Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. What if renunciation is simply compassion turned on yourself? That’s the pivotal claim in this 45-minute session by Ven Jampa Gendun. He opens by framing Dharma as therapeutic truth — pragmatic, oriented around suffering rather than metaphysics — and argues that authentic refuge lies in one’s own inner realizations. He then reframes meditation as “luxuriating in yourself,” cites Chogyam Trungpa on the value of doing nothing, and explains that the mind’s basic nature is already peaceful — the task is allowing it to surface. Practical instruction follows on mindfulness of breathing: the breath understood as tactile sensation, the paired mental factors of mindfulness and awareness, and a counting technique as training scaffolding for beginners. The session closes with a guided loving-kindness practice directed toward oneself first — the necessary ground, via Śāntideva, for any genuine compassion for others.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 HMA 1996 05 08.mp3
UUID: bdf6da8d-a97a-47ee-ac29-8e121f7e004f
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening 1996-1997 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1996-05-08
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.7 minutes
Words: ~6,278
So that one spiritual path is as valid as the next. We’re to simple-minded to say everything’s true or nothing’s true. To say that truth does not objectively exist is not to say that that truth does not exist at all or that falsity does does not exist as well. Though Buddha did not teach the truth, he did extensively elaborate on elaborate on on the methods for coming to an understanding of what the truth is, how it’s to be found, you know, and put out put forth exacting criteria on determining just what is true and what is not true. But in all so we’re getting to the point in all of this.
What is most important in in is that Buddhism would go on to strongly suggest that such a truth, such a worldview that the Buddha did taught, did teach, is sufficient, that that’s enough. That only that not only nothing more could be asked for or expected, but nothing more is, in fact, needed to be happy in this world. You know, to to to nothing more than a world view which is coherent and effective and empowers us and and imbues us with competency in living our lives. And and and moreover, that it is just this very truth which just which does just that, the truth of Dharma. Okay.
I’ll just go over that. There is no the truth. There’s no exclusivity. You know? That everything that we come to understand, the fundamental to Buddhism is dependent upon our own minds, our concepts, ideas, our belief systems, that is to say, worldview.
So how can we talk about a truth which exists objectively, divorced independently of our minds. You know, out there, reality, as if as if we could stumble over it in dark and bump our toe on it. You know? Nothing exists that way. What to say of the truth?
This table doesn’t exist that way. This table even this table is involved is very much dependent upon my conceptions, my ideas, my language, how I’m thinking about that table, what to say of it, you know, such abstractions as what we call truth. But we we but this is not to say that truth doesn’t exist. This is in fact it’s not to say that the table doesn’t exist. The table exists.
Truth exists, and we can make use of them. The Buddhist truth, his worldview, which we’re seeking to realize for ourselves, is such that it imbues us with power. It imbues us with competency to live our lives. You know, it’s sometimes said of the Buddha that he taught only two things essentially, suffering and the way beyond suffering. So, you know, it’s from this point of view that we can begin to see that the Buddha’s worldview is pragmatic, a pragmatic one.
I mean, that is to say, by that term, mean, it’s it’s of some it’s based on some use, some utility. And what is that? He used the standard of suffering. This is what he was most interested in. You know?
Not whether God exists or doesn’t exist, not nature, you know, whether the the universe had a beginning or end, but whether suffering could be overcome or not. You know? This was on the on the the basic practical assumption that no one wants to suffer and everybody wants to be happy, however we might define happiness for ourselves. You know, we could we could argue endlessly about the, you know, the nature of god, the nature of the universe. But no one could could sanely argue that they don’t want to suffer, that in fact they want to be happy.
And this is beyond all philosophy, beyond all abstract thinking. This is, you know, this is innate to our very nature of what it means to be a human being. You know, I I mentioned before that this word therapy, it’s related to the word Dharma. You know, as far as Buddhism is concerned, Dharma is Buddhist therapy. It is Buddha’s truth.
