Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The image of a baseball stadium hot dog vendor — what to do when one lands in your hand mid-play — gives this 44-minute session by Ven Jampa Gendun its most memorable teaching aid. He arrives there through a sustained opening on two forces driving spiritual change: “constructive anxiety,” the honest recognition of saṃsāra’s repeating dissatisfactions, and faith, explored through the Tibetan word mönlam, prayer as a “path of wishing” that empowers courage in spite of fear. After a guided breathing meditation using the hot dog image to illustrate the noting practice — you can pass a thought without biting into it — he closes on the spiritual master, arguing that devotion to an outer teacher gradually reveals one’s own inner lama and Buddha nature, citing Lama Yeshe and the example of Milarepa.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 11 HMA 1996 06 05.mp3
UUID: 7c3dc9c2-ad36-4f59-b96c-80d1ab8d93aa
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening 1996-1997 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1996-06-05
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.7 minutes
Words: ~6,440
So we begin as we we always do in terms of perhaps regrounding ourselves, getting back in touch with what is fundamental importance for each of ourselves. It’s easy to lose sight of that in the course of our well, maybe not mine, but your busy lives. What brings a sentient being to this life? A sense of purpose? A sense of fulfillment?
Sense of the sacred. This continual process of reorientating ourselves, redirecting ourselves. It seems like it’s necessarily a continuous process that we have to consciously do again and again and again because we again and again get out of touch. We lose sight of what is most important to ourselves. In this process, know, we’re trying to create some kind of atmosphere for ourselves, but externally in the environment, creating some type of physical mentality which is conducive, supportive to the states of mind that we’re seeking to accustom ourselves to more skillful, more productive states of mind which are going to lead us to more of what we might want out of our life.
But also each of our parts in terms of creating that an inner ecology of mind which is susceptible to change in the directions that we might want our lives to go, the types of behavior and the types of thinking, the emotions and the feelings that we might want to more and more engender. There’s a certain resistance, there’s a certain momentum of past habits. And it seems to carry us along unthinkingly, unawareingly, in perhaps directions that we would rather not have our lives take, in the past haven’t brought us what we might want out of our lives. So it’s it’s quite necessary to consciously stop and stop acting and stop speeding and to pause and to reflect upon the quality of our life, the quality of our being and what it is that we want. You know, quite often, more than not, is suffering which makes us think.
More than not, when our minds become happy, they become superficial. Sadly enough, but that seems to be the case. You know, how many people run outside and, you know, throw their arms wide open, look up to the sky and and exclaim, you know, why me, God? Why why am I so happy? Why does everything always have to go right for me?
You know, I have to find the answer. I can’t go on like this. Nobody, I doubt. It’s suffering which makes us stop and think to reflect upon our lot in life, upon the nature of the human condition, the nature of our condition. So, you know, this is one of the two fundamental causes creating this internal ecology conducive to change, a sense of anxiety, and then beginning to reflect upon these past cycles of dissatisfaction which have very much comprised our life up to now.
And then no matter what we go, what we do or where we go, or the things we’re able to gather about us and the people, the relationships we’re able to form, it seems like the same problems, the same difficulties and disappointments and frustrations in one way or another, in one form or another, seem to keep creeping back into our lives. Develops an undercurrent of anxiety. Sometimes it’s more acute. And sometimes it’s actual fear of the reoccurrence and the possibilities of specific dissatisfactory outcomes and specific sufferings that we would not like to undergo. And so we begin to look for alternative possibilities, other directions in our life to alleviate that fear, begin to soothe that anxiety in some way.
So, you know, a great deal of the path, a great deal of Buddhism is purposely trying to evoke a constructive anxiety, constructive fear as a means, the skillful means of creating the inner ecology for a purpose for the change to be brought about. And we’ve been talking about that in terms of how this anxiety can overcome our hopes. And by hope I mean very much our ungrounded expectations, you know, unrealistic hopes, wishful thinking that very much constitute our way of life. Know, things will get better, things will get better. That’s kind of our mantra, isn’t it?
