Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Tsongkhapa’s image of beings swept helplessly by four currents — sensuous desire, craving for conditioned existence, ignorance, and wrong views — opens this 40-minute talk by Ven Jampa Gendun on cultivating the awakening heart. He unpacks how afflictive emotions distort perception, explains the three types of suffering, and offers a concise argument for rebirth as the basis for recognizing all beings as former mothers. Gendun then introduces the two classical meditative traditions for developing the awakening heart: the seven cause-and-effect instruction and equalizing and exchanging self for others, walking through each sequence step by step and quoting Śāntideva’s verses on the preciousness of this aspiration. Accessible to newcomers while substantive enough for practitioners already working through Lamrim.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 HoM 1993 02 17.mp3
UUID: 068d2b68-a2ee-4ad3-a24b-495b9ddb0742
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1993-02-17
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 40.1 minutes
Words: ~5,444
Of actions difficult to oppose, have entered into the iron cage of apprehending self, inherent existence, are completely beclouded with thick darkness of ignorance, are born into cyclic existence relentlessly, limitlessly, and in their birth are tortured ceaselessly by the three sufferings. Thinking thus for this condition of our mothers who have come to such a state generates this supreme altruistic intention to become enlightened. These, Tsongkhapa mentions the four powerful currents. These can be looked at from the point of view of cause and from the point of view of results. From the point of view of cause, the four powerful currents of our mother’s suffering.
Our first, the sensuous desire, you know, design objects of the senses, sight, sound, smells, taste, objects of touch. Desire for conditioned existence, ego oriented existence, craving for this continual dysfunctional re-embodiment. There is the cause of ignorance or misknowledge, both on the level of misknowledge as to the law of cause and effect, that from specific types of causes specific types of results will arise, and also misknowledge with respect to the ultimate, the mistaken understanding as to the nature of the self, the nature of all the things about us. And then fourthly, the fourth stream of which our mothers are caught up in is that of wrong views, wrong views such as eternalism, you know, thinking that things are permanent, wrong views of nihilism, thinking that things don’t exist at all, all the various types of distorted conceptions that we have. So these are the, you know, Tsongkhapa is trying to develop a metaphor that we’re being swept away by these four currents, of these four dysfunctional patterns in our mind.
All our mothers are caught up in these afflictive emotions. But also they can be looked at from the point of view of results. And when they’re considered from the point of view of results, then the currents of birth, aging, disease, and death. Nobody wants to undergo these, but we have no choice. We’re swept along.
We are uncontrollably forced to undergo this process of rebirth, this process of aging and disease and death. Śāntideva goes on to say that he’s trying to describe some of the difficulties that the people around us have so that we become aware and we begin to reflect upon the suffering which is continually going on about us, so that we begin to go beyond our own peripheral narrow confines of our self concern and begin to look at the difficulties of others and the various types of difficulties that others are experiencing. They are tied by the tight bound, tight bonds. So these tight bonds are these reoccurring dissatisfactory compulsive pattern. karma.
We’re bound by our karma. The way that we think, the way that we act are under the control of the past ways that we thought, the past ways that we’ve spoken and acted. You know, our minds are not blank slate. We have tendencies in the mind. And when we act in a particular way, when we think in a particular way, then this facilitates, makes it easier in the future that same way of acting, that same style of speaking, that same style of relating.
And it becomes, you know, this is to say we are bound by our habits. And what kinds of habits are we creating for ourselves? And as you know, anyone who tries even to quit smoking, it’s not easy to break a habit. You know, it’s like a groove. And we have to be very skillful.
We have to develop a lot of motivation to be able to get ourselves unstuck out of that groove in which our life is being led. Our mothers are entrapped in the iron cage of conceiving the self, inherent existence. So we’re going to be talking about this extensively when we come to the third fundamental, the path, when we talk about opening our minds to reality. Tsongkhapa is likening a misconception of self as to creating a prison for ourselves. The delusions, display of ego is primary reality.
