Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The classic Kadampa story of Geshe Drom challenging an old man circumambulating Reting Monastery — “I’m happy to see you meditating, but wouldn’t it be better to practice the Dharma?” — anchors this 34-minute talk by Ven Jampa Gendun on the determination to be free. He unpacks what “renouncing this life” practically means: not cave-retreat but loosening the grip of the eight worldly concerns (pleasure/pain, gain/loss, praise/ridicule, fame/notoriety). A Carl Jung quote on neurosis and a Kadampa prayer — “if it’s better for me to be ill, I pray for the blessing of illness” — illustrate the shift from ego-driven avoidance to active commitment to growth. Gendun then widens the lens to social consciousness before closing with a guided loving-kindness meditation directed first at oneself as the foundation for love of others.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 HoM 1993 07 28.mp3
UUID: eb45343a-6d86-4848-b830-7a03139ef58f
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1993-07-28
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 33.8 minutes
Words: ~3,534
So after after all of that, I don’t know quite what to say. You’re beginning with the process of redirecting or reorientating, reprioritizing, getting back in touch. Can you hear me in the back okay? Getting back in touch with perhaps some of our more deeply held values, those values and those guidelines which over the course of our life we have, to some degree, autonomously determined bring us meaning, which creates some kind of purpose in our life, which makes us feel good about ourselves and about the living of life. Those values that we oftentimes, in the practical affairs of our everyday life, we get out of touch with, we lose sight of.
And then this process of reestablishing our authenticity and who and what we’re about. And in talking about this, I have been thinking about this a great deal recently for various reasons. I’m trying to come to some kind of understanding about what it is that keeps us stuck in these reoccurring compulsive patterns and what it means to develop the determination to be free, the first of the three fundamentals of the path. I think in many ways, I’ve termed it, this preoccupation of an ego-orientated existence. Traditionally, these are called the eight worldly dharmas or the eight worldly concerns, the eight worldly principles.
I think that this is where we can really begin to look at developing the determination to be free, to go beyond the ups and downs of our thinking process, our hopes and fears, and to determine whatever it takes I want to grow above all, that commitment to another order of being. Having some kind of faith in ourselves and the outcome of growth is being commensurate with a more fulfilling, more authentic, happier, more cheerful way of life, a way of being. And in talking about this, in readjusting our motivation, this process of reorientation, there’s the idea of what is called traditionally giving up this life. But what does this mean, I think, in operative terms in our everyday life? One day an old gentleman was circumambulating the Reting Monastery.
Geshe Drom said to him Geshe Drom was I think it’s interesting, it’s worth noting and commenting upon, that Geshe Drom was a layperson. One of the two most important figures in the propagation dissemination of Buddhism to Tibet are Padmasambhava and Atisha. Atisha’s main disciple too was a layperson, and his main disciple, that individual to whom he passed on his lineage, was Geshe Drom, a layperson. One day an old gentleman was circumambulating the Reting Monastery. Geshe Drom said to him, Sir, I am happy to see that you’re circumambulating, but wouldn’t you rather be practicing the Dharma?
Thinking this over, the old man felt it might be better to read Mahāyāna Sutras. These are the scriptures of the universal vehicle. While he was reading them in the temple courtyard, Geshe Drom said, I’m happy to see you reciting sutras, but wouldn’t you rather be practicing the Dharma? At this, the old gentleman thought that perhaps he should meditate. He sat cross legged on a cushion with his eyes half closed.
The teacher Drom said again, I’m so happy to see you meditating, but wouldn’t it be better to practice the Dharma? Now totally confused, the old man asked, Geshe la, please tell me, what should I do to practice the Dharma? The teacher Drom replied, Renounce attraction to this life. Renounce it now. For if you do not renounce attraction to this life, whatever you do will not be the practice of Dharma, as you have not passed beyond the eight worldly concerns.
Once you have renounced this life, habitual thoughts are no longer distracted by the eight worldly concerns. Whatever you do will advance you on the path of liberation. So using this terminology of traditional ways of putting things in terms of renounce this life. But what does it mean to renounce this life? It’s not a matter of committing suicide, I hope.