Things will get better. Things will change, but not necessarily for the better, in the nature of things to change. But it seems that if we’re going to lead an intelligent life, we can begin to intelligently intervene in that process of change and begin to direct the course of our change. And one of the primary motivating factors is a sense of anxiety. But there’s another which is of equal importance, and that is faith.
Faith and anxiety are fear. The two fundamental causes directing ourselves toward alternative refuges in our lives. The first step in conscious change is to wish that things were different. You know, sounds so simple minded, doesn’t it? Know, ask and it shall be given.
Knock on the door shall be opened. First, we have to begin to decide what it is we actually want. You know? We have to actually begin to form in our imagination some alternative, some image of how we might wish things to be. You know, we have to wish that things were otherwise.
And without faith, we cannot positively wish. You know, it is faith which overcomes our inability to wish and begins to deepen our capacity to wish, to wish very deeply. You know, without faith we will remain apathetic, a sense of emptiness about ourselves. Can’t muster up the the the the will to wish. It doesn’t matter anymore.
The the Tibetan word for prayer is mönlam. Mönlam literally means a path of wishing, a path of wishing. And for prayer to have any real meaning, it has to be combined with the care and power of faith. Due to our faith, what is happening to us matters. We’re no longer indifferent.
We’re no longer apathetic to our circumstance in life. It makes a difference to ourselves. We care. And moreover, we’re moved. We’re empowered to do something, to act in spite of our possible fears, to the contrary, our hesitancy.
Know, before last week we were talking and we said that if fear is the mother of cowardice and hope is the father, typically fear is a reaction to some kind of perceptual mismatch. What we perceive does not match what we expect. It’s not what we anticipated what we should have perceived. When our experience of a person or a thing or a situation doesn’t conform to our ideas, our conjectures about what it should be. In other words, whenever we are confronted with the unexpected, with the unusual, with the unfamiliar, with the unknown, we become afraid.
Normally, we cope with fear by withdrawing and narrowly beginning to circumscribe our lives such that we do not come across the unexpected, the unfamiliar, the unknown too often. That is, we habitually take the path of the familiar in our lives. We stick to the familiar in order to avoid fear fear of the unexpected, fear of the unknown. Know, looking at it this way, we can begin to see what a powerful, controlling force fear is in our lives. You know, fear keeps us in our habitual tracks in the way that we go through life.
You know, the familiar, the unfamiliar, the unknown is never explored. We remain forever stuck in very much the same patterns of thinking, the same patterns of behavior. You know, fear not only blinds us to the need for change, but reinforces our resistance to it as well. It is through faith that we have the courage the confidence necessary to explore the unfamiliar, you know, the unknown in spite of our fears. That we’re willing to take an alternative direction in our lives, you know, to begin to take another avenue, another street.
We mentioned that biography in five parts last week. Fearlessness isn’t being without fear. It is acting in spite of our fears. And that requires some kind of faith. That we’re willing to abide within the painful tension of fear and act in spite of our fears, even though we’re afraid.
Through the empowering of our faith, consciously begin to invite change into our lives. Actually, we begin to methodically seek it out and to systematically cultivate change in our lives for the cause of growth. To grow is to expand our horizons outwardly in perspective and inwardly in-depth, to begin to view the world through the eyes of new and different ideas. And therefore we begin to relate and experience the world in more expansive and perhaps more meaningful ways, more penetrating ways. And that to grow is to change, and to consciously grow is to freely choose course of change for ourselves and our lives.
Even though at present, you know, we may not know, you know, when we when we walk down this new street that we haven’t explored for that we haven’t explored before. We may not know only in vague and indistinct terms, indistinct ways. You know, all the specific eventual outcomes of that change, the course of change, all the details of that other street that we’re going to walk down, you know, that alternative refuge that we’re beginning to explore and to examine. Due to our faith, have enough trust in ourselves, in the means, in the process, in the outcome, encouraged enough to take a risk, you know, to voluntarily choose the trials of change, you know, to carry the cross of the moment and allow illusions to die. To bear with the creative tension of transformation, That’s very difficult.