We don’t touch that world as it actually is, but only the fantasy that we’ve created about it. And we live in a a many walled prison, a many walled cave. And then finally, Tsongkhapa says, We are completely enveloped in the heavy darkness of misknowledge. Again, misconceiving the nature of the self, misconceiving the nature of the things about it. Conceiving things to inherently exist, conceiving things to be self defining, that things define themselves, that we do not define them, that beauty is not in the eyes of the beholder but in here in the objects themselves.
And this, therefore, our way of relating with such misconceived types of objects becomes problematic and it becomes an object of suffering. So based upon all of these misconceptions, a variety of afflictive emotions arise. All the various types of afflictive emotions such as attachment and hatred, spite and jealousy, miserliness, which precipitate and which motivate us to engage in action. And these actions are inappropriate because they’re not dealing with the way the objects in fact exist, with the actual nature of reality. One of the characteristics of afflicted emotions is distress patterns, like for example of hatred and attachment, is that they their objects do not exist.
The objects of our hatred, the objects of our attachment do not exist. We believe they do. But if we were to be able to analyze the objects of our hatred, we would see an object, for example, a person who had no good qualities. All we see at the moment of our anger, of our malice, of our hostility, our aggression are the negative qualities of that individual. Our minds are not in a balanced state.
We’re not seeing the object realistically. That is to say, an object which has both negative and positive qualities. Our mind is not in balance. We’re discounting, we’re negating any positive qualities that object might have. We’re exaggerating, we’re focusing upon all the negative qualities that object has.
Therefore that object doesn’t exist the way it appears to the mind which is experiencing hate. The same way with attachment, the same way with all the afflictive emotions. And therefore, our objects are, the way we relate with it, always inappropriate. We are continually making a mess, and we have to continually keep cleaning up the messes that we make. And in the process of cleaning up our messes, again our actions are inappropriate, and so we make another mess, and our life becomes a continuous process of cleaning up the messes.
This is the experience of some sort of struggle, the struggle to again and again find happiness, again and again solve our problem. But it never ceases, there’s no input because our actions are never quite appropriate, they’re not accurate, they’re not really on, they’re not really in accordance with the way things are. In such a state, Tsongkhapa goes on to say, our mothers are tortured ceaselessly by the three sufferings, the three sufferings of dissatisfaction, it’s the pain, physical pain, mental pain. Every day of our life we undergo some pain, whether it’s simple pain of a headache or a stomachache, the not so simple pains of a broken bone, an accident, the dissatisfactoriness of mental pain, whether it be meeting objects which we don’t desire to meet with, not gaining the happiness that we seek, being separated from those objects that we want to hold on to, whether it be the more subtle types of mental suffering, depression, fragmentation, alienation, having to guard our territory, having to reestablish our credentials, having to be on guard, the loss of innocence, having to watch ourselves continually so we don’t goof up. You know, this is this is uncomfortable.
And the basic undercurrent of anxiety of dread, dread of not being, the dread of death, the dread of meaninglessness, hopelessness, which is at some level of our being, which we continually have to distract ourselves from. Continually involved in activity, ceaselessly having to move on, no beginning. The suffering of fluctuation, that We get something we find extremely happy. It brings us a great deal of pleasure. Then it becomes boring, then it becomes painful.
We move on. Pleasure, boring, neutral feelings, then pain. It is the very nature of our thinking process. It’s such that nothing can consistently bring us happiness. Our standards of comparison are always being lost.
And moreover, what we conceive of happiness is simply the lessening of our pain, tension reduction. And if you think of desire, what is desire basically? Most basically, it’s an awareness that we lack something. When we become aware that we lack something, there’s desire. It’s only when you become aware, I don’t have this.
I would like to have that desire arise. There’s a sense of not having. Once we get that object, the pain of not having, the discomfort, the distress of this awareness of not having is eliminated. That’s what we call happiness, tension reduction, the elimination of prior deprivation of our pain that’s happening, at least from the point of view of the conditioned existence. It’s not real happiness.
And finally, the suffering of universal conditionality, situation that we’re vulnerable. And a child is vulnerable. It’s not in control of its life to a great extent. It’s completely dependent upon others, upon adults. And all of the pain and suffering and the various patterns which are laid upon it, It has no control.
