Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Dukkha, Ven Jampa Gendun explains in this 45-minute session, is best understood as “something not quite right” — a nagging incompleteness rather than dramatic pain. He traces two drivers of genuine practice: existential anxiety about continued dissatisfaction and faith in one’s basic goodness, distinguishing these from neurotic fear and framing going for refuge as active realignment away from compulsive hope-and-fear patterns. The practical centrepiece is a first guided introduction to taking-and-giving (tonglen), with the notable instruction to start with oneself as the easiest object — working through present difficulties, future suffering, and the general burden of ego-based existence — before the practice extends to others in coming weeks. He closes with a brief turn to the Dalai Lama’s Opening the Eye of New Awareness, framing Buddhism as diagnosis of false beliefs followed by proven methods for untangling them.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 OtE 1991 10 23.mp3
UUID: 1f51b65e-97ab-4158-b01d-cb2bed6cc16a
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Opening the Eye of New Awareness 1991-1992 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1991-10-23
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.8 minutes
Words: ~4,251
From the Sanskrit word dukkha, which means something like sour. There’s something not quite right. I feel the sense that there’s something incomplete. There’s a feeling of lack. There’s something more that needs to be added on to one who would be able to feel, ah, that’s it.
And there’s always this quite that’s not quite it about our life. And this is dukkha. Something just around the corner. Something needed to be added on. So anyway, whatever you want to call it, suffering, dissatisfaction, it permeates the quality of our life.
It permeates the quality of ego based existence, which we which is our present life. And this idea of getting sincere with the moment in terms of feelings of dissatisfaction that the study of Buddhism or the traveling of a spiritual path is something more than simply the gathering together of information. It involves change. There’s some difficulty involved in any process of change. The process of change is painful.
Solving problems is painful. And it’s necessary to to accept the inevitability of some difficulties. And this requires some motivation. Otherwise, we will never we will never voluntarily accept legitimate suffering or legitimate difficulties. That is to say, those types of difficulties which may be necessary in the course of solving our problems in a realistic way.
And the motivation, as I’ve mentioned in the past, comes through two sources, one of which is anxiety, or you can call it fear, and the other is faith. And there are two types of fears, neurotic fears and existential fears. And we’re never going to go beyond our neurotic fears until our existential fears are even greater. That is to say, we develop a sense of anxiety with the possibility of continued dissatisfactory existence. The way things are going aren’t quite right, and we become anxious that they aren’t going to change unless we change.
And therefore, we become serious about the possibility of change and accepting the legitimate difficulties which may necessarily be involved in the process of change. So it’s this continual reevaluation, reprioritizing our life, going for refuge. This process of realignment of our allegiance from a life passively led in terms of hope and fear to one based upon actively choosing growth, exercising our wisdom and compassion in a creative, intelligent manner as opposed to simply reliving our compulsive patterns which act as a kind of prison for us, which have bound us up to now. And this only comes about through a sense of anxiety, but also a faith, the faith in the possibility of change, the faith in our own basic goodness, our sanity, that there is something about us which suggests that we can solve our problems no matter how insufficient we may feel from time to time, no matter how depraved. That amongst the garbage, there’s a there’s some gold to be mined out and purified and formed in whatever image you might hold most meaningful and most authentic in your life.
You know, we we this is talking about the determination to be free. And we have all our various methods that we make use of, that we avail ourselves of to solve our problems, to find happiness that we want. And this is quite right. You know, the the significant friendships that we have, the valuable relationships, the food, clothing, stylish, warm clothes that we wear that we feel good about wearing, the the the home that we live in, the job that we have, the satisfaction that we find in our work, these all make for a good life. But all that’s being said is that some significant component of all your various activities which go to make up your life, which you put your time and energy in, must be dedicated to change, to growth.
