Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 44-minute public talk, Ven Jampa Gendun opens with a striking image: afflictions like desire and hatred are not part of the mind itself but are like pollutants in a river, temporary obscurations over something fundamentally pure. Building on that, he maps the entire Buddhist path in plain terms: appreciating the rare conditions that allow inner development, illustrated with vivid 1988 examples — Ethiopia’s famine, the Iran-Iraq war, Northern Ireland; the uncertainty of death and the fragility of the body; karma as straightforward cause and effect, explained through a car ignition and a cake recipe; the dissatisfaction inherent in any ego-bound state; self-cherishing as the root of suffering; and the wisdom of selflessness leading toward enlightenment. The tone is warm and non-proselytizing, closing with an invitation to question any spiritual path, Buddhist or otherwise. Suitable for newcomers with no prior Buddhist background.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 1988 03 13 A Matter of Balance.mp3
UUID: f3a79599-68d8-42d4-aa8c-131e08aa3b87
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Public talks 1988-2010 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1988-03-13
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 43.6 minutes
Words: ~5,915
Temporarily polluted by various afflictive emotions. By afflictive emotions, mean things like desire, hatred, jealousy, ignorance, spite, whatever. These are not an inherent part of the mind. They’re not a characteristic of the mind itself. It’s like a pollutant, like pollutants in a river, like an obscuration, a covering over the mind.
They are not part of ourselves. Our mind by its very nature is pure. Within this purity there is room for any development in any direction, positive and negative. This is in many ways our Buddha potential, our basic sanity. We have the potential to change, to become anything we want to be.
This is the reality of the situation. This is not a mistaken belief. The mistaken belief is I’m bad, I’m terrible, I’m stupid. That is a misconception. It’s a wrong belief.
It’s not based on facts. It’s based on misconception. The fact is the mind is pure, that it has infinite potential. It can change in any direction. That’s the situation.
So this is constantly trying to overcome wrong conceptions, wrong beliefs, wrong ideas, wrong core conceptions, core assumptions, and develop wisdoms, knowledge, the way things actually are. This is how we follow the path. This is what it means to follow the path, to develop these understandings, to evolve the mind beyond misconception to knowledge. In this way, we begin at the basis. I want to change.
I see the necessity. If I really want to find fulfillment and happiness, I’ve got to develop some skillful inner methods to change my mind. My mind, my attitudes, my beliefs are the basis of my reality. Through my mind, I’m going to find the happiness that I’m looking for. Through my mind presently, I’m experiencing dissatisfaction, discontentment, frustration.
Therefore, the mind is the key. The mind is said to be the creator of reality, creator of all things. This mind is in its nature pure. I can change it. It basically can be directed on any direction that I wish.
Now I just need to employ the methods. I have to learn the methods and make the effort. And the Buddha said, We are our own masters. Who else can be your master? If you’re not your own master, then no one else will ever be.
It’s very much up to us. You know, if you make the effort, then you can be helped. If you don’t make effort, no one can help you and you can help no one else. It’s very much up to you. So you have a basis, a working basis to change your life.
You have a mind. Everyone in this room has a mind, which by its very nature is pure. Now we begin to appreciate the fact of this. Not only that, we begin to think, I have this mind. You’re right.
Okay, I have this pure mind. But look, I got a kid, I got I’ve a job, not so smart. I don’t have enough money. So we’re going to begin to see that we don’t have all the necessary conditions or circumstances in order to develop our mind. We don’t appreciate the very fact that we do.
We don’t appreciate who we are, that we’re very special people. You know, when look around you in the world, look what’s happening in the world. At the way the vast majority of the people have to pass their lives, either by choice or by circumstance. Look at the people, the millions of people in Ethiopia starving. You know, a mother whose baby is dying.
She’s dying of starvation. What opportunity, what chance does she have to realize that potential of her mind, to perhaps study, to perhaps attend talks, to perhaps do retreats, meditate, contemplate, develop love, develop compassion? When you’re in pain and you see your children and your family dying, do you have the freedom, do you have the opportunity to follow a path, to spend as we are tonight thinking about these ideas of the spiritual path? No opportunity. There’s no freedom.
