Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Using a desert allegory — a parched traveler who first hears, then finds, then drinks from a hidden stream — Ven Jampa Gendun traces four stages of faith in this 45-minute session: pure delight (glimpsing someone who has transcended ordinary suffering), longing (hearing teachings that resonate and wanting to practice them), conviction (experiencing real results), and irreversible faith (becoming the goal itself). He frames faith not as religious sentiment but as a practical psychological force that generates aspiration and effort, grounding it in dependent arising — causes must be consciously created for change to occur. The session closes with detailed meditation posture instructions and a guided visualization on cultivating love and compassion toward those we find appealing but are not yet close to.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 15 HMA 1996 06 19.mp3
UUID: d2e1362e-7975-41ae-8820-1207c1287188
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening 1996-1997 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1996-06-19
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.5 minutes
Words: ~6,892
Adjusting our motivation. Let’s say that, you know, we pause in our busy life, take stock of our our affairs, see where we’re going, is it where we want to go. This continual process of reorientation that we necessarily have to involve ourselves in. It’s something that we have to actually actively involve ourselves in. You know, I think someone once said that we are basically our habits, and there’s a great deal of truth to that, I think.
And that initially at least we’re trying to change some of our habits. Have many, many, many habits, variety of habits, but overall maybe we can categorize them into those habits which lead us out of our problems, help us to find solutions, ultimately to awakening. Those types of habits which are orientated in that direction, and another category of habits which keep us perpetually moving in the same direction that we, you know, more or less a circular direction, more or less, you know, this senseless circular motion of our thinking and behaving which really hasn’t gotten us anywhere, due to which we simply keep repeating the same problems and experiencing the same outcomes. And most of our thinking becomes part of the problem itself You know, in our attempt to find solutions unknowingly, we’re simply perpetuating our difficulties, our suffering. You know, we suffer.
That’s the difficult and costly truth to deny about ourselves. Ourselves. And it begins, you know, I think that’s the initial level that we have to to begin to reorientate ourselves at. It’s not everything isn’t okay. It’d be nice to say that it is, but it’s costly to ourselves and what we can do and to realize our potential if we keep assuming that posture in the process of self deception and self ignorance.
You know, this smug complacency complacency that I’m okay. You know, this is started, you know, I’m not okay and you’re not okay, but that’s okay. You know, the situation is workable. So, you know, this is the place that we have to come to. You know, it’s not a matter that we’re we’re basket cases.
On the contrary, you know, that we’re probably some of the most healthiest people around because we’re sensitive and aware of the actual state of our affairs and moreover, we’re motivated to something to do something intelligent about it. That shows a lot of basic wisdom and a lot of compassion and caring for yourself. Fundamentally, you’re really a decent person who wants to change. I think that’s very commendable. I think we should all give each other and ourselves a pat on the back for who we are in fact are at present while we’re on this journey trying to change ourselves into something even more better in the future.
And we’re talking about you know, we’ve been talking about this process of orientation, perhaps looking at alternative avenues to walk down another street to begin to explore and trying to, you know, other habits that maybe we can form. Initially habits. This isn’t an end in itself. It’s a means to a goal, forming more skillful, more functional, more appropriate habits, the ways of thinking and behaving which are going to bring us more of what we want in our life and begin to help us to relieve some of the feelings and difficulties that we don’t want, that we want to be rid of, that we want to avoid in our life. You know, we’re giving our mind some direction.
The mind is purposeful in its quality. It’s dynamic. It’s always it’s not a it’s no thing in itself. It’s not a solid concrete entity. It is a process, and it it is always in some kind of movement towards or away.
And here we’re giving it you know, we’re creating some kind of direction for our mind. And we give and we try to conceive of those goals as best we can in terms of our present understanding. Term these, you know, the Buddha Dharma and the spiritual community. These are our alternative refuges as has been emphasized these evenings together, that the idea of refuge is nothing new to any of us. It’s not something particularly foreign or Buddhist or Buddhist or Eastern.
It is very much an integral part of our lives. Where do we go for refuge? Where your treasure lies so there too will be your heart. And where is your heart? Where did you treasure lie?
