Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The suffering of alternation — the idea that ordinary pleasure is structurally inseparable from pain — is the focus of this 40-minute talk by Ven Jampa Gendun. He builds from a figure-ground analogy: a bright star is visible only against darkness, and pleasure registers only against a background of pain. A mountain walk makes this concrete: moving between harsh sun and cold shade, each transition feels pleasant then gradually unpleasant, even as the temperature stays constant. He develops this into the “hammer” image — most happiness is simply the cessation of prior discomfort — and a Tibetan folk tale in which a lama fills an overcrowded house with livestock, then removes the animals one by one until the woman is delighted with her objectively unchanged home. The close is blunt: conditioned happiness is like scratching an itch — better than not scratching, but far short of having no itch at all.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 16 HMA 1996 12 04.mp3
UUID: 305b1df5-3440-4fa1-9237-86991f93c3a4
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening 1996-1997 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1996-12-04
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 40.4 minutes
Words: ~5,835
Alternatives, trying to attract the mind toward those types of ways of being which are which are characterized by peace, fulfillment, meaning, authenticity, you know, all the the good life. Using our life as a lesson. So we’re looking at we’re trying to identify, recognize how we’re living our life and how the mistakes that we’re making. So we don’t we we quit making the same mistakes again and again and again, and thereby and thereby experience the same results again and again and again. So we’re looking at the first of these three characteristics of conditioned existence.
By conditioned, I mean conditioned. That is the ignorant that is the an an approach to life which is under the control of ignorance and karma. Most basically ignorance because karma arises from ignorance. That’s the root of the problem. What are we trying to do basically ultimately?
It’s developed the determination to be free of ignorance. If we, you know, we have to if we’re if we’re we’re going to talk about freedom, we’re going to talk about liberation, we have to have some idea of what we’re trying to be free from. And what are we trying to be liberated from? From ignorance governed existence, from karmically driven existence. That’s what we’re trying to be from, to exist in in in an unconditioned being, a way of being which is not conditioned by ignorance or these past repetitive patterns, an open spontaneous mode of being, which you experience as peace.
So we have to, you know, see deeply recognize the faults of our particular approach to living Begin to determine to be free of that, knowing what we are to be free of, and beginning to also see what we are to look for, what is going to attract us, where we’re trying to direct ourselves, what where our freedom is to take ourselves, our mind. Suffering, impermanence, and selflessness are the three marks of this particular approach to life, which we have mistaken conceptions around, which we have long ideas about, and we need to correct those. And we’re looking at suffering. And within suffering, we’re looking at suffering for three different levels. You know, the suffering of misery, the suffering of fluctuation, and the suffering of universal conditionality.
Okay? So we we looked at the first level of suffering. Now why look at suffering? Unless we begin to see the actual the actual nature of what it is we our approach to living is bringing us, unless we see that vividly, unless it’s putting, you know, in your face, perhaps we’re we’re never going to learn. You know, we’re we’re aware only to the extent survival makes us aware or is necessary for our survival.
That much no more. It’s it’s as if we cultivate an unawareness in trying to get by in life. And it’s it’s to to increase in awareness is to increase the tension in which we live. It’s it’s anxiety provoking. But it it is constructive anxiety because out of this anxiety, we will seek a real method to resolve it.
We will move to higher levels of consciousness, more more productive ways of thinking and behaving. And that there’ll be some movement, some kind of change will grow. Otherwise, there’s always a tendency, there’s always inertia, the the the resistance to change, the the the effort to maintain the status quo. And we hope for the better, but nothing ever changes. So looking at our suffering, we’re going to try to get sick and tired of being sick and tired, trying to get fed up with our suffering and deeply recognize where it’s coming from, and therefore get fed up with the cause and determine to get rid of that cause, to be free of that cause.
So suffering, suffering of misery, the suffering of fluctuation, the suffering of universal conditionality. Last week, we talked about the suffering, the first of these three levels of suffering. The the suffering of misery, suffering of pain, you know, that is our actual feeling experience of dissatisfaction, you know, frustration, disappointment, suffering as we know it, with physically physical suffering and mental suffering. How it is the back it is the it predominates our life in some way or another. It is the background feeling quality of being in our life in some way or another.
Our actual feeling of pain. Now the the next levels, and it’s are are perhaps a little more subtle. The suffering of of misery describes the experiential character of the feelings of suffering within conditioned existence. The next level of suffering the next level, the suffering of alternation, sometimes called the the suffering of change. I think alternation may be better.
