Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A five-stanza poem about a person who keeps falling into the same hole in the sidewalk — only gradually learning to see it, walk around it, and choose a different street — opens Ven Jampa Gendun’s 46-minute session. He uses that image to frame Buddhism as a system of self-correction. He then covers the three higher trainings — ethics, concentration, and wisdom — as progressively deeper layers of harmony: ethics steadies outer relations, concentration integrates the mind’s conflicting impulses, wisdom resolves the root split between self and other. He warns against spiritual materialism, where the ego congratulates itself on its own progress. The second half distinguishes pragmatic being (goal-directed) from aesthetic being (resting wholly in the present moment), arguing meditation recovers the latter. The session closes with a guided practice of loving-kindness, breath-noting, and choiceless awareness.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 15 HoM 1993 03 31.mp3
UUID: f8770cef-e33f-415a-8470-25b91a79d8f6
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1993-03-31
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.9 minutes
Words: ~4,228
Finding out where we’re at, making adjustments in accordance with some basic values and basic guidelines that we would like to adhere to, that we find meaningful, which have at some time in our life brought us a sense of fulfillment and purpose in our life. They’re getting back in touch with these are the most deeply cherished values. What’s important to me? What brings meaning to my life? What can I believe in?
I’d like to read you a poem. First paragraph. I walk down the street. There’s a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in.
I am lost. I am hopeless. It isn’t my fault. It takes forever to find a way out. Second paragraph.
I walk down the same street, there is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don’t see it. I fall in it again. I can’t believe I’m in the same place, but it isn’t my fault. It still takes a long time to get out.
Very clear. Walk down the same street. There’s a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it there. I still fall in it.
It’s a habit. My eyes are open, I know where I am, it is my fault. I get out immediately. I walk down the same street, there is a deep hole on the sidewalk, I walk around it. Fifth paragraph, I walk down another street.
We’ve all had the experiences that we missed the lesson. We’re quite sometimes we’re slow learning. Buddhism is basically a means to help us not to miss or dismiss the lessons that reality is continually trying to bring to us. So we don’t continually make the same mistakes again and again that we can be by pointing out the whole. We don’t have to fall into it so many times before we learn.
And we learn how to deal with it a little more skillfully, a little more in ourselves and our others’ selfless interests. You know this process, one way it is looked at in terms of the Dharma, these techniques, the truth, this pointing out process is expressed in practices in terms of the three higher trainings. A higher training in ethics, a higher training in meditative stabilization, meditation just in general, and higher training in wisdom. And I think it’s useful to look at these practices in terms of the evolution of harmony, of balance, of resolution of conflict. You know, on a grosser level, we can begin to harmonize ourselves in terms of our relationships with the external world, with other people, with the institution, but also at certain levels of our own psyche.
And by enacting ethics. Ethics is simply those guidelines or an atmosphere we can create whereby we don’t harm ourselves. We don’t cause a rupture, a split between our basic Buddha nature, our growing sanity, our own sanity, and ways of acting which prevent the evolution of our basic goodness, of our Buddha nature. We are as if creating an atmosphere that conducive conditions, the environment, whereby our basic sanity is able to find expression in solving the basic problems of life. The mind is in distress.
You know there’s been a basic split between self and other and this absolutizing of self and other. And from there, henceforward, the mind is totally involved in resolving this most basic and most subtle distress which it experiences. But the method that it uses in working with the problem of resolving this distress are often counterproductive, dysfunctional. The mind is always moving to a level of correction, self correction. It is a system which is seeking to correct its own distress.
A system, whether it be a world system, whether it be a particular ecology, or whether it be a mind, It’s always tending toward a harmonizing of all its disparate parts into a unified whole. This is true of a force, it’s true of a weather system. There’s always this tendency to create the most stable, the most harmonious, the situation in which everything is integrated into a balanced whole. This tendency with respect to the mind is this intrinsic instinct toward wakefulness. It’s seeking, there’s a basic tendency toward harmony, toward balance.
The mind is continually striving to remove this basic most distress brought about by primordial ignorance. And it’s using its various means. Some of these means simply not working in their lives. Whatever they might be, we have to see them as an expression of the intelligence of our mind. Whether it be anger, attachment, jealousy.
The mind is doing the best it can with what it has learned up to that point. But just because we use it as a method doesn’t mean it’s the most functional. But if we begin to to consciously seek out more effective means to bring about this harmony. That anger simply doesn’t seem to be work. It seems to be counterproductive.
If we begin to analyze the situation about it, attachment doesn’t seem to work, jealousy, spite, miserliness. And these are simply dysfunctional means of solving the basic problem of distress within your mind. That’s all. The mind is trying the best it can to work with this problem. So the dharma is simply trying to raise the level of self correction to a higher order of evolution, which begins to point out that this isn’t working.
