Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The five signs of a god’s impending death — fading body colors, seats grown hard, wilting flowers, stained clothes, and the first appearance of sweat — open this 63-minute session by Geshe Pema Tsering on Nāgārjuna’s Letter to a Friend. He uses these vivid markers to frame a larger argument: godly rebirth is a bad bargain. Gods exhaust their entire store of merit in one long, blissful life, die aware that they are falling toward hell, the hungry ghost realm, or the animal realm, and have no power to stop it. The commentary then turns to motivation as the decisive factor in virtuous action, illustrated through a single prostration that can yield worldly comfort, a good rebirth, liberation, or full enlightenment depending entirely on the intention behind it.
File metadata (for organising)
File: geshe Pema Tsering – Sunday 27th March Nāgārjuna.mp3
UUID: aa3580a6-ff2c-4fc4-b5fa-a9d9b34908ad
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: z Letter to Friend – mulitple years (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 63.8 minutes
Words: ~4,918
Read the next verse. So the verse then tells us even in the higher realms or the pains of death are more intense than is their greatest bliss. And so good people who reflect on this don’t crave the higher realms which soon must end. So this is just just putting it in a colloquial in a colloquial way just so, you know, from from the verse, we can then understand how the lives of the gods must be endowed with very many different pleasures and and very intense kinds of pleasure and bliss. And what we’re being told is that the pains that they experience at the time of their death is is is more intense than the most intense kind of pleasure or bliss that they have.
So those who who think about it, know, intelligent people who think about it, then will will stop themselves from craving after a rebirth as a god or or all the pleasures of god and so on because that too doesn’t last. That’s that too is not real happiness. So now we we ourselves as as we are right now, we think we see all these pleasures and and these enjoyments of the gods and all these blissful states and we think, you know, there’s a lot of happiness there. So I want it’s alright to be born there. You know?
I want to be born there. And we think also of humans, know? It’s alright be born as a human. But the truth is is all those things that we are calling pleasures or bliss or happiness of the gods and the humans are not real so. Not really so.
They are they are all in the nature of suffering. They don’t last. So Geshe was just going briefly through the commentary which says, which doesn’t tell tell, many different things to us. It just says, again, in the higher realms of existence and in the happy realms of existence as humans and gods and so on. These gods they do have many desirable enjoyments that arise out of their of their karma.
They experience a very, very great, pleasure, very great happiness, very great bliss. And but however much bliss they experience, at the time of their death when this when the five signs of their, impending death, are seen and from that, suffering even greater than that than the most intense, than the greatest, happiness they have arises. And so so those who think about it, those intelligent people who think about it will understand that, that happiness is, is not worth, craving after. It’s not worth worth pursuing and we’ll understand that it has really no essence to it because it doesn’t last. So one will understand that attachment, one will then avert all sorts of attachment towards higher rebirth as gods.
So And Geshe-la was making a reference to one of the expressions here that talk about the gods of desire and that that’s the literal translation that but that is making reference to the gods of the desire realm of existence. Then so as such all those enjoyments that they have and all the experiences that they have they are pervaded with desire which is in the nature of attachment. So and as such pleasures, all those so called happiness, which which are based on this attachment, they are not really happiness. They are really in the nature of suffering because attachment can give no one any satisfaction. So all these all the so called pleasure all the so called happiness and bliss of the Gods especially the God of the desire realm is nothing but suffering in the nature of suffering And if you like then going through the text again at the end of the text saying we ourselves then who are not very smart, we look at those experiences that gods enjoy and then we we desire those experience.
We want to attain those experiences. And then for the sake of attaining those experiences, engage in virtuous actions so that they work as the cause for us to be born as gods or goddesses in the future. Now what we what the text is telling us is that if we were really smart, if we have really investigated this this whole situation thoroughly, we would understand that it is not really worthwhile our pursuit. That those happinesses, the so called happiness of the gods are not real happiness. They won’t last long.
