Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. “All that is begins with imagination” — Ven Jampa Gendun opens this 34-minute session with that premise and builds it into a structured practice for reshaping self-image. He argues that we “story” ourselves into fixed identities, illustrating the point with a Zen anecdote about a student convinced he is a dog, and suggests that loosening that grip — treating opinions like butterflies rather than crushing them — creates space for genuine change. The session’s core is a five-part guided visualization: embodying a quality admired in a woman, then in a man; amplifying a quality one already possesses; inhabiting the positive opposite of a disliked trait; and settling into the felt absence of a persistent problem. Simple breath mindfulness frames each stage. Psychologically oriented rather than doctrinal, it suits meditators at any level.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 CR.mp3
UUID: b1681a2d-80a7-4268-960c-7ba1760498aa
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Christmas Retreat (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 2008 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 33.8 minutes
Words: ~2,426
All that is begins with imagination. Even this building that we’re sitting in, which is so concrete, which acts as if it’s always been here, that’s the way it appears. It in fact had its origin in someone’s imagination. Don’t know, maybe a couple of Masonic brothers got together and they said, Well, we need a lodge. They said, Well, what’s going to look like?
How many rooms do we need? What kind of facilities does it have to have? And they began to think about it and they went to an architect and they talked about it and they talked it over. He drew up some plans. And eventually that was manifested as this physical building.
No matter how solid and concrete and as if it’s always been here, this building might appear to be, at some point it began in someone’s imagination, someone’s idea. And to a large extent, that’s true of ourselves. If we can’t imagine it, can’t be it. So sometimes it’s useful just to exercise our imagination about ourselves and perhaps begin to try on, fit on different roles about who we might be. To a large extent, we story our lives.
We have this ongoing narrative about who we are. And we promote certain, you know, it’s just like in a good novel. You know, a good novel, the characters aren’t always black and white. There’s always these plots and there’s subplots and there’s the little incidents that occur. Even if two people were to read the same book, it’s the same as watching a good movie.
They get together afterward and begin to talk about the movie, and they can have vastly different impressions about what went on. For one, a minor incident might have made a big impression. For another, a major part of the plot might have not been all that significant. So we interpret, we view things according to our values, to what we’re looking for, what we pay attention to, what we focus on. And the same is quite true of our lives.
You know, we talked about this person who does ninety nine things right and one thing wrong. There’s no objective reality to which kind of impresses itself upon us. We are co-creators with our world. We envision our world. We are world makers to a large degree.
And this applies to our self. You know, was this little story, maybe you’ve heard it before. I hate to bore people, but anyway, I’m going to try it on. In the Zen tradition, the type of Zen Buddhism which is practiced mainly in Japan, Korea, parts of Vietnam and so forth, and China, they often go to their teacher and they have personal interviews and they took over their practice. This is quite a regular part of a retreat and so forth.
And so this particular student went to his teacher, went to his master, and he sat down and he was very agitated. It was obvious. And he blurted out, you know, there’s something wrong with me. And the teacher said, What’s the problem? What’s the problem?
And he was quite a bit hesitant to come out with this. Eventually he said, I think of a dog. And the teacher said, Yes? Well, how long has this been going on? And he said, Ever since I was a puppy.
Our stories become so logical, whereas we become so immersed in our stories, If I’m a dog now, I must have been a puppy earlier. I mean, it just makes sense, right? And if I’m a dog now, I’m going become an old dog eventually. Everything is coherent, it fits, and it all makes sense. And our life, as I’m fond to mention, becomes to a large degree a self fulfilling prophecy.
For most of us. Why that is, is a big story in itself, I think. But anyway, you know, sometimes, you know, we can talk about meditation from lots of different points of view. But I think one useful perspective on meditation, meditation is a way that we refocus our attention, so that what we pay attention to can be more productive, more in terms of what it is that we’re trying to achieve, what it is that we want in our life, our needs and so forth. And sometimes rather than taking the lofty theories of Buddhism, you know, selflessness and emptiness, sometimes it’s useful to pay attention to what our practical lived activities are and how we feel about what’s going on for us on the ground and begin to evaluate those and pay attention to those.
So I thought we’d just play with a particular way of reimagining, reimagining. That’s a nice word, isn’t it? Reimaging, reimagining. We have an image about who we are. And we hold, you know, I’ve always been this way, this is the way, what can I expect?
And as long as we hold so tightly, someone once said, It’s okay to have ideas and opinions, but we should treat them like butterflies. Hold them very delicately and allow them an opportunity to fly away. Otherwise you crush the life out of them. And we kind of crush the life out of many of the images that we’re trying to hold on to about ourselves, we hold so tightly to them, and it becomes extremely difficult for us to change. And this is another story, you know, not that we could go into.
If we can begin to actually imagine ourselves in another way, then maybe we can create the imaginative space to begin to reimage, reimagine who we might be. So this is very much an exercise in that. And so we’re going to work it’s going to be done in five parts. And we’re going to work with different individuals. First, a female who you admire, who you respect, that you look up to, and what is it about them that you admire, that you respect so very much?
Then we’re going to play a role, put ourselves in an imaginative situation where as if you had that same quality to the same degree as this person whom you now admire. For example, just by way of example, and by all means you choose whoever it is for you, Mother Teresa, okay? A female woman who I admire a great deal. What is it about her that I admire? Maybe it’s her giving, her kindness, her humility.
Then, creating an imaginative space where you live out, giving yourself over to that role as best you can and creating an imaginative situation where you be that quality. Don’t try to figure it out. You be that quality and allow itself to find find its own way of manifesting, expressing itself in this imaginative situation. So, I am whatever, the love, the humility of Mother Teresa, and trying to feel that. How would it feel physically?