Maybe it’ll become evident why I think so. The suffering of alternation describes the psychological character of the feelings of happiness within conditioned existence. You know, we’re holding out, aren’t we? Okay. There’s a lot of pain in my in my particular approach to life.
I think we always have to qualify, not rampant, but life in general. But life as it presents ourselves, it presents itself to us, and life lived under the control of ignorance and karma. We hold out. Oh, no. But there’s happiness, isn’t there?
You know? You have to take the good along with the bad in mind. You know? You can’t always have it your own way like you would like That’s the nature of life. It’s not so bad.
As long as you say it’s not so bad, nothing will ever change, I think. You know, we have to see at the level of the suffering of alternation that even the feelings of pleasure, the happiness that we have are in fact not real happiness. You know, again, we’re not it’s not a bunch of dirty old men trying to take away the little bits of happiness that you in fact have. You know, again, Buddhism is tremendously optimistic. They’re saying, you know, everyone in this room should be blissed out.
You know? It’s not an ascetic it’s not a matter of asceticism. Right? Know? We’re not we’re not to wear hair shirts.
You know, we aren’t to we aren’t guilty of any original sin that we have to suffer for. We should all be happy. That’s what we’re trying to work with. This is the means. You know, if look at, you know, look look at your ring finger and is it long or short?
That’s your ring finger. Is it long or short? You know, compared to your little finger, it’s long. Compared to your middle finger, it’s short. The the ring finger in and in and of itself is neither long nor short.
It’s not absolutely so. Only relatively so. Only comparatively so. Compared to or relative to the little finger, it’s long. Compared to the middle finger, relative to the middle finger or the middle finger is short.
So it each long and short only has meaning in contrast to something else, something other than itself. You know, the point that we’re we’re we’re going to try to bring over is that happiness our happiness, the happiness of a particular approach to life as we know it, is inextricably bound up with pain. We can never know happiness without knowing pain. Is the point we’re going to try to bring across. We’re going to try to understand the psychological process underlying our experience of happiness.
How it it predisposes us to some type or other of pain. We can’t as long as we have this approach to life, we can never get what we want in fact, real happiness, eternal, unchanging type of happiness without any undesirable qualities whatsoever. You know, that’s in our heart of hearts, that’s what we want. Some kind of eternal bliss. However however that form whatever form it might take, however it might be expressed in a type of life, that’s what we would want for ourselves most of all.
That within our present way of kind of thinking and behaving, that we can never have that. That our that our particular patterns of mind, the particular factors within them, most especially ignorance prevents such a way of being, such a way of life. That even the happiness, even that little happiness that we do experience is in some way contaminated. You you hear the word contaminated, and again, it sounds, you know, they’re just trying to take my little happiness away from me. By all means, Buddhism is not.
When we say contaminated happiness, we’re saying it is a type of happiness which is not of all of the possible quality, the type of happiness we could hope to experience, which our mind is capable of, which we can realize in our life. That it’s contaminated because it is inextricably bound up with pain. Therefore, it’s said not to be real happiness. You know, if you can only have happiness at the cost of pain, then it’s a bad trade it’s at best, it’s making you at best of a difficult situation. You know, it’s like a bad trade off in a a way.
There’s something better. You know, the mind if we can see that if if that’s enough, okay. If that’s if that’s enough for you, okay. And that’s for most of us, that has been enough, always. And that’s therefore, we’ve always remained with that mentality.
We’ve always remained within conditioned existence. But the reason to the point was, well, that’s not enough. You know, there is in fact something better. And our mind started to get gets entangled with those ways of thinking, those ways of being which perpetuate such a way of life, such a way of feeling and being in the world and begins to become attracted, begins to become drawn toward real happiness, true happiness, a type of happiness which is not dependent upon pain for its existence. The very nature of our mind is peace, unconditioned self.
So we’re looking at the underlying psychological process of happiness within conditioned existence. According to Geshe-la, we are never aware of any object or event or figure save in relation to a contrasting background. For example, something we call light is really a light figure standing out against a dark background. When I look up to the heavens on a dark night and perceive the brilliance of a bright star, what I am really seeing, what my eye actually takes in is not the separate star, but the entire field or gestalt of bright star plus dark background. However drastic the contrast between the bright star and its background of darkness, darkness, the point is that without the one, I could never perceive the other.