They are deceiving. So one will not then give in to attachment to those things. And now usually the way we think is regarding all these blissful experiences and even the sufferings that they experience we think you know it doesn’t matter it’s all right if the suffering if the pains arise and all that and especially with regard to the blissful experience the pleasures we think of course it doesn’t matter but the reason we say we think it that way is really because we are ignorant of the nature of all these phenomena. We are really ignorant of what is really going on there. So, again, we we are so spellbound by the idea of displeasures and displeases and disenjoyments and so on that we really ignoring their true nature.
We just go on to pursue them at any cost. We engage in whatever activity we can to eventually attain those goals. So in the case of a high rebirth as a God again, engage in virtuous deeds for the sake of attaining a high rebirth as a God out of our attachment out of our craving towards those experiences and in the end what we’re doing is just how to say creating more of samsaric stuff, of creating more of samsaric existences. So Geshe-la then says, we are ignorant of the true nature of those phenomena. Cannot see the way that they exist.
We cannot see their faults. We cannot see their shortcomings. That is the nature of being of in the nature of being, Geshe-la wasn’t using a term which is ‘khorwa pa’. If you take the word saṃsāra in Tibetan which is ‘khor ba’ and you add that pa at the end then you turn it into a substantive, you turn it into a citizen of saṃsāra. That’s the nature of being a citizen of saṃsāra that we are as samsaric beings we are we we cannot see the nature of saṃsāra itself.
We cannot see the nature of saṃsāra phenomena itself. We fail to see their short comings. We fail to see that all these samsaric phenomena arise out of the afflictive emotions and conceptions. They all arise out of this you know a lot of negativities and bad karma and whatnot. They do not lead to there’s nothing in saṃsāra that leads to lasting happiness, to real happiness.
And ignorant as we are in this manner, then we go on to pursue more and more of this of this samsaric stuff. In the course of our lives we experience a lot of pain and suffering that we do not even desire. We don’t have any desire to experience it whatsoever. We only want to experience those beautiful pleasurable happinesses of humans and gods and goddesses and whatnot. And that’s all we want.
And yet we still have to experience the pains and sufferings regardless of our not wanting to experience them, regarding of our doing whatever we can to avoid them to the best of our knowledge, then we still experience them. The reason is because we have actually created the causes to experience those pains and sufferings out of our own attachment to those pleasures happiness of humans and gods. We engage in all sorts of activities and we talk about all sorts of activities. There are also included in negativities, non virtuous deeds, all the harm and hurt that we have caused in trying to attain some human happiness or some godly happiness of any kind. And in this manner we we create all these all these suffering, all this inevitable suffering in this manner.
Even though we did not wish for any suffering, even though we were doing our best to attain only happiness. That was our intention from the beginning but because of our blindness, because of our ignorance and we actually create the cause of suffering instead and we and we continue then in this vicious cycle which is the cycle of existence functioning in this manner. So then we shall move on to the next topic which is then recognizing the signs of, that impending death of the gods. So we read the next two verses for that, which tells us, their bodies colors cease to charm and please. Their seeds grow hard.
Their flowered garlands do wilt. Their clothes are stained, and on their bodies now appear, rank drops of sweat they never had before. These five these five are signs that herald death in heaven appearing to the gods in their abodes. They’re not unlike the signs of death that warn of coming death in human in humans on the earth. Listen.
Listen. So Geshe-la was going through the verse again saying again so their bodies the bodies of the gods and the goddesses which have all these beautiful colors then all those colors then then fade away and then their thrones which were very comfortable then become — their seats which were very comfortable become very hard and uncomfortable. The flowers that were around and they’re abode all of them then dry out and die. All the clothes that they wear which are very beautiful clothes they all then start falling apart they all grow stained and moldy and dirty and all that in their bodies now we have all these smelly sweat on their skin and these then are the five signs of a god’s impending death. So Geshe-la was going through the rest of the verse saying that so this appears in the gods of in their abode so that is that applies to all the gods and then also they’re not unlike the signs of death as warn of coming death in humans so Geshe-la would say yes we we can all relate to that but in our case it comes very very slowly.
Those signs usually come very slowly because we are grown as little babies very pretty and very beautiful and with beautiful colors and everything is beautiful about a baby and a child and so on. And, eventually, we grow old. We go we we get sick and we die. And we have all these all these signs. They do come to us as well.
