Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute session, Ven Jampa Gendun opens with a guided meditation that starts somewhere uncomfortable: participants are asked to bring to mind someone they find repulsive and genuinely extend compassion and love toward that person. He then introduces the first of five meditations on equalizing self and others — tracing the mind back through infinite past lives to establish that every being has been our mother, then reflecting on the easily overlooked kindness of strangers (the farmers and truck drivers whose labor sustains us) and even enemies. The session deepens into the ultimate view: friend, enemy, and stranger are mental labels projected onto others, not intrinsic truths, illustrated through the map/territory distinction and the image someone buys along with a Mercedes. Suited to practitioners already engaging with mind-training material.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 10 HMA 1997 02 12.mp3
UUID: cfba682b-b455-4cf5-82a4-ff55070fd03f
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening 1996-1997 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1997-02-12
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.0 minutes
Words: ~2,826
Been built over the course of the day. Moving down and out of the your body into the ground. Body becoming relaxed and comfortable and at ease. Now think of an individual who appears in some way repulsive to you, someone who is unattractive, unappealing. You have some aversion just because of their appearance.
You don’t know them. They’re a stranger. Imagine that person in front of you. Just feel that such a person is there. And as best you can, try to go beyond superficial appearance.
Begin by cultivating quality of compassion. Just a friendly, simple thought. It would be wonderful if you didn’t have any problems. I wish you didn’t suffer. See if you can genuinely feel this for this person.
Just work with this feeling. I’m trying to strengthen that, becoming more involved. May you not suffer. It’s like you’ve decided that’s what you want for this person. I don’t want you to suffer.
I’m going to help you. I’m going to take responsibility to ensure that you don’t suffer. And cultivating love toward this person. Again, this is a simple friendly thought. Be wonderful if you’re happy.
I would like for you to be happy. I wish you happiness. May you be happy. I’m going to take responsibility to ensure that you’re happy. And the way I’m going to express my commitment here at this very moment is through my meditation.
If I can I can develop my mind, if I can overcome my misconceptions, if I can grow? And eventually, somewhere down the line, sometime, I’ll be able to be a real significant and practical benefit in helping you to be happy and helping you solve your suffering. Even if only indirectly this meditation is for you, in some way it’s for you. Then the nine round breathing meditation, beginning with by blocking the left nostril, breathing in the brilliant white light. Blocking the right.
Breathing out all the negativities three times three times the opposite nostril, and then three times with both. When you completed that, then bring your mind to the breath. Just the gentle, easy, in and out flow of the natural breath. Of itself, we’re using techniques of counting and noting the breaths. Now we’re going to meditate on the equality of self and others from our own side.
So the first point is that every living being is equal in terms of their kindness toward ourselves. And this is from the point of view that all living beings have been our mothers. So we have to get a sense of infinite numbers of rebirths that we’ve taken. So beginning with the present moment, with your present mind, just trace it back that your present mind arose in dependence upon the mind which drove to Buddha House or walked to Buddha House, the mind that was active when you came to Buddha House, that there is a connection. The present mind is in a series, in a continuum, arose in dependence upon that previous mind.
And that mind that was active coming here to Buddha House arose in dependence and is in a continuum with the mind that you woke up with this morning. You could trace back moment by moment, one moment arising from the previous moment of mind all the way to the mind which woke up this morning. And that moment of mind is in dependence upon the mind that you went to sleep with last night. Continuum of mind moments, one rising in dependence upon the next. And that mind moment of yesterday rose in dependence upon the mind moment of the day before, in a continuum of mind moments, one dependent upon the next, giving rise to the next, giving rise to the next.
And that was dependent upon the mind of last week. And that can be traced back to being dependent upon the mind of last month. Just continuing back last year. I mean, three years ago. Continuous moments of mind rising and depends one upon the other without interruption, without break, down to the present from three years ago to ten years ago.
When you were a four-year-old. When you were a child. Continue the mind back to when you were a baby. The same continuum of mind. At birth, the moment of conception, the mind in the fertilized ovum.
A moment previous to that, the last moment of your previous life, Uninterrupted continuum. Mind moments rising in dependence upon the previous moment. And back into the life before the previous life. And back to life before that, same continuum of mind, uninterruptedly continuing down to the present moment. And before that, going back and back without beginning.
