Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 40-minute talk, Ven Jampa Gendun traces how a single mental distortion — ignorance — functions as the architect of what he calls the ego empire. He distinguishes two levels of ignorance, dwelling on the deeper one: the mind’s compulsion to see self as a solid, isolated entity and to mistake its own mental models for objective reality. From there he demonstrates the internal logic — given that premise, attachment toward a glowing dress in a shop window and aversion toward the unwanted make perfect sense; there is only one flaw. He then explains karma as actions leaving latent impressions on consciousness, uses a seed analogy for how those impressions ripen, and introduces propelling karma at the moment of death before briefly surveying the six realms of cyclic existence.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 OEE 1997 11 26.mp3
UUID: 9c90d2d6-b254-42a5-b9e1-c820e87f27a4
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Our Ego Empire (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1997-11-26
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 40.4 minutes
Words: ~5,800
The security that we get from our particular self identity that we presume, some fixed unchanging identity that we’re trying to struggle to hold on to, to perpetuate, that we want that there’s a sense that we need to protect. It’s it’s an unknowingness with regard to to it has we can talk about ignorance at two levels, basically. One is an unknowingness, an unknowing with regard to the relationship between actions and their effects, actions meaning karma, and we’ll talk more about karma. So a a lack of knowledge with regard to actions as causes and the types of results that they bring, that lack of understanding in the nature of their relationship between actions as causes and their effect as experience. And but but at even more basic level, there it is the basic distortion of mind misconceiving the nature of ourselves and the nature of all phenomena about us.
And we’re going to mainly talk about this in terms of ourselves. We’re going to simplify it to some degree, but it it it extends to all phenomena whatsoever, this misknowing, misconceiving. Ignorance is simply not just not knowing, like I don’t know what’s on the other side of that wall at the moment. There might be someone out in the hall. I don’t know that.
I’m ignorant of that fact. Ignorance is more active in that respect. It’s a it’s an active misknowing, an active distorting pattern of mind, which is which misconceives the nature of ourselves, which sees ourselves as a solid, isolated entity, the I. And at its deepest level, it is that this I and the things about this, this table, this building inherently exists. And moreover, it it acts as an obscuring.
It acts to obscure the realization of their actual nature, that in fact things do not inherently exist, that in fact there is no isolated solid concrete entity I. So it’s through this distorting influence, ignorance, that both attachment and hatred arise. That’s why it’s the root. There is an internal logic to ignorance. Ignorance is not stupid in that way.
Given given the given ignorance that things inherently exist, there is an there is a an isolated concrete entity, I. Given that as as as as a working basis, then attachment and aversion make great deal of sense. You know, if things were inherently blissful by their very nature, which they appear that way to ourselves. And then when you see something desirable, there’s no sense that it is it is the mind making it so, that there’s no sense that my mind is in involved in the con in conceiving it as being desirable. You know, there’s a it’s it’s there’s, you know, the notion that goodness that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.
That’s not emotionally, we react, we relate with the with the things and the people and situations about us as if their desirability or the repulsiveness was an intrinsic characteristic of them. If that is in fact the case, if they existed the way they appeared, then it makes a great deal of sense to to gather together as many of those desirable things, people, whatever, and, you know, keep them around. You know, you you know, you could keep a you could have a whole stash full of bliss balls, you know, and whenever you got bored, could just take them out and take a hit of bliss because that’s their nature. They would have somehow overpower your mind, overpower the boredom or the dissatisfactory state of your mind and bring you bliss. That’s that’s in their very nature.
But we know that’s not true. It’s you know, the the mind is in its own place and its way. It can make a heaven of hell, hell of heaven. You It is the mind which makes it so. So but it appears otherwise.
So but in in the in from the point of view of ignorance, which there is an isolated entity of me over here, and there is unrel unrelated other over there, and somehow there are these desirable others and undesirable others. I if I can only juxtapose if I can only juxtapose my world about me, arrange it in such a fashion that I’ve gotten rid of all the undesirable others, and I’ve drawn close to me, and I’m holding on tight to all that those desirable others, then I should be eternally happy. That’s the thinking behind all of this. This is what this is the thinking behind me, which creates all of this. It makes sense in that way.
