Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The central image in this 46-minute talk by Ven Jampa Gendun is Nāgārjuna’s likening of the mind’s natural purity to underground water lying untouched beneath our negative emotions. He distinguishes natural from evolving Buddha nature, then argues that the chief obstacle to growth is ego’s habitual discounting of its own goodness: ignoring evidence of kindness, misreading others’ frowns as rejection, gravitating toward people who confirm a low self-image. A Jungian parallel follows — Robert Johnson’s observation that clients hide their finest qualities deepest in the shadow. The talk’s emotional center is the “rabbi’s gift,” a parable about a dying monastery revived when its monks began treating each other as potential messiahs. A brief Q&A closes on whether the searching “I” can itself be located.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 20 HoM 1993 06 02.mp3
UUID: 41ce421d-84e7-4693-baf2-16ef42469bb4
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1993-06-02
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.6 minutes
Words: ~5,412
So trying to come to some feeling, some sense that that is a more basic ground to our being than ego’s ground. We have to somehow develop a real belief in ourselves. Even almost in spite of the the appearances. We’ve all we see are the patterns, the displays of ego. And it’s difficult for us to believe that that there’s anything about ourselves beyond those displays, beyond our patterns.
That there lies within us, within this willing vortex of ego, some some some basic goodness, some basic sanity. Some kind of brilliant intelligence. Unconditioned love. Some kind of exuberance for life. This is what we’re talking about in terms of Buddha nature, our basic goodness, basic sanity.
It’s important that we become aware of it because we have to become aware of our potential to change, to grow. And without that sense that we have something to work with, there’s never going to be any strong drive or determination to actualize it. We have we have some kind of working basis. You know, something that we can help us to go beyond our fears, you know, our hope, something which is grounded within our our reality, our experience. Buddha nature is a primordial intrinsic instinct toward wakefulness and the natural purity of the mind.
So the intrinsic wakefulness about ourselves, this is technically called evolving Buddha nature. There are two types of Buddha nature. There’s natural Buddha nature and evolving Buddha nature. Our intrinsic awakefulness. That fundamentally we are decent, gentle, compassionate people.
That there’s certain sanity about us, certain basic goodness about us. And natural Buddha nature, that we are not our displays of ego, that we are not the patterns. We are beyond all the various programs, the various afflictive emotions within our mind that we are not the displays, we are not the patterns. Some of the great masters in the past have talked about trying to come to an understanding that within this within this confusion is a basic sanity. One of the greatest Buddhist masters, ancient Indian Buddhist masters was Nāgārjuna.
He said that just as water which lies beneath the earth is uncontaminated, likewise the exalted wisdom which lies beneath the afflictive emotions is uncontaminated. So beneath all of these afflictive emotions, by afflictive emotions I mean various types of emotions such as anger and hatred, spite, jealousy, attachment, ignorance. Just like beneath the ground there is a flowing stream of crystal clear pure water. Likewise, beneath all our various confusion, all of these various afflictive emotions, is a natural purity of the mind. In a way our minds are open, we have the stuff, the stuff of mind.
And depending upon our skills and the effort we make, we can make out of this. It is as if it were clay and we can make out of the stuff of mind, this clay of the mind. A magnificent pieta, a Madonna and child of Michelangelo, or we can make out of it a monstrosity. It’s open ended. It’s workable.
Whatever we have the skills and we’re willing to make an effort, we can shape that type of mind. We can shape that kind of destiny. There’s a saying, sow a thought, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a personality. Sow a personality, reap a life.
Sow a life, reap a destiny. So we creating our destiny by the very skill and effort we make use or we don’t make use in working with our mind. That is stuff of the mind. That we have no intrinsic, there’s no limits, there’s no boundaries preset for our mind. We can make of mind whatever we have the skill and make the effort.
I think it was William Blake who said, the mind is in its place and its way to make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. And we can create the type of world and the type of experience that we want if we have the techniques and willing to make the effort. Each one of us knows, and I remind you of this, that he or she is really a good person. You have been told you’re not. And in the presence of fresh criticism, you get the feeling you’re not.