I don’t think that’s asking too much. I mean, to you know, this this idea of growth, the idea of pain, that this is a kind of our our our problems, our pain, our feelings of dissatisfaction is a kind of intelligence. It’s saying that something’s not quite right. And we we can set about dedicating part of our life, part of our energy, accepting legitimate difficulties in the course of setting things right and becoming the type of person that we want to be and becoming a happy, healthy, living, sane human being. So we take as our inspiration the historical Buddha, those who have actually solved the basic problem of ego based existence.
And we take a this is our paradigm of sanity, whatever we might hold the attributes of that paradigm to be, that model, however we may conceive of it, it’s going to change over the course of our life. It’s said that the wood cannot pass through fire, metal cannot float across the water. So we have different images of what it might mean to be healthy according to our present level of understanding, our conditioning, present situation that we find ourselves in. But through it all, we can dedicate some energy, some time to grow, to the inner the inner Buddha within ourselves, to to finding the context and the means to begin to foster and express our own basic sanity, which we have to have a great deal of faith in. And we we do this by means of the Dharma, that which helps helps us, that which aids in fostering, in in nurturing, and bringing to to and that expression of sanity in our everyday life.
And this is done within the social context of the spiritual community. Those individuals who who might help us by inspiring us, by teaching us, by guiding us, by sympathizing with us, you know, to share in our difficulties and our our little trials, to encourage us and and for whom we can be encouragement, for whom we can be a model, for whom we can be someone to inspire them. And we try to shift over the course of our growth, over the course of our practice, from the motivation of simply wanting to grow for oneself alone. But the emphasis becomes more and more the concern of others, that the more I get my own act together, the more I can be of benefit to others. And the more benefit I can be of to others, then surprisingly, paradoxically, the more benefit I can be to myself in trying to validate this within one’s own experience.
At the moment we go beyond our own self centered, claustrophobic needs, That much more available is our wisdom, is our basic intelligence. That much more available are the solutions to our own problems and the ability to be able to help others, just help them solve theirs. And this is sort of a lifestyle that we can adopt and to make this way of thinking some small component of our everyday life. And then rather than going around in circles, in these compulsive patterns, and then reacting to fear and hope. And we can hope for a spiral.
The hopes and fears are still there, but there’s going to be some movement in time and space, and there’s going to be some growth. And we will not have died with the same delusions that we were born with, the same hopes and fears. But we will have gone a little bit further in this long journey that we’re all, whether aware of or not, involved. I go for refuge and until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, the highest assembly. From the virtuous merit that I collect by practicing giving any other perfections, May I attain the state of the Buddha to be able to benefit all sentient beings.
I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the highest assembly. From the virtuous merit that I collect by practicing giving in the other perfections, may I attain the state of a Buddha to be able to benefit all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the highest assembly. From the virtuous merits that I collect by practicing giving in the other perfections, may I attain the state of a Buddha to be able to benefit all sentient beings. So we’re going to begin with a meditation.
First, mindfulness of breathing. And if it’s useful, making use of the techniques of counting and noting. And then we’re going to continue in the sequence of meditations, which is one of the two meditative techniques for the development of an awakening heart,, bodhicitta. That is the exchange of self equalizing self with others and exchanging self with others. And this began with the essential understanding that everyone is exactly the same as I am.
Everybody wants to be happy. No one wants to suffer. That everyone is equal, but also equal in their kindness. The great kindness that they show, both in particular, but in general, that they are showing to me every day of my life. And out of this comes a sense of unconditioned positive regard.
Positive because we feel an involvement in other people’s lives. There’s a caring. There’s no it’s not an indifference. And it’s unconditioned because it’s divorced of how they may react to me. Whether they do well by me or not, I unconditionally have positive regard for them.
