Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Opening with Nāgārjuna’s warning that no one escapes saṃsāra without first growing weary of it, Geshe Pema Tsering uses this 44-minute session to build a careful philosophical foundation for renunciation. He defines saṃsāra precisely — anything arising from karma and afflicted states of mind, including the five aggregates that constitute personal experience — then traces how attachment to those aggregates, rooted in ignorance of emptiness, keeps beings cycling endlessly through suffering. A lucid alphabet analogy illustrates the point: just as unfamiliar letters become instantly recognizable once learned, reality stops being misperceived once emptiness is understood. He closes by stressing that emptiness-perception must be paired with tranquility meditation to uproot negative states, then briefly maps the opening sections of the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. Suited to practitioners already studying Lamrim.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2004 3 15 05 The Bohisattvas Way of Life 15-3-03 or 5 shitty writing.mp3
UUID: 130384dd-d343-4ab5-935e-99425586bb86
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: z Unallocated multiple years (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2004-03-15
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.9 minutes
Words: ~4,260
In Nāgārjuna’s letter to a friend, he’s he’s giving advice to the king, he says that without growing weary of Samsāra, you do not find liberation without growing weary of saṃsāra you don’t find liberation from saṃsāra and continue to wander through the six realms of existence. Samsāra contains the experience of frustration, of illness, of sickness illness and old age and death and even if you get everything you desire you’re still going to experience suffering. You’ll come up with new desires, you’ll still experience suffering from coming up with new desires. So, what this is explaining is that if we want to get out of saṃsāra, we first have to recognize what’s wrong with saṃsāra and that will develop the wish to get out of saṃsāra. Without developing this wish to be free from saṃsāra, there’s no way that we’re actually going to work towards nirvana, towards liberation.
And if we don’t work develop the wish to work towards liberation, then there’s no way we’ll attain liberation. So what we need to ascertain in the beginning is the faults of saṃsāra, the negative reality of saṃsāra. Okay. So in order for us to understand the faults of saṃsāra, in order for us to want to get out of saṃsāra, we have to understand what saṃsāra is. Now saṃsāra isn’t something that’s necessarily easy to understand, Geshe-la said he doesn’t know if all of you actually know what it is.
So to try and give you some insight into what it is, and then the main definition of saṃsāra is that it is that which comes into being based on karma and kleshas or karma and afflicted states of mind. That isn’t just necessarily people’s mental continuums although the negative states in their being’s mental continuum, the afflicted states, lack of peace are part of saṃsāra but it also means objects and the things that we may have attachment to because they’ve come into being based on causes and conditions and those causes and conditions were created by beings then they are also contained within saṃsāra So anything that comes together as a result of causes and conditions, anything that comes together as a result of karma and delusion is saṃsāra. So we need to know what saṃsāra is. Samsāra is the anything that we experience in terms of the negative state of mind that we may experience. Can you turn it up?
Okay. It was me. Okay. I don’t know where I have my head, but it wasn’t in the microphone. But, yeah, it’s near the pig.
Okay, so this means that if we’re saying that all things that have come into being based on karma and kleshas or karma and negative states of mind is saṃsāra, this means that the possessions that we have are parts of saṃsāra. It means that the objects that relate to are instances of saṃsāra. But the main thing that we focus on as being saṃsāra is actually the five aggregates. The five aggregates we have form, our form, our feelings, our discernment, our compounded factors and our consciousness are what we experience as saṃsāra. They’ve come into being based on the karma that we’ve created and the negative states which led us to create that karma so therefore our personal experience of saṃsāra is our personal experience of self and the five aggregates that we consider to be our self.
