Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The “dogs without tails” — Sakya Pandita’s image for humans chasing food and drink while neglecting virtue — gives Geshe Pema Tsering’s 94-minute commentary its sharpest edge. Working through verses seven and eight of Nāgārjuna’s Letter to a Friend, he traces ethical discipline as the earth-like foundation of all good qualities, explaining why guarding body, speech, and mind matters not just for high rebirth but for liberation and enlightenment. Verse eight introduces the six perfections, and Geshe Pema dwells on what makes them distinctively Mahāyāna: being steeped in both great compassion and the wisdom realizing emptiness. A Q&A covers whether to look down on Theravāda practitioners (no — renunciation precedes bodhicitta), whether tantra can bypass the sūtra path, and whether physical affection breaks the Mahāyāna precept against sexual activity.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 2008 11 02GPT – 02 Nov 2008 – Letter to a friend.mp3
UUID: b0a92cd3-8e1f-48fd-a426-5a2c38df37e3
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Letter to Friend – mulitple years (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2008-11-02
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 93.9 minutes
Words: ~6,221
Yeah. Good. So Geshe-la is instructing us then to give rise to good motivation and with the intention of establishing all sentient beings in the state of enlightenment, the state of Buddhahood. Then in order to accomplish that, we are going to study this text of mind training and we’re going to practice according to the teachings of mind training so that we can accomplish this goal of the enlightenment of all sentient beings. And then we start with the the preliminary prayers.
We start with the Heart Sūtra. Spoken by the body. Oh, yeah. And we read the the expelling of hindrances, I and all surrounding sentient beings. Go for refuge with the Buddha.
Go for refuge with the Sangha. The Sangha. We prostrate to the great Prajñāpāramitā, surrounded by all the children, by the assemblies of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions. By depending on my prostrations to all of you, may these words of truth be actualized. In the past, the deva king Indra dispelled the maras by reflecting the profound meaning of the wisdom gone beyond and reciting the profound words in daily recitation.
In that same way, I also reflect on the profound meaning of the great Prajñāpāramitā and recite the profound words in daily recitation. May all diseases, impure possessions, bad conditions, all the negative directions, that which happens due to past karma and immediate conditions, may all these be dispelled, may become non existent, may be pacified. So we if I remember it right, the last class we stopped at this verse number six. We finished with verse number six, and we’re going on to the next verse. And the the topic is the the training, how to train in in in morality, in moral discipline, which is the very root of the path to liberation.
Is that is that okay? And then Geshe-la was reading the root verse. It was verse number seven. It says, keep your vows unbroken, undegraded, uncorrupted, and quite free from staining. Just as the earth’s earth’s the base for all that’s still or moves on discipline, it said, is founded all that’s good.
Okay? Geshe-la is going for the verse, for the literary form of the verse, it’s explaining to us again this analogy. So every good quality there is is found is is established upon a good moral discipline, ethical discipline. So Nāgārjuna is explaining, and then that’s that’s why this analogy is given of the earth. Everything that that grows, every fruit that we can reap grows on the earth, the on the good solid stable earth.
And then and that’s because of because of such importance of discipline, then Nāgārjuna was giving this gave this advice advice to the king. This one? So then, Geshe lah is going into the the commentary to that to the verse. Again, the commentary starts making reference to this analogy that of the of the earth being the very foundation of everything that moves and and and that does not move. Everything grows and and and and leaves upon the earth, upon the solid earth.
The same way, again, in upon upon discipline, upon proper ethical discipline, then all the good qualities such as concentration, wisdom, in all the the the noble trainings and all the how do you say? Worldly and how can I say? Other other worldly qualities, worldly and mundane and and spiritual qualities. They all have as the foundation ethical discipline. And that’s why then Nāgārjuna was giving this advice to the king.
And then for that purpose, again, he was saying he was and then we have this this this sort of dialogue happening. So you king, you should then because of that, you should keep your your ethical discipline unstained without any fault. How to say? We we should keep the causes of your ethical discipline, again, protected against the afflictive emotions and conceptions. You should train in the antidotes to to attachment, which is then contemplating the unattractiveness of phenomena or the unpleasantness or the unattractiveness of phenomena.
