Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute talk, Ven Jampa Gendun opens with the image of a magician who conjures horses and elephants — using it to show how recognizing that attractive and repulsive qualities are products of our own perceiving process can short-circuit attachment and aversion. He then leads a guided death meditation: listeners imagine lying in a hospital bed, possessions lined up at the foot of the bed, utterly powerless to help them. From there he introduces karma through four principles — results are infallible, results are amplified (illustrated via the butterfly effect and Egyptian wheat seeds dormant for six thousand years), uncommitted actions bear no fruit, and past actions never simply dissipate. He closes by introducing the four counter forces for deactivating negative karmic imprints, taking particular care to distinguish regret from guilt.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 21 HoM 1993 09 15.mp3
UUID: a1f1a737-4426-420a-9972-861f51e00a28
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1993-09-15
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.3 minutes
Words: ~4,155
Confused and develop indifference. The magician doesn’t develop those attachments, aversions, because he knows that this is dependent upon the mantra. That is to say, it’s dependent what appears to him is appearing under the influence of ignorance. It doesn’t exist independent of his pre the the perceiving process, the perceptual process, the labeling process. It’s an illusion.
He he he there is the there is not the evolution of the of set into motion, which which ends with attachment, which which ends with aversion. Attachment and aversion arise through are based upon ignorance. That is grasping at certain appearances as being true, as being real horses and real elephants. And if the case where one conceives of them as being attractive horses and elephants, one will go on to have attachment. If they if one conceives of them being repulsive horses and elephants, one will go on quite naturally.
The outflow of this process, one will develop aversion toward them. Why? On the basis of one conceiving them as real, as having nothing to do with one’s own mind, as being having nothing to do with in this analogy, having to do with the internal effect of a mantra. The latecomer is analogous to someone who has completely removed ignorance from their mind, has complete realization of emptiness, and has gotten rid of ignorance along with the seeds of the ignorance. And for such a person, there is no internal effect of the mantra.
There is no internal effect of or the influence of ignorance. For such a person, there is not even the appearance of a horse and elephant, and there’s no grasping as such. So the implication is that if we can if we come to understand that what is appearing to us is in some way dependent upon our own mind, conceiving as such, we will not go on to develop attachment. We will not go on to develop aversion toward that object. This short circuits the process.
It is only when we think of that that that attractiveness, that repulsion abides in the object itself, divorced as our conceiving it as such that we then we will we will relate with it in terms of attachment and aversion. In term if we if that attractiveness is seen to adhere in that object independent of a perceptual process of our thinking about it as being attractive. And quite naturally, we want to make that a part of ourselves. We want to incorporate. We want to hold that onto ourselves.
We see that beauty that and the pleasure which can be derived by that beauty outside of ourselves, external to ourselves. And we want to that we want to try incorporate it within ourselves. We develop attachment. If we see that repulsive quality as being independent of our our thinking, in dependence upon our social constructs, the styles of the day, all various conditions, the cultural factors, then we see that external inherent independent existing repulsiveness, we’ll want to exclude that from ourselves. We’ll want to push it away and we’ll develop aversion.
So it is by becoming aware that the qualities, this repulsive quality or attractive quality, are dependent upon our perceptual process, upon our thinking of them in that way, that we short circuit the process of developing attachment and aversion, and things begin to appear as illusions. They function, as they did before, but one is no longer captivated by them, thinking of them as truly existent or independently existent. One develops another approach, another way of relating with them. You know, this this idea of our approach and a way of relating, there is there is an ignorant, influence way of relating, and there is a wisdom influence way of relating. And they lead to, far different experiences in terms of effect, of feeling.
So we’ll stop there. Okay. So we’ll dedicate the creative potential that we accumulated through our discussion. May I quickly become an awakened spiritual teacher and lead each and every sentient being to that enlightened realm through these skillful actions. And may this supreme jewel of the awakening heart that has not arisen arise and grow, and may that which has arisen never diminish, but increase more and more.
So if you like to stay for the discussion, might like to get a cup of tea. Thank you. Good night. We’re going to meditate on death. Begin by imagining that you just had an accident or that you’re suffering some from a terminal illness and you’re laying on a hospital bed There’s all kinds of instruments and machines hooked up to your tubes.
Nurses and doctors running here and there. There’s your loved ones around, some are sitting in chairs in the corner, some are by your bed holding your hand. And at the end of your bed there are all the things that you’ve worked so hard to gather together that you spent so much time and energy to get. The title to your house and the registration to your car, your VCR. All those things that you hold so valuable and that you prize so much, they’re all sitting there at the end of your bed.
