Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. “Everyone is already going for refuge to something — money, romantic love, a new career, a facelift, even vegetarianism — but the real question is whether it is actually working.” In this 45-minute opening session, Ven Jampa Gendun uses that provocation to begin his commentary on Tsongkhapa’s fifteen-verse text The Heart and Mind of Awakening. He traces the recurring cycle of dissatisfaction that persists despite every fresh start in life, argues that genuine change requires either trying harder or trying differently, and identifies two forces that turn the mind toward an alternative refuge: anxiety and faith. He then unpacks what Buddhist refuge actually means — not passive waiting but a reorientation toward awakening understood as wisdom, compassion, and personal power already latent within oneself. Accessible to newcomers while grounded in classical Tibetan Buddhist framing.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 HMA 1996 04 30.mp3
UUID: c704359a-0e82-4417-9161-325f1126137f
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening 1996-1997 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1996-04-30
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.8 minutes
Words: ~6,320
We spend a great deal of time on motivation. You know, we’re trying to create some kind of atmosphere, some kind of sacred space, both outside of ourselves, also most importantly inside of ourselves. Some kind of mental ecology whereby there’s a great possibility for change because essentially most we need to change and consciously change in a very directed manner. And so we’re gonna spend a great deal on motivation trying to adjust why we’re doing what we’re doing. And beginning to question, beginning to examine and to adjust our intention of what we hope to to derive from our our time together.
Then we’re going to recite the verse of refuge. I’m going to talk a great deal about going for refuge. Then we’re going to do some meditation together. And I’m going to begin the explanation of the heart and mind of awakening which is a very short text. It’s only fifteen verses long by the fourteenth century Yogi scholar, Tsongkhapa, to your left, to my right.
And then we’ll have a short question period, question and answer session. Because after that, for those who who would like to leave, we’re gonna take a break and that’ll be the the end of the teaching per se. But we’ll go get a cup of tea. Those would like to remain, and we’ll make a circle, and then we’ll have a discussion session until about ten thirty. So the actual part of the our discussion together, our talk together will last till about nine.
Sometimes I run a little bit over. Most of the time, actually. Nine, nine fifteen. Okay? But somewhere around in there.
And we’ll we’ll stop. We’ll take a break. People who would like to remain, if you’d like to get a cup of tea, please get a cup of tea and we’ll make a circle. And then we’ll have a discussion together. We’ll share all the wisdom that we’ve accumulated over our lives together.
You know, trying to create some kind of a situation where whereby we can be of mutual benefit helping one another. You know, the creation of Sangha, spiritual community. So is that okay with everybody? Can you hear me okay in the back? Okay.
You know, the very fundamental to Buddhism that it’s not so much what we do, but why we do what we do, which is going to determine the outcome, which is going to determine whether our activities, whatever it might be, whatever external forms, no matter how holy they may appear, whether they’re simply going to be another way to extend our problems, support, maintain our difficulties, our dysfunctional patterns of thinking and behaving, or whether they’re going to act as a solution to begin to solve our problems at a more fundamental level than perhaps we normally work and perhaps we might normally operate at. It’s all dependent upon our motivation, why we’re doing it, the intentionality, what it is we’re trying to get, if anything, out of what we’re doing. Now this this is traditionally called going for refuge. And going for refuge might sound like a Buddhist term or some Far Eastern term. But, you know, the it’s not really particularly Buddhist.
It’s not particularly Eastern. You know, we basically, going for refuge contains the idea that there is something or someone that we can prevail upon, something that we can avail ourselves of, something that we can do, some course that we can take, some direction that we can pursue, that was going to afford us some major protection, that is going to help us to solve our problems, that is going to, you know, help us to bring about what it is that we want. You know, from this standpoint, going for refuge isn’t anything new. You know, we’ve all been going for refuge our entire lives whether we’re conscious of it or not, whether we have been aware of it or not, whether we called it that or not. You know, we’re we are all refugees in one way or another.