What are the physical sensations of that being humble and loving would be? What are associated with that? What are the feelings? What are the kinds of thoughts? What are the kinds of images?
And then creating an imagined situation, allowing that all to find expression. Now don’t try to figure out how a loving person might act. Just be love and watch how it relates in this imagined situation, how it responds. It’s already there, isn’t it? We’re just giving it that opportunity, pushing away the weeds of our preconceptions about who we are, allowing these shoots of that love and humility which are already there an opportunity to find the light of day, at least within our imagination.
Okay? We’re going to do that with a female, with male. We’re going to do it with ourselves in terms of some quality which we now possess, but we’re going to imagine as if it were many more times fully developed. We’re going to imagine it in terms of some quality we don’t like about ourselves, but imagine as if we had the opposite of that quality. And I’ll go through these with you, okay?
And what we were talking about just now. What is it that you need to let go of? And what would that look like if you had let go of it? Rather than seeing in terms of a negative, what am I moving toward? How would my life be?
How would I be if I had let go of that? How would that find expression? How would that manifest if that were no longer a problem for me? If there was a cessation of that problem, what would that look like? You could wave a magic wand and the problem is no longer there.
What would it now look like? How would it feel? What would it be? Okay? So we’ll begin with so if you take a comfortable, firm posture, we’ll begin with a few minutes of mindfulness of the breath.
So I would suggest you put your feet flat on the floor or on a cushion, whichever you like. Your buttocks toward the back of the chair so that you’re fairly your back is that you’re not slouched. Stretching up through the core of your body. This might involve extending the neck slightly, bowing the neck. Bring your chin slightly in and placing your hands comfortably in your lap.
The main thing is to have a comfortable posture, a bit of a posture which you can hold for some time without necessarily moving. And we’ll just begin with a simple breath exercise just to kind of vitalize, get some oxygen flowing. So breathing breathing in comfortably normally, but breathing out, extending the exhalation, completely emptying the lungs, gently forcing all the air out of the lungs. Again, breathing in comfortably normally. Again, extend an exhalation, completely emptying the lungs.
And then bring your mind to the breath. Just a gentle, easy, in and out flow of the natural breath. Wherever it’s most clear and obvious to yourself, perhaps at the nostrils, perhaps the rise and fall of the abdomen, choosing one of those sites, then for the rest of the sessions staying with that sensation, the sensation sensation associated with the natural breath. Bring your mind back to the breath. Sit up straight and tall.
Stay aware. Stay awake. Bring your mind back. We’re going to begin the meditation using our imagination, a role. So beginning first with thinking of a female, someone that you admire, that you look up to.
And what is it about her? What quality, what characteristic does she possess that you admire so much, that you respect? And now we’re going to play a role as best you can, aside all of your present material, stuff, your agenda. Imagine that you yourself have the same exact quality to the same degree. And be that quality.
Don’t think about it. Just feel it in your body. What are the feelings, the images surrounding that? And create an imaginative situation where those qualities are allowed to be expressed. So assuming these qualities that you assuming these qualities that you admire, that you respect in this woman, being that, whatever those might be, feeling and believing deeply that’s the case, creating an imaginative situation and playing out, allowing those qualities to find expression.
How would they how do they manifest in that imaginative situation? Just give yourself over to the role as best you can, feeling it in all the ways that you can. Stay with it. Try to feel. It’s a lot of work, but try.
Now we’re going to try another. This time it’s going to be a male. So bring to mind a male that you admire, that you respect a great deal. And what quality, what characteristic about him do you admire and respect? Again, a role, imagining that you yourself feeling as if you yourself have the same quality, the same characteristic to the same exact degree, and create an imaginative situation where this quality is allowed to manifest, it express itself.
Just be that quality and watch how it manifests, how it finds expression. Stay with it. Now another part to the meditation. Bring to mind some quality which you now possess. Something about yourself that you like, that you appreciate, that you feel good about.
Whatever it might be, don’t judge, just bring it to mind. And now imagine that the same quality is fully developed, many, many, many times more developed than it is at present, fully, completely developed. And be that fully, completely developed quality which you now possess. And create an imaginative situation which allows it to find expression. Something you like about yourself.
The next part of the meditation. Bringing to mind something that you don’t like about yourself. Some quality which you don’t feel so good about. But imagining that you have the complete opposite, the positive counterpart to this present quality which you don’t feel so good about. Whatever that might be, however that might feel.
Get used to feeling as if you had the complete positive counterpart, how would it be to be that? And create an imagined situation where you live out that quality, you be that quality. And then the last. So we were talking about what we want to let go of. There’s some problem there that we’d rather it weren’t there in some way or another, whatever it might be.
So in this we simply imagine if that problem weren’t present. We want to imagine the cessation of that problem as if we can wave a magic wand and whatever the problem was, it’s no longer there. How would that feel? How would that look? How would that find expression if this problem you’ve been wrestling wrestling with were no longer there?
How would it change things? What would it look like? What would it look like? What would it feel like? It’s mostly a feeling.
Mostly a feeling. The problem’s absent. It’s no longer there. How does that feel? The absence of the problem.
Get used to the feeling of the problem not being there. Pay attention to that. And then bring your mind back to the breath. And get in touch with your body, perhaps the pressure of your buttocks on the chair, on the cushion, just some sensation feeling within the body. Become aware of the sounds about you.
And slowly open your eyes and becoming aware of where you are in the room.