And gently back. And over the infinite continuity of mind, even born an infinite number of times to an infinite number of human mothers. Just like your mother this lifetime. So call to mind people that you know, various types, and try to sense that this person is in fact was my mother. Might be helpful to actually whisper mentally my mother when viewing this person.
We’re primary giver. How kind they were. My mother. Bringing the mind various people, various categories, friends, strangers, enemies, all the various types. I’m trying to feel a sense of connectedness.
Now we look at the kindness of others even when they weren’t our mothers, just in all the various types of relationships, when they were friends, strangers, and enemies. Call together call to mind friends and appreciate the kindness of your friends, a variety of friends, Appreciating all that they do for you, all the various kindnesses that they’ve shown you. And then let’s look at strangers. Those people we feel unrelated to, trying to appreciate their kindness. So try to appreciate the fact that the very clothes that you are wearing at this moment were made for you by someone you don’t know.
How much you enjoy them, how much they might protect you from from the elements is kindness that they’ve shown you. Whatever you had for lunch was very much tied in with the kindness of others. All the primary producers, the farmers, the truck drivers, wholesalers, the retailers, all the great number of people that are involved in bringing it to you in one way or another. The very fact that you are nourished and you can enjoy your lunch is dependent upon their kindness. By transportation, whether be by car or by bus.
How could we get around? How could we go where we want? What would we do if it weren’t for the kindness of others? And the home that you live in and all the furniture that’s in it. And let’s let’s look at the kindness of those people we think of as our enemies How much we gain through such a relationship in terms of our tolerance and patience that we have to develop.
And who are we going to develop patience toward if it’s not the enemy? There’s no other opportunity. Think about how much the enemy over the experiences of your lifetime have forced you to grow, how much they’ve taught you about yourself, how much you’ve learned about yourself in relationship to someone you thought was your enemy. And then finally, looking at the quality of others in terms of the fact that they’re all going to die. And no matter what they do, no matter what they want.
All of the people about you are equal in the fact that they’re going to die. There’s no difference amongst them whatsoever. Whether they’re friend, enemy, or stranger, they’re still all going to die. They’re all equal in that. So all the people that you’re going to meet in the course of your day tomorrow, whether it be work or out shopping or even in your own home, each of them is kind in their own unique way.
Each of them is going to die sometime. They’re all the same in that. And then bring your mind back to the breath. Easy, gentle, in and out flow of the natural breath. And then slowly, just get in touch with your body.
Perhaps your posture or some sensations in your body in a gentle and relaxed manner, just gradually become aware of what’s going on about you. Just take your time. There’s no hurry. So we’re looking at the first of two meditative traditions for the development of the awakened heart. It’s equalizing and exchanging self with others.
And it is a series of five meditations. The first of these five meditations is equalizing oneself and others, developing an unconditioned positive regard for everyone. In the development of this sense of equality, we’re looking we’re going to divide it from both from the we’re gonna look at it from the conventional point of view and the ultimate point of view. Within the conventional point of view, from the side of others, that they’re all equal from the side of others, and that from our own side, that from our own point of view, all others are equal. So now we’re going to look at it from the ultimate point of view.
This again is divided into three points. So when says ultimate point of view, it’s a relatively deeper point of view than even the ones that we’ve employed thus far. We’re trying from a deeper point of view to break down the rationale that the partiality, the the biasness that we now view others, that we that we use to relate with others is somehow just it’s somehow justifiable. You know, that that that the way that we relate to a friend or a stranger or an enemy are reasonable. Since these people really are, this person really is truly a permanent, intrinsically existent, ultimately existent friend.
This person really is in truth, intrinsically, permanently, ultimately a stranger. This person really is, in truth, ultimately, permanently, intrinsically an enemy. That that is from their own side that we are seeing them from for whom they really are. That that’s their very that is in fact their nature. That we are not projecting any kind of fabrications upon them.
We are seeing them for what they really are, and they deserve to be treated like that. This person really is my friend. This person really is my enemy, and I’ll be I’ll be damned if I’m gonna treat them any other way. They deserve everything they get from me. That kind of notion that we have.
