Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A quote from Sufi master Idries Shah — “your real problem is that you’re a member of the human race” — opens this 46-minute session with Ven Jampa Gendun on the bodhisattva path. He uses it to argue that our problems are not isolated inconveniences to be cut away but expressions of how we live. He walks through the six perfections in psychological terms — generosity, ethics, tolerance, joyous effort, meditation, wisdom — reframing heroism as refusing to be ruled by fear rather than having none. The second half guides a Śākyamūni Buddha visualization for purification, unpacking the four opponent powers with careful attention to the difference between regret and guilt, before closing on equanimity as the indispensable ground for cultivating bodhicitta, illustrated with a striking parallel from the Sermon on the Mount.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 HoM 1993 02 24.mp3
UUID: 31463168-4ab8-4b18-a51c-c2c31e942365
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1993-02-24
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.1 minutes
Words: ~5,203
Few old faces back. Begin by adjusting our motivation. This process of redirecting ourselves, reprioritizing our values, getting back in touch, reinspiring ourselves, reorientating yourself again and again. Trying to find out what is important for ourselves at a very basic level in order to solve our more fundamental problems of what it means to be an ordinary human being. In terms of being an ordinary human being, there’s a quotation by Idries Shah, who was a Sufi master, in which he says, he’s speaking to someone else.
I’ve heard all that you have had to say to me on your problems. You asked me what to do about them. It is my view that your real problem is that you’re a member of the human race. Face that one first. We oftentimes see our problems as isolated units.
Extraneous things like warts, molds, they’ve been cut off. We see them as problems as something which we can get rid of, which aren’t as if removing something, a part of it without having to change. More than being isolated units of things problems, difficulties, are expressions of the way we’re living our life, of who we are. They’re not separate from ourselves. Our beliefs, our ideas, our assumptions, how we deal with situations, how we live our lives, the quality of being, the flow of our existence.
They are appropriate to who we are. There’s a sense that we can rid ourselves of our problems without having to basically change ourselves. The way you live your life. The way you live your life is your problem or it’s the solution to your problem. So the bodhisattva.
The bodhisattva is literally is one who is heroic with respect to awakening, with respect to bodhi, enlightenment. There’s someone who is seeking to bring all their spiritual, physical and mental energies to focus on the process of an ultimate solution to their problem as expressed in a way of life. They’re trying to break the chains of their pain and their confusion so it doesn’t keep reoccurring. But not only that, helping others to work with their neuroses, their speed, take responsibility for themselves as well as responsibility for others. And this rededication, this reorientation, this remotivation, redirecting ourselves, as I’ve mentioned, it has two basic causes.
The first of which is the sense of anxiety, uneasiness, maybe some kind of dread about this continual reoccurrence of our problems, these themes of dissatisfaction which permeate our life. And then the other, as has been mentioned, was faith. And the way we are to work out of our confusion, to work out of our pain, to interrupt the reoccurring compulsive chains of dissatisfaction and confusion, is by implementing the various practices and refuge that we recite as a way of reminding us, reorienting ourselves. First we take refuge and then we commit ourselves to certain practices. It says by the practices of generosity, etc.
These are the basic means by which the bodhisattva actualizes his aspiration. The six perfection, perhaps better translated as the six transcendence, That which takes him or her beyond the present state of an ordinary being with all their confusion and pain, but to a state where they can be of real benefit to both themselves and others. They can be of real use to themselves and others in a very profound sense. So we begin to practice as a practical means to implement our aspiration to help ourselves and others. We begin with the practice of generosity and beginning to become open handed with whatever we may have.
It might be material, it might be time, it might be energy, knowledge. Whatever it is that we have, we become more and more open handed with it. The second of the six perfections, this transcendence, ethics. In the sense of, you know, developing a sense of trust in our own basic sanity and the basic sanity of others. In the sense that we can work with ourselves and others non violently.
And so the basis of our interaction with ourselves, how we deal with ourselves, is non coercive, non violent. That’s just in a gentle, caring manner because we understand that we have our own basic sanity and we respect that in others. And we communicate with that basic sanity of others And trust in that basic sanity of others. And this is expressed in the way we deal with others in terms of non violence, non coerciveness, non manipulation. And then there’s the third of the six perfections is tolerance.
Creating the space of understanding where we can whereby we are able to work with our own and others neuroses, our confusion. Tolerance is a very spacious attitude where we can allow things to be and where we can allow the healing process to take place, where we can create the space to foster the rational beliefs which act as a foundation for understanding acting appropriately in dealing with situations efficiently and effectively. So creating that space in the sense of tolerance, you know, without this knee jerk reaction, simply a reflex reaction. But being able to find some perspective, some standpoint where you can begin to reframe the situation, find new meaning and alter one’s beliefs. And then there’s joyous effort, the fourth of the six perfections, which is beginning to become inspired.