Why don’t you try this thing? And if we begin to present that clearly to the mind, the mind it will evolve toward that, will begin to incorporate it, to integrate that as part of its repertoire of means to solve distress. It’s going to move, it’s going to evolve. If it has, if what we learn we come to know, and what we come to know we come to be. So we all have these lessons.
We’ve all been falling down holes that we need to, as it were, have been pointed out so that we consciously begin to look for the hole. Begin to look at the drawbacks of continuing falling in these holes. And then we’re going to avoid those holes. And then maybe we’ll even begin to look for streets where there are no holes at all. And the way that this is in fact practiced pragmatically is through these higher trainings.
And one of them is simply ethics. So ethics is simply a way to help us avoid holes. So we don’t keep falling down holes. You know there’s no judgment, there’s no moral judgment, there’s no one out to get it. It is simply a way that we can move toward higher orders of self correction.
We can start to move toward a harmony between ourselves and the outside world on one hand and also begin at a grosser level to harmonize the warring factors inside of our own psyche. We can begin to, you know, go beyond this emotional conflict, you know, continuing in the jaws of emotion of a split mind, the duality this war which is continually being waged with inside our own mind. On the basis of having harmonized peace, having come to some peace with the world outside of oneself and a gross level of our own psyche, then we can move on to higher orders of self correction. We can get into to practice higher order of concentration in the sense that concentration is a focusing, integrating all our mental energy, harmonizing all of these various factors around a central theme, central point. The mind begins to the mind begins to find some level where no longer is these grosser levels of distress have ceased.
There’s a certain serenity. All of these psychic factors, these elements within the mind which are continually drawing us in all of these various directions. So even the process of meditation is not a war against oneself. It’s harmonizing and integrating all these mental factors into a balanced and integrated whole focused upon a central object. If it is anything, it is experienced as relaxation.
We give up the battle. There is a deep sense of a quiescence. So we’re moving toward deeper and deeper levels of harmonizing, of going beyond this distress. But obviously, you know, even though the mind is in tremendous peace at this time, there is still a very subtle layer of distress, the distress of this duality between self and other, this absolute demarcation, this encapsulated ego, this boundary that we’ve set up between a conception of self, of I and other, and myself in the external world. And so it is only wisdom which can harmonize, which can bring about the most basic solution to this most subtle level of distress.
This primordial split between self and others, between inside and the external world. So we practice wisdom. All of these various trainings are simply means of creating, of working at overcoming those levels of distress, seeking to integrate, seeking to harmonize, seeking to pacify these warring conflicting conceptions with respect to the outside, but increasingly more in terms of our own psyche. And working down to the most basic level of this distress between self and not self, and with respect to wisdom. All of these ways, The use of ethics, use of concentration and development of wisdom, discrimination, appreciative awareness, being able to understand what our problems are, you know, on a mundane level And being able to bring the situation to clarity before our mind so that our basic sanity can begin to operate on that problem and move our mind to a higher order of self correction.
They are all, all of these methods are simply a way of assisting ourselves, a way of allowing our Buddha nature to evolve. But we have to, you know, we have to take conscious control. There are different levels of influences which we’re continually being subjected to. There’s a biological level, a biological imperative. We have to eat, we have to sleep, and we have almost have almost beyond our present control as ordinary individuals.
Then there are the social influences because we are social beings. But at some level in our evolution of consciousness we have to take begin to exercise a higher level, begin to see the imperative of working toward this, you know, taking conscious control, using our exercising our own Buddha nature, own wisdom, in taking control and moving the mind to higher orders of self direction beyond the biological imperative, beyond social imperative, but in terms of the evolutionary potential of our own mind. So I guess what I’m getting at is simply that these are simply, all of these are means to help us to quit missing the hole, to get out of the hole more quickly when we do fall into it, to learn about the whole. And then maybe to begin to think about another street. Learning the map of our own mind so that we can begin to make more intelligent choices in our lives about how, what experiences we want to occur, what kind of life we want to live.
You know, I think I pointed out numerous times that more than anything I have a sense that the Buddha was simply someone who points out a real pointer. You know, the Buddha, I think I mentioned last week in terms of the bodhisattva. The bodhisattva, this whole notion of teaching others is, you know, we can bring into question to some degree. But the bodhisattva opens her heart and tries to leave it open. Within the context of that open space where there is intelligence, where there is wisdom working, then some kind of inspiration, some kind of insight communication can occur.