You know, some people go for refuge to their family, you know, the the people close to them. Some people go for refuge to to money, to material things. Some people go for refuge to to power, to to status. Some people go to refuge for to romantic love, to science, to art, to sports, to work, to politics, music, hobbies, sex, drugs, alcohol. You know, something that’s going to help you to solve your problems.
It’s going to bring you the happiness that we’re all struggling to find. You know, some people go for refuge to to vegetarianism. Other people go for go for refuge to eating as much meat as they possibly can. And some people go for refuge to to being celibate. Others as having as much sex as they possibly can.
You know, some people take refuge in money and putting it all in the bank. Some people take refuge in spending more than they actually earn. You know, some people go to abortion clinics. Some people go to in vitro fertilization programs trying to become pregnant. You know, Some people become activists.
Some people become dropouts. Some people become presidents, lawyers, nuclear physicists, scientists, secretaries, laborers, saints, plumbers, rock and roll stars. And some people try to avoid all of the above as much as possible. You know, we’re each trying to create some kind of sanctuary for ourselves, some kind of protector, some kind of zone of safety, some something where we can begin to get what it is that we want, where we we can begin to get rid of that that pain, that insecurity, that uncertainty, that fear, that anxiety, the alienation, defensiveness that we don’t want. You know, the the the end of refuge you know, the the list of these types of refugees is endless.
There is there are many rep as many refugees as there are people. The point is that we’re all involved in some kind of struggle to solve our problems, to to you know, we’re looking for something or someone that we can bail ourselves out, that we can make use of, something that we can believe in. You know, it might some kind of that’s according to our unique circumstance, our particular value system, our particular worldview, you know, in the light of our our own you know, we have to ask the question. You know, the point is in going to all of this and and making this evident to ourselves is we have to stop thinking. We have to begin to stop acting, stop seeking, and begin to question, does my refuge work?
We’re all refuges. We’re all going to some type of refuge, whatever form it might take, however peculiar it is to each of ourselves. But if we’re going to live our lives intelligently, that is to say in the light of our wisdom and sensitive to our own actual lived experience, we’re going to have to begin to ask ourselves, is my refuge working? Is there a payoff? Is it actually helping me to solve my problems?
Is it bringing me the happiness? Whatever constitutes happiness for you, and however you might uniquely define the good life for yourself, is it working? Stop, stop acting, and begin to question. You know, simply, am I a happy person? Again, as you might uniquely define it for yourself.
You know, most everybody has problems. You know, with most of the time, there are major tragedies in their lives, whether they’re simply minor difficulties, petty annoyances, you know, some people die on us or they abandon us. You yourself or somebody close to you has an accident or becomes seriously ill. You yourself or someone close to you loses their job or their business goes bankrupt. The hot water system breaks down, and the the car doesn’t start.
You spill soy sauce on your shirt. And the the there’s a you know, we’re not so much concerned with these many particular instances of desirable and and undesirable events that occur over the course of our life. But trying to get a sense of the overall quality. What’s the feeling tone of my life, the texture of my life? You know, the the recurrent patterns, the themes which are running through my life.
You know, not the many individual trees, a variety of trees in my life, but the but the dominant species of forests. When I look at my life from a a long distance perspective, what is the felt impression impression that we have about our life that we’re left with with when we reflect upon our lives? The overall quality of our lives. You know, does my life does it afford me meaning? Does it I have a do I have a sense of purpose in my life?
Do I have a sense of fulfillment in my life? Do I have anything that I can sincerely believe in? Do I have a feeling of connectedness with others, of belonging, of something greater than myself, my own individual ego? Do I feel loved? Do I feel lovable?
Do I feel a challenge? Do I feel excited about life? Are there moments of of awe and wonder in my life? You know? Is there some aspect, some element of the sacred in my life?
You know? I think these are the qualities of life experience that were mostly directing our attention toward, that we’re most concerned with. You know, sooner or later, life forces us, confronts us with the reality of our life. It it it hurdles the question. You know, is life a bitch and then you die?
