Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A verse from Śāntideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life — voiced from the perspective of someone we look down on — anchors this 46-minute talk by Ven Jampa Gendun. The fourth in a five-part series on equalizing and exchanging self with others, the session opens by asking what actually drives spiritual change: the push of being sick and tired of samsaric dissatisfaction, and the pull of faith in the Three Jewels. Gendun notes that “Dharma” and “therapy” share an etymological root, then leads a guided meditation gradually extending friendliness from a loved one to someone you would cross the street to avoid. He introduces Śāntideva’s three-category exchange framework — superior, equal, inferior — reading the actual dialogue aloud and using an I/you transposition to show how imaginatively inhabiting another’s perspective begins to dismantle arrogance and open compassion.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 21 HMA 1997 03 26.mp3
UUID: 8eaea1c9-f393-4e07-92d6-79143f64b3f6
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening 1996-1997 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1997-03-26
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.8 minutes
Words: ~3,633
And that’s the you know, we of ourselves. It’s something that we must uniquely experience come from that. Toward that in our daily life and and how we spend our our life and our life energies in the direction that we set for our life. You know, we can we can live a life and at the end of the our back bed, looked back and it would be terribly sad to simply have have a sense of regret. The way that we thought it should have been lived or thought it should have, lived out. These answers are your fault..
I don’t think. You know, we are indoctrinated. We are conditioned in our various ways. And so as you can see it, there’s a tremendous what Buddhism is about. Of course, a change for the better.
Ourselves, our relationship, in a way that our system forms in some manner or other. There are two causes. Something more than just reason. Something more than intellect. We’re bringing about this transformation.
The why behind it isn’t. And these are, on the one hand, aversion. You get sick and tired of being sick and tired. More than trying harder, perhaps we’d have to begin to try different methods and begin to explore other avenues, other. And the other the motivation.
That’s about change. Why the change? But I think it has to be two fold in this dynamic. Yeah. It’s something that’s pulling. So having faith in something over and above what it is that we have at present in the message and that the way that we can implement this method in our daily life, some kind of confidence conviction that there is something better than what I’ve experienced up to now.
So these are going to be the, you know, we’re to change. Systematically change. Overcome This is this and the legitimate difficulties with traveling a spiritual path inevitably involves loss in one way or another. Change is typical. It always will be.
It always has been. It’s always difficult.. So we need something which pushes us and we need something which draws us along. And that what draws us along is our faith and in terms of the Buddhist context, the faith in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha community. And, you know, we talked about that’s what we talked about Buddha and what we mean by that. You know, the the historical, Buddha, a historic Buddha, as the source of refuge.
Looked upon with great tremendous gratitude. Experienced the same path that we too are seeking to traverse. Buddha that can be of utmost benefit in all the various situations and all the difficulties and all the various ways that we need solutions to our problems in the course of our everyday life. It is all the Buddha within ourselves who we can truly rely upon in all situations of our time and our lives. So it is that good if we are to have some kind of conviction in ourselves as we have to have faith as the solution to our fundamental problem.
So we have to think about it little bit more. You know, the the word for path in the Pali tradition or the Pali language is patipada. And patipada simply means. In other words, we have to have to do something. You know, we have to actually take a step.
How this simple complex it has to be. It has to be our Dharma. You know, it it has to have the power to move our mind. We can’t take someone else’s path and make them our own. We have to, in a way, rediscover for ourselves.
I don’t think that the Buddha discovers for himself, you know, the infinite Buddhas of the past discovered for themselves. And I think there’s a saying, you know, at one time, one blade of grass is as effective as a sixteen foot golden statue of Buddha. At another time, a sixteen foot golden statue of Buddha is as as effective as a single blade of grass. Now that is done is what works for us. What what is a in our mind for the better.
You know, Other possibilities of who we might be other versions of ourselves. That something which acts as an antidote to the dysfunctional patterns of our life, know, thinking, our behavior. Something which is able to help us to bring meaning and meaning, connecting. And whatever is able to solve transform. So what the dharma comes to mean, looking at its etymology or looking to the meaning of where it comes from in the language is that which holds or supports.
Remember that it’s the truth that is going to make you free, but the truth is therapeutic. So the the therapy of of Buddha is his Dharma. You know, it’s interesting the word therapy comes from a Greek word which is related to the word for servant. And that is related to the word
And and related to the word Dharma. The Dharma? It is as if Buddhist therapy. And there’s only one therapy that’s able to be able to remove the fundamental causes of our problem.
The The integrity of our character and the relationship of our everyday life. Yep. Our self-esteem, embodiment of truth. I’m kind of watching my time for a change. Manage my time.
We have to develop the concepts and the methods that we’re working with. We actually have work with them. We have to try. It becomes a way that we can solve our problem. So the focus of our inner life becomes Buddha.
This possibility, this the purpose behind it, a growing part of our action, a motivation behind it, a growing, growing part of what we do. It’s directed towards ourselves. This happy, healthy, We have to implement the practices, the means by which to actualize this Buddha. Become this person that we want to become somewhere down the line. And so we we we go for refuge in the Dharma, the methods, the techniques, the training, the truth of them.
