Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Standing cloud-wrapped on a monsoon hillside in Dharamsala, unable to see beyond your own problems — this is Ven Jampa Gendun’s central image in this 44-minute session for how self-preoccupation blinds inner wisdom. After recapping earlier work on equalising self and others, he moves into the second of five meditations in the “equalising and exchanging self for others” sequence: examining the disadvantages of self-centeredness and the advantages of other-cherishing. He argues from peak human experience — being carried away by music, the self-forgetfulness of love — that happiness always involves loosening self-fixation. Quotes from Lama Zopa, Thich Nhat Hanh, and the Pänchen Lama reinforce the point; Lama Zopa’s image of the heart released “like limbs from chains” the moment concern shifts to another is particularly vivid. The session closes with a preview of the taking-and-giving meditation to come.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 16 HMA 1997 03 05.mp3
UUID: bbcc340f-9caf-4f1f-a7b1-622f15a2d5d6
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening 1996-1997 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1997-03-05
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.0 minutes
Words: ~5,844
So keep those three people in mind till next week that we forgot about. I left them hanging out there. So, you know, within we’re looking at a at a method of change and a method of I guess, I guess, a radical change. What type of transformation that Buddhism terms awakening or enlightenment or Buddhahood, synonymous terms, and that there is a means by which we can get to that end, and the means is a path. And the path takes us from where we’re at now to where we want to get to.
And this path has three principal themes or three principal elements of aspects to it, and those are developing the will to awaken, the awakened heart, and the awakened mind. So we both we develop both in terms of our emotional and intellectual, our affective and cognitive capacities, the totality of our being. And to do that requires and I think it requires both imagination and will. We it has to be something more than simply heroic effort. It has to be the an imaginative aspect.
That we can be something other. So, you know, we’re looking at the the means of opening our hearts, developing that the affective aspect of ourselves, our emotional part of ourselves, developed seeking to develop an awakened heart. And there are two main meditative traditions for this. So there’s there’s means, there’s causes, which we can implement. So it’s simply not a matter of wishful thinking.
Many people wish that they were loving more loving people. But many peep most people are not willing willing or motivated enough to put in the actual effort to to become that. And out of our that’s why faith is so very necessary. Out of faith, we’ll make effort. Out of faith, we’ll aspire.
Through aspiration, we’ll make effort, and by through our efforts, we’ll actually achieve whatever the result that we wish. So we actually have to do something. And and what we can do. I think we’re quite fortunate in this because, you know, Buddhism is is a system of mental development which has been refined and developed over a period of two thousand five hundred years. It’s been used by many ordinary and extraordinary people as a means of achieving beneficial ends, both for themselves and others.
So we can we have, like, a a tremendous resource that we can avail of ourselves here if we’re if we’re willing to to take advantage of it. So in developing developing an awakened heart, there are two meditative traditions. One is called the sevenfold cause and effect instruction, seven cause and effect instruction, and the other is equalizing and exchanging self with others. I think equalizing and identifying with others might be a good translation. It’s more literal exchange, but equalizing and exchanging self with other, equalizing and identifying with others.
We’re looking at the latter of these two for now, equalizing and exchanging self with others, which is a series of five meditations. They equalize yourself with others, seeing the disadvantages of self centeredness, the advantage of other centeredness, the actual exchange of self for others, and then finally the visualization technique of taking and giving. We’ve completed the first of these. We’ve we’ve looked at the means of developing a sense of equality between ourselves and others and toward others in general. We looked at it both from the conventional point of view and the ultimate point of view.
From the conventional point of view, both from the sides of others, from our own side. That from the side of others, that all living beings who whosoever want to be happy, that all living beings, whosoever don’t want to suffer. And then finally, thirdly, that though they want to be happy, they don’t, in fact, have genuine happiness. And though they wish not to suffer, in fact, they could still suffer. So they’re all equal, and we’re all equal in that.
This sort of a it’s a commonly shared experience as ordinary human beings, which we all partake. The what is the this is essential and primary to the human dilemma in which we all are part of. What is what is Though we have a variety of appearances and different characters and qualities about ourselves, these are fluctuating and can be terribly arbitrary. But these qualities of wanting to be happy and not wanting to suffer are probably primary to human nature itself. And this is what we’re trying to relate as on a basis of, this very essential quality amongst that we all share.