But in your heart of hearts, you know you’re a good person, that you’ve always done the best that you could and that is true. Each of us knows that he or she is much smarter than he or she can often show, that he or she has lots of intelligence that doesn’t come out in confusion of the final exam or the upsetting situation. And this is true. I now tell you that what you know about yourself is also true of everyone else. This profound knowledge that you’ve hidden to escape ridicule, that you’re a good person, that you always do your best and that you’re much smarter than you sometimes act or that people think.
This is true not only of you but of other people as well. I think two years ago, an American Jungian analyst by the name of Robert Johnson came to Adelaide and he was talking about the shadow. The shadow is an aspect of our personality which we’d rather not know about. We repress to a large degree. We don’t allow it to surface.
And he was saying that over the course of analysis, once they develop a trusting relationship, the client is more and more willing to expose the shadow. All of these, what we say reprehensible aspects of ourselves. Parts of ourselves we’d rather not identify, that we’d rather not acknowledge the existence of. And they would tell about all of these many of these things about themselves, they felt terribly ashamed, which they would never even hardly admit to themselves. But he said even over the most trusting types of relationships that he would develop with his clients, that you would have to drag out of them that aspect of the shadow, which was their finest part of themselves.
Within the shadow is gold. That is a certain element of belief in ourselves that we are divine, that we feel almost that it almost is embarrassing to talk about. We feel ashamed even to acknowledge to ourselves that we may be very special beings, that we may in fact be divine, that there’s something about us which is very unique. And within that shadow, that part of ourselves that we don’t want to identify with is in fact an element of gold. And somehow, we’re being constantly forced back into normality.
And it is our basic sanity which is telling us, which we have to listen to, that to be normal in an insane society is not very healthy. It’s simply not good enough to cope. That there’s something more to life. If it wasn’t for this, there wouldn’t be this sense of dissatisfaction. And it it simply Our own basic sanity will not allow us to be satisfied with simply coping, with simply getting by.
That there’s some kind of belief in our own goodness and possible goodness of life and our basic sanity is saying try and feel that it can be. This is our Buddha nature at work. You may not feel comfortable, but in the end it is our salvation. It’s what’s going to help us to solve our problem. There’s a beautiful story about And the founder of Buddha House was Lama Yeshe.
He’s there’s a picture. He died about seven years ago. And there’s a small photograph to the left in front of the image of the Buddha there, Lama Yeshe. The main given, the problem, what is the problem? This ordinary recognition that I am poor man, poor woman.
Do you understand? Perceiving, holding as poor one, poor object, poor quality and perceiving also such poor acting, ugly, having lower opinion of our body, lower opinion of quality. That is the worst symptom to be healthy, to be liberated. This is the main dealing to eradicate, to cut. As long as you decided, having preconception that I am the self pitying one, you decided, you already decided that you are the bad guy.
You decided already. When you decided you are bad, a bad guy, you always do bad things, bad actions. Anyway, it’s worth I’m worthless. I’m bad guy, so I do bad one. Of course, that’s the way it is.
That’s true. And in this way, our life becomes a self fulfilling, self defeating prophecy. Buddhism is not asking us to believe in some dogma, but it is asking us to be open to the possibility, to create even some iota of doubt that we could be mistaken about who we are. I mean about the basic quality of who or what we are. I am not my pattern.
I am not my self image. I am not any concept that I have about myself. I am not the total sum of my concepts that I may have about myself. And the Dalai Lama. If we realize I am a human being, a human being can do anything.
This determination, courage and self confidence is important source of victory and success. Without willpower and determination, even something that you might have achieved easily cannot be accomplished. If you have willpower and reasonable courage, not blind courage, but courage without pride, even things which seemed impossible at a certain stage turn into being possible because of continued effort inspired by that courage. Thus the determination is very important. Some kind of gentle, consistent determination to be all that we can be.
You’re believing in ourselves. Understanding our pain brings infinite love and the patience to endure and the longing to be free and to be ourselves. To be no one else but yourself in a world which is night night and day trying to make you everyone else. It is the most difficult battle we can fight And we have to fight it every day of our life. The world is trying its best to make us normal.