And I think the idea of effort is important, but it specifically means joyous effort. It’s not simply a heavy handed attitude or a way of dealing with ourselves or others. There is some sense of caring and nonviolence accompanied with understanding and wisdom in this effort. There’s some kind of tremendous energy beginning to out of a sense of inspiration from seeing some vision, seeing the possibility of solving our problems and getting some kind of taste of possibility of freedom, of who you could be in your finest moment. And so this inspiration, this vision acts as a motivating force to help us to go beyond our emotional complications, all our conceptual frivolities.
A tremendous energy and a willingness to work with others and work hard for the sake of them through simplifying the focus of our lives. The fifth of the six perfections is that of meditation. You know meditation has many connotations. We talk to, I’ve talked to, videos about meditation, what it may be and what it isn’t. But the basic practice of meditation perhaps is simply the willingness to work unceasingly with our neurosis, with our speed, with our afflicted emotions.
That willingness to work with. And then finally, the sixth of the six perfections, the perfection of wisdom, a real interest in learning about ourselves, learning about the way things are, about reality, a desire to go beyond all our dogma, all of ego’s fantasies. So these are the way that we practically implement the aspiration to change. In taking some kind of direction in our life, we actually begin to engage in walking the path in solving our problems in a very realistic way. These are the practices of a bodhisattva.
Someone who is heroic with respect to awakening. I think the idea of a hero or heroine. And as someone who’s fearless. But the idea of being fearless is not necessarily to have no fears, but not to allow your fears to run your life, to be under their control. To open ourselves up to all the possibilities of pain, which living life at its fullest represents in terms of both our own and others’ pain as well.
And this is a heroic attitude and wanting to work with that situation, work with that confusion, and work through it, both by ourselves and others. So this is the philosophical aspiration. The inner focus of their life becomes Buddha, just like ourselves. This possibility of becoming a happy, healthy, loving, sane human being, There’s someone who has solved their problems at a very basic level and experiences a sentient beings and fulfillment and peace in their lives. And motivated by their compassion and their commitment to the welfare of others, to working with others.
Seeks to help others to find meaning, fulfillment and peace in their lives. And this is our style, our way we live our life. And this is the solution to our problems, the way we live our life. The way we live our life is either our problem, it’s the solution to our problems. And this, I think Buddhism is saying, this is a way of solving our problems, this particular way of life, this approach, this particular style.
So if we can keep refostering, redirecting ourselves such that the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha, this way of life, and committing ourselves to these various practices of generosity, etcetera, generosity, ethics, tolerance, joyous effort, meditation, and wisdom. These are the Dharma, the actual means through which we actualize Buddha. And this is all done in the context of the spiritual community, the social environment, the social atmosphere in which growth takes place. And raising the level of motivation such that we’re doing this not just for ourselves, which is simply to perhaps extend our problem using what could be the solution as a means of supporting self centeredness and our selfishness. But going beyond that and trying to use these methods, trying to foster the motivation, trying to live a style of life which is in some way generous in terms of whatever we might have to offer to others.
And seeking continuing to raise the level of our generosity of our ethics, of our talents, of our choice, of our meditation and wisdom until it becomes the perfection of these. And then we become a Buddha, and then we are empowering, and we have solved our own problems. And we can in a real way give significant benefit in helping others to solve their problem. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the highest assembly. And 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 all sentient beings.
I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the highest assembly. And the virtuous merits that I collect by practicing giving any other perfections, may I attain the state of the Buddha to be able to benefit all sentient beings. I go for a refuge until I am enlightened So I’m going to I thought we’d do a practice using Śākyamūni Buddha and using it as a method of purification. In the purification, begin to disassociate ourselves to begin to break our identification with many of our negative patterns which govern our lives, whatever negatively they may have been. And this disassociation or re identification process with more positive, skillful patterns, emotions, feelings.
It involves an application of the four powers, the four powers. The first of which is the power of regret. So we are looking at our life, in our life history, the various negativities that we’ve involved ourselves in. And we develop a sincere sense of regret about those negativities. You know, it’s important to have some feeling about what is meant by regret here as opposed to the notion of guilt.
The idea of regret which is being gotten at here is simply a sense of having made a mistake. And if one were to add one to one and make three, that would be a mistake. And it could have far reaching consequences. It could create a great deal of difficulties for yourself and many other people, but it was only a mistake. It’s not an expression of one’s inherent nature.