We all are brothers and sisters in this. We might be antagonistic in other areas, but we are very much the same in this one point. All of us want to be happy, none of us want to suffer. From our own side, developing the equality of self and others in terms of recognizing the kindness of all beings as having been our mothers. And granted this is a difficult understanding to try to come to, because it requires that we have a fairly firm conviction in the notion of rebirth, that we have been born infinite numbers of times in the past and over these infinite numbers of rebirths.
Every living being, whosoever has at one time or another been our primary caregiver and has shown us tremendous kindness. So developing this sense of intimate relatedness with all living beings even though it’s not apparent to ourselves at present. But barring that, then we can go on to see that all living beings, whosoever, even when they weren’t our primary caregivers, are extremely kind. The kindness of friends is mostly is more or less apparent. But going on to investigate the notion of the kindness of strangers and finally the kindness of enemies, that they each are contributing both either to our temporal well-being or to our ultimate well-being, our ultimate spiritual development.
And therefore each in their own unique way is contributing to our happiness, but each in their own unique way, not the same way. And therefore, they’re equally kind in some way. And then thirdly, the fact that we are all the same, that all these living beings out there from my point of view are equal and that they’re all going to die. And what use is my, you know, my my trying to my ness, my prejudices, my you you do something nice for me, I would I I draw you near to me, comfort you, try to hold on to you. You do something I don’t like.
I push you away. I try to hurt you. When the fact, you know, that the both of these people are soon to die, more or less, in one way or another. That death is a great level leveler of all. So, you know, to try to, I guess, to to look at our relationships from a in terms of the forest and not get caught up in the trees, to look at our relationships at a greater perspective, a greater height, so we don’t lose sight of the true nature of our dilemma amongst us all.
And then finally, from the ultimate point of view, that friend, enemy, and strangers do not truly exist the way they appear. And this we’re going to go into a great deal when we come to the awakened mind. This is the notion that that there is a discrepancy between the way objects appear and the way they actually exist. And we’re developing not not to be captivated or overwhelmed by appearances. That mystery that whenever there’s an emotional or an affective element in our relationship with object.
There’s always going to be some degree of exaggeration one way or the other, the filtering out by various qualities, the magnifying of other qualities. It’s going to be emotions drawn from our past experiences, our past conditioning, our already all of our belief systems, our ideologies are going to come into an image, what you’re going to project upon that person. And that image may have little or nothing to do with their real who they really are. So not becoming totally not totally believing in what it is that we see in terms of this friend, enemy, and stranger. So the friend, enemy, and stranger do not truly exist the way they appear.
That friend, enemy, and stranger are constantly changing, that that they and therefore not hold to these categories so tightly as if friend is always going to be a friend, the enemy is always going to be an enemy, and I’m never going to relate with this stranger in any other way than the way I’m relating at present, you know, allowing the space for this the nature of relate way one relates to change. And then finally, the the the relativity of these, that friend, enemy, and stranger all depend one upon the other. They don’t truly exist as such. They don’t independently exist as such. You know, without friends, we wouldn’t have enemies.
Without enemies, we wouldn’t have friends. Without friends and enemies, there would be no strangers. So it’s not to say that we are to have meaningful and deep relationships with certain individuals. This is not the point. It’s just that we are not to be swayed in our way of relating under the force of these images that we make use of in terms of this constant process of categorization of friend, enemy, and stranger.
We may not use those those particular images of friend, enemy, and stranger, but we’re going to use something quite similar to them. You know, the friend is somebody who we think is inviting, as pleasant, as useful to ourselves, as a resource to ourselves, as somebody who benefits ourselves, as somebody who’s kind to us, all of these various And therefore we relate with them in a particular way on that basis. And more than that, we relate with an image we have about them. But trying to relate at a more primary level, above what is arbitrary and superficial to what is primary and essential about them. Okay.
As a basis. I guess, essentially, we’re trying to develop unconditioned positive regard. A positive regard. People matter to us. They aren’t just things out there.
And it’s a positive matter, and moreover it’s unconditioned. It’s not conditioned by our fluctuating modes of relating with them or the way that we categorize them in terms of friend or a stranger or an enemy. It’s something which is beyond that, those levels of categorization. Finally. Okay.
