Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A vivid cautionary story — a celibate renunciate given the choice between killing, sex, or drinking who chose “just a little alcohol” and promptly did all three — anchors this 104-minute session in Geshe Pema Tsering’s commentary on Nāgārjuna’s Letter to a Friend. Working through verses four to six, Geshe Pema covers mindfulness as the guardian of moral practice, the tenfold virtuous path of body, speech, and mind, and why Nāgārjuna adds alcohol as an unofficial eleventh non-virtue. The session then turns to generosity: the impermanence of possessions, a bodhisattva king who gave away his kingdom and finally his own eyes, and practical guidance on all three forms of giving — material goods, Dharma instruction, and protecting creatures from harm. A Q&A closes with advice on sharing Dharma with resistant adult children using plain, everyday language rather than formal Buddhist vocabulary.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 2008 10 12 GPT – Letter – 12 Oct 2008.mp3
UUID: dc6af227-dd8f-4e01-973c-27b8e2e301a2
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: z Letter to Friend – mulitple years (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2008-10-12
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 104.5 minutes
Words: ~5,579
So, he’s been instructing us to give us a good motivation and with intention of establishing all sentient beings in the state of enlightenment, then we are going to study study properly and well this text in order to accomplish this goal. Oh, yeah. And then for the sake of of us acquiring a good basis, a good foundation, then we start with the Heart Sūtra. So we we stopped the last teaching we were on the commentary on the fourth verse. Six things there are the Buddhas have explained and other virtues you must keep in mind.
The Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha, bounteous acts, and moral laws and gods each one recall. And then we went through we went for the first two the buddha and the Dharma and then we go through the rest of the commentary which is saying again the Sangha is composed of those bodhisattvas who have already entered the great grounds, the great levels from the first bodhisattva ground all the way to the tenth. Then we have the bounteous act which is something like generosity which is the giving, thoroughly giving everything then that opposes and opposes and abandons and ridges oneself of miserliness. So those are the bountyous acts of generosity. And then we have again again the source, the very root of every good quality which is morality, moral conduct.
And we have by guarding that, by protecting that moral conduct, moral practices. Then we have all our temporary and ultimate wishes fulfilled and we are born as gods of the desire and of the form realms of existence. Ultimately we attain liberation and enlightenment. And each one of these six things the Buddha all the way to the gods, to birth as gods, high rebirth and so forth, again we should recollect each one one of these things qualities and study, read about these things constantly in the scriptures, in the sutras and so forth so that we can keep it in mind, keep those qualities, the qualities of these six things in mind. Saying that in this context here when we’re talking about morality and moral conduct the main practice that is being referred to here is the giving up of the ten non virtuous actions, abandoning the ten non virtuous actions and this the moral conduct is being referred to This verse, Geshe-la was explaining this teaching is a teaching that pertains mainly to beings of small scope, to the the path of beings which is common, the to beings of small scope.
And then finally, to conclude this part of the commentary, we have a little verse from the Way of the Bodhisattva which allows us to explain the meaning of the verse which says by recollecting, being mindful of those things, of those qualities, by keeping one’s mind on how to say by training one’s mind in the morality of abandoning the ten non virtues. Again whenever one’s mindfulness deteriorates again we do not we shouldn’t give up our practice at any time if it happens we should recollect, should remind ourselves of all the harms that such things as attachment and anger and aversion would cause us. We should remind, we collect ourselves, remind ourselves of the sufferings of the lower realms of existence and in this way with mindfulness again we bring our minds our minds back into our moral practice. We guard them with mindfulness and our moral practice. And mindfulness is something that we constantly overlook.
Is extremely important and all the faults and shortcomings that we actually engage in we engage in because of our lack of mindfulness because we are not recollecting the suffering results that our misconduct, that our negative deeds will bring about to us, that those non virtuous minds and so forth will bring about to us. So by continuing recollecting the negative results of the suffering results of negative actions and by keeping our minds how to say subdued in this way Geshe-la was saying then we can not only accomplish everything that we wish temporarily in the potential of this life but we also accomplish great benefit for the future also. So it is very important to cultivate mindfulness. Then we move on to the next topic which is the special way to practice those teachings on actions and the results. So Geshe was saying the former teaching was pertaining more to refuge and now this especially pertaining to actions and the results.
