Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 86-minute commentary, Geshe Pema Tsering opens with the eight worldly concerns — gain and loss, pleasure and pain, pleasant and unpleasant words, praise and abuse — using the image of an echo in an empty valley to argue that praise and criticism neither improve nor harm us, making equanimity toward all eight achievable. He then establishes karmic cause and effect through concrete analogies: gold beaten into a cup never becomes clay; a chili seed never yields sweet fruit. A Q&A closes the session, drawing out student images of ants in honey and moths at a candle as metaphors for saṃsāra, while Geshe Pema Tsering adds a sharp caution that contentment alone risks laziness unless paired with active striving for liberation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 Three Principle Aspects.mp3
UUID: d73685b1-c2cc-4643-8fcb-a16a8d82603b
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: The three principal aspects of the Path (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2002 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 86.1 minutes
Words: ~7,915
We’ve been speaking about renunciation. It’s necessary to generate a mind of renunciation. Why? Because without generating the mind of renunciation, then we cannot generate a fully qualified mind which seeks to be free of saṃsāra. Why is that?
Because without renunciation, we are still attached to the pleasures of saṃsāra, and therefore, we will not develop a mind which is fully qualified or can truly be considered a mind which seeks to be free from saṃsāra. So that is the importance of generating renunciation. That is the importance of speaking about it as well. One thing we must understand is liberation. When we speak about liberation, really, we’re speaking about the pleasure excuse me, the happiness of liberation.
So what is the happiness of liberation? The happiness of liberation is a happiness which is free of suffering. This is as opposed to the hap samsaric happinesses. Samsaric happinesses are infused with suffering. What is the difference between happiness which is free of suffering and happiness which is infused with suffering?
Well, happiness which is infused with suffering is temporary, is brief, it’s not reliable. Why is that? It’s because that happiness still comes about partly in dependence upon causes of suffering. So as long as we do not abandon suffering and its causes, and any happiness we experience will be of the type of samsaric happiness, brief, unreliable, very temporary. So we are seeking the happiness of liberation, a happiness which is not imbued with suffering, a happiness which is free of suffering and which is everything which that samsaric happiness is not.
Now we’ll be addressing this issue gradually throughout the entire evening, but to return to the verse, which Geshe-la was speaking on last week, we were speaking about the in that we were speaking about how in order to generate such a positive mind of renunciation, it is necessary to reverse the fantasies we have about this life. In this case, it said stopping desires for this life. Now in relation to this point then, the text or we were advised that we in order to reverse the fantasies of this life, we need to contemplate the difficulty of finding such a rebirth in which we possess the freedoms and endowments, and we need to contemplate death and impermanence. Now, in contemplating death and impermanence, we contemplate mainly three points: that is that while death is certain, the time of death is uncertain, and thirdly, those are two points, yeah, death is certain, the time of death is uncertain. And finally, that at the time of death, nothing but the dharma is of benefit.
Those are methods which help us to generate renunciation as they are methods which help us to reverse the fantasies we have towards this life. In addition to these points, which we contemplate in order to reverse the fantasies towards this lifetime, and in addition, we have to contemplate the eight worldly dharmas. In fact, we have to try try and reverse the eight worldly dharmas as well. Why? Because by because the eight worldly dharmas lead us to be attached towards the pleasures of this life, the pleasures of saṃsāra.
For instance, within the eight worldly dharmas, one can speak about being attached to gain and reputation. When one is we need to maintain a level head in regards to the eight worldly dharmas. If we do not maintain a level a level head in regards to the eight worldly dharmas, then we become very excited when others show us, for instance, respect or when we experience great financial gain, and we become very upset when we do not. For instance yeah? If someone were to not show you the respect you feel that you deserve, for instance, because you are very attached to, you know, people showing you respect and treating you in in such a way.
When that doesn’t occur, you feel very uncomfortable and perhaps upset, don’t you? Now this comes why why do you feel upset when someone does not behave does not treat you in a way with excuse me. Why do you feel upset when one does not show you respect? It’s because you are attached to respect. The same is true in terms of loss.
If you are greatly attached to, for instance, financial gain and so forth, when you do not experience such financial gain. Yeah. It’s almost like you bought them out. So by becoming very excited about gain or a positive reputation or having respect and so forth, When these things do not come about, you you you bought them out. You feel very bad about that.
