Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Joyous effort — exuberance so vivid the bodhisattva wears it as armour even in the deepest hells — opens Ven Jampa Gendun’s 45-minute session on the final three perfections. He distinguishes supra-mundane meditative concentration, which uproots mental disturbances entirely, from ordinary calm that merely suppresses them, then frames wisdom as awareness that penetrates appearance to grasp emptiness. The sharpest passage challenges deferring compassionate action until enlightenment, countering with the maxim “Buddha is as Buddha does.” He walks the seven cause-and-effect instructions for developing bodhicitta through to exceptional resolve — personally accepting sole responsibility for freeing all beings — and grounds karmic affinity as each practitioner’s unique sphere of influence. A Jātaka story of Śākyamūni offering his body to a starving tigress brings the session to a close. For practitioners familiar with Lamrim.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 20 HMA 1997 06 25.mp3
UUID: bc580e89-cd32-47af-a341-23db333e9a72
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening 1996-1997 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1997-06-25
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.4 minutes
Words: ~6,240
Toward positive goals and importantly, to delight in doing so. That’s, I think, you know, that’s the big one. That’s the key. To actually it makes you happy what you’re doing. The practice of effort consists in learning to persevere and extend ourselves in doing what is skillful and to enjoy doing it as well.
So there’s no hardship in that sense. The ideal behind effort, sometimes it’s translated as perseverance. Tried often it’s translated as joyous effort. But maybe the word joy isn’t there, but it’s meant, it’s intended. It’s something more than just pushing, forcing.
It’s not an ascetic, it’s not meant to connote an asceticism, but it is an exuberance. When there’s joy, there’s energy available. So it’s this eagerness of joy as effort that overcomes our indolence. And by indolence, I mean our laziness, procrastination. If you enjoy doing something, you’re not going to be lazy about it.
Our usual habit of losing ourselves in distractions and our self defeating sense of insufficiency, I can’t do this. And if you enjoy it, it doesn’t matter whether you can do it or not. You’re going do it anyway. You don’t even stop there because you enjoy it. People enjoy doing what they enjoy.
You know, for the bodhisattva, it’s it’s this delight. The bodhisattva is a very happy person. I don’t know if you ever noticed that our teachers are very happy people. I wonder why. Anyway, bodhisattvas, they they they they there is this delight associated with their effort.
And it’s it’s like this this this joy that comes like a protective armor with their which they can wear and go into the deepest hells. I know it sounds crazy. It sounds far fetched. You know? You know?
A Steven Spielberg production of some sort. You know, lost world going into the deepest hells. It’s like a boss. You know? But it’s that joy, you know, that they’re willing to do that because they find joy in that fulfillment by working with that even that difficult of a situation.
The the it’s the it’s the it’s the this joyous effort which is the the enthusiastic perseverance which which by which the Bodhisattva applies themselves to their practice. You know, it’s like the exuberance which which lies behind their continuously working with people. They don’t give up on anybody. You know, they’re willing to stick. They have the attitude.
And, again, it’s unimaginable. But for this one person, you know, I’m willing to work lifetimes just to get this one person a little bit further along the path. And it’s that joyous effort that supplies energy necessary to to sustain them in through through that. And that is exuberance working with people’s neuroses. And then fifthly, meditative stabilization.
Meditative concentration maybe. Meditative concentration. This is included within what is called the meditative states called calm abiding Samatha. So calm abiding. Abide it has two words.
Calm abiding. Abiding. Abiding of the mind upon an internally skillful object. Abiding of the mind upon an internally skillful object. Having calmed the mind from running to external object.
Like, the the mind has been pacified. It no longer is like, you know, like this little bird that’s constantly fluttering from limb to limb to limb. It it’s been calmed. It’s been pacified. It no longer runs to external objects.
But in on the contrary, it abides quite peacefully upon an internal object. So the mind the mind is effortlessly able to remain focused upon whatever object it has been placed for as long as desired. And it’s accompanied by mental and physical bliss. Sounds pretty good. So, but, you know, it sounds good to us because it’s for us it would be a matter of escapism more than not, probably.