And we read the next verse verse number five which says: With body, speech and mind always rely on wholesome deeds, the tenfold virtuous path. Avoiding liquor avoiding liquor at all costs thus find true joy to lead a life of virtuous deeds. So, Geshe lah, was just briefly going through every line of the verse again, just saying again those ten virtues of body speech and mind are the three virtues the three those ten the ten virtues are the the ten the three virtues of body the four of speech and the three of mind they pertain the the opposites the abandonment which pertain to the abandonment of the ten non-virtues of body, speech and mind again. We should always remain mindful of those keep those ten virtues in mind and always rely on them and in this way abandoning such things as liquor, alcohol and so forth then we should engage constantly in virtuous deeds. And in this way, we should train ourselves.
And Geshe-la was saying, when we’re talking about the ten virtues and the ten non virtues, we usually talk about ten non virtues only. And there is nothing about not drinking in the ten non virtues. But here, see Nāgārjuna mentioning, he puts the eleventh non virtue, which is drinking. We should and we should instead not drink, to engage in the virtue of not drinking. And Geshe-la was explaining how very meaningful, how very pertinent this is.
And there is a story that usually is told in order to illustrate how serious drinking can be. And Geshe-la was saying there was there’s a story of of a king who having invited invited this renunciate to his palace and was imposing onto the renunciate. Look, you have to choose. You eat you kill this goat. You kill the goat to eat, or you have sex with this woman, or you drink.
You have to choose. And then the renunciate was thinking, well, I cannot kill the goat. Renunciate. I cannot kill. I also cannot have sex with the woman.
I’m renunciate. I’m a celibate, renunciate. I cannot have sex with the woman also. So, you know, maybe I can have a little bit of alcohol. And then that said he drank a little bit of the alcohol and soon enough there he was having sex with the woman and killing the goat.
And so the story goes. And that’s how harmful alcohol can be to our moral practice. Geshe-la is saying, no. Usually, we do not see the shortcomings of of of drinking, you know, and and a lot of people drink and they have this alcohol gives this seemingly pleasant feeling at first, but and people develop attachment towards that and out of attachment and we engage in all sorts of misdeeds and misbehavior and our moral practice deteriorates. And there is a lot of harm done to ourselves in this life alone by drinking and there is no to mention the harm that will come forth in the future.
Advising us so we should be always we should always be very careful with alcohol. Acknowledges that it might be difficult to completely give give it up because of social demands and marriages and stuff like that but we should be extremely careful with it and if we have to drink let it be just a teeny bit and then we go to rest and wake up well again in the morning and let’s let’s be very careful with that. Geshe-la was going through the commentary which is saying again this this this ten paths of virtue. They are the abandoning or the giving up of the three non-virtues of killing, how do you say, taking what is not given, and sexual misconduct. The the giving up of the four lying, slander, gossip, and divisive speech, sorry.
Lying, harsh speech, slander, and gossip. The giving up of these four virtues of speech. Then the giving giving up of the three non virtues of thought, of mind which is then a harmful intent, covetousness, and to say wrong views. And in this way by giving So then in this order we have the giving up of the non virtues of body, of speech and of mind and we should always be relying on the giving up, out for these non virtues and relying on abandoning these non virtues. This is then is the training of of morality which is the abandonment of the ten non virtues.
Geshe-la was going through the rest of the text which is saying not only that but also I’m gonna say beer, wine, whiskey and so forth by drinking such we become overwhelmed by a lack of conscientiousness, lack of alertness and conscientiousness and in this way from that we engage in all sorts misdeeds and misbehaving. So we should oppose, we should constantly oppose, avoid drinking and in this way also we and also we shouldn’t allow ourselves to harm others and to come under this lack of conscientiousness in order to and perform harmful deeds such as stealing and so forth, deceiving and lying, stealing, robbing and so forth for the sake of our livelihood. We shouldn’t engage in any livelihood which is dishonest or harmful to others which involves a lack of conscientiousness basically. And in this way we should, how to say, practice, remain in a virtuous path. And, again, I was just explaining the words in Tibet that refer to two different types of fermented alcoholic drinks.