So it is this attachment towards the eight worldly dharmas which leads to the feelings of being upset when they you do not encounter them and being overexcited when you do. It is very important to reverse these eight worldly dharmas. Main that is, it is important to maintain a level head so that your mind can be very stable if people show you respect, and your mind can remain stable even if people do not show you respect or disrespect. How do understand? We’re upset.
Somebody rude talking or rude doing, then really upset. Because As Geshe-la has has expressed then, because we are attached to others shown we are attached to the respect we feel we deserve, yeah, because we think, oh, I should I should be shown this amount of respect. And when someone disrespects us and the we experience a sense of deflation and being upset to the same degree that we are attached to the that respect. It is the same with pleasure and suffering. This is another just as yeah.
This is another aspect of the eight worldly dharmas. Because we are so attached to pleasure and when we do not experience pleasure and we also feel this letdown, we feel upset. So if as long as we are attached to the pleasure, then when we experience a little bit of suffering, it’s almost as if we cannot bear that experience of suffering. But yet at the same time, not only is it the fact that when we do not experience pleasure or excuse me, when we experience a little bit of suffering, we we feel quite let down. Also, we are not satisfied with the amount of pleasure and happiness which we experience.
And no matter how great what the pleasure in your life is, if someone were to ask you, would you like more? Of course, we always say, yes, we want more. We’re never satisfied with the level. So as long as one is always attached to this the pleasures, for instance, the saṃsāra pleasures and so forth, and one lacks satisfaction in regards to them. And when we experience suffering, we will be unable to bear it because we think we are always thinking that we need nothing but pleasure.
Being trapped in this mindset then leads to these these the elevation and the and the depression. Whereas if one is not all that attached towards pleasure, then when one experiences a bit of suffering, one will not feel so bothered by it. One will not be overwhelmed by the sense that one cannot bear that suffering. What does it mean to not be overly attached to pleasure? Well, it means to maintain a level head in regards to both pleasure and suffering, which is to say that if you experience a bit of pleasure, that you don’t become too inflated about it, that you don’t allow yourself to become overly excited about it.
Because the more inflated and overly excited you become in regards to any pleasure that you experience, then when along comes suffering, then you immediately are deflated. So maintaining a level head is important. Otherwise, we experience the the roller coasters or excuse me. Otherwise, the roller coasters, the ups and downs, the experience of happiness and the subsequent experience of suffering become become greatly exaggerated. So this is what it means to maintain a level head in regards to suffering and not or excuse me, in regards to hap happiness and suffering and not be overly attached to it.
Of course, we enjoy pleasure and happiness, and there’s nothing wrong with enjoying it. It is this aspect of becoming overly excited and and overly inflated in regards to it that sets us up for the fall. Now why would we need to speak about these eight worldly dharmas? Or where does the tradition of speaking about the eight worldly dharmas come from? We trace it back to Ārya Nāgārjuna’s text, Letter to a Friend, which Geshe-la has taught at Losang Dragpa in the past.
So two of the aspects of the eight worldly dharmas is be is enjoying pleasure and feeling displeased when one does not when one experiences suffering. Another aspect of it is is that feel enjoying it or feeling feeling joy when things are expressed to oneself in a pleasant way and feeling displeased when things are expressed to oneself in an unpleasant way. If another person has something to communicate to you, well, then we we enjoy it if it’s expressed in a pleasant way. Way. But even if some someone is expressing something which is for our own benefit, if they express that in an unpleasant way, we have a feeling of displeasure about that.
So we just as we saw with pleasure and happiness or, excuse me, pleasure suffering, we also be ex be enjoy it when things are set expressed in a pleasant way and feel displeased or unhappy, upset when things are expressed in an unpleasant way. The way to understand this instruction is that when others are saying pleasant things to us, we should not be attached, which is our tendency. When when pleasant things are said to us, we become attached to those. And likewise and when unpleasant things are said to us, then we should not be feel upset by them because that is our tendency to be upset by unpleasant things which are said to us. So these instructions about feeling that there is no difference or trying to develop a level head in regards to the things which are said towards us is important to understand.