And in this way, you should go on with your cultivate your practice of ethical discipline with the keeping in mind the peace of nirvana the peace of liberation having it as a goal in mind. Is that okay? So Geshe-la is saying, making reference to what has been said before in the text that again is in dependence on on proper ethical discipline that one attains the happy rebirth in future as humans and gods. And and there is no other discipline apart from ethical discipline that can accomplish that that sort of happiness for oneself. And Geshe-la is pointing out the last sentence of this of the commentary is saying is saying is saying that is when is when the king is being told keeping in mind the peace of nirvana.
And Geshe-la was saying so the peace of nirvana here is not makes is not making reference to the attainment of of higher rebirth in future lives as humans and gods. It’s making reference to the attainment of complete liberation from cyclic existence and and to the state of omniscience. So also, in order to attain the grounds in the paths that lead to liberation and omniscience itself, ethical discipline is essential. You cannot do without it. In this way, it’s the very foundation of even liberation and enlightenment also.
Geshe-la was saying, why is it so again, why is it that we need to cultivate this ethical discipline not only for the attainment of high rebirth, but for the attainment of liberation and enlightenment also? Why it is so important? And Geshe-la was saying, so ethical discipline, generally speaking, is making reference to the ten non virtuous actions. So and and the whole point is that if we do if we do not train ourselves in avoiding such non virtuous actions, and if we keep on engaging in all sorts of misdeeds and misconduct and so forth, then all that we’re going to experience in the future is suffering. We’re not going to experience any happiness whatsoever.
Again, if if on the other hand, we train in avoiding the ten virtuous actions, train in ethical discipline, and again, we’ll be able in training in training in ethical discipline, we are watching over the three gates of our body, speech, and mind, which is which are the only three roots of actions. The three sorry. The three doors of actions. We can only every action we perform are performed only through our body, or speech, or our minds, or our thoughts. So when we when we watch over watch over the three doors in this way, the three gates in this way, and again, all all that we are going to perform are either virtuous actions or neutral actions.
And in this way, we will avoid all sorts of of non virtuous and we’ll avoid all sorts of suffering results in the future. And not only will we benefit, how to say, our goal of attaining a high rebirth in the future as humans and gods, but that’s also why it is so important for the attainment of liberation enlightenment itself because it will benefit the accomplishment of those goals too. And with regards to the training in ethical discipline, there is nothing here that we cannot understand. We can easily understand everything about ethical discipline. And the only reason we the only thing is that we do not actually keep our ethical discipline.
We we allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by afflictive emotion and conceptions, and we do not apply the antidotes. And and in this way, we do not keep our ethical discipline. There’s nothing complicated here. All we need really is to apply the antidotes to the afflictive emotional conceptions that are holding us back from properly keeping our ethical discipline. And in so, we can accomplish great benefit, great merit for ourselves.
And then and then we are given a two line of two lines of verse from a sūtra which is then something that was spoken by the Buddha and it’s saying just like a how can you say a good I don’t want to be too distant just like a good vase which is a container for precious things in the same way ethical training is the basis, the foundation for the the arise or for the birth of every good dharma. And Geshe-la wasn’t just saying so in the same way that you know a good vase, good precious vase is is where we can keep all our jewels and so forth and and our jewels will be will be do not go anywhere. Will they will be if you put the place the jewels or whatever precious treasure you have in the vase, it will stay there and you can go and access that anytime you like. Something like a safe bank or something like that. In the same way, our ethical conduct is also the foundation for you to cultivate and access your own good qualities, the qualities you develop upon it.