So now we’re going to go on to the second of these of these five series equalizing and exchanging self for others, the advantage the disadvantages of self centeredness and the advantages of other centeredness. So in in in in talking about the the awakened heart, you know, it sounds maybe it sounds far fetched, but that’s okay, isn’t it? I mean, it sounds that way. Maybe it’s a worthwhile goal even if it’s unattainable. Maybe it’s worth our our efforts and and our time and energies in our life to at least direct ourselves along these lines.
But but I think if we if we investigate and bring perhaps bring it down to a more relevant perspective to ourselves. The psychology of an awakened heart is nothing really wildly otherworldly or beyond the normal call of human beings. So the point is that it is evident from our own experience, and this is where it all has to come back to at some point in our evaluating and validating the teachings in general. It is never more evident than from our own experience that human beings are never happier than when they do transcend, if only momentarily, their their narrow habitual self centeredness. When they lose this this this sense of self confinement to whatever degree and they’re never more miserable, never than when they’re completely caught up in their own claustrophobic world of their own self interests and exaggerated self concerns.
They’re looking within their own experience to see whether that effect is true or not. You know, sense pleasures reach its height when the experience loses their ordinary boundaries and is carried away, you know, like carried away by beautiful music or art. We’re talking about the most vivid and peak experiences of our life. They all have a sense about them, of being taken outside of the normal boundaries, the conception of ourselves, of who we are, of self forgetfulness, in fact. You know, emotional pleasures is greatest through love when there is a loss of a sense of self and a union with the beloved.
It’s as if we’re not around any longer, and with that the greatest of experiences that we normally experience in the course of our everyday lives. You know, aesthetic experiences and intellectual joys are proportionate to the intensity, to the degree that beauty or truth carries us away, takes us beyond ourselves into some kind of expanse of universality, of bliss, in some kind of other realm. There is some quality of transcendence, of our narrow self conception that we have about ourselves, maybe more relevant or maybe closer to home in terms of our everyday mundane experience. Real happiness and satisfaction start when you begin to live your life for others. You retreat This is a quote from Lama Zopa.
You retreat for others, practice Dharma for others, study for others, work in the office for others, cook for others. When your attitude is transformed so that you do everything for others to pacify their suffering and to obtain their happiness, there is real satisfaction and peace in your heart. When you are cherishing yourself, thinking only of yourself, how can I be happy? How can I be free from my problems? There is no happiness in your heart, only worry and fear.
You see only problems and your mind is not relaxed. But in the next moment, when you change your object of concern to another sentient being, even if only one other sentient being, suddenly your heart is released from self-cherishing, like limbs released from chains. As soon as your object of concern changes from yourself to someone else, your heart is released from the bondage of the self-cherishing thought. As soon as you change the object of your cherishing, there is suddenly peace in the very depths of your heart. Right in that very moment that your mind changes from self-cherishing to the cherishing of others, there is liberation, freedom from the tight bondage of the selfish mind.
You know, as oftentimes and perhaps more often than not, we become totally absorbed, totally wrapped up in our own problems. You know, I use this image because it’s meaningful to myself, as if we were standing on a mountaintop completely surrounded by clouds. You’ve ever been in Dharmasala in northern India during monsoon, you have a sense of what I mean. All we can see is my problem. Our vision is that limited.
There’s no it is as if there is no other problem in the world but my problem, as if there’s nothing else. And the problem is completely magnified out of proportion, compounded. There’s no and in such a state, there’s really there’s no we can’t the the sun of our own wisdom can’t shine through. We can’t make avail ourselves of our own wisdom as resources to solve our problems. There’s total preoccupation with ourselves alone at the exclusion of others.
So our approach to solving our problem has become part of the problem itself. We had been practicing This is quote by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese monk who has a center in France quite well known in the world for his peace activism. We had been practicing engaged Buddhism in Vietnam for the last thirty years. During the war, we could not just sit in a meditation hall. We had to practice mindfulness everywhere, especially where the worst suffering was going on.
Being in touch with this kind of suffering we encountered during the war can heal us if some of the suffering we experience when our lives are not very meaningful or useful. When you confront the kinds of difficulties we faced during the war, you see that you can be a source of compassion and a great help to many suffering people. In that intense suffering you feel a kind of relief and joy within yourself because you know that you are an instrument of compassion. Understanding such intense suffering and realizing compassion in the midst of it, you can become a joyful person even if your life is very hard. You know, so there’s some kind of message that these two tremendously realized, tremendously compassionate beings are trying to convey to us, I think.
