Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The trickiest moment in this 45-minute talk comes when Ven Jampa Gendun asks those with only painful memories of their mother — abuse, neglect, broken parenting — to search their emotional archives for a single moment of warmth. That instruction anchors the session’s focus: the seven cause-and-effect method for developing the awakened heart, from equanimity through recognising all beings as former mothers to cultivating gratitude and compassion. Before the meditation, he defines commitment as a consistent choice of discipline, argues that suffering is a feature of cyclic existence rather than a personal failing, and notes that calm ordinary moments — not crisis — are the real window for practice. He closes by reframing what awakening the heart actually requires: opening to love already received, not just extending love outward, beginning with recognising one’s own worth.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 13 HMA 1997 06 04.mp3
UUID: 40c82406-801e-43a4-bc7e-f02f5e6859c7
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening 1996-1997 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1997-06-04
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.2 minutes
Words: ~5,969
Okay. Sorry. We’ll begin again. Begin again. There’s a you know, I think some kind of commitment is necessary, I guess, to to achieve anything in life, anything worthwhile, whether it’s something very mundane, something some kind of skill, some kind of training.
It requires a working through. And what to say if something is as difficult and as demanding as the development of our own minds. The idea of commitment. One notion or way of understanding commitment is in terms of it’s a consistent choice of the discipline that a context prescribes. The consistent choice of the discipline that a particular context prescribes.
A context can be studying music, it can be training for the Olympics, or it can be trying to achieve perfect complete Buddhahood for the sake of all living beings. But it entails some kind of consistent choice. And this requires that we have some clear priorities in our life and we are continually being mindful of them, bringing them to the front so we aren’t losing sight. So therefore, our way becomes clear to us that we can make consistent choices in terms of the priorities that we’ve set for ourselves, hopefully in our better moments when our wisdom and compassion were operative in our lives. That we we chose a particular context and are willing to commit ourselves to the discipline that that context prescribes for ourselves and make that consistent choice.
So, you know, this is like what we do in the beginning. I guess we have to do every day, don’t we? To begin again, to to remind ourselves of the priorities so that we are making those consistent choices of that discipline that we want to follow in some way, some shape or form. And though we’d rather not, you know, this we have to bring ourselves down to some kind of ground level, what it is that we’re actually experiencing, what’s actually going for our on for ourselves within terms of our lived experience. If in terms of the context of Buddhism, we are ever going to change things for the better in terms of our approach to the way that we’re living our lives.
Now I guess this is all a preamble, a way of getting to the point of reminding ourselves of the fact of suffering. The very first teaching that the Buddha gave, that life is difficult. And I think it’s it’s worthwhile to note that that it’s none of our faults particularly. That it is neither unique to ourselves or to what has befallen ourselves in terms of our particular histories. It is nature of the human condition of a particular approach to life, of an ignorance governed approach to life.
And unless we keep reminding ourselves of that, we either are probably indulging in a lot of self blame, feelings of inadequacy that somehow there’s something peculiarly peculiarly wrong with ourselves or that and that everybody else has it together in some way or form or that somehow we’re being punished for something that we’ve done. Perhaps we aren’t even quite sure why, but we have that sense in the background of our mind somewhere. It’s not our fault. It’s a fault of cyclic existence, if you like, or it’s a fault of a particular way of approaching the problem of existence or life. It’s the fault of a few very powerful dysfunctional patterns in our mind.
And we aren’t those patterns, but we live under their control nonetheless. There’s a unless we remind ourselves, unless we keep gaining some kind of perspective on our difficulty, we either either lose sight of our priorities or we perhaps lose sight of the deeply profound methods that we can avail ourselves, the context of the the discipline discipline that we have chosen for ourselves to work with those problems. And that we we either become distracted altogether from the choices that we’re trying to make, or we simply begin to choose un unknowingly, and without intent other contexts which perhaps in our better judgment, in the light of our wisdom, we would rather not be making use of. So anyway, the the point is that we have to keep coming back to the basic reality of our lives for most of ourselves, that we all are involved in a difficult situation. Whether today was difficult or not, that’s a question.