You know, it is only the truth which is ever going to free ourselves, not illusion. You know, there’s no path leading to the end of suffering other than the truth, and the Dharma is Buddha’s truth. You know, the Buddha himself said that the Buddhas neither wash away sins with water, nor do they remove suffering with their hands nor do they transfer their realizations to the minds of others. They liberate by means of teaching the truth, the very Dharma. So the Buddha’s truth is the Dharma.
It’s above all it’s a therapeutic truth. You know, a a truth as a means of achieving the final goal of complete healing and well-being. You know, it it it’s the the Dharma, the teachings of Buddha, the truth of of what the Buddha is trying to communicate to others, It describes in a very comprehensive fashion the nature of our dilemma, you know, the the problematic nature of human existence. And it describes in a very exacting detail the way that that situation can be transcended. But more importantly, or at least just as importantly, it’s effective in doing it sets out to do.
That is to say, it actually works. So, you know, when we talk about going for refuge to Dharma, in a way, we’re talking about going for refuge to the truth. We have to become a student of the truth, of who and what we are, you know, the way things are in the true nature. You know, ultimately, the jewel of Dharma that we are seeking to to go for refuge to is not something outside of ourselves, But it is we ourselves as authentic living expressions of the Dharma, you know, of the truth, you know, our own realizations within our own minds, you know, the self sustaining solutions that we are able to develop within our own minds through our various problems and the way that these find expressions in our everyday life and the integrity of our relationships in all the various relationships of our lives. Ourselves are the living embodiment of the truth.
This this is our Dharma refuge. Yeah. This is our actual refuge. So there’s an orientation. You know, the inner the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha.
The Buddha with inside of ourselves. And we try to actualize. We we have to do something. You know, we we have there’s some path that needs to be traveled. And we the means, the therapeutic measures that we make use of are the Dharma.
You know, what allows us to give expression to the Buddha, to actualize it in our daily life and who we are and all our various relationships. And this this process occurs within the social context of the spiritual community. Those assist us in the process. And we try to raise the level of motivation. Why I’m doing what I’m doing?
Why am I trying to travel the spiritual path? Why am I going for refuge? Why am I involved in all of this process? Such that we’re doing it not just for ourselves alone because that, in fact, has been part of our problem all along, but at least for one other person, you know, trying to expand the the scope of our our motivation to include an ever widening circle of others. And then our life has purpose.
Then there’s some kind of movement. Then there’s change. We we won’t keep going back and out of the same circles over and over and over again. Some kind of evolution takes place. So if you’d to recite the second verse, the refuge and awakening heart.
To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the supreme community, I go for refuge until awakening. Through the creative potential of my listening to the Dharma, may I achieve the state of the Buddha for the sake of all living beings. To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the supreme community, I go for refuge into awakening. To the creative potential of my listening to the Dharma when I achieve the state of a Buddha for the sake of all living beings. To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the supreme community, I go for refuge into awakening, through the creative potential of my listening to the Dharma.
May I achieve the state of a Buddha for the sake of all living being. So now we’re going to meditate together. Yeah. I think it was I think it was Simone de Beauvoir who said that I put my trust in the truth, and it has rewarded me. It’s a it’s a rather perhaps an abstract notion.
I don’t know. So maybe, you know, we have to bring it down to some practical application in our daily lives. And these these are the ways that we can do it in in very mundane terms. And through our studies, our meditation, trying to understand, confront, and explore, investigate. Understanding that it’s that the purpose of Dharma is not pleasure.
That it is people willing to work through the and abide with the legitimate suffering that traveling a a spiritual path necessarily entails and will be rewarded. I remember that I think it was about four years ago, Scott Peck, an American psychiatrist, was here in Adelaide. And he made a very interesting comment. He was talking about psychotherapy. And he said, therapy is not about being happy.
It’s about empowering and becoming competent. And I think that can translate very readily into the spiritual path as well. That to empower ourselves so that we can begin to make choices for ourselves and the type of person and the type of life that we want to lead and to gain some competency in actually translating that decision into some kind of real reality for ourselves. So, you know, it’s not it can’t and it can’t We have to have some kind of trust in that to go to refuge in that. And I think I think we’re rewarded.