I’m beginning to question. Is that the most that you can get out of your life? Is that satisfying what you feel is your greatest need? What would bring you most meaning in a sense of connecting with others. Beginning to see whether our particular refuge is delivering the goods, whether it’s working or not.
You know, Buddha as an optimal mode of being. That the star of this Steven Spielberg production that we’re trying to create for ourselves. You know, all that we could hope to be in terms of our limited preconceptions about what is the good life. We’ll call that person Buddha. Yeah.
And we begin to orientate. You know, it’s actually beginning to consider what is the good life. You know, it’s not something that we can take for granted that we know what the good life is. That we have to begin to work it out as we go along, you know, with trial and error and experimentation and using our reasoning. You know?
And if we don’t, then we’re going to we’re doomed to commit the mistakes of the past. History will just repeat itself if it may go into the future. So they can see what went wrong, what wasn’t right. What what what is it that you might must most want for yourself in terms of the quality of your life? How would that person look who embodied the type of person that you would most want to be?
You know, it all begins in imagination, doesn’t it? You know, our thoughts we make the world. And we can begin to shape the quality of our world with the type of thoughts that we begin to originate within imagination and beginning to think about the type of person that you want to be five years from now, ten years from now, twenty years from now. If we don’t, then the default pattern will simply play itself out infinitely into the future. We’ll simply keep going through the perpetual motions of the same pattern repeated, expressing themselves in our daily life.
You know, this diagnosis is the first step in intervention, and the way that we can begin to diagnose this first step in intervention is beginning to at least conceive, to create a wish of the type of person that I might want myself to be, to begin to conceive it in imagination, and then begin to apply the various methods whereby we can take it out of imagination and begin to actually become to apply it in our everyday life to become practically that person, that Buddha that we want to be. And, you know, we this becomes a refuge, a way of creating some channels, orientation, some kind of direction for our mind. Our mind will begin to the greater empowerment we bestow upon this goal of Buddha, the more drawn, the more we we begin to act as a central focus, an integral we begin to integrate our our the way that we think, the way that we speak, the way that we act in the world around the central focus of our life, we call Buddha. But this is the dynamics of the mind. It’s not something foreign.
It’s not something particularly mystical. It’s a way of skillfully using the quality, the nature of our own mind at present. So, you know, this orientation is toward Buddha. And we said that to facilitate this process, simply wanting is not enough. We’re very sincere people but we still suffer, that we sincerely don’t want to.
We don’t want to suffer but we still do. That in itself is not sufficient. We actually have to create the causes. You know, this is one of the most fundamental teachings of the Buddha is that of dependent arising. in dependence upon this that arises.
If this is not present that will not arise. It sounds simple minded. That’s maybe why it’s so brilliant. You could tell it to a seven year old and they could grasp it. Maybe that’s why the Buddha was a genius because this is the very basis of his teaching, necessity to create the causes if we want the result.
So, you know, we want to direct our lives. We want to change. And we’re going to have to consciously create those causes to bring about that change. Otherwise, they won’t happen. The change will not occur though we might want it sincerely, though we might pray for it, though we might cry, you know, blood, sweat and tear.
The two causes for this reorientation, anxiety about the endless repetition of this dissatisfactory way of life, this dysfunctional approach to the way that we’re living our life, and moreover, certain fears around, you know, possible even more disastrous outcomes in the future which could befall us. So one of the one of the forces which interrupts this circular motion, cyclic existence, which begins to just shake it, just begins to interrupt the pattern, anxiety and fear. The other is faith, and that’s what we’ve been talking about. Having some faith that end is possible. And it’s not enough to be moving away from something, but we also have to have some direction toward which we can move.
That’s something which draws us on, which sort of magnetizes our mind. Many types of faith. There’s an allegory that I like to describe which describes the arising and the development of faith. You know, the faith, you know, we’ve talked about the other many types of faith. You know, there’s blind faith, there’s misguided faith.
But there are certain faiths and there are a variety of faiths which are very much emphasized in Buddhism. But all of these faiths, you know, they have different functions and they each they all share in that they’re gained through a critical analysis or in dependence upon looking, seeing with our own direct through our own direct experience even if it’s only even it’s on an intuitive level, whether it’s something which resonates with ourselves at a deep level of being. None of it is blind faith. Moreover, none of it can be misguided faith or wrong, mistaken faith. You know, just like there’s an often repeated verse by the Buddha, and when it was on it’s in what is called the Parinirvana Sūtra.
