Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this thirteen-minute closing session, Ven Jampa Gendun opens with a vivid scenario: a mind dying in the cold, craving warmth so desperately it is driven — choicelessly — into a hell-realm body seeking heat. He uses this to illuminate the final links of dependent origination: how craving at the moment of death propels consciousness into a rebirth matching what the mind was grasping for, followed immediately by aging and death. He then situates these links within the Wheel of Life, introducing Yama as a reminder that no comfortable niche in saṃsāra lasts, and the Buddha standing outside the wheel as a pointer to the exit. The session closes with a personal plea for consistent, modest daily practice — making removal of ignorance the deepest priority — rather than burning brightly and fading fast.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 OEE 1997 12 26.mp3
UUID: a6835906-f26b-49b0-aa8a-fb5ebd84ae9c
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Our Ego Empire (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1997-12-26
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 12.6 minutes
Words: ~1,836
But its potential has been it has complete potency. You know, what will happen is that that the that, for example, if at the moment of your death, for example this is by way of example. You know, you you’re you’re you’re you’re experiencing great cold great cold, and their desires are their desires arise there arises desire to be separated from that cold, a strong craving to be separated from that cold, from that unpleasant contact of of experiencing the suffering of cold. And you begin to grasp. Begin to grasp for warmth.
I want to be warm. It’s the cold. Make me warm. Make me warm. I want to be hot.
And what it is how how is it that the mind can be satisfied? The mind the the karmic bond between between body and mind is weakening. It’s being broken. The mind is sitting adrift. How can how can and the mind is hallucinating.
It’s it’s it’s seeking warmth. It’s thinking to be it’s seeking to find some kind of means to overcome this unpleasant feeling of coldness. It’s going to require a body to be able to do that, to actualize that that that craving. You know, how can that craving for warmth be be satisfied? How how can it be that, you know, that suffering of cold be alleviated?
It’s going to have to find it’s going to have to find some way of the mind is going to express itself in a manner of achieving that that tension reduction in finding a body which is going to be appropriate to what it is craving. The mind is going to seek out a type of embodiment which is appropriate to alleviating that particular suffering it’s undergoing. It will it could it could appropriate a being of a hell body. That is to say, to experience fire, warmth. It’s craving warmth.
It wants to alleviate the suffering of cold. Therefore, it’s the way it will it will be thrown, it will be impelled to associate with the being the body of a hell being, which is experiencing heat. And it’s the choicelessly, powerlessly, through the process of of craving, grasping, and then finally that that that potential being actualized. So in dependence upon the potential you know, when the when the when the you’ve inserted the the disc in the computer, then the eleventh of the twelve links, which is birth, you actually start running the program, whatever it was. So this is the actual taking of rebirth appropriate to what it was that you were craving, what you were grasping for, which the type of we grab for this particular embodiment.
It’s an expression of some mentality about ourselves. It’s making a statement about who we are and our different thinking and experiences in the past. We’re impelled due to these predisposing tendencies in our body, activated karma. So we this consciousness enters into a particular fertilized ovum of a parent, and the initial connection to the new life is made. And this is this is birth, and this is depicted by the eleventh link of a woman giving birth to a baby.
And then finally, immediately subsequent to birth, the twelfth link the twelfth link of the twelve links of the dependent origination begins. And this is aging and death. So from the moment after conception, for the rest of our life, there is a there is progressive aging. And with the degeneration of old age, the aging of deterioration begins. And finally, there is death, which which is the cessation of the continuum of of of a similar type of mental and physical aggregates.
And this is pictured by an old man carrying a corpse, aging and death. So the in all of this, this whole process is being held within the grasp. This is I’d like to introduce you to Yama. Yama is the lord of death. So this is to indicate, you know, no matter what you know, no matter how comfortable a niche that we may be able to carve out for ourselves within this system, that that that eventually the wheel will turn.
That none of it can be sustained indefinitely and that we’re going to have to move on. And then moving on, we will experience dissatisfaction no matter how satisfactory our present situation may be. And quite often, there is a Buddha standing outside of all of this, standing outside of all of this, and they’re kind of pointing a finger at the wheel. Like, the Buddha where the Buddha was a great pointer. You know, this is is it under there?