And if if if if we’re constantly caught up in immediate goal gratification, then we can never go nowhere. And we never go nowhere. You have to have some long term view and be willing to put up with the legitimate suffering to work through, to to to take up the difficult task, to to to try to understand difficult to understand ideas, to to realize difficult to realize insights and understandings, to to to travel a difficult path. And I don’t mean to paint dismal picture. On the contrary, you know, Buddhism is tremendously optimistic.
Everyone in this room will someday be a Buddha. It’s just a matter of when. And when is very much determined on each of ourselves, on our own choices that we make, whether we become serious about becoming a Buddha or that is simply to say, whether we become serious about solving our problems at a more fundamental level and finding what it is of real value to ourselves. So, you know, we were talking about meditation last week. And I was trying to get across the notion of perhaps a different mindset, you know, brings some perhaps a slightly different attitude than we normally do to to meditate practice of meditation that we bring to might bring to our various other activities.
So meditation doesn’t become simply another self oppressive way of being with ourselves. You know, that we can begin to look at meditation perhaps in different points of view than perhaps we normally do. You know, you know, it’s interesting that, You know, meditation is a way of of exploring other possible versions of ourselves, experiencing other areas of ourselves that that that go unnoticed, that go unexplored, that befriending ourselves, the way of of demonstrating in a very substantial way our compassion for ourselves. You know, rerouting our sense of identity and being as opposed to becoming as opposed to owning, controlling, affecting, achieving. It’s like you know what?
Like, when you when you take a bubble bath. I don’t know if you take bubble baths. You know, getting clean is a byproduct of taking a bubble bath. It’s not it’s a and it comes along the way. That’s not why people take bubble baths.
You you can take a shower to get clean if that’s what you’re after. But it’s it’s a way of luxuriating, you know, taking care of yourself. And I like and when you can begin to think of meditating as as kind of terms, luxuriating in yourself, taking care of yourself, being befriending being with yourself, being with your own having you know, Buddhism places tremendous trust in our basic sanity and who we essentially are if we can if we can create some kind of avenues where that basic sanity is able to express itself. And meditation is is probably the most directly available means to access, you know, brilliant wisdom and have faith in our own mind. You know?
Beyond these, you know, the dysfunctional patterns which are so obvious to ourselves most of the time that we think that’s all I am. I’m nothing more than that. And that is it’s like outside this island of ego, there’s a a vast ocean of psyche, the resources of our mind, and they perhaps begin to to avail ourselves of that, create the opportunities for our own intelligence to begin to work with our problems, perhaps even unbeknownst to our our conscious intellect, even unbeknownst to the know, it’s a sort of, you know, having the sense that we have to figure everything out. But there are many processes occurring, you know, in the course of our lives which we are completely unaware of. I, you know, are are, in many ways, taking good care of ourselves in spite of ourselves.
So these kinds of ideas perhaps, a way of learning to be with ourselves, you know, without interfering with ourselves. Ourselves. Know? Or there there’s there’s an expression I heard. I think it’s I think it’s a new book title.
You know? Just don’t do something. Sit there. We have this too. You know?
We we always have to be figuring it out. If I can’t figure it out, then I can’t be I can’t be doing it. You know? And so we and there’s there’s another mode of being, which we we call an aesthetic mode as opposed to a pragmatic mode. And, you know, giving that sense, I thought it was a chance to experience that.
I’m not saying that that meditation is a space out. By by no means, I don’t think is. It’s a space in, and I think it requires some kind of discipline and diligence. But I think it it operates on a on a in a different mode of being. And perhaps what we are are usually used to, our normal.
You know, it’s a you know, I there’s a I think I read a quote by I’m gonna run out of time, aren’t I? The world can be explored. This is by Chogyam Trungpa. Many of you might be familiar with him. He’s a Tibetan master who lived in the United States for many years, who died, I don’t know, it’s been, what, seven or eight years, who’s tremendously had a great deal of impact on Buddhism, especially in United States.