So then we move on to the next topic of the next section of the text, which is then how to train in the path of beings of great scope on the on the path of great beings or or the Mahāyāna path. And we’ll read the next verse, verse number eight, which says, generosity and discipline, patience, diligence, concentration, and the wisdom wisdom that knows thusness. Those measured as perfections make them grow and be a mighty conqueror who’s crossed Samsāra Sea. And, Geshe-la was just just saying because in in Tibetan, this is is not as clear as in English. And, Geshe-la was saying, all it means is that, you know, we should engage in the six perfections so that we can attain the state of Buddhahood, the state of a Buddha who has crossed the sea of Samsāra to the safe shore of nirvana So, Geshe lah, then going through the the commenter, and the commenter is saying, yes, again, that we should the the meaning of that verse is saying, yes, that we should engage in the methods, the special the special method methods that then will will give away our bodies and our possessions by means of generosity and we should by means of ethical discipline and oppose any harm to other sentient beings.
Should by means of training patience, we should be able to bear with hardships and again we should rejoice with with joyous perseverance we should take joy in practicing virtuous actions, virtuous deeds. And and again by means by means of our training concentration, again, we should place our mind single pointedly in a pure object of observation, and then we get to the complicated part, which is wisdom. And then we have then and also we should by our training our training and wisdom, we can how to say? Realize the special how to say? The correct meaning of thusness which is emptiness of how can I say of what is the correct meaning of what is and then these six trainings the six perfections we are told they are not the object of the conduct of the training that is directly engaged by hearers and solitary realizers?
They are not such they are called and this is a name that I can’t remember the proper name in the proper translation in English but they are called the perfections which are how can I say that the inexpressible perfections which is just just indicating how how it is beyond the reach? Geshe-la was explaining this beyond the reach of hearers and solitary realizers. And then again we are told in this these perfections, this extensive vast perfections, again by by continually time and again increasing them and and improving them, You should this advice to the king, you should continually improve them and engage in ways and and exert yourself in improving, increasing, incrementing these perfections. And in this way, you will cross over the ocean of existence by means of these perfections you will cross over the ocean of existence and you will be a great conqueror, a powerful conqueror by attaining the state of Buddhahood. And in this way and having attained the state of Buddhahood you will be able then you should then lead other trainees or other disciples, other trainees.
You should lead them and establish them in the path to enlightenment itself. And Geshe-la was concluding in this way. So the king is being advised to train in the six perfectionss, attain Buddhahood, and then in this way, lead others other beings to Buddhahood and and accomplish in this way the benefit of of himself and of others. And I was going back to the very beginning of of the the the commentary, the very first expression of the commentary, which is making reference to which is method and wisdom, the special method and wisdom. So again, rely on the special method and wisdom.
You should train the six perfectionss. And Geshe-la was there explaining. So method is making reference to the the mind of enlightenment to bodhicitta. And wisdom, again, this makes makes reference to the to the mind that realizes emptiness, that understands emptiness. And Geshe-la is explaining this point to us, saying that again, when and when one practices these actions of generosity, discipline, patience, and so forth, all the way up to wisdom, the six the six actions.
When you when one practices them steeped in method and wisdom, in both method and wisdom, then what we have is the perfections. What we have is an activity, is a way of conducting oneself that is beyond the reach of hearers and solitary realizers. And so what hearers and solitary realizers — this is what it was saying in the text, that this is not the activity of hearers and solitary realizers because hearers and solitary realizers do not steep their actions in both method and wisdom. Do not have both method and wisdom. Okay.
Is that making sense? And just making making clarifying this this topic a bit further and saying again so the hearers and solitary realizers again, they do not have the wisdom that realizes emptiness steeped which is steeped in in the mind of enlightenment, which is steeped in bodhicitta. They have wisdom that realize emptiness, and they they can complete up uproot every ignorance and and the imprints of ignorance and everything, but they do not have bodhicitta. So and this and that’s the distinctive mark here. The fact that they do not have that method in the special method and wisdom.
And Geshe-la was making emphasis also to the word special. It’s a very strong determination to accomplish the the benefit of all. And Geshe-la again exploring that expression of the special method and wisdom. Geshe-la wasn’t saying in special method and wisdom, the main thing here is method. Method, Geshe-la was explaining, there are those scholars of the past who posit method as being bodhicitta, and there are those who posit method as being great compassion.