We should not then take that take that instruction and think that the same goes for when we express things to other people because in the in the in the teachings on mind training, a big point is made about always communicating with people in a respectful manner. You know, one should communicate with people in in a way in a respectful way and should not look down upon others and feel that, oh, just because I am trying to develop a level head in regards to pleasant and unpleasant expressions, that means that I should not pay any mind to the way I express myself to others. Mhmm. So just to give you in a group, the eight worldly dharmas, they are the eight worldly concerns, they’re also translated as. They are gain and loss, pleasure and displeasure, have pleasant words and unpleasant words, and last is praise and abuse.
Merely by being praised, you as a person do not improve. Merely by being abused or criticized, you as a person do not become any worse. Hey. We are as we are. I mean, we have a a particular nature, a particular disposition, and being praised for that disposition or being criticized for that disposition in and of itself is not going to to in in improve that or remove that either.
Yet as it stands and often times, we feel pleased when another praises us, and then we develop attachment towards that pleasure feeling, oh, that we feel pleased. And when we are abused or criticized, then we feel displeasure. We feel upset, and that oftentimes leads to anger. Yet these these teachings instruct us to view words and expressions, both praise and abuse, as being like echoes. Yeah.
If you were to call out in a big empty valley and you then after some time, you your voice comes back to you, doesn’t it? That echo, the returning of your voice doesn’t benefit you in any way. It doesn’t harm you in any way, does it? Now the same is true of other people’s words, whether they be words of praise or words of abuse. They they, in and of themselves, cannot serve to ink to improve us or or harm us in any way.
When when we consider these eight worldly dharmas, these eight worldly concerns, we see the exact points where we are attached to the pleasures of saṃsāra. Yeah? We when we take these points into consideration or more particularly, when we take into consider our re consideration our reactions to these different eight occurrences, we see that we are attached towards gain and we are attached towards pleasure. We are attached towards expressions of respect and pleasant words which are are which are said to us, whereas we are averse to or we feel upset when we do not experience gain, when we experience suffering, when unpleasant things are said to us, and when we are abused. Oh, yeah.
Okay? Due to the fact that we are unable to maintain a level head in regards to these eight eight worldly concerns, due to the fact that we are attached to the first four first of these four pairs. And we do all that we can to ensure that we experience financial or material gain. We do all that we can to ensure that people say pleasant things to us. We do all that we can to ensure that we are praised and that we experience happiness and pleasure.
But as long as we are doing all we can to bring these things about, then our our practice of Dharma can never develop properly because all our efforts are focused towards worldly concerns. We’re always focused. We’re always we’re always devoting our efforts to gain experiencing gain, being being praised, and so on and so forth. And therefore, all of our activities act as causes for worldly concerns and the improvements of our worldly status. And there if they if all of our activities act as causes for merely the improving of our worldly status, then that means that our activities cannot act as the causes for liberation and therefore will not lead to the experience of the happiness of liberation.
So it is this inability to maintain a level head in regards to the eight worldly dharmas, which which obstructs our practice of the Dharma. And that is why this is a particularly important point in regards to renunciation and reversing the fantasies we have towards this life. Okay? Mhmm. And so continue to move on to the second half of the fourth verse, reads, think over and over how deeds and fruits never fail.
And the cycles think over and over about how deeds and their fruits never fail, and also think over and over again about saṃsāra’s suffering, the cycle of suffering, we can also say. Thus, by doing so, one may stop desire for the future or reverse the fantasies we have about the future. So when one accepts that there is a continuity beyond this lifetime, that one will eventually take another rebirth, then all sorts of attachments in relation to that type of life can arise just as they do in relation to this one. You such people who believe in future lives might begin to strive for, you know, such a rebirth in the in the future in which they will experience, for instance, great material prosperity, thinking, oh, you know, may I be reborn to parent very wealthy parents. Or you can think about all the things which one might, you know, one might strive for when they think about the circumstances of their future life.
So but, basically, as long as one is oriented towards experiencing the pleasurable circumstances, even if it’s in future lives, one is still oriented it was one still has an orientation which is based upon attachment towards the pleasures of saṃsāra. Because despite the fact that it’s not for this life, the next lives still fall within the realm of saṃsāra, and therefore striving primarily for the pleasures of of the next lifetime also fall within this realm of attachment towards saṃsāra. And thus, as long as one is one has this orientation, one’s activity still cannot act as causes for liberation because they are merely one is merely acting for the purpose of ensuring a rebirth in the future, for instance, in which one is going to experience a material prosperity and so forth. Now how is it that we can reverse the fantasies and attachment we feel towards future lives? Well, we do so by contemplating the two points mentioned in this verse, that is to think about the infallibility of the results of karma and to think about the cycle of suffering.
