Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute talk, Ven Jampa Gendun opens with a Zen verse — “Buddha is your mind and the way goes nowhere” — to argue that what we truly hunger for is psychological rather than material: love, truth, purpose, the sacred. He traces how the American Dream fails those who follow all the prescribed steps yet still feel empty, then frames Buddhism’s response through the Three Jewels and the importance of raising motivation beyond self-interest. The centerpiece is an introduction to the Wheel of Life — here called the ego empire — walking through how attachment, hatred, and ignorance (symbolized by rooster, snake, and pig at the hub) drive compulsive cycles of dissatisfaction. A story about a devotee who chants for ten years without becoming kinder illustrates the talk’s core argument: quality of motivation transforms practice; quantity alone does not.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 OEE 1997 11 26.mp3
UUID: 37882de6-16e9-4f69-948b-d68ef933a52c
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Our Ego Empire (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1997-11-26
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.3 minutes
Words: ~6,503
It’s nice to see so many old friends. Those those I’ve met before and those I haven’t. Once the Dalai Lama went to a conference and I think it was one of the first times that he went to the west. It was in Austria, I believe. And there was this group there and he said, it’s nice to see so many old friends.
You know, he had never met these people before, at least in, I presume, the course of his life. But, you know, I think one of the fundamental teachings of Buddhism is that we are all very much alike in in the sense that we all want to be happy, that none of us want to suffer, know, beneath all the superficial differences that we usually focus upon, that we usually use as a basis of relating. No matter what our, whether a female or male, whether rich or poor or educated or uneducated, attractive or unattractive, whatever, Beneath all of that, we’re all very much brothers and sisters in in the sense of our commonality of the human dilemma, that we’re all very much in this together. And, you know, aside from the superficial differences, we we basically know each other very well. We’re we’re going to talk about the nature of our situation, the human dilemma, I guess the dilemma of all sentient beings who are under the influence of ignorance and afflictive emotions.
This is what is pictured here. I realize this high-tech graphics is leaves something to be desired, but it’s the best we have. So it’s important, I guess, and many of the people who are present have heard me say this again and again ad nauseam probably. But I think it’s quite important that we come back to this notion that it’s not so much what we do, but why we do what we do, which is going to determine the outcome, which is going to very much determine whether our activity, no matter what it may appear on the outside, whatever form it might take, whether it’s simply going to be another activity amongst our array of activities, whether it’s going to act as a as a means to support our problems, extend our problems, our attachment problems, our aversion problems, our pride problems, our jealousy problems, whatever, our ego problems, or whether it’s actually going to be some means of solving our problem. We have to ensure that what we do as a means of solving our problems doesn’t become part of the problem itself, that it in fact acts as a solution is what, you know, what we’re trying to do.
The all the energy and time and effort that we put into trying to develop ourselves and trying to work with our minds. The way that we can be most assured is in terms of our motivation. So it always comes down to that, the quality of our motivation, the purpose, the why behind what is that we do. So this is what we have to do together each each Wednesday, but I guess before every meditation session, before maybe every morning when we get out, when we wake up, even before we get out of bed, beginning to consider the why behind your day, the purpose that you’re going to try to bring about. And, you know, I think I’ll read you a quote.
It’s about something about the Buddha and being awake. It is said that soon after his enlightenment, the Buddha passed the man on the road who was struck by his extraordinary radiance and peacefulness of his presence. The man stopped and asked, my friend, what are you? Are you a celestial being or a god? No, said the Buddha.
Well, then, are you some kind of magician or wizard? Again, the Buddha answered, no. Well, my friend, what are you then? And the Buddha replied, I am awake. So, you know, above all all else, you know, in terms of our priorities in life, you know, in trying to make a make a good life for ourselves.