This is something that was mentioned to me only fairly recently. The willingness to abide in the tension without having to resolve You know, there’s We’re going to talk about what are called the eight concerns of the world, or the eight worldly preoccupations and ego-based existence, so to speak. But one of them is the compulsive avoidance of tension, of pain, in all its forms. And it seems that simultaneous with change there is a creative tension. And if one is never willing to abide in attention, one will never allow the creative space for change.
To be willing to abide in that space, to be to be willing willing to abide in exploration of the unknown and what you haven’t experienced before. You know, to begin to enter into something, the unknown, by the power of our own decision and begin the difficult work which needs to be done, in order to begin to heal ourselves, to become well, to begin to regain some of the sacredness in our lives. You know, when we extend ourselves, ourself enters into new and unfamiliar territory, so to speak. Ourself becomes a new and different person. We do things we are not accustomed to do.
We change. The experience of change, of unaccustomed activity, of being on unfamiliar ground, of doing things differently is frightening. It always was and always will be. People handle their fear of change in different ways, but the fear is inescapable if they are in fact change. Courage is not the absence of fear.
It is the making of action in spite of fear. The moving out against the resistance engendered by fear into the unknown and into the future. On some level, spiritual growth always requires courage and involves risk. You know, basically, we’re going to talk about the cultivation of faith. It’s something that we can work with, and therefore we have a possibility to consciously change.
We have faith enough and care enough and thereby are empowered enough to courageously take the risk and declare, you know, enough is enough. You know, I want such and such. I wish it to be so. You know, to begin to formulate in your mind, to positively imagine what it is that you want to be five years, ten years. To begin to set a course, a direction for yourself.
And to trust enough that on the other side of change, you know, on the other side of it being so, we will land on our feet. You know, we can’t know all the outcomes of change, But we can have faith enough and trust enough in the process and the means and the outcomes such that on the other side of that change I have faith that I’m going to land on my feet, that my world is going to be a better world, I’m going to be a better person. In the long run, it’s going to be better for others as well. Now, we have faith in all of this. Essentially in the solitary, let us say, positive nature of growth itself.
And the direction that we’re beginning to set ourselves at present. You know, this street that we’re beginning, this outcome that we’re beginning to envision in our mind, called Buddha. This optimum mode of being, this most inspiring and finest story, the most noble story that we could ever tell ourselves about ourselves, about our and the type of life that we might like to lead, and what it might look like. A Buddha. You know, what but we have to do something, you know, in actual fact.
We have to, you know, to begin to take these dreams out of their storage place in our heart try them on for size and see how they fit and how they feel, how they operate and how they change our lives. We actually have to do something. And what we do is begin to implement the Dharma, which helps us to actualize our Buddha story. And it helps us to actually bring about that change and its outcome. And this process occurs within the social context of the spiritual community, that mental health is, you know, fundamentally a social phenomenon.
That we we are inter we live in interdependence with others, and we ask for and give assistance in the process of growth in our journey. And we try to raise a level of motivation. Why are we all involved in this? You know, what you know, we’re all involved in some struggle at some level, you know, whether it might be apparent to ourselves or not. You know, what are we struggling for?
If it’s only for ourselves, then our very struggle has become part you know, becomes part of the problem. It only seems serves to perpetuate a dysfunctional way of being in the world. You know, if we can if I struggle can be can involve even only one other person, then it becomes necessarily a means to help us to solve our problems at a more fundamental level. You know, it’s going to help us in some way. Just because we struggle doesn’t mean it’s going to be of use, that it’s going to be beneficial, that we’re going to get what it is we want.
You know, there there is an unskillful struggle, an unnecessary suffering, unuseful pain. And so we can be sure that the process that we’re involved, this implementation of the Dharma in our lives to achieve Buddhahood is done for the sake of even one other, that is what to say of all living beings. We can be sure at some level, we can have faith that it’s going to serve some real purpose. It’s actually going to bring about sabbatkangan, a positive change for the better in our life. So the inner focus of our life becomes Buddhahood, which we try to implement by means of the Dharma.
