Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 44-minute talk, Ven Jampa Gendun opens with the parable of a king who wants to cover his entire kingdom with leather to protect his feet from thorns — only to be shown that binding small soles to his feet achieves the same end. The story anchors the session’s theme: we cannot force the world to match our wishes, but mastering the mind is equivalent to mastering everything. The talk then moves into the first meditation in a five-part series on equalizing and exchanging self for others, working through three reasons why all living beings are equally kind to us: past-life closeness as our mothers and loved ones, the invisible support of strangers (illustrated by a surgeon saving your dying child), and the transformative pressure of enemies who force tolerance and growth. The Dalai Lama’s remark that Chinese communists were “extremely kind” to Tibetans closes the sequence. Suited to practitioners beginning to extend compassion beyond their inner circle.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 07 HMA 1997 02 05.mp3
UUID: d24d89a9-7bb3-4998-9f19-86e2b7ab1357
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening 1996-1997 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1997-02-05
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.8 minutes
Words: ~6,328
Most of what goes on for ourselves. And, generally, we we don’t think in a very profound manner. We we we readily attribute our problems to the cooperative conditions. If it weren’t for this person, if it weren’t for this lack of — if it weren’t for that I was involved in such and such, then I could be happy, then everything would be okay. I wouldn’t have this particular problem.
But there’s a from the Buddhist perspective there’s a deeper source to our problems than these cooperative conditions, the basic causes within our own mind. Sure these people and these things and these situations about us, they do in fact act as a cooperative condition. But without the basic causes of the mind, then they would have no way to act upon ourselves in terms of how we might experience them. I guess I’ve probably told this story many times, but it’s story about the primacy of mind in terms of our lived experience. Just in a story to illustrate it in which a king was walking about his kingdom as kings often do, and stepped upon a thorn and hurt his foot and he went back to his castle and gathered together his ministers.
And he said, you know, we can’t allow this to happen again, we have to do something about this. I want to be able to walk safely about my kingdom without the fear of harming myself. So his ministers thought and his thought. And one of the clever ministers spoke up and said, I have an idea. Let’s cover all the roads in your kingdom with leather.
And that way your feet would be protected from, you know, thorns and sharp objects and stones and you could walk safely throughout your kingdom. And at first initially the king thought this was a fantastic idea and he said, Let’s do that. But the treasurer spoke up and said, You know, it can’t be done. First off, it’s there aren’t enough cattle in your kingdom to produce that much leather. And even if there were, to buy that much, that many cattle would bankrupt the treasury.
It’s not a practical, able solution. So they they thought and they thought and one of the wise ministers spoke up and said, I I suggest that we cut a small piece of leather to the shape of each of your majesty’s feet, the soles of the shape of the soles of each of your feet, and that we bind those pieces of leather to your feet. And this would serve the same purpose as if all the roads in your kingdom were covered with leather. And then you could walk about your kingdom wherever you wish with safety. So, you know, the point is not that we are to toughen our minds like leather, but that we simply cannot control the world about us.
You know, that’s beyond our capacity. We can’t make we can’t force the world to conform to our our desires, demand that it that it that it run according to our wishes, that it accommodate our particular agenda. We can’t control the world, but we try. In some way we try. In one way or another we try in some fashion, to some degree, in our various unique ways, we seek to do just that.
And we, as a consequence, either experience a sense of rage because the world doesn’t operate according to our wishes, according to our personal agenda, or we experience a sense of emptiness and feelings of inadequacy, powerlessness because we can’t do the impossible. But the point is if we can control one thing, that is our own mind, it is as if we control the world. You know, this is the perhaps the most fundamental notion which permeates all of Buddhism. The mind is the measure of all things, the determinant of all things. The mind is in its place, in its way, can make a heaven of hell a hell of heaven.
You know, it’s the things and the people and the situations about us are in in certain respects neutral. They’re like a knife in the hand of a surgeon can be life enhancing, can can bring about constructive ends. That same exact instrument, that knife in the hand of a thief, in the hand of a murderer can be destructive, can destroy life, can take life. So the people in these situations and the things that we have, each in their own way has the potential to be either a source of pleasure and to enhance our well-being and bring us happiness, or has the potential to simply become another source of suffering for ourselves, another complicating factor in our life. It all depends on how we relate with that person or that thing situation depending upon our skills, our attitudes, how we view the things that people do and the situations about us.
