Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 44.5-minute session, Ven Jampa Gendun leads a complete Tonglen meditation anchored in vivid imagery: self-centeredness as a black marble egg eaten away by black smoke breathed in from another’s pain, and all one’s merit, possessions, and body sent out as brilliant white light that transforms into whatever will relieve that person’s suffering. He works through three paired levels — present suffering and happiness, future suffering and happiness, and ultimate entrapment in cyclic existence — then makes the central argument: imaginative compassion alone changes nothing in the world, and genuine resolve to help others leads inevitably to the aspiration to become a Buddha. The session closes with verses from Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra on the awakened heart. Delivered just before a two-week break, it suits practitioners already following the series.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 HMA 1997 04 09.mp3
UUID: 9b6c5fc1-4168-4bfd-a7af-eefcf1f70610
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening 1996-1997 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1997-04-09
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.5 minutes
Words: ~6,393
Center of your chest. That’s that’s that’s like that is your self centeredness. That symbolizes. It’s like the representation of your own self centeredness. Everything that’s caused you so much pain over the course of your life.
You know, nothing but trouble in your life, isolation and loneliness, and on and on and on, all the all the conflict and hostilities. Everything that you want to be rid of in your life in terms of self centeredness is there in the form and the shape of this black marble egg at your heart. So and you’re going to destroy it once and for all. You’re going to act in a complete reverse of how you habitually relate with the world. Yeah.
You have never really been able to care about anybody else, not even sincerely about yourself. But now you’re going to to now you’re going to, and you’re going to use this very caring, this very compassion which you’ve developed to destroy your own self centeredness. Know, addressing this person here even though it’s in your in this case, it happens to be you. It doesn’t matter. You’re suffering.
I’m addressing this person in front of me, and I’ve committed to helping you. I’m going to take your suffering upon myself, and I’m going to put it where it belongs. I’m going to put it upon my own self centeredness. So determine, I’m gonna take your suffering. Now if I’m really gonna help you, if if my thoughts and feelings and what I’m saying I’m trying to imagine, if it has any meaning, then I have to do something.
I’m I’m actually going to take that suffering. I’m going to do the complete opposite of what I’ve done my whole life rather than I’ve laid my suffering upon others. This time, I’m going to take suffering upon myself, the suffering of others, and I’m going to place it on that one thing which has caused me the most pain over the course of my life, my own self centeredness. So with this understanding, this this kind of determination, this fearlessness, this heroic heroic attitude, imagine that all the present mental and physical suffering that this person is presently experiencing transforms into a thick black smoke and begins to rise up toward yourself, enters in through your nostrils and down, and begins to eat away at the black egg of self-cherishing at your heart like acid, like acid rain, I guess. Just begins to eat it away.
Again and again, taking on the present difficulties, present suffering in form of this thick black smoke coming down and eating away again and again at the black egg of self centeredness at your heart. Compassionately, fearlessly, trying to feel these, to evoke these feelings. Taking upon the the suffering in in the aspect of thick black smoke until you this black egg of self centeredness completely eaten away, completely gone. This person is no longer undergoing their present difficulty, their present problem with their physical or mental. But no though they’re no longer suffering at present, still they are not happy.
You know, we we more or less brought them to some sort of neutral state, which is not good enough. Because why? Because I know I want to be happy. Some kind of numb neutral state is not good enough for me. And I know having, having cultivated, having gained some insight in terms of equality of self and others, I know this person is just like me.
They want to be happy. You know, just as we said at the beginning of our discussion, we’re all looking for bliss in one way or another. Maybe we’ll just call it happiness for the time being. They want to be happy. So, you know, beginning to to develop these levels of love, love is concerned with happiness, compassion with suffering.
And beginning with this again, with as we normally do in the course of our discussion, with a simple friendly thought, it would be wonderful if you were happy. You know, can I actually connect with that person and wish them that in a in a real sincere genuine way? Can I wish them that? Can I I forego my own self centers? Can I can I just be concerned about them for once?