But anyway, but it’s not for the Bodhisattva in terms of of his practice of meditative concentration, this perfection. He cultivates or she cultivates supra, what is called a supra mundane concentration. Supra mundane, Super mundane. As opposed to what did I say? Yeah, that’s right.
Super mundane. As opposed to your everyday mundane concentration, which you see on television advertised quite often, as opposed to mundane concentrations. Mundane concentration merely, you know, that’s at best we kind of approach that, don’t we? They suppress the disturbing factor temporarily. They suppress the disturbing factors of the mind.
We get a little we get a little comfort zone going. We find a nice little soft spot. It’s nice, cozy feeling there. Momentarily the disturbing factors of the mind have been pacified. That’s a mundane concentration.
Whereas super mundane concentration actually makes use of antidotes which remove the disturbing factors from the mind. It just doesn’t, you know, lull them to sleep momentarily. It actually is trying to dig them out and remove them from the mind completely. So that’s what the difference between a super mundane and mundane concentration. For the Bodhisattva, so the point is, for the Bodhisattva, meditative concentration is not an end in itself.
You know, it’s some kind of, as it is from probably not for myself or most of us perhaps, a blissful form of escapism from the problems of the world. You know, maybe necessary for sure. It’s not to put it down and say there’s a negative or anything wrong with it. But for Bodhisattva, the meditative concentration, their practice of meditation is an indispensable tool of the mind necessary for them to develop penetrating insights of wisdom. Why?
Because they need that wisdom in order to get back in the world and be able to work most effectively. So they’re sitting on their cushion for the benefit of others. In other words, their meditative concentration, their practice of meditation is so that they can be of greater benefit when they get up off their cushion. Not in itself. And then finally, the sixth of these six perfections.
And you know we’re going to go into this in great detail. Come to the third principal aspect of the path, the awakened mind. But just for now, you know, we’re talking about wisdom, sometimes called discriminating awareness. Yeah, other possible translations perhaps. In general, you know, there are various types of wisdom.
Know, it’s simply, it’s a faculty of mind that allows a probing into the deeper nature of the things. A discriminating awareness that goes beneath the superficial, the surface of appearance, and tries to see what’s behind that appearance, Look at things in a deeper manner. That’s that faculty of mind, a particular function of our mind we call wisdom. So there are various types of wisdom. There’s a wisdom that knows conventionalities, for example.
By conventionalities I mean the various what what in Tibetan Buddhism they call the five sciences. The like for example, medicine, art, logic, linguistics, and philosophy. These are just conventional knowledges. These are a type of wisdom. But then there’s a wisdom which understands what it is that brings about happiness, what it is that brings about suffering.
You know, that kind of discriminative awareness. What is to be avoided in order to to eliminate suffering? What is to be practiced in order to achieve happiness? So being able to develop that analytic faculty of mind whereby you you develop some discrimination in how to conduct your life in in in the terms of what outcomes that you want for yourself. That’s a wisdom.
But here we’re talking about a third type of wisdom that realizes the ultimate, the awakened mind. The ultimate being that phenomena are empty of inherent existence. So just to kind of sum this up and get back on the track here, back on this path. You know, is the first five.
There are different ways of organizing or categorizing in terms of what I’m about to say. But we can say very simply that it is the first five of these six perfections, the practice of these first five of these six perfections which are said to be method, which act mainly primarily to bring about the form body, to actualize the form body. That is to say, to actualize that potential of ourselves in terms of the social dimension of our being. It is the sixth perfection, the perfection of wisdom, which primarily brings about the accumulation, the collection of wisdom. Okay?
And this was the means, you know, that step in our journey which brings about the actualization of the experiential dimension of our being. We find peace. So, it’s these two together, you know, the accumulation of creative potential and the accumulation of creative, of the collection of wisdom, which is how a Bodhisattva actually does their work, how they actually get to where they want to go. And they do this in practice by means of implementing the six perfections. Generosity, ethics, tolerance, effort, meditative concentration, and wisdom.
