Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 21-minute Q&A, Geshe Pema Tsering opens with a question about the earth-touching mudra and offers several possible meanings — from the straightforward to the symbolic suggestion that the Buddha is declaring his intention to lead all beings to Buddhahood. He then explores how Dharma practice is fundamentally a shift in motivation rather than outward behavior: practitioners need not announce their Buddhism but can quietly reorient everything they do toward benefiting all beings, keeping their vows without making others feel excluded. He gives practical advice for handling chronic workplace negativity — investigate the cause rather than react, assess whether speaking up will help, and if not, let it go. The session closes with a brief clarification of two synonyms for Buddha nature: “source” (the origin of Buddhahood) and “type” (the Buddha-like potential present in everyone). Informal and conversational throughout.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 26 2005 09 08 (2) SC.mp3
UUID: 0ae47dbe-89b4-4144-84f3-6d0abf69d9a1
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Sublime Continuum (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-09-08
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 21.1 minutes
Words: ~1,785
He said there’s all sorts of mudras. It means he’s touching the ground. It’s a mudra that means he’s touching the ground. I said, she wanted to know the deep meaning of it, and he said that he’s touching the ground. And then I said, no.
She wants to know the really deep meaning. He said, I don’t know one. Oh, he’s saying the Buddha this the ground knows that I’m a Buddha. Or it could also He said he’s come up with a big one. He said it may also mean that you can say, even though I’m a Buddha, I’m still going to return to dust.
Could also mean that. But he has never seen any very deep meaning. He said, I’ve never seen it. Honestly, I’ve never seen any other description. But if you think about it, then you could come up with all sorts of things.
He could he Geshe said he thought of something else he could mean. It’s like the Buddha’s going, I’m the I’m the only Buddha on earth at the moment who’s attained enlightenment, so I am going to make a place to try and help be beings on the earth. Could be that. Or it could be the Buddha saying that my idea, this is the Buddha ground because he’s a Buddha and he’s attained Buddhahood, so this is the Buddha ground. And so his idea is to lead all sentient beings to the Buddha ground, so it could be a sign of saying, I’m coming to the I’m gonna lead beings to this ground.
From amongst the six different classes of beings. Not specifically, but you’ve got a Geshe, so you get a specific answer. Yes, Joe. So Geshe said that he thinks Dharma practice is something that’s more to do with the mind than with the speech and with the body. So that you should be working on your mind, but not necessarily changing what you do with your mouth and your body.
So he said this, that doesn’t mean that your behavior should get worse. He he said that it should be a a relaxed like it was before, but the reason you’re doing things will change. Alright. So you shouldn’t, you don’t necessarily stop talking to people and you don’t necessarily stop doing things. But the reason you’re doing them changes, that you try and make everything you do motivated by the idea of attaining enlightenment to benefit all sentient beings.
But no one else needs to know about that, and no one else needs to feel isolated from that. So if you’re behaving behaving in the same way, you’re just thinking different, then that shouldn’t necessarily stop you having interactions with other people. And if you’re practicing in that way where you’re focused on others, then that is the true Mahāyāna practice. So and I suggest that sometimes you just don’t have anything in common with people, and, you know, they say, do you wanna come to the pub? And you’re like, well.
And then he said, you know, if someone says to you, do you wanna come to the pub? And you have vows. It’s not like you have to say, I’m not coming to the pub because I’m a Buddhist. Yes? You can say, I’m not coming to the pub because if I drink, I feel sick, because it’s true.
Yeah? So you don’t have to say you’re a Buddhist. You can keep it to yourself. But I guess, I said, the other thing to remember is this, the view of the Dharma and the view of the world, like the worldly view, are mutually exclusive. Because the worldly view is focused on this lifetime, and the view of the dharma is focused on at least next lifetime.
So you need to keep that in mind and not think that you have to agree with everybody. Are you in a situation where don’t know how it works politely. A Geshe-la said that everyone in Australia is rude anyway, so you can say So Geshe-la said that you can always he thinks that you can always point out to people that you know, that you can always tell people I’m not doing that without telling them they don’t have to. Yeah? So you can say there’s a difference between saying you shouldn’t do that and saying I’m not.
So he said that if you say I’m not doing that, that’s a different thing to saying you can’t do that. And if you do that, then you’re less likely then you’re taking responsibility for yourself and you’re not forcing anything on anyone else. So you think that You gotta give Gareth some more specifics. He’s saying, they telling him to do bad work? Are they swearing at him?
What are they doing? Just it’s this negative attitude that have. Everything sucks. Uh-huh. Bad.