How about someone in Iran and Iraq killing each other with hatred in their heart or with the threat of being killed by someone else? What else? What’s going on in Ireland? Insanity. People committing inhuman acts against one another with hatred, against religious hatred.
What chances are there to foster love and compassion, feelings of equality? I’m a Catholic. I’m sure this Protestant wants happiness and doesn’t want to suffer just like myself. Probably the mind couldn’t even begin to consider that. All the strife, all the humor, pain, wars going on in the world, How about the freedom?
The freedom to gather here, to listen to a talk, the freedom to read any book that you want, the freedom to discuss ideas about religion openly, to do retreat. Many countries in the world, they don’t have this freedom. The entire population could not meet as we’re meeting here tonight within entire populations of countries. How about people who are undergoing mental or acute suffering, chronic illness, drug addicts, alcoholics, people undergoing chemical therapy which dulls the mind, people undergoing, having to take medications. We’re beginning to eliminate vast majority of the population.
We’re getting getting more and more to appreciate ourselves. Even the average person on the street who takes no thought of his inner life, out of touch with what’s going on in his own mind, within his own feelings, Never even stopping to consider, is there some alternative to the way I’m conducting my life? Mentally retarded, neurotics, psychotics. We can begin to appreciate that we’re very special people, not in a sense that we have any source. It should be a source of pride.
Pride is mixed with exaggeration, puffed up feeling. There’s no question of that. It’s in the sense that we’re special because this is the statistical fact within, you know, on earth, in the world. There are very few people who have the opportunity, who have the inclination, the tendency that you do. You’re intelligent.
You have health. You can meet your material needs quite easily, even working less than forty hours a week. Half the population of India, if they don’t work that day, twelve hours, they don’t eat that day. You’re not in that position. You have some kindness, some interest.
It’s very rare that you have all these material psychological conditions come together. Sometimes the Tibetans use the analogy of seeing a star during the daytime. They consider it very precious. They call it precious human rebirth, which you all have right now. Each of you have the potential to take your life in your hands, to become anything that you want to be, to find the meaning, to find fulfillment.
You not only have the potential, but you have the circumstances, the conditions, the fortune, which is very rare in the world. So we have to begin to appreciate our potential, but even over and above that, appreciate that we have the opportunity to change, to find the happiness that we want. This happiness, this chance isn’t going to last forever, another fact. It’s definite that we’re going to die. Okay.
Another misconception, another wrong belief that we act on is as if we’re never going to die, as if we’re immortal. You know, I think if I ask each of you, you would say, Yeah, yeah, I’m going to die. But you don’t act that way. You act as if you’re going to live forever. And moreover and above that, if I said to you, It’s uncertain when you’re going to die.
We simply don’t know. We could die tomorrow. There’s insurance companies which will give you some odds and they’ll take out a policy on that. It’s possible you could die tomorrow. But we have the inner belief, the wrong conception, Okay, I’m going to die, but it’s going to be some time in the vague and distant future.
That’s the way we feel. That’s when we base our life on that. We don’t have to do anything now. Okay, I’ll start practicing. I’ll start working and developing my mind sometime in the future when the kids grown or when I’m retired maybe.
I’ve more time. I’ve got plenty of time. You have this basic feeling. It’s not a rational belief. It’s an irrational belief that we’re going to live forever or we’re going to die in some distant future time.
But in fact, we could die anytime. The time of our death is uncertain. When your babies die, seven year olds, twelve year olds, fifteen years old, let’s see, twenty one, twenty six, twenty nine, thirty two, thirty seven, forty one, forty three, forty five. Anyway, I’m sure I’m fairly near everyone again. That’s a fact, isn’t it?
