Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The fish-and-water analogy anchors this brief 5-minute segment from Ven Jampa Gendun’s ongoing series on Prāsaṇgika Madhyamaka philosophy: just as a fish cannot perceive the water it inhabits, the untrained mind fails to recognize the emptiness pervading all things. Gendun clarifies a key Prāsaṇgika tenet — that emptiness of persons (the self does not inherently exist) and emptiness of phenomena (the table does not inherently exist) are equally subtle, neither more profound than the other. He explains why analysis conventionally begins with the self: familiarity with oneself makes it the more accessible entry point. The session closes by naming the four essentials — a precise analytical method developed by Buddhist masters to force a genuine confrontation with reality — to be explored in the following week’s class.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 11 HoM 1993 11 10.mp3
UUID: fb2a071b-0b35-4a48-9c5f-77f0f0464bae
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1993-11-10
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 5.3 minutes
Words: ~579
The table does not inherently exist. This I do not inherently exist is an emptiness of persons. The table does not inherently exist is an emptiness of phenomena. The Prāsaṇgika Madhyamaka school, which we’re presently discussing, holds that these two types of emptiness are exactly the same in terms of subtlety. One is not more deeper than the other.
But because of our familiarity with our selves as opposed to tables and rugs and cushions or whatever, it’s easier to begin to understand emptiness in terms of ourselves. But there’s no difference in terms of subtlety, of understanding that I do not inherently exist and this table does not inherently exist. One is not more profound than the other. One is not more deeper than the other. We can understand emptiness in terms of I, the self, the person, more readily because we’re more familiar with the object, with ourselves.
So the method that we’re going to be making, we’re going to begin to actually perform an analysis. We’re going to work with a method. And this method is called the four essentials. The essential of ascertaining the object negation, the essential of ascertaining the pervasion, the essential of ascertaining the lack of sameness, and the essential of ascertaining the lack of difference. So this is the method we’re going to work with, which we’ll begin to talk about next week.
This is the way that we’re going to approach in a very methodical fashion. Over the centuries masters have tried to come to ways in which we can confront. How do we help the fish? How do we help the fish realize the nature of the water in which it exists, to become aware? And so they, you know, without, it is as if trying to provide some accessible method which, if we commit ourselves to reason and our own experience, forces ourselves into an understanding of emptiness.
We don’t allow ourselves some escape. It has to be very precise, the analysis. Otherwise there’s always going to remain some kind of doubt. There’s always going to be some possibility, Oh, but it could be whatever. Formulating some means by which the mind is confronted with the reality that something that is held without question, every moment of its existence, does not exist the way it has always appeared to one. So is, you know, these are the techniques, the methods which have been developed over the centuries as a means to bring about this confrontation of the mind with the nature of reality.
It’s like a handle. It’s not something vague. It’s not something which is arbitrary. It’s not something which can leave room to maintain an unconvinced mind. If we have enough, if we learn and we apply and we commit ourselves to reason and experience then there will arise a confrontation of the mind in which insight will occur and the mind will understand something that it has never understood before.
I’m going to have to wait until next week. So we’ll dedicate the creative potential that we’ve accumulated. 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 more. Those of you who like to remain for discussion, you might like to get a cup of tea.