But what is the overall experience of our life? He’s always so good. People don’t like to hear about suffering. It’s we’d rather forget that it exists except when we if we’ve experienced it within our own feelings, then we can’t avoid it as it were. Life is difficult.
This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. Most of us do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. I don’t know. It might be is this heavy handed? No?
No. It’s not meant there’s nothing I think I think so. Oh, you know, don’t tell her what’s going on about suffering again. I mean, there’s enough suffering without even having to come here and and, you know, be crammed down my throat. I don’t think it’s going to make us suffer any the less or any of more.
Talking about suffering. Maybe nonetheless, I don’t but I think it can it can help us overcome perhaps a lot of wrong thinking around our suffering. And so it can have some immediate useful effect. It can be a way of of relieving some of the the undeserved pressure that we put on ourselves thinking that somehow we shouldn’t be suffering. Self oppressive way that we quite often relate with ourselves.
With the way we do a great deal of violence to ourselves, you know, I should have it all together. However, you know, you know, that’s my how each of us might phrase that for ourselves. Also, I think it’s a great leveler in terms of being able to identify with others. It shouldn’t be a source of rejoicing. I I remember once, I think it was back in eighty eight when Lama Thubten Zopa was here visiting in Adelaide.
And we had a little get together with a few students. We were talking about and the subject was this was bent back when the what do they call them? I can’t remember what confrontation groups. I don’t what they call them. The people what group?
No. Not that’s what it came out like, but Encounter groups. Yeah. Confrontation groups. Encounter groups.
Yeah. And so people now, people, you know, spilling their guts out in front of each other. It’s very popular back then. And so, you know, we’re talking to you. What do you think about that?
What do you think about other people? They’re telling about all their suffering in their lives. And he said, I think, you know, it’s fantastic. Fantastic. People expressing the truth of suffering in their lives and what’s going on for them and being authentic and honest in that way.
But we have to be sure that we don’t rejoice in each other’s suffering. Oh, there’s suffering too. That makes me feel a lot better. You know, I thought I was the only one. But aside from that possible way of misinterpreting that this notion that we’re all suffering in some way, some shape or form perhaps unique to ourselves, but nonetheless, it’s universal.
I think it helps us feel a bit closer to one another. We’re we’re all brothers and sisters in this difficult situation of the human dilemma. Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. Instead, they moan about it with their more or less incessantly. You know, the reason that I’m going into this is, you know, we can we can waste a lot a great deal of our lives.
Not not particularly enjoying or experiencing any fulfillment or meaningfulness in our lives, but just going along as it were in a in a daze, in a trance for years on end, for months, whatever. And there there’s no real motivation to practice, to develop ourselves. It’s suffering that pushes us forward. It’s one of the great truths, isn’t it? That no great change ever has arisen within the evolution of humankind without there being some great pain behind it in somewhere.
Or better to say, some great awareness of pain. Most do not fully see this truth, that life is difficult. Instead they moan or less more or less incessantly, noisily, or subtly about the enormity of their problem, their burden, and their difficulties as if life were generally easy, as if life should be easy. They voice their belief noisily or subtly that their difficulties represent a unique kind of affliction that should not be and that somehow has been especially visited upon them or else upon their families, their tribe, their class, their nation, their race, or even their species and not upon others. What makes life difficult is that the process of confronting and solving problems is a painful one.
Problems, depending upon their nature, evoking as frustrations or griefs or sadness or loneliness or guilt or regret or anger or fear or anxiety or anguish or despair. These are uncomfortable feelings, often very uncomfortable, often as painful as any kind of physical pain, sometimes equally in the very worst kinds of physical pain. Indeed, it is because of the pain that events or conflicts in us that we call them problems. And since life poses an endless series of problems, life is always difficult and it is full of pain as well as joy. So, you know, I guess it’s regrounding ourselves and if this is in fact a reflection of when what might be going on for you.
If it’s not, then by all means, set it aside. Kinda overlook. Be patient with me for a couple of minutes. If it is, then maybe it can get you back into the notion of recommitting yourself to that context to that discipline which your your chosen context prescribes for you. You know?