The world can be explored. It is workable wherever you go, whatever you do. But I would like to plant one basic seed in your mind. I feel that it is absolutely important to make the practice of meditation your source of strength, your source of basic intelligence. Please think about that.
You could sit down and do nothing. Just sit and do nothing. Stop acting. Stop speeding. Sit and do nothing.
You should take great pride in the fact that you have learned a very value valuable message. You actually could survive beautifully by doing nothing. But I have a notion, you know, I don’t I’m not sure what exactly what meant by that particular quotation. But, you know, I don’t I think it takes a great master to do nothing. I think it takes many years of blood, sweat, and tears before you can do nothing.
In the sense that maybe was talking about, you know, I think when we do nothing, I think all we’re doing is being lazy, more or less. And being lazy is very distinct from being from doing nothing. Nothing in the usual sense of our acquisitive or ambitious, competitive, usual way in which we approach activities. Stop speeding, stop acting, and experience another mode of being, another way of being within the world. The essential, you know, quality of meditation is relaxation.
What we might call the aesthetic way of being, where we quit struggling. We carry a great burden around with us. Having to continually reconfirm the very ground upon which we stand, ego’s ground, and not understanding that there’s a more basic ground to our being than ego’s ground. And that if we can learn to to give up the struggle, if even for five minutes, even for a moment, and we’re learning the very value message about life in general. And maybe a great deal of our struggle, a great deal of our the our planning, manipulating, controlling has never been necessary all along.
It’s not it’s not to say that we don’t need to do something by all means, but perhaps that’s something needs needs to be done in perhaps a different way. You know, not so much trying more of the same, but perhaps trying differently. So, you know, we can begin to relax. And the very the very a valuable message, I think, is to understand that the basic nature of mind is peace, that we don’t have to create peace. We don’t have to take a course on how to make the basic nature of our mind peaceful.
It is. It always has been. And like the depths of an ocean, you know, undisturbed by the by the the waves on on the surface. If we can create a situation where we allow our minds to come to their basic nature and at peace, then we can begin to experience the basic nature of our own minds. Now we but somehow, it’s it’s rather paradoxical in a way.
It’s really being being like trying to be spontaneous, trying to relax. Very struggle. It takes you away from the goal. So if we can perhaps we can create the context, situation whereby the the natural reflex of the mind. You know, it’s like just allowing the muddy water of a of a dam to settle down, and then you’re you’re you’re left with natural crystal clear water.
In the same way with our mind. If we can learn to be with ourselves with and give up the struggle. Just give up the struggle. And we can learn a very valuable message about ourselves. So we’re going to the technique that we can use in one of our types of meditation that we’re going to make extensive use of is mindfulness of breathing.
I said I was going to talk a little bit about that. May get to the subject of our series of talks yet. Anyway, I’ll just talk about it very briefly and then we’ll do some meditation. Mindfulness of breathing. Mindfulness of breathing?
Mindfulness of breathing. So breathing. Breathing is something the breath is something invisible. It’s something that we can’t see. So when we talk about being mindful of something, that is say taking the mind or becoming aware of an object, in this case the breath, we’re talking about the various tactile sensations, the various physical bodily sensations associated with the natural breathing.
So when you’re breathing, perhaps depending upon where you breathe from, maybe you breathe from your chest, your chest rises and falls, the various muscles expanding and contracting, the cloth, your clothes rubbing against your skin, maybe your abdomen rises and falls, maybe you feel some air rushing out on your up upper nostril inside your nose depending upon the shape of your nose. So all of these various physical sensations, these tactile sensations, these are what we mean by the breath. Okay? So these are the object of our awareness, the focus of our attention. Natural breathing.
We’re not trying to adjust the breath in any way, not making it longer or shorter. And in in the course of of meditation. And there are two functions of mind which are which are extremely important. You know, within Buddhist psychology, one way of categorizing mental functions or mental activities is in terms of fifty what are called fifty one secondary mental act functions or mental secondary minds. Fifty one.
