Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 30-minute talk, Ven Jampa Gendun opens with a personal story: a single mother caring for a brain-damaged infant who, through sheer commitment to the child, discovers capacities she never imagined she had. This becomes the entry point into bodhicitta — the awakening heart — where he argues that taking responsibility for others is both rational and pragmatic as a path to self-development. He addresses the Dalai Lama’s “wisely selfish” advice, distinguishes genuine bodhicitta from sentimental overwhelm, and uses a mountaintop-in-clouds image to show how a universal outlook shrinks neurotic self-concern. The session closes with Śāntideva’s account of the bodhisattva moment and practical encouragement to redirect daily habits toward altruism, gradually, over years.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 HoM 1993 02 10.mp3
UUID: 0e3fc0c6-4dda-4e20-838d-bd7260dcf316
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1993-02-10
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 30.4 minutes
Words: ~3,395
If we may use it as cultivate it as a motivation in our meditation, in this simple, friendly thought and the stronger wish, then that strongest of love, the strongest of compassion, is to take responsibility. Taking responsibility for others is the most skillful method available to us as a means of developing ourselves. Because in order to take responsibility we have, you know if we’re sincere, in order to take responsibility then you are driven, you are forced to The natural outflow of such a sincere intention is that you have to develop the ability to respond. If you take responsibility sincerely then you will be naturally there to develop the ability to respond. And in giving, in developing that ability to respond that we, ourselves, are liberated.
That we ourselves grow. That we go beyond our own difficulties. So it becomes the strongest force, the only force, that means in which we can maximize all of our tremendous potential which lies dormant because it has not had to be invoked. There was no We will only make use of our potential to that degree if it becomes absolutely necessary. That means to be the condition that necessity exists in.
Even within our own general selfishness, kind of self-centeredness, there are moments when another individual elicits within in us the capacity to reach out toward more deeper and wider dimensions. You’re temporarily abolishing self imposed isolation and loneliness. Someone who touches us very deeply and their needs touch us very deeply. And individuals who have acted as a catalyst, who serve as a condition, who have drawn upon all our resources. At some time or another they’ve been those individuals drawing upon our inner strength, our caring, our wisdom.
By means of which we participated in the life of another. Participation means as much to give ourselves to others as it means to take others into our own life. Last night I had dinner with a woman who is a single mother, And she had a baby with brain damage eleven months old. Who would not be normal. And it was a very humbling experience to see your commitment to that baby.
There was a commitment here that you will honestly admit because of her taking responsibility, because of her great love and commitment to the well-being of this vulnerable, needy child. She draws upon tremendous resources. She has done things which you could never have believed she could have done twelve months ago. In a very short while she has gone beyond certain limits, inability to cope, to think, physical limits. And it’s the expansion in your love, your caring, her ability to set aside her own needs for someone else.
It’s a very humbling experience when you see that in fact. And she will be a better person, and I’m sure a happier person, a more fulfilled person. Not unhappy. I think that in psychotherapy they talk about that purpose of psychotherapy is not to attain happiness, but in order to attain power and confidence. Power and confidence.
And she is becoming very powerful. She is becoming tremendously competent. And that’s because of her commitment to the well-being of this other person. And it’s the most powerful psychotherapy that one could ever hope to undergo. The exceptional resolve to take responsibility for another human being.
Existentially, there are two aspects to ourselves, to who we are. On the one hand, there’s the private aspect to ourselves, or that part of ourselves which is inaccessible to others. Our own unique inner experience. On the other hand there’s a social aspect of our self. That part of our self which is lived through our outer shared relationship with others.
To be essentially a self directing, unique individual whose concerns and actions are valuable in themselves. And to be essentially related to others are not two conflicting ways of being, but they are two necessarily mutual aspects of our everyday life. That we have both this inner experience within inaccessible as part of ourselves and our outward relationship with others, as social beings. So from the viewpoint of the holistic approach of the universal vehicle, the Mahāyāna, the great vehicle of Buddhism. The individual vehicle, the lesser vehicle is seen as falling to the extreme of individualism.