At some point in our eyes when we when our wisdom is operative, when our minds are clear, when we have some kind of insight into what might be the deeper nature of our problems and we find some something which we meet with which appears to be a possible solution. And we think, you know, that’s where I’d like to hang on to that notion. I’d like to keep in contact with I’d like to work with that. But, you know, obviously, we we get distracted one way or another. We have to, as it were, meet the the practical necessities of our everyday life when we forget about these these priorities that we’ve set and we lose sight.
So it is quite necessary to come back. We can do this. The trouble is if we in the throes of actual suffering, it’s difficult to apply these many of these methods. It the actual experience of suffering can be can be made meaningful as a impetus to practice. But in the throes of our suffering, it’s quite difficult to practice, and that’s why we’re quite skilled.
And with the feeling of pain or despair, the the anguish that we’re undergoing occupies our awareness to the extent there’s not much more we can do. So it is when things are going okay that if we can not forget our priorities, that we can actually make those choices, that we can actually implement the means, the discipline. And here in the context of the Buddhist discipline, the various methods that we’re working with, and then the methods of determining developing the determination to be free and a will to awaken, to develop an awakened heart, awakened mind, to to go beyond our self centeredness, to go beyond our ignorance. And it’s when like this, in our normal state of affairs, when we aren’t totally preoccupied with the difficulties in our life, that that seems like the opportune time for our practice to succeed most. But those are quite often times that we don’t even bother to practice.
Everything’s okay. Why should I? And we we lose sight. We don’t use our intelligence. Know, life keeps bringing us these experience but we we continue to miss the lesson.
So somehow, you know, we’ve all suffered enough. We don’t need any more suffering to get the lessons that life is trying to to get across to ourselves in one way or another. But we have to use our intelligence. We have to use our skill and to remind ourselves. And while the sun is still shining to to to still put aside the time and energy to practice, to develop our minds, to, make that consistent choice of this this the discipline that the Buddhist, Buddha’s, if you wish, context prescribes for ourselves.
So it it is this continual reminding ourselves of the suffering nature. That was why Buddha taught it first of all because it gets us grounded in our own actual experience. It’s not a matter of idle speculation or intellectual curiosity. It’s something which touches us in the reality of what we are experiencing at ground level. And it reminds us, it gets us back.
So we we shouldn’t have to experience more suffering to get us back to our priorities if we’re intelligent, if we can keep that mindfulness, if we can keep bringing ourselves back. Know? At first, it was this time, and then it was that time. You know? My god.
I don’t want to go through that again. You know? Why have to go through it again? How many lessons do we need? You know?
At some point, we have to begin to exercise our intelligence. So in this process, what are we trying to do? What are our priorities? What is the the this context that Buddhism is prescribing for ourselves? We have a model or we have some kind of direction or priority as we call that a Buddha.
Each of us has an idea what might Buddha Buddha might be for ourselves. And there’s a are whole volumes of philosophic writings written on the qualities of a Buddha. The thirty two major and eighty minor marks of Buddha are always very simple. This crown protrusion on the head of a Buddha, a hair curl, you know, wheels on the palms, on the soles of the feet, all of these and what they might what they mean and how they were developed, the causes that went into creating them, and all the various unique powers and abilities that a Buddha has which are unshared with Bodhisattvas and without any other sentient beings. And we could go on and on and on and on, and if there is something that will be worthwhile to that study.
But still we have a notion that we have an image, even if it’s perhaps not totally clear to ourselves, of what mental health might be like, what it might be like to be a happy, healthy, sane human being. And that’s what we can call a Buddha for the time being for ourselves, know, to to give ourselves something to be attracted by. And it is not only that suffering pushes, but there’s something which draws us on. It’s these two forces in our life which which open up a path which help us in our journey along the path. So, you know, what what it might be for you and beginning to clarify that the type of person that you might want to be, you know, ten years from now, twenty years, a lifetime from now.
And understanding if we if what is now if what is is not enough, then you had better do something now to make it so that it will be in the future. You know, to make a habit of that that person that you want to be, to make a habit of being a Buddha in some way, and then beginning to habituate or cultivate those qualities of the person that you want to be in the present, while you have the opportunity, while you’re not in the throes of pain, while you can still make that that choice of the discipline. We call that a Buddha. So this becomes, you know, the inner focus. All of this, all of what we talk about each Wednesday night together and all the various Dharma teachings are simply helping us to get to that place in some way.