You know, it’s not that somehow we are to overlook or avoid our problems and the necessity to work through them, to resolve them somehow. The point is that in the midst of our problems we are not to lose sight that others are experiencing problems at the same time as we are experiencing. And the point is at the moment we become mindful of the fact that others too have problems, we cease compounding our own problems. We cease magnifying our own difficulties and developing the myopic vision that I am the only person in this world who has problems. You know, intellectually, you would you we would all agree that this is a it’s almost laughable, but emotionally it’s the way we act.
You know, that moment we put we become mindful of the fact that others have problems, we cease compounding our own. The moment that we in that very moment there’s some kind of relief. We begin to gain some kind of perspective on our own difficulties which we may be going through. And immediately there’s a certain manageability around what’s happening to ourselves. The problem begins to feel more workable.
In such a state, we can more readily avail ourselves of our own internal resources or the resources about ourselves in actually solving and finding some kind of solution. The sun of our own wisdom can actually begin to break through the clouds of our self preoccupation around ourselves. In opening ourselves to others, other people’s difficulties through other cherishing, our own problems diminish in significance. You know, and most of the time, and this I think we’ve all experienced this, they resolve themselves. The great problems become smaller problems.
The smaller problems are as if they never were. We don’t even have to concern ourselves with them. And there’s a Sufi saying that I felt sorry for myself because I met a man who had I felt sorry for myself because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet. You know, not to have shoes is quite difficult. It hurts.
And we have to do something about that quite practically. But we don’t have to compound our problem by thinking that we are the only person in the world who has a problem. You know, if we can keep in mind that there are people out there who don’t even have teeth, then at least, you know, we can maintain that perspective, and our problem becomes that much more workable. We don’t forget about others in in the context of our own difficulties. As long as we remain so tightly focused upon our our own happiness, you We’re trying to train ourselves into another way of dealing, of relating with our own suffering, of this habitual self referencing tendency, a habit of our present way of thinking.
Actually, the the, you know, the the reverse can become true. And these these are very skillful means. These the these are means which are made which are spoken of at an extensive length in the in the category of Buddhist texts called thought transformation or mind training, where suffering is seen as if necessary. Our whole attitude towards suffering is reversing somehow. You know, the very fact that we suffer can be a catalyst for opening.
And normally when we experience some kind of suffering, we shut down. We isolate ourselves. And this may be necessary to a certain degree to assert ourselves in bringing about our self healing. But at another level, it’s self defeating. But if we can train our mind, the moment and we will come to this when we when we we talk about the exchange of self for others, taking and giving.
Our suffering can be a means of self development, that the moment we experience suffering, it can be a stimulus or catalyst for us to think, ah, that reminds me, other people are suffering in this world, just as I am suffering now. You know what I mean? Rather than the habitual way of shutting down and focusing upon the suffering that we are experiencing, it becomes a reminder that others are suffering, and therefore our own suffering becomes a way of continually avoiding losing sight of the world and becoming self insulated, that our own suffering can a mechanism by which we are continually opening up to the pain of the world, that we’re continually being reminded that others are suffering in this world, not forgetting about others and integrating our life more and more with others. As long as we remain so tightly focused upon our own happiness we’re the temporal ultimate. And I guess we have to say, we have to have some faith in all of this, don’t we?
You know, that this way of being in this world is infinitely preferable to what we’ve experienced up to now, that our I, me mine, our total preoccupation, our exaggerated self concern really hasn’t brought us any happiness. It has in fact only brought us pain and suffering, that there is an alternative, and they’re trying to describe another alternative. So there something available to ourselves, there’s some other way of thinking and being in this world that might be preferable to our present mode of being and thinking. I think we have to develop some kind of faith in this, because we can’t quite know how it’s all going to come out, you know, how the bodhisattva is going to be in this world, what it’s going to cost us, and what kind of real world impact it’s going to have on our lives. But you have to have faith that it’s going to be a better world both for yourself and others, that the change which is going to be induced through this process is going to bring about an infinitely prefer preferable way of life in terms of its quality, its livability, its coherence, you know, all of that’s what you might want for yourself.
