Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Peeling an onion rather than a banana is the more honest image for Buddhist practice, Geshe Pema Tsering suggests — the layers of affliction to remove are simply too many. In this 25-minute Q&A from the Sublime Continuum series, he uses that comparison to distinguish naturally abiding Buddha nature (what we already have, waiting to shine once obscurations are cleared) from developing Buddha nature (what we cultivate through training). He also unpacks the Tibetan word often translated as “lineage” — it really means “type,” like a blood type — explaining why all beings share the potential for Buddhahood. A student who has spent twelve years exploring multiple spiritual traditions then prompts a comparison between Buddhism’s gradual path of subtler understanding and concepts like higher planes of consciousness from other systems. The session is relaxed and conversational, open to curious newcomers.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 20 2005 08 18 (2) SC.mp3
UUID: d7558b59-b107-46a2-a96b-820ac34b0646
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Sublime Continuum (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-08-18
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 24.7 minutes
Words: ~1,986
Sorry. Sorry. Because Geshe and I Geshe kept telling me that I thought I was a Buddha because I said that there’s a there’s this concept in the other traditions where they talk more about the Buddha nature being the Tathāgatagarbha and that being the nature of the mind. Geshe-la has been calling me Buddha for three years. He’s like, you get the tea Buddha?
Like that. And and I bet it’s been called too. Well, I get both. So and and and then I said, but Geshe-la, this said in here that the that the that our the Buddha nature is a naturally abiding dharmakaya. So if there’s a naturally abiding dharmakaya, why isn’t there a naturally abiding Buddha?
And he said, yeah. It’s probably the same thing. And I said, so what you’re saying is that you’ve been agreeing with me the whole time, but you didn’t say you were. And he said, yeah. Because gradual is better.
And then he said, I’m speaking Geshe-la. So that was the discussion that we just had. But it’s like a running joke. Yes. Hero.
It’s another way of saying innate Buddha nature. Yeah. Or is is that like a sort of Buddha type. Buddha Buddha type or Buddha lineage or Buddha nature? It’s this word, right?
It means like type. So why they’re translating it as lineage? It’s because it sometimes refers to, say, our ancestors. Yeah? That would be one type of this word, and so that’s why they’ve decided to translate it as lineage.
Like, for example, it’s the word that’s used to say race in Tibetan. Yeah? So, like, the the English the the English is one race, the Chinese is another race, the Tibetans are another race, they use this word. And then, it’s also the word that they use to describe like type. So what here, what it means is a type.
The things the things that we have in our mind that can be transformed into a Buddha. So the things that are similar enough to a Buddha to be transformed into a Buddha or the similar or the same as a Buddha to be transformed into a Buddha. So it doesn’t mean that something’s been handed down to us. It means it’s something we have the Buddha type. Blood.
A bit like blood. Blood. So what about this? I’m scared now. Okay.
Yeah. A type a blood type a blood type, you would use the same word in Tibetan. Blood? Yeah. Blood type.
Mhmm. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah, so they’d use the same word. You say that blood type and that blood type can match and other blood types can’t.
Right? So, Geshe-la said you could use that as some form of simile because you have this idea that something can be transformed into something else or given to someone else and others can’t. So, what we’re dealing with is that which is in our mind which can become a Buddha. So, to manifest ourselves as Buddhas. Is to manifest ourselves as Buddhas, not if we choose to, like, we have a choice.
Yeah. I mean, if you hear me, if we choose If we choose to? If we choose to manifest ourself as like a a Buddha like, like Buddha like. Buddha like? Then one day, we can Become a Buddha.
When I translate that into Tibetan, actually makes sense, which is a bit scary. Okay. So the way that when I translated it in Tibetan, it made sense to think that made sense to me in English. So maybe if I translate it back into English. Though it’s if we behave like a Buddha, we end up a Buddha.
Right? But Geshe said, yes. If we behave like a Buddha, we end up like a Buddha, but we have to be prepared to do everything that the Buddhas did in order to become a Buddha. You can’t roughly He said, you can’t just roughly behave like a Buddha. You have to thoroughly behave like a Buddha to become a Buddha.
But this is a similar thing, he said. But if you wanna be an astronaut. You have to behave like an astronaut. Practice certain things. Yeah.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. The only ones that succeed, they become an astronaut..
Alright. So it’s it’s a similar thing in some ways, he said, because we all to start off with, we all have the potential to be a Buddha, we don’t all have the potential to be an astronaut. Right? So, that’s a bit different. But, there is this idea that we can we can train our minds, that we can transform our minds so that we start off with the potential to be a Buddha and through training and transforming ourselves, we end up becoming a Buddha.
Yeah? And that transfer that the the qualities we develop in that transformation is what’s called the developing Buddha nature. And when the when we are purifying the obscurations through that training, what we’re letting shine forth is our naturally abiding Buddha nature. So is Buddha nature is like There’s like nine similes. Don’t give us another one.
It’s like a it’s like a there’s nine. What’s your simile now? Mean And Maitreya came up with these, you know? Go on. When we eat a banana, to taste it, we are have to peel.
Right? Yes. Yes. Yes. Then then, you know, otherwise, we test the the It’s very bitter, the skin of the banana.