You know, if we’re not satisfied, we are at fault. Reality is not accountable, but in a a strange way that we are, in fact. But, you know, but really it’s not so strange after all, that there is there is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so. And this is a notion that Shakespeare spoke, that it is not so much the people and the things and situations about us which are going determine the quality of our life, but what our opinions about those things those people and those situations. And then we have to begin to question, you know, where are we headed, you know, this cart if we want to go north and our cart is pointed south.
I guess this is you know, a necessity to examine our life and begin to look at what we do value and what it is that we do want. What is it that in fact has brought us meaning and connectedness with others? I guess to make conscious a lot of our of, you know, what it is that is driving our life, perhaps at presently at an unconscious level, so that we can begin to determine where it is that we want to go in a very with a great awareness, with some making some conscious creating some kind of conscious course for our life. You know, what is the preferred outcomes to the story that we’re we’re telling ourselves about our life? It’s I think I mentioned last week this process of of heart searching.
You know, it’s like very much the beginning of the path. You know, what is it that we really care about? What matters to ourselves? And if we can’t find anything that we care about, if there’s nothing that in fact matters about ourselves, can we find something? You know what?
I guess, you know, why am I living? That’s a guess a pretty heavy handed question sometimes because usually associated with a degree of despair or feeling of loss, being at loss, and beginning to form some kind of future for ourselves. I guess taking our life in our own hands, committing ourselves to finding some answers for ourselves, and beginning to taking this deeply buried story of the sacred from out of our hearts and trying to live it, you know, take it out of, you know, the out of the storage place within our hearts through our dreams and our aspirations and our noblest ideas, that they aren’t lost to ourselves, that they don’t rot there. And, you know, try begin to consciously try them on for size, see how they fit, how they how they change us, how they turn us around, make us over into the person that we might want to be, you know, to actually commit ourselves to the process of placing some kind of solid foundations beneath the castles that we’ve all built in the air, in our noblest of dreams. You know, the the to try to live these questions, to find some answers.
But I in in a way, and this is finding the answers, you know, to one’s questions is not necessarily the point. You know, a great deal I think that the point is the question in itself perhaps that is valuable in itself. And it is this decisive heart searching is in itself becomes the way In itself, these quest asking these questions of ourselves can become our greatest teacher in showing us our particular way. You know, the point is to begin to, I guess, to live the questions. And then perhaps someday without our even noticing it, we will live our way into the So as far as Buddhism is concerned, the answer the ultimate answer is awakening.
So the point is to begin. In the context of, you know, what we’re seeking, awakening, we call it the Buddha. They give it, you know, they give us something to relate with, to give to make it as if something more tangible rather than abstract. And continually reorienting reorientating ourselves toward towards something about which we are the the final transformation, something which inside of ourselves. You know, the the asking of ourselves to to be the finest possible person that we could ever hope to be, to live the finest possible story that we could ever imagine, that we could live.
You know, we can can become a Buddha if we have the imagine if we have the imagination and the will to do it, that we can become anything that we wish to be. That is, again, is one of the primary basis of Buddhism, that we have that potential. But it’s necessary that we have the imagination and the will to bring it about in fact. So continually and the will is I guess simply the capacity to organize our potential toward a toward a particular direction, toward a particular goal. And so, know, making some kind of consistent choice of Buddha of of this happy, healthy, loving, sane human being.
And we we make that habit of choosing Buddha, and we our habits become our fate, and our fate becomes awakening, that we do change. So the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha and we try to you know, we have to actually make the effort, we actually have to do something and that is involved in implementing the Dharma in our everyday life, to make the Dharma a habit, you know, the dharma of truth and the way things are. I read a paragraph and it was talking about the truth and it said that the word truth comes from the Greek word, And aletheia has the notion of of a clearing. You know, when you’ve cleared away all the brush, all the undergrowth. That’s aletheia.
That’s So this is the truth. You know, when we when we’ve cleared away all of our misconceptions, all of our fantasy, all of our illusions about something, we come to the truth. And this is very much what I think is the dharma is all about. Simply helping us to come to that truth. And the means, the tools that we can work with to come to that end, and the truth is therapeutic.
