Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 132-minute teaching, Kyabje Rinpoche guides practitioners through preliminary practices, beginning with meditation on cyclic existence’s futility and moving systematically through the Seven-Limb Puja from Samantabhādra’s prayer. He examines why we fail to recognize suffering in everyday life, then progresses through field-of-merit visualization and the seven limbs: prostration with body, speech, and mind; how the Buddha’s bodies manifest omnipresently on each atom; material and visualized offerings; mandala offering; and confession through the four forces of repentance. Central to the teaching is bodhicitta—transforming these practices from self-focused gain into a heartfelt wish for all beings’ liberation. Extensive Q&A clarifies the Buddha’s four bodies, karma purification, and peerless offerings. Suited for practitioners with some familiarity of Buddhist fundamentals.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2013-07-31 – KR.mp3
UUID: 58dda124-80a3-41b5-bfd7-7faf9cfd8b6e
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Preliminary Practices
Date: 2013-07-31
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~6,224
Oh god. How does it feel? As Thogme Zangpo, the great Bodhisattva, in the 37 Practices of the Bodhisattvas said, the marvels of the three realms of existence are akin to a piece of chaff in the wind focusing on this is a practice of the Bodhisattvas. So the three realms here refer to the desire form and formless realms and the happiness of these three realms is akin to a piece of chaff blowing in the wind because it does not last and disintegrates instant by instant. And this is a stanza which is true both for lay people and for those who are ordained.
All of us without exception are convinced that our lives are lasting and durable and we are but transient and fleeting. Let alone the fact that we ourselves are transient and fleeting and must die. The very happiness in this life which we strive for is transient and fleeting. There’s probably not one single day of which we can say it was entirely full of happiness. This happiness, as we say, is actually non happiness.
We call it happiness because we do not see its true nature which is a nature of suffering and it is for this reason that we strive for it. Bodhisattvas, however, do not see happiness of this nature as happiness but as suffering and for this reason they strive either for liberation from cyclic existence or for the supreme liberation which is full enlightenment. Therefore the striving of or the aims of Bodhisattva and of ourselves are different. To be able to see something like this, it should appear to our minds and it does not. And therefore, misapprehending ordinary happiness as happiness whereas it is in its true nature suffering.
We take rebirth as human beings and accumulate the karmic causes for future rebirth. This is what is meant by cyclic existence. There is a threefold subdivision of suffering into the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change and all pervasive suffering and other subdivisions of suffering such as the eightfold subdivision of suffering encountering what one does not wish to encounter, not encountering what one wishes to encounter and so forth. If we count these three and eight sufferings together this makes 11 different varieties of suffering which we encounter continuously. We count as suffering the suffering of the animals and we count as suffering the suffering of the hungry ghost, the pretas.
We count as suffering the suffering of the hell beings. Yet we do not count as suffering our own present situation. Instead we view it as happiness. We have had no experience of a different type. Viewing it as happiness, we strive for this happiness again.
Striving means that we say to ourselves, I must have it, I must have it. In so doing we create the causes for further such suffering in the future. It is not easy to recognize this as suffering and takes much reflection precisely because we do not recognize or identify it as suffering. We strive for this happiness. Were we to identify or recognize it as suffering, we would not strive for it.
As Āryadeva said, if another inflicted on this on us we would call him most base yet we inflicted upon ourselves. It is through understanding that cyclic existence and dwelling in cyclic existence is akin to being in a house which has burst into flames that we should view cyclic existence. When we view it in this way renunciation will arise. And it is said the scholars of higher state, in other words beings which are learned and have attained a higher rebirth view its sufferings as akin to those of the hell beings and the pretas to be liberated from. The wise and the learned through understanding that cyclic existence is pervaded by these three and the eight sufferings view it as something to be escaped from.
We ourselves, because we view cyclic existence as saturated with qualities, strive for it. We want greater wealth, greater houses, greater beds, greater power because we see see these as qualities. Such is an extraordinary state of affairs akin to that of a bug or a fly living in filth. A fly which lives in filth, lives in the filth, eats the filth and dies in the filth yet does not understand the misery of its situation. We from the outside observing the state of the fly do understand the misery of its situation.
