Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The earth metaphor at the heart of this 8.5-minute talk captures its whole argument: just as you use the same ground you fell on to stand back up, Ven Jampa Gendun explains, you rely on your own Buddha nature to recommit after breaking a vow. He works through three of the four counteracting agents for purification: the power of reliance (twofold — recommitting to refuge if a precept was broken, generating compassion if someone was harmed), the force of antidote (prostrations, mantras, and especially Vajrasattva meditation as the most powerful purification), and the force of reversal, where he makes a practical case for a realistic 24-hour commitment over a vague lifetime resolution. The session ends by moving directly into a guided Vajrasattva practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 06 ER 1993 04 10.mp3
UUID: e5256178-6e58-4d34-8124-200ea517ecb9
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Easter Retreat (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1993-04-10
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 8.5 minutes
Words: ~1,080
Our commitment to actualize Buddha. You know? So, you know, We reevaluate our situation, our priorities, and we recommit ourselves to growth, to Buddha. You know, every morning when I talk about going for refuge is reprioritizing, redirecting ourselves. You know, a Buddha is someone who’s trying to help others, trying to express their love toward others, not to kill, to harm.
For example, in breaking this vow, we are turning our back on Buddha, the Buddha with inside ourselves. So we have to reevaluate in the force of reliance. We recommit ourselves to Buddhahood, to the Buddha inside of ourselves. We we we take refuge, we redirect, we we prioritize our values again, the power of reliance. The reason it’s called the power of reliance is just like the like the Earth.
You fall down on the Earth and you use that same ground to pick yourself back up. You rely upon that same object upon which you fell down to bring yourself back up. We fell down on our own Buddhahood. We let our Buddha down. And now we are going to recommit ourselves.
It’s like using that same Buddha to pick oneself up again, to reprioritize, to get back, to recommit ourselves to actualizing, to growth. But we also commit, I don’t know if you noticed this, but negativity is against other people, harming ourselves or harming someone else. In harming ourselves or harming someone else, we we are turning our back on loving ourselves and loving others. And thus, we are turning our back on realizing our ultimate potential, our ultimate happiness. And this to create a negative action is to stop growing, and to create a negative action is to harm, and to harm is to stop growing.
You know, if in this sense, if there is any sin if there is any sin, it is probably just this, to prolong the unawakened state, to prolong the unawakened state, and thus to allow suffering to continue that much longer. So in terms of having harmed another, we recommit ourselves to others, to love another, so we we generate compassion toward others. In spite of all our imperfections, we do the best we can in trying to love others, in trying to extend ourselves to nourish them, to help them. We orientate it. So the power of reliance is twofold.
One, if we’ve broken a vow, we recommit ourselves to the Buddha withinside of ourselves, taking refuge. If we harmed another person, we recommit ourselves by generating compassion, love for that person. Then the third antidote is the force of the third counteracting agent is the force of antidote. And this is constantly creating some kind of positive action as a counter counterbalance to that previously negative created negative action. So, traditionally, this takes many forms.
We can do prostrations, we can do recitations of specific prayers, we can recite texts, we can recite mantras, we can meditate on love, compassion. The most powerful means of purification is meditation on emptiness. But any in general, any any type of creative action, any type of skillful action which is done done as a counterbalance to the previously created negative action. One of the most effective, most powerful types of antidotes that we can engage in is the Vajrasattva practice, the meditation of the deity specifically associated with purity and the purification of practice, the embodiment of purity, the pure essence of ourselves, getting in touch with that pure essence as a means destroy the potency of these negative karmas. That’s the practice we’re going to work with tonight.
Lastly, the four counteracting agents, the force of reversal. And this you know, there is a one of the tendencies of karma is is to repeat again. It’s simply habit. That having done an action once, that that doing it once facilitates it doing it again. Having done it twice, that facilitates it, doing it even easier.
And the third time, you know, we form habits. It’s quite natural. So we’re predisposed to act in certain ways instinctively due to the force of these dispositions, predisposing karmas. We can begin to interrupt these patterns through the force of reversal, determining to not to repeat that negative action again. And here, we have to be realistic because it doesn’t do any good to determine I’m never going to use I’m never going to, what, use abusive language again, never again, my whole life.
That’s less than meaningless. You may have good intention, but it’s not going to reverse your tendency overall because you cannot be mindful for the rest of your life. Or you could, but you probably will not. What if we’re realistic and think for the next twenty four hours, I’m really gonna be mindful of my determination of reversing. I’m not going to abuse anybody, verbally for the next twenty four hours.
It works. And, you know, when you when some kind of abusive language comes up, the mindfulness will will bring it back down. And you begin to up interrupt that that that reflex action. You know, somebody pushes your button and out pops your hand. You know?
Like that. You can begin to interrupt that. It creates some kind of space where there’s a momentary possibility for choice. Ah, I’m not going to do that. I determine for the next twenty four hours.
It has some effect. This determination this determination, I’m not I’m not gonna repeat this action again for the next twenty four hours. If you you can be like me, for example, you can say, I’m not going to I’m not going to before I go to bed at night, I’m not going to lie for the next six hours, you know, things like that. I’m pretty good at that. So it’s said that if we sincerely and diligently apply these four counteracting agents, there is no negative karma, no matter what horrendous things we may have done, that cannot be completely eliminated through their repeated, sincere, genuine application.
So I get the the one message of karma is that we do not we are not victims unless we allow ourselves to remain victims, that we have a choice. What we are now is what we have done, and what we do now is what we will become. I’m going to ask — Kemble is going to lead us in the Vajrasattva practice. Would you like to stand up for a minute?