Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute session, Ven Jampa Gendun opens with E.E. Cummings’s call to “be nobody but yourself” alongside a subverted aphorism: we are born copies and grow into originals, not the other way around. From there he argues that finding one’s inner Buddha differs from imitating an external ideal, pressing the point with a Zen image — a wooden Buddha cannot pass through fire. He then maps the eight worldly preoccupations (hopes and fears of pleasure, gain, success, and praise) as the structure of an unawakened, ego-driven life. The session closes with a guided meditation on equalizing self and others, moving through four figures: a friend, a stranger, someone unattractive, and someone disliked, all grounded in the recognition that everyone wants happiness and no one wants to suffer — the living foundation, Gendun suggests, of an awakening heart.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 15 HoM 1993 05 26.mp3
UUID: a5ee86cd-b7d7-4d2a-83c1-205b1052e50d
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1993-05-26
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.1 minutes
Words: ~3,782
So I’ll begin with adjusting our motivation. This process of continually redirecting ourselves, reprioritizing, getting back in touch with what is important for me, those values which, hopefully, over the course of my my life, I have to a large degree autonomously determined values which, when I live I am living out of them, I feel a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction, a sense of peace, certain guidelines that we’ve we’ve set up for ourselves over the course of our life, ways of being in the world which we believe in. You know, this over the course of having to deal with the practical affairs of life, having to work and raise families and entertain oneself, getting out of touch perhaps with certain of our central values. And so and this, I guess, is a moment of reflection, just creating the the time and the space to get back in touch of what is important to me very uniquely. I’m I’m I’m more and more, I don’t know, amazed or astounded how very little how very few values that perhaps I’ve arrived at for myself, have very few understandings that I’ve generated out of my own experience, my own awareness, how very much what passes for our own understanding is information that we’ve gathered from here and there, to a large extent unanalyzed, unexamined.
But we often repeat it, and we often live out values, which, in fact may have no relevance to our actual understandings, to our actual how it works for us. It’s quite a difficult task, I think, to to actually determine for oneself what works for me, for myself as a very unique self actualizing individual. You know, I I always take some inspiration from a a quote by E. E. Cummings, the poet, where he says, to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best night and day, to make you everybody else, needs to fight the hardest battle which any be any human being can fight and never stop fighting.
To be nobody but yourself in a world in which is night and day trying to make you everyone else is quite a struggle. I think it’s quite a a heroic effort. It’s probably quite necessary that if we’re ever going to be something more than normal, if we’re ever going to go beyond the level of coping, that we we gather the courage and we develop determination to be free and to take up this struggle. There’s I heard something that was quite interesting. Maybe it’s kind of something that we can think about, reflect upon.
You know, there is a there is a an aphorism, I I guess you would call it, that when we are born, we are originals, and we grew up to be copies. And why is this? Well, in a way and that in itself perhaps is interesting or stimulating. But the person that was who mentioned this aphorism said that, you know, if we you know, it sounds right, doesn’t it, in a way? But maybe we really haven’t looked at it, like, as I think we don’t look at many things in the that we hear and that we come across in the course of our daily life.
But he said, on the contrary, that newborn babies react almost identically to the same stimulus. They are as if carbon copies of one another. And it is only as we grow and mature that we become somewhat original, that we start off copies and become original. And how does this originality come about? And that’s strangely enough.
It there’s a phrase which he used in which he said that copying originates. It is by seeking to copy that we become originals, because we learn that we can’t copy. And in trying to copy, we find out who we really are. And in trying to you know, we we set up a model, a paradigm of sanity, of what of a healthy, loving, sane human being. And we call this this model a Buddha, an awakened one.
And in some sense, we try to emulate a Buddha. And we we you’ve been begin to understand that, you know, that one after some time trying to fit yourself in a straight jacket, you begin to learn from that experience of prostrations and finding finding oneself wanting this continually a sense of guilt and a sense of insufficient insufficiency. And as it were, beating oneself over the head with this model of Buddha that one is seeking to live up to. And to begin to understand that this is only some concept in your own mind that you’re seeking to copy. But in fact, the one Buddha is not going to will never serve all your purposes.