That’s its plight, that’s its situation. And then it has to live with that, that we are susceptible, we are vulnerable to pain beyond our control. Tsongkhapa goes on to say, we’re talking about our mothers, and I talked about when we were discussing the first fundamental of the path, developing the determination to awaken, when we discussed rebirth. And the fact that every produced phenomenon has a cause. And moreover, this cause must be of the same substantial type as the result.
The same substantial type as the result. And with respect to the mind, there is only one cause which is of the same substantial type as the mind, and that is the preceding moment of mind. That each moment of mind has as its cause a preceding moment of mind. And in turn, that preceding moment of mind has as its cause a preceding moment of mind in the same continuum. And continually move back even to the moment of conception.
The mind present at the moment of conception had to have a substantial cause similar in type to itself. That could only be a preceding moment of mind. Only mind creates mind. Mind doesn’t come from matter. Mind is formless, clear, non physical, and knowing.
Only that which is clear, non physical, and knowing is able to act as a cause to bring about mind. So even the mind at its conception had to have a substantial cause, similar type to itself. The only cause that could have been is a preceding moment of mind. That moment of mind is the last moment of mind or the preceding life. And that life, that last moment of preceding life had a substantial cause.
Another preceding moment of mind and that had a preceding moment of mind, another preceding moment of mind. Emptying backwards, we can never point to any moment where we say this is where my mind began, this is where my continuum of being began. We can never find that moment. The continuum of our being regresses infinitely backwards to beginningless time. And over the course of that beginningless period of time, we have taken infinite number of rebirths.
There is no place where we have not been reborn. There is no person who has not been our mother, literally. Therefore, the development of a sense of relatedness to all beings, that in fact everyone in this room has been my mother at one point or another, just like my mother of this one. Beginning to extend this sense of relativeness to all sentient beings. Thinking thus, Tsongkhapa continues, thinking thus of the condition of my mothers who have come to such a state, And we determine to help them.
We determine to help them to awaken. But, you know, but really wishing to help them, helping them is not enough. That’s very powerful and it’s a necessary prerequisite, but that in fact, you know, my wishing your stomach to be full is not going to satisfy your hunger. I actually have to give you some food. I have to actually come up with the good.
That is to say, if I wish you to be happy, I’m going to have to develop the skills, the ability to work with you to bring you happiness. Therefore, the motivating force behind our growth becomes one of the development of oneself in order to fulfill one’s responsibility, in order to be able to respond to others. To develop the inner strength, the skillful means to actually be actualized, this wish to be able to benefit others. The more we can be of use to others, the greater the possibility that we can translate our wish to help others into a practical reality. So this is the fulfillment of the potential.
The fulfillment of our potential is called awakening. A Buddha. You know, this state of a happy, healthy, loving, loving, sane human being. Someone who experiences unremitting peace with inside themselves and out of their compassion skillfully works with others in order to help them to come to that same state. This is this is our paradigm.
This is what, you know, this is what we can — what is Buddhism saying? Let’s keep redirecting ourselves toward this. Let’s hold this up as something really worthwhile and meaningful to ourselves. This is what gives us emblematic of, this image, this impression of a Buddha. That’s helpful.
It gives us something, gives us a personification which we can work with, which we can relate with. Not an abstract idea, but something a real goal, something which can work in our lives to bring about transformation. Thereby we developed this aspiration to achieve awakening, to become this happy, healthy, loving, supremely skillful person in order to help others. You know, we don’t have to be saints, don’t have to be superhuman, but we can do something. We all have some ability, we all have some love, we all have some compassion, some wisdom, some inner strength, but we can do something now and we can work to develop all of those qualities do more in the future.
That’s all. Śāntideva, one of the great eighth century Indian Buddhist masters, in talking, one of the main sources for We’re going to look at two meditative traditions for the development of the awakening heart. Now this is more or less what are you saying now? I don’t know. I don’t know if they haven’t been to the surface in a long time.