And the truth will help us to actualize the fate of a Buddha. And this process occurs within the social context of a spiritual community, and those who also are trying to find the truth, who also are trying to implement the Dharma in their life, who are also trying to actualize Buddha. And they’re willing to help, and they ask for help in return. And so it becomes a communal project, something that we do together. And trying to raise the level of our motivation, you know, that’s what we’re going to talk about further tonight in terms of the awakened heart, trying to see that the greatest thing that we can do for ourselves is to begin to open our hearts above probably above all else, that this is the basis of of spiritual practice, of growth, is to begin to have first compassion toward ourselves, open our hearts to ourselves, become sincere about helping ourselves and going beyond our suffering.
And then as we’re going to talk about further tonight, recognizing the fact that all others are in the same position ourselves, that they are exactly like ourselves and they’re way different, and extending that compassion toward others and seeking to help them to solve their problems, to find their happiness. And this becomes the style of life. This becomes a habit. And this habit, this particular habit ends in Buddhahood, all that we, you know, all that we could ever hope for our lives. So I think, you know, just, you know, we we come here week after week.
We discuss, and we listen, and we talk. You know, we’re trying to make these ideals our own, to try to validate them within our own experience, to begin to clear away a great deal of our ignorance and our misconception to arrive at the truth and to make it a habit. So, you know, every Wednesday night we we make a habit of in some small way of truth, of of love and compassion, you know, all of these qualities which eventually are going to help us to solve our problems. So, you know, being creating the the within your own mind, within your own heart, the the inner context where that truth could find fertile soil and begin to take root and grow. So that that’s something that we do for each ourselves as in adjusting our motivation.
To the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Community, I go for refuge into awakening. Through the creative potential my listening to the Dharma may 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 listening to the Dharma may 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 until 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 beings. Reverendly, I pay homage with my body, speech and mind and present clouds of every type of offering, those actual and imagined. I disclose all my destructive acts accumulated since time without beginning, and rejoice in the skillful actions of holy and ordinary beings. Please remain until cyclic existence has ended and turn the wheel of dharma for living beings. I dedicate the skillful actions of myself and others to the great awakening.
We The people who are close to you, your loved ones. You know, obviously you have a vested interest in whether they’re happy or suffering. If they’re happy, it’s probably going to just pay off for you. Yes. Or if they’re suffering, it’s some kind of it’s gonna be some difficulty for you.
But but to be able to see the people who you’re very close to from to gain some perspective, to see them anew out of that from their own side, of how it might affect you, just from their own side, divorced of your relate the nature of your relationship, that they want to be happy. In their own right, they want to be happy people. They I remember I mean, took for you, maybe this isn’t such a a great realization. For for me, it was. I think I think I was maybe twenty two, twenty four before I realized my mother wanted to be happy aside from what she did for me.
Yeah. I never thought about that before, that she had a life of her own. She wasn’t there just to serve me. I remember when I was little, I used to you know, like, we used to go to school. Used to think they you know, the school teachers.
I thought they had when we went home from school, they they put them in a closet or something then they brought them out in the morning and then they taught school. Like, they didn’t they didn’t have, you know, divorce troubles. They didn’t have mortgage troubles. They didn’t they didn’t have a life all around. They were just something that taught me.
My mother was just somebody who was there to serve me. From her own side, divorced her whether I’m her son or what goes on in my life. She had her own life to live, but she wanted for maybe it was part of it was very much wrapped up in my welfare, but that’s beside the point. The fact that that she had her own values, she had her own aspirations, longings, and she wanted to be a happy person aside from me, from her own side, and she didn’t want to suffer aside from me. So these kinds of things.
We’re kind of working through our our presumptions we have, our misconceptions that we that at some level we might be working on, some kind of premises, dysfunctional premises, and kind of disrupting them, working through them and getting getting in touch with the reality of the situation, the truth of things, clearing away these misconceptions. Okay. I’m sorry. It took a long time. So taking a firm, comfortable posture.
First, getting in touch with the body and noticing any tightnesses, any tensions, discomforts in the body. So we’re looking at the the first of the two main meditative traditions for the development of an awakened heart. Equalizing and exchanging self for others. In this tradition the first of a five part series of meditations is that of equalizing self and others developing a sense of equality, an unconditioned positive regard for all living beings. And within this, you know, looking at it from both the conventional point of view and the ultimate point of view, within within the conventional point of view, from the point of view of others, from their side, all living beings want to be happy and don’t want to suffer equally.
No difference whatsoever. They’re all equal. Of these living beings are are very much the same. We all we don’t see that more than not. We don’t relate with them on that basis more than not, but that’s very much part of their reality.