We you know, we we have to use a great number of number of components which in order to probably to bring about what it is that we want, and these these involve, you know, meaningful relationships with significant other people in our lives, loving, caring, intimate relationships, you know, some of the material goodies of life, comfortable homes, stylish clothes, good food, you know, interesting work, type of work that we can have as healthy sense of pride in doing, working with others. All of these going together in some way or another to to help us to find what it is that we’re looking for and help us to solve our problems and find the good life for ourselves. But amongst these, and I think at certain point we have to feel very deeply, it’s it’s utter necessity, is to make working with our minds directly in terms of the development of our wisdom, our love and compassion, our personal power, and finding ways to express these in our everyday life as a priority in our life. You know, we have to make growth something important, just as we do, you know. We wouldn’t miss a meal almost at any cost, but at in the same way, you know, we we have to you know, humans don’t live by bread alone, but by other qualities.
And these are quite often the qualities that we develop within our own minds in terms of love, in terms of wisdom. So, you know, we have to You know, if we don’t make the effort to to develop ourselves, to to to begin to change our own mind, is, you know, at bottom what Buddhism is about, then we will probably always lead a life very much permeated with dissatisfaction and frustrations and with disappointment. You know, it’s said of the Buddha that he taught two things in in essentially most, suffering and the way to end suffering. And I think that’s where our motivation has to begin with ourselves in terms of the quality of our lived experience. And then beyond all the stories that we’ve been told about our life and that we would like to believe, at some depth of our being, see we see through, we see the falsity of between you know, beneath all the oughts and shoulds and the propaganda, the indoctrination, and beginning just to attend to our lived experience.
I always, you know, I I I was raised in, you know, I guess a great deal of my childhood was spent in the in the in the fifties and sixties. And I’m from the United States, and they had a there was a great dream. You know, the the the Second World War had ended, and there was there was never going to be any more wars, and and that science was undergoing a revolution, as it were, and and that through better, you know, better health through chemistry, you know, that eventually we were going to solve all the ills of humankind in one way or another, and that they were gonna come up with some kind of capsule, and it was going to make us happy, We were going to find contentment, you know, that we everyone bought the story in one way or another. You know, if you if you found the right partner, you went to the right university, found the right job, had the right number of kids, the right number of dogs, drove the right car, you know, that you would you would have the good life. And many many people, sadly enough, tragically enough, but understandably enough, they bought that dream.
They bought that story that was being put out, and they did all the right things. And at some point in their life, if they were fortunate enough before they were too old to do anything about it, They said this isn’t I’ve done all the right things, but I still haven’t found what I wanted. And it’s rather sad, but it’s rather true of ourselves. You know, today is very is a very special day. I was just before, just a few minutes ago, was reading a a verse, and it was a it was a it was around the notion of death.
And the fact that this day is a very special day for ourselves. It’s your day. And we can’t do anything about yesterday. That’s gone. And tomorrow is yet to come.
But this day is a very special day. It’s a day that we can make our life meaningful. We can make it meaningful for both ourselves and others. So, you know, I guess what this what this involves what this involves is is heart searching, isn’t it? Some the the decisive heart searching the beginning of a way in a human being’s life.
It it again and again is the beginning of a human way and beginning to to to ask ourselves in a in a very deep and meaningful way, what is important to me? You know, beneath all our conditioning, our religious conditioning, social, core cultural, all the shoulds and oughts that we’ve been that we’ve taken on. You know, what works in my life? What brings meaning? What sense a sense of connectedness with others, you know, what where is my bliss?
What is sacred for myself? So much of our lives is spent in a longing and search for what we do not know. So many of our ostensible goals, so many of the things we think we want turn out to be the masks behind which our real desires hide. They they are symbols for the actual values and qualities which we hunger. They are not reducible to physical or material things, nor not even to physical person.
They are psychological qualities, love, truth, honesty, loyalty, purpose, something we could feel is noble, precious, and worthy of our devotion. We try to reduce all this to something physical, a house, a car, a better job, or a human being, but it doesn’t work. Without realizing it, we are searching for the sacred, and the sacred is not reducible to anything else. Sacredness is, in a sense, a feeling, but a feeling that goes to the very heart of life. It is the feeling of recognition directed toward what is great and high enough to give our small lives meaning, to put our personal journeys in a greater perspective.