There’s only one basic flaw. Things don’t exist the way they appear, at least the way they appear to ignorance. When we reflect on our own desire and hatred, we see that they are generated with the conception of ourselves as very solid, due to which there comes a strong distinction between oneself and others, and consequently, attachment for one’s own side and hatred for others. Attitudes of desire and hatred have an exaggerated thought of I as their basis. So, you know, the We develop ideas about the world.
We have we we relate with the world in terms of the models that we build about it. Representations, that’s the way we think about it. These representations, these models, these ideas, these images that we make use of in thinking about the world often become more real than the world itself. They’re they’re more vivid, they’re more solid, more stable than the things out there. So we begin to relate with our ideas about the world very much more than we relate with what these stand for.
So, moreover, we begin to hold that these these models are the things themselves. We begin you know, there’s a popular it’s not very popular, actually. Guess it depends on who you hang out with. The map is not the territory. We begin to take the map as the territory, and we we and we we cut off.
We we we not only see the map, we begin to relate with the map as if it were the territory, but we no longer even understand that we are creating the map in the first these ideals and these images. They we we cut them off from ourselves, and and they begin to appear as if they existed out there. We’re not simply very much a product of our own ways of thinking, ways of language, our ways of conceiving them as such. As the physicist David Bohm says, since our thought is pervaded with differences and distinctions, it follows that such a habit leads to us to look upon these as real divisions so that the world is then seen and experienced as actually broken up into fragments. You know, that we our thinking is quite linear, you know, that we have a series of thoughts.
One word follows another, with follows another, and we be we have a sense that this is a reflection of how the world is. So we begin to we begin to see the world as broken up into isolated fragments, unrelated to one another. I I, you know, there is a there is an un there’s unrelated otherness about me and the world out there, and amongst all the things out out there. We draw these big black lines around around ourselves and everything. And it’s it’s the very nature of our this under the influence of ignorance, of of this ignorance driven thinking process, the world appears to us to be broken up into isolated concrete chunks of things out there.
That’s the way it appears to us, to exist independent of ourselves, our thinking, our attitudes, our beliefs, models about the world. And and it the things appear to have an intrinsic identity, to have by that they exist by way of their own very nature, that their desirable qualities or their undesirable qualities are are are in the very nature of the things themselves, the people themselves. And you walk down the street and you see in in in the city and you see a nice dress or you see a nice suit, and somehow it’s it’s, you know, it’s it’s kinda glowing, you know. It’s it’s kinda saying, come take me. I bling I’ll bring you bliss, you know, and and and you kinda magnetize.
You go into a trance. If only, you know, I could be associated with that that blissful intrinsic quality of that thing, then somehow it would it would somehow rub off on me. It would become part of my self identity. I could experience that bliss if only I owned it, if only it were mine. You know, the fashion industry spend spends billions of dollars convincing you of this fact every year, and it works to some degree, you know, for once for a while at least.
You know, you feel good when you get all dressed up in the latest fashion. Are you driving the right car or whatever? You know, there’s some association between that intrinsic beauty or a blissful blissful quality or the status or the value giving quality of these things, and it rubs off on you. You’re able to associate it with your self identity, and it makes you feel happy for a while at least. So we are we this is the way the world appears to us, and moreover we agree with appearance.
We we say what we accede to that experience that appearance. The the world appears to exist in that way, and ignorance says, yeah, yeah, and I agree. That’s the way it really exists. Not only does it appear, but ignorance says, and I go along with that. It agrees with that.
So out of this, all of the various dysfunctional patterns of mind arise. All of them. Not just some of them. All of them. And we can you know, Buddhism subsumes them in into, you know, what we call the afflictive emotions, such as desire, hatred, spite, jealousy, miserliness, you know, a set of eighty four thousand.
But they all have it at its roots. So we can probably sit around and count them tonight. Have it at your root, ignorance, this this misconception with regard to the nature of the eye, the self. So out of this, this this first acceding to this appearance as as as things being self defining, as being having intrinsic properties, not that my mind is creating them as such, and we’ll talk more about that. But and then to grasping onto that’s the way they exist.