Light and dark are these two correlative aspects of one single sensory gestalt. Likewise, I cannot perceive motion except in relation to rest, nor effort without ease, nor complexity without simplicity, nor attraction without repulsion. In the same way, I can never I am never aware of pleasure except in relation to pain. I might indeed be feeling very comfortable and pleasurable at this moment, but I would never be able to realize this were it not for a background existence of discomfort and pain. This is why pleasure and pain always seem to alternate, for it is only in their mutual contrast and alternation that the existence of each can be recognized.
Thus, as much as I would like the one and loathe the other, the attempt to isolate them is futile. So, you know, we so, you know, the implication of what is being gotten at here is that, for example, we can never know happiness without knowing suffering. We can never know success without knowing failure. We can never know harmony without knowing conflict. We can never know the warmth of a friend without knowing the coldness of an enemy.
You know, we can never know the the the the the joy of union without knowing the pain of separation. That that that they necessarily arise alternating with one another in the very course of the perceptual process itself. In the very nature of our present way of conceiving the quality, the characteristic of pleasure and pain, they are independently necessary, Interdependently necessary, mutually dependent upon one another for their very existence. You know, if you know, if you’ve ever for example, if you’ve ever walked in the mountains, and this is I experienced I lived in Dharamsala, a hill station in northern India for quite quite a number of years. And so it was very this traditional example is quite clear to for me.
You know, if you’ve ever walked up in the mountains, because of the high altitude, the the atmosphere is very thin. And so the the sun is very harsh. So, you know, you’re walking up in the mountains, and because of the oppressiveness of the hot sun, you you become very uncomfortable. The sun becomes very oppressive. So, you know, you you begin to experience.
It becomes unpleasant. So you go in the shade. It’s, ah, it feels good. The the very moment you go in the shade, there’s there’s this feeling of pleasure, coolness, feels comfortable, nice. But if also, if you’ve ever been up in the mountains at a high altitude, when you go in the shade, it starts to become very cold very quickly.
So, you know, the first moment of going getting out of the oppressive sun is experiencing pleasure. But after some time, it becomes, wow, it’s getting chilly. It’s getting a bit cold. I think I’ll go back out in the sun. You feel the warmth of the sun, you know, permeating down to your bones.
It feels warm and comfortable. Feel glow inside yourself, it feels very pleasurable. But after some time, if you’ve ever been in the mountains, got high altitude, you know, the sun can become very oppressive. It’s very hot. So it becomes after a while, it becomes very unpleasant.
So you go back into the shade, again, you feel pleasurable. And then it becomes, after some time, unpleasurable, uncomfortable. And then again you go back into the sun again. So alternating in this fashion. Why was the first moment of shade experienced as pleasurable?
And after some time, it became uncomfortable, even though the temperature, even though the shade more or less remained constant. You know, the temperature upon immediately moving into the shade didn’t change all that much over that period of time. And similarly, you know, the question arises, you know, when you move from the shade into the sun, Why was that first moment experienced as pleasure, and then after the passage of this some time, it became uncomfortable, unpleasant, even though, you know, more or less the sun remained constant, the temperature remained constant? The way we perceived the sun, the way we perceived the shade changed. You know, as we became acclimated to our new situation, we experienced it differently.
And our feelings over time changed from from from pleasurable to neutral to painful, and then back again. The uncomfortable feeling of being you know, we have to be clear what we’re talking about here, the subject, which is relevant. The uncomfortable feeling of being hot and cold is an instant of the suffering of physical misery, physical pain. We’re not talking about that here. That was the that was the first level of suffering.
We’re not talking about the feeling of being hot or feeling of being cold, that unpleasurable feeling, that suffering. We’re not looking at here at the fact of impermanency, that sometimes we feel pleasant feelings, sometimes we feel unpleasant feelings, sometimes we feel neutral feelings. That’s merely the fact of impermanency. We’re not looking at that at that here either. What we’re trying to understand, appreciate is the psychological process underlying the alternating nature of these feelings.
You know, it’s like there’s a for example, suppose there’s an idiot sitting in the corner and he’s hitting himself over the head with a hammer and you walk up. Why are you hitting yourself over the head with a hammer? And he says, because it feels so good when I stop. It does feel good. He or she actually does experience pleasurable feeling when they stop hitting themselves over the head of a hammer.
Similarly, I’m trying to get at this point. All our usual feelings of pleasure can be seen in a like manner, can be seen as the cessation or the diminishment of prior pain. For example, you know, for the the relief when a headache goes away, The the the refreshing feeling, you know, you drink of a glass of water when you’re hot and thirsty. Or the warm feelings when when two people make up after having a fight. You know, we all know that one.