It is the feeling of reverence. What we call the sacred is ultimately a universe of meaning against which we measure our personal efforts, our personal lives, to see whether they too have meaning. So, you know, beneath all of the cultural conditioning, all the social conditioning, all of the indoctrination, all the and beneath all our personal brands of self deception and self ignorance, beginning to question what what it is I’m about, where where what represents the sacred for me. Tell tell me for what you yearn, and I shall tell you who you are. You know, we are what we reach for, the the idealized images that drive our wanderings.
And more or less, we all are wandering one way or another. We are wandering beings, and we have to begin to you know, if we’re going to live our life consciously, if we’re going to live our life with some purpose and deliberately in trying to find what it is that we’re looking for. Begin to crystallize for ourselves to clarify where what it is that I’m searching for. In Buddhism, this this this image which is driving our wanderings, we call a Buddha. You can call it whatever you like.
It’s it’s not so important perhaps. You know, and moreover, there’s a verse which I like to quote. Very much it’s by a seventeenth century Zen monk by the name of Ryokan, who I spent a lot of long nights with in the when I lived in India in the foothills of the Himalayas, passed a lot of lonely nights with him. And he says, Buddha is your mind and the way goes nowhere. Don’t look for anything but this.
If you point your cart north when you want to go south, how will you ever arrive? Buddha is your mind. So, you know, what it is that we’re we are searching for, essentially most, is something of our own mind, something to be found not outside of ourselves, but in terms of our own image of who we can be. And we call that a Buddha. As I said, you know, you might want to call it something else.
It’s not particularly important as long as we begin to direct ourselves towards realization. You know, a Buddha is someone who experiences unremitting peace within and motivated out of great compassion, fearlessly and skillfully works with all living beings to help them to experience the same. When you think about it and when I think about it, I’m I’m awestruck that in terms of I couldn’t think of, you know, if I tried, and I have. I thought to think of something more worthwhile, something more sacred, something of greater value than that. To be to be a human being who is experiencing unremitting peace.
By that, I mean, not just once in a while or, you know, when you stay in your room by yourself, but at all times, at all places, in all situations, you experience unremitting peace within your own mind. And but moreover, you are motivated by compassion, like, an involvement, you know, getting into the nitty gritty of other people’s lives. And you fiercely and moreover skillfully are trying to help them to experience the same that you’re experiencing. Now what more could one want of life? What greater purpose?
What more noble way of leading a life or making finding meaning in one’s life than that? So and this is the focus of Buddhism. Maybe it’s the focus of all of sentient life. It just takes different forms, different according to the religious predispositions or the spiritual inclinations of whatever happens to be available in the environment of different individuals over the courses of history. But whatever, this may be the, you know, the evolutionary goal of sentient life.
Just that. And so to begin to begin to bring this into some kind of into the conscious domain and begin to make it a priority, to begin to work toward that end. You know, maybe we can just call it growth. Okay? We don’t have to be perhaps so idealistic about it.
That growth is a terribly important component of my life. It’s a priority. So each of each of us in our daily life, we begin the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha. You know, this tremendously happy, healthy, loving, sane human being that we all potentially are, that we all eventually will become. And moreover, we have to do something.
Simple, wishful thinking is not quite enough. Sincerity is not sufficient to get us what it is that we want. We have to do some work. We act we actually have to commit ourselves to the actualization of this potential. We have to practice.
We have to go through some training. And that’s what’s represented by the Dharma, the methods, the teachings, the the truth of things, the the ways which which we can actualize our potential, that we can become this Buddha, this this happy, healthy, loving, sane human being. I’m always going on with that. And we this this process occurs within a social context of a spiritual community, a Sangha. Those who you know, we are human beings, and human beings are social beings.
We are inextricably bound up with the world of other. We cannot survive without other. Our meaning in our life is derived from our relationship with other. So it is in dependence upon other that we will realize our own individual goal in terms of what we call a Buddha. So we rely upon others in that respect.