So overcoming that and clearing away the underbrush and the bushes to come to that truth, that that’s that’s their case. That’s that’s very much part of their reality. But it also Mhmm. We’re going to look at that the second second part from the conventional point of view, that they’re all equal from our from our own side. And this is, you know, again, has three parts.
First the first of these three parts, so we’re going to try to gain a sense that all living beings are equal even from the point of view of our side. From our own side, they’re all equal. First, that all living beings have been equally kind to ourselves. You know, this this I think is a difficult point, obviously. You know, this this assertion requires that we have some conviction in rebirth, the notion of the beginningless reoccurring rebirths.
And we we talked about this previously when we we did talked about the continuity of mind. You know, the the the the that the mind, like all products, necessarily arises from a substantial cause, that whatever it might be, this flower, this table, people, the world, all arise from two varieties of causes, two categories of causes. One of them is substantial cause and the other is a cooperative condition. Without either of those two categories of causes, then product would not arise. It takes in the case of the mind, the substantial cause of mind is the mind itself or pre previous moment of mind, that nothing other than mind can act as substantial cause for mind.
You know, that the the mind of the present moment arose from the mind of the immediately preceding moment. That mind arose from another mind of the the immediately preceding moment and back and back and back in a continuum. You know, this morning the present mind that we have here is very much dependent upon the mind is dependent upon the mind that that you had when you when you drove here. You know, if somebody cut cut in front of you in the court in traffic, maybe you’re, you know, you you got angry, maybe you’re still a bit some of that residual anger is still left. It’s still affecting you.
The anger the mind of that driving mind that drove over here arose in dependence upon this morning’s mind. That rose in dependence upon yesterday’s mind. And that rose in dependence upon last weeks, last months, last year, the mind of when you were adolescent, when you were a child, when you were a baby, all the way back to the moment of conception, the very first moment of mind. But even that mind arose in dependence upon a previous moment of mind. So the very first moment of mind in in this life arose in dependence upon the last moment of the mind of a previous life.
That this there is a continuity that mind arising from mind. That only the only only the only thing which can act as a substantial cause for mind is another moment of mind. Just as the only thing which can act as a substantial cause for matter is a previous moment of matter. So each moment of the continuum of an individual mind arises in dependence upon a previous moment of mind within that same continuum. So in this process of each moment of a mind rising in dependence upon a previous moment of mind, we we can never point to a first moment of the continuum of our minds.
We can never point to a time in the past when we say, this is when the continuum of our mind first began. Because any first moment that we point to must necessarily had to have had must have a previous moment of mind to give rise to it. So it’s a matter of infinite regression into the past. And over this infinite over this infinitely long continuum of mind, we have taken an infinite number of rebirths. And in those over the course of those infinite number of rebirths, we’ve been born to infinite numbers of mothers.
Every in fact, every living being has has in fact been our mother or has been our father, has been our our brother or sister, our best friend, our lover. That is to say they’ve all been someone who cared for us a great deal, who were close to us, who who were terribly important to us, who were terribly kind to ourselves. So this notion is, you know, if if we could gain that kind of conviction, is that we have a very deep relationship with every living being that we meet. Whosoever has been of tremendous kindness to ourselves in the past, though we may not we may not remember at present or in fact, we probably don’t, but that’s nevertheless the case. You know, over the course of these infinite rebirths, every living being has been beneficial to ourselves, has been has given their life for us, our our welfare.
So, you know, the we might, you know, we might go on to we might accept accept that that equality of all others in terms of their past kindnesses toward ourselves. But we but, you know, we could go on to reasonably argue, Well, okay. They they have may they may have been equally kind to me, but they’ve also been equally unkind to me. You know? Over these infinite number of rebirths, they’ve also been my worst enemy an infinite number of They’ve they’ve killed me.
They’ve stolen everything that I had. They destroyed my life. They made life miserable for me an infinite number of times just as much as kindness. So we we have to go on to the second point in these three points from the point from one’s own side, the equality of others, is that how all living beings are equally kind whether as friend, stranger, or enemy. So the first point is that all living beings are equally kind to ourselves in that they over the infinite number of rebirths, they have shown us equal kindness as in terms of being our mother, our father, our lovers, our closest friend.