Amongst these are two called mindfulness and awareness. These are two of the fifty one, and these are extremely important in the course of meditation. They play a great role in in how our meditation goes. Mindfulness is simply memory, recollection, awareness, other words for awareness, introspection, attentiveness, watchfulness. It is as if, you know, mindfulness holds objects.
Awareness tells me whether the object is being held, how tightly it being held, how loosely it’s being held, whether I lost the object or not. So these are, you know, two necessary functions of mind which we have to work with in the course of our meditation. You have to hold on to an object of meditation, whatever it might be. In this case, it’s the breath. It could be an abstract object like compassion.
It could be emptiness, impermanence, whatever. It still requires the function, the factor of mindfulness, that which holds the object. And we have to be able to understand whether our mind is actually on the object, whether an object is being held, whether it’s being held too loosely and it’s about to slip away, whether it’s being held too tightly and our mind is becoming agitated, overly excited. So we have to become skillful in working with developing these two factors in mind. You know, it’s not as if, you know, we’re these are particular to Buddhism.
We use these every day in our life, these factors of mindfulness and awareness. But perhaps, you know, our mindfulness and our awareness aren’t particularly developed. You know? So we can use some techniques, and there are only techniques to help us to in the course of strengthening our mindfulness and awareness until we no longer need these techniques. They’re like a crutch, you know, and at a certain point, if you have a broken leg, it’s necessary to rely on on a crutch when your leg is healed.
And you don’t carry the crutch on your back. You throw it aside. It’s not only necessary. So likewise, we can make use of certain techniques. And in the course of developing mindfulness, one of the techniques that we can make use of is counting the breath.
So, you know, we give the breath might be too subtle of an object, too fine of an object for our our present capacity the present capacity of our mindful ness to hold on to. You know, it’s like it’s like a a baby. You know, it has it has fingers and a thumb. It has it has the potential, you know, the ability to to grasp an object. But it doesn’t have the dexterity, the coordination to to grasp a very fine object like a pin.
But if you give it a a more gross object, like a block, it’s able to hold on to it. So likewise with our minds. You know, if we gave it a fine object, a subtle object, say just the breath, then it would the breath would be continually slipping away. So we give it a gross object, something more for it to hold on to. You know, in coming in developing what I call concentration, we can adjust, We can depend upon either the subject or the object.
You know? If you’re if you’re at a rock concert, it’s hard not to concentrate on the music. It’s hard to get away from music, you know, due to the the the the strength of the stimulus. Or we can strengthen the ability to hold onto the object, that is, say, the factor of mindfulness. If the factor of mindfulness is strengthened, then even if it’s a very subtle object, can still hold onto it.
So we can work with either end, either according to the object that we’re trying to hold on to or the subject developing its capacity to hold on to the object. Here we’re going to, you know, to give ourselves a coarser object, something more to hold onto until our mindfulness develops our capacity to hold onto the object develops more and more. So it’s simply counting the breaths. Okay? So I’m going to say this verbally, but this would be done mentally on your side.
Just a slight counting to you yourself. Breathing in, breathing out, counting one. Breathing in, breathing out two, in out three, in out four, in out five. You know, this and this is not the the tryouts for the the Alpine Spiritual Olympics. So rather than seeing how far we’re gonna go, we’re gonna come back down to one.
So we go to one through five, come back down to one, In out one, in out two, in out three, in out four, in out five, in out six, come back down to one, one through seven, one through eight, one through nine, one through ten. So, you know, if if in the course of counting one through six, you you look around and say, where have I been? I’ve lost count. I’ve lost the object. Simply begin that particular series over again, one through six.
I think, again I I guess it’s worthwhile. You know, we need to just just touch upon this effect of approaching this in a nonjudgmental manner. You know, we we all have wounds. We all have we’re all trying to help ourselves. This is the way that we can care for ourselves.
So we can’t use this as another reason to find ourselves wanting insufficient and something to beat ourselves with. So we have to be develop a sense of equanimity towards ourselves, a sense of gentleness in the in this discipline which we’re trying to make use of in bringing our minds back. So we we bring the mind back without judging. Judging neither what the thought was nor or ourselves for having lost object of meditation. You know?