So, if we want to know how, as Samsāra is cyclic, if we want to know how the five aggregates act as a cause for our experience of saṃsāra then we need to look at our attachment to the five aggregates. So we have a very intense attachment to the five aggregates and the way that this works is that we are constantly striving for happiness or peace of body and mind, a good feeling of body and mind and this good striving for good feeling of body and mind is being attached to either the mental or physical aggregates. Based on these attachment in this way, we then create the causes for becoming or grasping leads to an experience of becoming therefore we perpetuate the five aggregates which act as this cause as a base for us to experience suffering so it’s through our attachments to the five aggregates that we perpetuate the cycle of saṃsāra. Now how this attachment comes about that leads to this cycle of saṃsāra is through ignorance. The basis for this attachment is ignorance but not just any old ignorance it’s a cloudiness or a fog that stops us from perceiving the true nature of reality so without perceiving the nature the emptiness the Śūnyatā of phenomenon in ourselves we misperceive it this experience and take these things to be inherently existent independent entities and through grasping at these things in this way we then perpetuate the cycle of saṃsāra by being attached or repulsed by these objects so without knowing that things don’t exist the way that they appear to us we are constantly stuck in saṃsāra, we’ve misperceived it, we’re attached to the things we perceive in saṃsāra that aren’t really there and this causes us to perpetuate the samsaric cycle.
Because we have this ignorance as to the true nature of existence, as to emptiness, then we have attachment. We don’t perceive things as being merely labeled we perceive them as being inherently existent and because we perceive them as being solidly or independently existent in this way we grasp at these things we want to hold on to them we want to possess them or we want to have aversion to them we don’t want anything to do with them Based on this attachment to happiness or this attachment to the things that we consider to be good in saṃsāra, the happiness of saṃsāra, then we perform actions or we create karma. And this creation of karma or this performance of action is what leads us to perpetuate cyclic existence so this karma has to have a result this action has to have a result and the result of the action is the experience of taking again a rebirth appropriating the five aggregates taking on the five aggregates so when we’re striving for happiness we’re striving for happiness in an ignorant way and we’re not striving for true happiness we’re striving for samsaric happiness because we don’t really know what true happiness is.
So we have this basic idea that we want to be happy but not knowing what true happiness is we keep working towards samsaric happiness and actually this working towards samsaric happiness is a way to create karma that results in suffering by perpetuating saṃsāra. So we’re working towards happiness, we’re attached to this samsaric happiness by creating the karma to try and attain this saṃsāra happiness we keep perpetuating saṃsāra and if we’ve done so in a positive way we end up in a high realm one of the nicer areas of Samsāra, and if we perpetuate it in a negative way, we end up in the lower realms. So within Samsāra there is a fairly there is not a fairly there is a very strict law of cause and effect. If you do something positive, you experience happiness. If you do something negative, you experience a negative result or suffering as a result of that negative action.
So this is a very strict rule to functions within saṃsāra. But the thing within saṃsāra is that because we’re habituated towards grasping, because we’re habituated towards wanting things and wanting to hold on to these things, it means that the positive actions you perform in Samsāra are far outweighed by the negative actions that are motivated by this grasping. This means that most beings in saṃsāra experience more suffering than they do happiness. The beings that are reborn in intense suffering existences far outnumber those born in more pleasant existences or more pleasant rebirths. The natural tendency of saṃsāra is to create intense suffering and most of the time this actually manifests as direct suffering as opposed to the suffering of change.
But whether we have a positive rebirth or whether we have a negative rebirth, whether we’re experiencing happiness or whether we’re experiencing manifest suffering, If we’re still in saṃsāra, then it is by its nature suffering, it’s still saṃsāra. So we may sometimes experience happiness, may sometimes experience suffering, but if we are still motivated by karma, if we’re still motivated by ignorance and therefore have desire and therefore perform actions based on that desire, act based on that desire, we’re still creating the experience of saṃsāra and we’ll continue to experience the result of that creation. So if we if we start noticing the way that we work, and then we’ll see that, getting out of saṃsāra isn’t something that we can do easily. It’s something that we need to put in a lot of effort to achieve. Because our motivations, if we watch the way our minds work, our motivation is that we are constantly wanting the good bits of saṃsāra, the pleasant aspects of saṃsāra.