And that’s not quite good enough. So we’re trying to appreciate ourselves. The main obstacle to appreciating ourselves, our potential, our basic goodness is our tendency to ignore and devalue. We become absorbed in, we become lost in the the inward and isolating patterns of ego. And it is almost as if we’re in a trance.
And I think that’s why they use the word awakening, awakening from the half sleep that most of us most of us exist within. You know, the psychological construct of ego is the primary delusion we live within. We cannot even begin to see the possibility to transcend these patterns because we identify so closely in this way, in that way. And how how can I change? I would have to To change is almost the sense of to lose existence.
We cannot see that the ego is about a corner of the psyche. On the contrary, unawarely we tend to perpetuate our patterns, which actually keeps us stuck in them. We tend to notice and dwell upon data which seems to confirm our beliefs about ourselves. We ignore, we devalue anything which seems to contradict the self image that we have about ourselves. Someone, for example, who thinks of themselves as bad, as unkind, would certainly dwell on instances in their past where they hurt others, where they’ve acted, where they let people down.
And they wouldn’t notice those times when they actually were kind people, acting very lovingly and caringly. They would simply ignore the gift. And even when they’re pointed out to them, they would they would find some excuse. Oh, that’s not really me. Well, that was a special case.
I’m not really like that. I just did that for myself. Devaluing, ignoring, discounting, anything which would contradict this this conception that we have about ourselves. In order to gain some kind of security, it may not be much but it’s home. I know who I am, it’s predictable.
Also, we are likely to misinterpret data to fit our patterns. It’s like someone who Somebody with a nobody likes me pattern consistently interprets other people’s behavior to fit with that preconception. The frown on another person’s face is not because they have a headache or they just got some bad news, it’s because they’re being disapproved. They don’t like me. This is like you know three or four hundred years ago people saw the sun go around the earth.
They saw the sun go around the earth. They didn’t see the sun go around the earth. That was their interpretation. And a mistaken one is that. The sun doesn’t go around the earth.
The people saw. But you know our interpretation is not the reality. It is simply that, an interpretation. Also, we’re likely to surround ourselves with people whose pattern fit in with ours. For example, all your fault tends to be attracted to someone who has the pattern, it’s all my fault, isn’t it?
Or I’m no good, is really intrigued by someone with you’re not much, are you? Because it fits. Their expectations are confirmed about who they are. At least there’s some security in that. Now this fear of an open fluid way of relating.
We’re likely to set up situations which seemingly confirm our patterns. You know for example, there’s a cartoon about a man rising up off the couch in a psychiatrist’s office and he’s yelling at the psychiatrist. He’s yelling, he says, I don’t know why anybody doesn’t like me. What the hell is the matter with you? You got wax in your ears or something?
Know setting up a situation which confirms his expectation about being rejected by others. We’re very much like the person who’s standing in the rain and getting wet and unable to figure out why. Our world begins and ends within the limiting conceptions of our own ego. Now we simply cannot have any conceptions about another order of being because it wouldn’t be us, which is quite frightening. Anyway, it is as if we exist within isolation from our reality.
There’s a And I mentioned there was a beautiful story that I’d like to read here. It’s called the rabbi’s gift. You know what The very practical outcome of adopting such an exceptional attitude. See, the one point we can begin to understand is that we have a rational mind, is a tremendously powerful and useful tool. But it is usually operated in a very linear fashion.
I want to achieve goal B and I can do that by creating cause A. A causes B. But I don’t think, we can create the context of an attitude, then we are as it were taking recourse to all kinds of subtle conditions and causes to bring about the result that we’re seeking to achieve. That is not quite, I think it’s over simplistic to see everything in terms of a linear cause and effect. That in fact it’s more of a web of conditions and subtle causes bringing about any end.
So the very effect of having a positive attitude about one’s mind, about who one is and about the goodness of life is going to predispose oneself to unawareness, unconsciously recreating all of the subtle causes and conditions whereby which are going to come together in the goal that we’re setting for ourselves. We’re availing ourselves, you know it’s like the very context of how we feel about ourselves is creating the conditions where our expectations are going to be fulfilled. Our life becomes very much a self fulfilling reality. If we think only in terms of linearity, then we are limiting the possibilities of achieving our goal. You know, that we that there it is as if within the psyche we have demarcated a corner and we built a very heavy wall around that and this is who I am.