So it’s these two together. It’s said that method without wisdom and wisdom without method are both lacking. The altruists say, sincerely wanting to help is not enough. We need some wisdom. We need some abilities to actually do it. On the other hand, having abilities not having the wish to help is not enough.
We have to have both. We need a compassionate heart and a wise mind to bring about the greatest possible benefit to ourselves and to others. And so all of our practices are in some way dedicated to that to that very end. That’s that’s where we’re all headed in terms of the Buddhist spiritual journey. So in this this end that we’re all traveling to, that we’re all working toward, the the inner focus of our life is that Buddha in terms of the experiential dimension of our being, in terms of the social dimension of our being, in terms of this happy, healthy, loving, sane human being, however, whatever image, however you want to picture it, it becomes a central focus of our life in terms of what we do and how how we conduct ourselves, you know, our values and our priorities.
And we actually have to do something. We implement these practices. We implement the six perfections. We practice the three principal aspects of the path, mind training, all these various methods which we call the Dharma. Somehow we want to actualize the truth in our lives.
And this all occurs within this social context of a spiritual community. Those who assist us. We don’t act alone. It’s not a solitary feat. It’s a social phenomenon, mental health.
And so we rely upon others and we we give help and receive help from others in this process. Without it, we wouldn’t be anywhere. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel nor do we have to build it from scratch. We can we can there are lots of craftspeople around and we can help them and they can help us. And we try to raise the level of our motivation, you know, why behind it all.
Such that, you know, what we do doesn’t become just another part of the problem. That what we do becomes a solution to the problem. That it becomes the problem being self centeredness and our own exaggerated self concern. That we try to raise the level of our motivation, the why behind our practice. That, you know, so it’s at least going to be concerned with the benefiting of one other person.
And if we can do one, we can go for two. And maybe in a few weeks we can go for three. Sincere, genuine fashion. And somewhere down the line, four or five. Who knows?
But we we have to begin. There’s no substitute for that. To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the supreme community, I go for refuge until awakening. To 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 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 a Buddha for the sake of all living beings. Reverently, I pay homage with my body, speech, mind and present clouds of every type of offering,, those actual and imagined. I disclose all my destructive acts accumulated since time without beginning and rejoice in the skillful actions of holy and ordinary beings.
Please remain until cyclic existence is ended and turn the wheel of dharma for living beings. I dedicate the skillful actions of myself and others to the great awakening. Would you like to stand up? Working with these, you know, accustoming our mind to the cultivation of love and compassion and developing that as our motivation. You know, working we’ve worked through a complete spectrum of individuals.
Now we can begin to group them together. So, you know, choosing someone that you are very close to, that you love, and someone that is not so close, someone who’s not in a primary circle of relationships, but you have a liking for some some some relationship and but it’s not a very intimate relationship. So working with those two people and it just can you just have any sense that those two types of people are in front of you? And if you can actually see them, that’s that’s all the better. But it’s more the feeling behind it that that we’re concerned with.
And seeing if we can genuinely develop in if if only in some small way, you know, begin to open ourselves to those feelings that are of these qualities, levels of love and compassion for them. There’s nothing that doesn’t become easier upon acquaintance. You know, this is fundamental. Know, this was emphasized again and again that the mind has one wonderful quality, nothing else. That it that it is changeable and whatever we whatever we expose it to, it will begin to adapt itself in that way.
So there’s no reason why we can’t develop in this way. There’s every reason that we can. So we just begin and do it if it’s if that’s kind of the end that we’d like to head toward. Then we’ll practice the nine round breathing meditation meditation and then we’ll we’ll just we’ll just do mindfulness of breathing for a while. Okay?
I’m sorry. We we haven’t done other types of meditation for some time. So you take a a firm, comfortable posture. So we’re going to look at the six causes within the seven cause and effect instruction. There are two methods that we can make use of in the development of the awakened heart.