I think that’s why some people have fights because it’s such a warm, pleasurable feeling when they make up. You know, the the or or our feelings arise out of a release from tension or a tension reduction. You know, the the you know, when you when you get your successful result exam that you’ve been waiting patiently to get, or, you know, when you find your lost child, that relief you feel, or even sexual orgasm is a release of intention, a very sudden and immediate release. Or just the quiescence, the pacifying of the afflictive emotion of desire when our desires are satiated, but not even satiated, but when they go away for one reason or another. When that tension, that conflict within the mind is removed, there’s a sense of well-being, pleasure.
Usually, associate it with giving the object, but in fact, it’s simply the the quiescence of desire, attention within our mind. So it’s it’s for this reason that all our usual feelings of pleasure are termed contaminated feelings of pleasure or feelings of contaminated pleasure, but not other. Because they are inextricably bound up with some type of suffering and therefore are not seen as as real happiness. True happiness, a true pleasure, they are all instances of the suffering of alternation. That doesn’t make sense.
What our feelings of pleasure that we experience in the in the context of a particular approach to life, a type of a type of life which is controlled by ignorance and under the influence of karma. All of those types of pleasures which are experienced in this particular way of life, in this context, are not real happiness. They’re not real pleasures. They’re They’re flawed in some way. They’re not completely satisfactory.
You know, they aren’t, are they? Because if they’re inextricably bound up with pain, then they aren’t completely satisfactory. You might say, well, that’s all we can expect. Well, Buddhism says, no, there’s more that we can There’s there’s not nothing more out there that we could experience. There is real happiness.
But just for the moment, this type of pleasure is not completely what we want of pleasure because it is bound up with pain. Therefore, it’s not satisfactory. That’s what Buddhism is saying. Any but it’s difficult, isn’t it? Because we’re because we’re so we crave it so much.
We want to hold on to these little bits of happiness that we that come our way and not let them go. And we don’t have a bigger picture. We don’t have another perspective. We don’t see an alternative to what impact we do have. We can’t let go.
We can’t become disentangled. Contaminated happiness has the idea of a happiness which is in some way flawed, which is not completely satisfactory, is not everything that we would want for ourselves. An unchanging kind of eternal state, completely free of any conceivable undesirable quality, characteristic in some way or another. So, you know, when we talked about this example of moving back from the shade to the sun, from the sun into the shade, you know, there rises initially a feeling of pleasure. So this this arose in dependence upon the cessation of the immediately preceding pain and the feeling of discomfort caused by, for example, the sun.
When that’s removed, we experience the pleasure of the cessation of that proceeding discomfort of the heat of the sun when we moved into the shade. And it was temporarily perceived as agreeable. But over time, you know, as we begin to lose our ability to discriminate, we become confused about how to what position to take with the present situation. Over time, if you’ve ever noticed, all your pleasure will turn to a neutral state. The mind is not sure whether the present situation is characterized by as agreeable or disagreeable.
It’s trying to take position, it’s trying to find some stance, some way to discriminate. So that that that confused moment or period is experienced as a neutral feeling, neither pleasurable nor unpleasurable. And it’s confused you know, the the mind is trying struggling for some position to take. And as it struggles, it’s going to become susceptible to seeing the disagreeable aspects of the present situation. And the noticing, you know, in the case of moving in the shade, the coldness, which in turn gives rise to the feelings of displeasure.
You know, the objective situation, the objective objective condition remain constant over over time, but our perception of it, our felt of experience of it has changed, and it will continue to change. It’s going to alternate. As we’re going to see when we come to in a very and when we we’re going to investigate this in a very deep manner, when we come to a third of these three principal aspects of the path, the awakened mind. Phenomena do not possess any inherent characteristics. They don’t have an intrinsic identity.
For for example, nothing is inherently pleasurable. Nothing is inherently painful. If if they, you know, this if they were, for example, then then any valid experience of that object would necessarily put for example, in terms of something inherently pleasurable, would necessarily be pleasurable. Moreover, they would always have to be able they would always bring us pleasure. That would be their nature.
Any valid perception of of that object would necessarily be in terms of the feelings of pleasure with regard to them because that’s their nature. If if they in fact had such a nature, an inherent nature, a self identity, intrinsic quality, characteristic. You know, any valid experience of them would have to be experienced as feelings of pleasure because that’s the way they are, in fact. But the point of which Buddhism is trying to make is that phenomena, and this applies to everything, do not inherently exist. They have no inherent qualities.