There used to be people who stood outside the surface tent and told you about all the wonderful things that are inside. So you buy a ticket and come see. So we’re telling you about all the wonderful things that are inside, so you’ll come in and give it a go. And what we’re actually going to work with, you know, the actual conditions of meditation which are going to help us develop the awakening heart are the seven cause and effect instruction and the equalizing exchange of self for others. And the main source for this latter of these two traditions is a book by Śāntideva, an eighth century Indian Buddhist master, which is called Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds or the bodhisattva’s way of life.
And in talking about this, this wonderful noble aspiration, you know, can you imagine a heart which is solely directed, and it has as its aspiration to benefit everything that lives and wants to be of optimum benefit to everything that lives. And that the heart, and if it had formed, couldn’t hold it, it would be that magnificent, that expansiveness. How can I fathom the depth of the goodness of this jewel of mine? The panacea that relieves the world of pain and is the source of all joy. If merely a benevolent intention excels venerating the Buddha, then what need to mention striving to make all beings without exception happy?
Although wishing to be rid of misery, we run toward misery itself. Although wishing to have happiness, like an enemy, we ignorantly destroy it. For those who are deprived of happiness and burdened with many sorrow, the awakened hearts satisfy them with all joys, dispels all suffering, and clears away confusion. Where is there a comparable virtue? Where is there even such a friend?
Where is there merit similar to this? I bow down to the body of him in whom the sacred, precious mind of the awakening heart is born. I seek refuge in that source of joy that brings to happiness even those who harm him. So as I mentioned, this is what the awakening heart consists of, the development of such an intention, this altruistic aspiration to develop ourselves to benefit others. And you know there is a way, there’s a system of thought to cultivate it and to go beyond our dysfunctional patterns, begin to integrate extremely skillful patterns, and then finally to make the awakening heart, this aspiration, an integral part of our way of thinking, of who we are, of our being.
We become our awakening heart. It becomes part of our mind. It’s not something we have to think about. We just are that. It becomes an integral part of who we are, of our personality, of our way of relating with the will, a part of our will do, this this intention, this quality of being.
We have been transformed. And in this process, there are two meditative traditions. There’s the, as I mentioned, the seven cause and effect instruction, which began with, has a lineage of, beginning with Śākyamūni Buddha, down to Maitreya, then to Asaṇga, a great Indian master, and to Atisha, and an unbroken lineage succession of teachers, disciple, teacher, disciple to our present teachers of this day. And then the second meditative tradition, that of equalizing and exchanging self for others, an unbroken tradition beginning with Śākyamūni Buddha down to Mañjuśrī, and to Śāntideva, who mentioned, and then from Śāntideva to Atisha, and then these are some of the notable lineage holders. But there has been an unbroken succession of lineage holders down to our present teacher for today.
And I I I’m emphasizing this fact that there is this unbroken succession of lineage holders, that these methods that we’re going to discuss have been a continuous practice for over two thousand five hundred years. They weren’t invented as a new age psychology, which come and go, come and go, come and go. There’s a new one coming on the market every week. And it’s popular, people get a bit high and then it dies away and people move on. This has been going on for two thousand five hundred years and been practiced successfully.
It’s been a tremendous benefit to thousands and thousands. It’s been refined. It’s made workable, accessible, made more powerful over the course of two thousand five hundred years, made used successfully by extraordinary and not so extraordinary people just like ourselves. So in this, I’m talking about it is said that this latter of these two methods for development of awakening heart equalizing and exchanging self with others is able to produce a more powerful awakening heart. And moreover, because it does not necessitate a conviction in rebirth, it is probably more accessible for a Westerner.
But because each person has natural tendencies, each person has various predispositions, each person is quite unique in many respects, that one of these traditions may be more effective for you than another. And in fact, Tsongkhapa actually combines these two traditions. So, you know, we can we have to work with what works for us. So we’re going to present both of these two traditions and we’re going to meditate on them. The first of these, and I’ll just talk about it roughly.
I know we’re almost out of time. The first would be what we’re going to be covering. The seven cause and effect instruction begins on the basis of equanimity, an even minded attitude toward others. By this, it means an attitude which is divorced from feelings of attachment and hatred. Attachment which holds some close, aversion which pushes others away.