Not what it’s not what it’s meant for me. Can I simply, in a wholehearted and altruistic fashion, wish them happiness? I wish you were happy. And then beginning to strengthen that as we normally do, as we usually do, that that level of love in terms of, you know, in terms of being happy. You know?
It’s like you come the mind’s come to some kind of real determination. You know, the mind has come to some kind of conclusion, some kind of stance, some kind of position about what you want in life. In this particular case, you want this person to be happy. Let it be so. Again, intensifying, strengthening that love still further beyond merely willing that it be so, but resolving resolving that it be so.
I’m going to do something. I’m going to commit myself to ensure that you’re happy. So, you know, the happiness in this case is we can think of it in terms of the of the counterpart to their previous suffering. You know, again, we we we’ve intensified our love to the level of of resolve. This is the resolve of love.
Then we recall what we understand in terms of our contemplation of the advantages of other centeredness. Okay? So we have to have some impetus. We have to bring some kind of our understanding to the process to if it’s going to have some kind of force, you know, if it’s going to actually begin to move our mind to change ourselves. You know, how looking at our our our previous meditation on other cherishing and whatever insights, whatever understandings we’ve come to, how how other cherishing automatically releases us from many of our of our conflicts and how it is is associated with most of the real joy in our life.
You know, that when our hearts are feel fulfilled, we find some real contentment in our lives. How other centeredness is, you know, the other other sense centeredness of altruism is the most readily available means as an antidote to most of our psychological ills of our lives. It’s the most powerful transformative means to help us to grow and finally to awake, to realize our fullest potential, to lead to find that good life which we’ve been talking so very much about. It is through this means of other cherishing that we can implement, that we can actually find it. So other other cherishing is something that we can trust in.
We can we can have faith in other cherishing. We can go for refuge to other cherishing. And as a way of that we can go it’s going to help us to go beyond our dysfunctional thinking in most of the pathologies of our lives. We, you know, we we can have we can be certain that other cherishing will only bring about our temporal and ultimate welfare. We can have that kind of confidence in such an attitude, such a way of relating with others, such a way of being in the world.
So in spite of our preconceptions, in spite of our fears and our misgivings to the contrary, we’re going to do something. We’re going to act. I know it’s, you know, I I I know at some level, I know it’s it’s going to work. I have confidence in it. I’m afraid of it.
I’m afraid it’s a risk. I’m not accustomed to it. It feels very foreign. I feel I feel afraid, but I’m going to take a chance on other centeredness even in this imaginative process. We have to be able to do that, to take a risk even if only in our imagination.
Take a risk with these feelings. So with this understanding and this determination, now imagine all that is of value to yourself. Everything that you prize, generally, these are these are classified into three areas. But we’re talking about everything that you that you that you don’t want to give up, everything that is meaning and important to yourself. Usually classified in terms of our creative potential that we’re always talking about, you know, the positive energy that we’re building up in terms of our, you know, all of our possessions and even our own body.
That all of these, that you’re going to give them up. Yeah. See if you can let go just a little bit of something that you want to hold on to. See if you can make that kind of that just that adjustment at the edges of our self-cherishing, of our selfishness, beginning to penetrate even if only on the surface. I’m gonna give it all away.
I’m going to lovingly and gladly give it all away to make in order to make you happy. So so we we imagine that all of our positive potential, all of our possessions, even our own body is transformed into a brilliant white light at our heart area. And this heart and this begins to rise up and stream out through our nostrils. And as it begins to approach this person, it transforms into the positive counterpart of their previous suffering. If previously they had been suffering from a disease, In this care person, it’s in this case, it’s yourself.
You know, some kind of physical disability, some kind of deformity, something they didn’t like about their appearance. Then the light transforms into a beautiful, healthy, handsome body. If they were homeless, transforms into a home. If they if they’re in poverty, it transforms into wealth. If they have intellectual handicap, transforms into a brilliant mind.