We’re very attached to the pleasant aspects of saṃsāra and trying to find happiness within saṃsāra. This is the way we behave, we keep perpetuating saṃsāra. So if watch our habits, if we watch the way our minds work, then we’ll notice that trying to get out of saṃsāra is a big undertaking. So what we need to do in order to start this undertaking is we need to develop, a frustration or as a I had enough of ness, I I should say. We need to be completely, you know, over and get over it and get over saṃsāra.
And once we’ve developed this, this is when we do this by looking at the faults of saṃsāra, looking at what’s wrong with it, looking at how we experience suffering constantly in saṃsāra. But if we don’t take this on, if we don’t start looking at the faults of saṃsāra and we don’t develop this revulsion for Samsāra, this complete frustration with Samsāra and seek our way out, then we aren’t going to get out of Samsāra. And this is why this verse at the end of this verse or, it said the Nāgārjuna says, you’ll keep wandering in Samsāra. If you don’t develop this, revulsion, this, absolute frustration with Samsāra, you will keep wandering in Samsāra. So in order to develop a mind seeking to get out of saṃsāra, we need to look at the faults of saṃsāra so we can become, repulsed, repulsed or revolted, or completely over saṃsāra.
So, in order for us to want to get out of saṃsāra, we need to recognize these faults in saṃsāra and in order for us to recognize these faults in saṃsāra it’s not enough just to hear this we need to investigate for ourselves we need to start looking at the way that things work and see by applying reasoning for ourselves that we agree with this and start looking at the reasons why Samsāra is faulty, the reasons why we want to get out of Samsāra and the reasoning as to how it comes into existence. So we need to look at its faults and then we need to work backwards from there. We need to look at where those faults come from. What is it that creates saṃsāra? So then we need to look at negative states of mind or kleshas and karma or actions actions of body, speech and mind that we do that are informed by or motivated by those negative states of mind.
So then we need to look at what the basis of those is and the basis of those is this ignorance. Ignorance is to the true ignorance is to the nature of reality, ignorance is to the way things actually are. So the way that we perceive things isn’t the way that they are. The way that they are isn’t as inherent solid entities. And by being mistaken in this way, we are working from an and working from this mistaken premise, then we are we are attached to things, we have aversion to things and we perpetuate saṃsāra.
So we need to get rid of this ignorance. We need we need to get rid of the the root cause of saṃsāra, the ignorance that perceives things as being inherently solidly existent gets rid of the by getting rid of the cause of saṃsāra we get rid of saṃsāra. Now developing wisdom that is the antidote to this ignorance is something that we need to work at. We need to work at developing. We need to investigate a lot.
But when we do develop it, the fog of our ignorance is cleared away. Now, this may sound very abstract but it’s a process that we actually go through over and over and over again. We go through the process of not knowing something, having a fog of our understanding, learning it and then becoming thoroughly familiar with it. So one of the best examples of this is when we’re learning the alphabet. If we look at if you don’t know the alphabet, like for example, the first letter of the Tibetan alphabet being ka, if you didn’t know that and you looked at this symbol, there’d just be an absolute ignorance or confusion as to what that element is and it’s the same with A, C and D.
Before we learn what A, C and D is, when we perceive it we don’t have any understanding or comprehension of what those symbols mean. Once we’ve learned them then we recognize them instantly for what they are. So it’s the same process with developing an understanding of or emptiness or the nature of reality. Once we’ve understood it, then we recognize it instantly for what it is. Until we try and understand it or until we’ve developed that understanding, we’re going to keep misperceiving it and by keeping on misperceiving it, we’ll keep perpetuating saṃsāra.