The Bodhisattvas observing us view the misery of our situation as that of such a fly. For us to be able to gain this realization is not easy. It is not easy to become a bodhisattva. For that matter, it is not easy to attain liberation. It is certainly not attained merely for making offerings and making prostrations.
One must instead study and engage in analytical meditation reflecting over and again on the texts one has studied and then over time one can hope for this attainment. In our cases, however, we consider that these states of liberation and full omniscience are doubtful. Most of us are not sure whether they exist or not. There is no reason for this doubt. It is obvious that as the mind becomes ever more clear, one approaches these states.
This is however a labor we must engage in individually for our own sake. If it was the case that the Triple Gem Buddha Śākyamūni could save us then he would have done so a long time ago. This has never happened. So the definition of vigilance is constant analysis of the state of one’s body and one’s mind. And it is through vigilance that we are able to discard the elements of our mind which are to be discarded and to train in the elements of our mind which are to be trained so as to attain liberation.
And therefore we should practice in keeping with what I have taught previously regarding the four noble truths which are that the two first noble truths, the noble truth of suffering and the origin of suffering are objects of abandonment and the two last truths, the truth of cessation and of the path are objects of attainment. However, it is not sufficient to strive for liberation for one’s own sake. We ourselves are in exactly the same predicament as others and reflecting on this we can understand that what we are afraid of, the sufferings we are afraid of, they are afraid of also. The happiness we wish for, they are they wish for as well. And therefore, we should strive for a state of full enlightenment.
And therefore we should give rise to a compassion which thinks how inappropriate it is that beings should be afflicted by suffering and the causes of suffering. To do this, we have to give rise to an equanimity which understands that beings have been equally kind towards us and are equal in fearing suffering and wishing for happiness. We recite all the time, may all sentient beings be free from suffering, may all sentient beings have happiness and basically in our cases these words are absolutely meaningless. It is not meaningless verbal recitation which is required. It is a deep heartfelt wish for sentient beings to be free from suffering and for sentient beings to have happiness.
We recite these words and yet we do not practice their meaning. I myself recite these words and do not practice their meaning and if someone asks me have you actually realized what you were speaking about All I can answer is I have not traveled on this path. All of us are in this situation. Talk is cheap. Then in our cases, it is up to us to practice.
And therefore we should first reflect may all sentient beings attain the state of full enlightenment and then we should meditate on this. So we have covered the last time the visualization of the field of merit. And having visualized the field of merit, one must at present offer the seven-limb puja to it. The seven-limb puja is known as a seven-limb puja because it has seven components. Prostration, offering, confession, rejoicing, requesting the teacher to teach, requesting the teacher not to enter into parinirvāṇa and dedication.
Do you have the seven-limb prayer in Tibet? Can I borrow yours? I’ll be back at once. So Geshe-la would give the commentary on the seven-limb prayer based on the prayer of Samantabhādra, the Ārya Bhadracharya Pranidhana which I will translate directly from Tibetan. I pay homage to Ārya Mañjuśrī.
I perform offerings of body, speech and mind to all of the Buddhas of the three times which abide in whichever world of the 10 directions bodily. Here, the 10 directions refer to the four cardinal directions, north, south, east and west. The four intermediate directions, the zenith and the nadir. The Tathagatas of the three times, in other words, the ones gone thus of the three times refer to the tathagatas of past, present and future. All lions among men refer to all the Buddhas and the prostration is performed with body, speech and mind.
As was mentioned when Geshe-la presented the field of merit, have visualized all the Buddhas in the space in front of ourselves and at present perform prostration to them. So in this first stanza, reference is made to prostration with pure body speech and mind. Generally speaking, when we refer to prostrations, we think exclusively of the deed of prostration and do not include within prostration veneration and respect which are also aspects of prostration. The fully qualified prostration is a prostration in which five paths of the body come in contact with the ground. The two knees, the two hands and the forehead and this must be done with veneration.
In this stance, a reference is also made to verbal and mental prostrations. One prostrates with body, speech and mind. Verbal prostrations involve reciting praises of the object or the person to whom one prostrates and mental prostrations involve generating faith. And therefore, it is through recollecting all of the qualities of the enlightened beings body, speech, and mind that one offers prostration. In Tibetan the term prostration has two syllables.
