Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The mind-training instruction to take the loss and give the victory to others sits at the centre of this 78-minute session, as Geshe Pema Tsering traces self-cherishing as the root of suffering and generosity as its antidote. The broader frame is his ongoing commentary on Nāgārjuna’s Letter to a Friend: having finished the introductory verses, he opens the extensive path explanation, beginning with sixteen topics on the small-scope path. He works through the first two — showing respect to parents, citing the King of Concentration sūtra to trace those benefits into future lives, and keeping the eight precepts (sojong). Each precept is explained in terms of the affliction it checks: late-night eating feeds sloth and attachment, high seats breed pride, adornments sustain lust. A closing Q&A clarifies how sojong precept days, taken with the four opponent powers, function as purification practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 2008 11 09 GPT – Letter – 09-11-2008.mp3
UUID: 369c6c21-0944-4b3d-a874-8debb731cd13
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: z Letter to Friend – mulitple years (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2008-11-09
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 78.4 minutes
Words: ~4,648
So I guess she’s then instructing us to give us a good motivation then with the intention then of establishing all sentient beings in the state of enlightenment, then we are going to study, to listen carefully to the teachings on the letter to a friend and study and practice carefully. And then in this way, we aim at accomplishing enlightenment for the sake of establishing all sentient beings in the state of Buddhahood. Is that okay? You you feel like you you could get closer, couldn’t you? Yes.
And then we start with again, on top of all that, with with the intention of finding and and, you know, obtaining a a proper place for Buddha house, then we start reading the Heart Sūtra. Thus, did I hear one And then we move on to the the dispelling of hindrances. I and all surrounding sentient beings go for refuge to the Buddha, go for refuge to the Dharma, go for refuge to the Sangha. We prostrate to the great Mahaprajnaparamita 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 Devakin 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 mother Prajñāpāramitā and recite the profound words in daily recitation. May all diseases, impure possessions, bad conditions, all the negative obstructions, that which happens due to past karma and immediate conditions, may all these be dispersed, may become nonexistent, may be pacified. So now we we we have gone through the the very first verses up to verse number eight of the letter to a friend. And the commentary separated those verses as being a brief explanation of the path, an introduction and a brief explanation of the path.
Now we approach this the second part of the commentary which an extensive explanation of the path. And now we’re going to go through a lot of divisions and subdivisions here. Just bear with us for a little second. So the first so this this major topic, which is extensive explanation, has three main parts. And those for for most of most of you is going to be very familiar.
So first is the path which is common to beings beings of small scope. And secondly, the path which is common to beings of middling scope. And lastly, the the explanation of the path an extensive explanation of the path of the beings of great scope. So the first of those topics which is the the path common to beings of small scope and and and look at this the path common to beings of small scope has sixteen parts to it because sixteen different topics so Geshe-la was just going through the each one of the subjects the topics so the first one is: familiarize yourself, habituate yourself with respect, showing respect or being respectful towards your parents. Secondly, exert yourself in the lay vows and keeping keeping the vows because this is advice of the king who is a lay person.
So exert yourself in the lay vows. Thirdly, see afflictive emotions and conceptions as the enemy. Four, habituate yourself with conscientiousness. And five, habituate yourself with patience. Six, how can I say?
Watch over the conduct, your actions of the three doors of body, speech, and mind. And then seven, again, an advice to the king investigate what are you need to properly investigate what are your your people, the people around you. What are they doing? What do what do they need? What do they want?
And so forth. Then, guess I’ll stop there before before he proceeded to the next. So I guess, I went for the the the the remaining ones. So number eight, the way to familiarize oneself with the antidotes that oppose the afflictive emotions and conceptions. Nine.
The way to habituate yourself with making effort at applying the antidotes to the seeds of those afflictive emotion conceptions. Again ten habituating yourself with the qualities which are the antidotes to those seeds Eleven, then Then closing the doors, The way to close the doors to the eight worldly concerns. Twelve. Contemplating or reflecting upon the the need to abandon the negativities. So AGeshe-la was pointing out contemplating the shortcomings and the faults of the negativities.