There’s a a Zen saying where it says that a wooden Buddha cannot pass through fire. A stone Buddha cannot float across the water. That that and in the end, we we it is if we give up trying to become a Buddha, and we find out the way we already were. So but we have to it seems as if we have to go through that struggle to live up to to this metaphor of which a Buddha is for us. You know, trying to live up to some preferred, not something outside of ourselves, but beginning to find the Buddha with inside of ourselves.
That’s the only Buddha that we can ever become. You know, the the Buddha as a metaphor for the the outcome of our preferred story, of our own unique story, of our own unique life. And so I think in trying to live up to others’ teachings and trying to live up to the Buddha, which has been foisted on upon us from the outside, we can learn that we can never become that Buddha, that we have to become our own Buddha. However and that new Buddha will be very unique, and that we have to find our own way. Each of us has to, as it were, has you know, the religion that we’re born with is very much a product of, in a way, accident.
And we it is each of our journey is to to to find our own religion, our our very own unique path toward actualizing our own Buddha. And then that path becomes a reflection of a universal path. So, you know, going not being able to take on others’ values, others’ beliefs, others’ knowledge, having to find one’s own way, finding one’s own values, one’s own knowledge, one’s own way, finding one’s own Buddha, very unique amongst all the other Buddhas, within oneself. And it becomes a metaphor for what works in our life, what has brought brought me great peace, what has brought brought me great meaning. You know, we all of the preferred stories, the the the moments of awakening, those glimpses of another order of being, our our peak experiences, which occur from time to time over the the course of our life, and beginning to orientate, beginning to to choose those stories to determine who you actually are, beginning to determine to reach your sense of identity into this subplot, which is interwoven with this the story of our life, and beginning to choose the type of person that you want to be to extend this plot, to make it the dominant plot of your life, the dominant story of your life, the story of Buddha, the unfolding of who you wish to be and taking that control and practicing those methods which help us to perform our preferred story, the Dharma.
Those means, those techniques, which assist us in living the life that we have chosen for ourselves, you know, taking empowering and taking control. And the spiritual community, those those individuals who contribute to and authenticate the performance of our preferred story. So, you know, this becomes very much the direction of our life to find the to give expression to the Buddha with inside of ourselves. That preferred story of the person that, at some level, that we have experienced and that we know we can experience again, and making that a continual theme of our life, and getting back in touch with that story, that subplot which may have been subjugated, and resurrecting it and bringing it to life so that it becomes a central theme of of our life. And all of those various methods, those various means which help us to to resurrect that story and to live it out, the Dharma.
And those that social situation, that that that context which helps us, which facilitates our performance, which which authenticates, which gives meaning, which attests and witnesses our own Buddhahood, our own own sanity and our own compassion. So this is you know, going beyond this this impoverished story that we’ve told ourselves and but and in which we live, in which our life is embedded. As a life which is lived in terms of hopes and fears. And these are the dominant principles which govern most of our lives, most of our performances, quality of our existence, in hopes of pleasure and fears of pain. You know, this is a a great it’s a mistaken notion that perhaps we’ve learned somewhere along the line, that the way to live a life is simply to live the life which you find seeking to live the life which is you find most comfortable.
But that’s the good life. And therefore, there’s always this continuous avoiding the painful, never seeing the value of working through difficult situations, never taking up legitimate suffering in order to bring about growth, to go beyond, the normality, the the theme, the the story that you’ve been living by up to now. This is how we should always be comfortable continually, and hoping to always consistently have comfort, and always avoiding pain and the difficult, you know, legitimate difficulties and suffering, which growth may entail. So this becomes the prime values for most of us, the prime values by which we have lived our life, in hopes of pleasure, fears of pain, hopes of gain and fears of loss, hopes of success, fears of failure. And never taking up the difficult task if we feel we may fail.
