Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The image of thoughts drawn in water, sandy soil, or stone anchors Geshe Pema Tsering’s 107-minute commentary on Nāgārjuna’s Letter to a Friend. The core argument: afflicted emotions should vanish like marks on water, while dharma insights should be fixed like stone carvings — virtuous minds, being correct, grow clearer with practice, whereas afflicted minds only grow more obscured. He then covers three kinds of speech — sweet as honey, truthful as flowers, harmful as filth — explaining which two to practice and which to abandon. A verse on four directions of rebirth leads into a mango analogy for four types of people, defined by whether inner motivation and outer conduct align. The session closes with an audience question about blessing pets, which Geshe Pema connects to the principle that positive imprints accumulate even across animal lives.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 08 2009 02 08 GPT – Sunday AM GPT Letter 8 Feb 09.mp3
UUID: 97172cc8-7220-45df-91eb-ae0cf76dea34
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Letter to Friend – mulitple years (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2009-02-08
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 107.0 minutes
Words: ~5,377
We can give rise. So with the intention then of establishing all sentient beings in the unsurpassed state of enlightenment, then again, I myself must attain enlightenment. In order to accomplish that, I am going to study this mind training text, and I’m going to train my mind according to this mind training text. And in this way, we give rise to this great motivation. And Geshe-la says, the greater the motivation, the stronger the motivation, then the greater stronger will be the cause of our actions and the results that our actions are going to bring about.
And Geshe-la says, if we do not deliberately give rise to a proper motivation, then motivation will not easily come about. It will not just naturally come about. It’s very hard for a good motivation to come about. So it’s very important then that we focus our minds, our attention in the motivation and create, deliberately create, a very good motivation. In this way, we understand the meaning of that little verse in the beginning and the conclusion.
Two actions are important. So then we give rise to the motivation. I’m going to establish all sentient beings in the state of enlightenment, in the state of unsurpassed enlightenment. And because we are generating our intention in relation to all sentient beings as our object, then we can understand how vast and how great this motivation is, how powerful motivation is. So in this way, we aim at attaining enlightenment ourselves so that we can establish all these sentient beings in the state of enlightenment itself.
And with this motivation in mind, then we start with the teaching today. And Geshe-la then is saying, is very hard for us to just spontaneously, it’s very hard for us to actually think or generate any care or concern for other sentient beings. We are actually very much habituated. Since time immemorial, we have been habituated with having concern only for ourselves, for our own happiness and benefit alone, and having, on top of that, a disregard for whatever is that happens to others. So, Geshe-la says, if we do not deliberately generate this motivation in our minds, it will not come easily.
So we must engage it. We must engage our minds in the process of generating this motivation. So with this, we start with the Heart Sūtra today. Thus did I hear one time the Bhagavan was dwelling on Vulture Peak Mountain in Rajagriha together with a great community of monks and a great community of Bodhisattvas. At that time, the Bhagavan was absorbed in a concentration in the categories of phenomena called profound perception.
Also at that time, the Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Ārya Avalokiteśvara was looking upon the practice of the profound perfection of wisdom and saw that the five aggregates are empty of inherent existence. Then through the power of the Buddha, the Venerable Śāriputra said to the Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Ārya Avalokiteśvara: How should a son or daughter of lineage who wishes to practice the activity of the profound perfection of wisdom train? And move on to 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 mother, 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 king Indra dispel the maras by reflecting on 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 Maha Prajñāpāramitā and recite the profound words in in recitation. May all diseases, spirit possessions, bad conditions, all the negative obstructions.
That which happens due to past, calm, and immediate conditions, may all of these be dispelled, may become nonexistent, may be pacified. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. So, Gesela, so we approach the next verse, the next part of the commentary, which is the way to conduct oneself, the way to act through the three doors of body, speech and mind. And we’re going to read the next three verses of the root text of seventeen to nineteen. And if I start over with the first one, verse number seventeen, it says, understand your thoughts to be like figures drawn on water, sandy soil, or carved in stone. Of these, for tainted thoughts, and the wording in Tibetan is afflicted emotion and conception.