Have almost beyond conception for us to believe that we could die tomorrow. This realization is extremely difficult, that it’s possible. I could be dead, I could go to sleep and not wake up. You know, how far away from death? You take in a breath, you don’t breathe out, you’re finished.
It’s just one breath away. It doesn’t take much to die. You know, you look at our bodies, you know, look at a car, all that metal. Sometimes I think people shouldn’t ride around in cars, especially when you see after an accident, you see the car all twisted up, all these sharp edges and glass sticking out here and there. And then you look at your nice, soft skin, which you take such nice care of, and you realize just a sliver of glass could end your life and it’s finished.
That actually we’re quite fragile, a simple blow on the head, a little bubble in your bloodstream and you’re finished. It doesn’t take much. So we have this tendency to think that somehow we’re going to overcome. We’re stronger than death. This is an irrational belief.
This is what we base most of our life upon. We have to consider these problems now, that sometime in the future we can take care of them. And this brings up a problem. Okay, I’m going to die. I don’t know when.
The problem of karma. karma simply means action, Cause and effect. You know, just as we have faith or confidence in the cause and effect of external objects, you know, you put your key in the ignition, you turn the key, it closes the switch and the current flows and that turns the starter motor and that turns the flywheel and that turns the crank shaft and that turns the pistons go up and down. And the spark plugs spark. And it’s a long series of causes and effects.
You don’t even think twice about it. Or you get a cake pan, you put flour, water, baking soda, salt, and an egg, chocolate. Banana? Yeah, that’s good. And you mix it up, and you put it in the oven.
And you set the conditions of the oven. You preheat it to whatever temperature. I don’t know, it’s Fahrenheit, maybe three hundred degrees. Anyway, I have to find out. You forget it.
You’ve created all the causes and conditions. And you come back twenty five minutes later and behold and there’s a nice cake that’s risen very nicely, hopefully. And we have confidence in the law of cause and effect even though we might not be conscious of it. But we know if we follow the recipe correctly and all the conditions are right, we’re going to get these results. Likewise, we’re saying that actions of body, actions of speech, actions of mind, have consequences.
Why not? These consequences have one type of effect, which is happiness and suffering. Has ethical consequence. That skillful actions produce happiness. Unskillful actions produce suffering.
That’s what we mean by skillful action. Those which produce happiness. That’s what we mean by unskillful action. Those which produce suffering. So it seems that there’s a relationship between what types of actions we perform, what types of thoughts we think, what attitudes we have, whether we’re predominantly hateful people, lots of jealousy, anger, attachment, or whether we’re positively minded people, predominantly with faith and love, compassion, generosity, patience, things like this.
That these are going to have consequences in life. They’re going to produce happiness and suffering as consequences. And in fact, if we have some degree of belief or understanding of the nature of mind, then we can begin to conceive that the mind is not simply going to end at the moment of our death, that the mind is going to continue, that it’s going to become re associated with another energy pattern. And by energy pattern, I mean this body. This is just some kind of solidified energy pattern, right, in the shape of a human being.
We have mind and we have body. Now there’s no doubt that this body, when I die, it’s finished. There’s no problem with that. But the mind is going to continue on. It does not arise from the brain.
It does not arise from the nervous system. So this is fairly difficult to understand, but it can be explained logically, reasonably. I was giving a talk at Flinders University and the problem of rebirth came up. Not the problem, the question of rebirth. And I was a little bit disappointed because I was hoping to get some dialogue going.
I like to be challenged. And I said, why don’t you believe in rebirth? And he said, well, it’s difficult to understand, which is not a reason. Then he said, Well, there’s the conservation of matter. I thought, Oh, that’s interesting.
I thought about that, the conservation of matter. And then I began to think about it, the more I thought about it, actually the conservation of matter actually proves rebirth. The matter and energy in the universe are constant. We can say that matter and energy interchangeable. We just lump them together.
That this sum of matter and energy in the universe is never diminishing, is never increasing. So the question is, if matter, if that which is physical is never decreasing. And we look at the nature of mind. Is the nature, is the mind physical or non physical? Is love physical or is it non physical?