Try to create that that that that state, that condition of mind where this the mind can be allowed and be drawn to evolve toward. That person that those qualities, that way of approaching life. And we try to we we we do something. We have to do something for ourselves. And this we do in terms of the consistent choice.
The consistent choice of the discipline. The discipline is the Dharma to choose the Dharma. And to choose what is you know, I mean, this this can mean a very formal practice, can’t it? It’s something that you can sit on your cushion, something you can read books, think about them, and contemplate. But it also can mean you choose Buddha in your everyday life.
You choose sanity over insanity. You choose wisdom over ignorance. You choose openness over miserliness. You choose other centeredness over self centeredness. And even in the most insignificant dealings in our everyday life, we can be choosing the path that we’re seeking to follow in our in our life as a whole.
You know, just letting the person maybe get in front of you on the bus. Here before me, a gesture, token of the person that we want to become. You know, the Bodhisattva was willing to lead all sentient beings to the state of Buddhahood and be willing to be the last. Maybe it’s just letting the person on the bus in front of you as a method of training your mind in that direction. Now all of it, you know, it’s it’s happening to us constantly, the possibilities of practice and the possibilities of choosing and making a consistent choice.
And if if there’s awareness, we can see how how it’s relevant even in these minor insignificant choices, opportunities in our everyday life, the way that we can implement the dharma. And with this process occurs within in our social context. Those who who mutually assist us in the process of making the kind of choices that we would want for ourselves. You know, it’s like, you know, you declare this is what is important to me. That love and compassion are important to me, development of wisdom, kindness, and caring to grow and and like making a public profession.
And then that being acknowledged by others and asking assistance of them to help you to make those choices of what it is that you profess that you want to be. And in turn, returning the favor, helping them to become the person that they want to be. You know, these are like refuges, aren’t they? These are things that we can do for ourselves, things that we need to keep coming back in contact with. You know, what is it that’s going to help us at the most deepest level with our most fundamental problems, this truth of suffering in our lives?
You know, can your partner, can your parent, can your child, can your employee, can material things, you know, can any of them solve your deepest most problems? But we go for refuge to them nonetheless. And it is to some degree that’s deserving of temporal refuges. But ultimately, we need something much much more profound than that. They can’t quite deliver that.
They don’t have the capacity, and it’s unfair to ask that add that of them. And we try to raise the level of our motivation and why we’re doing what we’re doing and why we’re trying to become this person, however we may conceive them to be, why we are implementing these practices and make trying to make these consistent choices, why we are asking and giving help to one another as we do. Such that we we do all of this, involve ourselves in all of this, not just for our single selves alone. We try we try to have a greater vision. Try to raise the level of our motivation to include an effort widening in circle of others.
So this becomes an approach to life, a style, and it may be a style which is difficult. It may involve a lot of legitimate suffering, but nonetheless, it might bring us more of what it is that we, in fact, want in our lives and begin to rid ourselves of the suffering that none of us want. It might actually work at the level of our own lived experience. So the the inner focus of our life is Buddha, which we try to actualize by means of the Dharma within the social context of the spiritual community, the Sangha. And again and again, you know, if I can help, if by listening to this teaching, this talk, if by discussing, I can help just one other person.
That’s worthwhile. My life has meaning, at least for that time, for this day. And if I can help two other people, all the much better. And and it’s trying to push the envelope beyond yourself too.
And then I think we can be assured that that something very positive will come out of all our efforts. That we’ll be we can feel assured that we can have faith that that we may not know the unique outcome, how it will manifest, that it will be what we would want for ourselves in our finest moments. 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. 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 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. 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 virtuous 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 enlightenment. So in in again, in cultivating motivation and working with this spectrum of individuals, developing love and compassion, you know, choosing someone that we a stranger, someone that is, by their very appearance, somewhat off putting to ourselves, something about them we don’t particularly like. Maybe maybe the color of their skin, maybe they have some kind of deformity, maybe there’s something about them that is something reminds us of something that we don’t like. But anyway, a stranger which simply by way of their outward appearance is something which is unappealing, unattractive to ourselves. And then working with your mind, see see if you can wish them well, if you can work through that.