The first syllable refers to eliminating all of the interferences to one’s attainments whereas the second syllable which is synonymous with the honorific verb or to obtain means to obtain all of the qualities of the body, speech and the mind of the Buddha. The following stanza reads as follows. By the power of the prayer of Samantabhādra, through venerating mentally all of the conquerors which dwell bodily on as many atoms in the fields as exist, I utterly prostrate to all the conquerors. So in the first stanza through the power of the prayers of Samantabhādra, Samantabhādra in Sanskrit becomes in Tibetan means good and here refers specifically to the enlightened beings. The following verse reads, Buddha’s equal in number to the totality of atoms abiding on one atom.
On every single atom there is an immeasurable number of Buddhas or enlightened beings. This is quite astonishing to us. Why is this the case? This is the case because every single atom is perceived by the omniscient mind of the Buddha. If it is perceived by the omniscient mind of the Buddha, the Dharmakāya, simultaneously the Rūpakāya of the Buddha is present in this act of perception.
This is one of the inconceivable qualities of the state of union or Yuganaddha. In our case, when we observe Geshe-la’s teacup, we all observe it and therefore we can say that the minds of every single one of us in the room observe this teacup yet our bodies do not accompany this act of observation and are not as it were on the teacup. This is not the case with the Buddha’s. It is said that the physical obstructions are eliminated by the speech, the verbal obstructions are eliminated by the mind of the Buddha and this is an uncommon feature of the state of union that body, speech, and the mind of the Buddha are always present together. In our case, both our visual and our mental consciousness engage.
For instance, yellow tea cup but our bodily, our body is unable to do that simply because the body arises from a radically different substantial cause which is the previous atoms constituting the body. This is not the case for the body of the Buddha. The body, speech and mind of the Buddha are all three unobstructed whereas in our case our mind is unobstructed but our body is not. Our body is unobstructed and obstructive phenomenon. In our case, most of us would say that the Buddhas are not present in this room and yet this is entirely contingent on our ornamental outlook.
If from our side we believe that the Buddhas are present in this room then we will derive the benefit of their presence. If we do not believe that they are present in this room, we will not derive that benefit even though in actuality they are present. For this reason, it is said regarding the spiritual teacher, the blessings of the spiritual teacher are not contingent on the object. In other words, spiritual teacher, they are contingent on the faith of the disciple. The following verses of this stanza read as follows.
Dwelling in the midst of the retinue of the Buddhas. Dharmadhatus without exception, I pay homage to all of the conquerors. Dwelling in the midst of the science of the Buddhas refers to the Bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas are the retinue of the Buddhas but in the context of this prayer it refers to the Sambhogakāya. The following verse within the dharmadhātu, in other words, the sphere of phenomena without exception refers to the Svabhāvikakāya, the nature truth body of the Buddha.
Therefore, the verses of this stanza pay homage to the four bodies of the Buddha. The Nirmāṇakāya or emanation body, the Sambhogakāya or enjoyment body and the two Dharmakāya. The Svabhāvikakāya, the nature truth body and the Jñāna dharmakaya, the wisdom truth body. The following stanza is a stanza of verbal prostration or of praise. I utter the qualities of all of the conquerors and I praise all of those gone to bliss through an ocean of limbs of song, an ocean of such praise.
The following stanza is the stanza of offerings that we have completed. The stanzas of prostration. I offer to these conquerors, holy flowers and holy garlands, cymbals and unguents, supreme parasols, butter lamps and fragrant incense. Here the seven precious offerings are offered. These are flowers, garlands, cymbals, unguents, parasols, butter lamps and fragrant incense.
In this context, is a benefit not merely to perform material offerings but to mentally emanate in innumerable amount as much as one is able to do so emanations of butter lamps, of parasols, of flowers and so forth. The following stanza reads, I offer precious vestments and supreme scent variegated powders equal to Mount Meru. The vestments refer to clothes, but precious clothes different from the ones we wear. The supreme scent refers to incense, and variegated powders refers to variegated perfumes. These variegated offerings refer to offerings in various amounts, heaps of various sizes and of various shapes.
