Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. “Laser beams obliterating the rock of self-centeredness at your heart” opens this 46-minute session in which Ven Jampa Gendun teaches Tonglen — taking and giving — first as visualization, then mounted on the breath: inhaling to acknowledge suffering honestly, exhaling to spread well-being outward. Citing Pema Chödrön, he unpacks what each breath represents as a dimension of the human condition. A reading of Śāntideva’s celebrated verse on the awakening heart provides the doctrinal anchor, followed by guided meditation through compassion for a loved one, mindfulness of breathing, and a role-play exercise for uncovering positive qualities in oneself. The session closes by situating Tonglen within the three fundamentals of the path: determination to be free, the awakening heart, and insight into the nature of self.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 19 HoM 1993 06 02.mp3
UUID: c92e554d-b59b-4fe0-a2c3-de108addbc78
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1993-06-02
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.7 minutes
Words: ~3,661
Laser beams, I don’t know, laser guns coming up into one’s natural nostril and completely smashing to smithereens this rock of self centeredness at your heart that you’re trying to destroy. Completely obliterating, pulverizing, going making it go out of existence, blowing it to bits. Still, you know, they they they haven’t fulfilled their fullest potential. They haven’t actualized all that they could be, though they’re they’re experiencing peace. So developing their levels of love.
It’d be wonderful if if you had to if you fulfilled all of your human potential, that you became a Buddha, a happy, healthy, loving, sane human being experiencing not only experiencing inner peace, but being able to be to skillfully work with others to help them to do the same. May you may you be able to actualize your fullest potential. I am going to commit myself to seeing that you do. And again, with this resolve and this determination, imagining, you know, we are practicing. And if we can’t do something imaginatively, how are we going to do it in reality?
This is this is a way that we can begin to approach those patterns of mind which may in fact act as a motivation to be able to do it in fact. So at least being able to do something imaginatively is working toward perhaps a goal that we find preferable, that we find valuable in our lives, that we would like to fulfill somewhere along down the line. So having a sense to this degree, I’m going to give it all away. You know, remembering our self centeredness, how it’s destroyed everything that we’ve that we value, how it’s destroyed our happiness again and again and again. Remembering that other centeredness is what brings us our most fulfilling moments in life.
And I’m going to, you know, I’m going to I’m going to move toward other centeredness, even if only imaginatively, by giving away my creative potential, this good this the stuff of the goodness of life, my my possessions, my even my body, and transforming them into a brilliant white life, which goes out and proceeds. And just as it about to get them, to reach them, it transforms into all of the conditions necessary, whereby they can actualize their fullest potential. Teachers and teachings at Buddha House, you know, meditation cushions, all the material necessities, motivation to practice, quiet, time out from the kids, whatever, whereby they are able to actualize completely their fullest potential. Then finally, they achieve Buddhahood. And this model, this paradigm of sanity that is the goal of the spiritual life of Buddhism, now there’s nothing more need to be done.
Your work is finished. And this sharing in empathetic joy the peace and fulfillment that this person is experiencing. You’re taking So practicing in this way first with oneself and then with with all types of people, you know, changing the object as we do with the in development of a loving compassion, know, with loved ones and good friends, with acquaintances, strangers, poor, sick, homeless, Christians, Muslims, Mexicans, Argentinians, Russians, those you don’t like, enemies, including more and more people as the object of your meditation, until you gain a sense you have a sense that it is as if you are taking the suffering and giving away the happiness to all of humanity, and finally, to all living life. Imagining. You know, there’s a almost a sense that one is taking all their suffering and giving away all of one’s happiness.
The essence of Tonglen, taking and giving, the essence of Tonglen practice is that on the we’re going to once you are able to become proficient at the visualization practice, you know, actually gaining being able to induce these particular states which are associated with each of these parts of the visualization. Know, the visualization in itself is worthwhile. But that we shouldn’t be satisfied with that. We should try to induce each of these states which is associated with each part of the visualization. You know, the sense of equality of self another, the sense of being able to exchange, put yourself in their place with another, the sense of the disadvantages of self centeredness so that you really want to destroy this self centeredness which you are visualizing at your heart, the sense of other centeredness so that you really are willing to give away something in the form of this brilliant white light and from which you have transformed to your creative potential in your possessions and body.