This is my world. And this is tremendous potential outside of this small display of ego, which which the resources which go untapped. We’ve limited ourselves. So this is complete, you know, we have a human beings are model builders. We have a conception about ourselves.
Within the model we have a conception, but we cannot simply limit ourselves to that model because it is only a model. It is not taking the richness of our being, all the very subtle and vast qualities about ourselves. We can’t think outside of this model. We can always, as it were, have intuitions about something about myself which lies outside of these conflicts of conceptions of who I am. And this model, this very model itself is probably an inaccurate reflection of even those qualities in terms of dismissing data, anything which as I just went through, which just confirms our conception about ourselves.
That we actually will not see qualities about ourselves which don’t fit in with our model, with our conception about ourselves. We will be blind to ourselves in all our potentialities. If we could only look at ourselves just for a moment out of someone else’s eyes, I think we’d be shocked. But we can’t. So we just have to develop some kind of intuition, some kind of even in terms of relatedness and within our own experience and become aware that there are qualities of ourselves, abilities, potentialities, which lie outside of the model, a conception that we have about ourselves.
That we are unimaginably more than we conceive of ourselves to be. Back to the story. It’s called the rabbi’s gift. The rabbi’s gift. The story concerns a monastery that had fallen upon hard times.
Once a great order as a result of waves of anti monastic persecution in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the rise of secular secularism in nineteenth century, all its branch houses were lost and had become decimated to the extent that there were only five monks left in the decaying mother house: the abbot and four others, all over seventy in age. Clearly, it was a dying order. In the deep woods surrounding the monastery, there was a little hut that a rabbi from a nearby town occasionally used for hermitage. Through the many years of prayer and contemplation, the old monks had become a bit psychic, so they could always sense when the rabbi was in his hermitage. The rabbi is in the woods again, they would whisper to one another.
As he agonized over the imminent death of his order, it occurred to the abbot at one such time to visit the hermitage and ask the rabbi if by some possible chance he could offer any advice that might save the monastery. The rabbi welcomed the abbot at his hut. But when the abbot explained the purpose of his visit, the rabbi could only commiserate with him. I know how it is, he exclaimed. The spirit has gone out of the people.
It is the same in my town. Almost no one comes to the synagogue anymore. So the old abbot and the old man wept together. Then they read parts of the Torah and quietly spoke of deep things. The time came when the abbot had to leave.
They embraced each other. It’s been a wonderful thing that we should meet after all these years, the rabbi said. But the abbot said, but I have still failed in my purpose for coming here. Is there nothing you can tell me, no piece of advice you can give me that would help me save my dying order? No, I’m sorry, the rabbi responded.
I have no advice to give. The only thing I can tell you is that the Messiah is one of you. When when the abbot returned to the monastery, his fellow monks gathered around him to ask, well, what did the rabbi say? He couldn’t help us. Yes, the rabbi answered, We just wept and read the Torah together.
The only thing he did say, just as I was leaving, it was something cryptic. It was that the Messiah is one of us. I don’t know what he meant. In the days and weeks and months that followed, the old monks pondered this and wondered what there was, whether there was any possible significance to the rabbi’s words. The Messiah is one of us?
Could he possibly have meant one of us monks here at the monastery? If that’s the case, which one? Do you suppose he meant the abbot? Yes. If he meant anyone, he probably meant father abbot.
He has been our leader for more than a generation. On the other hand, he might have meant brother Thomas. Certainly brother Thomas is a holy man. Everyone knows Thomas is a man of light. Certainly he could not have meant brother Elrod.
Elrod gets crotchety at times. But come to think of it, even though he is a thorn in people’s sides, when you look back on it, Elrod is virtually always right, often very right. Maybe the rabbi did mean brother Aaron, but surely not brother Philip. Philip is so passive, a real nobody. But then almost mysteriously, he has a gift for somehow always being there when you need him.