And then taking that as a basis, we begin to look at the disadvantages of self centeredness, that all our problems, all our difficulties have as the root source, this exaggerated self concern. And on the other hand, looking at the advantages of other cherishing, that all that is really noble, worthwhile, all that is some of our most our highest peak experiences of our life, that the feelings of meaningfulness, authenticity have come about when we’ve gone beyond the narrow bonds of our own self centered needs and extended ourselves and identified ourselves with the needs of others, the advantages of other centeredness. And then we went on to meditate the exchange, the actual exchange of self for others where we play a role. We we try to gain a multifaceted viewpoint to being able to see the situation, the world, the experiences out of other people’s eyes. And then tonight we’re going to continue, and we’re going to practice the visualization technique called taking and giving, where we take upon ourselves the suffering of others, and we give away our happiness.
So, I mean, don’t get uptight. This is only an imagination. Many people say, I have enough problems without without taking on other people’s problems. But this is simply an imaginative process to help us build up courage, help us build up creative power, personal power, creative energy. And in the course of this, we’re going to develop the the visualization, but we’re going to begin very simply tonight.
And we’re going to find the easiest object that we can hope to make use of at present in the taking upon suffering and the giving away of happiness. That is to say, we’re going to begin with ourselves. So you can just imagine we’re going to meditate on this but imagine yourself in front of yourself and become aware of some present difficulty that you have. Maybe you’re sick, maybe you have a job isn’t going well, maybe you need money, the car is not running, whatever. Some present difficulty.
And imagine, then we go through different levels of compassion. That is compassion in the sense of wanting an individual to be free from that difficulty. And we go from first to the simple friendly level of compassion where we need to be nice and try to actually feel the sense of of friendliness. Wouldn’t it be nice if this person didn’t have that difficulty? That’d be nice.
I’d be like that. Wouldn’t it be wonderful? Just a nice friendly thought. You know, you don’t have to get up, overwrought. Just kind of a calm, friendly thought towards this person.
And then I’m going take on that person’s difficulty. And imagine that their difficulty, whatever it might be, comes in the form of black smoke and comes up and up through your nostril and down to your heart. And then think of some possible and then we well, what would alleviate that problem? You know, they’re in kind of a neutral situation. Maybe their car wasn’t working, so they’re not worried about their car.
But what would actually be a benefit to them? And so we develop a sense of love. Love is the wish that others be happy, that they have happiness and the causes of happiness. So again, beginning with the sense of friendliness. Wouldn’t it be nice if that person had some happiness?
You know, they had a car that worked or they had a good job, secure job with good pay or whatever. And sending that in the form of white light, sending a new Holden station wagon or a 1991 Holden station wagon or whatever it is they want. I don’t know. And then we’re also going to make use of two levels of love and compassion. In compassion, we first begin with the friendly level.
And then we try to increase that thinking of may they have that happen, may they be separated, may they be free from that suffering, a little bit stronger. And then we go on to intensify that. I’m going to free them from their suffering. We really get involved. We take responsibility and we actually take upon that suffering a form of black smoke.
And then we go through the three intensities of love. Wouldn’t it be nice if this person had that happiness, that particular solution to their problem? Maybe have it. I’m going to take responsibility. I’m going to give them that happiness.
And it’s as if we transform our body or all the creative energy that we built up, all our possessions, all of that. We transform it into whatever would bring that person happiness and we give that to them. And then we imagine some type of future difficulty that this person, in this case yourself, might have to undergo. Maybe you have to go to the doctor, the dentist next week. Maybe you have to pay a bill next week.
There’s always death, old age, disease, whatever. There’s something that’s coming. You can be sure of that. And we go through this process. Wouldn’t it be nice if this person didn’t have to go through this?
May they not have to go through this difficulty? I’m going to free them from having to go through this difficulty and take on that suffering of that in the form of black smoke and actually try to feel these senses, these layers of compassion, and then give away your happiness, the solution to their problem, immortality, What? A perfect set of teeth. I don’t know. Whatever.
Use your imagination. Wouldn’t it be nice if they didn’t have to go to the dentist next week? May they not have to go to the dentist. I’m going to take responsibility that they don’t have to go to dentist next week. And to give away all of your creative potential, your energies, your body, your possessions in the form of this white light which goes out and transforms into a perfect set of teeth.