For tainted thoughts, the first the best. While when you long for dharma, it’s the last, which is the best. So, I was explaining, so our minds can be very fickle, and can change very quickly, or they can be also, the same way, obsessed with some things, and be very stuck. So, when things of emotion and conceptions are arising, if they are to arise, that they arise in a way that is going to leave no residue behind, no marks behind, like drawing on water. It leaves no mark whatsoever.
On the other hand, if virtuous thoughts of dharma are going to arise, let them arise and remain, very strong imprints like carving, drawing on stone, carving stone. So, if you carve something on the stone, it’s to very difficult to erase it. So, if you, in terms of Dharma and our spiritual practice, that’s what we want. We want something that is going to be in our minds, in our hearts, as if it was carved on stone. And Geshe-la was explaining, And, in order to be able to leave this very strong imprint, we need to understand the qualities of the Dharma that we’re meditating about.
We need to be able to have this understanding. We need to contemplate what are the qualities and the benefits of the Dharma that we’re contemplating. And in this way, we’ll be able to generate what is called the faith of conviction in the dharma. Faith and conviction and admiration for the dharma, and we will aspire to realize the dharma, and in this way we’ll be able to leave that strong imprint as if it was carved in stone. Otherwise, we can understand how these contemplations beforehand will determine the quality of the imprint that we’re going to leave.
Is it going to be just drawing in water or in sandy soil? Or is it going to be carved in stone? It depends on the quality of the mind that we have in relationship with the faith that we have, the conviction that we have, and so forth. This one. Then we approach the next verse, again, with regards to our conduct of speech.
It says, Three kinds of speech are used by humankind, and these, the victor, the Buddha variously described. Like honey, sweet, like flowers, true, like filth, improper speech. This last one has two. Geshe-la was for the next verse before we started the commentary, which saying, some there are who go from light to light, and some whose end from dark is darkness still, while some from light to dark, others, dark to light, end up. Thus, we have four.
Of these, the best of these, be as the first. So, we, I guess, I started with the commentary that goes with regards to the first of those verses, the three kinds of speech I use about. Sorry. Understand the thoughts to be like figures drawing in water, sandy soil, and stone. Sentient beings, they have we have different kinds of sentient beings with different dispositions, and different intentions, and different goals.
And their minds then, the thoughts that arise in their minds are like drawing either in water, in sand, in sandy soil, or in stone, so we can see these three inclinations of propensities. And, of these three conditions of the mind, you can say, in, in, with, in regards to the afflicted emotions and conceptions, you want your mind to be like the first of those. Because when you draw in the water, that drawing doesn’t remain. It immediately disappears. As soon as it is being drawn, it starts disappearing.
So, has the water provides no support for the drawing. And this is how you want your mind to be in regards to the afflicted emotions, in relationship to the afflicted emotions and conceptions. Geshe-la was explaining also that there are many ways to interpret these Geshe-la says. One of the ways that we can see is how we can understand this, what is being said, is that how in our minds, afflicted thoughts are arising all the time, continually. And every time that we are trying to engage in a virtuous action, and there are, afflicted emotional conceptions arising, that completely disempower how can I say that?
They completely take away the power of our virtuous actions. And every time we’re trying to make a prostration, an offering, and then we’re doing that with an afflicted mind, and the power of that action is greatly diminished. Every time we’re trying to meditate, afflicted emotions arise, we cannot meditate for more than one or two minutes properly. So we can see how this can be happening at all times, and then our minds are fickle like these drawings in water, you know, this always changing and never remaining one’s one object, in the case of virtuous object. And then, the commentary goes on, it says, for those who aspire for the dharma, then one ought to draw virtuous minds in one’s heart, like this last illustration, like the last one, which is drawing, carving something stone.