Be aware that of this feelings of of an emotional bias in in a negative sense and seeing if you can have the skill of mind to generate these qualities of love and compassion even towards such a person. Yeah. We we’ve talked a great deal of things. Equality itself and others and equanimity and and the the very fact that this person, we can be assured, is undergoing some difficulty. You know, they’re just like ourselves.
They’re part of the human dilemma also. And in it, maybe we can work through a lot of our preconceptions to see the reality of that person, you know, beyond our projections upon them. Then, you know, we practice mindfulness of breathing. And then, you know, we last week, in working through the seven cause and effect instruction, we looked at the kindness of mothers and we tried to it’s a big problem is well, maybe I shouldn’t say that for everybody. Some you know, and and we’ll talk about little bit about that more about that tonight just in the past.
The very the fact that we can use an auto other models of kindness. We don’t if we have problems with our mother in in those terms of remembering their kindness. But the fact is that there are mothers who who are unwilling unwilling or unable to parent as well. And we get we only have negative associations with them and it becomes difficult for us to realistically or genuinely develop an appreciation of their kindness because we don’t even see it. We see, on contrary, a lot of abuse possible.
And we can’t deny that that maybe our our reality at present or at least our our our memory of that reality. But I think maybe it’s a worthwhile challenge and maybe you’ll never do it again. Okay? Yeah. This is a one-off.
Look at your mom. Okay? And normally, your mind might immediately jump to be be drawn into negative feelings, associations that you have around the difficulties that she how difficult she made life for you in some way or another. The hurts that she caused you, the abuse, lack of good parenting? Okay.
We’re not saying that didn’t happen. But just for this exercise, just for this challenge, we’re just going to try to focus on maybe those very rare few instances when she was kind, when something there was a feeling between you two. And see if you can dig through your your your archives, You buried beneath the pile of of negative feelings and these hurtful memories that you have. Maybe there’s one stuck underneath somewhere. See if you can pull that one out.
Take a look at it. So just have a challenge. You know? Nothing more than that. If nothing more than that, try to see if you can remember.
And if you remember one, stay with the feeling. Maybe this is only proper for you. We’re not doing this as a moral imperative. We have it’s not necessary that we like our mothers. There’s no coercion involved in any of this, but maybe there’s something worthwhile to be gotten out of it, or maybe it’s just a psychological challenge, something a way of working with our minds.
It may be of use. There might be some profit. So, actually, trying to remember some some kindness and some time when there was a good feeling of connection with with your mother. And if you find them, then stay with that and the feeling and look in your mother’s eyes and try to appreciate how. She took care of it at one time.
Someone took care of it. And we’re concentrating on the mother, but it might be there, the the memories. Okay. We’ll just work with that. So taking a comfortable firm posture.
So we’re working through the second of the two meditative traditions for the development of an awakened heart. The second one is quite challenging, isn’t it? Maybe the first one is most appropriate for most of us. The seven cause and effect instruction On the basis of evenness of mind, of equanimity, we begin to develop five causes bringing about two results. And the final result being the awakening of our heart.
The basis of equanimity, going on to recognizing all living beings as our mother. We’re going on to remember their great kindness, developing a gratitude, which wishes to repay that kindness, and then what we’re going to continue with tonight in terms of seeing them in terms of aspiring love, great compassion, and intense resolve, and finally, the awakened heart. You know, there are many reactions that people that may arise for different people when they begin to exploring their their mother’s kindness or lack of kindness. You know, some people some people only remember the unkindnesses of their mothers, and they have to look to the kindnesses of others to find a model to work with. By all means, to do do that.
Just an instance of kindness that someone has shown you and to try to extrapolate from that that others have been equally as kind as that. That model of connectedness or feelings of being loved or cared for. In in in awakening our heart, it’s it’s just as important to feel that we ourselves are cared for and loved. That is as it is to try to evoke our feelings of caring and love for others. That we ourselves are lovable people and have been loved.
You know, some people argue that that what a mother does for a child is not necessarily out of kindness. It is done out of more out of a sense of responsibility. You know? But, you know, we forget that at some time there was in our lives, there was a point where we were completely dependent on someone else. That’s a real that’s a reality.