Maybe not our lovers. Our lovers, our closest friends, all the people who have been beneficial to ourselves equally. But we we go on to try to understand that they are equally kind whether they were our friends, whether they were strangers, whether they were in fact our enemies. So it’s easy to appreciate the kindness of a friend, the, you know, the kindness of our loved ones. It’s because we do appreciate or at least are are to some degree mindful of their kindness that they are our friends, that they are our loved ones.
But what about the vast majority of people who whose many kindnesses are not obvious to ourselves at present? You know, that is the the kindness of strangers. So beginning to you know, we’re trying we’re trying to transform our minds to to find another more skillful perspective, working with our present premises and assumptions to see if they are valid and if they are functional, if they’re skillful. Now here we’re going to try to gain some appreciation for the kindness of the vast majority of of people in the world, strangers, who at present we feel totally indifferent toward. It’s as if outside of a small group of people, the rest of the world doesn’t exist for ourselves.
So how can I have gained a sense that, in fact, this vast majority of people, this massive billions of people out there are in some way kind to myself? You know, take for example, the clothes that we wear, the food that we eat, the this building that we’re, you know, that we’re gathered together in, the home that you live in, are all dependent upon the kindnesses of others, being benefited by others. The vast majority of people who we presently feel so indifference toward, unrelated to as if they didn’t exist at all, are in fact an integral part of our lives. You know, our existence is very much bound up, is dependent upon all of these people. Everything that we do and have, that everything that we derive pleasure from, everything that we value, everything that we need, that that we want both for our physical and mental well-being is very much tied into the actions of others.
It’s true that we are called to wholeness, but the reality is that we can never be completely whole in and of ourselves. We cannot be all things to ourselves and to others. We cannot be perfect. We cannot be doctors, lawyers, stockbrokers, farmers, politicians, stonemasons, and theologians all rolled into one. It is true we are called to power, yet the reality is that there is a point beyond which our sense of self determination not only becomes inaccurate and prideful, but increasingly self defeating.
It is true that we are created to be individually unique, yet the reality is that we are inevitable, inevitably social creatures who desperately need each other, not merely for sustenance, not merely merely for company, but for any meaning in our lives whatsoever. You know, but okay. Again, we can argue against this, I think. You know? Well, it’s true that that my well-being is very much dependent upon others.
But they do what they do not out of kindness for me. They do what they do for some kind of reward. You know, generally generally, people do what they do for money. They really don’t care about me. So, you know, okay.
So taking that as the argument and imagine a situation that you’re that you’re a parent and and your your only child is is death deathly ill, and you you rush your child to the hospital, and she’s immediately taken into the into the to the to the operating theater. And you’re frantic. I mean, put yourself in that kind of place, you know, feel the like those feelings which might arise for you and how what it would be, how what the kind of experience it would be for you. You know, all that you want out of your life at that very moment is to see your child well again. That that’s all that, you know, you you all your entire being is directed toward that one thought, may my child be well.
May my child be well. That’s all that you could ever hope for at that particular moment in your life. You would actually probably gladly give up your life in return, let your child be well. Entire focus, the force of your being is completely wrapped up and involved, absorbed in this one wish, may my child be well. And and the the surgeon comes out the operating theater and comes into the waiting room.
And she says to you, your child is going to be well. Everything went well. She’s going to be okay. You know, at that moment, you know, what aside from the relief and the joy that you feel at that moment that your child is well again, what do you feel toward the doctor? You know, do you think, damn, I wonder how much is this gonna cost me?
You know, there’s the anesthesiologist, there’s all those specialists that that that call in. What what would be you know, you’re you’re gonna get a bill in a few weeks. Yeah. But what what what would concern for cost be as a response to that at such a moment? You know, what what would not the most natural, healthy response be one of gratitude and thankfulness?
You know, that that that an appreciation and valuing that someone went through all that training that that a doctor or a surgeon has to go through, develop all these necessary skills, and that there were all of these conditions present that gave you what you wanted most in your life at that moment. You know, the the the all this came together to save your child’s life, that there that there existed all of these facilities. You know, the one that all of this came together to give you that one thing that you most wanted in your life at that particular moment. You know? And they all came together, the doctors, the nurses, the you know, not just them, but the support staff, you know, the the clerical workers, the the the maintenance people, the building contractors, the architects who built it, the laborers, the pipe fitters, the bricklayers, the truck drivers, you know, the masons, on and on and on and on.