That that’s some level. We harbor that kind of feeling. So first off, from the from the ultimate point of view, we’ve examined that friend, stranger, and enemy do not, in truth, exist the way they appear. And they don’t, in truth, exist the way they appear. So, you know, we have to come to we’re gonna touch on a very profound subject, which we’re going to when we come to the awakened mind, we’re going to go into it in great depth.
But the the fact that of the process of labeling, that everything is being designated by the mind. So the label the label friend, the label stranger, the label enemy appear to us to be the people out there. You those people who I conceive of to benefit me, I label them friend. There thereby, they become my friend, and they appear to be my friend. You know, they appear to be kind, pleasant, likable people of their own nature.
The people who who who harm me or I conceive of as harming me, I call them enemy. I label them enemy. And thereby, they appear to me to be enemy. They they they appear to me to be unkind, to be unpleasant, unlikable people, as if by their very nature something about them is kind of repulsive, kind of have aversion for them. There’s something unlikable in their very quality about their being, who they are.
That’s the way they appear to me. And those people who neither who I conceive of as neither benefiting me nor harming me, I call them a stranger. And thus, you know, they they are they become a stranger, and they they appear to be strangers, you know, neither kind nor unkind, you know, neither pleasant nor unpleasant. So it will by so there are these various appearances. By assenting to these appearances, by accepting these appearances to be true in fact, as objective truths about these objects, about these people, we react with attachment to to the friend.
We act with aversion to the enemy, and we act with an indifference toward the stranger. We will help our friend, and we’ll look upon their well-being with pleasure. We we will seek to harm our enemy, and we will look upon their their problems with pleasure. And we will ignore the existence of the stranger and look upon with indifference upon their state of being, whatever it might be. It’s just they don’t exist for us.
It doesn’t matter. So all of these various modes of relating to all in these various different feelings are based upon one projection or another, one fabrication or another, based on the basis of one appearance or another. You know, when we look at others, more than that, we are seeing our own projections, our own needs, our own wants, our own hopes, our own fears reflecting back at ourselves. You know, what is divine within us? What is reprehensible within us?
There is invariably an affective element mixed in with these appearances. So it’s difficult to see others divorced of this projected fantasy that we that we superimpose upon them. You know, the the the idea of mental image is extremely it’s a very important area in coming to understand about Buddhism in general. You know, it’s it’s it’s we make use of it in the west a great deal. You know what?
I was thinking today that when when somebody buys a Mercedes Benz or a BMW, they aren’t just driving a car. They’re driving an image, aren’t they? And quite often that image drives them. I have a suggestion that part of good advertising is to sell an image.
People aren’t just buying transportation. You know? They they are buying an image along with that transportation. Sometimes the image is more important than the transportation itself.
So this also applies to a great deal of our emotional life in general. You know, we trying to this has to do also with our relationships with others in terms of friend, enemy, and stranger. These also are part of the labeling system of mental images. You know, it is said, for example, that a Buddha that a Buddha sees beyond the apparent person to the individual behind the superficial labels that we apply, that we normally apply to to others. You know, a Buddha doesn’t see an enemy but but but sees someone who has been hurt and someone who is presently unable to love and who has hatred within them and therefore is suffering.
For Buddha, this is a deeper truth about this person. The rest is superficial and arbitrary. The labels that we use, the mental images, they are they’re usually a complex of images and ideas and assumptions and beliefs and emotions. They they form they’re interconnected into a into a single image like pattern. And this is what we project upon the world.
So these mental images that we employ in order to understand the world often become more vivid than the objects for which they stand for. They can take on a reality of their own apart from the object toward which they refer to. And it’s like the the notion the map is not the territory. You know, the the you know, we we use a map to navigate, you know, around town. But the blue lines and red lines and the dot, you know, you can’t drive on those little blue lines or those real but little red red line.
They stand for something out there. They refer to something in reality. You know, you can’t go shopping in those little black dots. But if but if you if you understand the the significance, they can they can guide you to toward real places where you can actually go shopping, where you can eat. So we, of necessity, use images, mental images, generic images, labels in order to understand the world, in order to know the world.
But sometimes these very labels, they take on a reality of their own. They know they they become more vivid and real for us than the actual for example, in this context, the people there’s they stand for. We begin to relate with the image rather than the actual flesh and blood person for which the image is meant to.