Was something about oneself at a deep level under the influence of confusion, mistaken notion, wrong idea. They made a mistake And one simply can have regret that. So whatever negativity we may have created, it’s not an expression of our nature. That is simply an expression that we acted unskillfully, inappropriately, that we acted under the the intent of distorted premises, some wrong ideas, the afflicted emotions, perhaps jealousy, desire, attachment, hatred, whatever it might have been. But it’s not expression of our basic nature.
It’s simply that we made a mistake. And we can simply appreciate that it was unskillful, that it was in our best self interest or the interest of others, And develop a sense of regret in the sense that I wish I hadn’t done that. That wasn’t If I had to do it again, if I could have thought more clearly in that situation, have more perspective over the course of during the course of those events, I would have acted differently in another manner. I regret. And then the second of these four pointed powers is traditionally called refuge.
This is the idea that we talked about at beginning of our discussion in the sense of redirecting ourselves. There are two objects toward which we can generate negativity. The first is said to be the Buddha. And this is that in the course of committing ourselves to awaken, committing ourselves to the goal of the inner goal of our life, We people often take vows, their formal declarations of what their life stands for, what they would like, what they aspire, guidelines, training rules. And in the course of a situation, they lose sight of their goal.
And they are in contradiction to these guidelines that they aspire to follow. And in doing that, is as if we turn our back on the Buddha inside of ourselves. That is to say the goal, the inner focus of our life. And so the idea of redirecting ourselves is simply that, recommitting ourselves to growth, to developing ourselves. Retaking this commitment, this direction, refocusing, reorientating ourselves.
The second object towards whom we can develop and we can create negativity are sentient beings in general or living beings in general. And if we and those who aspire to practice the universal vehicle, the vehicle of loving and patience, then this is in order to, necessarily having committed negativities to others, the negativity implies having harmed. This is all that we mean by negativities. That which harms oneself or another is negative. That which helps oneself or another is positive.
There’s no moral judgment being made. But having committed oneself to the welfare of others, in harming others, we’ve as it were lost sight of our aspiration, what we’re about. And so we again, we recommit ourselves to the welfare of others. We generate a sense of compassion and caring for those we may have hurt in the course of engaging with negative action. Then the third opponent power is that of reversal.
One of the distinct qualities of karma is that there is a tendency to repeat the same action. This is simply the ideal habit. The more that you do something, the greater the tendency that you’ll do it again. That doing it once facilitates doing it again. It becomes easier to do it the second time, becomes easier than that to do it the third time, and it becomes a habit, becomes ingrained.
And so it’s necessary to begin to try to interrupt this repetitive pattern. And this is done through this third opponent power, reversing or interrupting this reoccurring pattern. And in this we simply determine in some honest fashion that I’m not going to repeat this action again for the next whatever it might be, maybe the next hour or the next day. Something that you can realistically commit yourself to and that you will be mindful of committing yourself not to repeat it again. And this is just a simple process of breaking a habit.
It weakens this repetitive cycle by the determination and the mindfulness, which is maintained during particular interval. So picking a time that you can honestly commit yourself to not repeat this action again begins to interrupt the pattern. And fourthly, some type of antidote. And antidote is simply a way of creating some kind of positive potential, some sort of creative energy, whereas to balance the negativity that you previously created. And there are various ways in which we can create we can accumulate creative potential.
There’s a list of various traditional methods such as the recitation of various mantras, of various texts, various prostrations. But in general we can commit any type of positive action which is constantly engaged with the understanding that this is act as a counter agent to the previously negative action that I committed before can be an antidote. And tonight, we’re going to go through this process. And as an antidote, we’re going to engage in a meditation on Śākyamūni Buddha. Śākyamūni Buddha is the Buddha which is depicted in this painting.
And we’re going to, it’s necessary to first study it well. Try to memorize visually the shape, the color, the pattern, the way it looks the arm is positioned, way in relationship to the head, in relationship to the foot. Try to, as it were, memorize all the details. And then cause it to arrive approximately one and a half meters in front of you, about the size of your hand at the at the level of your forehead. And it’s it’s simply a training, the process of visualization.
So if nothing appears to you, then it’s not an indication of whether something about yourself is just simply an indication that more training and visualization needs to be implemented. It becomes easier the more you do it. It’s something that we all were able to do until when we were very small, when we were children, when we were babies. That we we visualized almost everything that we that we thought of, that we have lost that ability. So this cause even if you just see a yellow spot, that’s fine.