These states of mind associated with the visualization, once we’re able to become adept, proficient to some degree, then we actually begin to mount this on the breath. We begin to with the inhalation, taking on the suffering and with the exhalation, giving away our happiness in this way. So this is what is being spoken of here. The essence of Tonglen practice is that on the in breath, you are willing to feel pain. You are willing to acknowledge the suffering of the world.
From this day onward, you are going to cultivate your bravery and willingness to feel that a part of the human condition. You breathe in so that you can really understand what the Buddha meant when he said that the first noble truth is that life is suffering. What does that mean? With every in breath, you try to find out by acknowledging the truth of suffering, not as a mistake you made, not as a punishment, but as a part of human condition. With every in breath, you explore the discomfort of the human condition, which can be acknowledged and celebrated and not run away from.
Pema Chödrön puts it right on the line. The essence of the out breath is the other part of the human condition. With every out breath, you open, you connect with the feeling of joy, well-being, satisfaction, tenderheartedness, anything that feels fresh and clean, wholesome and good. That’s the that’s the aspect of the human condition that we wish were the whole show. That part, If we could finally clear up all our problems, we would have as our everyday diet.
The menu would read only happiness, no pain here. There would be all the things you think would bring you everlasting happiness. Maybe a little bitter sweetness, a few little tears, but definitely no heavy duty confusion. No dark places, no closet doors that you don’t want to open. No monsters under the bed.
No ugly thoughts, no rage, despair, no jealousy. Definitely not. That’s the out breath. The part you like. You connect with that and you breathe it out so that it spreads and can be experienced by everyone.
All that you need in order to do Tonglen is to have experienced suffering to have experienced happiness. Even if you’ve had only one second of suffering in your life, you can do Tonglen. Even if you’ve had only one second of happiness, you can do Tonglen. Those are the prerequisites. In other words, you are an ordinary human being with pain and pleasure, just like everybody else.
However, if you were just like everybody else, you would breathe in the good part and breathe out the bad part. Sometimes that makes a certain amount of sense. But this path, the path of the warrior, is a lot more daring. You are cultivating a fearless heart, a heart that doesn’t close down in any circumstance. It is always totally open so that you could be touched by anything.
So, you know, first we, we see that everyone is just like ourselves. Okay. Just a few moments, and we’ll stop. I’m sorry. I lost track of time.
So the meditative tradition of equalizing self for others equalizing and exchanging self for others is leads to the awakening of our hearts. Śāntideva talking about the awakening heart. It is the supreme ambrosia that overcomes the sovereignty of death. It is the inexhaustible treasure that eliminates all poverty in the world. It is the supreme medicine that quells the world’s disease.
It is the tree that shelters all beings wandering and tired on the path of conditioned existence. It is the universal bridge that leads to freedom from unhappy states of birth. It is the dawning of the moon of the mind that dispels the torment of disturbing conceptions. It is the great sun that finally removes the misty ignorance of the world. It is the quintessential butter from the churning of the milk of Dharma.
For all those guests traveling on the path of conditioned existence who wish to experience the bounties of happiness, this will satisfy them with joy and actually place them in supreme bliss. So there is no more noble thought than this. There is no more, powerful method to go beyond our sufferings. No greater way to help others than to awaken our hearts to others, to develop an awakening heart. So we’ll stop there, okay?
So carrying on from that motivation of giving everything that we have gained away, we are going to give away the creative potential that we’ve created in the course of the evening and dedicate it to the welfare of all others. 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 and more. So if you would like to get a cup of tea, we’ll have a discussion. Good night.
Understanding our own problems, but also, you know, not becoming orientated in terms of only our problems, but also becoming deeply aware tremendously necessary component of this developing this determination to be free. It’s that realizing that we have the basis for growth. And I’m going to go through this again. We all have some wisdom no matter how obscure and think that wisdom might be. We all have some love and compassion no matter how exclusive, no matter how limited that love and compassion might be.