Only taking up the task where there’s hope for success, hopes of fame, fears of notoriety, hopes of praise, fears of ridicule, hopes of union, fear of separation. And this becomes the the structure, the pivotal points around which our lives live. These eight principle preoccupations, an ego oriented existence, of dissatisfactory existence, of unawakened existence, of limited existence. So in the the process that, trying to lay raise the level of motivation, a process of realigning our allegiance from a life passively led led under the basis of hopes and fears to one which is actively seeking growth, act actively leading to resurrect one’s preferred story and perform it, and having the courage to be nobody else but yourself, to live that story in your day to day existence. Getting back in touch with our own heroism and our own sanity and our own dreams.
So the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha, the Buddha within side of ourselves, which we express, which finds actualization through the Dharma within the social context of a spiritual community. And we try to raise the level of our motivation for this direction in our life such that we’re not doing it only for ourselves. Not only for our own piece of chocolate cake, but trying to ever widen our circle of concern, such that we’re seeking to be Buddha to express our story, so that we can be of empower ourselves to be able to help others to live their story, their preferred way of being, to help them to find their Buddha and live it out in their life. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. And the virtuous merits that I collect by practicing giving any other perfections, may I attain to 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 Sangha. By the virtuous merits. 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. What’s your name? Pardon?
It’s nice to see you. Are you you have a nice cushion? Are you comfortable? Okay. So we’re going to, begin with, adjusting our motivation through the development of love and compassion.
And we can choose perhaps two people, a male and a female, who aren’t particularly in your intimate circle of friends, but that you have a liking for a natural inclination to feel close to, to feel good about, attractive to you, but you don’t perhaps, feel strongly connected to. So just a little bit out of your immediate circle of close friends, but you have some kind of a nice feeling toward them, a male and a female, two people. And then we’ll do mindfulness breathing, and then we’ll meditate on equality of self and others, both from the side of others, and trying to feel that that it’s very, there are people people often often ask there are people who have problems. Life has problems. And they want to solve their problems.
And they they quite often unable to see the nature, the evolution of their problems. And how, you know, the the the context in which this problem is embedded. And therefore, it it is as if, you know, the the interconnecting web of beliefs and ideas and premises, which this problem is an expression of the system, which this problem is symptomatic of some kind of dysfunction within the system. And so, you know, that you know, we we Buddhism is is to a large extent concerned with a-historic problems, a-historic problems. That is, say, problems which aren’t peculiar to any specific history of the person, whether you had loving family or you had a disastrous childhood, whether you had all the advantages of life or disadvantaged in education.
There’s certain problems which are are are more central, more basic than these peculiarities of our of our particular existence, which no matter what our particular history may have been, they are a theme of all ordinary ego based or all ego-orientated ways of life. And so, you know, we we can deal with the various specific problems and develop, techniques and means and methods. But at the same time, I think that’s what’s quite necessary and quite useful. And this is a we we should make effort in developing skills in that in that area. At the same time, understanding that these specifics, that the details of our problems are are embedded in perhaps more underlying misconceptions, wrong ideas, dysfunctional ways of knowing, wrong assumptions.
And and amongst these, I really if we can work at this level and begin even to to unravel some of these more basic misconceptions, then the the the the specifics of the details of various daily problems simply become don’t arise or they don’t arise as frequently or they don’t arise frequently, or they don’t arise as strongly, or they don’t last as long. And we still have problems, but this frequency and the duration and the length of it and their strength seems to diminish. Like, maybe like oh, that wouldn’t be a I was gonna say like a snow a snow person melting in the sun, but that’s not a very good you might not be able to identify with that. You know, it’s like it’s nice. It’s nice image that when I was little, you know, you you go out and you build a snowman, you know, in Ohio, or a snow woman or whatever.
I don’t I don’t wanna get into this gender business. And and, you know, and then the sun comes out. And and, you know, the features start to get kind of dulled. Know, you had all these nice eyes, these pieces of stones for eyes, you know, carrot for a nose, and some teeth, maybe some pebbles. And maybe a but slowly, it just kinda starts shrinking.
Oh, imperceptibly. And the features aren’t aren’t become dulled. They aren’t quite as sharp. And slowly, as it as it remain you know, as the sun shines on it, it just dissolves away. And and a lot of our problems, you know, a lot of people have very rough minds, I think.