Parinirvana means the non abiding beyond sorrow. It’s when he was passing away and he called together his disciples and he said, you know, don’t accept my teachings simply out of devotion or respect for me. Examine the teaching just as you would assay gold, you know, the cutting and rubbing and polishing gold to make sure it’s the real thing. Thing. Do that to my teachings.
And then once it’s found to be true, then accept it. So all of this is a you know, for someone to say that they have that’s a hopeful indication that what they’re that they have nothing to hide. That they in fact what that they feel a great confidence in the validity of what they said, that they’re saying that they’re inviting, that in fact they’re encouraging you to check it out. There’s no need for blind faith. And moreover, there’s nothing mistaken about it.
You know, the Buddha and all the Buddhist masters since his time down through the ages have said in one way or another, there’s a there’s a Pali which means come and see for yourself. Come and see for yourself whether what I say is true or not. And once you have, you will have no need for testimony. Will have no need for revelations. You will have no need for dogma.
You will have no need for presumptions. You have no need for blind acceptance out of devotion to me. For then you will know the truth for yourself. It all comes down to that, the same for ourselves. Faith is ultimately based on wisdom.
In fact, faith is a type of wisdom, a wisdom which is searching for greater wisdom. So you know, talking about this allegory in this way which describes the arising of faith and the development of faith. You know, we find ourselves out on a desert without water and pain. And we’re trying you know, this is like the state of our existence, the human dilemma, the nature of the human condition. At this point in time, along our journey, we we are neither able to identify the exact cause of our pain or whether we are not aware if there exists a remedy to it.
You know, let alone say if there exists such a remedy, where to find it? All we have is the experience of pain. You know, what do we call this? Maybe that’s too heavy handed. I remember when I first came to the West, having spent a number of years in India, and I was talking with some westerners about they said, oh, don’t talk about suffering when you you teach in the west, when you go to the west.
They don’t suffer in the west. You know, like, suffering, you know, conjures up the maybe you break your arm, you get hit by a car. That’s suffering. But, you know, we word isn’t often applied to ourselves in, you know, the the daily the normal quality of our daily life. Maybe dissatisfaction, maybe frustration, maybe disappointment, maybe feelings of defensiveness, alienation, anxiety, hopelessness, meaningless, feeling of disconnectedness, but not suffering.
That’s where people in east, you know, people living in the slums of Calcutta maybe or, you know, people without any fingers from leprosy. They suffer, not me. Okay. You can have it your way, whatever word, whatever concept works best for you. But that’s the nature of our situation whether one way or another.
It could be better, you might say that. I mean, least give us that, you know, kind of acknowledge that fact about your life. You know, again, to stress the case that we’re not basket cases. I’m not suggesting that in the least. But we have to at least acknowledge some high degree of unmanageability in our life, a sense of powerlessness in our life, a sense of the things that aren’t quite all that we want them to be, that we haven’t really come to terms with our life.
We haven’t found the peace that we’re looking for in our life. We’re not the happy person that we’ve always wanted to be. There’s this experience and we’re not sure what to do about it, if in fact there is anything to be done about it. Maybe maybe this quality or this feeling, however what term we want to use, suffering, is in an inextricable part of life. Maybe life really is a bitch, you know, and then you die.
Maybe that’s the case. It’s maybe it’s always going to be this way. You just have to put up with difficult situation, make the best of it. But from time to time, you know, even in the in the barren landscape of our life, we do meet with rare and remarkable people, remarkable individuals. People who seem to have solved many of the problems that we seem to be struggling with ourselves.
You know, people who seem, you know, people who seem to be at peace with themselves, have some cheerfulness about them, some joy about them, who who seem who seem to be at ease in the world. They a they have a sense of well-being about them, a sense of, you know, their very presence and their behavior, what they say and how they say it, what they do, and how they do it, all seem to point to some kind of some extraordinary attainment, something special about these people. And quite often, you know, it’s because of the impact in having having met these types of people that, you know, like a radical new idea is sown in our mind and begins to take root and grow. That, you know, that maybe, maybe, just for a moment maybe, the inkling of a possibility that perhaps the confusion, the struggle, the pain, all the various wounds of outrageous fortune that maybe they’re not an inseparable part of life. But look at this person.