Thirteen, making efforts or exerting oneself in the how can I say that? Ārya, the jewels of the and there are seven virtues these are associated with this this title the jewels of the aryas, the ārya beings. Then abandoning the conditions which contradict which oppose that which is the seven jewels of the aryas. Then exercising contentment with regards to the to the wealth of the world, you know, the the the things of the world, the wealth and enjoyment of the world. And contemplating amongst amongst one’s retinue or amongst the people surrounding you contemplating those which are to be given up and those which are to be taken.
And Geshe-la was making reference to those friends which are friends of negativities and those friends which are positive friends which are friends of virtue. So then giving up those friends of negativity which will have a bad influence on myself and taking on those good friends which will how to say influence one positively So then we go on to the first one of those topics, which is then habituating oneself with respect to one’s parents. And to that we read the next root verse verse number nine and it says those those who showed their parents great respect with Brahma or a master will be linked. By venerating them, they will win repute and in future, they will attain the higher realms. And Geshe-la was briefly explaining.
So again, the verse is pointing out that by by being respectful towards one’s parents, then again, not only we will we will one will attain benefit, one will experience the benefit of that in this life, in the present life, one will also experience the benefit in future lives by attaining higher rebirths. And, Geshe-la was going through the commentary to that verse which is saying whoever then to say shows the proper respect and veneration towards one’s father and one’s mother that person will not experience any harm caused either by humans or non humans alike. That person will receive the blessings of of gods, of the of the deities, and the lamas. That person will be linked to such beings as Brahma or a great learned Pandita and so forth. By venerating or showing respect to one’s parents, again, that person will experience the benefits in this very life, in this present life.
That person will be renowned, will become famous and respected by others. And in future lives, also, that person will attain the high rebirths of humans and gods. So because of all these reasons then exert yourself make effort at being respectful and showing showing respect and veneration to to your parents through the three doors of body speech and mind. And then we have a quote from the Samadhiraja, the king of concentration sūtra where where it says at all times learned one and this is directed to to to to a scholar at all times scholar by by showing respect to your parents and in this way also to all other migrating beings. Do not come under, do not come under this sway.
Do not allow yourself to come under this sway of pride. And in this way, you will attain to the realm of the thirty three. Oh, sorry. Sorry. And and in this way, you attain the thirty two thirty two major marks of a Buddha.
And and Geshe-la was then just explaining, so if one acts in this way, although the Buddha is saying this, one will attain the state of Buddhahood itself. And Geshe-la is pointing out to this this this first two lines of this verse in the Tibetan. The first the first line is making reference to one’s parents, one’s father, and one’s mother and the second line is making a reference to all other migrating beings and Geshe-la wasn’t saying and there is this emphasis on the father and the mother because we can clearly see how our parents have been greatly kind to us in this present life. So that’s why they are distinguished here. And then in the same way we contemplate also the great kindness of all other sentient beings.
We contemplate how all the sentient beings have been kind to us like our parents have been. And because every by benefiting all the sentient beings we ourselves experience happiness as a result because every happiness of experience all the way from enjoying a good tasty meal all the way up to enlightenment yourself. Every happiness there is comes in dependence on the kindness of other sentient beings and because every harm that there is, every suffering that we experience comes in dependence of having harmed all these sentient beings. Because of that we have to pay, we have to act in this way that we’re being instructed to pay respect and so forth. Because I was gonna say it comes the happiness and the harm that we experience comes down to benefiting or harming other sentient beings.
That’s what it comes down to. And that’s what is and that’s what the teachings on on on actions and the results is about. That’s what the teachings on karma are about. So benefiting benefiting sentient beings amounts to positive actions, virtuous actions, good karma, and the result of that is happiness. And harm in sentient beings amounts negative actions, non virtuous actions, bad karma, and the result of that is suffering.
And Geshe-la was gonna say, now, we think we think to ourselves that that we do not harm other sentient beings. And Geshe-la was explained, that’s how that’s how we we we believe we live our lives. We are not causing any harm to anybody. But Geshe-la explained, the fact is that we live our lives for the sake of our own profit and benefit alone. And by acting in this way, we do maybe we do not harm them overtly or obviously but we do harm them indirectly.