Is this all there is? Or or maybe maybe as a Buddhist might ask it, is it is life a bitch and then you’re reincarnated? Is it just merely a tale told by some idiot full of sound and fury that really signify nothing? Is this all there is? You know, just a series of events.
Even over the course of our life, when we begin to become aware of these everyday events. The reoccurring dysfunctional patterns and pathological themes of our life become more or less apparent to ourselves only vaguely and if only for brief periods of time. You look at the way that we lead our lives if we begin to to gain some perspective on them. You know, we we find a new partner. We find a wife, husband, therapist, guru.
We try going alone for a while. We change our jobs. Change our employers. We our business, our career, and we take a break from working life altogether for a while. We move to a bigger, smaller, newer, older, more or less expensive apartment house in the city, in the suburb, out in the country, in the bush, in another town.
You know, we we or may we just give up our home completely, and we go traveling for a while. You know, we we take we take up a new hobby, a sport, another a new creative interest, some kind of leisure time pursuit. We we have another child. We have another facelift. We have another affair.
Or or we don’t quite know what to do to have next, what to do next. You know, at least for a while until something else presents itself, until something else comes along. You know, always another project, another another new something around the corner, another new particular that we can become lost in, absorbed in, that we can lose ourselves in. You know, this this in in the stream of the endless doings of of most human beings. You know, rather than it’s a wonder they call us human beings.
It’d be more appropriate to call us human doings. You know? But in spite of all, you know, all these auspicious beginnings, You know, the good life is just around the corner in another person, another thing. We’re very hopeful. We have great hope.
You know, with our with our great hope, we’re willing to face anything except the reality of our own experience. You know, in spite in spite of all these auspicious beginnings, inevitably, the same problems, you know, always return, seem to reoccur in some form or another, to come back to plague us in one way or another. The same feelings of dissatisfaction, disappointment, frustration, boredom, insecurity. They keep finding their way back into our lives in some way or another, in some form or another, in the same sense of meaninglessness, of alienation, of inauthenticity creep imperceptibly back into our lives. The same feelings of unmanageability, the sense of of passengerhood in our life, as if our lives are being lived out of our own control, of merely coping, of not flourishing.
You know, a life being lived in a kind of quiet desperation. And though, you know, even when we become aware to some degree, we do begin to, if only momentarily, discern the patterns, the pathological pattern, which will keep reoccurring over the course of our life in spite of all the auspicious beginnings which we’ve created for ourselves. And though at some level we know it’s going to depress us and make us even more discouraged, make us feel even more guilty, and perhaps even despise ourselves even the more, we habitually resort to the same dysfunctional patterns of thinking and behaving when bad feelings arise, you know, uneasiness or or depression or fear. Whenever they start coming, we whenever such types of feelings start coming up in the hope that somehow they’re going to make us feel better. You know, these these same ways of behaving, these same ways of thinking.
But they never have and they probably never will. You know, we we persist in this struggle to manipulate the people and the things and the situations about us in hoping of of creating some kind of permanent refuge for ourselves. But it never seems quite to work. You know, people, at least not for long, maybe temporary. You know, people are always letting us down in one way or another or abandoning us one way or another.
And things never quite live up to our expectations. And even when they do, they eventually wear out and they have to be discarded or we have to replace them. You know, the fashions come and go. Circumstances and situations are constantly changing. And then we’re forced to move on in one way or another.
Another. You know, there there seems to be no place that we can force to rest our heads for very long. There seems to be no there’s no permanent niche, no no eternal state, no identity, no person, no thing, no situation that we can take refuge in for any length of time, that we can hope to find any lasting security. So I guess, you know, going in to all this, hopefully, perhaps, begin to identify with what’s being said, to begin to to see if this is indeed reflective of my own experience in the way I’m leading my life. To help us to begin to create the question around what it is that we’re doing and is it bringing us what we want.