And this way, we have a very stable imprint that is left in the mind. And so, is what we want. So, and Geshe-la and the commentary finishes saying in this way, so we should give up, immediately give up every negativity, every negative mind, and we should firmly establish every virtuous mind, and we should endeavor to accomplish that. Okay? And it gives license in another way that we can understand what is being said here.
Another meaning we can give to the words that are being that are here. Geshe-la was saying is that virtuous minds are reliable. They are in and of themselves, they are reliable because they are correct minds. They are not distorted or deluded. They are correct.
And, and the, the more you engage in these virtuous minds, with these virtuous minds, the stronger they get, the better they get, they generate like real happiness, something that is going to last and is going to increase because it is real, because they are real. They, so you can perfect them and you can attain, you can develop those minds to a state of perfection, of completeness. So, because they are real minds, correct minds. On the other hand, these non virtuous minds, these afflicted minds, and afflicted emotion conceptions, because they are inherently, fundamentally distorted and wrong, because they are based on this misperception of inherent existence, no matter how much you engage with them, there will never be a point of completeness or attaining a point of perfection with such minds. For example, if you are engaging in a relationship with attachment, engaging an object with attachment.
That mind of attachment, which is, you know, a mind that is exaggerating the qualities of its object by force of the distortion that it has, by force of the grasping, the clinging that it has, then there will never be a point where the mind is going to attain a completeness to it. You cultivate such a mind as long as your life, for your entire life, and you’re never gonna find a point of completeness. There’s not gonna be an end to it. There’s only gonna be lack and deficiency because it is inherently wrong, intrinsically wrong. Okay?
I guess, I was gonna say again, emphasizing that the virtuous minds are correct minds. So, because they are correct, because they are in conformity with reality, then the more you meditate and the more you familiarize yourself with them, the clearer they get, the stronger they get. Whilst these non virtuous minds, which are, afflicted emotional conceptions, they are wrong minds. They are incorrect. They’re distorted and deluded.
They are exaggerating and degrading reality in some way or another. So, the more you familiarize yourself with one of these, the non-virtuous minds, it’s not going to get clearer and clearer. It’s not going to get better and better. It’s only going to get more and more cloudy, obscured, and worse. Okay?
This one. And so, the commentary goes on to the next paragraph, which is a commentary to the second verse on the on the three kinds of speech, the speech which is sweet like honey, beautiful like flowers, and unclean like like excrement. So, again, the commentary is just saying basically the same thing, saying that the conqueror, the victorious one, has said that sentient beings, there are three types of speech that we can categorize amongst sentient beings. So, in this way we have one which is a very sweet and pleasant speech from the heart, which is then like honey, the speech which is like honey. Then we have those true words which are very beautiful and eloquent speech, which is which is a speech like flowers.
And then we have this wrong, distorted, unclean, dirty speech, which is then this unclean speech. So I guess I wasn’t so that speech which is like honey is for those beings who are in harmony with their hearts, their thoughts and their hearts are in harmony with their actions and they speak pleasant words that give rise to faith. You know, those are virtuous beings who inspire us. When people hear them speaking, they become inspired. They like them.
And this is the sort of speech that we should aspire to engage at all times. Then the second type of speech is is the truthful one. It’s a if a truthful, it is straightforward and honest speech. When one engages gently, with gentleness, one speaks the truth, speaks, is honest and straightforward, and that then impresses people in the same way that a flower impresses people. People appreciate that in the same way that people appreciate a flower.
And then we have this wrong speech, which is this evil, unclean speech. And mitsawa, which is the word I’m translating as unclean, is usually also, it literally means unclean, but it refers to something extremely nasty like feces or something like that. So this sort of speech, which is unclean in this way, which is this wrong, distorted speech, this way is something which is unpleasant, unpleasant words, dishonest words, and so forth, which again, when we hear, they cause us to feel unpleasant, cause us to dislike it. So this is the sort of speech that when anybody hears it or listens to it, everybody dislikes it, is displeased by those And of these three types of speech, the last one, which is this unclean like speech, we should abandon it, we should give it up. And then the first one, which is that pleasant speech from the heart and the beautiful speech from the heart and that truthful, honest speech.