So then it’s very important that we then analyze and look very carefully at every action that we intend to perform. We have to see what the result of those actions will be. Will these actions benefit oneself or harm oneself? Will those actions benefit others or will they harm others? And if they are going to harm others then one of course one has to give them up.
And if it is going to be then, of course, one has to engage in them. And Geshe-la was saying, the way that we go on about our life is that if it is profitable for us, then we engage in the action without any regards to whatever may happen to others. Be it harm or benefit, don’t care. So and and and because a lot of harm is caused on to others in this way, then we we do create a lot of negativities for ourselves. So Geshe-la is quoting then one of the mind training verses.
Geshe-la the way Geshe-la is putting this verse forward is saying take up the loss, accept defeat for yourself and give the victory to others. And Geshe-la was saying, translating again, give up any concern for one’s own profit and benefit. And by giving importance more importance to the benefit and the happiness of others give them the profit and the benefit. And Geshe-la was saying, there is nothing here that we cannot understand. Yes.
I wasn’t saying, we usually we don’t we don’t really think about it. But if we think about it, then there’s nothing here that we cannot understand, that we can understand all of it. Can you give us an example? When we accept defeat or the loss and we when we do not take the profit, So when we’re talking about profit, we’re talking about those things that ordinary beings regard as profitable, as profit, or as benefit. Material things, compounded phenomena, phenomena of saṃsāra, which is not really profit from our our point of view here right now.
The point of view of of enlightenment and liberation and and happiness is not really profit. It is compounded phenomena. It’s all in the nature of in the nature of suffering. It’s not really profit. So and when you when you offer that, which you which is commonly regarded as profit to another, when you give that up, when you give up your own profit, your own own benefit, your own concern for yourself and you give that up to another, that person will be happy.
That person will you will give give joy to that person. How to say you help that person experience joy and that is a virtue and the result of that virtue is happiness in the future as a high rebirth or as liberation or even as enlightenment. And on the other hand by not giving up the profit, by not giving up concern for one’s own happiness and benefit and profit and one’s own interests, goes on and and all sorts of afflictive emotions, attachment, aversion, pride, arrogance, and so forth arise. And result of that, all sorts of negativities are produced, and the result of that is suffering. That’s what it means.
So again offer offer the victory and the profit to others and take up upon yourself the loss and the defeat. And I was asking again, asking Geshe-la to elaborate more on the meaning of that. So it comes down really to giving up concern for oneself, for one’s profit and happiness and benefit. Giving up that because that is the cause of suffering. The self-cherishing mind, self centered mind, self obsessed mind is the cause of suffering.
That comes down to the eight worldly concerns which are all cause of suffering. So when you give up those so called profits and so called victories which is profits and victories from an ordinary perspective. When you give that up you’re giving up suffering. And when you give that up to another, because not because of what you are giving up, but because that gesture of generosity is creating joy on the minds of other beings because that is an act of generosity, is an act of giving. You create virtue and you are doing that also from the point of view, from the perspective of cherishing them more than yourself, cherishing their happiness, cherishing their their benefit more than than your own.
You and Geshe-la was saying that it’s an act of generosity in itself. When you can do that, when you can really give that, you know, without holding on, holding back anything, you give that profit that profit and victory, which is a very difficult translation. There’s one word in the verse which is profit. Clearly, the word is profit. The other word is translated as victory, but it it could could be translated in different ways.
But may mainly, those things mean profit and victory. I’m making reference to those things that ordinary beings in some sort of regard as good as happiness or cause of happiness and so forth, which are not. Or success. Or success or or, know fame and stuff like that you know which are not really that’s what it is so give that up one. Oh, yeah.
And, Geshe-la, was gonna say, no. And and to accomplish that, this is a very difficult thing to accomplish. And still, you know, we shouldn’t give up. Geshe-la was saying it is it is difficult. It is difficult to to understand and even more difficult to to implement such a teaching, but we should keep on.
I guess I wanna say now even though it is difficult, we shouldn’t how do you say? What’s the word for that? Give in to the defeatist. Defeated. We shouldn’t be defeatist, and we shouldn’t give up our efforts.