It’s not a matter of running off to the caves in Himalayas. I tried that. It didn’t work. And now what what could it mean to give up this life? To give up this life is to give up these eight principle preoccupations of ego oriented existence.
These eight worldly concerns. And these are set out in four pairs: pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and ridicule, fame and notoriety. These four pairs. But, you know, if we listen, if you’re listening and I’m listening, when I heard this, then I had to question. You mean to travel a spiritual path, to grow, to develop myself?
I have to give up pleasure? I have to give up gain? You know, that sounds perverted at best. So we have to ask, well, what does it mean? I mean, even his even Dalai Lama said, human beings by nature want happiness and do not want to suffer.
With that feeling, everyone tries to achieve happiness and tries to get rid of suffering. And everyone has the basic right to do this. It makes sense. It’s part it’s an expression of our basic sanity. To to seek to experience pleasure, to seek to avoid pain, it makes sense.
There’s there’s there cannot be anything wrong with that if that’s our basic nature. Otherwise, our basic nature is somehow corrupted, and there’s no possibility of liberation. There’s no possibility of finding any real peace or happiness. So what can it mean? What are we to give up if we’re not to give up pleasure and pain, if we’re not to give up gain or praise or fame?
What it means to give up this life, what it means to forego the eight principle preoccupations of ego oriented existence is to begin to forego, to lessen, to diminish the dominance of our preoccupation with the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. With the pursuit our preoccupation with the pursuit of gain and with the avoidance of loss. Our preoccupation with the pursuit of praise, the avoidance of ridicule. Our preoccupation, our preoccupation, our preoccupation of these pursuits and avoidances. So I think this is what it means.
And I think this is a really a very useful guideline to working with ourselves in a very practical sense. As I’ve probably mentioned many times before, Carl Jung once said that the avoidance of legitimate suffering is the basis of neurosis. The avoidance of legitimate suffering is the basis of neurosis. I think he could have added the complement to that. The preoccupation with the pursuit of happiness is probably also the basis of neurosis.
And but this is these are the prime values, the determining principles which govern our ego-orientated existence, a way of life, a way of approaching our experience of ourselves in the world and our relationships, which is by its very nature dissatisfactory. You know, we are not our patterns. But as long as we continually continue to identify them with them, there can never be any spontaneity. There can never be any creative response to the present situation. You know, there can never be any going beyond the walls of the primary prison.
The perimeter, the boundary wall of which are these eight preoccupations of the oriented existence. The pleasure pain principle which governs our lives. As long as to travel a spiritual path is not simply the skillful avoidance of suffering, that would be a great mistake. And happiness is going to come. We have talked about the process of karma, the law of cause and effect.
If we create the cause, then the result will come of itself. We don’t have to concern ourselves with it. And we don’t this total preoccupation that we have, overlooking the laws of reality, as it were, to make sure that we get our just deserts, our constant preoccupation with this pursuit of pleasure, and our constant preoccupation with the avoidance of difficult people, difficult situations, with difficult and these challenges which life brings us. And that’s why we never get anywhere. This is why we simply keep revolving in our cycles of existence.
The moment we are challenged in some way to go beyond our fears, to go beyond our hopes, we shrink back. And we simply perpetuate, recreate the type of world which we have built up for ourselves. You know, hope in the sense of whatever reconfirms our identity, whatever is seen as enhancing to ego’s existence. And fear in the sense of whatever is seen as a threat to ego’s continued existence. And if we never are willing to work through our fears The essence of cowardice is not to be without our fears.
To be fearless is not to be without fear, but in the throes of our fear, to not allow to control what we do and what we say, what we think, to act in spite of our fears. And then there’s some real growth. There’s some real progress, some kind of going beyond what has been these perpetual, reoccurring, compulsive neurotic patterns. And there’s some kind of clarity, some kind of insight takes place. That very going beyond, that experience is insight.
There’s a beautiful verse which is kind of an expression. I mentioned Atisha and Geshe Drom. They were part of a practice lineage which is called the Kadampa lineage. And they were very much concerned with this, the challenge of practice and going beyond their hopes and fears, going beyond their preoccupations with the pursuits of pleasure and the avoidances of pain. Very practical and very something very deeply heartfelt about how they went about their spiritual life.
