Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Using a table, three fingers held up side by side, and a line drawn in the air, Ven Jampa Gendun opens this eight-minute session with a deceptively simple question: is the table long or short? The Socratic exchange that follows pushes on whether qualities like long/short, hot/cold, and few/many exist in objects or arise only through comparison. A student argues the distinctions are purely mental, which prompts the question of whether a child with fifteen cents really “has lots of money.” The inquiry then turns to whether an object can own its properties — the table as owner of its particular shape — or whether those properties dissolve without something to compare against. Closes with a bodhicitta dedication verse. Suited to students beginning the Collected Topics logic curriculum.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 58 CT 1988 09 13.mp3
UUID: db9b0ce3-6ecd-418c-bdc2-9b74c4123dad
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Collected Topics (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1988-09-13
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 8.0 minutes
Words: ~833
It’s just a table. Isn’t it? We’re talking about whether it’s a short table or a long table. I can’t answer that because you can’t say it’s a long or a short table because you’ve got nothing. No measuring stick to say what’s long and what’s short.
Okay, so then there’s nothing which is hot and cold. Is today’s weather hot? Only by comparison. Then it’s not hot or cold, because the table was the same, same example. It’s not long or short.
So today’s whether we can’t say it’s hot or cold. Not unless you’ve known other things. If you’re only experiencing Oh, then if you know other things, then you can say. Well, from my point of view, yeah. Okay, is this table long or short?
It is just a table at night because it’s not long or Today’s weather was neither hot nor cold. No, right. It was just the day. All right. It’s not that time it warm.
Was warm. Wow, said short. What did I say? This is medium. It’s short.
These three fingers. Take these three fingers. Is this finger long or short? As you’re holding it now, it is just a finger. It’s neither long or short?
No. Compared to this one, is it long or short? It’s now long. Okay, compared to this one, is it long or short? Now it’s short.
So is it both short and long? No. It can’t be No. Not actually different. You’re seeing it differently.
Like like white. When white compared to blue becomes something other than becomes a different color? I think I You can only call something cold if you’ve got something else to compare. Really? Otherwise, it just is.
Like like green. Green, you have to I can’t tell if this is covers green or not. I have to compare it to red. Is it red? Yeah.
I think it’s both. I think this finger is long and short. Compared to this, it’s long compared to this, it’s short. So it’s long and short. If you only have the one finger, no one knows other fingers.
It’s the finger. But there are other fingers, aren’t there? No, compared to this book, this book is short. Compared to this. Really?
How about few and many? Same thing? Few and many? So like if you think, Well, I’ve got lots of money, you know? You got lots of money?
Or do you have to count actually in your pocket? Like, It’s one dollar, two dollars. But that still gets back to the same thing. You can only say you’ve got lots if you’re comparing it with something else. Alex is saying that lots long and short just arises in the mind.
It doesn’t depend on what the object So you could think you had lots of money and you must have lots of money because many are few. Yeah, you could say that. In your own head. Then you could have, you know, no matter how much money you had in your pocket, you could go out and buy a house or something because You’d think, wow, I’ve got lots of money. You know, like a little kid.
He’s got fifteen cents. It’s like, I’ve got lots of money. So you could go out and buy anything. Yeah. Yeah?
Because of my because I’m in a shop, that table, if you had a Long and short objectively exist, don’t they? Don’t they objectively exist? Or they are, it’s just in mind? Has like a tail? Like a dog has a tail?
So an object has shape and color. This table has shape and color, but it’s not the shape and color. You could take the shape and color away and you’d have this table left over. Is not It has Yeah, like I have a tail. I could take myself away and the tail would be left over.
Or I have a pin. I have a pin. It’s the owner. The table is the owner of shape and color? Of that particular shape and color.
So you can take away its shape and color and you still have the owner left over? You still have a table left over? That’s right. No. Is that line long or short?
This seems to be a little bit shorter than this one. No, no, no. We don’t. This doesn’t exist. Is that line long or short?
No. You can’t. You can’t say. It is long compared with nothing when you start the line, when you start drawing the line. You start with nothing, but you draw a line.
And then and then it gets longer and longer and longer. Something to think. Think about it. To think about. Through these merits, I soon attain the enlightened state of Guru Buddha, and may I lead every migrating being without exception to that state.
May the precious bodhicitta not yet born arise and grow. May that born have no decline but increase forevermore.