The infallibility of the results karma refer to the infallibility of karmic cause and effect. When thinking about the infallibility of cause and effect, one considers the fact that positive causes lead to positive results. Negative causes lead to negative results. It’s impossible that a positive cause would lead to a negative result and vice versa. And when thinking about this point and using the term cause, we have to think primarily in relation to substantial causes.
So a positive substantial cause is always going to lead to a positive effect, and same is true with the negative side of things. This can be illustrated by means of an analogy. If you take gold and you beat that gold into a cup, then you’re going to have a golden cup. Just as if you were to take clay and you were to mold that clay into a cup, you would have a clay cup. Yet the substantial cause is, in this case, is for instance the material which with which you make the cup.
If you take gold as your substantial cause, and you beat that gold into a cup, it’s not a clay cup, is it? I mean, the final product is not a clay cup, just as you’re not gonna get a gold cup if you try and make a cup out of clay. So this is this is one way to illustrate the infallibility of the results of karma. karma Here. In this context, we understood karma to be the same as cause and effect.
Alright. Yeah. Geshe lah prefers to use the term cause and effect in this context as opposed to karma because by using the word karma then, oftentimes people think, that’s that’s a Dharma terminology, and if I’m not a Buddhist or I don’t place any particular confidence in the system, then this obviously doesn’t apply to me, it only applies to them. So here, we’re speaking about cause and effect, something which applies to everybody regardless of whether you utilize or or have confidence in this term, karma. So cause and effect.
It’s been illustrated by the example of of a cup and this and the materials which with which you make that cup. Now it the text state that we must have respect for the infallibility of cause and effect. What does it mean to have respect for the infallibility of cause and effect? It means to have confidence in it. It means to believe in the infallibility of cause and effect.
Infallibility in this context I should state, I know it has all sorts of connotations in English. It means a non deceptive nature. It means that you can’t trick a positive cause so that it becomes a negative result. That’s what it means by infallibility. Now, when stating that one needs to have respect for the infallibility of cause and effect, Geshe-la has explained that that means that one must have confidence in or a conviction and a belief in the infallibility of cause and effect.
And, of course, this this belief, is encouraged, is not just blind faith. Yeah? One needs to really investigate the issue and realize that that this is actually the case through by means of a valid awareness. And having realized that this is validly so, then naturally, a a conviction in or a belief in the infallibility of cause and effect arises. So this is required.
As Geshe-la illustrated the infallibility of cause and effect in relation to the cup, we can also see it in very simple analogies such as when we plant things in garden. Whatever type of seed you plant in the garden, that is the type of plant which grows up. For instance, if you plant, as the text state, the seed for a chili plant, then you’re not going to get a plant which bears sweet fruit, are you? Similarly, if you plant if you plant the seed of a medicinal if you plant the seed of a medicinal plant in your garden, then you’re not going to have a poisonous plant grow up from that seed. Okay?
When speaking about the way to meditate upon cause and effect, and we are taught four points, and we utilize these four points to gain a deeper understanding and deepen our meditation on cause and effect. So the four points are the fact that karma is definite, the fact that karma has is by nature something which increases, that actions which are not that you will not experience the effects of actions which you do not perform, and that the effect of actions does not just go to waste. Waste. And the first of these, the fact the fact that karma is definite, is what Geshe-la was just speaking about, the fact that that the effects which arise arise from causes of a concordant type. That means that would that a cause always gives rise to a an effect of a similar type.
That means that positive causes give rise to positive effects, and negative effects arise from negative causes. And we can infer that karma, which is really internal cause and effect, is definite. That is, we can infer by thinking about things, especially in relation to the external environment, that it is certainly the case that that positive effects come about through positive causes, that that causes always give rise to an effect of concordant type. Because if you think about the external environment, the external world, and we see cause and effect at play in the external world all around us. And we know that it is a case such as in the examples of a seed for a medicinal plant giving rise to a medicinal plant and a seed for a poisonous plant giving rise to a poisonous plant, we just as we know that in the external world cause and effect is definite, and there’s no reason to think that cause and effect, internally speaking, is possibly not definite.