You know, no one’s asking us. No one would force us to give up the good life as we have conceived of it up to now. You know, to have significant relationships with with partners and with friends, to have a a a comfortable home, a job which brings you some of the goodies of life which you find interesting and stimulating, to wear stylish clothes, to to drive a good car. These all are components of the good life. They all go go become a part.
But we have to begin to understand that these things in themselves are not the good life. But more it is our attitude, how we relate with them, our skill or lack of skills, and and making use of them which are going to determine whether these things, these people, these situations about us are going to become sources of happiness and bring us all that we might want from them or there’s something going to be another source of problems. You know, just complications in our lives which are going to be which are going to perpetuate our difficulties. You know, the the, you know, all of the dramas of our life that go on. You know, they’re like the, you know, all the actors and the scenery, the costumes, and the props are continually changing.
Everyone comes on to you in the drama of your life, and and they strut their various parts. But the the plot remains pretty much the same, pretty much fixed. We we hold on. We we tenaciously hold on to our hopes that that that somehow things are going to change, that some someone or something is going to come along and make our life better, bringing us at what we what we want, what we’re looking for. I don’t know.
Maybe is this all too much? Is this all too cynical, pessimistic, or is this a natural reflection of our reflection of our our actual experience? I don’t know. You have to kinda ask for yourself. You know, we we maybe a white knight or a a white knight or a beautiful princess.
You know, we’re all waiting for something, for someone, in some way, some fashion or rather. You know, maybe it’s a a new maybe divine intervention, a miracle. You know, some wonder drugs are gonna come on the market. Some radical new therapy. And but maybe just some kind of unpredictable chance occurrence, you know, that we can’t even begin to imagine what it might be is going to come along.
Make the pain go away, the boredom go away, the absurdity of my life go away. Make my life better for me. That’s what I want, please. Make it better for me. Make the pain go away.
And meekly wait, you know, anxious anticipation waiting for, you know, the knock at the door, the telephone call, you know, announcing the life you ordered has arrived. Arrived. Will will you you come down and pick it up or we shall shall we deliver it for you? You know, what? It’s I think that’s the mindset we’re coming from.
Maybe it’s not so obvious. Maybe we’re not conscious of it. But perhaps we begin to reflect and begin to investigate and examine ourselves, maybe in some way, in some measure, that’s where the place that we’re all more or less coming from. Now what is it for each of you? What is it that you that’s waiting for you?
That you’re waiting for, you know? That special person, that that particular material something, you know, that transformative idea, It’s a a really worthwhile cause that you can get caught up in, an all consuming activity, you know, that can change, transform your life for you, an overpowering circumstance, some kind of factor x which is going to save you and make your life better before you turn things around for you in one way or another. Your long awaited refuge. Or at least occupy yourselves for a while, you know, until the real x, the real something comes along. There’s a a quote I’d like to read here, you know, maybe getting at the idea.
Now the idea we’re we’re going to discuss a lot about the idea of change and what how to provoke change. Now we have to either to we have to come to some kind of determination, some kind of conclusion in our own minds. Either I have to become more skillful in doing what I’m doing now, better to say more of the same. I have to try harder, or maybe I have to try differently. Those are the two alternatives if you’re not happy.
You either have to try more of the same or you have to begin to try different. And you begin to check up in your own mind, in your own life, which which of the two may be necessary or perhaps a combination of the two might be necessary. There’s some kind of not only to become more skillful in the way that you’re you’re seeking and trying to bring about the good life, but maybe not only that, but maybe alternative possibilities, alternative methods, alternative refuges, in other words. In a condition of struggle and failure, we must be able to say, I must try harder or I must try differently. Both views are essential, neither must take precedence by principle.
They are analogous to the view of a man as free and the view of man as determined. The two do not contend but reflect the interaction between man and his environment. The change in either makes for the change in outcome. When we say, I must try harder, we mean that the most relevant variable is something within us, intention, will, determination, meaning it. And that if this changes, the outcome, even if everything else remains unchanged, will be different.