Is hatred, is consciousness, you know, thinking, is it physical or non physical? That’s a question. So I think if we look in our own experience, we are happy, happiness. Is happiness an atom, an electron? I don’t know.
It seems kind of would sound strange to say that happiness was an electron. It may be a warm blanket, but I don’t think it’s an electron or an atom or a molecule or an organic molecule. It seems to be non physical. Hatred, love seems to be non physical. Now if these various states of mind or simply mind is non physical and if the physical matter in the universe is always constant, is never decreasing, then mind cannot be somehow being transformed from matter because then there would be a decrease in the amount of matter in the universe.
The matter would be going, becoming non physical. The physical would become non physical, and it would be less physical. There wouldn’t be the conservation of energy. So it seems that there’s a conservation of mind also, It’s definite that the body conditions the mind. The brain conditions the mind.
When you’re sick, your mind doesn’t function very well. You can’t think it’s clearly. You’re not as happy usually. It definitely has its effect. But it appears because the mind is non physical, it cannot arise from something physical.
It’s very dissimilar in type. Cause and effect is always in relationship as far as similarity of type. You know, from an apple seed, an apple tree grows. We don’t get an orange tree or we don’t get a chair or a table or something like that. We get an apple seed.
There’s always a similarity in type. And one way of similarity is physical and non physical. From atoms and electrons, we merely get transformations of that matter. We just get different forms of matter. And it appears that mind is non physical.
And therefore, it too should just simply be transforming into other states of non physical, other states of mind. So though the mind is dependent upon the body, it does not arise from the body. It does not arise from the brain. And therefore, even though at the moment of death, the brain deteriorates, the body deteriorates, returns to the various elements, carbon, whatever, the mind continues on. It’s a continuum.
One mind moment arising, causing the next mind moment, next mind moment, next mind moment. We know this in our everyday life, the present. For example, maybe somebody said something, some nasty remark, and it bothers you all day long. That remark, that mind moment, that feeling that you got from what this person said is kind of continuing throughout your very entire day. It just didn’t stop at that moment.
It has its consequences throughout your entire day. That bad mind moment is giving rise to another bad moment. It’s giving rise to another bad mind moment and so forth. And maybe something which happened to us in our childhood, some tragic events, some traumatic experience, affects us now. That mind moment has carried forth even from our childhood to the present day.
Likewise, the continuum of mind, the cause and effect relationships between similar types of mind giving rise to another similar type of mind can continue into a future life. And what kind of future life are we going to have? We have to look at our mind and see what are our predominant attitudes, our predominant emotions. Are they predominantly positive or negative? Predominantly faith, love, charity, generosity, patience, or is it anger, hate, spite, jealousy, laziness?
These various types of mind. These are all going to have consequence and they’re going carry over. But even in this life, we’ll set aside future lives. We don’t know about them. The mind which you cultivate now, developing positive feelings now, is going to bring happy consequences in the future.
The skillful states of mind that you cultivate now, the unskillful states of mind which you begin to diminish now, you’re going to grow in happiness. You’re going to experience less suffering. Because one mind moment is related to the past mind moment, is related to the past mind moment, to the future mind moment. If we had developed great love, compassion, patience, generosity when we were small, we’d be happier people now. If we begin now, then in the future we’re going to be happier people.
If we begin to reduce our negative states of mind, we’re going to be less we’re going to experience less suffering in the future. So this is the question of karma. Significance of karma is that we have control, that we are not victims. Another basic, I think, misconception, wrong belief is that it’s out of our control, that we’re the victims, that we have this history that my mommy didn’t love me enough or whatever, And that I’m screwed up and I’m always going to be screwed up because my mommy didn’t love me enough. There’s nothing I can do about it much.
Or maybe God’s going to take care of it or maybe my husband or my wife or somebody’s going to take care of my happiness and my suffering. But in fact, it’s all up to you. It’s in your control. You can change your mind. This is the significance of karma of the question of cause and effect.