Just as cause and effect in the external world is infallible, there’s no reason to think that cause and effect in the internal world is going to be fallible. In fact, that’s not the case. In fact, to think that that, oh, just because cause and effect in the external world is infallible, that doesn’t have any and that doesn’t come to bear upon the internal world, that the internal world can still be infallible even though it directly accords it. I mean, that’s just whatever. Okay.
The word in Tibetan is. Mean Seeing that that therefore in the cause and effect in the internal world is is infallible, then we understand that this is a very important point point which we may pay attention to. Furthermore, our problem in relation to understanding cause and effect is not that we don’t understand, but rather it’s that we are not mindful of it. And anyone can can understand, you know, very excuse me. Anyone can understand negative causes on a very coarse level.
For instance, we all understand that killing and stealing misconduct and lying and speaking harshly, that all of those are negative causes. One thing which we can study is the things which constitute negative causes on a more subtle level. By understanding what constitutes a negative cause and on a more subtle level. So as it as it stands, we all understand the infallibility of of cause and effect on a very coarse level. We need to take that a step further in our studies to understand a more subtle level, which in large part depends upon a very reliable understanding of this more coarse level.
Once once we develop such a firm understanding of cause and effect, from, and we understand that it is infallible, that positive causes lead to positive effects, negative causes lead to negative effects, then from within, From within we become guided towards positive actions and guided away from negative actions because we understand that when we engage in negative things that is only going to bring negative things in the future. So advice begins to emerge from within when we develop such a stable confidence and belief in in dependence upon our understanding of the infallibility of cause and effect. Now the second topic which is discussed here is that karma is by nature something which is increasing. And also we say that karma is definite, but Geshe-la says that more more accurately we say that results are definite and that results are increasing. The text state that it is possible that a very small action can actually give rise to a result of suffering which lasts for even thousands of years.
There’s a correlate to this in once again, in the external world. You think about it. The seed for a fruit tree can be planted, and if that, fruit tree comes to maturity, maturity, it can bear hundreds and hundreds of fruits over and over again for a a great amount of time. So this is an instance in which a very small seed gave rise to an extremely bountiful harvest, a very great result. Similarly, they say it is stated in the teachings that a very small action can give rise to huge effects.
And as we see then from when understanding this point then, refrains from even small negative actions. Because we run the risk of introducing too much in this one point, then Geshe-la, we’ll stop here by only discussing the first two points, which are used to contemplate cause and effect. So, we’ll wait till next week to discuss the fact that two points in which it is described how actions which are not, the result of actions which are not performed are not experienced, and that the result of actions never go to waste. So today we just have, we’ve spoken about, first of all, the worldly concerns, and we’ve spoken about how it is necessary to have a level head in regards to those. Now, Geshe-la would like to take this opportunity to do give a little to do engage in a bit of discussion about the points which we have covered.
Here we have said that it is important to maintain a level head in regards to the eight worldly dharmas. How is it that you think how is it do you think that that can help us to reverse the attachment we feel towards saṃsāra? How is it that you think that by maintaining a level head in regards to the eight worldly concerns that one one will be able to inspire a sense of renunciation? After that, we Geshe-la taught about the the first two aspects of karma, which is that the that karmic results are definite and that they are by nature something which increase. How do you suppose understanding how do you understand how do you suppose that an understanding of these these points of karma would would encourage one to refrain from negative actions, and how do you suppose that this would inspire a mind of renunciation?
Perhaps it’s good if we can engage in some exchange back and forth, otherwise sometimes Geshe-la has the feeling that his words just kind of go out there and dissolve into the intermediate space, maybe having a bit of discussion about this will enliven everyone. In any case, so how do you think it is that contemplating these points can reverse not only the fantasies, you know, how is it that that having maintaining a level head in regards to the eight worldly concerns can reverse fantasies towards this life and eliminate attachment towards some the pleasures of Samsāra? And how is it that contemplating these points of karma can inspire a sense of renunciation? These are the basic questions. You know, I can take it or leave it out of you, as we say it, to ask.
It’s very beneficial because many of us have have head gains and lost them again, and, really, it doesn’t make all that much difference. Mhmm. You’re still the same guy. Mhmm. It’s something that happened.
Mhmm. So what? You know, I’m still here. I’m still smiling. Mhmm.