Equalizing and exchanging self for others, and the seven cause and effect instructions. On the basis of equanimity as the foundation, going on to recognize all living beings as our mother, developing a sense of connectedness, a profound bond with all living beings. And that is a a positive bond, a positive connection in terms of by remembering the great kindness that they’ve shown us and developing a gratitude which wishes to repay that kindness, going on to develop a sense of appealing love, where others look very appealing to ourselves, look very appealing to ourselves. It it endearment. Like, you wanna give them a cuddle or something.
And I I just love to anyway, anyway. Going on develop great compassion. So this is like we develop a sense of connected with them, then we begin to add on to that in a very tremendously positive fashion. And then but, you know, we it there there there’s an active element in in all of this. It’s one thing to love, wish someone happiness, have compassion, to wish them not to suffer.
But then say, well, then it’s another to say, take that as a as a springboard and go on to think, well, in order to actualize that attitude in some reality, I have to do this to do that. If I don’t want them to suffer, then I have to develop the skills whereby to eliminate their suffering. If I want them to happen want them to achieve happiness, I have to be able to to have the means to help them to achieve happiness. So there’s there’s a focus on actually bringing about what is a supremely virtuous, a positive state into some kind of into the realm of actuality. And we do this by developing an an intense resolve.
We’ve come to some kind of conclusion about what it is that we want. And it it there’s some kind of a quantum leap in our attitude. In in intense resolve, sometimes called exceptional resolve. Anyway, it’s kind of my translation for the term. Coming to some kind of real powerful conclusion.
You know, I think we’ve talked about fundamentally about growth, enlarging of enlarging and expanding of horizons, You know, a growth of our boundaries outwardly. And additionally, and and inwardly in perspective, in a in a depth. Outwardly in terms of expanding and enlarging our horizons, but inwardly in terms of our the depths of our understanding and our feelings. So in a in a social dimension and the experiential dimension. So in in initially in the development of compassion, compassion is directed only toward those we like that we have.
You know, some kind of a natural inclination for, that we care about for some reason or another that we have, you know, begin simply with a friendly thought. You know, it’d be wonderful if you didn’t have any problems. You know? As we do, we we cultivate that again and again if you were if you were free of suffering. And then we begin to expand the horizons outward.
Begin to cultivate that same attitude toward a greater and greater number of people, toward those we are aren’t so intimate with, but we have a liking for towards strangers. All the various spectrum that that we’ve been working with. And but then we we having done that, we also extend our we extend inwardly in-depth. The the the inward limits rise. We strengthen the the intensity of our compassion, you know, cultivating a sincere wish.
May you not suffer. May you be free of suffering. There’s a little more You’ve taken a very much stronger position as regards the the quality of this person’s experience. The other wishing a person to be happy. You know, it’s it’s a genuine it’s a genuine friendliness about that.
But may you there’s something about becoming involved in this person’s life. Perhaps, make that’s just some kind of it’s affecting you. It’s simply not you’re no longer quite an observer. You could be a path almost pass it. But but you’re going to it makes a difference what happens to this person.
There’s a real growing concern. So there’s an inward strengthening in terms of our compassion. But, you know, awakening to our hearts to others, you know, in the development of love and compassion is is not is not just the development of love and compassion. That’s you know, we talk about awaken the awakened heart. And generally we say love and compassion, but it’s not just that.
That’s the springboard. That’s the platform for which we’re going to work from. We have to think that I can do something, that I can actually take some kind of responsibility to to actualize what it is that I want. So it goes so it goes beyond love and compassion. Now we dedicate ourselves to lead them out of suffering, to help them to find happiness.
So this and this begins to apply to all sentient beings. So it’s universal in scope. It’s, you know, all sentient beings, all suffering. So this is in terms of great compassion. You know, I will free I will free you from suffering.
And having this this attitude of mind extended to indiscriminately to all sentient beings. When when the said attitude is such that we individually accept sole responsibility to actualize this dedicated attitude, in fact, then we have achieved the first part of what the of the sixth cause. We have achieved the first part of intense resolve. You know, to to go beyond the strong wish and the strong position of may you be free of suffering. But I am going to do it, and moreover, I’m going to take sole responsibility.