Just very slowly. With the gods, it all happens much faster than with humans. So the gods, most of their lives, for almost all of their lives, all of the experiences, happiness and bliss. And then when they are very close to time of their death and they experience all these signs and then not only that and this doesn’t stop there they also see they also have the power to see where they’re going to be born next which is not a good place usually. And that and that ink and that adds to the immensity of their suffering and their despair.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Okay. So, again, Geshe-la was going through the commentary to that verse, which again tells already what Geshe has told us.
So, again, the gods and the goddesses when they are going to die at the time of their death, they’re about to experience the death, all these things do come forth or do manifest. So their bodies, which had this very beautiful and attractive colors, then, all these colors then fade away, and they are not, they’re not pleasing anymore. Then, their seeds, which were very comfortable and become very hard and very uncomfortable and the flowers and the plants that adorned know the throne or the palace or their abode in general they all then wither away. Their clothes which are very beautiful then they all become stained and dirty and ragged. And their bodies, you know, which which everything is pleasant and beautiful about their bodies then become covered in in sweat, in unpleasant smelly sweat.
So these are all the five signs of a god or goddess impending death. And this is not unlike unlike with humans also. We see more or less the same thing happening with humans. So, you know, the bodies, grow old. We have all these, because as I was saying, you know, there is things coming out of their nose, things out of their ears, the skin changes, this body odors change and there’s all sorts of different, signs will happen, when humans grow old and they are close getting closer and closer to their death.
So there is a there is a great suffering, a great anxiety that arises out of death as well. So then then Geshe-la approaches the next topic which is then contemplating the sufferings of falling falling down to a lower existence. And the next verse is telling us, those gods who transmigrate from heavenly worlds and do not have some little virtue left will tumble helpless to their helpless, to their unjust abodes — as beasts or hungry spirits or in hell. So, again, in order to be born as a god, you need to have, quite a bit of of virtue of merit accumulated due to virtuous having engaging virtuous actions. So and yet whatever virtues we have accumulated as ordinary beings is contaminated virtue.
So it is it is a virtue that will not produce lasting results altogether. So eventually, if if one does not have a large enough store of of merit of such contaminated virtue, then the time will come that one will that the virtue will be exhausted and one will have to one will die as a god and one will have to go to another existence and if if one does not have any more virtue the only choice that is left is then to be born out of by the force of the non-virtues that are left with you, which will then propel you to one of only three possible existences. You’re either gonna be born in hell or in the hungry ghost realm or in the animal realm. And that’s basically how it goes So so we can see then how this godly happiness or or this rebirth as a god or a goddess is really not really not really a good deal we can see because the the bargain is we will exhaust since gods do only experience happiness in their lifetimes during the entirety of their lifetimes, then the deal is we are exhausting every store of merit that we have and then we are left with nothing.
We’re left only with the store of non virtue. So it’s a very bad bargain in the end because then as soon as that life is over, all we have left to experience is suffering and nothing else. So it’s not a good deal and we can see also then how even a human life is not such a very good deal on that light as well because we can have a human life endowed with so many pleasures and so many happinesses and very little suffering. And and yet it only means that we are exhausting our store of merits. And so if we haven’t worked hard to create more, it’s all going to go to waste.
So And Geshe-la was then saying so we have all these this array of experiences that we are going to have to experience whilst we are in saṃsāra it doesn’t matter that we dislike all these unpleasant experiences, our merely not wishing for them to happen is not enough to stop them from happening to us. We still have to experience it. So as long as we are caught up this, in our own vicious cycle of of this pursuit of false happiness, then we will still, remain, experiencing more and more of this false happiness that leads to more and more suffering. And that’s why Geshe-la was always saying, he’s always telling us that in saṃsāra, there’s no real happiness. That all of this so called saṃsāra happiness is really in the nature of suffering.
Because it is deceiving in this manner and it leads to suffering in this manner and that’s why we have to strive to figure out a better way a way out of this cycle and so if one does not like those experiences, if one does dislikes those unpleasant painful suffering experiences then what one has to do is stop performing the actions that lead to those results which are suffering, are painful, are unpleasant and so on. Merely disliking without engaging the right action will not stop them. One has to stop engaging in the wrong actions, in the negativities and the non virtues that lead to them, and one has to, in in their place, engage in the right actions, in the, virtuous actions and virtuous states of mind and cultivate the virtuous states of mind that lead to real legitimate happiness. And, again, the commentary is telling what the Geshe has already told us. So these these gods then will they have the special ability to see them where they’re going to be born next.