You know, this is saying, you know, this is the way this you know, it’s like, you know, after an usher at a movie, you know, with the torch saying, this is the way out. You know, this is the way to exit the system. So this is kind of a hurried presentation of the the wheel of life. I guess, you know, a lot one of the functions is not to unthinkingly dismiss the possibility of other realities, for one, that whatever the mind can imagine can be. And if your imagination is anything like mine, it’s quite terrifying, the possibilities.
And moreover, to begin to have a sense that behind all of these possibilities, even the most terrifying are is ignorance. And to you know, as I mentioned in the very beginning in terms of our motivation, that we have to, in trying to find the good life for ourselves and trying to solve our problems, it’s necessary that we work on various levels. And one level, on a material level, is not simply enough. That we it’s necessary to make use of technology and and world about this and and all you know, getting together all the goodies of life. But and but in addition to to to ensure that we we make working with our minds and and most fundamentally working through our ignorance as a priority.
Otherwise, you know, our our problems will never end. Our suffering will always be there in some form or another. And we we can work at various levels, and we should do that both within material world and within the psychological and the spiritual practice. But even within the spiritual practice, can work at various levels trying to reduce our anger, to reduce our attachment, trying to become a little more patient, a little bit kinder, but even more fundamental than trying to remove ignorance from our minds completely and thereby liberate ourselves from from the ego empire altogether, both for ourselves and for others ultimately. So I’m sorry I kept you so late and so long.
So I’d like to thank everyone for the great patience for sitting through my my long yeah. Sometimes I I wonder if I’m speaking in tongues. I I just kinda I just kinda watch and and listen, and you people have been very kind and and patient over this the the time that I’ve been here, and I’d like to thank you for that and and having I don’t think there’s probably no greater meaning that I it’s possible for my life in terms of having of serving my teacher and having to my my struggle with my translations, but also in talking about these subjects and sharing them with you in this way and trying to even in my own confused way to share some of the thoughts that I’ve been fortunate enough to, you know, have gotten through the teachings that I’ve received, and and maybe, hopefully, they they’ve been of some use to you. I’ll I guess I, you know, just want to to encourage you, you know, just to yeah. I just to, you know, just I think, you know, just when you wake up in the morning, for example, and reviewing what you’re going to be doing over the course of that day, to to to set a motivation that it’s going to be of some use of ultimate use, of greater use in a deeper sense, both to yourself and for others, to make yourself into with that motivation of caring for others and caring for yourself in a deeper fashion than we normally think about ourselves to help us to solve our problems, you know, to to make use of these these fine teachings and and to teachers like Khensur Rinpoche, who who will be returning next year, by all means, to avail yourself of the opportunity and to put into practice, you know, what is being taught.
Merely to know about them is not sufficient. We actually have to integrate them into our consciousness. We have to change ourselves, and I would like to encourage you in that. Even if it’s only a modest practice, that’s that’s something very wonderful. You know, there you know, there’s people that I’ve seen practice over the time that I’ve been in this business, you know, they’re like Roman candles, very bright and beautiful, but they burn out very you know, just as quickly.
And I think a consistent practice day in and day out is what will make a tremendous contribution to to changing your own life and being a benefit to others. And I just being a bit modest in how we go about it, but being consistent. Even in a just a few minutes every day, perhaps a meditation and taking up some of these various subjects and working on your motivation as a that what we do is for the benefit of not only ourselves but for others. And I think we can make a cont positive contribution to our not only our own welfare, but to to the world about us. You know, the world the world needs us to to do what we’re doing.
We it’s there’s a lot of suffering in the world and a lot of confusion, and we have to and even if only in a modest modest way, add some clarity and some peace to the world in our way. And I think it’s significant. I don’t think we should underestimate the contribution that we do make even in our immediate environment, but ultimately to have maybe a better world in general. So we can we can dedicate the the positive potential that we’ve accumulated together in. In the land encircled by snow mountains, you are the source of all happiness and well-being.
Powerful 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 the supreme jewel of the awakened heart that has not arisen arise and grow, and may that which has arisen never diminish, but increase more and more. Thank you very much. If you like to stay and have a cup of tea, we’ll have a discussion.
Otherwise, have a good life.