So by an even minded attitude, a sense of equanimity, doesn’t mean by equanimity, it doesn’t mean indifferent. It means that a way of relating which is divorced from these two extremes of aversion and attachment, this represents the foundation. You know, we’re evening the ground, and then we’re going to build the edifice of the awakened heart upon this. Upon this basis of an even minded attitude, we then go on to recognize all living beings as our mother. And this may be problematic because we have to have a strong conviction that in fact everyone in this room, everyone that we meet, everyone that we read about in the newspaper, everyone that we hear about on television has in fact been our mother literally, not just figuratively.
In fact, this is the type of the model of relationship which we’re trying to develop in respect to all living beings using using the bond of mother and child as a model and trying to extend this to all living beings. It’s a very tremendous bond, very powerful, me motive relating, way of feeling towards another living being and trying to extend this to all living beings. It’s very profound, but maybe it maybe it will work, maybe it doesn’t work. But this becomes our basis upon this even minded attitude, recognizing all living beings as our mother. And then beginning to remember their kindness, all their various kindnesses, you know, that we’re going to go through and get in touch with some of our primordial feelings that we may have You know, a lot of people don’t like to get in touch with these feelings.
And when you begin to remember how the kindness of your mother or your father, maybe maybe you have some trouble. Many people do. But many people, aside from the problems of relating with their parents, they simply don’t want to get in touch with these feelings because there’s a sense that they’re going to lose power, that their parents are going to be You know, once you develop this third quality, of a sense of gratitude, of wishing to repay their kindness, there’s a sense, well now they’re under my power. If somebody does something for me, then I’m in their debt. They’re in a certain degree under their control.
But the fact is, we do have a debt. We have a debt to our parents, we have a debt to all of those people about us who have been kind to us. But we can choose how to repay that debt within the context of our own wisdom, in the context of our understanding of our abilities and the best way that we can be of service to others. We can determine how I’m going to repay that debt. So we can determine, it is our choice, we don’t have to be under their control.
Recognizing all mothers being as our mothers, remembering their kindness, developing a sense of gratitude, wishing to repay their kindness, then developing affectionate love, where others begin to look very pleasant. We begin to like people. And if you see some you see somebody, ah, there’s a sense of ah, it’s it’s sort of you get a warmth in when you see somebody. They look very pleasant to you as opposed to our general habitual attitude. Don’t bother me.
They look very attractive, inviting, pleasant. Something very inviting about them. On the basis of that, developing great compassion, compassion which wishes to free all living beings from their problems. And on the basis of that, developing exceptional resolve. But, you know, I want to help others, but can I?
What can I do? What is the best way that I could be of service to others? And that would be one’s own self development to an optimal mode of being, which we call Buddha, And therefore, resolving at some very deep level in your heart, I’m going to become a Buddha. That’s what I have to do. That’s the focus of my life.
And then out of that aspiration, that exceptional resolve comes the awakening heart for the sake of all living beings. I must become a happy, healthy, loving, supreme, and skillful person. That’s the first tradition, the seven cause and effect instruction. And then finally, the second of these two meditative traditions, that of equalizing and exchanging self for others. So again, we develop a sense of equanimity, but here it’s not merely developing an even minded attitude, which is divorced from aversion and attachment, but it’s more of a positive regard extended equally to everyone.
Everyone in this room wants to be happy, doesn’t want to suffer. There’s different shapes of people, different sexes. But behind those eyes, behind all of these superficial differences, it’s someone who is struggling the best they can to get some happiness out of life and doing the best they can to solve their problem. Equal, everyone equal. This is a fact.
Know generally when we relate with people we relate with form. We objectify them, we devalue them, we make them into objects. But primarily, beings are feeling beings. And we relate on the basis that there’s a feeling being, there’s a feeling being, there’s a feeling being, and moreover, they feel just like I feel. They want to be happy.
And how can I use them for my own welfare? How can I devalue them and objectify them and use them for my own self-aggrandizement, my own well-being? They feel the same way I did. They had the same aspirations, the same hopes. They want to be happy.
I’m developing this feeling of unconditional positive regard and condition. You know, whether they hurt me or don’t hurt me, I can still respect them for wanting to be happy. I can still wish them well. On the basis of this, we begin to look at the exchange of our self centered attitude toward other centeredness. And this is done progressively by first looking at the disadvantages of self-centeredness.