Basically here in English for you guys it refers to beer and wine and whiskey. That’s what it refers to. And again we shouldn’t we shouldn’t engage in any harmful and meaningless activity. We should do our best to benefit and and engage in actions with purpose. And Geshe-la was gonna say we shouldn’t forget that you know when we are striving to acquire our sustenance and our food and drinks or something to eat and drink and so forth again we can always turn these occasions into an opportunity to create virtue instead of an opportunity to cause harm and be careless and so forth.
We can turn into an opportunity to create virtue and we can always we can always offer. We can always say bless the food with and then offer it to the Three Jewels with having taken refuge and and bless the food we offer to the Three Jewels. And in this way, we can still enjoy our sustenance, enjoy our food, and enjoy a great accumulation of merit at the same time. And Geshe-la was saying, when we offer when we offer our food, the amount of food does not diminish. It takes it takes no effort from our parties.
It’s not something hard to do. And still we create a great amount of benefit. So there’s something that we should bear in mind and we should keep on practicing. Geshe-la was going for the next topic of the commentary which is the teachings on the how to practice how to engage in the path which is common to beings to the beings of middling scope. This topic has two parts the first one is training in generosity the generosity which is is non attachment which is which is non attachment non attachment to the to the all the excellent things of cyclic existence okay and second the special practice of morality which is the root of the path of liberation.
So as far as for the first one which is training in generosity which is non attachment to all the excellent things of cyclic existence and we read the next verse verse number six So then up until this point, we have been going through the path of the beings of small scope so which involves which involves taking refuge, giving up the ten non-virtues, practicing the moral the moral practice of abandoning ten non-virtues and engaging in generosity so that we can attain a higher rebirth in the future, so a future happy happy future rebirth. And now we have the path of beings of middling scope, common to beings of middling scope which involves again developing giving up the entirety of cyclic existence, the whole of cyclic existence. So, Geshe-la was reading the the this verse then, verse number six, it says, possessions are ephemeral and senseless. Know these and give them generously to monks, to Brahmins, to the poor, and to your friends. Beyond, there is no greater friend than gift.
Okay? I guess I was just explaining it again. Beyond in the future lives, there is no no greater friend than generosity. So, again, Geshe-la, was just going through the the whole verse again line by line. The first line of the verse is making reference to those unreliable changing things or possessions that we that we have and they are unreliable they are changing their products so they are dependent on causing conditions they we cannot rely on them they will change they will come out of existence in the sense they are meaningless they have I mean they are senseless and again so have you understood that having understood how senseless they are then again we should give them away carefree How can I say that?
Carefree. Freely give them away without care for them. What’s the right word for that? Interested in holding on to them. Yes.
Without holding on to them without grasping onto them we should give them away to the the Sangha, we should give them away to the Brahmins, should give them away to the poor and the needy, and we should give them away to our friends and loved ones. And again in this way we practice generosity and in the future beyond beyond this life Nāgārjuna is telling us there is no greater friend than generosity for the commentary which is saying again all this food, clothing and so forth, and Geshe-la wasn’t saying this, etcetera, the word etcetera here in Tibetan. That makes reference to everything else, food, clothing, cars, our houses, everything that we possess, all those things. Are all these possessions, they are all impermanent. They all, how do they do not remain for even a moment they have no permanent state no reliable essence to themselves they are constantly changing they are changing and senseless And then I was going for the rest of the commentary I was saying by understanding then their nature, the nature of these material possessions in this way, I was saying by then understanding how empty and how meaningless, how senseless those things are, then again we should make them meaningful, we should make our having them or coming across them meaningful by giving them away to monks and nuns by giving them away to Brahmins that’s the word that’s been here or used here to Brahmins by giving them away to the poor and the destitute and the needy by giving them away to our to our parents our father our mother, our friends and relatives and loved ones and so forth.