Otherwise, you know, why why even listen to these words? Why take up the difficult challenge? As long as we remain so tightly focused upon our own happiness, whether temporal or ultimate, we will never experience the expansiveness of a truly open heart. The only way to achieve the total vision of complete enlightenment is to free ourselves from the from the restrictions of the narrow self-cherishing attitude. In the teachings of all the highly evolved men and women of the past, it is clearly stated that this narrow self-cherishing attitude, habit of mind brings us nothing but spiritual suffocation.
If we truly wish to fulfill our highest potential, or even if we only want to achieve a certain mundane satisfaction in our daily life, then we must overcome dedicate ourselves as fully as possible to the welfare of others. This is the only way to achieve a completely opened heart, the only way to experience lasting happiness. Dedication simply means that having created a certain atmosphere of positive energy within yourself, you determine to share this happiness with others as much as possible. According to Buddhist psychology, if you do not have a dedicated attitude to some extent, you will never be totally satisfied. Instead, you will remain bored and lonely.
As the Pänchen Lama says in his tantric text entitled Offering to the Spiritual Master, self-cherishing is the cause of all misery and dissatisfaction while holding all mother sentient beings dearer than oneself is the foundation of all the realizations and knowledge. Therefore, inspire me to change my self-cherishing into concern for others. So, you know, what what we’re talking about is not is not a complex and abstract theory, but a very a very simple statement about our lives, about what is actually happening to ourselves. People are never more miserable when than when they are completely absorbed in their narrow confines of their own problems, and never more fulfilled and alive than when they’re concerned with others. And one, you must validate that statement within your own experience, within your own life.
And we have to find some way of some means to open, if even only slightly, a crack in this wall of self-cherishing in which in which we live within, this cell of self-cherishing in which we exist. And it creates some kind of I some kind of crack of the possibility that maybe there is another possibility. You know, we have to create some beginning of a doubt that perhaps our self centeredness is me first, I’m number one, approach to life that we the way that we normally approach all people, every situation and event in our life is not working, is not giving us what it is that we want, happiness, fulfillment, you know, peace, love, you know, whatever we hold most valuable for ourselves in one way or another, that maybe there really is another way, another more skillful way to relate to the world, relate with people, something which a viable alternative to our present self centered approach. It’s not to mean that we are to give up our homes and our families and that we are to live the life of ascetics and run out, you know. We don’t know what the life what it would be like to be a bodhisattva.
There may be many bodhisattvas amongst us now living what appears to be quite ordinary lives. But we have faith that we were in the process, in the outcome, and willingness to give ourselves over to it without being able to foresee all the details of the outcome. In deeper terms we will find that all the suffering and problems Maybe I think Krishnamurti said, For the intelligent person there are no alternatives. I’m not quite sure what he meant by that. But maybe if one listens carefully in the light of one’s own wisdom and experience, then it becomes clear.
And at least we have to try. Whether we succeed or not is perhaps another matter, but we must try to live according to You know, we either have to deny our own truth or we have to make the effort. In deeper terms, we will find that all the suffering and problems and anxieties of not finding what we seek, of being separated from our loved ones, of physical illness, of suffering from lack of contentment, quarrels, and so forth come about because of our underlying attachment to the self and the self-cherishing attitude that tries to protect such a self within ourselves. The more selfish a person is, the more suffering and anxiety, yet we never recognize the truth that these are all the doings of the self-cherishing attitude. And that we’re always putting the blame outside on someone or something else other than ourselves, other than our own self-cherishing attitude, our own exaggerated self concern, our own self centeredness.
You know, to jump ahead just a moment, when we come to this this is the training. These are the prerequisites for the eventual meditation on taking and giving. And what are we gonna take? We’re gonna take upon ourselves the suffering of others, but not on ourselves. Where are we going to place that suffering of others?
Where it belongs, upon our own self centeredness. And this that one habitual tendency of our mind which has caused so many problems, so many heartaches, so much suffering over the course of our lives, we’re going to take all of that suffering of all living beings and place it where it belongs, upon our own self centeredness. But we don’t recognize that. We place all the blame on people outside of ourselves and some insufficiency, on some lack on some event or situation or lack of material thing or other. We all try to, you know, all of us in one way, in talking about self centeredness, try to take advantage of someone else.
We all, you know, we’re talking about ourselves, and that’s some people out there, people in this room, and myself included. And we all try to take advantage of someone else, to profit only for ourselves. Almost the entire world is built upon self centeredness, self attachment, and racism, classism, sexism. Know, big countries overwhelm small countries. Husbands take advantage of wives.