So the thing that we need to focus on, the thing that we don’t know, the thing that we’re ignorant about that perpetuates saṃsāra, the ignorance that perpetuates saṃsāra is our ignorance of reality, our ignorance of the way things are, and not perceiving the way things are, we take them to be inherently existent. The way things are is empty of inherent existence. The way things are is this is where it’s sometimes translated as thusness or thatness. They are in a certain way, but not the way that we perceive them to be. So if we don’t recognize the emptiness of inherent existence, this lack of solidity and true reality in phenomenon, then we’re going to our ignorance that is the basis of Samsāra is perpetuated.
So we we take things to have some kind of essence or true reality from the from in the in the objects themselves and, this isn’t the case. The only reason that things exist at all is because we label them, as something. Without our labeling perception there is no, objects there. We bring things into reality by giving them names or reacting to them in a, as if they are if they are one entity. Without us reacting to them as if they are one entity, they aren’t.
And so there is nothing, nothing at all from the side of those objects that makes them inherently existent, that makes them come into reality, that perpetuates their existence. So once we figured that out, once we figured out that things don’t inherently exist, that they don’t have an independent nature that enables them to perpetuate themselves, once we figured that out and we stop grasping at them and we stop grasping at even ourselves, then the ignorance is the ignorance that perpetuates saṃsāra is cleared away, is is got is obliterated. So the way that it works then is that we start with this ignorance, we start with this misperception of reality and based on that misperception of reality, we develop the idea of self and other and then the self wants other. We hold on to our being, our aggregates, we hold on to our objects, we have a strong attachment to our bodies, our ways of thinking and our possessions. And then based on that possessive mind, grasping, we perform actions and we perform we create karma and that karma results in saṃsāra, results in the suffering states of saṃsāra with the tainted experiences of saṃsāra, whether that be happiness, saṃsāra happiness or samsaric suffering.
If we’re able to look at this situation and see through it, if we’re able to look at what we’re doing now, the way that we’re perpetuating this state and see through it, see it for what it is, see, the objects that we’re attached to, see ourselves, for what we are as opposed to the way we think we are, then we’re going to develop, intense revulsion, for for Samsāra because we’re going to see that it is completely pointless. We’re going to see that since beginningless time up until now, ourselves and other beings have been making ourselves suffer and we’ve experienced many many different types of suffering in many different existences in many different ways for absolutely no reason, for absolutely and for no purpose just because we’ve been mistaken, just because we haven’t perceived things for the way they are and then we’ll really develop and be completely have had it with Samsāra because all of this suffering has come about for absolutely no reason. And so then we are really going to want to strive towards nirvana to eliminate negative states because we will have realized the pointlessness, the complete pointlessness of Samsāra. So this perception of of, emptiness is, and getting rid rid of the ignorance that keeps us in saṃsāra, is the best way to develop a renunciation from saṃsāra because we’ll see its utter pointlessness.
But this recognition of the actual state of a state of things as opposed to the way we perceive them isn’t actually liberation. It’s a tool that we can use to get to liberation, to get rid of negative states of thinking. So based on this understanding we’re not going to be creating more negative states and we’re going to be able to obliterate the habits that we have developed in negative states. Developing a perception of emptiness is the tool that we need to use to reach liberation but then we have to go ahead and use the tool. There’s There’s no point in having a tool and then not using it.
So we need to put this tool into action in order to get rid of our negative states, in order to attain liberation when we have gotten rid of those negative Okay, so at the beginning it’s very important for us to try and develop a very good understanding of the faults of saṃsāra To go over this and to meditate on this again and again and again, it’s not something that we should try and skip over. It’s the basis of our understanding and something that we need to work on. What can happen though, because it’s difficult for us to start seeing the faults of saṃsāra, we can get disillusioned and think, well, I can’t achieve realization. I can’t achieve Buddhahood. I can’t achieve liberation.
That’s what other people do. You know? There’s no way that I’m I’m gonna be able to get there. This is really hard. But, this isn’t the way that the path progresses.