That is not to say that they don’t have primary qualities. For example, you know, the the primary quality of water is wet and fluid, you know, or fire is hot and burning. That is that’s the way we identify. And that’s the reason we call that substance water because it has its primary characteristics. But even even those that aren’t inherent, aren’t intrinsic.
You know, point for example, you know, we’re lonely. We we meet someone who under normal circumstances, we might find unappealing. Under under normal circumstances, we might suppose that there’s no basis for an ongoing kind of meaningful relationship, but we’re lonely. You know, we’re we’re restless. We’re we feel discontent.
And and surprisingly enough, we have a good time with this person. You know, things are better than they were. You know, perhaps you just broke up from a relationship and you were feeling pretty lonely, depressed and down, looking for something to distract yourself from your feelings. And this person has that power, has that ability to temporarily at least distract ourselves. So we’re feeling better than we were.
We actually we, you know, we’re surprised. I actually had a good time last night. So so the relationship but after time after time, maybe the relationship not much is happening after some time, you know. Relationship is becoming kind of stale. It’s becoming a bit little bit boring perhaps.
You know, we’re not sure what we ever really saw in that person anymore. You know, what what what do I ever see them in the in the first place? Slowly over time, we feel that compared to the good times we once were having by ourselves, you know, I never how good it I could go where I wanted when I wanted, do what I wanted. You know, the single state wasn’t all that bad after all, and it begins to look pretty good. And there’s this feeling, oh, it’d be nice to be on my own again, how good it was, And all the possibilities of being single again.
So, I mean, it’s relatively the same person, you know, but your perception and therefore feelings associated with that person have changed over time. So, you know, the the implication of the suffering of alternation is that even if we could freeze the situation, our feelings towards it would inevitably change over time, would fluctuate. And conditioned conditioned existence is such that we can never have an unchanging complete happiness no matter what we do. And there’s a there’s a I hope I like to tell you a story, Tibetan story. The the star of this story is a is a woman, and I hope you don’t mind me using a woman as as by way of example.
Just seems to work better. Anyway, there there’s this it takes place in a in a small village in in Tibet. And there’s a, you know, a woman running down the street, and she’s she’s very upset, obviously, and she’s crying. And her lama, her spiritual teacher sees her, he’s walking down the street. And he calls her, come on.
Come on. Come over. Come over. And she comes over, he says, what’s wrong? What’s wrong?
What’s the problem? And she goes, oh, mama. I’m so unhappy. I can’t stay in my home anymore. I said, what’s wrong?
What’s wrong? He said, oh, it’s so crowded. And there’s there’s my mother and my grandmother and my two sisters. And then there’s my my husband’s brother and my and his wife, my sister-in-law. And there’s two cousins standing with us temporarily.
And there’s there’s all the kids. I just can’t stand. It’s too noisy. It’s so dirty. I I have to leave.
I’m going home. I can’t I can’t stay long. There’s no no no no wait. It’s going to be okay. I have an idea.
Do you have do you have a goat? Yes. Yeah. I have a goat. Take the goat and put it in the house.
What? Take the goat and put it in the house. Okay. So she goes off. Next day, there she is running down the street again.
This time, you know, her hair is all messed up and she’s her dress is dirty and she’s in she’s in a terrible state. She’s very upset, her Lama sees her running down the street. Come. Come. Come.
Come. Come. Mama, oh, it’s worse than it ever was. You know, the the goat is eating the mattress. It’s, you know, the floor is filthy.
It’s worse than it was. I’m I’m not saying I’m leaving. I I I gotta go. No. No.
It’s gonna be okay. I’ve got an idea. No. No. No.
I I have an idea. I have an idea. Do you have any chickens? No. No.
Mama. No. No. This is gonna work. It’s gonna do you have any chicken?
Yes. Take the chickens and put them in the house. Okay. She hesitantly agreed to take the chickens and put them in the house. She had a lot of faith.
Obviously. Obviously. Next day, oh, she’s a real mess. She’s running down the street. Her dress is filthy.
Her hair is all messed up. She tears are flowing down her from her eyes. Her mama calls her over again. Oh, Lama. It’s it’s worse than ever.
What? There’s feathers all over the place. Stinks. I can’t stay there. I’m I’m leaving.
No. No. No. I it’s gonna be okay. No.
No. No. No more no more suggestion. One more suggestion. No.
No. I’ve got an idea. What is it? Do you have a cow? No.
No. No. No. No. This is gonna work.
This is gonna this is gonna work. Take the cow. Put it in the house. Next day, she’s a mess. She’s not even running anymore.
She’s dragging herself down the street. Mama calls her over. Oh, mama. I can’t stand it. I couldn’t even sleep last night.