That’s that’s that’s the function of ignorance. It says that’s the way they appear, and I’m going to grasp to that appearance as true. Out of that, the very afflictive emotions naturally follow. If that’s the case, then attachment will naturally arise toward attractive, toward those qualities which appear to be desirable, intrinsic to that. In terms of undesirable qualities intrinsic to an object, we will develop repulsion.
We’ll push away that which was unattractive, we’ll draw towards that which appears to be attractive. That makes sense in that way. So all of the various dysfunctional patterns of mind begin to arise, and we this sets into motion and precipitates action. You know, the motion the the we have an emotional life, and it begins to act as a motivating force for us to to speak and to act in certain ways, which and this is karma. karma simply means action.
So we begin to involve ourselves in actions, creating creation of karma. And moreover, these these actions leave a residue upon the consciousness, Not only and we’ll talk more about this. This is just kind of giving a brief overview. Now the actions simply don’t end there. There’s some kind of conditioning factor which is left on the consciousness, a residue, a track.
That is to say, this is what we mean by karmic formations, some kind of a predisposing tendency of mind, and this will bring about certain results. You know, the world outside of ourselves, outside of the continuum of living beings, operates in terms of the law of cause and effect. You know, if you plant a seed and you you water it and you supply it with enough soil and nutrients and everything, it grows, and and as it grows, it it branches and leaves develop, and as the seasons change, the leaves fall and they grow again. So all of this natural progression of the world outside of ourselves. There is another operation in that same way, which is internal to living beings.
When when this law of cause and effect is internal to living beings, it’s referred to as karma. karma as actions and the results, That that our actions simply don’t stop with once the once the the act is finished, but there’s some kind of residue, a karmic latency is left upon the consciousness. When this latency, just like a seed, comes in contact with proper cooperative conditions, it will be activated, and we will undergo an experience of pleasure or pain as the agents who created that previous action. So all of our if we if we if we begin to trace it in this way, we can see that all of our experiences are evolving, have their evolution in terms of ignorance. Only by removing ignorance from the mind can we ever find peace.
That, you know, we can all of our experiences are are being conditioned by this misconception of ignorance, that we all of we we will continually experience one degree of suffering or another rather than peace, that we will continually experience ourselves as possessing one limited and limiting identity or another rather than the open ended potential of a Buddha until we remove ignorance. So the this is this is at the very hub of our existence, this root influence of ignorance. For the vast majority of us, it is ignorance as opposed to wisdom which is the shaper of our lives, which is the influence of our lives, and therefore of our fate, our destinies, who and what we are and who we will become, and the very world which we inhabit. So ignorance is the prime instigator in the perpetual struggle we call conditioned existence. It is the it’s ignorance is the architect of the ego empire.
It’s the, you know, it’s like it’s the it’s the insurance policy against non being. Attachment make attachment and hatred make sense in the the context of ignorance. This is at the hub. This is what keeps this is what empowers this whole process. This is what keeps driving it.
Most basically, ignorance governed existence, and this is its outcomes. At at the second, there’s outside of the hub, there’s a second concentric circle. So this is a it’s part part of it is in the dark, part of it is in the light. That doesn’t help you much, does it? The it it this second concentric circle depicts beings moving out of the world and into into another state according to the karma, what I just mentioned.
That is to say, karma as actions. karma can refer not only to action itself, like my lifting up this glass is an action. I’m creating a karma, but also it can refer to the linkage between the action and its eventual experience, that which connects, that which relates the action to its result. More properly, perhaps, termed karmic seed or karmic latency, but sometimes can simply be referred to as karma. So these beings are moving from from one realm of existence into another in accordance with their karma, in accordance with the predispositions, the tendencies, these latencies which have been implanted in their minds due to their previous actions.
So the the worlds are, you know, we we have to begin to break down our sense of thingness about the world, that things are more of a process than they are, you know, we can think of them more in terms of frozen projections, you know, expressions of tendencies to organize and relate with reality in particular fixed modes. The these modes or the these these these realities which we fixate upon can be can are primarily, for for example, from the from the primarily physical sufferings of the hell beings up to the blissful absorptions of of the gods, and we’ll we’ll talk about those, those various levels. So the meaning of karma is action, mental, verbal, and physical activity, work. So our our our actions set act as causes, which initiate which initiate a series of reactions, and the final effect is that we ourselves, as agents of those actions, will experience some kind of experience as a result. karma is concerned with the relationship between actions as causes and their results.