There’s some movement, some kind of a difference which makes a difference can be brought about. So the Buddha in the thangka, in the painting at the back, showing in your left hand wall in the back, is pointing this way out. This is the street that you should try. This kind of means to help ourselves. So the way we can begin to help ourselves in practical measure is in terms of these three higher trainings of ethics, in terms of not as a sense of terms of any absolute imperative that as if there’s some moral judgment or or that we will be punished or that we need to be good in order to please something outside of ourselves.
It’s simply as a way, as a as a real tool to begin to find some peace in our lives. To align our our being with Buddha being. That is to say this possibility or the potential of being a happy, loving, healthy, sane human being. But we’re beginning to align ourselves with that possibility. Now this process is the realignment of our allegiance from a life passively based upon hopes and fears to one which is actually based upon choosing growth, choosing Buddha, choosing whatever we wish to call actualization of the potential of humanity, of this evolution that we’re all involved in one way or another, aligning ourselves with that process.
And this is experience of more peace, there’s more fulfillment, more satisfying, authentic way of being. And we try to, you know, try to label, raise the level of our motivation for this process. Just like we’re not doing it just for ourselves. Not the actual act of seeking to in terms of one exaggerated self concern, seek to You know, it’s like I’ve heard it described as if the ego wanting to be at its own funeral. You work very hard and do all the meditations right and you fulfill all the the shoulds that you ever learned And one day you said, oh, I really made it.
I got there. And the ego pats you on the back and says, that’s the way to go. You really did it right. And maybe you really have only reinforced your misconceptions. And in the meanwhile done great violence to yourself.
So the way that we can fall out of this catch-22, the way that we can avoid the pitfall of simply compounding our problems by becoming totally absorbed in our own problems even if the way that we can go beyond spiritual materialism is by raising the level of motivation such that what we’re doing is not only for my own piece of chocolate cake, not for my own total self concern, but in some way, by some means, it’s going to be a benefit to others. The more abilities that I have, the more skills that I have, and will I be able to respond to the needs of others in some way, just not immediately, but somewhere down the line, that’s my goal. And that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing to a large extent or to some extent at least. So the focus, the internal focus, the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha, and the Buddha lives inside of ourselves. And this is achieved by the means of the Dharma, the various practices, the truth, actual, reality which is always there, and working with the methods which allow us to access that reality, which are able to integrate the truth and within the social context of a spiritual community.
And not only for myself, but for the sake of as many individuals as I can begin to include in the scope of my my responsibility, my feeling of concern. I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the highest assembly. From the virtuous merit 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 refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the highest assembly. In the virtuous merits that I collect, by practicing giving and 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, and the highest assembly. From the virtuous merit that I collect, by practicing giving, the other perfections, may I attain the state of the Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. As I mentioned, essence of meditation is probably a deep sense of relaxation. On Monday nights when I talk about teaching, learning to meditate,, I try to emphasize that perhaps we need to reconsider what meditation is all about. Of the things I think it is about is the possibility of relearning.
That we all have to deal with this the practical necessities of life. We have to deal effectively and efficiently with work, with the people around us, our families, our children. And to a large extent this is an externalizing process. We become externalizing. We become externally orientated.
And meditation is a revolt against that process to some extent. Is concerned with our inner world, that part of ourselves which we know so little about. Maybe the situation is such that we don’t operate our minds very well because we don’t know how they operate it. It’s one of the last frontiers. We know very little about our own mind to a great degree.
But over and above this analytic aspect of the possibilities of meditation, there is simply the possibility of learning another way of being, another order of how we’re going to be with ourselves. You know, rather than human beings, maybe we should call ourselves human doings, we very seldom be. We’re always doing. We have this with everything that we do with everything, our entire attitude toward it. Even while we sleep, I was gonna say while we’re awake, additionally in our dreams also.
But we bring to everything that’s acquisitive, competitive, ambitious, goal orientated attitude. And this has its place, no doubt. Buddhism would agree that it’s necessary to set goals at various levels and to implement the means to achieve those goals. This is quite useful and it leads to a quality way of life. This is what I call pragmatic way of being.
It’s quite useful and quite necessary. It leads to a full life. But it’s not the only way, the possibility of being. There’s another order of being, another way of being with ourselves, which for want of a better word, I call aesthetic. Aesthetic being, an aesthetic way of being.
This means that the moment is enough, I’m enough, nothing more than being added. A sense of completeness and wholeness within the present moment. And it’s this quality, this way of being which I think we’ve gotten out of touch with, that we have lost the ability to access. And I think one facet of meditation, an important quality of meditation is the ability simply to be with oneself. Quit acting, quit speeding and do nothing.