We are it’s the nature of our our particular types of births that we are not able to fend for ourselves immediately upon birth, not for quite a number of years after our birth, in fact. And for most of us, it was our mother who accepted the responsibility for us and bore the sacrifices that that that acceptance entailed. Now whatever her reasons, whatever were her intentions and motivations, it was a kindness for we are alive directly and dependent upon that kindness that she showed us. And we can we can call that kindness the very fact that we are alive now is due to some primary caregiver in the past. For some, there’s a there’s a feeling of there’s an unwillingness to acknowledge within themselves their mother’s kindness.
There’s a their minds are are bound by a kind of a fear that are being controlled by others. You know, a fear that if they get in touch with the feelings of gratitude and appreciation for and deeply admit to themselves that what their mother has done for them, their mother’s kindness, they would be obligated in some way. And they would be in her debt. They they would be in her control. They’d have to obey her her every demand, and they would be vulnerable to being taken advantage of in some way.
You know, I’d rather not admit that somebody’s kind to me because I would be in their debt. And once in their debt, I’m out of control. I’m vulnerable to be hurt, to be used, to be taken advantage of. And in in in such a state, in such a a framework of thinking, all of these spontaneous feelings of gratitude and appreciation. What it what is basic you know, what is it really an expression of our basic sanity?
Our mental health are bound. You know, they never find expression. You know, we are are no longer child children. That is say that as adults, we are able to choose how best to express our gratitude. We have the power to determine for ourselves the way in which we’re going to repay our mother’s kindness.
As adults, we have that that freedom of choice. We can determine how we’re going to repay our debt of kindness to all other sentient beings. So this wish to repay is is seen as as a natural response to a clear awareness of just how much we’ve been given. You know, it’s very important that we feel that we’ve been given something, that we are worthy, just by way of our existence, not something that we can earn or or just by who we are. You know, it’s this what we’re talking about here, this this gratitude that we’re that we’re seeking to cultivate.
It’s like a spontaneous generosity wanting to return benefit. We’ve been greatly benefited. You know, we’re in contact with our mothers and and just how much we’ve been cared for, and we feel rich enough in ourselves to admit our debt. And, you know, it’s like we we very much want to return the cuddle that somehow the universe has given us. There must be something terribly right about ourselves, something we’ve been shown unimaginable kindness, and we did nothing whatsoever to deserve it or earn it.
Just by the way of our our very the very fact of our existence may has made it made ourselves worthy of that kindness that we’ve been shown. And now if we can acknowledge that kindness given, then we can begin to feel what wonderful beings we must in fact be to have been recipient of that great kindness that we’ve all experienced in the past. And out of this kind of superabundance. And remembering her her great kindness, how, you know, how natural it would be to want to return to repay our mothers, all sentient beings. And all those beings, everyone that we were ever met.
How much how great of kindness, what they’ve shown us in the past, how can we repay them? What can I do for them? And the the we’ve we’ve probably not noticed their other kindnesses for us nor our our own self worth. You know? We’ve always carried around with this a feeling of just, you know, for most of us, to some degree, lesser or greater degree, a feeling of unworthiness in some way, and this feelings of self pity, of feelings of insufficiency, of of, you know, of never having having felt thoroughly loved.
And so we find it difficult to love others though though we desperately want to, in fact. So, you know, as I just mentioned, I think, you know, in awakening our hearts, it’s an opening our hearts to others. It’s it is it is as much about opening our hearts to the love others are showing us and have shown us as it is to get in touch with and express our love for them. And and to know know how very deeply that we are lovable and then begin to appreciate our our own self worth and to love ourselves. That we are, despite our very existence, are worthy of our own love and compassion.
You know, we have been loved unconditionally. It was a gift given to us by our mothers. So working with, you know, remembering the kindness of our mothers, using the model of the mother, the kindness shown to us by mother of this life, and beginning to to associate that with more and more other individuals. And then working with those closest to you. This this cultivating, this accustoming of the mind.
You know, there’s no reason why we can’t do this. It can be done. And it’s only an advantage to ourselves. You know?