You know, those who assist us in the process, who act as our teachers, as our as our guides, as our inspirations, as resources, material resources, and emotional resources, you know, someone to to cry with or to laugh with, whatever is necessary to help another person, a little bit further along their journey toward realizing their particular goal in their life. And we try to raise the level of our motivation. Understanding that one one aspect of the human dilemma in which we all share, that in spite of all the blood, sweat, and tears that we’ve expended over the course of our life in trying to solve our problems and trying to find happiness, to a large extent, it hasn’t worked. And we have to begin to look at the very context in which our struggle has been occurring. To a large extent, we have been struggling for ourselves alone, and this oftentimes at the expense and exclusion of others.
And it is just this self centeredness, this exaggerated self concern, this complete absorption in our own problems, which more than not is preventing us from finding the happiness that we are all seeking in one way or another. As the Dalai Lama has said, you know, if we’re going to be selfish, let’s at least try to be wisely selfish. And perhaps what he means by this is that the more that we concern ourselves with others, the more that we shift the psychological center of gravity of our life from self to other, the greater reward, the greater happiness we will experience as the byproduct of the efforts to make others happy. So the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha, which we try to actualize by means of the Dharma within the social context of the spiritual community. And we try the best we can in our own stumbling and humble manner to raise the level of our motivation, if only to develop ourselves to grow for the sake of one other person.
And in that way, we can be assured that all of what we do has a outgrowth of that motivation will be a benefit. It will become a source of happiness, both for ourselves and for others. To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the supreme community, I go for refuge until awakening through the creative potential of my listening to the Dharma. May I achieve the state of a Buddha for the sake of all living beings. To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the supreme community, I go for refuge into awakening.
Through the creative potential of my listening to the Dharma, may I achieve the state of a Buddha for the sake of all living beings. To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the supreme community, I go for refuge into awakening. Through the creative potential of my listening to the Dharma, may I achieve the state of a Buddha for the sake of all living beings. Reverently, I pay homage with my body, speech, mind, and present clouds of every type of offering, those actual and imagined. I disclose on my destructive acts accumulated since time without beginning, and rejoice in the skillful actions of holy and ordinary beings.
Please remain until cyclic existence has ended and turn the wheel of Dharma for living beings. I dedicate the skillful actions of myself and others to the great awakening. So we’re going to meditate. I like to I’ve I’m the older students have heard all this a hundred times. I feel like so indulge me.
Okay? I I won’t be around that much longer. So I I I like I like this story for some reason. Yeah. We’re gonna do some meditation.
Okay? And I think it’s quite important that, you know, that we have, again, the right attitude toward our meditation in general, in turn and in addition, the proper motivation. And in talking about attitude, I I I like to I guess I like to read these stories, what it comes down to. So it’s a story of and talking about meditation and the importance of our attitude toward it. You know, we’re here to to help ourselves and maybe even to help others.
But and we all have some wounds. We’re trying to heal ourselves. We have a lot of dysfunctional patterns that we’re trying to intervene, trying to work with. And somehow, you know, there’s nothing inherently beneficial about meditation, even even Buddhist meditation. It it too, like all our activities, is very much dependent upon understanding the the instructions well, having clarified them and applying them correctly, accurate accurately, but also the attitude we bring to to the activity.
Just like everything else, it’s very much dependent upon the mindset in which it occurs. And, you know, a lot of times people overall attitude, overall ways of relating when with themselves are tremendously self oppressive, self subjugating. They’re they’re continually hurting themselves. And, you know, I think it’d be nice if we somehow we could leave all of leave, you know, outside with our shoes many of these dysfunctional patterns. And when we come to meditate, you know, if somehow our meditation becomes incorporated into the problem, then it can never act as the solution.
So and somehow we have to find we need some kind of discipline. That’s for sure. You know, almost anything in life of of any worth requires some degree of discipline. But a a disciplined discipline, you know, we we have to stop hurting ourselves. We are trying to help ourselves, and we have to understand how we are hurt and how to begin to help ourselves.
And we we require some kind of gentle discipline. And in talking about we can’t simply apply these techniques. We can’t simply involve ourselves in meditation unthinkingly, mechanically. It won’t bring about the desired results if we do. Things simply won’t change.