We try to actualize by means of these techniques, these meditations, you know, the truth of things, the truth of our own being within a social context of a spiritual community. And again and again trying to raise the level of motivation. Just one other person, maybe two. But you can feel it three. You can’t go back to two.
You can’t go back to one. But try, nonetheless. I’m doing it for someone else other than just my own solitary limited needs. This is empowering ourselves, creating the inner context, atmosphere, the ecology, where something good can evolve, something positive, something out of the lines that we would want for ourselves. For sure, you know, we can begin to trust in this process.
You know, we we have to take the responsibility for our lives and our lives. In this process that we’re working with, you know, and trying to share with is a way that we can skillfully take responsibility. You know, that we can we can be assured of some positive outcomes that we will change for the better, both ourselves for this both for the sake of ourselves and for the sake of others as well. 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 the 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 the 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 beings. Reverently, 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 is ended and turn the wheel of Dharma for living beings. I dedicate the skillful actions of myself and others to the great awakening. So we’re going to meditate. We are attached to our cocoons, our selfishness.
And we are afraid of selflessness, stepping beyond ourselves. So, in order to overcome our hesitation about giving up our privacy, in order to commit ourselves to others’ welfare, some kind of leap is necessary. In the practice of meditation, the way to be daring, the way to leap, is to disown your thoughts, to step beyond your hope and fear, the ups and downs of your thinking process. You can just be, just let yourself be without holding on to the constant reference point that the mind manufactures. You know, talking about the techniques that we can make use of in using the meditation of mindfulness and breathing as a way of creating the conditions whereby we can be, whereby the natural reflex of the mind will be to relax.
Now we’ve been using the techniques of counting and noting. I just I thought, you know, last week I talked about the way in which we can think about counting simply returning the mind back to the breath again and again. Like the puppy dog bringing it back to the paper. Again and again and again. And I thought I’d share with you a little story.
It’s not actually a story. It’s just a metaphor, a way of thinking or a device that might be useful to you. You know, when hearing this quotation the author says, you know, a way we can let go of our thoughts. You know, step beyond your hopes and fears, the ups and downs of your thinking process. You know, I’ve said and tried to emphasize before, we can begin to take a position of neutrality.
We can begin to gain some perspective. You know, we don’t have to hook into every thought and every emotion and every feeling that arises within our mind, we can begin to let them go. But the process of letting go obviously requires some kind of skill perhaps we haven’t aren’t accustomed to up to now. Know, and I’ve discussed the technique of noting, simply noting the breaths, noting the thought, noting the feeling, whatever it is that arises. You know, this seems to be a way that we can skillfully create the space.
You know, we neither want to repress the thoughts, whatever the content of the mind, whatever comes up for ourselves, nor do we want to indulge in it. That the thoughts, the feelings, the emotions will arise, abide, and cease for themselves. If we don’t hook into them, if we don’t if we don’t energize them by seeking to repress them, or if we don’t indulge in them by becoming lost in the scenario, in the whatever it might be. You know, attitude that we can begin to take is maybe I can illustrate is I don’t know if many of you are familiar with baseball. Baseball is very American.
But it’s becoming a little bit popular in Australia. Anyway, it is not important, but just to give you an idea. I guess it’s very much like in Australia. They have We call them bleachers. Stands.
And people sit on benches. I guess some of the benches, I don’t know, might twenty five people on one bench. And in the stands there are these hot dog vendors, and they’re walking up and down the aisleways. And they carry these I don’t know if they do this in Australia, but this is my experience from a long time ago in America, in the United States. They carry these large metal boxes with a leather strap attached to them around the back of their neck.
And they walk up and down the aisles. And they sell hot dogs. Know, if you want a hot dog say you’re in the middle of the aisle, middle of bench, and there’s maybe twelve people on each side of you. So, you know, if you wanted a hot dog, it would be quite wouldn’t be very workable to to go to the aisle yourself. You know, it would interrupt probably twenty four people.