And one of the verses, one of their prayers is an expression of what it means to grow, or someone who’s really sincere. You know, above all else, I want to grow, whatever that may entail, whatever that might bring, having faith in growth, in our own ability to solve our problems at a very fundamental level. If it’s better for me to be ill, I pray for the blessing of illness. If it’s better for me to recover, I pray for the blessing of recovery. If it’s better for me to die, I pray for the blessing of death.
So I think this is a real prayer for growth beyond all of ego’s hopes for pleasure and fears of pain, all our preoccupations with pursuits for pleasure, our preoccupations with the avoidance of pain. But whatever it takes for me to grow, that’s what I want to happen. Giving oneself over, committing oneself to that process. And then there’s we can feel assured that whatever we do within that context, within that state, within that motivation can only bring about our well-being, can only serve us as a means of growth to travel, as a means to travel in a spiritual path. You know, I pray for whatever will help me to grow, whatever will help me to awaken.
That’s what I want. And this is the real beginning of a spiritual path. And I think this is what it means to give up this life, giving up these eight principle preoccupations of ego-orientated existence. Somehow there’s a realignment of our allegiance from a life which is passively based upon hopes and fears, which is passively based upon our constant preoccupations of pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain, to one which is based, actively based on choosing to grow. Whatever it takes, that’s what I choose.
Whatever form, whatever and whatever way it might come, that’s what I want. And then one is always open and there’s always some kind of movement. And we try to raise the level of our motivation, a shift in our motivation from seeking growth only for one’s own end, but for an ever widening circle of others. The development of a social consciousness. I was thinking about this, and I think a simple example which seems to make sense for me is that within the context of a family, there’s a sense of a family consciousness.
And one’s goals, each of those individuals who make up that family, their goals, whatever they conceive of the goodness of life, whatever they might want, is in a healthy, integrated, harmonious family is conceptualized in terms of how it relates with the rest of the family, with the rest of the individuals. A very simple example would be if the woman goes off to work and she wants to buy lunch And she thinks, oh, won’t have as good of a lunch as I might like because the kids need a new pair of shoes. You know, is like like the the way of thinking, the entire way of conceiving about one’s needs and one’s wants and one’s goals are seen in this context of how it’s relating, how it’s going to affect others. And one conceives of, constructs, develops one’s goals, both immediate, superficial, and profound and long term goals, in the context of an awareness of others, a family consciousness. And if we can begin to broaden that to an ever widening concern, scope of others, and develop a social consciousness.
And then, you know, it’s not as if we have to deprive ourselves. You know, I don’t think that woman who’s eating a little bit less for lunch, you know, has a sense, oh, I’m going without. I think it’s almost spontaneous, a natural response to the concern of the welfare of others, even though it might be limited to her family. And so this development of a social consciousness, the goals of our life, what we conceive of as a means to bring ourselves happiness, are formulated in terms of other, in the relationship to other, in acknowledgment of our interdependence with others. Even this primary factor of this determination to be free is seen in the context of others.
To take our rightful place in the body of this great being of sentient life. The outcome, ultimate goal that we’re seeking to achieve, that we’re seeking to formulate for ourselves is Buddha. The Buddha withinside of ourselves. The Buddha to be, to actualize our fullest potential. A happy, healthy, loving, sane human being in the context of others, experiencing unremitting peace within and compassionately working without with skillful means to help others to do the same.
So the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha, the Buddha within ourselves. And the way that we bring about this, the way that we manifest Buddha, that we express it, is through the Dharma. Those means, those techniques, those methods, those truths, Whatever helps to raise the level of our consciousness. Whatever helps us to authentically express our innermost nature. To make actual what is merely at potential, at present.
Whatever helps us to begin to shift from attachment to openness, miserliness to generosity, from hatred to love, from self centeredness to other centeredness, from ignorance to wisdom. That’s like a refuge. We can direct ourselves toward that, those techniques, those methods. And this all occurs within the social context of a spiritual community. Those individuals who voluntarily associate with one another, who take the principles of wisdom and love as central to their life, and freely associate in encouraging one another, in guiding one another, in teaching one another, inspiring one another, acting as examples for one another, whatever facilitates the spiritual journey of another.