All the people who brought this what it this condition together, what it took to give you what you most wanted in your life at that moment. That if it wasn’t for all of these elaborate complex conditions and people, situations, and technology, instruments, whatever, all of that coming together in in at that instant, you wouldn’t have gotten all what you wanted most in your life, but it did. And there’s a sense of gratitude to all of this and thankfulness that they all existed, that they all did their work. You know? Sure.
They all they might, you know, they might all be doing what they did for money. You know? But that is not the important point. You know? Whatever their motivation may have been, it is our response which is important for us, from our side.
And why should we be forever bound by others’ supposed intentions? You know, what there’s no freedom in that. There’s you know, where is the choice in that that we can begin to make about how we’re going to respond rather than simply react? Isn’t the attitude of sincere gratitude, of thankfulness, or appreciation a healthier, more desirable response than the attitude of of a banker or an accountant. You know, either way, you’re going to have to pay the bill.
You know, we can begin to it’s simply a shift in the way that we we view others and what they do. We can begin to appreciate them rather than persisting with our our present feelings of indifference and attitudes of un unrelatedness, you know, that they that they don’t matter to me and what they do. The world is not maybe the world wouldn’t seem so alien to ourselves. Maybe the world would begin to be seen as a benevolent universe supporting our existence actively. And if we come to think of it in that way, you know, the the we can turn on electricity and this fan cools us off.
It’s almost like a miracle that somehow the universe is is is supporting my existence and making it somewhat more comfortable just in that way. And then that I can I can go out and get a drink of water? That’s you know, that we we it it can be seen that way. And this is a possible way of of reframing the same facts, but in a highly desirable way, healthier, more functional, more skillful way. You know, where will we be?
What would we be doing? How could we survive without all of these wonderful beings doing what they do for us in some way, unbeknownst to ourselves, unbeknownst to them. They don’t know that they’re helping us in this way. You know, the people who is doing the maintenance down at the the at the electrical generating factory doesn’t know that I’m being cooled by the fan which they’re causing to be turned in some way. But still they’re doing it for me.
I can take that position and why not? That seems to be more desirable and more more pragmatically useful than my than my present attitude that that of an unrelatedness, even seeing the world as hostile and others as being in and having a completely indifferent attitude toward others. So we can we can begin to reframe in terms of, you know, this bus driver, when you get on the bus, you know, where would if you had to get somewhere, and where would you be without her or him? And sometimes I think of, you know, like it is absurd perhaps, but if you were out on the desert and there you came up and you were thirsty, dying of thirst, and there’s a Coca Cola stand, a guy selling coke, You would just you know, I think you’d just kinda get down and kiss his feet. He wouldn’t ask, you know, why he’s just there to make a buck, you know.
It wouldn’t it wouldn’t wouldn’t occur to you, I don’t think. Just, wow. You know, saved my life. You know? And then okay.
So maybe we can begin to reframe the fact that that even the people who are strangers to our ourselves that we don’t know and maybe never will know, but they’re kind to us in some way, you know, supporting our existence. Then looking to enemies, difficult, I think, to consider the kindness of our enemies, but another possibility, a necessary possibility. You know, the Dalai Lama has said of the Chinese communists that that the Tibetans owe them a great debt for actually they have been extremely kind to us. And this is what the Dalai Lama said. You know, due to our having to to leave our country, we’ve had to become strong.
We had we had to develop our courage in facing the hardships that we’ve had to endure. The Chinese had been very kind to us. They made us actually they forced us to really practice the Dharma. So, you know, in dependence upon the enemy, those people we don’t like, then we don’t get along with. We develop tolerance.
We we it’s people that give us a hard time who really show us where we’re at spiritually. You know, it’s it’s difficult people who strip us of the cocoons of our of our nice tit for tat kind of relationships, who who shake us out of a a stagnation of trying to maintain, you know, the status quo in some way. You know, Christ Christ didn’t say, love your enemy, do good to those who who maltreat you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who who who harm you because he was either confused or romantic. But he saw it as a means of becoming perfect as your father in heaven was perfect. That is to say, simply most, as a means to grow, to love your enemy.
And to grow is to to experience one’s life in a more satisfying, fulfilling, joyful manner. So it’s our enemy who helps us in this. And the the the the you know, it would be a great mistake to think that that following a course of of inner growth, you know, a spiritual path involves merely learning to skillfully avoid difficult people and and difficult sensations situations. It would I have learned silence from the talkative, tolerance from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind. Yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.
The point is and it’s a difficult point, but it’s a necessary point in thought transformation.