in this time this time, we’re going to look at the nature of the things that is obscuring as opposed to which is being obscured. And so this is why it says, that the first Oh, hang on. I forgot something. And he said that’s why it’s saying that if we have, for example, Buddha, and Buddha is like the Buddha nature, but there’s We also need to understand what it is that What the petal represents that is Or the lotus represents that is obscuring it. Because unless we understand the nature of the things that is obscuring the Buddha nature, then we’re not going to know how to get rid of them.
So we need not only to understand the nature of the the Buddha potential that we have in our mind stream, but also the nature of the things which obscure that so we can get rid of them. So the first two are said to be so the first I’m sorry. My brain is not kicking over. Alright. So the first one to three are the three dormant poisons.
So that is the poisons when they’re not the poisons of attachment, aversion, and ignorance when they are not manifest necessarily in our mind streams. And the sec the fourth, sorry, is the violent out burst of these three. So I was a little confused as to what Geshe-la was saying because I wanted to know why one is divided into three and the other, which is an outburst of all three, which isn’t an outburst of all three, is an outburst of one of them is is lumped into one. And he said, basically, so you can fit all of the negative states into nine similes. It’s not for any other reason.
But he said, but it’s also you could also think about it that the the the nature of reacting strongly to something is pretty similar despite the emotion that comes behind it. If you’re gonna react some strongly to something, then the the nature of that reaction doesn’t vary much. Whether it’s a a stronger motivation of desire or aversion. It’s still the the there’s a still a a full on force there. And this word that they’ve translated as violent doesn’t mean violent as in beating people up.
It means violent as in strong. There’s like a violent storm or something. Word that they’ve translated as violent means that something manifests and strong. It’s not the potential for that in the mind stream or the tendency towards that thing. It’s talking about when anger or desire or ignorance take over.
So Geshe-la explained it by the Tibetan word. One of the Tibetan words for anger is to have your winds rise. So he said when your winds rise up, know, that that that it’s that experience. It’s not just the tendency towards that, but it’s when you actually whoops. Get rid of my hand.
When they actually take over, when they actually manifest strongly. The microphone is not closing as No. The battery’s dead. Mine’s going dead, but it’s alright for now. We should maybe invest in a recharger.
Well, you should because I’m leaving. Be cheaper in the long run, that’s what I was thinking. Geshe-la’s got one, and he doesn’t use it much anymore because I bought it for his radio. And he doesn’t listen to the radio because he’s got a computer. So he can use his.
No. We don’t. We got no. He’s got batteries and a battery charger. Because he got it for his radio, then he stopped listening to the radio.
Probably not. Anyway, works. Probably Alright. So the next thing that we need to look at then is the level of the latencies of ignorance. Now what the level of the latencies of ignorance refers to is the very subtle knowledge obscurations that exist in the continuum of hearer and solitary realizer arhats.
So these beings don’t have any obscurations to liberation in their continuum. So this means that they don’t have any ignorance. Ignorance is an afflictive emotion. Yes? But because they are abiding in hang on.
I’ll explain. I’ll I’ll try and say that better. They don’t have the cause, the ignorance that leads to rebirth in Samsāra from the twelve links. And so this means that they don’t have afflictive ignorance. But as they still have obscurations to omniscience, they have a form of ignorance.
Yeah. So it’s not afflicted ignorance. It’s not ignorance that’s gonna land them back in a samsaric rebirth, but it’s, some lack of knowledge, some not understanding things, like not understanding, for example, the concept of bodhicitta and things like that. So this is why it’s called the level of the latencies of ignorance. It’s a form of ignorance, but it’s not afflicted ignorance.
Yeah. I guess I said it’s something they need to get rid of in order to be a Buddha. Yeah. So so I think this is an example that didn’t quite work to try and explain to Geshe-la what you’re saying. So if we can know something and we cannot know clearly, that’s what you were saying.
Yeah. Geshe-la said and I he said, what are you talking about? And I said, well, for example, if I met someone a long time ago, I may remember them, but I won’t remember them clearly. Yeah? And he said, no.
No. That would be a problem with your memory. This isn’t a problem with your memory. Their memory is fine. And then I meant but it wasn’t a very good example then.
Yeah. But he said it’s like it’s not being foggy about something and not clear clearly knowing it. It’s just that there’s certain things they need to find out. There’s certain things that they’re ignorant of in order for them to become a Buddha. Yeah.
They need to find out certain things. They need to get rid of certain obscurations to, Buddhahood in order to become a Buddha. So it’s not that they half know things, it’s just that they don’t know some things. Mhmm. Okay.
So these things also exist in the continuum of Ārya Bodhisattvas. So, people on the Mahāyāna Path who have realized emptiness and all the way up to becoming a Buddha also have these have these levels of latencies of ignorance. Alright. So the other ones that we need to look at then is objects of abandonment on the Hīnayāna path of meditation, and the objects of abandonment — I missed one —. Objects of abandonment in the Hīnayāna path of seeing, objects of abandonment of the Hīnayāna path of meditation, the objects of abandonment of the seven pure grounds impure grounds, and the objects of the of abandonment of the three pure grounds.