You know, the people that you’re going to step in front and the backs of the people that you’re going to knee in front of you. So what you’re normally done, there are special mudras. It’s hand symbols that are made use of. If you want a hot dog and how many you want, and whether you want mustard or ketchup or chili sauce or onions or pickles and, you know, all these all these various possibilities. Many, many, many, many possibilities.
And each you know, this is if I can only show it to Americans, it’s it’s top secret stuff. But anyway, there might be some CIA agent in in the audience. Anyway, so you you you make these moochers, these hand gestures. And and likewise, the, you know, the hot dog vendor doesn’t come down the road. What he or she does is simply hand the hot dog to the first person along that row.
The first person hands it to the second person, the second person hands it to the third person. And the third person hands it to the fourth, it comes down to you. And then you hand your money down to the twelfth person. The twelfth person hands it down to the person. Anyway, goes on like that.
I think you’re getting an idea. So imagine this scenario, this situation. You know, it’s the bottom of the ninth inning. That may not mean anything to you, the bottom of the ninth inning. Anyway, the game’s almost over.
There’s only nine innings in a baseball game, usually. Normally there’s only nine. But your team is behind by one run. It’s the bottom of the ninth. Bases are loaded.
Means there’s somebody on first, second, third. Anyway, it’s not important. Won’t go into it. You want a teaching on it? I’ll give a special teaching some other time.
American baseball. Anyway, it’s two outs, two strikes, three balls. Anyway, let’s just say it’s a crucial moment in the game. The game, you know, the World Series, life and death, you know, apple pie, you know, Buddhahood, they all hang on the balance of of this next pitch by the by the by the pitcher. And so, you know, you’re you’re intently focused upon what’s happening down that field.
You’re you’re sitting there watching, watching. Not when somebody puts in places a hot dog in your hand. And you look down. And more than not, there might arise for you this tremendous impulse to take a huge bite out of this hot dog, you know, just to, you know, stuff it in your mouth and sink your teeth into it. Possible.
You know, without thinking, mindlessly. That’s the impulse would probably arise. But see, this hot dog is not your hot dog. Your only function in life at this moment is simply to pass the hot dog. Nothing more than if you want a hot dog, you can order one of them yourself.
Now, the purpose of that long story is we can think of all these various thoughts, these various feelings and emotions arise in our mind, and very much if you want to put it in the same way. Know, there’s big, juicy thought arises, and a nice hunk of emotion. Know, Wow! You just want to stuff that one. You want sink your teeth into it and really get in it and indulge and ooze around it.
It’s really dramatic and it makes you feel excited and important and life is thrilling and intense. Wow. Anyway, know, okay, if you if you want to think if you want to, you know, think about something, if you want to bring up some emotions and some material, you want some memories, okay, fine. But perhaps this isn’t the appropriate moment. Maybe there’s something else to be focused upon.
You don’t have to you don’t have to bite into every thought, every emotion, every feeling that comes along. You can simply pass the emotion. You can pass the hot dog. You can just do that. I pass.
I pass. To create that much mindfulness and that much space simply by noting, I pass. Just by noting, thinking, feeling, feeling. That’s all it is. It’s a big hot dog.
You know? It may be a juicy one, and it might have exactly what you want on it. But this may not be the appropriate time to bite into it. It probably isn’t if you’re meditating on mindfulness of breathing. It’s not, matter of fact.
Simply, you can just pass it. You don’t have to bite into every scenario that comes along. You neither have to repress it, you know, I get the hot dog away from me, nor do you have to bite into it. You simply pass it. And the way that we pass is simply by noting, thinking, feeling, hearing, thinking.
Come back to the breath. In out one. In out thinking. Thinking. In out one.
In out two. Sleeping. Sleep. You don’t have to even bite into sleep. In out one.
It’s a mental factor. It will arise. It will abide. It will cease of your of itself if you can maintain your mindfulness and awareness. In out one.
In out two. sinking. In out sinking, in out one, in that anger. Where did that anger come from? Oh, I remember.