And slowly. Your eyesight is becoming dim. Things aren’t as clear. And sounds are growing fainter. Beginning to go dark and silent.
Your mind is beginning to slip away from the body. The bond is weakening, getting ready to break. It’s growing darker. The sounds are growing fainter and fainter. As your mind begins to slip away, of what use is the title to that house going to be to you at that moment?
Of what use is that car registration or that VCR of all those valuable things? Can any of them stop your death? Can you take any of them with you? That moment of death, at what value are they to you? And all those loved ones gathered around you, do they sincerely want to help you?
Can any of them go with you? Can any of them hold your hand into your future existence? Or are you going to have to go alone? And even your own body that you’ve taken such good care of. At this moment even if it’s turning its back on you, it’s going to have to be left behind.
Now the bond is breaking, the mind is slipping away from the body. And you’re looking back down upon the scene. You’re unplugging all the tubes, reeling away the machinery. Your loved ones and relatives are leaving the room crying. They pull the sheet over your head.
They wheel you out into the corridor and down to the service elevator. Take you down to the basement. Preparing your body. Tattooing a number on the inside of your thigh. Plugging up all the orifices.
Tying the legs together. That’s you that they’re doing all this to. Now it’s the funeral. Lots of people gather together, crowds, saying very nice things about you. And And what kind of life did you live?
What would you have liked it to have been different? So in talking about karma, I’m trying to get across the idea that our that our ways of thinking, ways of speaking, and ways of acting leave impressions upon the mind, encode information, that our minds are not blank slates, that they are acting under the influences of these previously planted predispositions, these reactive patterns. And they influence the way that an objective reality does not exist objectively out there, as if imposing itself upon us. But we are involved in a co creation, that reality is a social construct. And that which is involved in its construction are these ways of taking data and organizing.
The mind is trying its best to make some sense out of chaos. So it organizes things in systematic patterns, tables, peoples, things that we can recognize, things that we can come to understand and form some sort of meaningful relationship with. The way that it’s organizing, that would be controlling factor, that which is influencing this organizing, this interpreting factor process is a karmic predisposition. These programs, these reactive patterns within the mind. Skillful actions are simply types of actions, category of actions which cause us to interpret our situations in such a way that we experience them as pleasurable.
That’s all we mean by that. There’s no moral judgment being made. The Buddha took as his standard of his world view was in terms of pain and suffering since that is our immediately lived experience. It’s something we don’t want beyond all philosophy, beyond all theory, abstractions. We don’t want to suffer.
And so he said, well he began to see that there was a connection between the way I experience in terms of feeling particular situations and previously created types of actions, that there was a correspondence. On the other hand, unskillful actions lead patterns within our minds such that when we meet particular types of objective conditions we organize them, we interpret them such that they cause us to experience unpleasurable feelings. In terms of karma, that is to say these types of actions, there are four, it’s of use to gain a conviction with respect to what are called the four distinct modes of karma. The results of actions are infallible. This means that this is exactly what I’ve been talking about.
That there is a correspondence between the type of action and the type of result that we experience. This relationship is infallible. Mental states such as attachment, jealousy, hatred, spite, that is to say what we call afflictive emotions. They’re called afflictive emotions because they disturb the natural peace of the mind. That hatred, as we probably already are aware of to some degree, is experienced in itself as type of suffering.
A person who is angry is an unhappy person. It’s quite sometimes useful in the development of compassion or how to be tolerant of someone who is angry at us. They are unhappy. Attachment. The experience of attachment is an unhappy experience.
It’s a dissatisfactory experience. So that’s why they call these various types of emotions afflictive emotions. Because they afflict, they disturb the natural peace of their mind. So they, these various negative states in themselves, are experienced as some degree of distress and they bring about a type of result which is in accordance with their quality themselves. That is to say they bring about a result which is another degree of distress.
There is a relationship. On the other hand positive states love, compassion, faith, generosity. These experienced in themselves. There’s a saying that virtue is its own reward. Loving people are happy people.
The very fact of loving is a happy feeling within the mind in itself. But not only that, these will bring about a result in class of experiences in accordance with the quality of themselves. That is to they will bring about a type of result, is happiness, which is experienced as a pleasurable feeling. There’s an infallible relationship between these. So you know this occurs throughout nature that there is an infallible relationship between a cause and effect as to similarity of type.