An imbalance in the emphasis with regards to these two aspects of itself. But we have to concern ourselves with both our inner lived experience in terms of peace, in terms of fulfillment and joy, but also how we’re going to relate with other people and do that. Some appropriate, skillful way of relating. Which our interdependence with others demands of us. That mental health is not something to be found in isolation from others and in solitary acquisition of realization.
But is in fact a social phenomenon. It is true that we are called to wholeness, but the reality is that we can never be completely whole in and of ourselves. We cannot be all things to ourselves and to others. We cannot be perfect. We cannot be doctors, lawyers, stockbrokers, farmers, politicians, stonemasons and theologians all rolled into one.
It is true that we are called to power, yet the reality is that there is a point which our sense of self determination not only becomes inaccurate and prideful, but increasingly self defeating. It is true that we are created to be individually unique, yet the reality is that we are inevitably social creatures who desperately need each other. Not merely for sustenance, not merely for company, but for any meaning to our lives whatsoever. And thus the absolute necessity to awaken our hearts to others is not based simply on sentimentality, not simply on a romantic notion. It is based upon our own rationality, our own pragmatism.
As the Dalai Lama said, if you’re going to be selfish, at least be wisely selfish. What he means by this peculiar sounding advice is that in a way bodhicitta, bodhicitta is the awakening heart. In a way bodhicitta is like a huge selfish attitude. When you dedicate yourself to others with loving kindness, you get back far more happiness than you could ever experience otherwise. Ordinarily we do get, we get so little happiness and easily lost.
So if you want to be as happy as possible, the only thing to do is to dedicate ourselves wholeheartedly to the welfare of others. When some people first hear about bodhicitta they confuse it with a sentimental highly emotional state of mind. Oh how I want people to be happy, I can’t stand to think of their suffering. They feel so overwhelmed by the needs of others that their mind becomes depressed. But true bodhicitta is not like this.
It has nothing to do with such an upset and paralyzed state of mind. Instead it is clear and easily going, possessing a calm wisdom as well as a deeply felt compassion. It is an attitude of opening our hearts completely, leaving it open as much as we can. So the necessity to open our hearts to others is not only based on rationality and pragmatism in that we can see the rationale of developing a caring attitude, of opening ourselves to the pain of others. In some way taking responsibility as a reasonable means to find one’s own happiness.
It is also based within our own experience. So often we make such a fuss of insignificant events in our lives that we turn minor difficulties into major problems. As we develop the universal view of bodhicitta however, these small concerns become unimportant and no longer bother us. As this burden of self concern drops from our shoulders we experience a small taste of the complete freedom that comes from full spiritual fulfillment. Experiences like this are encouraging because they demonstrate so convincingly the practical day to day value of training and transforming our mind.
And the becoming, putting our own problems in some kind of perspective. Opening our mind to a more universal view, immediately our own problems are more workable. Now we have to deal with our problems, we have to confront them and work with them. We can’t avoid them, we can’t distract ourselves. But we can maintain some perspective and therefore thereby they don’t overwhelm us.
Now when we look at the world, the tragedies and the calamities which occur in the world, then our own problems take on the proper significance of our lives. They become manageable. You know sometimes we’re completely overwhelmed by our problems. In fact we are like we’re standing on a mountaintop completely surrounded by clouds. Always see we have this claustrophobic vision, this myopic vision, all we see is this one problem and it becomes overwhelmingly magnified to a completely engulfs it.
That’s all there is, is my problem. And there’s no solution, there’s no ray of wisdom that can break through the clouds, there’s no outlet from total self concern? But the moment we look to someone else, we see another tragedy. Automatically that extra burden that we’ve added to the difficulty evaporates. We still have our problems to work with, but we have an added perspective.
And the unnecessary, the illegitimate suffering, the unnecessary neurotic suffering, which we continually are piling onto our problems, through our exaggerated self concern. And so, the necessity of our awakening heart. Necessity to awaken our heart to others is also based upon intuition. And talking about the poetry of love, something which resonates beyond our reasonableness, beyond rationality. Some kind of, almost like inarticulate whisperings of our own hearts.