Oh, yeah, never Anyway, it’s a it’s a very useful device in meditation. But I think if we become skillful with it, it can carry over into your everyday life. We get lost in these scenarios. We don’t even know where they came from. You know, people tell me, you know, that they think of things that happened thirty, forty years ago, you know, and they start to churn it over in their minds, and they begin to the feelings start coming up and it hurts and the pain of it all and the anger.
Thinking. The whole edifice falls apart. Thinking. That’s all it is with thought. We don’t have to bite into it.
So if that’s useful, make use of that idea of just passing the thought or passing the emotion. We can just pass the memory, whatever it might be. Making use of the technique of noting. So if you take a firm, comfortable posture, let’s try that and see if we can make use of that technique. We’ve been using, you know, in order to help us custom ourselves to more powerful, more positive types of motivation, various individuals.
And we’ve meditate on someone that we love, that we care for a great deal. And not the same idea, also someone that you love, that you care for a great deal, but someone that you haven’t used before, okay? Someone that you haven’t used. And we use the same type of person, the same, category of individual last week and the week before. Try someone that you haven’t used before.
Maybe it requires you to to go a little bit further, you know, someone that you don’t quite aren’t quite as close to. You know, we’re going to be work through spectrum of individuals until ultimately we can work with our enemy. But we’re working with the easiest object first and those are the persons that we naturally feel closest to, that we naturally care about. So someone that you haven’t thought about before, bring them to mind and use those as the object of love and compassion. So if you would you like to stand for a moment and then we’ll sit?
Stretch your legs. The Will to Awaken the Awakened Heart and the Awakened Mind. We began this week by actually the first time looking at the text, the very first line where Tsongkhapa, the author of the text that we’re looking at, the three principal aspects of the path, pays homage to the spiritual master, to the Lama. And so, that led us into a discussion about the spiritual master and the absolute necessity of a spiritual master. Some of my teachers have said that there are individuals who may not need an actual physical embodiment of a spiritual teacher in this life.
And they have said that this is quite unusual. These are rare individuals. That for most of us we necessarily must rely upon the spiritual teacher. And in this process of depending upon the spiritual master, it’s a matter of rational reliance, but also a heartfelt devotion. As we progress in the cultivation and the expression of our devotion to a spiritual master, we begin to see, and this is the important point, and we need to go beyond a simplistic notion that somehow we’re doing this for the spiritual master’s sake or the teacher’s sake.
They don’t, and as was emphasized hopefully last week, they don’t need our devotion, our adoration, our reverence. It’s not for their benefit. It’s a very pragmatic, skillful means of benefiting ourselves. But it’s a very profound means. You know, as we begin to cultivate and express our devotion to our spiritual teacher, we begin to understand that the Lama we have come to have such reverence for, that we’ve developed such gratitude for, is not something separate from our mind, our own minds.
As our devotion deeps the outer lama, is revealed as a reflection of our own inner lama, our own inner spiritual teacher, our own Buddha nature. You know, this is, I think, a very profound subject, unfolding process that takes place. Our Buddha nature has an active aspect, which is our inner teacher. From the very moment we became obscured, this inner teacher has been working tirelessly for us, tirelessly trying to bring us back to the radiance and spaciousness of our true being. Not for one second has the inner teacher given up on us.
In its infinite compassion, one with the infinite compassion of all the Buddhas and all the enlightened beings, it has been unceasingly working for our evolution, not only in this life, but in all past lives also, using all kinds of skillful means situations to teach and to awaken us and to guide us back to the truth. When we have prayed and aspired and hungered for the truth for a long time, for many lives, and when our karma has become sufficiently purified, a kind of miracle takes place. And this miracle, if we can understand it and use it, can lead to the ending of ignorance for ourselves forever. The inner teacher that has always been with us manifests in the form of the outer teacher whom almost as if by magic we actually encounter. This encounter is the most important of any lifetime.
Who is this outer teacher? None other than the embodiment and voice and representation of our inner teacher. So, you know, beginning to fathom this, beginning to get some kind of notion about the process which is taking place. You know, devoting ourselves to the Lama, to the spiritual teacher becomes a profoundly skillful means to devoting ourselves to our own Buddha nature. You know, our own obscured and neglected intelligence and caring and decency within ourselves, our own inner lama.