And in this way we make, we turn them into something meaningful. And by giving them away in this way with respect and reverence by giving them away offering them away in this way again we will we’ll have in the whole of the world and And and the text is saying by by acting in this way then this in in the whole of the of the world this profession of generosity there will be nothing beyond it which is a a greater friend than it. Okay? And then again, Geshe-la was explaining and in this context that is being making reference to the generosity of material possessions, of the three types of generosity, the generosity of material possessions, the generosity of Dharma, the generosity of giving protection from fear and so forth. Again, this this teaching is making reference to the generosity of material possessions.
And guess what was gonna say again, this is this is a type of generosity that again we are all able to practice and we are all able to derive great benefit from it, to benefit greatly from it. And and again it is again it given is a teaching which is given again in the context of the beings of beings of middling scope, of the path which is common to beings of middling scope, which is is beneficial to such beings. It’s beneficial to us. It’s it’s something that we can practice, that such beings can practice. You know, But still for ourselves, this is something we this even this generosity of material possessions is something which is difficult for a surprise.
Because this is something which all of us, and then you start with the same thing, all all all people, everybody, this is something which we work for. We work to obtain those things in the first place. We work so hard to obtain those things. And and and we we because we cannot see, we cannot understand and see the obtainment of the results of future happiness and of liberation and enlightenment because we have no understanding of that, then we cannot see beyond our striving for the happiness of this life. And we keep on then working to obtain those things and we are in this way we remain unable to practice even the type of generosity itself.
Okay? Is that making sense? Anyone, he himself does not know of anyone who has ever gone poor because of having practiced generosity. And on the other hand, he knows of many instances of people who have gone poor whilst they were keeping and holding on tightly to their money and being really miserly. And Geshe-la was saying again, concluding that miserliness is something which is extremely evil, is very harmful.
That’s what Geshe-la was saying. Whilst generosity can be extremely beneficial And I was gonna say again, I guess, I was reiterating that those who who hold on highly to their money because they are their only concern is to keep their money and to increase the amount of money or possessions of wealth that they have, again they end up they end up being they end up as poor and destitute. And Geshe-la was saying he should think that there is no one who has ever gone poor and destitute by practicing generosity. And Geshe-la was giving the illustration of one of the previous lives of of the Buddha as a bodhisattva, and I forgot the Sanskrit name again. But it’s the story when this bodhisattva was born as a king and Geshe was saying and he was very generous and he was and many people who were actually emanations of a god I think was Mara was sending sending forth emanations and they were asking him everything and he gave them those emanations.
He gave everything that he owned, all his kingdom, his family, his wife, and even his eyes in the end, he gave them away. And after he has he had given everything, and he said, no, if those acts of if those acts of mine have genuine acts of generosity then may my sight be restored and and and and may every everything happen how to say according to the law of karma and yes Geshe-la was saying that then when he made this when he proclaimed this, after he proclaimed this, then he regained his sight again, and he regained everything that he had ever owned, and his kingdom prospered in this way. And, Geshe-la was saying, this is so it’s very important. Again, was quoting there is no greater friend than generosity beyond this life and Geshe-la was saying by practicing generosity again the results of such causes the results which are to say in concomitant with the causes, is that in the future we will attain a great amount of generosity also, sorry a great amount of wealth, we’ll obtain a great amount of wealth. So by giving we create not only the cause of great happiness in the future we also create the causes also on top of that of our liberation and enlightenment.
And Geshe-la was reading a verse which is a quote from the the treasury of knowledge, which says, again, Geshe-la was the verse is making reference to non-ārya beings. Okay? Beings who are not noble beings. Okay? So if you practice generosity towards ārya beings, ārya bodhisattvas, buddhas, and ārya hearers and solitary realizers.
And again, it’s that that you you accumulate a great virtue by doing so. It’s greatly virtue to practice generosity in relation to them. But also in regards to non-ārya beings, when you’re giving, your, you’re generosity towards your father and your mother, you’re practicing generosity towards the sick and the ill, when you’re practicing generosity towards your teachers, when you’re practicing generosity towards ordinary non-ārya bodhisattvas, bodhisattvas who have not realized emptiness yet. Practicing generosity to them, when you’re practicing generosity to them, still the results are inexpressible. You cannot put it in words.