If I create positive causes, I’m going to reap positive effect. As I sow, so shall I reap. That I don’t have to be a victim, I don’t have to remain a victim of what has gone in the past. That brings us to possible future states. Future states not only in future lives, but even in this life.
What can we hope to experience? And we have to begin to look at our sufferings, our difficulties, our problems in perhaps a little more subtle way than we normally do. Generally, we only see gross pain, physical pain, mental pain. We only see those as dissatisfactory. We have to begin to analyze them a little more subtly, go into the problem of dissatisfactoriness much more deeply, and see ultimately that any state within the bounds of ego, that any recurring compulsive pattern is dissatisfactory by its very nature.
That it lacks freedom. It is out of touch with the way things are presently. It’s out of touch with reality. One of the significant features of the ego is that it lives in a world of fantasy. It lives in unreality.
It’s the nature of all the various afflictive emotions such as desire, hatred, jealousy, that the objects as they appear to desire, as they appear to jealousy or hatred, they don’t exist. There’s an exaggerating quality. And we exaggerate in the case of attachment, we exaggerate the positive qualities of the object and we depreciate the negative aspects of the object. Your lover has no flaws whatsoever. Perfect in all ways.
It’s an imbalance. This is the fantasy world that ego lives in. Likewise with our enemy. We can’t possibly see the good qualities of our enemy with this hate in our mind. This hate exaggerating their negative qualities and completely obliterates, obscures any positive qualities that this person may have.
So what we’re seeing is actually something which is created out of our own mind, a fantasy. If we relate to that object in terms of how it appears to these afflictive emotions, terms of how it appears to attachment, in terms of how it appears to hatred, we’re not going to be relating with it in the way it actually exists. And to that respect, to that degree, we’re going to experience disappointment, frustration, dissatisfaction. We’re going to overestimate the potential of that object to bring us happiness. We’re going to overestimate the object as to its degree of negativity.
And we’re out of touch with the reality of the situation. So any state within ego, any state within compulsive reoccurring patterns by which we stay out of touch with the way things actually are is dissatisfactory. It’s always a must lead to disappointment or frustration because we’re not relating to the way things actually are. We’re relating to them as we would like them to be, as we dream them to be, as we remember them to be, as we want them to be, but not the way they actually are. And we’re going to suffer the cause of that.
So we have to begin to see that if we’re ever going to attain real peace, real freedom, we have to go beyond all reoccurring compulsive patterns, all states of mind which are bounded by ego. So this has to be gone into very deeply. But we’re not alone. As we’ve said before, everyone wants happiness. No one wants to suffer.
What’s so special about me? Another wrong belief, I’m special. Probably one of our biggest. I call them epistemological errors. Epistemology is the study of the method of knowing, how we know things.
How do I know that there’s a light over there? This kind of study is called epistemology. And we have some basic misknowings, wrong ways, crooked ways of knowing things. And one of these is the affliction of self-cherishing. That we have another wrong misconception basically that by cherishing myself, by putting myself first, by holding myself as most important, by holding myself as special, that will act as a means to bring me the happiness that I want out of life.
This is the basis for all our actions. That I’m in some way special, that by getting mine first then I’m going to get the happiness that I want. This is in fact, maybe in fact wrong. It may be in fact that by holding others as more important than ourselves, by cherishing others more than ourselves, by seeing others happiness as more important than ourselves. And in fact this may be the method to gain all the happiness that we had ever hoped to imagine.
More than we had ever hoped to imagine. This we have to begin to check up within our own experience. What are the most satisfying experiences that you’ve had, the most fulfilling, the happiest moments of your life? They may be, in fact, moments when there was self forgetfulness, when there was a spontaneity of going out to the needs of others, of helping others, of benefiting others. This real feeling of satisfaction That we don’t have to constantly be securing my territory, keeping our self image up, having to always be looking out to make sure that you get yours.