So the stanza ends with the following two verses: Through such noble particular offerings, I perform offerings to the conquerors. Such noble particular offerings as Geshe-la explained refers to the various shapes the heaps can take and so forth. The following stanza reads as follows. These offerings, peerless and vast, I offer to all of the conquerors out of the power of faith in Samantabhādra, offer and perform prostrations to all of the conquerors.
The meaning here is that we ask Samantabhādra out of our faith in him to perform offerings to the victors. So in this stanza, reference is made to peerless offerings. This implies there’s a distinction between non peerless and peerless offerings. Non peerless offerings or offerings which can actually be superseded. These are offerings of vestments, offerings of flowers, offerings of parasols as Geshe-la mentioned previously.
One can offer something greater than this. Peerless offerings on the other hand are offerings which cannot be superseded. This would involve for instance meditating on the meaning of texts one has read and progressing until one has realized an attainment, one of the grounds, let us say, and then offering these realizations in visualized form. These are peerless offerings. All of us have the means to perform offerings yet we do not perform them.
This is because we do not understand the benefit of performing offerings. Here one does not necessarily refer to material offerings. One can for instance, perform visualized or mental offerings and offer over and again through visualization. This is the case because gains are held by a worldly motivation focused on this life. So we must discard this.
We must also discard any thought regarding future lives. We must also discard any wish for liberation and instead perform these offerings with a mind of bodhicitta, with a mind which wishes to attain the state of full enlightenment so as to lead all sentient beings to that state. And therefore we must completely dispel any worldly motivation or any motivation related to the practice of the being of the small and of the middling scope. And instead generate this powerful motivation to perform these offerings so as to attain a state of full enlightenment for the sake of others. If we are able to do this, then the merit which we accrue in this way cannot be destroyed by anger.
Otherwise, it can be destroyed by anger. If on the other hand, we engage in deeds of offering for the sake of this life, either they can lead to some type of result in this life or if they do not, they go to waste. And therefore, we should offer whatever we see surrounding us, the fields, the flowers, the trees but the houses as well. One distinguishes between offerings which have an owner and offerings which have no owner. When it comes to mental offering, we have the permission or the right to offer both.
And this is the meaning of the concise mandala offering which we recite Sa zhing kham sum and so forth. The inner meaning is that we can offer whatever we perceive which is worthy of offering. We can offer the luxurious cars we see on the road. We can offer the prestigious planes. There is nothing which we cannot offer.
So at this point after having completed the stanzas of offering in the prayer of Samantabhādra, one would offer mandala before reciting the stanza of the limb of confession. Now there are numerous ways of offering mandala in 37 heaps, in 25, in 23 heaps. At this point, an objection might arise since there is debate about whether or not Mount Meru which is central to the Mandala offering exists or not. In this context, this doubt is void of meaning because mandala is offered through visualization and we can offer whatever we visualize. If we visualize Mount Meru, we can offer Mount Meru whether or not Mount Meru exists or not and offering it with clear visualization we will derive benefit.
So it is completely irrelevant whether Mount Meru exists or not. What matters is whether we are able to visualize it or not. So we will not have time to offer the seven thirty seven heap mandala but one can offer a very short mandala with the short verse of offering and so forth while visualizing the sun, the moon, the four continents, the eight subcontinents and so forth. So the the stanza which follows the mandala offering inserted here is the stanza of confession. The term mandala in Sanskrit has numerous etymologies.
The one etymology we should retain is that it means taking the essence. Taking what essence here? Taking the essence which is bodhicitta and emptiness. So in this sense, this essence of the mandala is akin to the innermost essence of butter. The stanza of confession reads, which so ever since I have accrued under the power of body, speech and mind, under the power of desire, hatred and benightedness.
These I confess individually and without exception. Here, desire, hatred and ignorance are the afflictions which beset us. Sins can be accrued to body, speech and mind and individual confession refers to confessing each of these as best we can individually one by one. The reason for which even though we hear about the limb of confession, we do not engage in confession is because we do not fear sin. We do not fear sin because we do not understand the power of sin to cause suffering and to destroy our own happiness.