Right? But as I as I say on Monday, when I meditate, I doubt if anyone in this room can do nothing. Only great masters can do nothing. When we When we simulate doing nothing, we call it laziness and we don’t do that very well. When we feel really lazy, we can’t be wholly lazy with whether when conflict even not laziness and we feel guilty at the same time, we feel shady of ourselves at the same time.
So we can’t even do laziness very well. This is one of our you know, we never we never wholly do anything. It’s interesting that we’re wholly with a w with an h. They have the same root. To do to to do something wholly is a wholly act.
So the possibility of bringing the entirety of our being to a single act, a very simple minded way to become sane after, for example, watching breath. It’s not very exotic, can be rather boring, but it can be a great process of learning another way of being that perhaps we’ve gotten out of touch with. So developing this ability simply to exist within the moment, that sense of completeness. And I think we have to, for a quality way of life, we have to develop both of these orders of being, an aesthetic and a pragmatic. They both have their functions to leading the quality life.
But to a large extent, know, the our society and our culture doesn’t hold in high high regard an aesthetic way of being. It doesn’t produce anything as it were. There’s nothing available in the market at the marketplace because it’s in in itself. It doesn’t necessarily need anything more than the actual experience. It’s a self validating experience, you know, that we can sense of completeness, but it doesn’t need to be going anywhere.
Actually the idea that it should go somewhere is a obstructs this ability of symptoms to exist within the present moment. That we need more need to be added. The sense of wholeness, sense of completeness. Anyway, I thought we would we’re going to do cultivating compassion and love toward two individuals who you feel not, who aren’t intimate but you have a natural liking for, that they have a natural appeal to you. Maybe a male and a female.
A man, can you just imagine two people that you know that you don’t know really well but you can feel good about them and then we’ll develop compassion and love toward them as our motivation. And then we’ll do mindfulness of breathing. In the course of our mindfulness of breathing, you know, I have taught the techniques of counting and noting and at some point we’re going to use the technique of noting. If you use both of them then stop counting And can can you give me? How are doing?
No? Yeah. We’re going to continue noting, and then we’re going to practice choice less awareness. And this is simply allowing our mind to become We’re not going to focus our mind on any particular object, but we’re going to continue to note what our mind is involved in. Let us say, we’re going to try to maintain awareness through the noting process.
So we just simply allow the mind to become involved in any object which naturally tends toward. Would usually be the most stimulating object within your field of your sensory field. It could be the jet plane moving flying over. It could be some internal thought. But we’re not going to direct it.
Importantly, we’re going to maintain our awareness. And we’re going to do that by continuing to note. Thinking, thinking, hearing, smelling, thinking pain, thinking bored, thinking, pain, hearing, thinking, smelling, seeing. Just a gentle quiet, noting from moment to moment. You know, you know, one one an image that you can work with, the sense, is like butter melting in the sun.
You know, allow the mind to come to a sense of rest. Try to keep these are just associations that you can begin to make. A spaciousness and openness like space. That your mind is like vast and open, a luminous quality, an airy, a ethereal quality. And just allow the mind to relax and rest in that state, noting.
In a quiet sense of noting what the mind is involved in, There is, all of these sensory perceptions are taking place in a medium, a medium of space, an openness, luminosity, and just rest your mind. And just watching, being aware. And then we’ll come back. So we’ll try that. Okay?
So if you take a firm comfortable posture. And you’re thinking of two individuals who are quite appealing in their appearance, that you probably like them, but you aren’t particularly intimate, male and female. I’m trying to develop cultivating a sense of love of compassion for them. First with a simple friendly thought, It would be wonderful. I would like very much if you didn’t have any problems.
And if you didn’t have any pains or hurt, any difficulty. May you not have any problems, may you not suffer? Going to help you and commit myself to working with you and solving your problem. Quality of love. Be wonderful if you are happy.
And may you be happy. I’m gonna help you. Take responsibility, and may you find happiness. The way I’m going to express my commitment here at this very moment through my meditation, developing myself, my skills, my understanding, my level of wisdom, I can be of more benefit to you. In some way, this meditation is partly for you.
And if you’re noting, if you’re not noting, begin to note. Noting the breath. Breathing in, knowing that you’re breathing in, noting in, Now allow the mind to become involved in any object that it naturally tends towards, but continue to note. Stop counting and continue to maintain awareness. Continue to maintain awareness.
If you can’t, then go back to the breath and then come back to noting. Allow the mind to note any object in natural sense towards it. Maintain your awareness, the watchfulness of the mind. We’re looking at the three fundamentals of the path. A very short text by J.
Sankato, a fourteenth century yogi scholar, which outlines the the principal aspects of our of our areas of growth. We’re trying to develop the two wings.