He just magically appears by your side. Maybe Philip is the Messiah. Of course, the rabbi didn’t mean me. He couldn’t have possibly meant me. I’m just an ordinary person.
Yet suppose he met, he did. Suppose I am the Messiah. Oh God, not me. I couldn’t be that much, Lord, could I, could I? As they contemplated in this manner, the old monks began to treat each other with extraordinary respect.
On the off chance that one among them might be the Messiah. And on the off chance that each monk himself might be the Messiah, they began to treat themselves with extraordinary respect. Because the forest in which it was situated was beautiful, it so happened that people still occasionally came to visit the monastery to picnic on its tiny lawn or to wander along some of its paths. Even now and then to go into a dilapidated chapel to meditate. As they did so, without even being conscious of it, they sensed this aura of extraordinary respect that now began to surround the five old monks and seemed to radiate out from them and permeate the atmosphere of the place.
There was something strangely attractive, even compelling about it. Highly knowing why, they began to come back to the monastery more frequently, to picnic, to play, to pray. They began to bring their friends to show them this special place. Their friends brought their friends. Then it happened that some of the younger men who came to visit the monastery started to talk more and more with the old monks.
After a while, one asked if he could join them, then another and another. So within a few years, the monastery had once again become a thriving order. And thanks to the rabbi’s gift, a vibrant center of life and spirituality in the realm. So, basically, goodness. Goodness.
I wanted to talk about basic in a sense the basic goodness is meant a natural goodness. A goodness which is not conditional, which does not depend upon being any particular way. It’s not some kind of stance, some kind of belief. It’s not anything we can contrive to be. Every stance, every posture and belief we adopt, that we identify with creates some kind of inner tension, some kind of inner division.
We have to activate the opposite. And if we feel we have to be good, then we have to repress the bad with inside of ourselves. Any stance, any belief that we take, we’re going to have to repress actively anything which is going to contradict who we want to be, that belief in ourselves. So we’re talking about something which does not create a shadow, which we have to fabricate. We don’t have to try to be good, to be seen.
It’s like sun. The sun simply radiates out equally upon everything. Unconditionally. This basic goodness is beyond both our attempts to be good and the shadow which that attempt would create. I think it’s best to start there.
I didn’t get as far as I wanted to, but that’s beside time. Anybody have any questions? Any comment? So Yeah. Sure.
To change is frightening because we’re becoming someone else. And there’s a dying away of the old, and there’s a resistance to the new that we cannot quite have every possibility covered in the person that we’re going to become. That it’s an unknown quantity. And one can only have a sense of trust. But I don’t know, you know, it’s like having a confidence in one’s own basic goodness and the skillful attitude that one has developed.
But I don’t know when exactly the outcome is going to be, but I have a sense I’m going to land on my feet and having that trust. We’re going to talk about the And we have all the conditions necessary to grow, external and internal. But these situations aren’t going to last forever. We’re going to talk about death. And know, someone wants to describe death as a radical change of lifestyle.
But we undergo these radical changes in lifestyle many times during the course of our life. Most often times involuntarily against our will. When our whole world is, as it were, turned upside down, there’s something which is coming to an end and the new is unknown, is yet to begin. And what gives us the confidence to interchange? It is only if we feel at some deep level that a certain quality that I can handle the situation no matter what may arise, a certain self confidence that and a certain quality that I have of my attitudes.
That everything’s workable and I have the skills to apply. I don’t know I don’t know where I’m going to you know, you’re going on a journey somewhere, you’re not quite you know, you can read up all the books, but the reality is quite often times different than what we can read in a book. And you know, when you get off the bus, you know, in in India, in Delhi, you you get into a taxi, and you can read all the travel brochures and all the books in India. But the moment you get into the taxi, and the taxi driver is trying to rip you off all your money. They didn’t they didn’t mention that in the in the travel book.
You know, that you can handle it. Know, you can’t And it’s like, you know, we can’t And then we have to live a reality moment moment by moment and be able to deal with the actualities that reality is bringing to us. And that in terms of some preconceived pattern. And there’s a sense that, okay, I have it. And I may have difficulties, but I think I can, it’s workable, I can handle it, I can deal with it.