Generally speaking, sins can be accumulated through body, speech and mind. These are the subjects which accumulate sin. The object of sin on the other hand can be either the Buddha’s or sentient beings. Therefore one can say that the stanza of confession includes implicitly the four forces. It is clear that it includes the force of the base since one refers to implicitly either to Buddhas or to sentient beings as the victims of one’s sins.
And therefore, the sins accumulated with respect to sentient beings are purified through bodhicitta and the sins accumulated with respect to the Buddha’s are purified through taking refuge. The second force is the force of repentance and this means a thought, my goodness, I wish I had not done this. Repentance arises from fear and the fear which is referred to here is when evoked in a Tibetan story of three friends who go together to a restaurant to have a good meal together. And shortly after the meal has ended, one of the three friends falls dead to the floor. The second is doubled up in an agony of pain while the third has yet to feel anything.
The third friend looking at his remaining friends sees that one is dead, one is dying and while he himself has yet to experience anything, it is around the corner. He would feel great fear, wouldn’t he? So how does this Tibetan tale apply to us? Many people we know are already dead. These are this refers to the friend who has died.
Many of our acquaintances are in the hospital and are facing death. This refers to the friend who has doubled up on the floor in pain. We ourselves ourselves have yet to die but we know our turn will come like them. Looking at it in this light you could see how realizing that after this life there are only two roads, the white road towards higher rebirth and the low road towards rebirth as an animal, a preta or the hell realms, great fear and repentance would arise. Why is it that neither fear nor repentance arise when we think of the fact that so many people we know are dead are dying and that we ourselves will die?
Simply because we do not believe in karma and in causality. We do not believe that from sin we will experience suffering and from virtue we will experience happiness. Even though Buddha himself taught this, we do not trust his teachings. Here we are not only speaking of the sin of this life. We are speaking of the tremendous weight of sin accumulated since beginningless lives.
Since our past lives are beginningless and most of them were spent in the hell realms, in the preta realms and in the animal realms. In the hell realm, in the preta realm and in the animal realm, we were not able to engage in one single act of virtue but engaged exclusively in sin. Then this sin, if it is not purified, is present within our mind stream. Therefore we must purify it and try to accumulate some virtue. And therefore realizing the weight of sin which we bear on our shoulders, we must find a way to eliminate this and this is through confession.
So initially, we must try to give rise to some type of repentance and as the power of repentance increases within our mind, eventually relinquishment, the relinquishment of sin will arise and will become more powerful. We will be able to abandon sin. And therefore, after the third force, the force of relinquishment, the fourth force is the force of the application of the antidote which could be for instance the recitation of the mantra of Vajrasattva or the recitation of the sūtra of Confession as much as we can conjoined with the practice of virtue. And therefore, the means to eradicate sin is through the confession of sins and through the practice of virtue. As is said in Tibetan, sin has one and only one quality.
It is that it can be purified. There is a debate between the various Buddhist schools whether all sin can be purified or not. But generally speaking, the Prāsaṇgika Mādhyamika school asserts that there is no sin which cannot be purified. The weaker sins through confession are totally eliminated. The greater sins through confession are reduced.
Then we will stop here. You probably have questions. You could excuse the stupidity of this question to, Geshe-la, but I don’t understand the kayas and what they actually are with the what is the and I I don’t understand what the word body means in that context. If Geshe-la could elaborate and explain that, that would be So when we speak of the four bodies of the Buddha, we should not use understand the term body as it applies to us. Of these four bodies, we have the two first ones, the Nirmāṇakāya and the Sambhogakāya which actually are bodies in the sense in which we have a body.
The latter two, the two subdivisions of the dharmakaya, which are the nature truth body and the wisdom truth body are not bodies. The nature truth body is emptiness, an emptiness. The wisdom truth body is a mind. And there is another concept we must introduce here that is that of supreme emanation body, Choktrul Ku in Tibetan. A supreme emanation body is for instance for our age Buddha Śākyamūni.