They seem to be doing alright. Maybe pain and suffering and all that I’ve grown to associate with living as a person, an ordinary individual, is really not intrinsic to life itself. Maybe there is an alternative. Maybe there are other alternative ways of being in the world, a radical different way of experiencing the way that we know life. And A faith of pure delight, the first of these faiths which I’m going to describe, arises within our mind, a faith of pure delight.
You know, it’s we we feel inspired. We we we there’s a sense of a joyous coming to see for ourselves. We’ve seen somebody who seems not to be in the same mold, who seems to have transcended many of the problems that we’re that everyone about us seem to be wrestling with and seem to be overwhelmed by, burdened by. You know, we’ve seen somebody who’s their way of thinking, their way of behaving, their way of relating appears to be infinitely preferable to the way that we’re doing those same activities. So and a clear and delighted recognition dawns on our mind.
That’s the way I want to be. That’s what I would like for myself. You begin to see a model of a possibility of an alternative way of being human being in the world. And you say, ah, that’s you know, maybe it’s just that one quality about another person. That’s what I would want for myself.
That’s the way I would want to be. You know, there’s hope. There’s some kind of inspiration. So it gives us it it empowers us. A great deal of the path is simply an empowering and a gaining of competency to realize what would seek our aspirations.
We need to aspire. We need to be uplifted and wish strongly. So empowered with this this faith of pure delight, We begin our search. We we you know, we’ve overcome our apathy. That’s terribly important.
You know, that life isn’t necessarily a dead end. That there may be really maybe, you know, we haven’t found it for ourselves yet, but we’re open to the possibility that there are other possibilities. You know, we could experience something more than we’ve experienced up to now. We haven’t quite given up on ourselves in our life. And we we begin to and we’ve discovered a goal for ourselves.
And though at present we’re never sure where that goal is to be found or exactly what form it’s going to take, still we have enough faith that it it exists and that it can be found somewhere, that there really are solutions to some of my fundamental problems in life and that we can find them and make them our own. So at some point, we begin to you know, so we’re on this desert, this barren landscape of life, and we begin this search. And we’re empowered by this this faith of pure delight. And at some point along our journey, from the other side of this of a sand dune, we hear a runny brook, the sound of running water. You know, we can’t see the water yet.
We can only hear it. But what we hear sounds very much like what we’ve been searching for. You know, we move closer in order to hear it better. And what we hear seems to exactly describe our state of affairs. You know?
It describes what is what we hear is describing our own experience as if what we’re being said was we’re being directly directed directed directly at ourselves. It was meant especially for us. It speaks of the nature of being a human being, the nature of the human condition, our dilemmas, our problems, our conflicts, our suffering. And what are the causes of those conflicts, the human dilemma, the difficult situation of being an ordinary human being? And begins to suggest alternative possibilities, what we can actually begin to do about it, some methods that we can work with.
So what what what is said sounds right, both to our minds, you know, that is to say makes sense in the light of our of our reasoning in accords with our own experience, but it also speaks very much to our own to our heart. You know? It resonates with something something within some irrational aspect of our mind, deep part of ourselves, an intuitive level level of our being, and a faith of longing arises. With a coming to hear and understand for ourselves just what it is that we’ve been searching for, we haven’t known what we were looking for. We knew something was missing in our lives, that something was wrong.
We weren’t quite sure what and know what to say of how we could find it and not not knowing even what we were searching for. And now we’re beginning to gain some conception, some idea. This is what I’ve been looking for, and I’ve been beginning to describe methods I can work with in a way to realize it. And, you know, a faith of longing, a longing to make what is merely words an integral part of our experience, something real for ourselves, to change and to grow, to to a longing to implement these methods, to make them to to actually make them make this alternative possibilities in our life our own. That’s what I that’s what that’s who I will be.