We should we should contemplate those thoughts, understand where the harm is coming from and where the benefit is coming from and there’s understand how we can benefit from such a practice and then do whatever it is that we are able to do however much we are capable of doing, we do. And in this way we have accomplished a little bit. And if we keep on doing it little by little, we’ll become more and more proficient until we accomplish complete proficiency in acting, thinking, feeling, and acting in this way. And we the reason we we are unable we have such a hard time implementing acting on those on these teachings is because we we do not really understand the real nature of things how How phenomena do actually exist? We are completely obscured by ignorance and being obscured by ignorance we do not really understand what are the causes of happiness and the causes of suffering and we keep holding on to that which is actually the cause of suffering or to those things which are actually the cause of suffering and we keep on striving to obtain those things and to keep those things instead of doing the right thing Instead of doing that which would accomplish happiness for us.
And Geshe-la was quoting one of the verses from the thirty seven practices of the bodhisattvas that we were doing that on on on earlier this year. And Geshe-la, the verse is going on like this: those who do not investigate or look into their own delusion, they engage in all sorts of misconduct they create all sorts of negativities So it is then the practice of Bodhisattvas to continually look into one’s own delusion, investigate and analyze into one’s own confusion, and give give that up. Okay? And in this way, Geshe says it, the most important thing for us that we should be doing is listening to the teachings and contemplating the teachings. And Geshe-la was saying, basically, the most important thing that we should be doing is studying.
Studying the teachings and and developing our understanding of the teachings. Because when we gain an understanding of the teachings, and we will know ourselves by ourselves, we will know exactly what we have to do and what we have to give up, and we’ll be able to understand exactly what we have to practice and how we have to practice and so forth. So study is the most important thing. So then we approach the next topic of the commentary, which is then make effort in the in the lay vows and most more specifically speaking the sojong the sojong the one day vows. Eschew all harm..
And this translation here is saying, eschew all harm. Don’t steal. Don’t make love or lie. Abstain from drink, untimely greed for food, indulging in high beds, and singing too. Refrain from dancing, all adornments shun.
This one. And next verse is saying, for men and women who keep this eight branched vow and emulate the vows they took, their wish to purify and to cleanse will grant them handsome bodies as celestial gods and goddesses. In English language, I was just going going back for the verse because the verse isn’t very literary. English is expanding on on on the abbreviated words. So again, but in English comes comes more or less the same.
So again, do not kill those are the vows of the sojong sojong vows so again do not kill do not steal do not engage in sexual activity, do not lie, do not drink alcohol or take any intoxicants, do not eat in the wrong time, do not eat after midday, do not indulge in high beds and seats, do not sing, do not dance, and do not use any adornments or perfumes and so forth. So for the people who keep these vows follow the example of the arhats of former times they they will be purified their vows and their negativities will be purified and restored and they will attain these attain beautiful bodies of gods and goddesses and and good rebirths in the future. Oh And then, Geshe-la was going through the commentary. And the commentary is pretty much saying what Geshe has already said. So he’s going for each one of the vows.
Do not kill Do not take lives. Do not take other lives. How to say? Do not take what is not given. Do not engage in any sexual sexual activity.
Do not lie. Do not drink alcohol, be all sorts of beers and spirits and so forth. Do not eat at improper times. Times. Do not sit in high thrones and beds and do not take joy in sitting in high thrones and beds and so forth.
Do not dance and wear adornments and perfumes and so forth. Abandon such behavior and by following the example of the arhats in this way because the arhats have adopted these vows of conduct and attain their their liberation in this way. So by following the example of the arhats and keeping with this ethical discipline, then all your, vows and negativities will be purified cleansed and restored. The vows will be restored by the force of such ethical discipline you will attain and this is okay I’m gonna read it and you ladies bear with us this is a very old text okay from a very old culture and the text is saying and I say that the text is saying by the force of this ethical discipline in the three continents in the future lives you will not be reborn as a woman because that was seen as a good thing. But the whole point is that you will not attain a an unfavorable an unfavorable rebirth.