That’s the beginning of exceptional resolve. You know, and we have to, you know, this is a, how many of us, for example, have, you know, you’ve been driving in a car along a highway and maybe you see someone broken down along the highway, or you see an injured animal along the highway. And and you like, maybe semi consciously. This semi conscious thought arises. You know, there’s a lot of people on this road, you know, driving back and forth.
Somebody is is bound to stop and help them out. And we just keep on driving. You know, we are concerned. We do care. But we there is somebody else who we leave it up to in one way or another.
We rationalize it in those kinds of terms. And we have to question in in the context of this meditative tradition. We have to question ourselves, if we do not help our own mother, who will? You know, this is your mother who’s broken down. Your mother who’s just lying there, who’s just been hit by a car or whatever.
How can we, as sons or daughters, reasonably, in in good conscience, expect others to help when we ourselves don’t help, if we don’t? There’s no kind of you’ll define vague somebody out there. There’s no kind of somebody else to whom we can abdicate our responsibility. You know, it’s up to each of us personally if it’s ever to be done. That kind of notion.
This is about there’s a value you can actually take. You know, there’s a very there’s a system that system of ethics that you can that you can work with formally taking certain vows. Amongst them are what are called the Bodhisattva vows. And this paragraph which I’m about to read is concerned with having taken those Bodhisattva vows. It is a real commitment based on the realization of the suffering and confusion of ourselves and others.
The only way to break reaction of confusion and pain and to work our way outward into the awakened state of mind is to take responsibility ourselves. If we do not deal with this situation of confusion, if we do not do something about it ourselves, nothing will ever happen. We cannot count on others to do it for us. It is our responsibility, and we have the tremendous power to change the course of the world’s karma. You know, it’s it’s a difficult notion, I think.
It’s a very powerful notion, and it’s a very empowering notion. You know? But we we come back with, oh, what can I do? I can’t even free myself from suffering. I can’t, let alone all sentient beings.
How can I free anybody? Yeah. If I really tried to help others, it it it would be more like the blind leading the blind, wouldn’t it? Yeah. When I really get it together, yeah, then maybe I can do something, some real way for others.
It is false view that the will to enlightenment will this is will to enlightenment is another translation for the awakened heart. Okay? The will to enlightenment, the awakened heart, the spirit of enlightenment that is love and compassion, is not genuine before enlightenment and hence to be postponed until some presumed threshold is achieved. The correct view is that love is valid and essential at any point in the path.
One cannot therefore excuse one self from the responsibility of compassionate acts on the ground that one had better wait until after enlightenment. And so remain self involved in that ultimate self interest of gaining individual enlightenment. One is enlightened when one acts enlightened, that is for the sake of others. Whatever one’s cognitive state may be, Buddha is as Buddha does. And then go on quoting from Namgyal Rinpoche..
Pictures on the mantle here. The fact is, while we are cultivating love and compassion, wisdom, and all the other insights that lead to enlightenment, we can be helping others continuously. First of all, merely by living a simple life with a heart dedicated to overcoming self-cherishing, we automatically benefit others. And secondly, each stage of the spiritual path from the first to the last has its own power and ability. Depending on which level we have reached, we can help others to that same extent.
To be realistic, we should help others to the limit of our present capacity. The thought that we cannot do anything until we are enlightened is the fact is in fact egotistic and ignorant and reflects the basic misunderstanding of what spiritual training is all about. This understanding is related to the attitude we have had throughout our lives. At school for instance we thought I must study these boring subjects now so that eventually I can pass my examination, receive my degree, get a job, make a lot of money, and then I will be happy. All this emphasis on the future, when I have enough money, when I have my own home, when I’m retired, is easily transferred into our spiritual practice.