When we say I must try differently, we mean that the most relevant variable lies in the situation within which intention is being exerted, that we should look to the environment, to the ways it pushes and pulls us. And this and in this study, find means to alter this interaction. We try to stop smoking, try and fail, try again and fail again. And when we pause to reflect, we we ask how we should understand the recurrent failure. We must regard it from both views.
If we believe we cannot try if we believe we cannot try harder, then we must examine the field in which the effort is being made, look for ways to diminish obstacles against which we’re pitted. If we conclude that there is nothing to be altered in the field, we must go back to the possibility of augmenting intention. We cannot know the outcome in advance. We have we if we give up, we can never know, but that further trying, either harder or differently, might have succeeded. You know, perhaps our problem and this we have to begin to, you know, reflect upon within the within our own minds and the depths of our own hearts.
Perhaps our problem is in getting it getting what it is that we want in our life. It’s not so much a matter of trying harder, that is to say more of the same, but trying differently. Maybe an alternative refuge. We’re going to discuss why it is that what it is and why it is our mind will begin to turn toward another refuge. There are basically two causes.
One is anxiety and the other is faith. Anxiety and faith. And it’s strange, isn’t it, that, you know, we most of our lives are dedicated to running away, getting rid of, distracting ourselves from anxiety. But the reality of the situation is that the the change, the potential only goes over into actuality by means of anxiety. Deed, a great part of the Buddhist path is anxiety provoking purposely.
When you get sick and tired of being sick and tired, you’ll find a way to get well. But first, have to really get sick and tired. We have to make we have to become aware of just how sick and tired we may in fact be. In faith. You know, it’s not enough just to to want to change.
We have to allow our own basic sanity to help us to promote that change, to begin to offer ourselves new alternatives, new possibilities for a type of life that we that we can live out for ourselves. You know, the the faith, the alternative refuge of Buddhism is directed toward the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha or the spiritual community. Now these are the faith is a trust that the objects of our refuge have the power to protect us against our anxiety. Now anxiety associated with these reoccurring dysfunctional patterns of our lives. The same frustrations, disappointments, dissatisfactions continually reoccurring again and again and again in all their various forms throughout their lives.
And we begin to begin become a little bit anxious. You know, if I can’t, something has to change. That’s basic. And we begin to direct ourselves in a process of change. We begin to consciously direct ourselves to alternative possibilities, other refuges.
The Buddha and the Dharma and the spiritual community. You know, the these are the three refuges that are seen as the ultimate resources for solving our problems at their most fundamental level. The the you know, what it means to be an ordinary human being, which we all are. You know, there’s nothing wrong with any of us. We’re we are all experiencing sharing the human dilemma.
You’re trying the best we can to get some happiness out of life, making many mistakes along the way. And that’s the nature of our situation. These three objects of refuge are are simply simply most looked upon as the means by which we can change our lives for the better, to bring about the ends that we might want for ourselves. And and try to relate this to ourselves, you know, not to not to see the Buddha, Dharma, and the spiritual community as something abstract, as something apart, as something out there that that too we can continue to wait for, That too is somehow going to overpower us and make bring us the the life that we might want for ourselves. No Buddha can do that.
No Dharma can do that. No spiritual community can do that. And that’s only we ourselves by becoming Buddha, by becoming the Dharma, by becoming the spiritual community ourselves can we ever solve the basic problems of our life at the most fundamental level. Now, you know, what does it mean to go to an alternative possibility, to go for reference to a Buddha? If it’s to have any significance and meaning for ourselves and all.
You know, we’re going for refuge to awakening. You know, the a Buddha is someone who is awake. Buddha means the awakened one. To be awake. You know, this is this is where we’re we’re we’re trying to orientate our minds toward.
We’re trying to to redirect our energies that we invest in our life. You know, the Buddha is like a metaphor. A metaphor is something which stands for our experience. And Buddha stands for our experience of the the finest that we could ever hope for our lives, the the finest story that we could ever tell ourselves about ourselves and what we might want to bring about in our life. You know, however, you know, your story might be narrated, however you might edit to your particular plot, what you call the finest possibility that you could ever hope to imagine for yourself in your life.