But it’s necessary to to have some kind of discipline, some kind of determination. You know, it has to be important. You know, if I can begin to gain some control over over my own mind, if I can begin to work with my own mind, begin to understand how it’s working, begin to explore possibilities of mine, then I perhaps I can begin to to solve some of my problems to gain a deeper understanding of myself. I can begin begin to cultivate more skillful states of mind. I can begin to expose some of my neurotic patterns and begin to work through them and cut through them.
It is important as a base as a basis of our sanity. It it it I think it carries over and permeates our everyday experiences, even those times when we’re not in a meditative session. The the quality of mind, the quality of being that we’re able to to develop and custom ourselves to in the course of meditation. So one has sort of has to become important for yourself, you know, beyond what others might say about it. Therefore, it being important, we have to ensure that that it becomes a quality experience for ourselves.
You know, that that we that we we have some kind of determination to to to make it the to put forth our best effort. That is to say, at the moment I become aware that my mind is wandered, you know, I’m going to bring it back. Yeah. I mean, it’s only you who can do this for yourself. No one else can do this for you.
You know? Even if even if I think I think so. You know, the historical Buddha was sitting here. He couldn’t do it for you. It’s something we can do for only do for ourselves.
We have to want to do it. You know, you have this you know, you know, we don’t wait to finish the shopping list or the fantasy. You know? Now the mind gets the ego gets bored. You know, at first, it’s it’s entertaining.
It’s exciting. You know, you’re waiting for the cosmic om-colored flashing lights to appear. And then then slowly begin to realize they’re not coming. It’s not going to happen. And, you know, this is just the breath.
It’s just in and out. In and out. It’s not it’s no longer any fun. And and the ego, you know, begins to go back into its archives of old old dramas and begins to rerun them, you know, the old movies of or begins to work with ideals and and sort of rearrange them in new possibilities for the future and the fantasies and what what could happen. So it, you know, it defines that kind of entertainment.
You know? And this is the way that you could spend your time in your cushion. You have that choice, but it’s a matter it’s come down to a matter of choice. Whether you’re going to take the the path of least resistance, you know, the path which you’ve traveled most of your life, or whether you’re going to begin to choose the path less traveled, you know, which requires some kind of work, some kind of determination on your part. Here, it’s simply a matter without any judgment about the content, even if god is about to speak to you.
You know, I’ll get back to you later. God, get back to the breath. Bring bring the mind back to the breath without any judgment, without any second thought about whatever it was about yourself. Just bring that’s all. And we don’t need to make a drama out about it.
Some kind of scenario. Oh, I’m such a terrible person. I can’t everybody else is blissed out and look at me. I got this garbage mind. You know?
It’s something wrong with me in particular. You think you’re pretty important, don’t you, to think that kind of way? There’s nothing particularly wrong with it. It’s pervasive. So without any judgment about the content of distraction, the wandering, our minds are going to wander, or with any judgment about yourself, simply bring the mind back to the breath.
Again, and it gets boring. Again, and then again. But there’s some kind of richness which begins to evolve out of the boredom. There’s some kind of space begins to form around it. The boredom becomes interesting, fascinating again again, and your mind begins to slow down, not as many thoughts, not as many distractions begin.
You begin to create there’s some kind of space opens up between the thoughts. You begin to find a place where you can rest, some kind of deep feeling of peace, a sense of wholeness. Know, sigh. You find some place you find a refuge inside your own mind, a place you can go to find some peace out of the struggle, the turmoil of your life, a refuge for yourself, which no one can ever take away from you, which no one can destroy, which no one can ever steal. It’s always there, the peace within your own mind.
And last week, know, we’re we’re going to work with the again, with the idea of adjusting our motivation in terms of developing love and compassion as the motivation behind our our meditation. And it was interesting last week. We we began with ourselves, didn’t we? And I noticed that in the course of our discussion group last week that many people found this rather a radical revolutionary idea to actually wish yourself happiness, to wish yourself have compassion for yourself, have love for yourself, and direct it towards yourself. And perhaps it might be, but it’s necessary.