We this whole experience is occurring within the social context of the spiritual community. Those who assist us in implementing the Dharma in our lives. And again and again and again trying to raise motivation why we’re doing what we’re doing, why we’re involved in this path. And then the the the purpose behind it all becomes more and more involved in growing concern for others as we begin to recognize more and more that others are just like ourselves that they too are confused and fact, they’re just like myself experiencing a predominance of some type of suffering in some way over the course of their life in terms of feelings of disappointment or dissatisfaction or frustrations or whatever. And therefore, you know, developing a sense of a social purpose behind our practice.
That it’s not just, not something more than what is going to reinforce a lot of our dysfunctional thinking up to this time. You know, having done everything, having struggled only for ourselves alone up to this point, you know, we have to even in the why that we do what we do perhaps begin to experiment with other possibilities. So the reason behind what we do, slowly we can begin to work with that and begin to include it in everyone who’s so called others for the purpose behind our growth and ultimately becoming this healthy, loving, sane human being. That we can do it not only for our own sake but for an ever widening circle of others. So this can be an orientation.
We can check, we can see it perhaps within our own experience that this way of thinking and this way of behaving actually helps lessen our problems, helps us to find more of what it is that we want in our lives. And you’re checking up with, as was mentioned at the very beginning, to see if it actually works. To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha community, I go for refuge until awakening. To the creative potential of my listening to the Dharma, may I achieve the state of the Buddha for the sake of all living beings. Through the Buddha, the Dharma, and the supreme community, I go for refuge until awakening.
Through the creative potential of my listening to the Dharma, may I achieve the state of the Buddha for the sake of all living beings. To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha 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. I 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. So beginning with our posture and then the nine-round breathing meditation and then development of, again, in terms of our motivation, cultivating compassion and love, and taking it as the object towards whom we’re going to develop compassion and love. Someone that you love a great deal and very close.
Next to them And then we’re gonna add a fifth person to your right. Someone you don’t like, but not heavy duty. Somebody you’re having some problems with, difficulties, you’d rather, if you saw him coming down the street, you’d kind of walk around the other side of the street if they didn’t see you first, something like that. You’d rather not deal with them and not relate with them for one reason or another. Anyway, the person’s there also.
The whole gang is there. Not quite, but there’s a vacant spot, but maybe we’ll So know trying to work with a variety, a spectrum of possible ways relating with these categories of people and seeing if we can develop some real, you know, change in every it’s like we can begin to associate maybe in some small way the good feeling we might feel quite naturally arises towards this loving person over here. Know, can we can we kinda let that drift down just real a little bit? And just by association, just by sitting next and the atmosphere, maybe it’ll change a little bit. And we can we perhaps we can really develop some sincere friendliness even for can this person sitting down at the end.
Anyway, this is keeping, you know, just kind of keeping their just having a general feeling about these people. So relating with a number, it’s just but it’s not an indistinct mass. Know, they all living beings are free or suffering, may they have happiness. I just can’t stand people —. You know, there’s some kind of an indistinct abstract something out there that they call humanity.
They have this kind of warm feeling for it. But when it comes to actual people, examples of that humanity, they don’t they don’t identify them as being as part of that. There’s something other than the humanity which they feel good about. So trying to gain a sense of a greater a growing number of people but not but always keeping a connection between this greater mass of people who we’re trying to develop these feelings of love and compassion for. But but never divorcing it from actual particular people and various categories of people.
So it just doesn’t become something abstract and something which has no relevance to our daily life. So we’re beginning with actual real living people that we’re beginning to we perhaps develop a generalization out of them and we we can begin to develop a just a more a healthier way of relating in general with with all of these people. Then we’ll, we talked last week about, then we’ll do mindfulness of breathing, then we explained last week the practice of actual exchange of self with others. And by, you know, especially we’re going to imagine different individuals in front of ourselves. The a great deal of path has to has to do with working with our imagination.
We’re making use of our imagination. You know, our world begins to a large extent with our imagination, the images and ideas within our own mind, and the beliefs which are formed out of these images and ideas. So, you know, we’re going to work with different individuals and we’re going to, as best we can, as we talked about last week, tried to set aside our own agendas, own issues and as best we can put ourselves in their place and see the world out of that person’s eyes. Try to feel their feelings, think their thoughts. How would it be to be them as best as we can?
This process of what is called vicarious introspection which is I guess. How you know, extrapolate We can do that. Emphasis in other words. So we’re going to work with different individuals. And then having put ourselves at work in their place, then we’re going to look back at our former self before you put yourself in their place.
And we’re going to see what we might see if we were in their place and looking back at our former self. And we’ll express what it is that we feel, what it is that we think to our former self. I think that’s a lot. So let’s take a in your shoulders, your your neck, upper back? Constantly relaxing, softening, letting go The fourth in the series of five meditation teachings in the tradition of equalizing and exchanging self with others.
We’re looking at the actual exchange of self with others. What we just practice, this meditation that we just did is is a form of that meditation. And re identifying through this process of role play. And the our sense of self-centeredness will gradually be exchanged with the self of others. And the So in in the actual practice of exchanging self with others, the way it’s set forth in Śāntideva’s text, I just thought this is one of the translations of the text from which we’re working, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life.