This constant burden of ego which we self-cherishing, exaggerated self concern, selfishness, which really becomes rather tiring, which we carry around with us because we think it’s going to help us someday. In fact, it’s only brought to suffering. It’s the source of all our pain, of all our difficulties. You know, we get completely wrapped up in our problems, in our difficulties as if they were the only problems and difficulties in the world. And they get exaggerated beyond all possible workable workability.
It’s as if we’re surrounded by this huge cloud and it’s permanent. It’s so thick we can’t see through it and it’s never going to go away and completely enveloped in my problem, my difficulties, my needs, my wants, my desires, I, I, I, I. You know, people freak out. Merely by gaining some perspective. You know, if you’re sensitive to the nightly news, know, usually I think we’ve become rather desensitized to the nightly news.
But if you would just for a moment exchange places with the starving people in Ethiopia, gas, you know, the people who are being gassed on the Iraqi villages. What’s going on in Ireland? If you exchange, how would you feel in that position? How would you feel if your children were dying of starvation? If someone you love was just shot senselessly?
Anyway, can begin to gain some perspective by considering others’ problems. It begins to diminish. At least gain some perspective on our own difficulties. They’re not as significant as they were. They don’t seem quite as important.
In fact, make their way altogether. Major problems become minor problems. Minor problems we don’t even notice any longer. Simply by gaining some perspective, simply by beginning to concern yourself to some degree with the problems of others, the suffering that’s going on all around us every day. This is constant I, I, I.
Me, me, me. This comes to one of the most basic epistemological errors: wrong beliefs, crooked thinking, wrong ideas, misconceptions that we hold, which is the basis of all our difficulties, the basis of all our suffering. We believe, you know, we believe not consciously but emotionally to the core of our being, to the depth of our being, that there is a permanent, independently existing self, I. We don’t quite know where it is. At these times when we experience extreme emotional states, especially anger, hatred, you say something like, you get away from me.
I can’t stand you. I can’t stand you. But that’s mine. Somewhere in there, between the neck and the stomach, there’s this eye or this owner. I don’t know, the eye, this thing that can’t stand.
It’s really solid. It’s concrete. So like you could point to it when you experience it. I’m the most beautiful thing that ever happened to Adelaide since the Queen came. There’s something very concrete which you’re referring to.
You know, this I, the word I, mine, me, person, jampa, refers to something. It has some reference. When we’re experiencing extreme emotions, this I feels that it’s referring to something very concrete, very solid, independently existing, some permanent self identity, some self image, unchanging, unconnected, unrelated with everything else. This we believe to the depth of our being that there’s something which is there. From this all our problems arise.
This idea of holding a permanent self image. I’m this way. I was this way when I was little. I’m going to be this way when I’m big or bigger. And I’m going to be this way when I die.
Not considering the possibility of change, not considering the possibility that this identity that you have is dependent upon your culture, your peer group, other factors, various states of mind which are continually changing, arising and abiding and passing away. Somehow there’s something permanent which is grasping of security through time and space. Sometimes you identify with the body. I’m in pain. Oh, I hurt my leg.
I’m in pain. I. And then I becomes the body more. Or I’m angry. And I is to identify with the mind.
Other times, we don’t quite identify with either the body or the mind, but it’s something very solid that there’s this thing which is me. And if somebody threatens it, you better watch out because I’m going to smash you. I’m going to generate hate. If somebody enhances this thing, then come closer and stay with me. This is the way we develop in dependence upon this factor which we call ignorance, misconceiving the nature of the self, holding to be permanent, independently existing.
We develop attachment. We develop hatred. Holding others, bringing some close, pushing others away. And this are unskillful actions which bring suffering, which bring dissatisfaction. So we have to develop the wisdom which understands selflessness.
And in fact, I exist. I’m talking to you. You’re listening to me maybe. I don’t know. But there is somebody there.
But it’s not quite how we conceive it to be. This I, this self, this jampa, this person. It’s a little bit different. It’s dependently existent. It’s not independently existent.