So the three pure grounds being the last three, the eighth, ninth, and tenth. Yes. Eighth, ninth, and tenth. Oh, so once you got rid of all them, you’re a Buddha. Susan.
Oh, So the ones that ordinary beings have to deal with are the first four, and the ones with realizations have to deal with the last five. But this gets explained in a bit. So then when teaching through illustrations, the nine stains, we do them in order. So that is each of the nine similes have a have a corresponding affliction, from these nine. So the first that we then look at is the three dormant poisons and from amongst those, the idea of attachment or desire.
Now, this is likened to the lotus. So it said that the the afflicted state of desire obscures, the Buddha nature in the same way that a closed, decrepit lotus would obscure a Buddha statue. Alright? Now, the reason that they use this metaphor for describing desire is that like desire, when we first look at no. Like the objects of our desires, when we first look at a lotus from a distance, we may not notice it is decrepit.
We’ll think, oh, that’s very pretty. It’s a lotus. Alright? And then when we start looking at it closely, when we start to get to know it better, it starts decaying and falling away. And this is the same thing as our objects of desire.
Sorry. I had an image of a person decaying and falling away. Anyway, the yeah. The so so this is why it’s used as a simile. But we won’t go into as much detail with the rest of them right at the moment.
We would go over what’s what’s a simile of what, and then after that, and we go into the detail of why they’re a simile. Uh-huh. Alright. So then we can go through the other eight of the similes. The first is the simile of bees along with honey illustrates dormant hatred obscuring the element of Buddha.
And similarly of removing the husk along with the kernel illustrates dormant confusion obscuring the element of Buddha. The simile of the impure within which is a gold nugget illustrates the violent outbursts of the three poisons obscuring the element of Buddha. The simile of the great ground beneath which exists a precious treasure the level of the latencies of ignorance obscuring the element of Buddha. The simile of the fruit skin in which there is a seed having the ability to produce a sprout illustrates the object of abandonment of the Hīnayāna path of seeing. The simile of a of rags covering a golden Buddha image illustrates the objects of abandonment of the Hīnayāna path of meditation.
The simile of a woman’s womb obscuring a baby who is suitable to become a universal emperor illustrates the respective objects of abandonment of the seven impure grounds. Now what this respective objects of abandonment means is that as you go through the seven levels, at the seven grounds, you have separate things to get rid of on each of the different grounds. So when you get to the first ground, you have a certain amount of things that you get rid of, and once you’ve gotten rid of them, you end up on the second ground. That’s how you how you tell when you’ve gone from one ground to another. It’s what you’ve gotten what obscurations you’ve gotten rid of.
So this works all the way up through the ten levels. Sorry. I’m gonna poke you in the eye with my pen. And then once you’ve got up to the seventh, you move on to the ninth simile, which is a clay mold obscuring a gold image, and that illustrates the respective objects of abandonment of the three pure grounds. So this means there’s there’s a certain amount of things you need to abandon on the eighth ground, and then again on the ninth ground, and then a tenth ground.
And when you’ve finally gotten rid of all the things you need to be abandoned on the tenth ground, the last moment of the continuum of a sentient being abandons the last of the obscurations of the tenth ground. No. The last of the obscurations to be abandoned on the tenth ground. Alright. So I’m gonna read out the verses because that’s all just did.
No. Only explain one part of it. I’m sorry if it gets worrying rereading stuff. Attachment, hatred, and obscuration, and their violent outbursts, the latencies and the abandonment of the path of seeing in meditation, the impure and pure grounds. The nine forms of stains based on these are clearly shown by way of the similes of a covering lotus and so forth.
The coverings of the secondary afflictions have limitless millions of divisions. So what this is talking about is that you have main afflictions. We talk about the main afflictions and the secondary afflictions. There’s supposed to be like six main afflictions and then at least twenty one second secondary afflictions. The secondary afflictions are actually supposed to be so various and so changing that to say this is this and this is this is is quite difficult.
So but they can all be subsumed within one metaphor. We can think of them as being one metaphor even though they multi there’s many of them. Sorry. My brain’s gone on vacation. There’s lots of them.
Yeah? So we could think of them as being, oh, we need one simile for this one and one simile for that, and that’ll just take forever. So what we’re doing here is thinking about a simile that reflects the whole myriad of limitless millions of divisions of secondary afflictions. And the last verse these nine afflictions, including one category which has got a lot in it, such as attachment and so forth are respectively clearly shown by way of these nine similes, such as the covering lotus and so forth. Alright.
So the first thing that we’re looking at then is how a lotus is said to be like attachment Mhmm. And that is obscuring the Buddha nature. So dormant attachment attachment is said to be like a lotus because it grows from water and mud and it appears before one generates attraction and delight. So it doesn’t come from a very nice place, but we get this idea of attraction and delight when we find either a lotus or some other thing that we are attracted to. And that but late but a lotus, and this is a metaphor for later on, with age withers.