But the whole point being that, again, one if if you have one, then the other will arise naturally. So if you have great compassion, then naturally bodhicitta will eventually arise in one’s mind stream. Geshe-la was in saying, so the hope if you have that if you have that, then your wisdom becomes also special. If your wisdom is steeped in great compassion or in Bodhicitta, then it becomes also a special wisdom. So without that great compassion, without that Bodhicitta, even though we might have wisdom, it will not be called a special wisdom.
Does that all make any sense? And also, when we when and and still further on, and when we talk about method and wisdom and special method and wisdom, again, it’s not to say that here is in solitary realize do not have method. They have method and they have wisdom. Do not have special method and do not have special wisdom. And Geshe-la is explaining again.
Yes, hearers and solitary realizers that they do have method. They do have compassion. For example, have what is called immeasurable compassion. They train in immeasurable compassion, but they do not have great compassion, which is a very special kind of compassion, a very special development of compassion. So because they do not have this great compassion, this special compassion, they also not have their wisdom steeped in this compassion.
So the wisdom then does does not become special also by force of of being helped by this great compassion. It does not have the help of this great compassion. So we just not have special wisdom also. Is that okay? So again, summarizing the whole point of the commentary, the king is being advised then to train in the six perfections steeped in the special method and wisdom.
In this way accomplish enlightenment and then have accomplished enlightenment and lead your disciples, lead trainees to the path to enlightenment itself. And in this way, accomplish the benefit of both yourself and others. It was being advised. Is that okay? And and Geshe is explaining here in the text, in the commentary, we we are told that so then this is what the king was was instructed to do.
And Geshe-la is explaining, but implicitly, you know, all sentient beings, this is an instruction that is being given to all sentient beings, being given to us. We this instruction is is for us too. This is how we should practice. Okay? So again this instruction applies to ourselves too.
We should also train in both method and wisdom. We should by keeping our ethical discipline, training again we should train our minds in Bodhicitta, should train our minds in renunciation, should train our minds in the wisdom that realizes emptiness and whatever opportunity we have to plant, to develop this this habit in our minds, these habits in our minds and we should we should take advantage of of of that and plant that imprint, plant that seed, cultivate that those habits. Okay? And then the commentary is given that we’re we’re giving a a verse. At the conclusion of commentary, a verse from the Bodhisattva way of life from Śāntideva.
What Śāntideva is saying again, one should engage in generosity and the other perfections and increase them constantly continually increase them and we never give up the great, and Geshe-la was explaining, the great goal for the sake of something minor. So one should never by never never giving up enlightenment for something lesser than it, for liberation or the happiness of high rebirth or the happiness of this life. Again, one should always strive for the for the welfare to for the benefit of others. So, Geshe-la was just pointing out again once you train and increment one’s practice and proficiency in the six perfections. And then the next two lines saying again never give up something great for the sake of something smaller.
And then so never give up enlightenment itself as a goal. And the main point, so assuming the last line is saying the main thing is the main thing to bear in mind is the benefit of all the sentient beings. And Geshe-la wasn’t saying so. The expression in Tibetan is saying do not give up the great for the sake of the lesser. Pretty literally those are the words that are being used.
Geshe-la was explaining what we do, what we actually do, we ourselves do is that we give up the great great things for lesser things. We give up the happiness of future lives for the sake of the happiness of this, and the happiness and the pleasures of this life. That’s how we we ourselves act. And and if if in terms of importance we can easily understand how the happiness of future lives is more important than the happiness of this life. Future lives include many lifetimes and this life is only one lifetime.
Future lives are clearly more important present lifetime, more valuable than the present lifetime. And still we give up the happiness of future lives for the sake of the happiness of this life. And again, more more important than the happiness of future lives is the happiness of liberation, because liberation is everlasting happiness, unchanging happiness. And again, we give up liberation for the sake of something lesser than liberation. And and more important and greater than liberation is a state of omniscience.
The state of omniscience which is a state which accomplishes the happiness of not only oneself alone like in liberation, but accomplish the happiness of oneself and all other sentient beings. So there’s a much greater goal, much greater happiness. It’s a much more important thing than liberation that happens in future lives and present life. But we keep on giving up all those greater things for the sake of lesser things. Crazy.