And in devoting ourselves to our spiritual master, we become master of ourselves. And as masters of ourselves, we draw that much nearer to freedom and to liberation, to awakening. And it needs to be emphasized, especially for Westerners and maybe for some people who are new to the dharma. It is impossible to abdicate the responsibility for taking care of ourselves. Devoting ourselves to our lama in no way exonerates us from having to do the work for ourselves that is necessary.
And there is no avoiding that. On the contrary, when we properly understand devotion is the way that we can truly begin the process of actually taking, in a very real sense, in a very profound sense, responsibility for ourselves, responsibility for expressing our own Buddha nature, beginning to listen to our own inner wisdom, our own inner intelligence, and getting in contact with our own inner teacher. Don’t think the guru guru is a Sanskrit term for lama or spiritual master don’t think the guru is somewhere outside there. You are the Guru. You are the wisdom to liberate yourself.
That is what Buddha says. I think Westerners want sometimes This is Lama Yeshe speaking, who I’ve mentioned quite often. His picture is on the right side of the mantle over the fireplace. I think Westerners want sometimes too much to see the outside guru and not see the inner guru. Sometimes that also becomes concepts, too concrete, and therefore becomes a problem.
Now I want you to think clearly about this one. I truly believe fundamentally my inner guru is totally responsible for whether I become a good person or a bad person. And I am responsible for the entire journey, from the beginning up to the end, to enlightenment. Now, I am sure you are thinking that this sounds too confident. I make an example.
Milarepa is a good example. Milarepa is one of the foremost yogi saints of Tibetan Buddhism who was quite often used as an example of someone who completely transformed their way of life. He, in his earlier days as a youth, he caused the death of many, many people, actually. He murdered them. And eventually he gained enlightenment in that same lifetime.
So he’s often used as an extreme example of the possibilities which exists within us all. I make an example. Milarepa is a good example. First, he started meditation and these things. Afterwards, he had to give up his books and he had to give up his guru.
He went by himself. So, who is his guru? He himself is his guru. That is a good example. At a certain point, you are truly responsible for liberating yourself.
I think so, really. Maybe I am deluded. Maybe I am selfish. But somehow, I feel that I cannot rely on anything outside, on the object to be my guru. They already show us.
They already explained everything from the beginning to the end. They verbally told us already. To actualize it from the beginning to the end is somehow up to me. It seems that I cannot have the relative guru with me all the time. I cannot be married to him.
I am not his husband, communicating or not. Therefore, every human being, I truly believe this, if we let go and allow our inner wisdom to function, we know something. You cannot say, I don’t know. You do know. So, you know, in coming to devote ourselves to our own inner teacher, our own Buddha nature, we have to come to recognize that there’s a more basic ground for our being than ego’s ground.
You know, that we were something much more than the captivating displays of our own egos. And this is why you know, this is a question that was brought up a few weeks ago, and this is the extreme difficulty. And it’s recognized as being extremely difficult. You know, the fact that we are our own teacher, that inside is our own spiritual master, that we are of the nature of Buddhas, to be able to recognize that is not easy. It is simple.
You know, we have to believe in ourselves, you know, beyond ego’s impoverishing fantasies and all its subjugating demands. You know, beyond the limited and limiting dreams of our egos and the appearance of those dreams. You know, we have to believe in our own basic goodness, that there is gold within the shadow. You know, a fundamental sanity about ourselves, an awareness, an basic intelligence and decency, a caring about ourselves. You know, it’s some kind of power at the basis of our being.
But there’s a fundamental wakefulness about ourselves and the very nature of the mind. Trying to recognize that in our daily experience, not just in terms of it’s been told to me that way, but trying to see it that somehow that there are sparks of brilliance, of sanity, of awareness, and decency, and enlightenment in our everyday life, in our everyday life, which go unrecognized, which are covered over, which don’t fit in with our preconception of who we are, our present identity. I’ll talk about that. You are sitting at the kitchen table. You have finished breakfast.