If if they were if they were experiencing fear, it transforms into courage, if it and confidence. If you know, whether whether and how ever much will make that person immediately happy. Immediately happy. You know? This this wish fulfilling light transforms into that.
Again and again, giving it away. Letting go as best you can to what it is that you value most. Consciously letting letting go of anything that you want to hold on to, whatever whatever you whatever it is that you want to hold back, give it away purposely, consciously. You know, transform it all into this brilliant white light and send it out in order to make this person happy. And this light transforms into to whatever would make them happy in the present moment according to their specific circumstance.
So now this person is not only not suffering, but on the contrary, they’re happy, at least for the moment. That’s all we can ask for at present. Yeah. Then we can empathetically share in their joy. So, you know, you pause and you’ve actually done something with your life.
You made someone happy and share, you know, empathetically with them, rejoicing their happiness, you know, sharing in their happiness. Then now we consider some of their future problems. So we’ve taken care of the of the present moment, but there’s still the future too that needs to be thought of. So, you know, what kinds of problems, what kinds of suffering might they experience? They they be going to be experienced in the future.
In this case, again, it happens to be yourself, but you’re just like everyone else in that way. So, you know, the the loss, what? It could be the loss of a loved one. It could be losing their job, losing losing losing their youth and health, losing beauty. And then and and at the end of all, there’s the suffering of of we’re all going to have to go through in terms of death.
You know what? But there are many many, you know, less traumatic experiences that we go through in the future, and go over the course of our life which we’re going to have to go through in the future. The the, you know, like the hurts and misunderstandings which arise in the course of a relationship or, you know, maybe the pain of a divorce or maybe an operation or an accident or maybe you have to go to the dentist next week or maybe you have to get out of bed tomorrow morning to go to work. All of that is pain. It’s just a matter of degree.
None of us want it. Whether it’s insignificant or a major tragedy. So we try to go beyond the present circumstance to foresee foresee possible future sufferings which this person, in this case yourself, might have to go through. Now again, as we did previously, generate a simple feeling of friendliness toward this person, know, kind of a sympathetic involvement, a gentle caring for this person. Yeah.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you didn’t have to go through this future suffering, whatever it might be? I wish you didn’t have to go through it. Developing a level of compassion. And again, strengthening this. May you not have to go through it.
You know, I I I don’t want you to. May you be free of that suffering. And now again, strengthen that as we as we usually do in terms of of development of compassion where you’re willing to become involved in terms of their future suffering. Resolve, I’m going to help you. I’m going to do something so you don’t have to undergo that future suffering.
Then again, recall what you’ve come to understand in terms of the contemplation of the disadvantages of self centeredness. You know, we were like, know, really almost a revulsion for your own self centeredness. So that you there’s a sense of I’m gonna take this suffering, something I’ve never done before in my life voluntarily. Take your suffering because I don’t want you to suffer. And moreover, I’m going to use it as an antidote.
I’m going to use it to destroy my own self centeredness. Now this is quite completely opposite to our habitual way of relating. Normally, it’s the opposite. We would take happiness and we lay it upon our self centeredness. We we we send away our suffering from our self centeredness and give it to other.
Completely opposite. Exact antidote to our present habitual way of relating in terms of self centeredness. You know, I’m committed to helping you. I’m going to take that suffering. I’m going to place it upon my own self centeredness.
And and with the this determination, you know, and and beginning to to imagine whatever type of future mental or physical suffering that this person might have to go through, Taking it and this time transforming it into all types of vicious animals like lions and tigers and jackals. And imagining your own self centeredness at your heart area in the form of a hunk of meat. And these these vicious animals come streaming upward into your nose and down, and they begin to to devour and tear to shreds and completely eat away, eat up all of your self centeredness. Again and again, taking upon that suffering. Again and again, your own self centeredness being eaten away by this self centeredness, by their suffering, by this taking of suffering upon yourself.