When I have finished practicing, when I am enlightened, but to think in that way is quite deluded. This dream fantasy of unreal future makes our present actions unrealistic as well. It is important to understand that true practice is something we do from moment to moment, from day to day. We do whatever we can, whatever with whatever wisdom we have, and dedicate it all to the benefit of others. We just live our lives simply to the best of our ability.
This is in itself will be of enormous benefit to others. We don’t need to wait until we are Buddhist before we can begin to act. So whoever we are, we can assume responsibility for others. It is just that the level of that responsibility will accord with our ability to respond. Still we choose to respond.
The important in operational terms is beginning to choose to respond. This this is choosing to respond to others, to their needs, to even to our own needs, is taking responsibility. As I mentioned previously, the word responsibility and respond have the same root. You know, it’s not a burden that we’re taking on ourselves, that’s thrust upon ourselves. That we’re this choice to respond, the taking of responsibility.
Whenever we think of ourselves as doing something for someone else, we are in some way denying our own responsibility that you chosen for for one reason or another to do but what you are doing as, you know, just abdicating your own, giving away your own power. Whatever we do is done because we choose to do it, and we make that choice because it it is the one that satisfies us the most. Whatever we do for someone else, do because it fulfills a need we have. So, you know, responsibility is not a duty imposed upon us from from the outside. It’s it’s a response to request which we feel is my concern.
This person is my concern. This person and there’s whether articulated, whether apparent, there is a need from their side. And that person, I I need I choose to respond. That is the taking of responsibility. And moreover, you know, okay, then we can say, well, why should you know, in cultivating this this intense resolve, we’re trying to come to a sense of sole responsibility.
You know, that’s it’s frightening. You know, we want to form committees, if not somebody else out there, at least to form a committee. Know, the sole responsibility to free all to free all sentient beings from suffering. You know, why should I take sole responsibility if there are infinite Buddhists out there, you know, working overtime to free all sentient. What’s the use of me?
Taking sole responsibility. Know, each of us has some unique sphere of influence, some kind of karmic affinity with others. You know, we all know this and we experience this in the course of our lives. You know, with one particular person, a simple smile or a frown, just a few words, can have a tremendous impact, a major effect, for better or worse, with other people no matter what we might do. We can spend a great deal of energy, spend a great deal of time with them, make use of, you know, give resources, whatever.
And it doesn’t affect them at all or much at all. So our relationships and our potential to influence others is the outcome of discernible variables, according to the law of cause and effect, or let us say in terms of our karma, our karmic relationships, our our karmic connection with other people. You know, for example, Śākyamūni Buddha, the historical Buddha, he is referred to as the fourth Buddha or universal teacher of this particular age or eon, whatever. And there will be a thousand of these universal teachers. That but and what we mean by this is not that there aren’t infinite Buddhas, but there have been very amongst these infinite Buddhas, there have been individuals who, while they were journeying the spiritual path, cultivated such an extremely vast numbers of relationships with others that once upon achieving Buddhahood, they had the karmic affinity and potential to be a positive benefit to almost a universe of peoples.
This is why when we cultivate love and compassion as we do, should try to do so with regard, with respect to as many individual people as possible. You know, particular individuals, not with a vague, you know, to whom it may concern, vague kind of blurred masses, all sentient beings. You know, if if we if we if we cultivate, if we meditate in this way, not only are we growing in love and compassion, but also we’re creating affinities, connections with all of these vast numbers of people. And we will be able to be of positive benefit to we will be able to influence them in a very genuine and powerful manner through having developed these connections with you know, we will be able to benefit benefit them in the future. You know, each of us has each of us relates with individuals who at various times give us who at very, you know, at given times we can significantly influence them.
You know, this influence that we have on others at a particular time is more significant than perhaps the influence of highly realized beings. And then the point I’m getting to I’m getting at, you know, are highly realized beings. We have our teachers, for example. But you as a in your terms of the context of your relationship, your karmic affinities can have a can have a greater and a greater positive effect than even these highly realized beings in helping them along the path and helping them to solve their problems. Our potential to work with others and to help others does not exist only from our own side.