So, you know, broadly, if we talk about karma in a very broad sense, it means that all the all all you know, we we are being shaped constantly. We aren’t a solid thing, a a a entity. We we are you know, it’s like I know in this takes me back to when in the seven in the early seventies, late sixties in in California, they used to this is when before LSD was outlawed. They used to have LSD parties, and they used to they used to get some Kool Aid, and they used to put some LSD and acid in it. And these people used to dress up in all kinds of wild costumes and paint themselves and get music and all kinds of props.
And these these they have a happening. You know, you you get together all these conditions, and there would be this happening. We are like a happening, you know. We are like a blip when all of these specific causes, conditions come together, then something happens. The the happening I call I.
That’s a happening. It’s not a static thing. It’s not a fixed object. It’s it’s more of a process coming into existence, and as long as those those causes and conditions continue to aggregate, this happening will continue. So it’s in that regard in that regard.
So what is it that’s what are those all those causes and conditions? What’s shaping this happening? What’s what’s what’s bringing into existence? Forming it, influencing it. That’s karma.
All the activities of shaping that form the being, and the internal conditioning factors which which make us who we are and what we are and what we experience, All the, for example, the the include the latencies of our past actions, but also genetic coding, life in the womb, parental and social and cultural conditioning. The sum total of all the interactive forces upon ourselves. That it’s like that is what’s shaping ourselves. It’s causing this particular happening at this particular moment in this particular form. So if we talk about action more specifically, there there are two type you know, karma can be described in numerous ways.
It’s you know, if you’re you know, if you you like to go into detail, if you’re interested in corporate law or something like that, then you like karma. It’s it’s it’s got all these technicalities about it. But in general, there is karma karma is action of intention and intended action. Action of intention and intended action. So action of intention is is the mental urge toward a or a tendency to think in a particular way, to focus upon a particular object.
It’s a directionality of the mind. Now why do I direct my mind to that object and not to that object? You know, with with all the vying stimulus about me in terms of objects of sight, the objects of hearing, objects of touch? All all of these are are are possible potential objects for my awareness. There are certain objects which are picked out, which are focused upon.
Others are are excluded from consciousness, are ignored. Why this object and not that object? This is the is the product of the action of attention, the urge to think in a particular to to focus and to think upon certain ways, which sets into train certain ways of thinking, certain emotions, certain feelings, consciousnesses, and these in turn motivate us to speak and to physically act out in simple and complex ways. These these acting out in simple and complex ways through through verbal and physical action is what we mean by intended actions. So when an action ceases, it it it deposits a predisposing latency upon the consciousness.
So the and it is the continuation the continuum of consciousness carries this latency to the time of its fruition, to the time when it’s activated, when when it matures and some kind of experience is undergone. So karma not only refers to the the action itself, but also to these latencies which are left, these traces, these residues which are left upon the consciousness. Our consciousness are not simply blank slates, pure consciousnesses, but are conditioned by all of our various past actions. We, as it were, carry our entire evolutionary history decoded. You know, just like, you know, something almost almost, you know, if in in order to way way to get some handle on it, begin to think about it, just like a DNA molecule or something like that, you know, that’s what we mean by there’s some kind of potency which is left by our actions, and by potency there’s some kind of power, and this power is in a sense information.
You know, you know, a seed is what we mean by a seed is that we say a seed has a certain potency. And what is that potency? It has a it has genetic material. It has a certain information in the way that certain molecules are arranged. When you when when that seed is placed in the Earth and watered, it begin it that information begins to is is activated.
That is to say, it begins to relate with its environment in a very specific manner. It begins to draw certain molecules outside draw draw molecules out of its environment and leave others aside and begins to take those molecules, those organic molecules, and begins to arrange them in a very predetermined structure. That is it begins to grow. So likewise, with these predisposing tendencies, these latencies within the mind, there’s some kind of residual information which is left upon our consciousness. When it meets with appropriate activating conditions, it too begins to react in very predictable fashions.