Though this person doesn’t have to go through this future suffering that we’ve thought about, that we’ve considered, still they are not assured of future happiness. And we know that they want future happiness. We can put ourselves in their place. And they’re just like ourselves in that way. So, you know, if I were if I were in your place, I’d want these future counterparts to those previous sufferings.
I’d want the happiness. So going through the different again, the different intensities of love, first with a gentle caring, and it would be wonderful if you had that future counterpart of happiness. May you have the future counterpart of happiness. I wish you that future counterpart of happiness. May you have the future happiness.
And I’m going through these very quickly in just the same words that these are the these words are indicative of feelings, of intensities of feeling, intensities of love. And finally, with the special resolve, I’m going to do something. I’m going to actually help you in finding that future happiness. And then, again, contemplating the advantages of other cherishing so that you have a motivation that you really want to do this, you really want to give something away because you you have some kind of confidence that other cherishing even though it’s it feels very foreign, even though it feels very risky, that you have some confidence that it’s really going to be a refuge for yourself, that it’s really going to bring about something positive in your life. Taking a chance on being other cherishing for once, transforming, again, your create created potential, your all your possessions, even your own body into this brilliant white light which rises up, streams out your nose, transforms as as it approaches that person into the positive counterpart of their possible future sufferings, into future happinesses, you know, whatever it might be.
You know, maybe eternal youth, eternal beauty, immortality, Now thinking this they don’t your boss calls up and says, you don’t have to come work tomorrow. Have have a holiday. You go to the dentist and they say your teeth are perfect. Whatever. And then, you know, this you made this person happy.
You can imagine a smile on their face. They’re experiencing the new future happinesses and share with them. You know, you’ve you’ve done something that you really wanna do. It’s like when you really love someone and you see them happy, it brings joy to your heart, doesn’t it? We we we we experience that.
So sharing in that joy, some kind of positive reinforcement for what you’ve just accomplished, what you’ve just done. You took a chance, it worked, and now you can you feel a sense of joy. But still, we’re gonna go further. There’s simply, you know, looking at the nature of cyclic existence in general, you know, ego enclosure that we all exist within in one way or another, which there’s nothing worth being or having. There’s no state bounded by these reoccurring dysfunctional patterns of our mind which is completely satisfactory, you know, which is not in some way flawed, which which is none of it is in fact true happiness or genuine happiness.
Now no matter what we may do or where we may go or within cyclic existence, we never experience lasting peace. We never experience pure happiness. We’re always going to be burdened with self grasping and self centeredness in one way or another. There we’re only going to experience momentary gaps in our attachment and our aversion, our jealousy, and our pride, therefore in suffering, that we’re only going to experience brief pauses of the sufferings of not finding the happiness that we want, not being coming in contact with the undesirable, not finding the desired object that we’re looking for. In one way or another, we’re always involved in some kind of struggle, this continued treadmill, continuous treadmill of cyclic existence.
You know, beginning to contemplate the disadvantages of cyclic existence in general, the nature of our human dilemma, of the human condition, and that this person is in that condition, no matter how as long as they have self centeredness and self ignorance within their mind, never going to be they’re always going to suffer in some way in some way, by the very nature of the situation, the context in which they exist. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you didn’t have to go any go through any suffering whatsoever in the future at all. Great grief. You know, in developing these these levels of compassion, may may you never suffer again. I’m going to do something to help to ensure that you never suffer again.
So I’m I’m going to take responsibility for you. And I’m going to take upon myself your suffering, and not only your suffering but your causes of suffering within your own mind. And I’m going to take that and place it upon my own self Again, the same process. And here we can imagine self centeredness is like a piece of granite rock, a huge boulder of self centeredness at the heart area. And we’re going to take upon ourselves all the possible sufferings that this person could ever experience.