It it it’s it really does affect one’s life to to have a a steady base. I always feel that the dharma is like a gyro compass for the mind. It keeps it stable even so the ship of life may be. In a storm, if you can keep that inner centeredness and that inner calm, then life is Would you like to open up the curtains and say that to them perhaps? Excuse me if I, you know, I always actually think that German is second speaking English as a second language, approach the language very poetically.
So anyway, apologize if I don’t capture the essence of what you are saying, but essentially for the benefit of the people in the other room, what has been expressed is basically an affirmation of the statement that maintaining a level head in regards to the eight worldly dharmas is very beneficial, which is something which is recognized in the West as well in the attitude of in the take it or leave it attitude. If one is able to adopt a take it or leave it attitude, then this is able to provide sort of a center, a sense of stability, helps us through the ups and downs of life. It’s and to use your analogy, it’s like the center point of a gyroscope, despite the fact that things spin all around us, can have a stable center. And so in relation to that point, I mean, of us might even have experienced this, pleasure which comes from having such stability because many of us have experienced, you know, not only gain, but also the loss of that gain. What you say is very good, but also there’s some points which we have to be wary of also.
I mean, okay, the take it or leave it attitude is a very good one to have, but that in and of itself, you know, actually might lead to some dangers. So we need to augment that. It’s not only necessary to be content with what what happens. Of course, this is very important, a sense of contentment, not always wanting more, not always striving for for people to praise you, not always striving for material gain and so forth. That’s of course important, but also as a way to As you know, in place of that, in place of the, you know, the samsaric happiness which we’re not being attached to.
Yeah. We need to be striving for the pleasure of liberation, the happinesses of liberation. In fact, striving for the happinesses of liberation acts as a method which can help to, I apologize for the word, just to suppress the attachment we feel towards the sufferings, or excuse me, we feel towards the pleasures of saṃsāra. In this case, suppress is not used in the psychoanalytical way of pushing it down somewhere where you can’t see it only for to have it arise up again, but rather it carries the connotation of pushing it down to the ground so that it is truly eliminated. Once again, I’ll state that that it is not enough merely to be content with, with whatever comes your way, but also in place of in addition to being content, and we need to we need to replace the samsaric happiness which we strive for with the happiness of liberation, and that in striving for the happiness of liberation itself acts as a method for eliminating that attachment.
Geshe-la says that one of the dangers of not not having a replacement for saṃsāra pleasures, not striving for the happiness and liberation that is, is that we can become quite lazy. If we’re just content with whatever happens, yeah, then that can actually lead to undesirable circumstances, as we’ve seen with the hippie era. You know, if I mean, if you just sit there and you think, whatever comes my way, you know, that’s all well and good, you know, but then after a while, start smoking dope and drinking alcohol and pretty soon your money runs out and you realize that you need something, you need to get your food and money from somewhere, but whatever, you’re just smoking dope and you’re drinking beer and you realize that, oh, maybe the only way I can get money is such and such. You come up with a plan, you begin to steal money and maybe there’s the danger that if the only virtue which is extolled in a society is that of take it or leave it, there’s a danger that crime may may go on the increase in that in that place. So, just Geshe-la, we just emphasized that what you say is very good, but, yeah, okay.
We need to augment that and actually, you know, not just take it or leave it, but actually, yeah, develop a sense of contentment and along the way, begin to strive for the happiness of liberation, a happiness which can truly replace the the the hankering for pleasures of saṃsāra. I spoke I spoke of stability like a gyroscope, not being buffeted by gusts. Yes. Well, it’s true that stability or contentment. Yeah.
And and this this stability is a is a positive positive and conducive thing. Contentment can also become laziness if you’re not careful. As a floor on which to build. Because I mean, we’re here. It’s got to be one something more So Geshe-la would just say, yeah.
Yeah. Okay. We’re just just to speak just to be very precise about the things which we’re which we’re speaking about. Mhmm. We we or to be to be precise and and perhaps to to add add a bit of meaning to what we’re what Geshe-la has been speaking about is that we we that we also do that just by by extolling contentment and and so forth, we are not saying that that that the the pursuit of material gain is unequivocally a negative thing.
I mean, primarily relies upon one’s motivation, doesn’t it? I mean, think about it. One has a very positive motivation. One can actually accumulate wealth and then distribute it to the poor. And so really, we have to remember what we’re speaking about here.