They they have special ability of seeing the lower, existence that they’re going to, fall into. And that will happen because all the previous karma that they have accumulated, all the previous virtue that they have accumulated as as ordinary beings, as worldly beings previously. All of that is exhausted through that godly existence and there is nothing left. All that is left is bad karma. So they fall from a higher existence and they are bound to fall to a lower existence.
They’re completely powerless to do anything about that and they will either be born as an animal or as a hungry ghost or as a hell being. Again, this man, they experience at that moment when they are seeing all that. They also experience an intense immense suffering despair and anxiety Now so so then bearing this in mind Geshe-la then says we really ought to not desire to be born as a god or a goddess we really have to pray may I not be born as a god or goddess and Geshe says you know because if we have in this life performed some good measure of virtuous deeds and we have ever wished to be born as gods then you know it is possible that we might be born as gods but we really have to then to be careful not to fall into such a rebirth because it is a very bad bargain in the end it is a very bad deal so we really have to pray not to be born. Pray that those virtues serve to to stop that godly rebirth from happening. We think, you know, these these gods, they experience such great happiness for such a very long time.
Lifetimes last for hundreds of thousands of years, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of years depending on the god and we have this wish may I be born as a god or a goddess in such a place and enjoy all that and that is a very very distorted state of mind. There’s a very wrong mind that wishes that. We have the right way to act with regards to rebirth as a god or goddess is really to wish not to be born as a god or a goddess. And then Geshe is reading this one quote from a collection of sayings that says, you know, we we we strive as humans. We make we strive.
We exert ourselves to accumulate the causes to be born as as a god. But, really, the godly existence is is is no better. It’s It’s like it’s like a flying bird which has it has no way a fly a bird even though it can fly it has no there’s no place where it can stay up in the air. It has to come down to its nest and there is no choice. And a life as a god is is very much the same.
A god cannot stay up high for ever. It has to come down. And what comes down to is is the lower realms of existence. Also, the other analogy that is given is that if you if you, how do say, throw an arrow up in the air, there’s no there no place where the arrow can stick up high. The arrow will have to come down.
And the same again with the life, rebirth as a god. You know? It doesn’t matter. How high, up in heaven you may be, you have to come down. Okay.
Ninety one so Geshe-la wants to stop here because we have been talking about all these kinds of suffering and Geshe-la was saying we don’t like to hear about that So yes, should make aspirational prayers. Include that aspiration in your aspirational prayers. It’s not only that. We have to aspire to much more than that, but we also aspire not to be born as as gods of the desire realm. Geshe-la also mentioned, he was saying that we can also aspire not to be born as gods of the form or formless realms, but we don’t actually have the karma to be born in the form of form form or formless realms of existence because we have not accomplished calm abiding and special insight, so we need that to be to be born there.
So but you can include, you may not be born as a god or a goddess of the desire realm. Yeah. One, you know, ideally one Another way to put it is that whatever little virtue I have amassed may that virtue be the cause of one’s enlightenment for the sake of all or the enlightenment of all beings. It’s the same thing. Other than that you can say on may whatever virtue I have amassed however little it may be may be the cause of my attainment of liberation or another way to put it may my virtue work as a cause for my not being born in the lower realms of existence and may I be born instead in my next life, in my future lives, may I meet with the Dharma in all my future lives and may I have faith in the Dharma in all my future lives, may I study the Dharma in my future lives and practice diligently in all my future lives.
One can make aspiration in this manner. One does not need to think, you know, may I not be born as a god in the in the there are other ways to to think about it that will include a more inclusive that also include not being born as a God you know? Not only that A high rebirth is a result of merit. Yeah. Yes.