These two are the two that we have to rely upon, these two and practice them. So, just I was just saying the whole point being that that’s unclean speech, which is being talked about, is basically a non virtuous speech because it is going to displease people in the sense that it is going to disturb people. It is going to harm their peace of mind and their heart, it is harmful in this way, then it is non virtue. And on the other hand, that the pleasant speech, is sweet like honey, and the truthful speech, which is beautiful like a flower, again, are virtuous deeds in the sense that they inspire people to live in harmony and so forth. They are virtuous actions that bring people together and in this way they benefit and they cause people to be pleased.
So so generally speaking, are they are virtuous virtuous deeds, and that’s why we avoid the first and practice the last two. Thank you, Geshe-la. I was just saying that when when we usually we use that unclean speech, that unpleasant speech, harsh words and so forth. We use it. We we talk like that when we’re talking about someone that we dislike, when we’re talking to such a person that we dislike, an enemy or something like that.
And we use these sort of words. When we when when we said what we said, we we rejoice in our hearts. We think to ourselves, you know, well done. I I did well, know. I deserved this or she deserved this or whatever.
And and and that’s and that’s very bad. Very wrong to do that. One creates a very negative state of mind or creates a a great negativity in one’s mind. It’s very damaging to one’s relationship and to one’s future. On the other hand, that beautiful and truthful speech and that sweet speech, which is a speech that is showing, constantly showing respect to others and appreciating the good qualities of others, the accomplishment of others, rejoicing and so forth, being humble and all that.
I guess all I’m saying is a speech that we do not want to engage in because we think that if we act in this way, we are putting ourselves down and we are elevating others, and we do not want that also. So we we hold ourselves back from actually engaging in beneficial way of conducting ourselves through our speech. We do not understand that. We do not understand that this sort of speech is beneficial, that what benefit it’s going to bring and so forth. So with our lack of knowledge and understanding of the pros and the cons of each of these types of speech, we just remain stick with whatever it is comes to that pops up in our minds.
We we just follow our own whims, but our own whims do not have any are not founded in the knowledge of what is virtual, what is not virtual, what is what is truly beneficial and what is not beneficial, what is what is actually damaging to us. And in this way, we we keep on engaging, creating more difficult circumstances for ourselves and generating more And this is not only with regards to speech, but to the three doors of body, speech, and mind. To all our actions, the same applies. So we ought we ought then to practice to engage in such truthful and pleasant speech that will delight sentient beings, which is a virtuous speech, which is going to bring benefit not only in future lives, but because it is going to be delighting sentient beings. It’s going to bring benefit even in this life.
So, Geshe-la says, let’s read the commentary then to the last verse, which says again, some there are who go from light to light, some from dark to darkness, some from light to dark, some from dark to light. And and this commentary is explaining. We have this powerful, very fortunate gods and humans with great and vast power. Now, Geshe-la was explaining just a god or a human who is born in a in a very fortunate conditions, something like a prime minister or something like that, somebody very fortunate who has power and has health and all those good things of human rebirth. Being or a god or a human being dies and then again it takes another rebirth in a realm of existence or in a condition which is even better than the one that it was before.
Again, when a God is reborn as an even more bright beautiful God, more powerful, or a human is born as a God and so forth. Again, that is said that that being is going from light to light. And again, when we have a being of suffering realms of existence who dies and then again is born again in the suffering realms of existence, again, that being said to be going from dark to dark, from darkness to darkness. And we have then those beings who are gods and humans who are then, after they die, they are reborn in the lower realms of existence, so they are going from light to darkness. And we have, again, those beings of the lower realms of existence who are born in the higher realms of humans and gods, and again, they’re going from darkness to light.