But not only that, the causes of their suffering, most basically ignorance and self centeredness. And we’re going to take that and place it upon our own self centeredness and taking it in the form of weapons of destruction, you know, bombs and grenades and knives and guns that come streaming upward into your nostrils and begin to, you know, pulverize, to destroy, to smash to smithereens, this boulder, the stone of self centeredness at your heart. Again and again, taking upon all of the suffering and causes of suffering and completely destroying one’s own self centeredness. But know but though this person may no longer going to be suffering in the future, they have not you know, they haven’t actualized their fullest potential, their fullest human potential. They haven’t become all that they could be.
They aren’t a Buddha yet, which is what we all can be. You know, someone who experiences unremitting peace within themselves and motivated by by compassion, work skillfully with the world in order to help them to experience the same. So developing in those terms, developing the the levels of love. May all your wisdom, all your love, all your skills, all your talents, all your abilities be fully evolved. And may all your excellent qualities be brought to to consummation.
And any obstructions to that may be completely eliminated. That’s what I want. May it be so. I’m going to help him to make it so. So in in this way, developing the resolve of love in terms of their complete potential, that you want them to be a Buddha, that you really want them to be a happy, healthy, loving, sane human being, and they’re going to take responsibility to make it so.
So with that understanding, you know, with our understanding of our various all of our previous contemplations in terms of equality of self and others and the advantage of other cherishing, imagining that you that you transform, You’re you’re again, your positive potential, your creative potential, your your all your possessions, even your own body in this great white light. And it begins to stream up and outward. And as it, you know, as it approaches them, it transforms into spiritual teachers, into teachers teaching the path to awaken, into the spiritual community, into, you know, fellow practitioners who are going to assist this person in their journey along the path into whatever all the necessary conducive conditions, material conditions that they might need in the course of their journey. You know, transform this brilliant white light into all of that. And, know, and again and again, giving away everything that we have or everything that we value.
Letting go, not holding back anything. Transforming it all into this brilliant white light which again transforms into whatever will help this person achieve awakening. So, you know, through this process of having met with a spiritual teacher, having received teachings and practiced them, they successfully complete their journey along the the path. They awake in their hearts and their minds. They they actualize their fullest potential.
They become a Buddha. Now you’re there’s nothing more for you to do. You’ve done all that you can. And within sympathy and with empathetic joy, sharing with them in their experience of bliss. So taking we we we take as we’ve done this we’ve this example in terms of ourselves.
But we can take repeat the same imaginative process taking now as our object, someone we love, someone we we hold dear, you know, a spouse or a mother, a parent or a child, a close friend, someone we we can most readily generate sincerely these these states of love and compassion. Again, you know, we we generate the three levels of compassion. I wish you didn’t suffer. May you not suffer. I’m I’m going to commit myself to ensuring that you don’t suffer, taking responsibility for your suffering.
In terms of present difficulties, taking on this suffering. Understanding the equality of self and others and the disadvantages of self centeredness. Giving, again, the development of love. It would be wonderful if you were happy. May you be happy.
I’m going to do something. Commit myself. Take responsibility to ensure your happiness in the context of the, you know, the advantages of other centeredness, you know, giving everything away away again. You know, our creative potential, our personal possessions, own body to ensure their present happiness, working with future happinesses and suffering, and working with ultimate sufferings and ultimate happinesses. So, you know, working through a a variety of people that, you know, with with good friends and acquaintances with with strangers, with with the sick, the homeless, the, you know, Christians and Jews and Muslims and maybe in Buddhists with Russians and Palestinians, Israelis, Chinese.
You know, with with with those people you don’t like and finally working with your enemies and building up the vast array of people with a vast variety of individuals. You know, we can’t do this. You know, we can’t it’s not like sending out a form letter to make a certain. May you not may you not suffer. May you be happy.