For when the power of imparting joy is equal to the will, the human soul requires no other heaven. Now we don’t have to be saints or superhuman. We must at least try to, in some small way, live the life of our waking dreams. Our most deeply felt aspirations. Even if you have to in a very mundane sense, in a very mundane way, we have to respect ourselves, we have to like ourselves.
We have to have a sense of authenticity about ourselves. We have to feel that that part of ourselves, a part which we may not fully comprehend, that which we believe in, which brings meaning to our life. And that the intellect requires proof and demonstration, the soul requires meaning and belief. And it is our souls which we are in danger of losing, which we are out of touch with. And that part of ourselves, when we are one with, we feel an at oneness with ourselves, with the totality of our being, with the oneness with all of us, with life.
When it takes place in a very deep healing, in a split in our being. Result is not the point. It is the effort to improve ourselves that is valuable. There are four Buddhist vows. These vows are: Although sentient beings are innumerable, we vow to save them.
Although our evil desires are limitless, we vow to be rid of them. Although the teaching is limitless, we vow to learn it all. Although the Truth is unattainable, we vow to attain it. If it is unattainable, then how can we attain it? But we should.
That is Buddhism. To think because it is possible we will do it is not Buddhism. Even though it is impossible, we have to do it because our true nature wants us to. But actually whether or not it is possible, whether or not it is possible is not the point. If it is our innermost desire to get rid of our self centered ideas, we have to do it.
When we make this effort, our innermost desire is appeased, and nirvana is there. We are selfish people, but if we can begin to look within our own experience, use our reasoning, our intelligence, our intuition, then we can begin to, we can try to be wisely selfish. And trying to cherish others, concern ourselves in some small way. Make that an important guideline in your life. I think just to talk in this way, to think in this way, is tremendously beneficial and useful by the present moment, against the current of common thinking.
Our habitual tendencies to contract, to look inwardly within our family, within ourselves. We can isolate, insulate. It’s not unrealistic, but even compellingly practical that we should develop a natural, rational, instinctive, powerful altruism. Altruism is the most readily available means. The most readily available remedy for a psychological ill that we have at present.
We’re going to talk about the awakening mind. This is the most fundamental. But we should, as it were, our approach to be two pronged approach. Both on the conventional level and the ultimate level. The ultimate level we want to understand selflessness and emptiness.
Try to develop wisdom. This will bring about peace to their inner experienced self. At the conventional level, bringing about peace, the end of conflict between ourselves and others through altruism. So this is not the some kind of complex philosophical argument. Some kind of theological theory of some sort.
It’s not a flight into something, a romantic flight into fantasy. But it is a simple and pragmatic statement about life. That caring people, loving people, compassionate people are happier people. and more fulfilled at a greater quality of being. And this quality of opening our hearts to others and developing our awakening heart is very far removed from our everyday habitual thinking and way of acting in the world.
And we look at people like Mother Teresa and Dalai Lama, Mahatma Gandhi, all of these very powerful, charismatic individuals, and we think somehow that they’re different from ourselves basically, fundamentally. That their brains are constituted and made up of loving electrons or compassionate protons, caring atoms. That they aren’t like that. That they never experienced discouragement, that they never had the struggle, that they never had failures in the course of their life in developing their love and cultivating, expressing an awakening heart. And we can’t perhaps conceive of ourselves as being that type of person.
But we couldn’t conceive of ourselves like we would be like now, perhaps ten or fifteen years ago. What types of public, what values, what principles, what was our various attitudes ten or fifteen years ago. And we changed from fifteen years ago, twenty years ago. We’re different people. And perhaps that change wasn’t particularly directed along any particular path, it was more or less haphazard.
What to say if we were to direct that change? Just to set aside a little bit each day, to maintain mindfulness in the course of our everyday activities, to set aside some time where you cultivate consciously, caring thoughts, compassionate thoughts. What kind of change could you observe? What patterns of thought, what new attitude could you develop over ten or fifteen years? Very possible too.