And you see that person happy there in front of you, and you share empathetically in their joy, in their well-being. And then finally, thinking about the very basic fact of ego based existence. The feelings of isolation, inauthenticity, fragmentation, having to keep up the self image, guard one’s territory, the feeling of loneliness, having to the loss of innocence, having to find happiness again and again and again, over and over again. All of these ongoing, not particular difficulties, but the ongoing theme of dissatisfactoriness which permeates our life. And take that on and then give away the happiness in terms of whatever would help that person to grow, to go beyond all types of ego based existence altogether, teachers, meditation rooms, whatever you feel might be necessary would aid that person to grow until finally they’ve actualized their fullest potential, they’ve solved their basic problem.
And then share empathetically with their sense of well-being and happiness. So we’ll begin with meditation on mindfulness of breathing, and then I’ll lead you through taking and giving. So take a comfortable but firm posture. If it’s useful, making use of the techniques of counting and noting. Just for the next few minutes, there’s nothing to do, nothing to think about.
Whatever problems or difficulties you need to be worried about, you can they’ll still be there when you’re finished. This is just a moment to rest your mind and body. Just give yourself over completely to resting your mind and body. And perhaps first get in touch with your body and note any sort of tightnesses or tensions in your body. And consciously bring your awareness to these areas and consciously relax the muscles, a sense of warmth and relaxation, a softening, a sense of the energy actually moving down and out of your body, the tension being released, your body becoming comfortable and relaxed.
Relax. And then bring your mind to the breath, just the natural, even, in and out breathing. Soft, gentle breath. Just bring gently bring the mind back to the breath. Soft body, gentle breath, quiet mind.
Now imagine yourself in front of yourself. If you can’t see yourself, it doesn’t matter. Just feel that you’re there and bring to mind some present difficulty, physical or mental problem, something that’s going wrong presently in your life. And befriend yourself. Expressed in the thought, wouldn’t it be nice if if you didn’t have this problem?
It’d be wonderful if you didn’t have this problem. Really try to feel that towards yourself. Be kind to yourself. And try to increase the intensity of that feeling. May you not have this problem?
Become involved. And increase that. I’m going to free you from this difficulty. I’m gonna take responsibility for it. Imagine that problem, that pain, the suffering involved manifests as a black smoke coming from that individual and comes up, moves through your nostril and down to your heart area.
Now they don’t have that present difficulty, they’re suffering but they don’t have the counterpart, the happiness. Wouldn’t it be nice if they had happiness? The counterpart of that previous difficulty. Wouldn’t it be nice? Wouldn’t it be wonderful?
May you have that happiness. I’m going to bring you that happiness. That’s my responsibility. You think that you’re transforming all your positive potential, your energies, your possession leaving your body into a brilliant white light which forms at your heart and moves up and out your nostril. And just as it is about to reach that person, transforms into whatever would make that person happy as a counterpart to that previous difficulty.
And see their happiness and empathetically share in their happiness. Now do the same with some possible future suffering that this person, at this point yourself, may have to undergo? Maybe a separation, sickness, loss of job, any possibility. And befriend this person. Wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t have to undergo that difficulty?
Feel compassion. May you not have to undergo that difficulty. I’m going to take responsibility to see that you don’t have to undergo it. And take on that future suffering in the form of thick black smoke, which moves toward you and up through your nostrils and down to your heart area. And again, the three levels of love.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you had the counterpart of happiness? May you have that happiness. I’m going to bring you that happiness. Transforming all that you have into this brilliant white light which rises up from your heart area and out transforms into future counterpart to happiness and share in this person’s happiness. And again, of just the general difficulties of life, having to find happiness again and again, having to be on guard, having to watch oneself, the burden of ego, loss of spontaneity, feeling general feeling of dissatisfaction.