Uh-huh. They’re, yeah, squaring like Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s just that whole negative attitude that they hold.
Uh-huh. Okay. It’s pervasive. Sure. Sure.
It’s very pervasive. Yeah. So Geshe-la said that he would try and take a step back from the situation and look at it clearly. And then, first of all, come to it with the idea that’s thinking, what is it that they don’t know that makes them look see these things in this way? He said the idea is to investigate the situation as opposed to just react to it.
So if you investigate the situation, first, you need to say, okay. Why are they doing this? You know? What’s making them do this? What don’t they understand?
Yeah? And if you can get it from that perspective, then that can give you a different insight. And then in having investigated and giving yourself, is it give yourself the space perhaps, yeah, to, to be able to say that, to say they don’t get something. There’s something they’re missing out on. Right?
And if you’ve done that, then you can start looking at from, okay, how can I is there something that I could do or is there nothing I can do? And oftentimes you’ll find that there’s nothing you can do. So it’s best to just ignore them and get on with it. Because if you start arguing with them, then that’s gonna make worse. So you need to investigate to see if actually saying something is gonna help or not.
Remind yourself that they’re dealing strongly with ignorance. If it would help, say it. If not, ignore them and get on with it. Yeah? And also, said, you also need to look at what you’re getting out of that situation.
And what you’re getting if what you’re getting out of that situation is less than what you’re experiencing from the negativity you’re experiencing there, then you don’t have you you he wouldn’t do it. But if what you’re getting out of it is worth doing it for, then focus on that. Christy Lynn. Geshe-la said it’s always really important to look to investigate, to look at things, to yeah. Is everyone okay?
Just one more thing. Yeah. About the nature. Uh-huh. Was talking about a type and a source.
Oh, Geshe-la. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Different. They’re synonyms of this thing, the Buddha potential or the Buddha nature or the Mahāyāna achieving basis or whatever.
Mhmm. Okay? Yeah. The Buddha potential override Alright. Okay.
A source. Do you know what a source is? Like, not Yeah. That’s the the the source. Yeah.
What? The, you know, the So for example, your source is your mother. It’s not something you pour on dinner. It’s like the the source like the source of a river. Yeah?
I decided to not to talk about, you know, such stupid thing. Like river. You were trying to think of a strange metaphor. No. The source of the the source of a river is the starting point of a river.
Yeah. The source of Geshe-la was his mom. Yeah? So the I guess it said, so the source of Buddhahood is the Buddha nature. Source of Buddhahood, the Buddha nature.
So in that way, you could call the Buddha nature a source because it’s the source of Buddhahood. Yeah? What what was the other one? Okay. Okay.
The reason type is the thing that you can say is things are the same type when, they have the same substance or the same entity or the they’re similar. The when they’re the same in some way. Yes? And as the Buddha nature or the Buddha type has the potential to become a Buddha, yeah, it’s called a Buddha type, something that’s like a Buddha or is the same as a Buddha. Yeah?
Has a Buddha which everyone has, which is like a Buddha substance, but it’s not substantial. But that’s what we can create as well as we already have it, you know. Yes. Otherwise, we couldn’t become Buddhas. Is that okay?
So in the tea, there’s water. Yeah? And then it’s got other stuff in it. So that water, as you’d say, has the type of water. But at the moment, it’s polluted.
Like that. So, actually, the the man actually, the how we’ve grown up is isn’t isn’t it very important to us? Isn’t? Guess I suggest the way we grew up is important. I don’t know what that has to do with Buddha nature, so but yes.
Okay. So we have we all have the potential to grow into an adult. Yeah? But the way that we grow into an adult and what we do with our life depends on the work that we put in and the effort and the way that we grow up. Right?
So it’s the same with the we all have the potential to grow into a Buddha, but we have to put work and effort to go in there. So the process of growing is very important. Growing up is very important in in terms of this simile. Is that okay? Okay.
Are you sure? Because you’re not allowed to ask questions like this for six months. Six months? You’re not allowed. Rodrigo.
I said I said to Geshe-la, I said, Geshe-la, if you ask all questions that are a bit confusing for poor Rodrigo, that won’t be fair. Geshe-la said, no. No. No. Don’t worry.
He’ll have fun. He’s he’s Geshe-la said he’s working Geshe-la’s working from the idea that Rodrigo is gonna be an expert. Yeah. I don’t know about Japanese. I don’t think he said it either.
Think he speaks Italian and Spanish, but I’m not sure about So they gave it up at the