It’s constantly changing. It’s not unchanging. So we have some basic misconception. This will bring us, developing this wisdom, developing this supreme knowledge is going to bring us to the goal of Buddhahood, of enlightenment. So we’ve been traveling the path.
We’ve been looking at some of our misconceptions, our wrong ideas, crooked thinking. And we’re beginning, there are various methods whereby we can correct our wrong thinking. And these methods are called a path. We develop wisdom, very conventional wisdom about who we are in a very conventional sense that I have potential, that I have all the circumstances necessary to realize my potential, That this potential is not going to last forever. It’s definitely that I’m going to die but it’s uncertain when I’m going to die.
And when I die, know, that various actions that I’ve accumulated are going to have consequences, either suffering or happiness depending upon their nature. That in fact any type of rebirth, any type of state within the bounds of compulsive reoccurring patterns, the bounds of ego are dissatisfactory. That I have to strive to go beyond completely ego to transcend it altogether. And that I’m making some extremely basic misconceptions from the point of view that others want happiness just like myself. They don’t want to suffer.
What makes me so special? In fact, it’s this feeling that I’m so special, this feeling of self-cherishing, self exaggerating, self concern, which is the basis of all my problems. That if I have to see others others’ happiness just like myself, and in fact my own aspect of myself, my social self is going to be actualized, is going to realize its potential by going out to others through compassion and love. And seeing that in order to bring that about, to benefit others, to separate others from suffering, to bring them happiness, I myself have to go beyond suffering and happiness. I have to develop the necessary skills, the necessary abilities to really be a benefit to others.
In order to do that, I have to achieve, go beyond my own misconceptions about who I think I am, that I have to develop the wisdom, understanding, selflessness. And then depending upon that I can reach the goal of Buddhahood, which is simply a person who experiences within himself unremitting peace and motivated by love and compassion works in the world to help others. This is basically what we mean when we say a Buddha, enlightened being. This is the path from where we are now as an ordinary being, still trying to manipulate the world and arrange it in such a way to bring us the happiness that we all seek, beginning to think well maybe there’s another way, a possibility of an inner method all the way through these various methods, following a path up to the goal of enlightenment whereby we have actualized completely our own potential and are in a position to be of maximum benefit to alleviate the suffering of others and bring them the happiness that everyone seeks. So that gives you an idea of the path to enlightenment.
Any questions? I went through it rather quickly, didn’t I? I think I gave you a rough idea of the possibilities, which are open. A new idea, maybe you can think about. No question?
Allison, you have a question? How to play the cello or something? No? Okay. Good.
Thank you very much for coming. We have a newsletter, a Buddha House newsletter. There’s some out on the table. If you would like to sign up, it’s free for the first six months. There’s a list that you can sign up on.
I hope that, you know, it’s not so important. I’m not proselytizing. I’m not a missionary, trying to put shorts on the natives or anything like that. But I would like to see I think it is necessary to develop more skillful attitudes. Think it’s very necessary to begin looking within our own self, within our own mind, for the source of our happiness.
Because it’s basically our attitudes which are going to bring the happiness that we’re looking for. So whatever you do, you know, whether it’s whatever path you may follow or if you don’t follow a path, perhaps you could begin to question. Take the time, create some space in your life where you sit down and begin to think, I happy? Is the course which I’m going bringing you the satisfaction which I’m looking for? Very much this questioning attitude, becoming aware of how we feel, becoming aware of our inner life.
And then if you do become involved in a path, trying to take the essence, always questioning that path, you know, what is it really about? What is Christianity really about? What is Buddhism really about? What is Siddha Yoga really about? Rather than falling into mechanical patterns, dogma, or whatever.
And try to find out for yourself. You know, it’s very much your responsibility to take the essence of a spiritual path and apply it, find some way to mix it with your mind, to apply it to your everyday life so it becomes something meaningful for you, some way to find the happiness. Essentially that’s what religion should be about, How to find happiness. Thank you.