In the previous age, it was Buddha Kāśyapa. In the age to come, it will be Buddha Maitreya. This is a manifestation of the Buddha which is able to teach and benefit ordinary sentient beings. In our case, we did not meet the supreme emanation body of this age Buddha Śākyamūni. We did not encounter Buddha Śākyamūni.
Within the four bodies, so this is, what concerns the emanation body. The enjoyment body, the sambhogakaya is a body which we ourselves, ordinary beings, do not encounter. It is only the ārya bodhisattvas who encounter the sambhogakaya. The third body is the first of the two dharmakayas, the wisdom truth body or the Jñāna dharmakaya. This is a consciousness.
It is the omniscient mind of the Buddha. And the fourth body, the second subdivision of the Dharmakāya is the nature truth body or this is the emptiness of the Buddha’s omniscient mind or the truth of cessation within the Buddha’s omniscient mind. This is an emptiness. These are the four bodies of the Buddha. Thank you, Geshe-la.
I just wanted to clarify something else on the kayas. The nirmanakaya being the emanation body is the way that we see our guru or our guru appears to us or the Buddha appears to us as a. Is that correct? This depends on the person and on the person’s karma. If one has the experience of a vision of the Buddha, one of a Buddha, one can see Mañjuśrī, one can see Avalokiteśvara, one could see a supreme emanation body, this depends.
So there are numerous types of such visions which are contingent on one’s own karma and proclivity. There is no certainty in this matter. Do you understand? Yes. And the second part of my question, the Buddha that appears on the atom of each atom of the universe, that is, I think Geshe-la said, a rupakaya, a form body, not an emanation kaya.
So different. So not every form body is an emanation body. In the case of the bodies of the Buddhas present on atoms, these are Sambhogakayas. All of the bodies of the Buddha, the Nirmāṇakāya, the Sambhogakāya, and the two Dharmakayas are subsumed within Buddha Śākyamūni. And the third part of my question the third part of my question, if I was to take if I was to have a belief that there was a Buddha present on the atom, for instance, at the tip of my pencil so as I understand, Geshe-la clarified, it’s my karma whether I see the that as a emanation body, an enjoyment body, a supreme emanation body.
So perhaps I’ve confused myself. But taking a hypothetical situation where there is a Buddha residing on the atom at the top of my pencil, could I possibly cultivate proper guru devotion to that hypothetical Buddha if I take that hypothetical Buddha as my guru if I believed that Buddha to have the qualities of a guru? So there’s definitely a Buddha on every single atom of the carbon tip of this pencil. And if we actually believe that there is such a Buddha, if we have this faith, then obviously we can rely on him. However, if even though there is a Buddha on every single atom of the carbon tip of this pencil, if we ourselves lack faith in the existence of this Buddha, we cannot receive any blessings from him.
The omniscient mind of the Buddha perceives every single phenomenon without exception including ourselves. However, we do not receive any blessings because we lack any faith. So the Buddhas existed in an inconceivable way, very different from the way we imagined them to exist. Then obviously in debate, you have some sharp debate. Then it follows there’s a Buddha in the toilets.
The toilets, the filth in the toilets is not established by its own nature and it is perceived by the omniscient mind of the Buddha therefore the body of the Buddha is present there too. Thank you, Geshe-la. The light’s not on. Just had a question about repentance, purification and karma. I get a bit confused sometimes on this.
So if a sin can be purified totally, does that mean the karma can be reduced? I think I I heard that. And if so, how, please? How? Also, how?
If it can be the karma can be reduced, how can it be reduced? So the best way to understand this is with a simile of a seed and its sprout. If we have a seed which has a potency to give rise to a sprout but we take the seed and we roast it in a fire, then when we put the seed in the ground, this seed will never sprout. Its potency to give rise to a sprout has been destroyed. Likewise, the potency of karma to give rise to suffering will have been destroyed.
That’s even if the action has already happened and the sin has already been committed. Yes, if you have, in the case of one sin purified that sin, which was committed in the past, then that sin can never give rise to an effect again. Then obviously we have many sins. Someone who has actually purified all sins is an Arhat. An Arhat never experiences any suffering.