That’s right. So so then you you’re right. You need to dedicate it properly, but even more important than the dedication is the motivation that you that you set before you engage in the action. It’s the goal that you set before you engage in the action. So if if your intention is is then, for example, to attain liberation for yourself from the entire cycle of existence, then what you need, the driving force that you need, the motivation that you need is a mind of renunciation, which is in and of itself a virtue.
Renunciation is a specific mind. It’s a that sees clearly understands all the faults and all the shortcomings of the entirety of cyclic existence of all the realms of cyclic existence. Both the so called happy and the unhappy suffering realms of cyclic existence. And then so what action is done which is endowed with this understanding of the entirety of suffering, of the entirety of cyclic existence, then has renounced saṃsāra happiness and is aspiring towards a happiness which is beyond saṃsāra, beyond the ocean of suffering. Those virtuous actions then become the causes to determine of that, of what you set in your motivation.
So they become cause of liberation. And if your intention is just attaining a higher rebirth in a future life as either a human or as a god, if that’s what you are seeking, if that is your goal then your virtuous actions become the cause of just that. Nothing more than that. So that’s what you attain. Then if on the other hand if your goal, if your intention is comes from the understanding that, again, all all mother sentient beings, just like myself, only wish for happiness and do not wish for any suffering.
And they are caught up in the same predicament that I am in the pursuit of this false happiness. And they’re caught up in this vicious cycle of existence, which is saṃsāra. So then may I then attain enlightenment so that I can liberate all mother sentient beings. And if that is your goal, then your virtuous actions become just that. Even if that is your goal, then just even the recitation of one single mani mantra become the cause of just that.
Motivation is it. Yeah. That’s the key. So the, you know, the power, in short, the power of of a virtue, the being of great power or or or little power is determined by the quality of your motivation. And in it does in illustrating what he just said, if you think of one act of prostration, right, which is a virtuous action.
Right? So if you are doing that prostration, we and your motivation, your goal, your intention is to attain some happiness in this life, some worldly happiness, then that action, that one prostration becomes the cause of just that. It will it will produce it will eventually produce the fruit of happiness in this life if you live long enough. If when you are doing that one prostration, your intention, your goal, the goal that you are setting, your motivation is to attain the happiness of your next life or your future life as human as a human or as a god, then that one prostration becomes the cause of just that. Nothing more.
If your motivation then is the understanding that comes from the understanding that there is no happiness within the entirety of cyclic existence. Everything is in the nature of suffering. Even humans, human and godly existence, they are all in the nature of suffering. I don’t want anything to do with that. I want something that is beyond saṃsāra.
I want nirvana. I want liberation from cyclic existence. And and you do that prostration, then that prostration becomes the cause of just that. Nothing more than that. Nothing less than that.
Just that. If your motivation is then coming from the understanding again, just like myself, all other sentient beings are caught up in this trap, which is this vicious cycle of existence. And so if I take liberation for myself alone, it’s not good enough. It’s still very selfish of me to turn back on all other mother sentient beings who have been so kind to me. So I must I must liberate all sentient beings from this vicious cycle.
In order to be able to do so, I must attain enlightenment in order to attain enlightenment I’m going to do this one prostration and your prostration becomes the cause of just that so the virtuous action is the same one prostration. The result that is going to bring about depends entirely on the quality of your the goal that you set to yourself. Sorry? I guess in the end we know what we are thinking isn’t it? So look.
My alarm was ringing here because Geshe has an appointment for his lunch with his teacher. And then Geshe-la is giving us another illustration of just that. If you were to if someone, one person were to give one dollar to every person in South Australia, in Adelaide, which is about a million people, So if you were to give one dollar each one of these one million individuals so you would be you have been given you would have given a million dollars right now if another person another individual, with the intention of attaining enlightenment for the sake of liberating all sentient beings without exception from the entirety of cyclic existence, were to give just one dollar to one individual only, with that goal in mind. Usually we would think the person who gave a million dollars created much more merit. But the fact is, by the force of that motivation, the person who gave that one dollar for the sake of liberating all mother sentient beings, because all mother sentient beings are limitless, and because the qualities of a Buddha are limitless, because by the force of their motivation, that one person who gave just one dollar with the right motivation created a limitless amount of merit, whilst the other person created only a million dollars equivalent of merit.
Okay. So we do the the dedication now.