You cannot give a number to it. The benefits are still immeasurable. Okay? And also Geshe-la was also saying, then also we should also practice the generosity of giving Dharma and the generosity of giving protection from fear and harm. So something like the generosity of giving Dharma is something which is again not difficult to accomplish we can easily insert in our conversations we can put in some words that pertain to those qualities that we cultivate in our practice and we can do that to the best of our knowledge and the best of our ability it doesn’t have to be deep or complicated anything that will promote you know good qualities is the generosity of giving dharma and we can all do that it’s also very easy to accomplish.
I guess I was gonna say again, just illustrating how how easy it can be to give Dharma. We can take our kids, our children, and they have to go to school and after they come back from school we could talk to them about, you know, the ten practices, ten, abandoning the ten non-virtues and giving them such teachings. Oh, yeah. Simple teachings which we all know about, we all And in this way we benefit greatly from this simple small act like this and the children also benefit immensely because they have already gained the imprints from Dharma. Is saying this when we teaching Dharma to small children it can be extremely beneficial because the small children when they are very young they like their parents so much that they listen, they listen so well, so carefully to what the parents are teaching them.
Give so much importance to what the parents are teaching them that if they like what you have told them, then they will retain it. They retain it forever in their minds. And in this way they retain that teaching in their mind streams. And that’s extremely beneficial for both the parents and the children, of course. And also we can go we can so then we talked about the generosity of material possessions of material things and we talked about the generosity of Dharma and also the generosity of giving protection protection against fear and harm again this also which is we also have we also can find many opportunities to practice that even when we have for example an insect that falls into into your cup of water again we can we can just take the insect out of the water or and you’re protecting that living creature from harm and from hurt and so forth.
And there are many other opportunities where we can find the insects or animals or even people sometimes that we can protect from harm in in in such simple ways. The small gestures they they can be extremely meaningful. And the whole point is that whatever it may be human or animal whatever it is the whole point is that we protect their bodies and their lives against any we engage in ways to protect their bodies in their lives for against any harm that may come their way in whatever way we are able to. And Geshe-la was saying, it’s still and it’s something which is very easy to accomplish again, but still we do not do when we are walking on the streets again and we we have some insect in our way we couldn’t be bothered and we just keep on walking and stepping all over them without doing anything, without caring the least. And by acting this way, know, not being bothered just to move just a little bit out of your way to move the insect away or to step over or something like that.
Acting this way carelessly in this way. This is a very mean attitude, it’s very bad attitude and we do incur faults from that. I mean it’s very bad, it’s a very bad state of mind to cultivate. Geshe-la was mentioning of these three types of generosity is something that we are all able to practice, that we all can understand. There’s nothing here that we do not understand about it.
There’s no questions about it, there’s no doubts. It’s very simple. Every one of us is very much able to practice all these three types of generosity. So we should do our best to actually engage in generosity in this way. There is great profit and great benefit to be derived to be obtained by practicing generosity in these ways.
And on the other hand, there is a great fault and a great loss from not practicing it, from from missing out on these opportunities. He kept on saying that you must you must do it. You must practice. But Geshe lah was gonna say, I myself, I cannot do it. So it’s it’s probably very difficult for you to Geshe lah was So he’s asking you to please keep this this in mind.
Keep this teaching in mind. Okay. So we Geshe-la wants to stop here today. On right before verse number seven. Okay.
Verse seven. Do you want to ask something? He’s going to retreat. From what’s what’s the date of the retreat again? The seventeenth to the twenty seventh.
So okay. So seventeenth It’s on the Seventeenth of October to the twenty seventh of October. It’s going to be this Yamāntaka retreat. And Geshe-la won’t be teaching here at Buddha House during this time. And I have to remember the people on Tuesday and on Thursday, that’s right.
Oh, thank you. Yeah. Yes. So unfortunately, we’ll miss out on the teaching and the letter to a friend. Questions?