My question is about peerless offerings. I cannot say that I’ve had any realizations, but I certainly have the wish to have realizations from reading texts and meditating on those and listening to teachings. Can I offer that wish with bodhicitta or with the with bodhicitta that I can possibly muster as a peerless offering? Yes you can definitely offer the wish to gain realizations and whatever virtues you accrue to through that wish if you offer them, these do become peerless offerings. This is why they said in the text that if one offers the hearing, the thinking and the meditating one has engaged in, these become peerless offerings.
Likewise, it is said, if one offers all the roots of virtue one has accrued, this becomes a peerless offering simply because the roots of virtue themselves are peerless. My understanding is that the difference between one of the many differences between the Buddha Dharma and the Christian Dharma that some of us have come from in Australia or many is not the belief in hell but the belief in God, because Buddha is not a god, but also the belief in eternal damnation. Is Geshe-la aware of the block to engaging in the practice of confessing because of this preexisting belief in eternal damnation? If a In this respect, Christianity and Buddhism are very similar. If you confess your sins, you can be freed from the hell realms.
We Buddhists also believe in the realms of the pretas or of animal rebirth. However, if one does not confess one’s sins, then the sins power cannot be eliminated and it will necessarily give rise to a result at some point. It is impossible to be liberated from sin if one does not confess. Geshe-la, I get a bit confused with Buddhas, I’m afraid. I’ve heard there’s four Buddhas of the past and Maitreya is coming in the new in the new age, but we hear that there are Buddhas everywhere.
And I thought that some of Buddha’s disciples became enlightened. So how many Buddhas are there? And if there are countless Buddhas, as I understand there are, why do we talk about the three past Buddhas and the one coming? So there is a big difference between a Buddha and a universal teacher. A Buddha is a being who has eliminated all of the thoughts of his or her body, speech and mind and there are countless such beings.
A universal teacher however is such a being, in other words a Buddha who in addition has come to turn the wheel of Dharma for these three categories of beings. Beings of the lineage of the hearers, of the solitary realizers and of the Bodhisattvas. And there have only been four such universal teachers who have manifested in this world of ours until now. I understand that. Why would not all the Buddhas, given that they achieved Buddhahood because of the bodhisattva, the union of bodhicitta and wisdom, why would they all not wish to be universal teachers?
All the Buddhas make the wish to manifest as universal teachers and eventually will. But we ourselves have only had the opportunity of connecting with one in this historical age. Thank you, Geshe-la, for taking another question. There are some things that I’ve about the the Buddhist cosmology that I put in the too complicated for me to understand basket. So I’m not going to to go into those.
But one question I’ve often wondered about as far as my studies go, I understand that Buddha Śākyamūni and one other Buddha will teach tantra. Now that to me sounds like it would be impossible for me or another person to create the cause for a different Buddha to teach tantra. It sounds fatalistic to me. And some of the sutras and commentaries seem to be a little bit fatalistic as if all the actions of all the Buddhas to come in this fortunate eon are already predisposed and are already set. Could you comment on this?
I don’t know if you understand what I mean. I don’t understand your question. Some of the scriptures that I’ve read seem to specify exactly what will happen in the future. For instance, only two Buddhas will teach tantra Śākyamūni Buddha and one other. That seems like a fatalistic way of looking at things to say that and it seems to sort of negate the cause and effect part.
So these prophecies, I wonder if Geshe-la could comment on them in regards to a type of fatalism, you know, as if it’s fated for something to happen or not to happen. So the Buddha did indeed make many prophecies and the prophecies and their fulfillment are an actual sign of the existence of causality. It is precisely because causality exists that prophecies can be made and if causality did not exist then prophecies could not be made. Actually for that matter, if causality did not exist, there would be no point to making prophecies of anyway. We’ll take only one question at present.
Earlier the term obstructive phenomenon in relation to the body. Sorry? Obstructive phenomenon was used in relation to the body. I was just interested in the nature of an obstructive phenomenon. Yeah.
It’s very simple. Geshe-la made the distinction between obstructive and nonobstructive. Nonobstructive in the context this context means that wherever the Buddha’s mind goes, his body is there instantaneously. Obstructive for us means that this is not the case for us. We will stop here for tonight.