That our self-centeredness is a source of all our problems. Our exaggerated self concern is my me, me, me, my wants, my needs. It’s continual self absorption. That one of our most basic problems is that we’re completely absorbed in our own problems at the exclusion of of others and self defeating. If it hasn’t worked, it’s not going to work.
If all the blood, sweat, tears that we expended over the course of our lives hasn’t gotten us anywhere, and that maybe we have to begin to look at an alternative view, that of other cherishing, and beginning to look at the advantages of other cherishing. But, you know, within our own experience trying to see that when we go outside of our our habitual self concern, when we’re carried away by beautiful music, by truth, by some beauty, by reaching out to another, by deep communication, even in sexual relationship. There’s an opening, there’s a going beyond, this prison that we are habitually confined to. And our greatest moments of joy, our peak experience is always associated with going beyond this this confine that we that we’ve created for ourselves, our own self centeredness, our own self absorption. And finally, not in passing, but then we go on to, on the basis of this, actually exchange self for others, where we where we exchange roles.
We actually seek to develop an empathy and then identify with others. And how would it be to be this person, to look at the world out of their eyes, to hear that person’s situation. So we develop a multifaceted world viewpoint. We see situations from many points of view, not just our own myopic viewpoint. And then finally we bring this meditation all together into a visual technique called giving and taking, where we imaginatively take upon ourselves the suffering of others and give to them our happiness.
But this is only imaginative. There is a tremendously powerful way to open ourselves up to actualizing this way of being in fact. If we can’t think imaginatively that we can do this, how can we ever do it in fact? So, you know, it’s like akin to the psychological techniques of imagining yourself taking an exam, example, or finding the right house. It predisposes us to the actual expression of this in fact.
So we actually play with, you know, generate the associated feelings and imagine it using visual techniques of taking on suffering and giving away happiness. But then it’s only imagination. And finally out of it thinking, I want to do it in fact. And developing again this exceptional resolve which takes sole responsibility for the welfare of others. I can’t leave it up to anybody else.
This is tremendously empowering. You know generally we say, oh they’ll do it. They’ll take care of that beggar. They’ll take care of that dog laying on the side of the road. Somebody else will come along.
That’s the way we think. That’s the way we lead our lives. And there’s no power. There’s no there’s no There’s a there’s a there’s a split in ourselves, in some deep part of our being, there’s a rupture. We don’t act authentically out of a deep part of ourselves.
That impulse to help interrupted at some level. And one of the greatest interruptions is leaving it to somebody else. We can rationalize the situation, that is not up to me. But once we take reasonable responsibility then we not only act authentically, we begin to avail ourselves out of a deep reservoir of inner strength which was not accessible previously. And this inner strength is what takes us to awaken, which breaks us beyond, you know, that will take us beyond our present meditation.
And we develop the skill and the ability of the resources to be able to really benefit others. So these are the two meditative traditions that we’re going to be working with. We’re going to go through these over the next few weeks, several several few months. So I’ve gone over time as usual. Let’s dedicate the positive energy that we created.
Let’s create a potential. Always giving, always concerning ourselves with our ultimate goals, what we hold as highest. Used to ask people, know, talking this way, is it of any use? Does it mean anything? And people would say, you know, I can’t you know, it’s not something that I can actualize at this moment tonight, but it’s really worthwhile to at least hear about it, so my mind is opened up.
Something I can work towards, a goal, something which is above, just at my everyday experiences. So these are things that we’re working towards. We can make life plans. In Buddhism they make these life plans extend over millenniums. So maybe we can’t actualize this week, this month, that we can act we can, you know, create a direction for ourselves, and it becomes important for ourselves.
Our mind always has some nobility about it. We always have something which we can be looking toward, and our mind is lifted upward toward what we find worthwhile, what we believe in. And so even in our dedication, you know, we dedicated something beyond ourselves, something beyond mundane, something beyond our own piece of chocolate cake. 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, but increase all in one.
So if you’d like to get a cup of tea, for those of you who would like to stay, we’ll have our discussion. Have a good week.