You know, it’s like sandpaper. You know, if you if you were to to to draw a piece of silk across sandpaper, it keeps catching it. You know, like like, what do they call it? Velcro. You know?
Like trying to draw it, Velcro. It’s all these little hooks. People’s minds. And they I mean, it must be I mean, it’s terribly problematic, isn’t it? Everything, I mean, everything becomes a hassle.
Everything becomes difficult. But some people are minds that are smooth like glass. And then imagine drawing a piece of silk across a marble floor or something. There’s no resistance whatsoever. They sort of glide through life.
Glide through what for others would be difficult situations. As if as if it were these problems didn’t exist. So, you know, the problems aren’t outside of ourselves. They’re within our own mind. And I think what I’m going to connect up is is the very the simple idea that others are just like ourselves, that others want to be happy, that they don’t want to suffer.
I think is is the way, I mean, it’s it’s easily dismissed. But I think, in fact, to feel that at some very deep level is a way that we’re working at a very deep level of our premises. Because it’s a I think it helps us to get along in life a lot better. We aren’t as reactive, perhaps, as we once were to people who don’t treat us as as we might like. You know, we can our minds become a little bit smoother.
What were previously difficult situations become less difficult, and what were minor difficulties become nonexistent. As if like this snowman melting away in the sun. And I think one of these important areas to work with is simply this this simple minded fact reality, that everybody wants to be happy, doesn’t want to suffer. I think it’s very important. And everyone in this room wants to be happy, doesn’t want to suffer.
And I think it makes a connection. And we begin to know others, and we begin to understand others. And understanding is another word for love. Love is another word for understanding. And so it becomes that’s why it’s the basis for developing an awakening heart.
This is because it’s the basis for love. It is, in a way, love. Everybody wants to be happy. No one wants to suffer. So we’ll meditate on that with three different individuals from their own side and then from our side.
The the kindness of others in terms of ourselves, you know, using your own experience. Beginning to reframe, to reinterpret, to deconstruct. That’s a good word, deconstruct Some of our self righteous preconceptions that we hold about the world and the way the world and how to relate with it and become a little more fluid, a little more open, a little more smooth and soft. So if you take a comfortable, firm position. So thinking of a male and a female.
And if you can’t imagine them in front of you, if you can’t, it doesn’t matter. Just feel that those two people are there. There’s two individuals, a male and a female, who aren’t particularly intimate friends, but you feel good about. You have an actual liking inclination towards them it would be wonderful if you didn’t have any problems May you not have any problems. I wish you didn’t have any dissatisfaction or suffering or difficulties.
I’m going to help you commit myself to working with you to help you to solve your problems. It would be wonderful if you were happy. I like that very much if you’re happy. May you be happy. I’m gonna commit myself to both of you.
I’m helping you to find happiness. And the way I’m going to express my commitment to you at this very moment is through my meditation by developing my skills, my growing in love and compassion. Eventually, I can be of real, actual benefit to you. Then bring your mind to the breath. It’s the easy gentle in an outflow of the natural breath.
Gently settle while using the techniques of counting and noting. I’m going to look at the equality of self and others. We’re going to look at first someone that you care a lot about, someone you have a close relationship with. Think of such a person and imagine them in front of you. We’re going to try to see them out of new eyes, not in terms of what they can do for you, not in terms of if they’re happy, you’ll be happy.
But just from their own side, as very unique individuals, they want to be happy. They don’t want to suffer in their own right. Divorced of their relationship from you. They want to be happy in their own right. They don’t want to suffer in their own right And then think of a stranger of the opposite sex.
How many you don’t know well? Do you feel indifference toward? And divorced of all your feelings that you may have toward them from their side. They want to be happy. They don’t want to suffer.
That’s that’s their reality from their side. Just like yourself. Then if you can think of someone you normally would consider unattractive. Imagine that person, someone you might consider unattractive, a stranger, And whatever feeling that you may have toward them, the reality from their side is they want to be happy. They don’t want to suffer just like yourself.
And then think of someone you’re having some problems with. Someone you don’t like. Imagine that person in front of you. No matter what feelings you may have toward them, what you might think about them. From their side, they want to be happy.
They don’t want to suffer just like yourself.