Don’t try to make it clear. Whatever have you memorized and then cause whatever, you can to appear. If it’s a gold spot, that’s great. Just hold on to that. Don’t try to keep making it clear and clear or you’ll simply agitate your mind and you’ll lose whatever it was.
Just try to hold whatever it was. But moreover and more importantly than the visualization itself, try to have a sense that this represents an expression of one’s own inner potential. And as it were, if our inner direction of our life is Buddha, and this is the personification, the embodiment or taking form of our own potential of becoming this happy, healthy, loving, sane human being. It’s not something divorced from ourselves. It is not something outside of ourselves.
It is if we are relating with a potential of ourselves. And in order to relate with it in a more concrete fashion, we give it a form, a visual form. And we call that form of Buddha, Our own potential. And then everything, the complete actualization of our human potential. And then we’re going to make requests to that potential of ourselves through the Buddha and to aid us in the purification process.
And as an antidote, in answer to that request, a white light streams down from the heart of the Buddha visualized in front of us to the crown of your head. And along this white light, almost like a tube, white nectar and lights begin to flow, completely filling your body with brilliant white lights and nectars. Eliminating all the darkness, all the negativity in your body completely. There’s nothing left. All the negativities, all the darkness is completely gone, completely dispelled, and there’s a sense of lightness.
And then allowing yourself to let go into that sense of purity, the sense of innocence. The idea of letting go. Mind, cognitive systems are model builders and in thinking we make use of models. Amongst our various models we have a model of the self, of ‘I’. And we see and we view the world and evaluate it with reference to this model of I.
We’re always seeing everything in terms of this model of I, of self. So what it means to let go is that we give up this reference point, which is the idea of the subject which is viewing everything, which is the experience of our experience and which is the seer of our sight, which is the hearer of our sound. We try to momentarily let go of that necessity to hold on to some sort of reference point. And we dwell at oneness with the experience of innocence, of light, of purity. It is as if we let go of that monetarily and that continual reference point that we’re holding onto, that we fixate upon about who I am.
So to let go means to talk in this way, allows some context for this to occur. That you won’t disappear, there’s nowhere to go. But you can give up this reference point momentarily and just be within that experience without having to watch yourself experience as we have what you can do. But simply purifying the negativities is not enough to really be of ultimate benefit to ourselves and to others. What we need is to grow in wisdom and love.
And so making heartfelt requests for the development of all the qualities, positive qualities, qualities which will be of use to ourselves and to others, mainly a lot of compassion. And in answer to this request, a golden ray of light streams down from the Buddha’s heart to the crown of your head. And along this golden ray flow golden light and nectar, completely filling your body with golden buoyant yellow golden light and nectar, which is wisdom, which is love, which is all the possible acts and qualities and then allowing oneself to let go. Beyond one’s limitations, one can set the concept for oneself. That I’m this much intelligent, that I’m this much loving, that I’m this much have this much wisdom.
But letting go into a sense of having complete wisdom beyond any types of limitations or limits in totality, in some other order of being. Letting oneself go into that sense of knowing, sense of complete openness of one’s heart and mind. And then finally, Śākyamūni Buddha comes to the crown of our head and turns and dissolves down into ourselves. And we we begin to dissolve from the bottom upwards and from the top down, completely disappearing, completely dissolving. But before we do that, we’re going to, you know, thinking about all the various sentient beings, all the various living beings in the universe who are undergoing various difficulties, various suffering, and radiating and bringing white light to all of them.
And by this means they they go beyond all their problems. They may develop all their excellent qualities and they themselves become Buddhas. And then all the Buddhas in the environment dissolve into ourselves and we ourselves dissolve and there’s only clear space.. And in the course of this, we’re going to recite the mantra from Śākyamūni Buddha, which is on page at the bottom of page six. So first for adjusting your motivation, we’re going to develop the three levels of compassion, the three levels of love towards someone that we are not intimate with, but someone that we like, that we care about.
And then we’ll do mindfulness of breathing. And we’re going to do this practice together, Śākyamūni Buddha. So if you take a comfortable firm position. So beginning by thinking of someone. Tonight, I’m discussing the second of the three principles of the path, the awakening heart.
We’re going to begin the first of the two meditative traditions, the systems of cultivating an awakening heart. And this is called the Seven Cause and Effect Instruction. It has its basis in equanimity. Equanimity, an even minded attitude towards everyone. Essentially, equanimity is a mind which is free of attachment and aversion, which regards others in even minded fashion.
It is said with respect to this meditative tradition, Seven Cause and Effect Instruction, that if one can develop this sense of equanimity, then one can very quickly cultivate an awakening heart. But it is extremely difficult to cultivate this first,. It is like the foundation of the other six causes and effects, this even minded attitude. It’s like in order to construct the edifice of the awakening heart, it’s necessary to even the ground upon which it’s going to be built. And the ground upon which it’s going to be built is the ground of equanimity.