We are out of our minds. And Geshe-la was saying, worldly wise, we would call somebody who gives up a hundred dollars. You know, if if it says that you work one hour and I give a hundred dollars, and somebody else says you work one hour and I give you ten dollars, and somebody who goes for the ten dollars we will call that person crazy. You say you’re crazy you’re giving him a hundred dollars for ten you’re crazy but this is exactly how we are acting right now giving is saying that is a verse from from Milarepa himself where he was saying how he he was directing himself to to villagers, to lay people. He was saying when you when you look at Mila you see a crazy man.
When Mila looks at you I see a crazy crazy people. Geshe-la was saying that’s the meaning of what he was just saying now. We’re all crazy. This one. So we are crazy, but we do not think that we are crazy.
We think that we are smart and that we that we are alright. Don’t we think that? So Geshe-la was quoting a verse from Sakya Pandita which I haven’t heard before. So Geshe-la was explaining the meaning of the verse. Sakya Pandita is saying then, and I do not know the exact words in Tibetan, but Geshe-la was explaining the meaning.
Sakya Pandita was saying, we go about places where there is food and water, food and drink, and that’s where we gather. And we never actually engage in what is good for us. Geshe-la was explaining virtuous deeds. We never actually do the work which is good for us, which is of real benefit to us, which is virtuous deeds. We are, conclusion, we are like dogs without tails.
That’s that’s what that’s the conclusion. Is that okay? Is that making sense? No. Well, dogs also go after food and water and do not do any virtuous deeds.
And since we we humans do not have tails, we are like dogs without tails. That’s the meaning. And that’s exactly what we are. If you if we think carefully about it, we are just like dogs without tails. That’s what we are.
So Geshe was saying, just think about it, think about that verse and you will see how we are just like that. And Geshe-la was again taking himself as an example, a humble example, and saying, again, know, if we think about, you know, we go after food and water, and all this, our livelihood all the time. And we never lend a ear to the Dharma or to virtuous deeds or virtuous practices. We are all lazy and always postponing and procrastinating our virtuous practice, our Dharma and so forth. And we are always talking and laughing and all that.
And we do not have tails. So we are just like dogs again. Again pointing out to us how crazy we are because we all want happiness, we all need happiness, and still we do not accomplish the cause of happiness. And what we keep on accomplishing is the cause of more suffering. So we are really crazy.
Are really out of our minds. We are really like dogs without tails. And again, make a reference to that third line of that verse. Again, of not giving up the greater for the lesser. And Geshe-la was in the sense of what we do is give up the greater things for lesser things.
And what we have to do instead is give up lesser things for greater things. We have to reverse this pattern. Okay? So again we should we should train habituate ourselves familiarize ourselves with with giving up the the what is lesser for what is greater so again giving up the lesser pleasures of this life for the sake of the greater happiness of future lives the the lesser happiness of future lives for the sake of the greater happiness of liberation the lesser happiness of liberation liberation for the greater happiness of omniscience, of the enlightenment of all beings. And in this way, we should train ourselves in the mind of enlightenment.
We should train ourselves in the path of the Mahāyāna. Important thing is the thought or the intention of benefiting others so again every virtue comes about comes on this intention of benefiting others. Good quality comes about on this intention of benefiting others. Liberation and enlightenment comes about in dependence on this intention of benefiting others. So that’s the most important thing, this intention, this motivation benefit of others.
But we are very what’s the right word for them? We are very improper in that improper is not the right word. Something. How can I say that? We’re very silly.
Almost stupid, could say, because we we keep on believing that we we keep on thinking, know, I I have accomplished all these things for myself. I have accomplished all these happiness for myself. I have done it all myself. And I am good. I have all these good qualities and all that.
And we we never acknowledge we never come to understand how every happens we have. in dependence on having benefited others. So then, right now, we finished then with with the the, how should say, the the brief exposition, that part of the commentary in the text, which is referred to as a brief exposition of the path. And then we’re going to engage in next Sunday. We’re going to start with the extensive explanation of the path.