So we have And of these four, so we have then these four, again, another way to divide, to categorize all sentient beings, we can fit sentient beings in these four categories. We have these four categories, beings who go from light light, darkness to darkness, darkness to light, and light to darkness. And of these four, we ought to strive ourselves, to exert ourselves so that we fit in the first category that we go from light to light, that our actions make us fit in the first category. Is explaining that we shouldn’t engage in ways to prevent ourselves from arriving at a birth in the future, which is in worse conditions than the present one. So we have to, at the very least, if we cannot improve our condition, have to attain at least the same human rebirth, the same precious human rebirth that we have right now.
And so we have to engage in the ways and the methods which is then abandoning the ten non-virtues, giving up the ten non-virtues and making the proper aspirational prayers, which will then make it possible for us to attain, at the very least, another precious human rebirth. And that’s that’s what we ought to do at at at very least, and not be born again in the lower realm of existence. And that was explained. Understood is that beings who are born in the lower realm of existence, suffering realms of existence, is very difficult. There are very few of those beings born again anytime And you can get some of the same, the last one of those types of beings are those gods, human beings, who then died and were born in the lower realms of existence.
So again, beings like ourselves who have died and were born in the lower end of existence. And from amongst those beings, engage in it properly and they are not are not re born in the lower realms, they are not reborn in the lower realms of existence. So they do not go from light to darkness, but they remain in light, go from light to light. And the lower realms of existence who are born, who are reborn in the higher realms and have what is being referred to as power, the reborn with very have the migration, the higher realms of existence, but they are few. So we have to prevent ourselves from being born there.
And the way to prevent that is engaging in proper ethical discipline, and that is then to give And then we have put the next topic of the commentary which is saying that we have to learn what different types of people there are so that we can generally understand who we should associate with, with no discrimination. People are like mangoes. It can be sour and yet look ripe. Some go ripe, look green, and others green are sour indeed, while others still look ripe and ripe they are. From this, know how to act.
And then Geshe-la was reading the commentary and the first part of the commentary is basically the same thing that the verse is telling us. There are different types of people around us. We can categorize them into four different types of people. There are those who, for example, like a mango, they they are not ripe on the inside, but on the outside, they look good. And there are those who are who are ripe on the inside.
So No, mama. There are those who are not ripe on the inside, but they look ripe on the outside. There are those who are ripe on the inside, but they look unripe, not ripe on the outside. There are those who are unripe on the inside, and they look unripe on the outside. And, again, there are those who are right on the inside, and they do look ripe on the outside.
In the same way we have also these four different types of people. We have those people who they have a good heart or a good mind, but and they have the excellent conduct. So the hearts and their mind and bodies and their actions are in harmony. Then we have those who have good mind, good intentions, but their actions are very bad. Their actions are harmful.
Then we have those whose both their intentions and their actions are bad. And we have also those who oh, sorry. Yeah. The first one the first one has bad intentions, excellent conduct. Then we have one with good intentions and bad conduct.
And we have those with both intentions and conduct as being bad. And and then lastly, both intentions and conduct as being good and the commentary in the Geshe both saying again that of these four, we have to strive and make effort at the last one so that both our intentions or thoughts and our actions are good, Okay. And we are like the unripe mango that that is unripe inside and unripe in the outside. Mhmm. And guess I was just saying, how is it that we are like this?
We are like this because on the inside, our motivation is very motivation is very immature in that it is the motivation that’s concerned only with our own benefit. Again, based on this motivation, all sorts of afflicted emotions spring forth, attachment aversion and so forth, and then our actions, our external conduct that follows from that and we end up in all sorts of negativity And then we have those beings who are ripe on the outside and unripe on the inside. And we we can see that sometimes even amongst ourselves from time to time. People who practice in the Dharma, but in on the inside, within themselves, they haven’t been able to overcome the self-cherishing mind. a mind that is concerned with the self.