Big children take advantage of little children. We make friends with someone because he or she can benefit us in some way. It’s the same with the rest of the world, partners and husbands and wives and boyfriends and girlfriends. Everybody has got their hidden or maybe not so hidden agenda that they’re running one way or another. Everybody is using everybody else.
But but how many people stop and ask themselves, is this approach actually working for me? Is this way of relating with others actually delivering the goods of what I want in my life, happiness in some form or another? Is it making me happy? And it’s sitting inside, all the all the philosophical theories, all the abstract intellectual ideas that we could possibly elaborate on, all the dogmas and religious doctrines, To see whether or not our self centeredness is the cause of all our confusion, all our conflicts and frustration, all we have to do is look into our own personal experiences in our lives, and this is what we have to do, to look into our own personal experiences in in our own everyday lives. And all our feelings of isolation, feelings of loneliness, the conflict of defensiveness, our our feelings of a sense of competitiveness, of being unable to trust even ourselves, you know, feelings that we cannot be trusted in somehow, feelings of being unloved and unlovable, unable to love, feelings that that we as and every everyone else are just so many objects to be manipulated, to be used like consumer items, you know, devalued.
All stems from our own self centeredness, our own exaggerated self concern in one way or another, and our total preoccupation with ourselves alone. There’s no space for others in our lives. There’s no real love. There’s no real communication. There’s no real touching of anyone else, only a reflection of ourselves and our own needs and our own wants and what it is that we can get out of this other person in one way or another.
You know, just just this painful wound with this huge iron fence around it. Or maybe a black hole sucking everything and everyone into its nothingness. You know, just just just mercilessness and fear and self hatred. Because we have attachment and selfishness, we are always paranoid. You people are not paranoid.
This is Lama Zopa. Paranoid means you are always thinking, maybe she is taking advantage of me. I better be careful. Or maybe he is taking advantage of me. I should be careful.
You understand? You’re always paranoid thinking that society is taking advantage of you. Your boss is taking advantage of you. Your mother is taking advantage of you. Your father is taking advantage of you.
Your girlfriend is taking advantage of you. Your boyfriend is taking advantage of you. Your husband is taking advantage of you, The Tibetan monk is taking advantage of you. You know what I mean? Police are taking advantage of you.
Jesus is taking advantage of you. And people want to have intimacy in their lives. They want to connect with other people. They want communion with others. If they do, then they have to forgo their self centeredness.
There’s no magical way to do it other than that. You know, paranoid, we’re all paranoid, you know, of being taken advantage of because we ourselves take advantage of others. And because we do that, you know, and with this sense of paranoia, all our feelings of tenderness which we all possess, all of our intimacy remains forever locked in deep inside of us And we are isolated, skin encapsulated egos, bumping around, hitting each other, bouncing off each other as we go through our life, bitterly alone, bitterly afraid. And in self centeredness, like twisting a knife in your own heart. It’s the source of all of our difficulties, all of our problems.
And I’m going to finish with this last quote from Lama Zopa. However, the essential thing is, whatever problem arises, to be aware every time immediately that all these problems come from your selfish mind. This problem is given to me by my selfish, self-cherishing thought. Every time, immediately try to recognize this situation. As long as you put all the blame outside, there is no happiness.
In reality, all the problems, all the difficulties of life come from self-cherishing thought. All these problems are the result of negative karmas accumulated in the past out of self-cherishing thought. Being under the control of self-cherishing thought, you allow the disturbing thoughts to arise, then you are motivated by this negative karma. These problems not only come from past karma accumulated under the control of self-cherishing thought, but also your self-cherishing thought in day to day life. Maybe we’re going to continue talking about self the disadvantages of self centeredness, and the advantages of other centeredness.
I think that, you know, the best place to meditate on this is in your everyday life, to be mindful of that fact, and to validate it within your own daily experience. So we’ll dedicate to the creative potential of the Three Jewels and the awakening community. In the land encircled by snow mountains, you are the source of all happiness and well-being. Powerful Chenrezig, Tenzin Gyatso, please remain till 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 the supreme jewel, the awakened heart, that has not arisen, arise and grow, And may that which has arisen never diminish, but increase more and more. Thank you. Have a good week. If you’d like to get a cup of tea, we’ll have a discussion.