You know, I’m going to be that. I’m going to have it so. Some kind of determination, some kind of empowering and decisiveness, coming to some kind of conclusions about life and what it is that you want from that begin to arise in one one’s mind. You know, you’re longing to to deeply drink from this stream. So empowered again with the strength of the faith of longing, we make this this arduous trek over the over the sand dune and come down on the other side.
And we we actually that is to say, we actually put into practice what we’re being taught, you know, what is being talked about. Coming down on the other side, we actually begin to drink to some of the solutions to some of our difficulties of our life. We begin to cheer up. Our lives seem to be to go much smoother, fewer problems. They last a shorter time.
They’re not as overwhelming as they were. We see we we begin to gain some kind of control over our difficulties. We become of greater and greater use both to ourselves and to others. And out of this experience, a faith of conviction arises within our mind. We’ve actually come to experience for ourselves an easing of the pain, some kind of slacking of the thirst.
We’ve actually experienced it is so. You know, it’s not something that was always out there, that we’re always striving for. One actually is being it, what one has been looking for. And we feel a real confidence confidence through having validated the truth of what has been said. You know, we we we have found you know, we’ve really found what it is that we have been searching for.
So we’re again and again, you know, empowered with this strength of conviction. We again and again drink from the stream. We again and again put the teachings in the practice. And as a result, we we experience further and further the cessation of the pain, confusion, of our problems, until finally we develop what is called irreversible faith. You know, the the with the coming to be for ourselves.
We are our goal. Our goal isn’t something that we’ve been striving, isn’t something still outside of ourselves which we’re struggling for. We have actually become the person that we’ve always wanted to be. And and and, you know, I am. You know, there’s no going back now.
You know, there’s no alternative. One one’s very way of being, you know, the way the way that we actually live our daily life are inseparable from who we would who we are and who we would become. Faith has become an irreversible, instinctive, spontaneous part of ourselves. You know, it’s become ourselves. And that’s what I said.
The faith the faith is a wisdom searching for wisdom, and we have become that wisdom. We are the living embodiment of that faith. So, you know, each of these faiths, you know, the faith of faith of pure delight, the faith of longing, the faith of conviction, faith of irreversible faith, they each are giving rise one to another. They each reinforce. You know, it’s not as if we have one and then we move on to the other without it.
But it we’re always reinforcing each of them which in turn gives rise to the and reinforces the next faith, which in turn gives reinforces and give rise to the next faith. Again and again and again. So, you know, the point of going through all of this discussion of faith, and this comes back to what I said just a few minutes ago, is faith is not merely a religious artifact, you know, or something, you know, just something for the devotional and simple minded people. Yeah. But on the contrary, it’s an indispensable agent for change and growth in our life.
I don’t care what it is that you want in your life. Even if it’s in a mundane sense, if you want to achieve some kind of behavioral change, you have to have faith in your goal or you’re never going to achieve it. The stronger your faith, the greater the empowerment and the greater that you’ll be drawn toward actually becoming achieving that goal. So it’s not something, you know, that we are simply to relegate to, you know, to the to the old people who who mumble, you know, prayers and mantras and prayer wheels and things like that. It is something which is applicable, relevant to a a sophisticated middle class westerner.
I think we know it all. It is a psychological force which we have to begin to harness for our best, for our welfare. It’s, you know, the it is our faith which will determine the direction and goals of our life. And therefore, what we do and do not actually do, what we achieve and what we actually do not achieve in the course of our life. You know, therefore the quality of our life.
And moreover, it is the stability and strength of our faith which are going to determine the degree that we achieve these alternatives in our life. That these alternatives that these possibilities in our life are actually achieved by actualized. You know, it’s that by the power of our faith, we will aspire. It is through aspiration that we will make effort, and it’s through our effort that we’re actually going to achieve our goals. If we think perhaps I mentioned this last week that if we had but the faith of the size of a mustard seed, we could say to this mountain of neurosis in our mind, you know, be gone.
And it might be gone. You know, there there does arise for all of us from time to time, you know, spontaneous faith in someone or something, some idea or other. But and these moments are of tremendous importance. But such moments for the most of us, at least, are short lived. And more than not, you know, have little lasting influence in determining the overall direction and goals of our life.