If you plant an apple seed, an apple tree grows, not an orange tree. We make use of this relationship between cause and effect constantly every day of our life. This relationship, this infallible relation, unfailing relationship between the type of cause and the type of result. And this is no less applicable to our experiences, our various feelings. They are products.
They don’t come out of nothing and they come out of causes. All products have a cause and not only do they have just a cause but that cause is always in accordance of the similar type as to the experience, as to the result. The experience of happiness, the resultant experience of happiness is caused by a type of cause, which is happiness, which is a skillful action. Happiness begets happiness. Pain begets pain.
This is an infallible type of relationship. So skillful actions are in themselves experiences happiness, and they bring about a pleasurable result, a happy result. Unskillful actions, that’s why we call them unskillful, because we want happiness. Actions which bring about our suffering are unskillful. They’re destructive.
They’re not in our best interest. We could do better. Unskillful actions are in themselves experiencing some degree of distress. They bring about a resultant type of experience which is another degree of distress. There’s always this infallible type of relationship.
Happiness does not arise from suffering. Happiness does not arise from unskillful action. Suffering does not arise from skillful action. This is the infallibility of the relationship between the results of the actions and the results and the causes. The second one, the distinct modes of actions or karma.
The results of actions are amplified. The results of actions are amplified. So what is being said here is that even from insignificant causes, greatly magnified results can occur. I’ve tried to come up with some analogies just to get a feeling because these things, what we’re talking about here, are extremely subtle and it’s difficult to even to, not to understand them, but to be able to apply a logic to them. But if we had, for example, a heavy ball at the crest of a hill such that it was in complete equilibrium, and it was just at the very peak of the hill, and that ball possesses a great deal of potential energy due to its position and mass and it’s in such a way that just the slightest breeze would cause that ball to move either of two ways.
It’s in such equilibrium that even the most insignificant cause would cause it to begin to move in one direction or another. Once it does that, then the potential energy begins to translate it into kinetic energy and begins to gain momentum as it moves down the hill and becomes a tremendously powerful force. And that which precipitated this tremendous powerful result was extremely insignificant cause. Just a slight breeze. Another analogy which is perhaps a little bit more modern but I found it interesting, it’s called the butterfly effect and this is in modern, some meteorologists say that we, as you may notice, that we cannot have, it may be inherently impossible to have long range weather forecasts due to the augmentation of almost insignificant causes over time.
And this is where this idea gets its name from Butterfly Effect that over time almost insignificant causes become so increased that they have a significant impact on the weather. The analogy which is given is, or the example which is given is that a butterfly, the motion of a butterfly flapping its wings in France could over time bring about a tornado in the United States. Therefore, don’t think they’ll ever be able to predict the weather because of these extremely insignificant, almost immeasurable variables which augment over time. And the same way with our actions. Even insignificant actions can have great impacts.
So with respect to that first distinct mode of karma, that was the result of actions are infallible. If we get some real conviction with respect to that, that happiness arises from skillful actions, unhappiness arises from unskillful actions, If we have it, if we gain some faith in it, and if your faith is based upon reasoning, our experience and intuition, it’s not blind faith, trying to reason out, working out, see it within your own experience, then we’re going to, in a very practical sense we’re going to if we see some type of happiness that we want, we’re going to find out well what is the cause of that happiness. You know, if we don’t create the cause we’re never going to experience the result. We’re going to make sure that we could, you know, that we’re going to involve ourselves in skillful actions. We’re going to cease creating unskillful actions because we don’t have to suffer.
If we begin to see that there exists this relationship between skillful actions and unskillful actions. With respect to the second mode of karma that the results of actions are amplified, that means we’re going to even be concerned about minor actions. Creating as best we can, even minor as it were insignificant positive actions and as best we can avoiding even minor insignificant negative actions because they can have a highly increased effect. The third distinct mode of karma is that results of uncommitted actions are not experienced. The results of uncommitted actions are not experienced.
As I just mentioned, all products whatsoever are the results of causes. If we don’t create the cause, we won’t experience the effect. I think this might, you know, yet if we do if we wish for a long life, then we must respect life and save life. If we desire prosperity, then we must be generous and open with whatever we have, even if there are limited resources. If we seek wisdom, then we must use our intelligence.
These things aren’t going to come from nowhere. Nowhere in nature does something come from nothing. And moreover, they’re going to come from, as is trying to be pointed out, specific types of causes. And if we don’t create those causes, then we should not expect, we cannot hope for, or it would be irrational to hope for those results that we want. We all want to be happy.