We cannot accept that material gain is unequivocally a negative thing. I mean, this is merely the danger which Geshe-la means to call to light, is that it’s possible in some instances that contentment, this attitude that, you know, come what may, I’ll fine, might actually lead to laziness and the the other, unwanted consequences of that. So just to be more just to be precise and and bring us back to the central point which we’re speaking of is, yeah, the accumulation of material material wealth is not necessarily a negative thing. Primarily relies upon one’s attitude, one’s motivation, the motivation one brings to it because actually it can be used for a very positive ends. So now actually nobody answered the question which Geshe-la asked which is how is it that having a level mind in relation to the eight worldly concerns can inspire a sense of renunciation?
Well, so I say like, if you sort of subdue that attachment to the outwardly concerns, then sort of naturally, you stop striving for them. It’s kind of just a natural process. You stop striving on them because they’re not really that important to you anymore. Mhmm. Mhmm.
And then you have the choice to replace that, striving this and striving for liberation. Mhmm. If one decreases if one decreases one’s attachment towards excuse me. Is this correct? One if one decreases one’s attachment towards the the pleasures of saṃsāra That’s right.
Then naturally Naturally, you stop striving. And you stop striving for them. And if you stop striving for them, then you can begin to replace that striving for saṃsāra happinesses with the striving for happiness of liberation. Yeah. Did did get that in the next room?
Yeah? The answer to Geshe-la’s question was that if you can decrease the attachment towards saṃsāra pleasures by means of maintaining a level head in relation to the eight worldly concerns, then naturally you cease to strive for them. And at that point, then you can replace the striving which was previously devoted towards happiness of saṃsāra with the striving for the happiness of liberation. Excellent. Thank you.
It’s extremely important that we are able to really in our own minds have a sense that yes, that by maintaining a level head in regards to the eight worldly current concerns, that we will be able to decrease the attachment towards the towards the pleasures of saṃsāra and increase our striving for the happiness of liberation. We can’t just sit here and think that, oh, yeah. That that’s the case because Geshe-la said so or because the text says so. You know, that’s not enough. We need to take it a step further and really, really induce such an understanding which we come to by reflecting upon our own experience and that is a very sincere and heartfelt understanding which we have in our own mind.
Not something which is just which we come about because someone said so or because it states as such in the text. Okay? Just just go. Yeah. Yeah.
I was I was reminded too that the acorns I was seeing in my house that the ants from time to time get caught in the honey knife, and it’s very hard plucking them out. I’m very reminded of my own predicament. And when I go to attend to my tea light candles, there’s always some ancient rock wings sort of caught in there through the night. And your what? My tea light candle Uh-huh.
Because I tend to fly into it and Yeah. Right. Burn up. And it makes me think of their particular in my own flight, like looking at the nature of the life and my environment that I live in, it reminds me of where I’m at and that I need to look at karma and the four noble truths. And so it just reflects that through those indications.
In what way? Well, that I’m caught up in sort of sticky honey with Okay. Samsāra, and it’s very hard to get out because it’s very tasty. Mhmm. And it happens to sort of using the metaphor like Sure.
It’s the blade. Yep. But I keep going for it, just like the ants. Or the moths, yep. Yeah, and whilst the same sort of thing, and it’s sort of cycling, I’m reminded occasionally of my own plight, with their plight.
So, we’ve got a bunch of poets in the audience there. That’s very nice, Nicholas. Yeah, actually, very nice. So Nicholas was saying, it would be interesting, first me and then Vietnamese, and see if it carries through, right? What’s that?
Fast in Vietnam. Vietnam. So Nicholas was saying that often that the things he sees in his own his own home remind us of our predicament and that we are that we are mired in Samsāra. And the two examples which he has brought up is that when he wakes up in the morning sometimes he sees that ants have gotten stuck on the honey on the knife. And or if he wakes up in the morning and he oftentimes sees the wings of a moth left over by his tea light candle.
And the way that this reminds us him of this of the situation that we experience in Samsāra is that we are that we are stuck in in the honey of Samsāra, that it’s very sweet, and because we are attracted to it, we come to it, find ourselves stuck, and find it very difficult to get out. Similarly, just as a moth is drawn to a flame, and we are drawn to the pleasures of saṃsāra, but as a moth is burned by the flame, so are we, by by sufferings of saṃsāra. One thing Geshe-la would like you to remember and he would like he would like your impressions on this point as well is the statement with in which he was saying that the stronger our attachment towards pleasure, the stronger our sensation of being unable to bear suffering is. What do you think of that? Makes sense.