This is a story that’s told by Thich Nhat Hanh. Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese monk who presently lives in France. And, you know, again, just some information that, you know, Buddhism is not monolithic. It’s there’s not one Buddhist. You know, just as there is a great diversity of of types and means of practicing Christianity, the same hold equally holds equally true for Buddhism.
In each of it, countries that it migrated to, it adapted to the local lifestyle, the local customs, the local beliefs, the culture. Though the principles the essential principles remain the same, the way in which it was practiced became became diversified, and the the there developed over time a varieties of of forms of Buddhism and ways of practice. There is a type of Buddhism called the Pure Land Buddhism, which is extremely popular in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Vietnam, formerly in China. And this one of the central figures of Pure Land Buddhism is Buddha Amitābha. And moreover, their way of practice is very devotional in nature.
So this is a a story about a a woman who practices a devotional method of meditation centered on Buddha Amitābha. There is a story I would like to tell you about a woman who practices the invocation of the Buddha Amitābha’s name. She is very tough, and she practices the invocation three times daily using a wooden drum and a bell reciting, Namu Amitābha Buddha, Namu Amitābha Buddha, for one hour each day. When she arrives at one thousand times, she invites the bell to sound. In Vietnamese, we don’t say strike or hit a bell.
Although she has been doing this for ten years, her personality has not changed. She is still quite mean, shouting at people all the time. A friend wanted to teach her a lesson. So one afternoon, when she had just lit the incense, invited the bell to sound three times, and was beginning to recite, Namu Amitābha Buddha, Namu Amitābha Buddha. He came to her door and said, missus Nguyen, missus Nguyen.
She found it very annoying because this was her time of practice. But she just stood at but he just stood at the front gate shouting her name. She said to herself, I have to struggle against my anger, so I will ignore that. And she went on, Namu Amitābha Buddha. Namu Amitābha Buddha.
The gentleman, though, continued to shout her name, and her anger became more and more oppressive. She struggled against it, wondering, should I stop my recitation and go out and give him a piece of my mind? But she continued chanting. She struggled very hard.
Fire mounted in her, but she still tried to chant. Buddha, Buddha. Buddha. The gentleman knew it and they continued to shout, missus Nguyen, missus Nguyen. She couldn’t bear it any longer.
She threw away the bell on the drum. She slammed the door, went out to the gate and said, why? Why do you behave like that? Why do you call my name hundreds of times like that? The gentleman smiled at her and said, I just called your name for ten minutes, and you are so angry.
You have been calling the Buddhist name for ten years. Think how angry he must be by now. The problem is not to do a lot, but to do it correctly. If you do it correctly, you become kinder, nicer, more understanding and loving. When we practice sitting, we should pay attention to the quality and not the quantity.
If we practice only for the quantity, then we are not very different from missus Nguyen. I think she learned her lesson. I think she did better after that. So, you know, maybe there’s some kind of lesson that we can draw from that, you know, that we can’t rely simply on the outward forms or quantity of practice, that we have to very much have some understanding of what we’re trying to do and bring transform the mindset that we bring to the activity to ensure that it brings about the desired changes that we want from it. So I would you like to stand up for a minute, and we’ll stretch, and then we’ll do some meditation?
So our posture is important in the a couple of ways. One, it’s a it will it the mind is dependent upon the body. The the mind and the body are dependently related. And so the quality of our posture will reflect in the quality of our mind. If we if we take a firm purposeful type of posture, this will reflect in the quality of our meditation.
So, you know, we we could describe a great deal about the posture, but it’s not necessary to go into a great deal of detail, except to take a posture where you have a sense of purpose in this, a sense of that you’re going going to be blown over by the wind of the fan, you know, a sense of stability and firmness and purpose. And this will help in developing a firmness and stability of mind in the course of your meditation. You might want to ensure that your back is straight, and by straight I mean, the vertebrae stacked one on top of the other like a stack of coins, one on top of the other. And it may be helpful to slightly bow the neck and to bring the chin in toward the Adam’s apple, not dropping it down toward the chest or raising it up in the air, but just to bring it in causing the neck to slightly bow like a swan’s neck. This might help in developing a proper posture.