So the point is that if we genuinely want to change, change ourselves, change our minds, change our behavior, and therefore the quality of our lives, And it’s necessary that we cultivate deliberately a deep and abiding faith in whatever it is that we’re seeking to achieve and the means by which we’re going to achieve that end. You know, this is the way that we empower the means and the goal that we empower ourselves, that we bring about the internal ecology of mind whereby we can overcome the resistance of the habits which are going to take us in other direction in which we are trying to alleviate. We’re trying to you know, the the other avenue that we’re seeking to walk down. You know, we we in the arising and development of faith, it’s it’s not sufficient that we simply wait for grace or that we wait for chance or that we wait for some adventitious causes to to suddenly sweep over us somehow or other. We’re not quite sure how, but we’re waiting.
You know, like, we’re we’re always waiting, waiting. That’s very much an integral part of the plot of our lives. This fact of waiting. I’m not quite sure what for, but hopefully it’ll come along anyhow. And therefore, we never take our life into our hands.
We we never become to any decisive conclusions, thereby begin to determine, you know, that we’re going to change. You know, it’s necessary that we become actively involved in change, you know, that that we seek out teachers and teachings, that that we listen and reflect carefully, you know, upon what is being said, that we try to validate or, you know, indeed invalidate the teachings, the significance of what’s been heard. That, you know, the that we use our reasoning, that we use our intuition, that we use our our ex life experiences, we experiment with the teachings, that we practice the teachings, that we work with these ideas, we and so that we gradually come to understand them, actively begin to entrust ourselves to these new understandings, these new ideas. We allow them to practice upon ourselves, we meditate on them, we transform ourselves. That’s what we’re doing.
We’re transforming ourselves. If we truly want to change, then we’re going to have to systematically cultivate faith in something other than what we’re presently investing our life energies in because that that refuge isn’t working. So, you know, perhaps, and I’ve probably said this before, in getting it what we want in our life is not so much a matter of trying harder. Let us say more of the same but of trying differently, going to another refuge. So in this going for another refuge, the the central focus of our life which we’re seeking to empower, which we’re seeking to to integrate our life around is Buddha.
Not so much the Buddha outside of ourselves, the Buddha that potentially to be a happy, healthy, loving, sane human being with inside of ourselves, that becomes the goal of our life. That becomes an orientation for all that we think, all that we say, all that we do. And we try to empower and and depend upon and to actualize, you know, to work with the methods, the means of actualizing the Buddha, the Dharma. You know, checking it out. Does it work?
Is it is it valid? Does it accord with my experience? Is it logical? And we have to become skilled. We have to participate in the process, have to involve ourselves, put some life energy into it.
And to that same degree, you know, we’ll get something out of it. And we go for refuge to the spiritual community, the the social context in which this process takes place. Those whom we assist and who assist us in the process of implementing the teachings, you know, the methods to attain Buddha and trying to raise the level of motivation. You know, again and again orientate ourselves away from the habit of self centeredness which is in the end is self defeating, which is one of the primary basis for our problematic approach to life. Again and again orienting ourselves to the habit of other cherishing.
You know opening up to another vision of what it means to be in a world with others just like ourselves who want to be happy and don’t want to suffer. And in some way dedicating some of your life energy, some of your time and space and whatever material resources toward their betterment, and going beyond one’s own limited vision the good life in order to include a wider circle of others. So this becomes our motivation, new orientation. 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.
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. 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 that was 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 myself and others. Right away. So we’re gonna meditate.
Would you like to stand up for a minute and stretch your legs? Okay. That’d nice. Thank you. Okay.
So sit. When people begin to meditate, they often say their thoughts are running riot and have become wilder than ever before. But I assure I reassure them and say that this is a good sign. Far from meaning that your thoughts have become wilder, it shows that you have become quieter and are finally aware of just how noisy your thoughts have become, have always been. Don’t be disheartened or give up.
Whatever arises, just keep being present. Keep returning to the breath even in the midst of all the confusion. You know, the basic practice is to be here, to be right here, to present. Thank you. So, you know, meditation is working with our speed, working with our our restlessness, working with our our constant busyness, you know, our ambition, our constant our constant drive to to be something outside be somewhere outside of the present moment.