It does not depend exclusively on our own abilities. There has to be a connection. You know? It’s just like this this this wish granting tree of the Buddha’s. The Buddha is there.
The fruit is there ready to be plucked. They would but we have to have a connection with that particular tree. We have to actually do something from our side and do the picking and eat the fruit. And there has to it’s a meeting of minds. There’s a connection that has to be made.
It is not as if the Buddhist could overpower our minds and force us to become enlightened against our will. It’s something of that nature. It does that’s not a possibility. It’s due to the nature of our relationship, the way in which we interact that something can take place, some kind of communication, some kind of space, and some kind of change can occur. You know, to even think that we could help somebody could be deceptive in that way.
You know, a bodhisattva tries to understand himself or herself as best they can, their own reality. And they open themselves as best they can to other sentient beings, and they remain open as best they can. And within this openness communication takes place And some some sharing, some kind of inspiration, some kind of insight may occur. This is this impartial generosity. You are as a person is beneficial.
Just that. And we all we all have some insights. We all have some understanding, some love, some compassion. And we can help a limited number of people at limited times in limited ways as if we were a Buddha. A Buddha is as Buddha does.
We aren’t a Buddha by any means. The Buddha is as Buddha does. But the aim the aim of the Bodhisattva is to be able to help unlimited people at at unlimited times in unlimited ways. Right now, we’re limited. But that shouldn’t limit us in what we try to do.
We’re trying to expand, you know, push the boundaries of the envelope more and more, but within the context of who we are at present, we can do something in a very enlightened fashion. One of, you know, one of the and this also gets in terms of our own attitudes and qualities of our own life. You know, one of the one of the of the themes one of the themes of dissatisfaction within our life is that we never really dedicate ourselves to anything. Our lives are lived in a very fragmented fashion. We never really commit.
Everything we do, we do only in a partial way. We’re kind of like dilettantes in some way. You know, shopping in the supermarket of growth practices, of flitting around like a butterfly from possibilities from one to another. You know, it’s like one attraction one attractive diversion to another in some fashion. There’s there’s always a holding back.
Some never the experience of giving ourselves over totally. There’s never a real commitment. So it is the dedicated attitude of the awakened heart which has the power to completely transform ourselves, which which has the power to to turn ourselves from ordinary people into extraordinary people. It is just that. That commitment has that power that it can turn, you know, the the and quite often in in the Tibetan Buddhism, they use the the imagery of the alchemical elixir, which is able to transform iron into gold.
It is the awakened heart which is able to transform the iron of our mind into the gold of a bodhisattva’s mind. But we want but more than that, we want to possess compassion. You know, we want to keep the awakened heart in our in our pocket. You know, we want to be able to take it out from time to time when the occasion befits, you know, when it’s convenient for ourselves. Know, take it out kind of on special occasions.
And we never grow. You know, we never have to press the envelope. There’s a and there’s a birth stories of the Buddha. The birth stories of the Buddha are in what are called the Jātaka tales. You know, he too, we’re talking about the historical Buddha, the Śākyamūni Buddha, was a practitioner just like ourselves.
And he went he developed an awakened heart. And as a bodhisattva, he traveled the path and over the course of lifetimes. These life stories have been set down in what are called the birth stories of the Buddha or the Jātaka tale. I think whether they’re true or not is perhaps not the point. I’m talking about this.
To the modern man, such as in the birth stories of the Buddha so there’s one particular birth birth story of the Buddha, which is this quotation is going to talk about. It’s recorded that Śākyamūni Buddha, when he was this Bodhisattva, he sacrificed his body for the sake of a tigress. There was a tigress and her cubs, and the tigress was starving and was just just about to die. And he cut his body and laid down next to the tigress to allow the tigress to feed upon him. To the modern man, such a story may appear unreasonable and exaggerated because he judges from a purely intellectual, that is external, point of view, according to which the sacrifice appears to be out of proportion to its cause.
The preservation or rather prolongation of the life of some wild beast does not seem to be worth the sacrifice of a human life. The Buddhist, however,