It’s a necessary first step. You know, we if we were going to get to the the main subject of our of our series of talks, which is the three principal aspects of the path, the heart and mind of awakening, we would talk about what is traditionally termed renunciation. Renunciation. I call it the will to awaken. Okay?
But it’s just compassion. That’s all it is. There’s this thought, a type of of a state of mind which relates in terms of I I wish you didn’t suffer. I wish you didn’t suffer. Didn’t suffer.
That’s the essential of of compassion. When you direct it towards yourself, we call it renunciation. When you direct it toward others, we call it compassion. The same thought. What are we renouncing?
We’re renouncing the causes of our suffering. And we’re trying that’s what we’re trying to to go beyond, caring for ourselves. If it if if you can’t care about yourself, knowing our own sufferings, our own difficulties directly, immediately, within our own lived experiences we do, how can we ever really develop a powerful and consistent compassion and love for others? Only knowing their difficulties secondarily, you know, vicariously, secondhandedly. You know, we learn to love others through sympathy.
That is to say, we we we begins with sympathy because we can begin to identify. Having seen you know, I wouldn’t want that to happen to myself because I know how it feels. You know, when when you’ve been through something yourself and then you see someone else going through a similar situation, you feel for them. That is called empathy or feel into. Sympathy is feeling with.
Empathy is feeling into until we begin to actually identify. Now I know how that feels. This is how we learn to be compassionate by understanding our own suffering, by having compassion for ourselves, loving ourselves. So I I don’t think it’s it may be radical, but I think it’s quite a necessary step. You know, in one of the the most fundamental importance of of universal vehicle Buddhism, especially that of Tibetan Buddhism, is the Bodhicaryāvatāra by Śāntideva.
And in it, he says, if I had never dreamed of this attitude, even for myself, how could I ever have it for others? If one has never had this attitude of wanting to be free free for yourself, for your suffering, or happiness for yourself, how could you ever hope to have it for anybody else? You know, it’s we that’s the way that’s where we begin initially. Any authentic path begins with our our own immediate experience within our own lived lives, our own suffering. But it doesn’t end there.
It ends up with others. Yeah. And their happiness. But it begins with our own suffering. So we’re going to imagine ourselves in front of ourselves.
Okay? And it is for you. You know, you’re a human being. That person that that you’re imagining there is suffering. In some way, we’re all suffering.
You know, you have your own unique way of suffering, particular to you, your your particular situation. I am mine. You know, sometimes we have a sense that, you know, that that, you know, we look out through look through the glass out there. Every you all everyone out there has got it together. They everybody seems to know what they’re doing.
You know? It’s but on this side of the looking glass, it’s all confusion. I’m completely insecure and not quite sure where I’m up to. I said, but everybody feels the same. You know, we’re not so much different.
Right? The difference between ourselves is very superficial. I love them. You know, what my the feelings and thoughts that I have about myself, I I pretty sure that you’re sharing those, you know, same feelings and thoughts and attitudes. And we’re not much different.
That person in front of you now, in this case, it just happens to be you, but it could be anyone who’s suffering in some way. That person doesn’t want to suffer. You know that. Can you wish for this person that did not suffer? Can you genuinely move your mind from some find some key to unlock a a a new vision, a broader perspective?
May you not suffer. And I’ll I’ll lead you through the the various levels of compassion and love. Would you like to stand up for a minute and stretch your legs? Firm, comfortable posture. You know, some kind of purposefulness.
You really like, you mean what you’re doing. Some sense of groundedness. Some some sense of presence with all that you are at this moment, imagining yourself in front of yourself. If you can’t see yourself, it doesn’t matter. Just just feel that you’re there.
Try as genuinely as you can to begin to feel the thought. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you didn’t suffer? I would like that very much. I wish you didn’t suffer. I wish you didn’t have any problems or pain.
And try to strengthen that