You will in future lives, you will easily obtain everything that you wish, and you will attain also the the beautiful bodies of gods and goddesses. And in this way, then you too and then and then make make a reference to the king in front of him. You too should adopt these eight vows, endow yourself with these eight vows, and make effort in practicing them. Oh, is Is that alright? Are you is that everything okay?
Yeah? The whole point of this practice of this is to give up the afflictive emotion conceptions. All these things, all these prescriptions here they are referring to negative actions, to harmful actions, samsaric actions so giving giving up those actions engaging in this ethical discipline harms our continuation in saṃsāra and benefits our attainment of liberation and that’s why we have to practice this. That’s why we practice this and if we can practice, if we can completely and forever give up those actions all the better we create a an infinite amount of merit. But even if we can only do that for one day only, still we create an amazing amount of benefit for ourselves.
And Geshe-la was saying going back to the beginning of the commentary to everyone who’s do to each one of those prescriptions. So, again, not to take life, not to steal, not to engage in sexual activity and so forth. So not to lie. All those things, they are very easy to understand and easy to implement. There’s nothing complicated about it.
What is really strange actually, wasn’t saying what we usually think is really strange is this this prescription of not eating at inappropriate times, which is not eating after midday, not eating at night, and so forth. So we usually, we think that if doesn’t matter what time we eat, if we eating is going to be a benefit for us. But Geshe-la was saying, no. There is a distinction here. There is a difference.
And especially especially if you are an ordained person, that makes a more there’s there’s a great importance to this vow, especially if you’re an ordained person. But there is a difference that if you eat at night, Geshe-la was saying, their understanding is that it will not re really be beneficial for the body. It will increase, how to say it? I guess I wouldn’t say it makes one fat. It increases attachment.
It increases lust. It increases sloth and torpor, and so forth and sleepiness and so forth. So it is not really it’s not really beneficial. That’s why this vow is there. And also we have then this other prescription of not enjoying high beds and seats and thrones and so forth because when we sit or lie on high beds and seats and thrones again usually we tend to develop pride arrogance so again the whole point is not to give in to arrogance, not to enjoy in this way.
So that’s why this prescription is there. And also the next prescription is on wearing perfumes and adornments. Again give up that because again it gives rise to attachment to arrogance, to pride and so forth. Attachment to one’s body, attachment to other’s body bodies. So, again, that’s again why we have to give up.
That’s why this prescription is here. And dancing and singing, again, and all this adornments, again, all of that gives rise to pride, to arrogance, to attachment, to lust, and so forth. So, again, that’s why this prescription is here. So we can give up that. Today is the tenth, right?
November tenth? Nine? Okay. And then so then we stop here today. The next teaching we the next teaching will be on seeing the afflictive emotion conceptions as the enemy, and we we go on from there.
Yeah. I wonder if you have any just get clear? Yes. Absolutely. We’re talking here about precept days, particularly for laypeople.
Yes. Yes. Exactly that. Those precepts. Yeah.
I couldn’t remember the word in English. Was saying sojong sojong all the time, but, yeah, precepts. Yes. That’s exactly what it is. Those eight vows.
Yeah. I forgot the word in English. I’m sorry. Preceptors. The eight precepts.
And Geshe-la is explaining the the etymology of the word of the of the Tibetan word. So Soo is to heal, to restore. So, to heal and restore one’s vows and one’s qualities. If they have degenerated or deteriorated, then you heal them. You bring them up to where they were and Jong Jong is to cleanse or to purify also so then to clear away all that which oppose us those vows and those good qualities and virtues and so forth, all the negativities and impurities and so forth.
It really is a call to say continually do that. Pardon me? This is a call to con to actually do that and and take that on as the the the special days in order to do that for us. The the the precepts. The Mahāyāna precepts?
Yeah. Yes. Definitely. So a precept a precept day can clear come So, yes, if you if you if you if you take it with the with with that intention and with that understanding in mind, if you take it on the basis of having given rise to the four opponent powers, and if, you know, having given rise to the four opponent powers, you know, the last of those powers, which is practicing virtue, it can be your taking of the precepts, and then, yes, then you accomplish that purification very well indeed. You you got that?
Yeah. Okay.