We have to begin to to notice that this quality of our mind is not a problem. It’s just something to be noticed, to be acknowledged. So I’m not going to talk I want to spend more time on meditation than talking about meditation. Just go over what the the bodily posture. I talked about the legs.
You know, you can sit in the crossed posture. They call it the vajra, the full vajra position. Or you can sit in the in half vajra, like the the right foot on the left thigh, or just in the cross legged position or sitting on a chair. If you’re sitting on a chair, you know, put your feet flat on the ground. Don’t cross your feet.
Then, you know, put them in such a way that the circulation isn’t restricted. The hands in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the right hand is placed upon the left and the thumbs are touching. So the fingers laid upon the other, the right upon the left, fingers touching the thumbs about the level of the navel so your hands are approximately resting in your lap. I don’t do that because I have a problem with my hands. Don’t copy me, okay?
The spine is the the the vertebrae stacked like coins, one on top of the other in a straight column. Okay. The the shoulders level, and I think it’s useful useful if you open up your your chest, bring your shoulders slightly back so your breath isn’t restricted. You can you can breathe much more readily, much more easily. Slightly bowing the neck, bringing the chin slightly in.
A slight pressure on the Adam’s apple. Mouth closed. The teeth are in a natural position resting on top of the other. The mouth closed. The tip of the tongue at the place where the hard palate meets the upper teeth.
Now I haven’t explained this, and I’ll explain this another portion to the physical posture. That is what we’re going to do with the eyes. Many of you have been taught perhaps in different ways and it I but I want to you can make use of the very various techniques that you’ve been that you’ve been taught as you wish. And this very much emphasize in this tradition to keep the eyes open during meditation. I think we can talk about the why and its usefulness in the future.
But just for now you can you might try to make use of this, that the eyes are focused as if they were looking along the sides of the nose or about a spot about a meter in front of you if you’re sitting on the ground. But the eyes aren’t completely open. They’re just the upper eyelid is simply resting on the bottom eyelid. So there’s a slit of light. There’s some stimulation from light entering into the eye consciousness.
So the upper eyelid is simply resting. There’s a slight slit of light. So the eyes are not held wide open. But the upper eyelid is simply resting upon the lower lid or that it’s held in such a position that there’s a small slit of light that’s allowed to enter. Try that.
You know? Try to make use of it. After some time, you won’t notice the light. You won’t notice that your eyes are open. You know?
It won’t be a nuisance. It won’t be bothersome. Initially, it’s perhaps more difficult than closing your eyes. But in the long run, it’s it’s a better way to go. It’s it’s going to be more useful to you in the long run.
In the short run, it might seem to be an obstacle. The light might seem to disturb you. But that that will only be for a short while. Try to, you know, try to persevere with that. Or as I said, you know, if you want to, another option is to close your eyes, for example, then do what works best for you.
Mindfulness of breathing, you know, using techniques of counting and noting if that’s useful, and then we’re going to do a meditation together. You know, we can explore other versions of the possibilities of ourselves. We can you know, using our imagination, we’re going to in the course of this meditation, which I’ll lead you through, we’re simply going to imagine ourselves with a particular quality. And we have to, you know, you have to participate. You know, you have to feel, involve yourself in the process.
You know, try try to not stand outside of the meditation but to be involved wholeheartedly as possible. So we’re going to imagine ourselves having certain qualities and we’re going to imagine certain certain various situations. And the feeling is quite is terribly important. It’s not the visualization, you know, the actual pictures that you might be able to evoke in your mind, but the feelings and the and the sense of who the feeling of the identity of participating in another possible version of of who you might be and actually feeling those qualities about yourself playing a role. So it’s very much active imagination and participation involving oneself in the process.
So taking a firm comfortable posture. And we’ll we’ll even need an itinerary here. We’ve been working with the development of love and compassion for working with the spectrum of individuals. We’re working our way down the line. And now we’ve we’ve been working with those we felt very close to that we have a naturally great deal of love for.
Now imagine someone that that you have a liking for, you know, that they, you know, they’re they’re very appealing, very attractive person, but you’re not particularly close to them. You know, they’re not in your immediate circle of of relatives or those you’ve