Skin of banana. Right? Yeah. Sure. Guess this way.
What’s he saying? What’s he saying? The real meat of the banana. The meat of the banana. Right.
I okay. He goes, yes. Yes. The banana thing works. He said so if we think of the banana skin as being all our afflicted states of mind, so the banana skin is all all the things, all our attachments, of our ignorance, all of our hatred, all of our aversions, all of our jealousy, and all of our arrogance.
Yeah? And by doing these practices, we’re we’re getting rid of those. We’re peeling them away, and then we’re left with the essence which is the Buddha nature, the Buddha essence. Yeah. And so he said the practice, the Buddhist practice we’re doing is peeling away the skin and what’s left is the Buddha nature which is like the the nice tasting part of a banana.
But he actually thinks what we’re dealing with is more like an onion than a banana because there’s a lot of skin to peel off. Alright? So so that when you start peeling off an onion, there’s many, many layers. Yeah? And you have to just keep going and going and going, and we’re getting rid of layers after layer of of discursive thoughts, of negative states, and and and there’s a lot that we need to peel off.
There’s like a seed that enables it to be turned into another onion. So he said there is a seed. You’re looking for the seed of the onion. Yeah. Guess they said the real part of an onion is the seed in the middle.
Love it. Okay. So we need something that takes as long to peel as an onion and is difficult to peel as an onion and tastes as good as a banana. What about if we peel the onion and then we’re just so exhausted and so smelly? We eat a banana.
So Geshe-la said he thinks that there’d be a lot of it that was the same that you wouldn’t even that you wouldn’t even think about that you would try and incorporate. And there’d be some things that were maybe different, and then you’d look at the to see the differences in which one you agreed with. And then there’s So, he says it’s not even just He said a lot of Buddhism isn’t just Buddhist. A lot of Buddhism is a lot of other religions, a lot of non religious people actually have a lot in common with Buddhism. Yeah.
That’s it. They do, and and this is it. I mean, I’ve I’ve gone through so many religious philosophies. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, even Japanese. Japanese. Yeah. Yeah. And and the way they respect their death and and Uh-huh.
The. Uh-huh. Mean, I I searched for twelve years Uh-huh. Through my meditation. Sure.
Sure. I’m because I am not an organized religious Yeah. Believer in Mhmm. Mhmm. That particular Cool.
In my eye. I’m I’m I’m You could do philosophy with them. With Europe. But I do not believe in the hypocrisy of of the church. Uh-huh.
Uh-huh. And I’ve been searching for years. Uh-huh. I’ve done a lot of things. Uh-huh.
I don’t know a way to say universal consciousness in Tibetan. So there there is there are some parts of it that are similar, and there are some parts of it that aren’t aren’t similar. So, for example, he said this idea of getting to subtler and subtler levels of consciousness is a similar thing. There is different processes of like in the Buddhist path where you develop subtler levels of understanding and so on up until the final realization though in the Buddhist path is Buddhism. It’s Buddha.
Buddhahood. Alright? Which is defined as being the get having get gotten rid of all negative aspects and developed all positive qualities. So, if you’re defining that as if that’s what your definition of Buddha is, there’s nothing beyond that. Right?
If it’s, like, complete. Yeah. Those with highest level of universal claim and But that that That’s what That that that those most you’ve reached You’ve reached self. You’re grounded. Yoga.
It he wants to know if it’s a if it’s if you learned that in yoga, in a form of yoga in a Actually, I learned it in a lot of different time a lot of studies that I’ve looked at Uh-huh. To feel where I actually fit. Uh-huh. Always talk about the seven planes. You go travel through the seven planes of consciousness.
Yeah. Yeah. Because it’s not it’s it’s like doesn’t hasn’t heard of this. Because it because they talk about, like, seven consciousnesses in in Buddhism, but they’re much more mundane. So in Buddhism, when they talk about seven consciousnesses, usually they talk about six, and they’re the five sense consciousnesses and mental consciousness.
And then there’s also one philosophical school which puts forward this idea of what’s called a fundamental consciousness or a base consciousness. So, they’re the only ones that they talk about. They don’t talk about expanding the consciousness higher levels of consciousness that way. They talk about subtler understandings. Step by step.
Yeah. But it’s so he he said that’s similar, it’s this subtler levels of understanding, not higher levels of understanding. No. So for me to actually study Buddhism, I would have to actually, you know, push aside with other things that I’ve I’ve studied and taught. Geshe-la said he wouldn’t forget about anything you’ve learned.
He’d just make sure in your head that you were separating them, that you were doing like a different class, that you remembered this one was Buddhism and one wasn’t the other. So I guess Geshe-la said the main thing is to do is to learn how to think and so that you can look at things very clearly and see which one works for you. Yeah. Joe. What what if we’re just wondering if we can help you?
Would that do you wanna finish and get him to do that? He said he doesn’t know. The other Medicine Buddha? Is anyone else got a question? He’s gonna look afterwards.
He did know. He’s just being a Geshe-la. He’s he’s he’s a he’s he’s a human. Yeah. He’s a he’s a stirrer.
Okay. Everyone else is okay? Yeah. I’m okay. Okay.
Go here. Yep.