Actually, working with as least as best we can in imagination with with real people, flesh and blood people. And people who want to actually are feeling beings as best we can until you can, you know, you have a sense that you are taking upon the sufferings of all humankind, of all being kind, of all sentient beings and giving away your happiness. And then after some time when you’ve gained proficiency proficiency in this practice, then it said in the text on mind training to mount the training upon the breath. So you take mount taking and giving upon the breath. That is, we begin having developed proficiency in this practice and being able to develop these feelings readily towards various objects, say various people, groups of peoples.
Begin to synchronize the taking part of the practice with the natural inhalation of the breath and the giving with the natural exhalation of the breath. So breathing in, we take on the pain of the world. Breathing out, we give away our own happiness and all that we have. 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 part of the human condition. You breathe in so that you can really understand what the Buddha meant when he said 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 the 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.
Tonglen 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, and satisfaction, tenderheartedness, anything that feels fresh and clean, wholesome, and good. That’s the aspect of human condition that we wish were the whole show, the part that if we could finally clear up all our problems, we would have our everyday diet.
The menu would read only happiness, no pain here. There would be all there would be all the things that you think would bring you everlasting happiness. Maybe a little bitter bitter sweetness, a few little tears, but definitely no heavy duty confusion, no no dark places, no closet doors that you don’t want to open, no monster under the bed, no ugly thought, no rage, no 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 can spread out and can and can be experienced by everyone.
You know, we can you know, if we examine this practice, we can begin to see that that taking and giving is completely in opposition to habitual way of emotionally relating with the world. Completely opposite, contradictory, mutually exclusive. Completely contradicts what are called the the the the eight principles of ego’s world. The eight operative principles of cyclic existence. And this compulsive pursuit of happiness, a compulsive avoidance of pain, the pursuit of gain, the avoidance of loss, the pursuit of fame, the avoidance of notoriety, the pursuit of of praise, the avoidance of criticism.
This is these are the these are the prison walls. These are the bars of cyclic existence in which which keep us confined within cyclic existence, within, you know, within our suffering experience. Just these. And this is completely in opposition. Opposition.
You know? We’re willing to feel pain. We’re not trying we’re not seeking to compulsively avoid it. We’re actually putting ourselves in harm’s way for the sake of others, something we’ve never done before in our life. We’re willing to give away our happiness, something we’ve never done before.
We’ve always held on to all that we could. And in that struggle to to to know, our all pleasure becomes nothing but sources of pain and the clinging and the grasping. Of all practices I know, the practice of Tonglen is the one of the most useful and powerful. When you feel yourself locked in upon yourself, Tonglen opens you up to the truth of the suffering of others. When your heart is blocked, it destroys those forces that are obstructing it.
And when you feel estranged from the person you who is in pain before you or bitter or despairing, it helps you to find within yourself and then to reveal the loving expansive radiance of your true nature. No other practice I know is as effective in destroying the self grasping, self-cherishing, self absorption of the ego, which is the root of all our suffering and the root of all hard heartedness. So would you like to stand up for a moment then we’ll we’ll practice? It’s late, isn’t it? I was hoping to to finish tonight because we’re gonna have a break for two weeks.
There’s a there’s a way that this, you know, this in itself is a tremendously powerful practice. And the By means, you know, by means of all the various practices that we have covered, by means of gaining some kind of insight insight into equality of self and others, into the disadvantages of self centeredness, the advantages of other centeredness, actual exchange of self for others, now this practice of taking giving. We, you know, we develop trying to develop some kind of real resolve to commit ourselves to others and to take responsibility for them. And but even if we but, you know, in all of what we’ve done thus far, even even if we do develop the courage to to take at least imaginatively as we have their suffering upon ourselves and to give our happiness to them. Still, in reality, nothing substantially has changed for them.