This is also this book that is combined with a commentary by the Dalai Lama, The Flash of Lightning in the Dark of the Night. There is another translation of this. I haven’t seen it yet. It’s just come out. Anyway, so that that’s that’s a source where where we can go to authenticate the practice.
You know, a practice which has been around for twenty five hundred years. In his in his text, Śāntideva makes use of various categories of individuals who we are to exchange with. And in his text, the way the categories that he makes use of are three categories of someone we feel superior to in some way, someone we feel equal to appear in various points of view, and someone we feel in some way inferior to. And then he goes on to actually demonstrate through dialogue how we could exchange ourselves as we identify with them. Generally, in these the three categories he’s making use of, for those who we have I feel superior to, obviously, generate a sense of envy, arrogance or conceit.
For those who we feel equal to in some way, it could be from point of view of education, attractiveness, wealth, So, you know, we can not only begin to identify and empathize with these individuals and develop and develop self with others. So I’ll read this, I’ll just read a verse from Śāntideva’s actual text where he says he’s beginning to introduce this system that he’s going to work with, these three categories that he’s going to exchange himself with. Considering lesser beings and so forth as myself and considering myself and others in the following way I should meditate upon envy, competitiveness, and self importance with the mind free of egotistic concepts. So in using the power of imagination and empathy, we exchange places with those we consider lower, those we consider equal, and those we consider higher than ourselves in some fashion, in some perspective. And we will, if we are actually putting ourselves imaginatively into the meditation in a very real way, we will probably generate a sense of envy, competitiveness and conceit.
Now this is like a laboratory where we can begin to work with these emotions. So I’m a bit, maybe I’ll, I’ll just, I was trying to go through it in a little detail, but I think I’ll go over it very rapidly. Just I’m aware of the time, and I’d like to you know, next week, there will be no there’ll be no talk next Wednesday. We’re packing up stumps. We’ll be giving a talk on Tuesday night and a talk in the parliament also on Wednesday night.
Wednesday night. And then there’ll be a talk the following morning. So two weeks from tonight. And then that’ll be the last talk of this term, then there’ll be a break. So I thought it might be it might work well if we concluded this meditation series within that time so that we have just one more night.
That’s why I’ve been looking at my watch, trying to manage my time which I haven’t been done very successfully. So he goes on. So he has actual dialogue. This dialogue, Śāntideva actually transposes the word I which we normally refer to ourselves. It becomes attached to that other person and you becomes attached to our former self.
So when when you read this or you hear it, you have to make that kind of transposition in your mind. So here’s this other fellow. You know, this is somebody, you know, somebody who we You are honored. Yeah. Okay.
Is that better? Okay. So this we should have a dummy here. You are honored. You are.
You are you are honored, but I am not. I have not found wealth such as you. You are praised, but I am despised. You are happy, but I suffer. I have to do all the work while you remain comfortably at rest.
You are renowned as great in this world but I am an inferior with no good quality. So, you know, one thing, there’s many things that are working here. One of them is that who we naturally feel an arrogance or some kind of conceit of feeling better than this poor slob there. But when we begin to put ourselves in that place, we begin to think, well, how would it be to be them in such a position? But not only that.
Not only that, beginning to regard them not just as a thing out there but actually a feeling being and what they might be experiencing and the possibility of developing compassion and love for them and wishing that they don’t, that they didn’t suffer, not realizing what they might be going through, not having really considered them or thought about it or reflected upon it. But also who am I? What have I ever done for anybody? And here’s this. Who am I to have this arrogance, this conceit of thinking I’m such a wonderful person?
What have I done for this person? Because he goes on to say, the deteriorated state of my morals and views is not due to me but to my disturbing conceptions. In whatever way you are able, you should heal me. But I’m not being healed by you. Why do you belittle me?
What use are your good qualities to me? Although you have good qualities, you do not benefit me with no compassion. So he goes on. Know. So once for one we begin to have a feeling for what they might be going through and perhaps our heart begins to open to them on that level.
But also, you know, they can quite justify and they think to ourselves, you know, how can you be so self-righteous? How can you how can you afford your arrogance when you when you do nothing to help me knowing my plight as you do? So we you know, our conceit, our arrogance begins to be demolished, to be smashed. So then he does the same for a person who is a peer in some way who we think of ourselves as equal, equal intelligence or education or status, you know, maybe somebody we work with in the same level of job in some way. And we put ourselves in their place looking back and again Śāntideva has a dialogue.
And we begin to see you know, it might be like for, you know, for others to have to put up with ourselves, you know, unknowing to ourselves as we are, insensitive as we present ourselves as others might experience it. And he makes use of this transposition of I and you. And the you is more, not just ourselves as the person, here the you refers to the self of self-centeredness, of our present self centeredness. He says, in order that I may excel, you know this is the I here, in order that I may excel, you are regarded as equal with me. I shall definitely strive to attain gain and honor for myself even by such means as verbal dispute.
By all means, I shall make clear to the entire world all the good.