So they’re still And now if we if we were to study the Dharma or contemplate the Dharma, you know, cultivate the refuge mind, cultivate bodhicitta, a mind, like, a mind that is intent on avoiding harm and accomplishing and then engaging abandoning the ten non-virtues and so forth. If we can if we can practice in this way, then we we will both we will be both mature ripe on the inside and ripe on the outside. Inside and who are ripe on the outside by having both one’s thoughts, one’s intentions, motivations, and one’s actions be excellent to be virtuous, and even though this is an advice that has been given to the king, a friend of at the time, this applies to us nowadays as much as as it applied as it was as much as then. And we have to do our best to follow this. We will be all in darkness, and it’s there’s no way it can be it can go from darkness to light.
Right now, for example, right now, we have in this life already, we have performed many good deeds as well as bad deeds. And, eventually, by the force of the bad deeds that we have accomplished in this life, we will be born in the lower realms. And in the lower arousal, we could see, yes, it is it is virtually impossible to practice the Dharma. It’s nothing but negativity happening for both ourselves and all around us. But by virtue of the positive imprints of the virtuous actions that we have been performing in this life, this virtuous imprints are going to propel us eventually to be reborn in a happy realm of existence, in a higher realm of existence.
It is not that one remains forever in the. That doesn’t happen. Not in saṃsāra. Because we have positive imprints already. We are going to ripen them.
Even though it might be difficult or it might seem unlikely, it still happens. A we have a a dog for we have a that being that was born as a dog has has in previous life has been born as a as a human or a god has performed many. So in that the mind stream of that being there are virtues in print. And then, you know, by any chance in this present life of this dog, this dog, without any motivation whatsoever, just accidentally goes around the stupa, and that the dog was looking not to have a good owner. He’s always, you know, never misbehaving or barking people, biting people, or hurting anything, anybody.
You know, it’s a good dog. Then, eventually, by force of those positive things that it has performed in the past, by force of these favorable circumstances that are arising in the present, you know, there is we could we can we could guess that there is a good chance that after this life, that dog might be born in the higher realms of existence because of the human or the positive imprints. Because we all have many negative imprints, and we all we also have That is not to say that if one is born in the lower realm of existence, they cannot ever again be born in a happy realm of existence. There is hope there. I was quoting one of them, which is saying that actions which have been performed the results of actions which have been performed will be experienced, and the results of actions which have not been performed will not be experienced.
So and because we have performed so many actions, both positive and negative, we will experience the results of the action, both positive and negative. Before every teaching, he’s always reminding us and asking us to give rise to a good motivation, to give rise to the to the mind of enlightenment. The reason he’s doing that is because if you can, or even one moment alone, give rise to the mind of enlightenment. That would generate such a virtue which is the cause of enlightenment itself and as such, it is the the positive results of that one moment of of the mind of enlightenment, the positive result of that is inexhaustible. It doesn’t until you attain enlightenment, the results of of that one moment of the mind of enlightenment is inexhaustible.
There’s no end to it. So that’s why this is always constantly, tirelessly, And if you if you can develop that mind of enlightenment with an understanding of the lack of inherent existence of the three spheres of of of of all the objects and the subjects involved in that aspiration of the mind. Oneself, all sentient beings, the action itself — with such understanding, one should not hold on to anger. Anger is is a very powerful destructive force that can destroy a lot of the results of our positive actions. So if if we can give rise to bodhicitta with an understanding of emptiness, it becomes inexhaustible.
Oh, yeah. Don’t do it. This one. Can you go back to the story of the dog? The lama blessing the dog?
Yeah. I mean, how can we lay people help our pets? So and and when when when we do like that, it not only benefits the pet, dog with a cat or whatever it is, but also benefits great benefits oneself. Yeah. Should we do this to other people?