And they still they suffer even though we don’t want them to suffer. Still they don’t have genuine happiness even though we want them to have real happiness. Simply longing or simply imagining, seeing their suffering gone and simply longing and imagining that that they’re happy doesn’t make them so, doesn’t make it so. It’s not enough in itself simply to wish and imagine it to be so even though it’s a powerful means to to develop to that stage where we can make it so. You know, obviously, something more is needed.
You know, however noble, however genuine our longing and our heroic our courage might be. We have to find a way to to translate them beyond, you know, a mere interstate to something real in the outside world, you know, to some kind of practical reality. So the way and the only way we can do that, if our resolve is true, is real, is that I myself, each of ourselves, to personalize this, personalize this, to say I myself personally must become a Buddha to develop that kind of resolve. There’s simply no other way. If I’m to take what I want beyond the level of imagination and to translate it into some kind of practical reality, then I have to develop the abilities to do so.
And to that, I have to become a tremendously happy, healthy, loving, sane human being with some real liberative skills and some real abilities. There is simply no other way if we’re truly to if we’re going to help unlimited beings in unlimited ways for unlimited time. There’s no other way than we have to awaken ourselves to the unlimited possibilities of our own potential, you know, to to become a Buddha, in other words. So out of this, you know, you’ve you’ve finished your meditation on taking and giving, and you look around, and you see there’s still suffering in the world, though you don’t want that suffering to exist quite sincerely. Though you want people in fact to have genuine real happiness and peace for once and for all.
Though you want that at a very deep level of your heart to but it is not it’s not happening. For the sake of all that lives, I’m I have to become a Buddha. All that that means. I have to I have to fully awaken. I I have to become a supremely healthy, loving, sane human being.
Someone who’s constantly skilled in liberative means and who who fearlessly and compassionately works equally with all living beings, with every sentient being to help them to go beyond their suffering, to help them to find that’s what I really want need to become. It’s a necessity of my life and what I stand for in my life. You know, what I will become, you know, what I’ve resolved to become from the depths of my heart I shall become. So when such a thought arises spontaneously, again and again and again, merely seeing one person is I must become a Buddha for that person. When it arises spontaneously again and again and again in such a manner, merely upon seeing another sentient being, then we have given birth to the awakened heart, you know, that we have been reborn as a child of the Buddha.
We have become a bodhisattva. The magnificent conception of this will to enlightenment, this will to awaken is a central moment in the evolutionary career of a living being. The moment in which a new spirit of love and compassion pervades its whole life and destiny, and its further evolution becomes a purpose of creative progress. From this moment, a living being becomes a bodhisattva, worthy of honor by gods as well as humans. Śāntideva states that as soon as a being conceives the spirit of enlightenment, the awakened heart, he or she becomes at once the son or daughter of the Sugatas, a Buddha child.
He or she should rejoice in the newfound fruit of their existence. This spirit is a kind of spiritual gene, a DNA molecule of universal evolution life after life. Once one possesses it by conceiving the will to attain Buddhahood, the perfection of wisdom and compassion for the sake of all living beings, the quality of one’s experience and even one’s biological continuum is marked forever onward. There is no more noble thought than this. There is nothing higher in which to which we may aspire.
There’s there’s no more powerful method to go beyond our own suffering, our own limitations, and no greater way to be of service to others than by waking our hearts to others. And I’m going to finish, but I’d like to finish with just a few verses from the Bodhicaryāvatāra by Śāntideva and talking about the awakened heart. It is the supreme ambrosia. You know, this this aspiration to achieve awakening for the sake of all living beings. And say say this aspiration to become to develop in our wisdom and our compassion and personal power so that can be of some benefit, real significant benefit to a tremendous number of others.
That is not just my being in the world can bring about some well, bring about the welfare of others. It is the supreme ambrosia that overcomes the sovereignty of death. It is the inexhaustible treasure that eliminates all the 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 moon of the mind that dispels the darkness 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 next session together. Next, we will take up the second of the two meditative conditions for the development of an awakened heart. The seven cause-and-effect instructions.