You know, there’s there’s little instances where you make a choice to contract inwardly, to to exercise your habitual self selfish concern as opposed to opening up. You know, just a smile, the word, the sense of caring, the touch. Something which breaks the pattern of what had gone before. What new avenues will be opened, and the path begins to open out. And we can begin to change in some kind of conscious direction.
In ten or fifteen years now, we’ll go now at this moment, we’re going to be different people, thinking different thoughts, looking much more loving, much more caring. We’ll be happier to have a greater quality in life. Why not? There will be no reason why not. It can happen.
It will happen. It’s within the law of cause and effect. It’s rational, it’s reasonable. And the nature of mind is clear and knowing. And clear can mean, there’s various interpretation.
It can mean non physical, but one word that clear means in this context, in the primary characteristics of mind, is that it means non-inherently fixed characteristics. It is open ended. The stuff of mind that which is the center of our being It’s open ended. It has the potentiality to be directed in any direction that we have to scale and initiative and we make the effort. It can be cultivated, it can be sculpted like clay into a mind like a statue of Michelangelo, or we can make up our mind an ashtray.
It has a potentiality. You know, five or ten years ago, we could not have imagined the thoughts we think now, but now we have a chance to direct them. Our own limitations are those we acknowledge. And the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first humble step. The magnificent conception of this will to enlightenment is the central moment in the evolutionary career of a living being.
The moment in which a new spirit of love and compassion pervades its whole life and destiny and its further evolution becomes the purpose of creative progress. From this moment a living being becomes a bodhisattva, worthy of honor by gods as well as humans. Śāntideva states that as soon as the being conceives the spirit of enlightenment, that is the state, the awakening heart, he or she becomes at once a son or daughter of the Sugata’s, a Buddha child. He or she should rejoice in the newfound fruitfulness of their existence. This spirit is a kind of spiritual gene, a DNA molecule of universal evolution life after life.
Once one possesses it by conceiving the will to attain Buddhahood for the perfection of wisdom and compassion for the sake of all living beings, the quality of one’s experience and even one’s biological continuum is marked forever onward. There is no more noble thought than this. No greater meaning that we can bring to our lives than this. No more powerful method to go beyond our suffering. No greater way to be of service to all than to develop this thought, this awakening heart.
So we’re going to be cultivating, looking at the methods for developing the awakening heart. In our discussions of the second fundamental of the path, the awakening heart. So I think I’ll stop there, okay? We’re going to take those of you who actually have a good evening. Those of you who like to stay for discussion, we’ll have a cup of tea together and make a circle.
I just have one announcement, this note from my director. It says, can you remember to ask for office help tonight? The way that we can, the service is an important component of our spiritual path. It’s not a matter of sitting on your cushion. It’s just not a matter of listening, but it also is doing something.
Doing something for others and in turn doing something for yourself. Know that Buddha House tries to act as, create the conditions for the teachings and for mutual development. And in that way it’s extremely important. Therefore helping Buddha House is extremely worthwhile. That’s what I do in my life.
And if you could find some time to do some voluntary help for Buddha House, even if you only have two hours a month, that’s great. It’s not a matter of quantity. But if we all put in a little bit, then we can spread out the work. And it won’t be a burden to anyone. So if you think that you could donate some time, working in the office, typing, there’s all kinds of little jobs taking care of the garden, doing some folding.
That’s something that everybody can do, that’s for sure. If you have a little bit of time to spare over the course of a week or a month, whatever, just call, maybe note at the office, call the office and leave your number and Robin and our director will get in touch with you. Okay, good. And again, dedicating not only our own solitary needs, but toward a universal need, the need for all living beings to awaken. May I quickly become an awakened spiritual teacher and lead each and every sentient being to the enlightened realm through these skillful actions.
May the supreme jewel of the awakening heart that has not arisen arise and grow, and may that which has arisen never diminish, increase more and more.