We all have some mental, physical, spiritual energy. No matter how unrefined, how unspontaneous that energy might be, it’s all there. Somehow we have to break through this conception that we have ourselves, this feeling of lack, of insufficiency, of we don’t have quite what it takes to get in touch with our actual reality of our experience. And you need to believe in ourselves. If you believe you can’t or if you believe you can, you’re right.
It’s very much a matter of how we see ourselves. And if we believe in ourselves and developing the determination to to be all that you can be. And what we can be, we call Buddha. And that becomes the direction in our life. This becomes a priority.
In all the visitors that life brings us, all the seemingly insignificant events and situations and choices that we have to make, we choose Buddha. We choose to realign ourselves from a life which is passively influenced or under the control of hopes and fears to one which chooses growth. And I think this is quite significant because if we don’t have this orientation, we’re naturally going to take the path of least resistance. The moment you feel some difficulty, some pain, some suffering, the moment some type of fear arises, you’re going to turn away and seek security, you’re going to seek comfort. Nothing changes.
And it would be a great mistake to think that following a spiritual path is simply a skillful means of avoiding difficult situations and people and finding some comfortable niche for yourself. It takes courage and resolve to break out of this prison that we’ve created for ourselves. As Jung said, the basis of neurosis is the avoidance of legitimate suffering. There’s a great difference between legitimate suffering, existential suffering and neurotic suffering. We can do without that neurotic suffering.
But it may be necessary to work through When a great Thai master by the name of Ajahn Chah said, find out what it is that you fear and that’s what you should do next. And that requires a great deal of courage, determination. It’s painful to change, it’s painful to grow. And that we have to see that this, have the determination to be free, to work beyond these reoccurring neurotic patterns which very much constitute our life. And this becomes, so growth becomes a prime motivating force in our life.
And all these seemingly insignificant choices that we have where we’re coming to us over the course of our everyday life. Choosing with that which is going to help me to grow, to become a little more loving, a little more wise, going to help me to express a little more of my inner being. And begin to trust within inner being within yourself, within your own love, within your own wisdom, and within your own exuberance for life. And this becomes our direction, refuge. This is the ultimate source or the solution to all your problems within yourself.
So we’re going to meditate. Okay? So let’s take a break. If you like, is it is it warm? We can turn on the fans if you like.
You might wanna turn on low. That might be too strong. Is it okay for everybody? Yeah? You want to make a draft?
Is that okay? Do you want it on? What do you think? I’m okay. We’re okay.
So we’re going to adjust our motivation initially in our meditation, development of compassion and love. And I think last time we began with ourselves, didn’t we? There? Okay. So we’re going to develop it toward someone we’re very close to, that we like very much, that we love.
And then we’ll do mindfulness of breathing. Can I assume that everyone is familiar with mindfulness breathing? If there’s not then I think I mentioned a little bit last Monday. Does anybody want some instruction? She’s just watching.
Yeah. I’m going to start teaching at six o’clock on Monday, starting next Monday. Going to meditate how my particular instruction on mindfulness of breathing. So you’re welcome to come along to that six o’clock on Mondays. Just for tonight, as I mentioned, I think last Monday, just focusing upon the physical sensations associated with the natural breathing process.
You know, the chest rising and lifting and the abdomen rising and falling. Maybe you can pick up the sensation of the air on your upper lip inside your nostrils. All of these various physical sensations become the focus of your attention. And bringing your mind continually back to the breath. Your mind is going to wander.
It’s going to be distracted during the course of your meditation. Yes, for sure. And simply, as I mentioned, just like training a puppy, bringing the puppy back to the paper. With great gentleness, with great patience, we don’t need to do more violence to ourselves. Act in a coercive manner toward ourselves.
We have to develop an attitude of kindness and gentleness with ourselves. We can begin to express that gentleness through in our meditation. We need, as it were, a disciplined discipline, a gentle discipline. We have to be gentle with ourselves because at some level we are all vulnerable. We all have some hurts, some wounds, and we have to acknowledge that.
On another level, we have to make effort. We have to be courageous because we are Bodhisattvas to be. So finding the way between gentleness and courage is the way that we can exercise our wisdom. And practicing this within the experiment of our meditation. Perhaps learning another order, a way of working with oneself rather than this coercion and violence that we usually, our self manipulation.