And we do this ultimately for an ever widening circle of others until we include in our scope of concern all living beings. I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, the highest assembly. From the virtuous merit that I collect, by practicing giving any other perfections, may I attain the state of a Buddha to be able to benefit all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, the highest assembly. From the virtuous merit that I collect by practicing giving and the other perfections, may I attain the state of a Buddha to be able to benefit all sentient beings.
I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the highest assembly. In the virtuous merit that I collect by practicing giving and the other perfections, may I attain the state of the Buddha to be able to benefit So I’m going to meditate. As we’ve been doing, we’ll begin adjusting our motivation for our meditation through developing the levels of love and compassion. And as we’ve been doing, we’ll begin with different objects. Beginning with that tonight we’ll begin again with ourselves.
When we talk about the determination to be free, what we’re talking about more often than not is the way that we express our love for ourselves. And this is a prerequisite to developing a stable, sincere, powerful love for others. Unless we can begin to love ourselves, and that is to say, unless we can begin to, you know, choose to extend ourselves for the purpose of nourishing ourselves, for our own well-being, knowing our own difficulties, our own sufferings and dissatisfactions disappointments so intimately, so directly, immediately. If we can’t do that, then how are we ever going to develop a sincere, powerful, stable love for others when we only know their problems, difficulties secondhandedly, vicariously? I don’t think we can.
Think the love for others begins with loving ourselves. It’s not to say that there’s an order in their development. I think we can practice, and in practice it does come about simultaneously. The more that we love ourselves, the more that we’re able to love others. More that we’re able to love others, more that we love ourselves.
It’s very much a reflection of each other. But we can begin with ourselves. Tonight, in adjusting our motivation for meditation, we’re going to develop the levels of compassion and love for ourselves, using ourselves as an object, becoming sincere and serious about solving our problems. And these levels of compassion, simply beginning with a friendly, simple thought, trying to actually feel this. The words are like arrows, or they’re like the finger which points to the moon.
We shouldn’t get hung up with the finger, but what is being indicated. The words in themselves are to lead us to a place, a state of love or compassion, which in essence are beyond words. But the words are an expression of that state. They’re indicative that that state is present. So the words can induce a particular state of mind, a particular state of being.
And first, with the the simple friendly thought, know, Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I was happy, if I didn’t suffer? Compassion. You know, that’s a that would be nice if I didn’t have any problems. That’s just a simple caring for oneself. And then strengthening that, may I be may I not have any problems.
It’s a little more intensity, a little more involvement. I’m going to do something. I’m going to commit myself to solving my problems. And then the development of love, beginning again with a simple friendly thought, You know, it’d be wonderful if I was happy. I would like that very much, to be happy.
Intensifying that, may I be happy. Intensifying that, I’m going to commit myself. Really do something. I’m going to work with myself to solve, to make myself happy. And then we’ll do mindfulness of breathing, and then we’ll do the meditation of loving kindness together.
So if you take a comfortable but firm posture. Though it may seem strange, we begin by imagining ourselves in front of ourselves. Maybe you’ve never really thought about yourself as someone who wants to be happy and doesn’t want to suffer just like everybody else, but in fact that’s the case. That person wants to be happy and doesn’t want to suffer just like everybody else. Begin by developing the simple but friendly thought, it’d be wonderful if you didn’t have any problems.
Can you actually feel that for yourself, that you were like that? And then strengthening that. May I not have any suffering. May I not have any problems. In strengthening that, I’m going to commit myself to working with myself to solve my problems.
Take responsibility for eliminating my suffering. And the cultivation of love for ourselves. Again, first with a friendly simple thought, it would be wonderful if you were happy. May you be happy. May you have all the good things of life.
I’m going to commit myself to working with you to solve your problem, to take responsibility for helping you to go beyond your suffering, to find happiness. And the way I’m going to express my commitment to you at this very moment is through my meditation, through developing myself, growing in love and wisdom, and all the skills, that eventually I can be of real, practical, significant benefit to you in a substantial way. In fact. And then bring your mind to the breath. Just gentle, easy, in and out flow of the natural breath.
If it’s helpful using the techniques of counting and noting.