So that’s what I mean by that. I think we have to trust in ourselves more and more. We cannot own our basic goodness. And ego would like to incorporate it in its identity, in its way of being, but the fact is it can’t. We can only live out of our basic goodness to begin to live out of some deeply felt part of ourselves, which is our part of our being.
Do you know what I mean by that? I’m not advocating if it feels good, do it kind of mentality. I think that’s a misreading because I think we have to have some discipline. This is why This is the value for ethics. Ethics helps us to align ourselves with a way we can respond authentically.
Therefore, it’s not a matter of doing whatever feels good. We have to have some training rules to begin to understand when we’re responding simply out of neurotic need or some authentic response to conscience, something that we felt part of ourselves, in most part of our being. And I think we’re getting some feeling for that. And in the course of training, it’s necessary to have these kind of rules, guidelines, and set forth for ourselves so that we can begin to trust ourselves more and more, that we don’t have to keep watching ourselves and being anxious that we’re gonna goof, we’re gonna make things worse. That I’m getting into an abstract, very untimely, It’s a kind of fragile ground.
You know, the whole idea to get back what we lost, this exuberance for life and this authentic response to who we are, to begin to become integrated and whole. Rather than living in some extreme There’s a bit of a quote. I’ll just read one quote and then I’ll let you guys go. It’s quite I like it very much. It’s by Matthew Arnold.
To see if you will pause to see if we will pause our life at last. To see if we will now at last be true to our own true deep buried selves, being one with which we are one with the whole world, or whether we will once more fall away into some bondage of the flesh or mind, some sloth of sense, or some fantastic maze forged by the imperious lonely thinking power. I like that. So I’m sorry. I’m going a bit slow.
I want to cover the entire path, but I get hum up sometimes. I get a little bit wordy. I used to be a very quiet person. I did it very well. Now it’s tough to shut me out.
Anyway, I think I’d like to thank you. Think you’re all very wonderful people and I wanted to praise you and sort of encourage you. Khensur Rinpoche, our teacher, is going to maybe talk next Monday, if not the Monday after that. Anyway, we’re we’re gonna we have a schedule, believe it or not. And I think as I mentioned it over the course of the these eight Mondays, I’m going to talk about these three fundamentals of the path, and also we’re going to talk one night about the history of Buddhism, one night on women in Buddhism, and one night Khensur Rinpoche will give a talk.
Okay. So also let’s see. You’re more than welcome to have a cup of tea. And I’ve been asked this is a commercial announcement. There’s an AGM meeting, an annual general meeting at eleven thirty on Sunday, which you’re if you’re not a member, if you’re not a member, you are welcome to attend.
Thank you very much. Yeah. I’m talking to you? Yeah. I know.
I’ve been reading a lot, and it’s sort of like, there shouldn’t be an eye. Why? Because they sort of say, like, find the eye. Is it the eye that’s thinking? Is it the eye that’s feeling?
And can’t find the eye. I’m sorry. Don’t get confused about all that. We’re gonna we’re gonna, you know, we’re gonna talk about that, but there’s a certain misconceived I. You know, mistaken Mhmm.
Very solid kind of sense. You know, I I I’m sitting on the cushion. Why? How can I you’re telling me, you’re sitting? You’re sitting there.
Mhmm. How can you do that? Table. What makes the table the table? No.
I couldn’t understand that either. Isn’t it the four legs of the table and the top make No. I’m not talking about what makes the table. But this I’m sitting on a cushion. Uh-huh.
Why? Or how do I how do I what reason do I get? Because my body’s on a cushion. Whatever my body does, I say, I do. Right.
I have these happy thoughts in my mind. I say, I’m happy. Whatever my mind does, I say, I do. This is just a continuous. I say, you know, it’s a So whatever the body does, we can say I do.
Whatever the mind does, we can say I do. It’s the same eye? Yeah. Yeah. I think it’s the eye that goes into like, when you die, you’re going to read it.
It’s what eye is that then? So