Nothing specific, just the general quality of this person’s life. Wouldn’t it be nice if if you didn’t have to experience this? May you not have to experience this. I’m going to free you from this experience. And take on the general dissatisfactory quality of their life in the form of that thick thick black smoke.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you had happiness, complete peace, joy? May you have complete peace and joy. I’m going to bring you complete peace and joy. Radiating out all that you possess in the form of bright white light, creating all the conditions necessary for this individual yourself to go beyond all suffering and realize their fullest potential. And now they’re completely at peace, experiencing only joy.
And share in that joy and peace. So we’re going to elaborate on that visualization technique in the next in the few coming few weeks. It said if you have problems, if you’re feeling sick, negative, this is one of the best ways to overcome, to go beyond your own sort of self centered ness, which is adding on to your difficulties, the practice of taking and giving. So we’re going we’re going to continue with our discussion of the along with the Dalai Lama’s Opening the Eye of New Awareness. In in in, you know, at the heart of Buddhism, at heart, Buddhism is a resource for personal exploration.
It it’s It offers ways to help us to understand ourselves and the world around us. And this acts as a means whereby we can improve the quality of our everyday life. The central conviction of Buddhism is that we’re we’re intelligent, that we’re basically sane, healthy people. But that many of our our premises upon which we base our lives are inappropriate. That that they’re in conflict with the way things actually are.
Out of they’re distorted. And out of this conflict with the way things are, this causes us to to to act in an unskillful way, inappropriate, out of tune. And it causes us to act in inner to to think and to behave in inappropriate ways. There’s a sense of conflict. The the fundamental problem as seen by Buddhism is one of misknowledge and self centeredness.
And the way forward is through insight in developing a genuine concern for others. So the first step in intervention is diagnosis. And we have to become aware of the web of false beliefs, wrong ideas, mistaken assumptions in which we are presently entangled. So the first step in in opening our eye of new awareness is to become aware of our present situation. As His Holiness says in the first chapter, in which he’s talking about the need the need for religious practice.
The means for establishing the causes of benefit and happiness and for abandoning harm and suffering cannot be gained by any other way as fully and completely as you are through religious practice. Through religious practice we are able to bring about happiness and alleviate suffering in this and many future lives. This life, the next life, the life after that, and so forth. So having established the need for spiritual practice as a means to solve there is a need for spiritual practice to solve most subtle conflicts which we experience. Many of our difficulties we can solve in materialistic methods.
If you have a pain of hunger, you can eat. Many of us can avail ourselves of various types of psychotherapeutic methods. But the most subtle, that which is able to alleviate the most subtle, dissatisfactory quality which we experience within our mind is what we call religion. This method, spiritual practice, whatever. And this is need for religion.
Now we’re not trying to it is to solve our problems, basically. This is why we need religion. It is not a matter of of seeking to placate or please something outside of ourselves. It is based in our existential reality that we are experiencing dissatisfaction and we wish to end it. And therefore, we are exercising methods.
Amongst these, one necessary method is what we call religion or spiritual practice. So having established this in the first chapter, the need for spiritual practice as a means to solve these most subtle internal conflicts which we experience because of inappropriateness of our present most subtle beliefs, ideas, historic premises, Then His Holiness turns to the teachings of Buddhism in particular, stating that Buddhism offers a penetrating analysis of our condition. You know, I said it’s a resource for exploring ourselves and the world about us. You know, study Buddhism is to study yourself. Ultimately, just to understand the nature of your own mind, how it’s operating.
We don’t operate our minds well because we don’t know how they operate. So this last frontier, this dynamic internal world, is the the domain which Buddhism seeks to explore and enlighten. That Buddhism has these analysis of the condition that we that that we find ourselves in. And as well, and this is importantly, powerful and proven sets of techniques for for creating happiness, for developing kindness and peace in people’s lives. And as I said, the way we can become untangled.