The cow was moving in the middle of the night. You can’t even walk on the floor anymore. It stinks. It’s noisy. It’s so crowded.
I I have to leave. I can’t stay. I have an idea. No. No more ideas, mama.
I’ve had enough. No. No. This is take the goat out of the house. Take the goat out of the house.
Yes. Take take the goat out of the house. Next day, she’s walking, and then she has a clean dress on. She’s combed her hair, and Lama calls over. How is it now?
Oh, it’s it’s a little better better than it was. And then without the goat, you know, I don’t have to worry my worry about, you know, the mattress being eaten and the floor is a little bit cleaner. Good. Good. Good.
Take the chickens out of the house. So next next day, again, in the town square, as she’s walking in, she’s almost smiling, you know, as she walks down the street and her hair is nicely combed and she’s wearing a clean dress. How is it now? She’s, oh, it’s it’s much, much better. You know?
It doesn’t smell so bad anymore. There aren’t always feathers flying around. It’s it’s much, much better than it was. Good. Good.
Good. Take the cow out of the house. Okay. Next day, she’s she’s very peacefully walking along, you know, appears very happy, well dressed, nicely neat and clean. She comes over to Lama and said, oh, Lama, I don’t know why I ever wanted to leave my home.
You know, it’s it’s really not all that crowded, and it’s really quite easy to keep clean, and it’s quiet. I I really like my home, Lama. So after that long story now what is the point of that story? Externally, nothing has substantially changed as to what it was, what, six days ago than what it was before. The objective condition which he is now experiencing as pleasurable are the same as those which he previously experienced as miserable, as unpleasant.
The only change has been an internal shift in her perception of them. You know, the meaning and significance which she was giving to her present surroundings, her situation. Now there’s there’s been a reframing of the situation. Now if subsequently there’s no change in the external situation and if subsequently there’s no change in her internal attitudes towards that situation, then over time there’s there’s going to be a gradual shift back to her perception of that same situation as miserable. You know, back to when where it was perceived as, you know, with and with all the associated feelings of unhappiness.
So this is the continuation of the fluctuation of feelings, you know, one back to the other. You know, there in there’s a in systems theory, there’s an axiom that says, you know, that things have to change in order to remain the same. Things have to change in order to remain the same. Relationship, if you want to maintain the relationship, you have to there has to be slight changes in the way that you relate. You’re finding new ways of relating, novel ways of relating.
It’s like a tightrope walker. If they want to stay in on the rope, if they want to stay in one position, they have to keep changing that position. So this is the notion that in order to remain for things to remain the same, there has to be constant change. If we talk, you know, simply stated, the the the the notion of you know, that’s why I think what was it that’s it? I can’t remember.
The American anthropologist has said, you know, if you want to you want to have a long lasting relationship, you have to fight once in a while. But I don’t know if that’s true, but but there has to be some change in order to make it constant. So the idea of the suffering of fluctuation is that simply simply stated is that all of our feelings of pleasure within conditioned existence are are comparable to the pleasure of scratching an itch. We of our pleasures within conditioned existence are comparable to scratching an itch. And we have to ask ourselves, you know, some people you know, it’s less feeling when you scratch an itch, isn’t it?
But we have to ask ourselves, which is better, to scratch the itch or not to have an itch at all? And and and if you and if you, you know, maybe that’s a problem. Maybe that’s a question. But if you if you look at that in a deeper fashion and you ask a mangy dog, that with within such a state, there’s no peace. There’s only fluctuation from pain to pleasure.
So that’s the nature of our situation that we which we’re trying to to Buddhism is trying to describe to ourselves. And it’s really I don’t I don’t know if you know if you can identify with it. Maybe you’ve never seen a mangy dog. Mean, in Australia, you don’t see them as you but in India, when you see a dog that’s has no hair, can roll from scratching itself, and you ask that dog, why is it even better? Do have no itch or to scratch an itch?
And there’s no question. So we’ll stop there. Dedicate the the creative potential that way you’ve accumulated. Give us some kind of direction in terms of our our focus and commitment. In the land encircled by snow mountains, you are the source of all happiness and well-being.
Please remain to the end of cyclic existence. May I quickly become an awakened spiritual master and lead each and every living being to that awakened realm through these skillful actions. May this supreme jewel of the awakened heart that has not risen arise and grow, and may that which has arisen never diminish, but increase more and more. Thank you. So if you like to get a cup of tea, we’ll have a discussion.
Otherwise, have a good week.