And generally due to our desire, we our attachment, we we cling to our friends and we have aversion towards our enemies, those people we don’t like. And to the great multitudes of people, who simply have a sense of indifference. We neither like them nor dislike them. It’s as if they don’t exist for us. So we’re continually categorizing individuals in these three different ways.
I think essentially what we’re looking for in the development of equanimity is to see the arbitrariness of our categorization process. And that these categories are easily changeable. And that way we fixate on them. We won’t hold too tightly to the label and their only label. Do others appear to us to be lovable?
Do others appear to us to be repulsive from their own side? We forget it is ourselves who are creating these categories of friend, enemy and stranger. These three categories in which we place all living beings in. And we fixate upon them. So we’re trying to develop a more fluid and open way of relating.
Where there’s a potential to have a positive regard for everyone. We open to the possibility of other more useful ways of relating to others. Equanimity is not simply an intellectual concept. It is a specific awareness. An awareness which involves a transformation of our present basic attitudes, which we categorize others.
To give you an idea, there’s a quote in it from the bible. But I say unto you, love your enemies and pray for those that persecute you, that you may be the sons of your father which is in heaven. For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good and he sendeth his rain on the just and the unjust. And then within the Buddhist context, the Tathāgata, that is to say a Buddha. The Tathāgata treats the whole world like a cloud shedding its waters without distinction.
He has the same sentient beings for the high as well as for the low, for the wise as well as for the ignorant, for the noble minded as well as for the immoral. You know, Christ admonishes us to love our enemies. He doesn’t say we have to like our enemies. Enemies are people we don’t like. But we cannot like someone, but wish them well, respect them.
Simply not liking someone does not mean it follows that we have to hate them, that we have to wish them harm. We can admit not liking someone, we can admit in our own mind that this person wants to be happy and doesn’t want to suffer. We can still regard them as human being, just like ourselves. That is to say we can actually we can love someone we don’t like. We are not compelled to hate them.
Simply because we don’t get along with someone does not mean that we have to wish them pain, that we have to wish them punishment. It does not necessarily follow. You know, Christ doesn’t say that that we should love our enemies for any particular moral reason. But in doing so, we are following nature. The way he says that the sun rises on the just and the unjust.
That the rain falls on the evil as well as the good. This is the nature of it. You know, we have very karmic relationships with various people. You have various influences on various people. And some individuals you could spend a great deal of time and energy and you have almost no influence over them.
Others, a simple smile or a simple frown can have a powerful effect on them due to our karmic affinity, our connectedness with them. With others, you have a natural closeness with others, an affinity with others, and a separation from others. With one person we might share many common interests. We might have similar views. We might have a similar sense of humor.
We might enjoy the same activity. On the other hand, someone else we have nothing in common. You might be totally opposite in many ways. There might not be anything that you share interest in or enjoyment that you can you can do together. That’s the distinct part of the attraction, the main attraction in liking.
So we can like certain types of people to be around us. To say that we’ll have to develop in a sense of equanimity doesn’t mean that we have to invite our enemies over for dinner. It is to say that we can be open to the possibility of relating to them in another way. That we don’t hold so tight to this category of enemy. And act with all these associated emotions such as hatred, such as harmful attitude and harmful intention.
Due to our karma, our karma meaning our tendencies or predisposition. We have different affinities. We relate differently with different people. You see, you know, this is so natural. That is a natural consequence of previous ways of thinking, of previous ways of behaving.
That’s karma. And it is really based upon ego projection. So we can begin to differentiate between our afflictive emotions and our karma. We have to work within the context of our karma so we can begin to discriminate our karma from our afflictive emotions and begin to oppose our afflictive emotions. And we have to accept our present karma and work within it, work with it and within It’s the context in which we have to operate.
For example, men and women, they generally find pleasure with one another. So this is a product of their karma. That is to say, it is a natural consequence of their previous ways of thinking and relating with one another due to which they act as a cooperative condition whereby they’re able to generate pleasure in the other person. They can experience pleasure together. One acting as the cooperative condition, they experience pleasure for the other.
The afflictive patterns of desire or attachment have nothing whatsoever to do with that pleasure that they experience with one another. It is due to the force of the karma, the previous ways of relating with one another, their previous ways of interacting with one another. It has nothing to do with their present attachment toward one another, their present desire toward one another. If someone were to give you an unexpected gift,, someone were to give you a piece of chocolate and you eat it.