You know? We’re going to go through the six perfections in in more detail and and and renunciation and so forth in greater detail from then on. Okay? You want to ask a question? Yes.
I’m talking about Mahayan Buddhism and special special. We become too proud and we look down on them. Yeah. Okay. So so, yeah, we we we do that.
Right? Many people do that. We think, oh, I am Mahāyāna, and and they are in Hīnayāna, you know, to this day. But this is very, very wrong. Because, as a matter of fact, in order to be able to practice the Mahāyāna, one has to have accomplished those practices which are common to the Hīnayāna One has to have developed a mind that wants to strive for liberation from cyclic existence in order to be able to give rise to renunciation.
And one has to have developed a renunciation in order to be able to give rise to compassion, great compassion in bodhicitta. Without renunciation, without the mind that strives for liberation, one cannot develop a great compassion, one cannot develop bodhicitta. So it a very, how to say, mistaken distorted understanding of the whole thing of Mahāyāna and Nayana, to be proud and look down on them in this way because one has to practice those those same practice that they are practicing. And Geshe-la was not saying, I forgot to put it as an expression, one way Geshe-la was putting it. Geshe-la was saying there is no Mahāyāna path without training in the paths which are common to the Hīnayāna.
There’s no way that will ever come about. And there are many such misconceptions, like in the same vein as this one. For example, there are many people who say, for example, that the Sūtra path, the Sutric path, is too long. Thousand countless eons, three countless eons is too long. Tantra is quicker.
You can attain enlightenment in one lifetime. People go on thinking like that. And the fact is that without having developed a very incredibly solid understanding of the sūtra path, the tantric path will not come about. Have, you know, Dzogpa Chenpo, Mahāmudrā, know, Mahasandhi, all sorts of special practices, highly developed practices, and all that.
The whole point being that without having the very solid foundation of Bodhicitta, and foundation of Bodhicitta and that understanding of Bodhicitta that comes from studying the sutric path and the understanding of emptiness that comes from studying the sutric path again none of these paths, the special practices have any chance to take any root whatsoever. So so what should I say to a Theravadan Buddhist? He says to me, why should So the way the way I put it in Tibetan, okay, I said so if I am a Hinayanist, a Hīnayāna practitioner, and I ask Geshe-la for what reason should I practice the Mahāyāna path? I put it that way because I couldn’t put it the other way. Geshe-la So if that is the question then you should ask him, do you want to attain enlightenment?
If you want to attain enlightenment, then you have to practice the Mahāyāna path. You have to develop great compassion and Bodhicitta. And then when you develop Bodhicitta, you are a Mahāyānist. Now, if you do not want to attain enlightenment, all you want to attain is liberation, then stick to your path. You’re right on.
It’s all good. Is that okay? Yeah? Yeah. It it’s okay.
But it just leads to further questions. Know. Have we got time to to to go further? Let’s try. Is it a good question?
Yeah. But by saying this answering in that way to a person no. I need some information. Do Theravadins believe that they are actually practicing towards enlightenment or only liberation? Okay.
That’s a good question. That’s a lovely question. I’m gonna get technical, though. Let’s see if I can. Look, is a complicated question.
It’s a complicated question. You ask different people, you have different answers. So from the point of view of our tradition here, what our understanding is that they do not aspire to attain enlightenment in the first place. They do not aspire to accomplish the welfare and the benefit and the happiness of every sentient being. They aspire to accomplish the benefit and the welfare of only themselves alone, every man every man is for for his own or her own, so so to speak.
But if you study the subject further, you will see that there are many who will say that, first of all, they will say that to attain the state of Buddhahood, only special beings can attain that. Once in an eon or something like that, and you have somebody who is a Buddha. We do not attain enlightenment of of Buddhas like that. There are other Theravadins who will tell you that their liberation is equals the full enlightenment of a Buddha, once we make a distinction here. So you have different answers.