So we’re going to begin with simple mindfulness of breathing, and then we’ll do a loving kindness meditation. I’ll lead you in that. So in terms of the breathing meditation, just focusing upon the natural breath, not adjusting the breath in any way, and just trying to focus upon the various physical sensations which arise in association with the natural breathing. So first, let’s just get in touch with the body, noticing any we’re going to be talking about the the ego empire. So this is I’d like to introduce you to the ego empire.
You know, sometimes I I I have a this it’s like this image of I don’t know if you’ve seen some really some of those really bad World War two movies, you know, where they there’s there’s a bombing there there’s what they call the before they they send out the the bombing the the pilots on a a bombing mission, they have a Briefing. Briefing. Oh, yeah. This is a briefing mission. And maybe I’m Clark Gable.
Right? And this this is the target. Anyway, that’s my fantasy. So the the the generally, it’s it’s called the wheel of life. The the so it is a way in especially in in in Buddhist iconography, a way of depicting the the driving force and the mechanism for and the the psychophysical outcomes of of our misguided attempt to secure the self in space and time.
That is to say, the product of ignorance driven or ignorant ignorance governed existence. So that’s what we’re going to be talking about. Find finding some kind of, context, a broader context to see our situation in so that we perhaps aren’t completely caught up in the trees, that we can begin to see the forest. And, you know, that, generally, we we take our suffering piecemeal. You know, we we we kind of try to deal with each wave as it comes crashing down to meet us, trying to ride it out as best we can.
But at some point, we have to begin to consider a way to to rescue ourselves from the very sea of suffering altogether rather than simply trying to ride out each wave as it comes in to meet ourselves. Or suppose a or suppose person a is is does this, does this, noise bother you? Does the No. No. No.
Does the sound of the wind? Is that I can turn down the fan if it does. It’s okay? Or suppose or suppose person a is watching television. So there’s a watching television.
When person b comes into the room and shows evident displeasure displeasure with the situation. Person A thinks he understands the problem and he tries to remedy it by exiting the present system, the television program, and flipping the channel knob, looking for a better show. Person b may have a more radical concept of what it means to exit the system, namely to turn the television off. Of course, there are cases where only a rare individual will have the vision to perceive a system which governs many people’s lives, a system which had never before even been recognized as the system. Then such a person often devotes their lives to convincing others that the system is really there and that it ought to be exited from.
So, you know, the the Buddha was a systems analyst in that regard. You know, he he perceived a system which governs people’s lives, which wasn’t perhaps recognized previous to that time. And he called this system cyclic existence. In Sanskrit, You know, we could say a dysfunctional approach to life in that way. Maybe that’s kind of more meaningful for ourselves.
The reoccurring compulsive patterns of our existence, dissatisfactory existence. And that there is a self reinforcing loop that we keep perpetuating the same situation over and over again. It reinforces itself like there’s a negative feedback system in operation here. And we we keep going through very much the same difficulties, the same problems again and again and again. The the idea of repetition, of cycles, of the going through very much the same quality of experience.
Though, you know, the the externals, maybe the the scenery and the and the people and the costumes might be different, but the plot remains very much the same. So it we are restricted to certain programmed ways of thinking and and communicating and acting. So the Buddha went on to say that that this system, which it calls cyclic existence, this dysfunctional approach to to life, is pathological. And by that, I mean, it’s not so great. It’s it’s pretty bad.
You wanna get down to it. It’s it’s unhealthy. And that it it is unhealthy because it is has conditioned existence, that is the existence conditioned by ignorance, and and moreover the afflictive emotions and karma is marked has three marks. Suffering, impermanence, and selflessness. Therefore, this system ought to be exited from.
You know, just don’t change the knob. Turn to another channel, you know. There’s hardly another program worth watching anyway. I don’t know. It’s very you know?
Most of us compulsively turn to another channel. You know? We turn we there’s there’s we hold out great hope that the next program’s gotta be better than this one. You you sit there mindlessly watching, you know, there’s gotta be something good on you. Eventually, this unfounded hope, this anyway.