So, you know, it begins to it organizes our experience. It it interprets organ you know, there’s a notion that’s very central to Buddhism, that knowing is an organizing into the known. You know, that sounds pretty difficult to I don’t even understand what it means, really. Organizing knowing is an organizing into the known, that things simply do not exist out there, out independent of our thoughts, our ideas, our beliefs about them. What is what is it that’s organizing our reality for us?
That we we we take for granted that we have a shared reality, but that that that reality doesn’t exist independent of our own minds. That we we we partake of a common reality because we part we have common karma. We have the we we have a commonality in how we are interpreting the data about us, the world about us, and we are creating a common world for ourselves due to these predisposing tendencies within our own mind. How we how we we interpret, perceive, and organize our reality, how we come to know. The very act of knowing is an organizing process of the mind.
It’s not that things aren’t something out there, as it were, casting themselves upon our mind, forcing us to know them as they are from from their own side. But we are in we is it is it is a we are in we are co we are in process of co creating the world. It is it is a participatory universe, very much so. And what are the and what are how what are the rules which we govern, the way in which we organize a reality? There’s a karma.
You know, we we we simply can’t say, you know, we can’t call anything anything. We can’t say that this is that this is a god realm when it’s not, that that we have there are certain rules which of interpretation which necessarily are followed, and this is these rules are governed by our karma, this information which is encoded upon our consciousness. So on our at our death, there are there are two alternative directions that our minds can take, either toward a state experienced as predominantly pleasurable or a state which is experienced predominantly as unpleasurable, as suffering. Which it will be is determined by the type of karma activated at the moment of our death. Another another division of karma is into propelling karma and completing karma.
At the moment of our death, you know, our our our we have all of this information stored within our consciousness. There are these various karmic seeds. At at the time of our death, one of these will be activated. This will throw us. This is the way it gets the the name propel.
It will throw us just like a leaf being broke blown in the wind uncontrollably into a particular type of rebirth. That’s why the the moment of death is extremely important. It’s a it’s a it plays a it’s a very important moment in the in in in determining the quality of our next rebirth. Which of these karmic predispositions becomes activated? It is will to some degree be determined by, you know, our environment, the situation we find ourselves in, the predisposing tendencies of our own mind at that time, at the moment of our death.
We will be thrown, and that’s what’s occurring to these individuals at the moment of death. Just like a leaf being blown in the wind, that due to an activation of a propelling karma, they are going to move on to another state of existence. You know, this the karma which supported, which maintained this particular frozen projection has been exhausted. It can no longer maintain that existence, and now another karma begins to ripen, and the winds of karma begin to blow, and we move on to another realm of existence. Maybe Are you okay?
The net what next, what comes next, the next concentric circle, it begins to depict the actual realms of possible existences. This is the third concentric circle. You know, there there are maybe I’ll just introduce it, and then I’ll stop. I know it’s it’s been quite it’s been quite a long time, and it’s also it’s warm. Six realms of existence.
There are there are according to Buddhist cosmology, that is to say, how how they structure the universe, there are its cyclic existence is constituted of three realms, what is called the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm. Desire realm, form realm, and formless realm. The form and the formless realm are attained through what is called non fluctuating karma. Non fluctuating karma. This but non fluctuating karma is only created through meditation, through meditative absorptions.
So these form and formless realm are characterized by by more and more subtle states of peace. But because the karmic tendency which maintains these states will eventually be exhausted, they are not ultimately satisfactory. They are only temporarily paused in in the suffering nature of cyclic existence. They are not ultimately the ultimate goal of Buddhism since they can cannot be sustained. But they are characterized by more and more subtle states of peace.
Now, we exist within the desire realm, and this is what this is being is being depicted here. The desire realm is has six levels. The level of the gods, and by gods, I mean celestial beings. I’m going to describe each of these levels. The level of the gods, the level of the demigods, the level of the humans, that’s where we live, the level of animals, hungry ghosts, and finally, hell beings.
So these are our actual worlds. I know you don’t believe in them, but what can I say? We’ve all been born in them many, many times, and we’re we’re probably going to be born in them many, many more times. It is, you know, you know, as I just mentioned, one of the that knowing is an organizing into the known, that that there is simply no solid concrete objective reality out there apart from our own minds. This is central this is central notion to all of Buddhism.