You have different answers. I was trying to because I can’t I cannot remember very well my studies of of the tenets. And I was asking, what is the definition of a Buddha for the different tenets schools? And Geshe-la was saying, so the the the three tenets schools from the sūtra upwards, the the sūtra, the mind only, and the and the and the middle way schools, the definition of a Buddha is basically the same. Somebody who has rid themselves of every fault and accomplish every good quality, who has rid themselves of the two obscurations.
But for the Great Exposition School which is the lower the lowest tenets school they define it differently. They define it as being only the dharmakaya. So so only the dharmakaya is the the enlightened the enlightened Buddha itself. But that didn’t that didn’t clarify what’s that didn’t work out the way I thought it would in order to help you. But if you study the tenets also you will see for example that for the Mahāyāna schools of tenets, full enlightenment for example in the mind only has to do with realizing the selflessness of the person and the selflessness of phenomena.
Example, and then in in in the lower schools, there’s only the selflessness of of the person. And then we should go to the middle way schools and it gets more complicated. So it really depends on in my conversation with these people about saying, this is what my understanding of Theravāda Buddhism is. And this is another way of thinking of just the mind is, which I have accepted. And if you accept if you wish to accept that or follow that path, well, then follow that path, well, then that’s up to you.
But, meanwhile, you practice you you you must practice your your Theravadin Buddhism because that is the path. That’s the sort of answer I would like to give. I guess. Yeah. You want me to put all that to the question?
I was I was I was to you, Sunday, this gets really complicated. Also, because the Theravadin school is not one of the schools that are included in in our studies of tenets. When we talk about the schools and and the our studies of of of tenets in the Tibetan text, the Theravadan school is not one of those schools. Indian. Is it or comes from other I said Chinese.
Thai. Thai. Thai Vietnamese. The the Theravadan yeah. Well, the Theravadan tradition is excellent in in in in Thailand and Burma and all that, but it came it came from India also.
But still, it is not included in those those texts, those Tibetan texts on on tenets. So there’s a there’s a there’s some there is some there are some variations on top of all that, so it can get really complicated. It can get really complicated. So I guess I wasn’t saying, look, if if you ever have to have such conversations, you will have to just try to give the best answer for the question that have been that have been posed to you. The question may be, you have to think about what is going to be of most benefit.
Listen carefully to the question and then answer it with your heart. One more question. The case of somebody who may be merit or in a relationship and wants to take the eight Mahāyāna precepts at home, is it acceptable the fact that sexual activity is one of the precepts? Not sorry. To refrain from sexual activity is one of the precepts.
Is it accept acceptable even to I mean, in the case of is hugging acceptable? Is affection acceptable in the case of, like, you know, hug to console console your partner? Or basically, is it acceptable? Is hug sex? Well, I mean, somebody said that no physical that physical contact is is not acceptable.
Some people some people say that. About kissing is that? Don’t know the word for hugging, to be honest with you. Nor do I know the word for kissing. Tibetans don’t kiss, man.
Can’t do that. Can’t do that. Okay. Well, to put it simpler, if if you take the eight Mahāyāna precepts, is it acceptable as long as there is no sexual Well, there’s if there’s no sexual activity, then of course, you’re not breaking any vow. The vow is sexual activity, not hugging and kissing.
Somebody somebody told me that the best Somebody somebody many people will tell you different things. Is a Mahāyāna. As usual. Ordained Mahāyāna. Man.
People tell you different things all the time. Well, that that’s why I was asking this conversation. No. I understood it to be sexual misconduct because there’s actually Sexual activity. The precept is sexual activity.
So it’s like I was saying, look, the vow is not performing a sexual activity. So hugging and kissing is not a sexual activity. You’re not breaking the vow. So you’re not contradicting the vow when you’re hugging and kissing. It’s not to say that there is no fault to hugging and kissing because obviously there is.
We have always, we do that out of attachment. But in the context of the Mahāyāna precepts, in the context of that specific vow, you’re not breaking the vow. You’re not damaging the vow. You’re not doing anything to the vow. The vow is sexual activity.
Okay? Different people will say different things. Yeah. Listen to your heart. Okay?
Would you be so kind to read the dedication prayers, please?