You don’t start with a clear view of what it is that you’re going to achieve. You start by developing a subtler and subtler understanding of all the different parts of the path. So as you develop a subtler subtler understanding then your clinging to these things become subtler and subtler and more easy to get rid of. So as this understanding becomes subtler and subtler then we get closer and closer to having developed these realizations. And we do have the ability to develop these realizations because all the beings that came before us and did progress in this way were exactly the same as us when they started off.
It’s just that it may seem like it’s not possible for us at the moment because we’re so, we’re we’re so deluded. But the thing is we need to to work at it and make, and make our understandings more refined and more refined and so on. Because we have the capacity to know, and this is something that we should be very we should we should recognize as well. Being born into a lifetime where we have the capacity to understand, to perceive, the path, to be able to put, compassion and so on into practice is it means we’re doing alright. It means that we’ve gotten somewhere.
The chances of us having all the conditions come together to experience the life that we have now is very rare and we’ve already so we’re already we’re already doing pretty good. We’re getting there. So while we have this opportunity, while we have this platform from which to work, we really need to make the most of it. We really need to put it into use it to its best effect. The best effect that we can use it for is to work towards enlightenment in order to be of benefit to all sentient beings.
In order to lead all sentient beings to a state beyond sorrow, we first of all need to become Buddhas ourselves. This is the best way that we can use this lifetime we have at the moment. Now, if we waste this lifetime, if we get caught up in things of this life and forget about Dharma practice, we could actually lose our human rebirth and reborn in other states where it’s difficult to again, where it would be difficult to again, attain a human rebirth. So we really need to make the most of this in this opportunity. So the way that we can remind ourselves to make the most of this opportunity is by whenever we get we’re getting caught up in the things of saṃsāra, whenever we find ourselves being attached to the things of saṃsāra, we can remember the faults of saṃsāra and it only actually ever leads to suffering.
And then we if we remember that, then we focus on the beneficial things that come about through liberation and through Buddhahood, then both of these things will enable us to take the most or make the most of the opportunity that we have now. So the best way that we can use this opportunity. We have this opportunity now, We’ve created the causes to to be doing alright, and, we wanna not lose this opportunity. We wanna make the most of what we’ve got. Then we need to be working towards attaining Buddhahood.
And the reason we want to attain Buddhahood is because we want to lead all other beings, all other beings with a mind to that state. So most of these beings with a mind or most of these sentient beings are in saṃsāra. Most of them because arhats and Bodhisattvas on the three higher levels are sentient beings, but they’re not in Samsāra. But the majority of sentient beings are in Samsāra. And even arhats and those beings who are on the three highest levels of the path of meditation need to be led to Buddhahood.
So for all of those beings we need to do whatever it is we’re doing for all of these beings to lead them to a state beyond sorrow. So if we can think about this and get an idea of that and meditate on it for a couple of minutes. Sorry I forgot something as well I guess I was saying before how you develop a perception of emptiness and this leads you to not want to have anything to do with saṃsāra and then work towards nirvana. So then once you’ve developed this perception you have to this is the bit I forgot that you’re supposed to combine it with tranquility practices, Shamatha practices and perceiving emptiness based on this perception of emptiness in meditative concentration is the best tool that you can use to get rid of negative states that perpetuate saṃsāra. Okay, so we’re still going through the first section of the first chapter of the Bodhicaryāvatāra.
So the first section is the individual the section we’re up to is an individual explanation of each topic. Now, this again has two sections. The first one is reflecting on the benefits of bodhicitta and the second one is the way to put the practice of bodhicitta into the way to put the training of a Bodhisattva into practice based on the two truths. Now these two minds that it’s referring to is the perception of ultimate bodhicitta and relative bodhicitta. Right.
So this first section, which is reflecting on the benefits of cultivating bodhicitta, again, has two sections explaining the, chapter’s material, which refers to chapter one, and the second section is explaining the chapter’s name. Now within the section on explaining the chapter’s material, again there’s two sections. There’s the one that says instructions on the reasoning behind abandoning negativities and practicing virtue and the second is reflecting extensively upon the benefits of bodhicitta. Mhmm.