We give that the name Buddha, and we’ll call that Buddha for ourselves. And we begin to orientate ourselves. We begin to you know, that becomes an inner focus of our life. So we can begin we can begin to break out of this self impoverishing, self subjugating story that we keep telling ourselves about our life. And it’s this limiting version that we this this loop of self talk which keeps us going around in the same patterns, the senseless circular motion of our mind which takes us nowhere but to more of the same.
Now we have to begin to try to break out so we can you know, a Buddha is someone who is awake. You know, we’re trying to to to hold up a paradigm to ourselves, some model of sanity to ourselves, you know, something that we can begin to orientate toward consistently in all the the vicissitudes of life, in all difficulties, in all the problems, in all the happinesses, and all the joys. And we can continue to begin to know this is what where my refuge really lies at the most fundamental level, at the at the ultimate level. And it’s not and again, And where does we have to say we have to have some kind of ultimate refuge for ourselves. Something that we can something so that when we die, we aren’t we don’t die with the same delusions that we were born with, with the same dysfunctional patterns in our minds.
Something has occurred, something has evolved, the mind has moved along, has progressed in some fashion or another. You know, our life has had meaning and purpose. We’ve lived a good life. We can respect ourselves. We we can begin to evolve ourselves in this evolution of life after life, after life, consciously toward Buddha.
And then the Buddha is someone is awake. But, you know, again, what what does it mean to be awake? What how can I relate to to myself and who I am at present? I don’t seem to be particularly awake at present. It seems to be rather abstract.
It doesn’t have any connection with me. It’s not particularly relevant to where I’m at. So to be awake is to see things as they actually are. You know, to be aware of the actual nature of our situations and the things and the people, the phenomena about us, our world. You know, to to to know the world clearly, to have wisdom, to have knowledge, you know, to to free of all misconceptions, free of all misconceptions, free of all distortions, free of all prejudices and obscurations.
So essentially, most, to be awake is to see things clearly. But it also has a feeling quality. You know, what an awakened heart, you know, it is a an intense, profound, overflowing love and compassion exemplified by a parent’s love for their only child. You know, that’s how an awakened mind feels. That all living beings be free of suffering, that they be happy, that they that they should develop and ultimately that they too should awake.
So an awakened awakening has the has the aspect of feeling of power, a sense of personal power, you know, of of inexhaustible mental and physical energy. It’s like some kind of exuberance for life, some intensity of being, a a spiritual vitality. You know? There’s some kind of presence, some kind of charisma in awakening. And then finally, awakening has the quality of creatively being in the world with others.
You know, the the to act freely and purposefully and participating in the lives of others. You know, the the way our our wisdom and our compassion and our personal power find expression in skill and means in working with others. You know, it’s like an environmental generosity responding to the needs of others. So so when when we say, I’m going for refuge to the Buddha, we’re going for refuge to the awakened state, which most essentially is a the consummate state of wisdom, love, and compassion, personal power, and these creative expressions in our everyday life. You know, to be awake means that we’ve awakened from the sleep of our own ignorance, from from ego’s ongoing dream, that we awaken to the totality of our being.
You know, a Buddha is an awakened one. Know, someone who has completely integrated the primary archetypes of wisdom, love and compassion, personal power, and creativity in their lives. And they constantly live this out in their everyday lives, in unconditioned freedom, in in the vibrant and sustaining bliss of unlimited being, being for others. One of these individuals who was awakened was Śākyamūni Buddha who who is represented by this image on the altar. You know, the the Śākyamūni Buddha is the ultimate source for the present teachings of Buddhism.
And though though he was a human being, he was not an ordinary human being, but he was an extraordinary human being. He was an awakened human being. You know, the the living embodiment of all that we’ve been talking about thus far. The living embodiment of consummate wisdom and love and compassion, personal power, and and their creative expression. But importantly, Buddha Śākyamūni was not always as he was.