I guess I was wondering. Yeah. Yeah. I have two sons, and I try I try to tell them things from the perspective of Dharma. And whenever I see something that’s not so correct, I wanna say something.
And my son will will stop me and say that, well, can you speak to us I try to persuade them. I don’t I don’t know if I understand. Can you start to rephrase it? Yes. I have two sons.
I I have two sons. I know that. If I see anything that I have done, which is not right, and I will try to tell them you’re doing something wrong, but I will do I will tell them in a dharma’s perspective. Okay. And then and then gradually, they know that whenever I wanna say something to them, which is because they’ve done something wrong, they would know that I would say from a dharma’s perspective.
And then most one day my son stopped me and said, mom, can you tell us something not from the dharma’s perspective, but from the ordinary people’s point of view? Should I stop that for a while and then or try some other way or what’s the best way that I can still So Geshe-la was saying what, you know, the the sort of thing that maybe you you should be you ought to be telling your sons is that you know asking them if they want to be a good person. You know they ought to be honest and straightforward. Know they shouldn’t be self centered and and and so selfish working only for their own self interests and their own pleasures because even animals can do that and and we are humans, we are better than animals. So we we as humans, we should be doing better than that.
We should be working instead to be benefiting others and to be generous and so forth. And again, we should be careful not to say anything whilst you are angry. We shouldn’t be getting angry with them. We should be, you know, take it easy, be gentle, be kind kind and especially do not say anything whilst they are clearly resisting. Say it when they are when they are in a more receptive state of mind and then you say it in a way without many you know fancy words.
Use ordinary people’s words. And guess what I was saying, no, you can tell them I’m not gonna talk about dharma. Know, and all you have to do is not use those words that we use here in the classroom we use ordinary people’s words you say we’re all gonna die aren’t we and you know everybody knows that and everybody thinks that it’s not only buddhist people we’re all gonna die so we have to live, you know, to live a good life without regrets. We all gonna live a very we we’re not all of us, we’re not gonna live more than a hundred years. You know, beyond that, we can be sure that we are gonna die.
And when we die at the time of death, you know, the only thing there is that is of benefit to us is dharma. And then she was saying, well, but they did not want to hear anything about dharma in the first place. And Geshe-la says, yes, but because it is is their mom is telling them that they will it will it will stay with in their minds with them. That being the case, we should work to benefit others. And by benefiting others, we can reap the benefits of our actions.
And if if we cannot if we are unable to to actually accomplish any obvious benefit to others, then at the very least we should not harm others and avoid any harm, saying anything bad or harmful about others and so forth. And in this way we can still benefit from that greatly. In this way, when they are in a receptive mood, in a good mood, again, you can you can speak like that, and and and that goes staying stays in their minds. And when they when they are not happy, they’re not receptive, when the tensions are high, then you shouldn’t you shouldn’t engage in such conversations. Yeah.
Yeah. I was just reading a quote this morning which seems to fit the situation. Einstein was supposed to It’s not fashionable. Why do you give me such difficult quotes to translate? Why do you keep on doing that to me?
Sorry, brothers. Why? I think the king’s name is Vishvantara or Sujata? What? The king you were talking about before.
I’ve I But that’s Einstein. Einstein. Well, Einstein was right. Yes? Various harmful results that come out of as a result of drinking alcohol because the whole point is that by drinking alcohol not only you get drunk and intoxicates your mind but because you are intoxicated you end up engaging many other negativities and that’s the whole the main issue with with alcohol is that it makes you engage in all these other negativities, like in the illustration that Geshe-la was giving.
And and you and then you reap not not only the negative result of being intoxicated, but the negative result of having engaged in all these other negativities. So the negative results of drinking alcohol are very many indeed. It’s a bad deal. So, for example, one one of the So one of the one of the results that come that arises out of drinking alcohol is that in the future life when you are born as a human again, you you have this immense propensities to drinking alcohol. You have this habit already.
And the more you drink, the more propensity you have. Are many people like this. We know people like this that are alcoholics, people who who drink all the time. You know, we know so many examples of that. And that’s because they have they have been drinking, you know, life after life.
Is that okay? Does that answer your question? Everybody happy?