We we have this chronic addiction to perpetual entertainment and the hope that the next program just has to be better than than the last one, even though it’s never been the case in the past and it probably may never be the case in the future. So, you know, we turn to another particular version of reality in one way one way or another. Some samsaric occupation. You know, some kind of mental and physical patterns we compulsively assume out of out of a fear of an open and fluid way of relating. So, you know, some people do take matters in their own hands and they move on to higher orders of being within the cycles of existence, in a more refined taste in programming.
Maybe they watch SBS, sometimes ABC maybe, but still there’s the commercials you have to put up with. And even the best programs have to come to an end eventually. You could tape them, but they get boring after a while after you watch them, you know, ten or fifteen times. So only an extremely rare person will become disillusioned with the program altogether, you know, and be moved to to some kind of lasting ultimate solution. They turn the television off, you know, that they exit the system.
So looking at the situation that we’re in, and what the idea is to become disillusioned with it. That’s an interesting notion. There’s a lot of disillusionment that has to be worked through, I think, in in our self development. There’s I can’t sorry. You can’t see any of this, can you?
But there’s a this this is the wheel, the wheel of life. And there’s a hub. This is the, you know, the the central circle within the wheel. The the it’s like the driving force, you know, like like like the channel knob that you actually turn, the the wheel of conditioned existence. At at its hub, the driving force which keeps which keeps this whole thing moving, which keeps it going, are the driving forces of the afflictive emotions of attachment, hatred, and ignorance.
So these these are symbolized by attachment is a cock (rooster), hatred is a snake, and ignorance is symbolized by a pig. So you know, this is what these are the the the the driving force or the the the actual mechanism with by which we keep reenacting, going through these same patterns of thinking and behaving, which keep bringing about pretty much, very much the same outcomes. Attachment is is is the desire to possess objects of sense cognition, you know, which we like, which we find attractive, which which we find agreeable. So we would like to include them in in our own self identity. There’s something attractive out there that we’re drawn to, that we find agreeable, something that is seen that will enhance our self identity or our ego identity.
And we we are drawn to it. We want to incorporate it in in in in the hope of getting a sense of security of having it as a part of ourselves. You know, there there there’s a tendency to to expand one’s territory in an attempt to incorporate whatever it is that gratifies ourselves and enhances our sense of well-being. There’s a few there’s a sense of poverty about ourselves as, you know, as if we’ve seen all that is of a value outside of ourselves, That we in ourselves aren’t aren’t quite enough to be content, to be fulfilled in life, that that there is something missing and that there’s an ensuing struggle to appropriate, to to to make, you know, whether whether it be people or things or or power or status, whatever, a permanent part of ourselves, to a permanent part of our own self identity of who I conceive myself to be. So this is what this this urge to incorporate, to make to include into my self identity, to to expand my territory, to to engulf, to add to my sense of who I am is what we mean by attachment, this desire.
Hatred is is a fearful and angry repulsion, which is this which is the opposite energy. The the the the attempt to get rid of objects of sense cognition which we dislike, which is found disagreeable, which is unattractive to ourselves. You know, we want to exclude it from our self identity to make it a permanent not part of ourselves In the hope of gaining some kind of security by not having it in contact with ourselves, somehow it’s it’s we see it as threatening, as as as taking away from ourselves, as this lowering our value, as detracting from ourselves in some way. There’s a sense of threat. Our territory is being violated in some manner.
Our value is being depreciated. And then there’s an ensuing struggle to permanently exclude the object from ourselves and from our from our self identity. And then finally, the third of what is called the three poisons or the these are the three root afflictive emotions. It’s ignorance. And, you know, we could we’re gonna talk a lot about ignorance.
It plays a central place in our emotional life and in terms of undesirable outcomes in the quality of our life. And moreover, it is it is at the root of all of our problems in terms of suffering. So we can but we can we we can describe it at varying levels. Ignorance in general is like a stubborn close mindedness about learning anything we feel might threaten our self identity. If we the anything that would might