That that he was not self existently a Buddha, an awakened one. You know, he became an extraordinary person as a result of his own human effort, you know, an effort that made actual in him what is potential in all of ourselves. You know, the the this the awakened person is regarded as the the highest being in the universe. You know, it doesn’t matter. However we conceive of that, we’ll call that the awakened being.
We’ll call that a Buddha. You know, it’s a model of sanity. It a a paradigm of another order of being. And we can begin to, you know, which we we are continually either consciously or unconsciously empowering the people, the things, the ideas, the situation about us such that they’re they’re able to, in turn, influence our minds for better or worse in in greater and lesser degrees. We imbue with power.
And we’re here reviewing the imbuing this model of sanity with tremendous power such that we can begin to continually orientate ourselves in all of the various situations that life is bringing us. We can we can orientate ourselves to Buddha. But not the Buddha outside of ourselves, but the Buddha that we are all going to be. The Buddha Śākyamūni is respected and revered. Why?
Because out of a sense of gratitude for setting an example, for showing the way, you for demonstrating what is possible, what we too are capable of becoming. In other words, Buddha Śākyamūni Buddha Śākyamūni is worshiped as as a teacher, as an exemplar, as a guide, as an ever present reminder of what we too are, in fact, possible to become. You know, what is, in fact, is our birthright, the awakened state of being. You know, the mind is dynamic in nature. It’s not a fixed thing.
It’s always in movement. In some it’s always moving toward. It’s purposive in its nature. And if we can begin to present it, a consistent goal, a consistent refuge, which is worthy of our life energies, which is worthy of becoming, eventuating, of of of manifesting within ourselves, then it’s always going to orientate. It’s always and the the basic sanity of the mind will bring that about of itself.
We don’t if we can show our minds within our within our own experience, through our own reasoning, and in terms of our own intuition. What where our happiness, in fact, lies in reality. Not in terms of our fiction, not in terms of our preconceptions, our opinions, but what in terms of our actual lived experience, in terms of actual consistent types of reasoning, in terms of our own intuition, then we can, as it were, begin to allow our own basic sanity to a greater and greater room in our lives, to begin to direct our lives. You know, this is this is what it means more than anything else to go for refuge. You know, not the formula that we recite, but beginning to to resolve and to commit ourselves to an alternative possibility, another way of being, and begin to connect, or that is to say, to empower, to imbue with important significance as a real possibility for yourself.
You know, that’s what faith does. It makes what is abstract, is inaccessible to ourselves at present, something very real and substantial to ourselves, gives it such a reality that as if it were there for ourselves. Beginning to imbue with power, to begin to to give significance in your life to the idea of Buddha as a fundamental refuge. You know, your partner, your girlfriend, or your boyfriend, your home, your car, your job, these are at best temporal temporal refuges. They can bring us some degree of of well-being, some some part of the good life that we’re all seeking.
But none of them have the capacity to solve our basic problems in which we’re all involved in. You know, but we try, don’t we, in one way or another? There’s a certain dishonesty to demand that the world give us what it can’t. You know? We’re either going to experience a sense of rage because these objects, these people, these situations are cannot bring us what it is that we demand of them, what we expect of them, or a sense of emptiness because we expect the impossible, and they can’t deliver.
Our ultimate refuge is ourselves, our own wisdom, our own love and compassion, our own personal power, and to find the the the means of expressing these in our daily life. Now if we can be begin to have faith in that and begin to consistently orientate ourselves toward that, then change will occur. You know, we can begin to go toward another alternative refuge in our lives. So, you know, it’s it’s a realigning of our allegiance. A reorientation, a redirecting of ourselves.
The inner focus of our life becomes Buddha, but the Buddha within ourselves, the Buddha that we shall all someday be. The means to actualize that Buddha, to to make it actual, is the Dharma. And this occurs within the social context of the spiritual community. And we again and again and again try to raise that level of our motivation. Why I’m doing what I’m doing?
Why am I trying to be a Buddha? And this