Whatever can be imagined can be. The the the the these realms of existence are just as real or just as illusory, if you like, as the world in which we presently are so accustomed to, in which we take its reality so much for existence, that we take so much for granted. You know, the the no matter the one of the great masters of Indian Buddhism by the name of Śāntideva in one of the most important texts in all of the universal vehicle Buddhism, the Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life said, who who intentionally forged the weapons in hell? Who constructed the burning iron floors? The Buddha taught that all such things arise from an evil mind.
So no matter how how real a hellish state may seem to those undergoing it, it comes about solely on account of the self destructive elements within their minds. So, you know, the Buddha said the Buddha taught that that the three realms, these three realms, desire realm, form realm, and formless realm, are merely mind. That is to say that everything is a product of karma, it is our minds which create karma. Therefore, you know, these these realms, these levels, though conventionally real and existent, they can also be thought of in terms of psychological states or metaphoric expressions of our habitual attitudes toward ourselves, toward our surroundings, like frozen projections. You know, the the the we are maybe I’ll stop there.
Yeah. We are involved in it’s a participatory universe. We we are in we are involved in world making. There are certain rules which we follow in this process of creating our ourselves and the world in which which we inhabit. Those rule those rules are are the shared rules which by means of which we bring into a common realm realm of existence.
These rules are products are determined by these encoded information, the residues of our past actions. What we come to know, the world in which we exist, and all that we experience is a product of who we have been and what we have done. So, you know, the and I’m just I’m coming to a conclusion here, believe it or not. The point is that we, in this process, we we can begin to we are not victims, that we can begin to take control. Why?
Because we can exercise choice in terms of our actions, and thereby the quality of experiences that we will eventually come to know, the world that we will come to live within. What we will what constitutes our life is very much in our hands. So I’m going to stop there. We’ll do at the next week is a we’re gonna have a break. It’s gonna be the movie next week, seven years in Tibet.
There’s gonna be the you didn’t Tony, did you announce that there’ll be the ceremony, this candlelight vigil? Oh, it’s still there. Maybe they could participate. You wanna mention that? Thank you.
So, you know, having I said that a that a a perfect action has has three components. The action, the motivation, the the activity itself, and then the conclusion. The include conclusion is a matter of dedication, trying to dedicate, giving that some kind of we’ve created some positive energy together, some creative potential, merit, and we can give that some kind of direction. And to that end, I’d like to just read a paragraph by it was by Lama Yeshe who was mentioned to Sangye Khadro who we’ll be talking about on Sunday at the umbrella club lunch. He he was a tremendous force in many people’s lives.
I’m very happy that he, you know, he’s sort of played a a great influence in my own thinking. I hope he’s happy with that. Lama Yeshe. Dedication is very important too. It’s not just unnecessary ritual words.
The meaning of dedication is that your meditation is not just for your own ego pleasure. You’re dedicating it for other beings. That way, don’t become proud. Often philosophically religious people are proud. Religion and philosophy can become equipment to produce more problems.
So in Buddhism that is the reason for practicing dedication, very very useful. It’s not just ritual. Buddhism teaches you complete liberation, how to completely how to completely free the mind from any problems of worldly existence. If you have a problem of attachment to Buddhism or to Buddha, you are still deluded. You aren’t free.
Buddhism tells you that you shouldn’t be attached to your own religion, to your own body, to your own nose. Simple, isn’t it? So dedication is very useful. Normally, we do dedicate our life, but in a limited way. Our goal is limited.
That’s why in this dedication, we dedicated all the merit of our meditation to benefit other sentient beings in order to discover enlightenment. So the purpose sentient purpose of our meditation is not only for getting chocolate, not only for getting cake, our goal lies beyond that. That way it becomes the transcendental attitude. Okay? Thank you very much.
Good night. So, you know, if you’d we can dedicate together. In the land encircled by the snow mountains, you are the source of all happiness and well-being, Powerful Chenrezig, Tenzin Gyatso, please remain until the end of cyclic existence. May I quickly become an awakened spiritual master and lead each and every living being to that awakened realm through these skillful actions. May this supreme jewel of the awakened heart that has not arisen arise and grow, that may that which has arisen never diminish, but increase more and more.
Thank you very much. So there there so there would there’ll be nothing next week, and there’ll be one more. So