And as the sublime continuum says, one’s attraction and delight generated by attachment produced by improper mental application fade. So this is supposed to be the same thing as when we are attracted to something. In the beginning, we’re very attracted to them and this is like when lotus isn’t droopy. Alright? Isn’t isn’t disintegrating.
But generally, once we are once something loses its shine, once it loses its newness for us, the object of our attachment loses its newness, we cease to be as interested in it. And at least our attachment to it isn’t as strong. And I asked Geshe if that meant that people that old people weren’t allowed to be attractive. And he said, no. You can be attracted to old people.
It means the he he said it’s talking about the attraction, not necessarily it’s talking about the process of attraction, not necessarily the object of attraction. So you can be attracted to an old person, but you’re not likely as likely to be attracted to the old person when they become old to you. Does that make sense? Like a car, he said. When you first get a car, you may be very excited about it, but that excitement wears off.
Yeah? Because it uses the example of women. I say, does that mean old women can’t be attractive? And he said, no. So if you said if you’re talking about miserly people, you’re obviously gonna use the idea of money and not people.
Right? Because he said that they wouldn’t spend money even on people. On he’s talk you know, how it says here, it’s talking about being attracted to a woman or a man or it says says a woman, etcetera. Like that. A woman and so forth, it says in Tibetan.
And then I guess I said you wouldn’t use an example about a miser. You more more likely say your money and so forth. So the the people with attachment to money are gonna be more interested in how much money they’ve got, and they’ll get bored with a certain amount of money and want more and so on. But yeah. A joke, and I was a bit bad.
He said, I didn’t get it right. He said, very miserly people actually like old things instead of new things because they don’t wanna spend money on new things. That was blah. Yeah. Like, but your car you look at your car and you you you think your car is good, he said.
Okay. Yeah. Pardon? It’s not very good. You have two cars.
Yeah? Yeah. Big one? Yeah. And he’s he said you got a big one, and you got a small black pretty one.
He said, you probably wouldn’t be able to be miserly and keep a car like that because it would be too stressful. He said, if you were riding miserly and you had a car like that, you you get very agitated everything something every time something went wrong with it, you’d have to keep paying for. So Geshe-la said, it’s a sign of not miserliness, having an old expensive car. You don’t have attachment to your car. Mhmm.
Okay. So the root verse for this says, just as a lotus grown from mud delights the mind when appearing before one. Yet later that delight disappears, so too is the delight of attachment. No. Hey.
Do bees die when they lose their sting? Bees are dying. Stinging, but most of them. Okay. Guess what was going on there, and I’m like, what?
Maybe they’re special Indian bees. No? No. And did someone take care of stuff? No.
Yeah. No. I said I thought maybe there are Indian bees. Guess, no. Right.
Okay. Now we’ve got that sorted. The next thing that we’re looking at is the simile of bees swarming around honey and how that is like hatred. So why it’s like hatred is that when something agitates the bees, they go ballistic and they go around and they they attack people and they harm others. But in harming others, they also harm themselves.
Alright? Because when bees bite you, they die. Or when they sting you, sorry, they die. Alright? So they’re agitated.
They’re so agitated. They’re gonna do something to hurt you, but it’s not actually helping them much because it’s gonna kill them. Alright? And this is said to be very much like anger. It’s something that we get very agitated about and it hurts us as well as hurting other people.
So the bees then are said to be very much like anger, like the bees going ballistic when someone comes around them. Are said to be very much like I very much like anger. Mhmm. Mhmm. So this is why the root verse says, just as, just as bees sting when strongly disturbed.
Likewise, when hatred arises, suffering occurs in the heart. Mhmm. So the next thing then is the, dormant, confusion, the last of the, three, poisons. And it’s said to be like a husk of grain. And the reason it’s said to be just like a husk of grain is that it conceals Alright.
Okay. Alright. I’m sorted now. But it’s said to be like a husk that covers the seed, or what do you call it, the bit you eat, or use, of grain.
Because with ignorance with ignorance of conceiving true existence, we don’t see emptiness. Without seeing emptiness, we don’t see the clear the clear luminosity of the mind, and therefore, don’t see the Buddha nature. We don’t understand the Buddha nature. We don’t see it. So the ignorance stops us from seeing the Buddha nature, the clear luminosity of the mind, in the same way that a husk obscures the grain within it.
This one. So this is what it says, just as a kernel of grain is concealed by the outer husk, likewise seeing the significance of the Tathāgata essence is obscured by the covering shell of ignorance. This one? Oh, yeah. Yes.
Alright. So Guess who said, like, every time I write down a date, I go, woo hoo. Or not necessarily. It’s like I write down a date. I’m going.
Oh, coward. Guess who said, what are we gonna do with you go? And I said, there’s From necessity.