The more strongly we’re attached to to pleasure, yeah, you think that the more unbearable we find suffering? Yeah. So, actually, attachment towards pleasure only harms us. It doesn’t actually benefit us, does it? Yeah.
Mhmm. We are able to really develop a comprehension of this point, a really deep understanding of this in our mind by contemplating it, then don’t you see how that that very understanding itself will serve to stop such strong attachment towards pleasure? Oh, good. Good. It seems that you and the audience have been able to gain a basic understanding of what the points Geshe-la has been covering.
He would ask you then to think in greater take the opportunity this week to think in greater detail about some of the points which are perhaps more difficult to understand and express. And in relation to this, then he would direct you back to the root verse which reads, think over and over again how deeds and their fruits are infallible, and also think over and over again about the cycle of suffering. Thus by doing so, one may reverse stop stop desires for the future or reverse the fantasies we have towards towards the next life. Now in general, really understanding the infallibility of the effects of actions is quite difficult. But if you think about it in relation to the external environment, yeah, then in dependence upon your understanding of cause and effect as it operates in the external world, yeah, we can begin to infer that the same properties apply to cause and effect on an internal level.
Correct? Yeah. One thing, Geshe-la, I would like you to think about is how yeah. In this context, action is basically referring karma. Action?
The word Sanskrit word karma actually means action, and so in this case the performance of actions leads to the accumulation karma, that is the accumulation of causes. So, one thing Geshe-la would like you to think about is what comes about? What are the effects we experience in dependence upon positive causes? Positive actions? What effects do we experience in this life from acting in a positive manner and accumulating positive causes?
What about the future? Please think about this. Also think about negative actions. Think about what are the effects which we experience in this very life of killing. If we were to kill somebody, kill something, think about what effects we would experience due to that action in this life.
Think about the effects which arise in this very life from stealing. Think about what effects come about in this very life due to sexual misconduct and so forth. Now you might think, yeah, well, you know, if you if I were to kill a fish, yeah, I might even experience a little bit of pleasure because then you have some nice fish meat to eat. But yeah, actually we can still identify, we can still recognize that although that might not be an illegal act and that might not result in real strong negative consequences, for instance punishment by the government and imprisonment and so forth, it’s quite clear that a fish who lives in water is going to experience suffering, which is a negative effect, when pulled out onto dry land, isn’t it? It’s going to most likely die after some time and that is certainly suffering.
Here’s an instance in which we can identify even within the context of this one lifetime that negative actions such as killing that of a fish can lead to negative results. But more yeah. So I mean, Geshe-la says this in a bit of a light hearted way to introduce the idea that perhaps the subject is not so easy to penetrate, but even on a very coarse level. Yeah? We know that if we were to perform an act of killing, is outlawed by the government, something which is truly illegal, that that is going to lead to very unpleasant effects or results most likely in this in this lifetime.
Same with stealing, same with sexual misconduct, and so on and so forth. So please, please think take the time to think about these points. Okay. Yep. Mhmm.
So we’ll leave it there for this evening. Geshe-la and I didn’t actually have time to put together questions on teachings on renunciation for this week. So this weekend when we go back to Chenrezig, then we’ll put together the questions which will form the exam, so that next week and after the teaching we can distribute these questions and that you will all have something to take home, an exam to take home with you. And probably Langri Thangpa will be providing you with paper to write on the exams with and then you can take these home, do the exam, do the exam in the privacy of your home in relaxed way and then after you’ve done, after you’ve taken the exam and written all your answers, then you can check back with your notes and see which of the questions you were able to answer sufficiently and which of the questions you were not able to answer sufficiently. And when you find that for instance that perhaps your answer was not exactly correct or it really didn’t suffice for the question which was asked, then you can take that time to think about how you might better answer it and then change the answer that you’ve written in.
And in this way you’ll gain a better understanding for how much you really understand and what points you maybe perhaps understand more clearly than others. Okay. And then hopefully by doing this, then these four weeks of teachings on renunciation will prove to be a benefit. Okay. Thank you.