So just with gentleness and patience bringing the mind back to the breath again and again and again. And you can count the breath. In out one, in out two, out three, out four, in out five. Come back down to one, in out one, two, three, four, five, six. One, seven, one, three, eight, one, three, nine, one, three, ten.
And then we’ll I’ll guide you through meditation. Okay? Okay. If you can, please come along on on Mondays at six. And if you can’t, then we’ll do I’ll explain some more.
I might miss some teaching. I seem to yeah. So I’ll ring the bell at the beginning of the session and then I’ll ring it at the end of the session. So if you take a comfortable but firm posture. Posture where you have some sort of sense of purpose purpose purposiveness, stability, groundedness.
So think of someone that you love, that you like, and imagine that person in front of you. If you can’t see them, it doesn’t matter. Just feel that that person is there. We’re going to begin by cultivating compassion toward this person. And first with a simple, friendly thought.
It would be wonderful if you didn’t have any problems, if you’re free of all your difficulties. I would like that very much. And we’ll try to straighten that feeling. May you be free of all your difficulties. I wish you had no problems whatsoever.
Strengthen that feeling. I’m going to commit myself to working with you to help you to solve your problems. Take responsibility for freeing you from your difficulties, your suffering. And we’ll cultivate love toward this person. First, with the simple friendly thought, it would be wonderful if you were happy.
I would like that very much if you were happy. Now strengthen that feeling. May you be happy. I wish very much that you were happy, that you had all the good things of life. And strengthening that feeling.
I’m going to commit myself to your happiness, take responsibility for working with you to bring you happiness. And the way I’m going to express my commitment to you at this very moment is through my meditation, by developing myself so that I can develop the skills to really be a benefit to you in a real way. And then bring your mind to the breath. First, we’re getting in touch with the body and noticing any tensions, any tightness, especially around the neck and shoulders. And bring your awareness to those areas and consciously relax, soften the muscles, the tissues, the connection.
You can almost feel a sensation of tension moving down and out of the body. The body becoming comfortable and soft and relaxed. It feels good. It’s a nice place to be. And then bring your mind to the breath.
The easy, gentle, in and out flow of the natural breath. Bring the mind back to the breath. Now think of a female that you admire, that you respect a great deal, that you look up to? And what is it about them? What quality?
What characteristic is it that you admire and respect so much about them? Now imagine that you yourself have the same quality, the same characteristic to the same extent. And imagine a situation where you express this quality. So you’re going to play a role. Take upon yourself this quality and imaginatively express it in a situation where you feel that you have the same quality, the same extent.
Now think of a male that you admire, that you respect. And again, what quality, what characteristic about them do you admire and respect so much? And then play a role. Imagine that you yourself have the same exact quality to the same degree and express it in an imaginative situation. Now think of a negative quality about yourself, something that you don’t like, some qualities, characteristics.
But now imagine that you have the exact opposite counterpart, the positive counterpart. And again, create a situation in your imagination where you express this now, positive counterpart. Now think of a significant female in your life. One with with whom you have a relationship. And what is it about yourself do you think they admire, that they value about you?
What is it that they like about you? And now imagine that this quality that they like, that they admire about you, that they value in you, it’s completely developed much much more fully now. And create a situation where you express this fully developed positive quality about yourself. And then finally, think of a significant male in your life, one you have a relationship with. What is it about you that they like so much, that they value, that they admire?
And again, imagine to imagine if they create a situation where you this quality that many more times magnified, completely developed. And then bring your mind back to the breath. Let the mind rest gently on the breath. And then in your own good time, gently open your eyes. So in terms of the practice of Buddhism, we’re looking at what are called the three fundamentals of the path.
Developing your determination to be free, the awakening heart, which is essentially development of love and compassion. But the idea, the sense that one is trying to develop oneself as a means to be a benefit to others, the motivating force behind one’s own growth is other directed. To the degree that I’m able to understand my own problems and develop the methods and the skills to deal with those and solve them, I can help others to do the same. I can share the techniques and the skills that I’ve learned, my insight, my understanding. And then the third fundamental of the path, the awakening mind, coming to an understanding of the nature of the self, the eye, and the world around us, its ultimate nature.
So in terms of developing the determination to be free. It starts on