We have to create the causes for happiness. If we don’t create the causes for happiness, we can’t, you know, the law of cause and effect, how can we expect to be happy in fact? Third is the mode of karma. The results of uncommitted actions are not experienced. The fourth is actions actions once committed are not dissipated.
Dissipated. This means that no matter how, you know I talked about our various actions implant latencies within the mind like these seeds And no matter how long of a time they elapse between the time of committing the action, when the proper conditions come together, the result will be experienced. And the analogy that I use trying to come to an understanding is that as for example in the case of, they have found seeds in the pyramids of Egypt, wheat seeds which are five thousand, six thousand years old. And they took these seeds and they put them in earth and they added water and they sprouted. So these seeds, the potentiality of these seeds was dormant for six thousand years, but they didn’t lose their potency even over six thousand years.
When they met the correct condition, that activated that potentiality and the result was expressed. So likewise, these actions are leaving latencies within our mind. Potencies, seeds, when they meet with the correct conditions no matter how much time has elapsed that potentiality is going to be activated, it’s going to find expression in a certain type of experience, in a certain way of organizing our reality, interpreting what’s occurring. So there’s a lot we could talk about. Mean, karma is quite an involved subject.
But You don’t have so much time, so I just have to sort of The results of actions are infallible. The results of actions are amplified, the results of uncommitted actions are not experienced, actions once committed are not dissipated. I think those are quite useful and very relevant notions to understand because they affect our daily lives. It is sure that all of us have created some negative actions in the past and if all of what I just said holds true then there are some negative imprints within our mind, some seeds of unskillful actions within our mind even as we sit here quite comfortably, just waiting as it were to meet with the necessary condition, which will bring about an experience of suffering. So, you know, what can we do if these seeds are not going to go away by themselves?
There is a method of removing or deactivating the seed within our mind, these karmic propensities. It’s sometimes likened to taking a seed and scorching it. Though the seed has not been burnt, it has lost its potency. It cannot germinate. If you put it in the earth and you water it, no matter how long you wait, nothing can happen.
Its potentiality has been lost. Likewise with these karmic seeds within our mind we can as it were deactivate them causing them to not have the potentiality to bring about a suffering result. And this method is called the four counter forces, four counter forces or the four antidotes, four counter forces. The first piece is the force of regret. So, let’s say we’ve all created some negative action and we don’t want to experience the result of that negative action.
We can apply these four counteracting agents. The first of these agents is regret. And you know this is to say that we acknowledge our mistakes as mistakes. We quit saying we quit trying to hide the fact that we from ourselves that we ever did what we did. We keep denying the fact that it was a mistake, that it was wrong.
We, as it were, be honest with ourselves. But there’s a tremendous difference between regret and guilt, I think. Regret and guilt. There’s no judgment being made with respect to ourselves. It’s not as if this mistake that we made is somehow an expression of our inherent badness which kind of escaped in that moment of when you lost control.
You kept it in pretty well. The situation arose and you lost it. Your inherent badness kind of worked its way out like what you did, you made a mess. It has nothing to do with a judgment about who we are. It is simply that we made a mistake.
We added one and one and made three. Sometimes one and one equaling three has no significance whatsoever. Sometimes it can be catastrophic. I know in the case of, I remember last year watching a documentary on the crash of the New Zealand plane that happened a few years ago. Flew into the side of a mountain in Antarctica and a few hundred people were killed and to a greater extent it was caused by mistake in computer programming.
Some computer operator made a mistake. So there was no question about, you know, it’s a tragic mistake, but it was no reflection upon that person’s character or that they’re not an evil person. They simply made a mistake and we can simply develop a regret. There is a we acknowledge our mistakes as mistakes and emotionally experience a temporary loss of self esteem. Temporary loss of self esteem.
We quit denying that the action ever happened or trying to justify it, saying, oh, was really all right. They deserved it, the bastard, Or trying to rationalize it in some way, that it was not wrong. There’s no evasion. There’s no self deception. No moral judgment.
We confront our past actions and in the context of understanding ourselves and our realistic limitations we assume legitimate responsibility for what we have done and the consequences of what we have done. There’s an antidote which portrays this idea of what I mean by regret here. And I think it’s a yeah, there I don’t know, this is for those who have been to India this is a little more understandable, you can think about it. If you go to an Indian restaurant quite often, a number of people will share the same meal as it were, they have different bowls of curries, rice, chapati, bread, and you know you each out of these common dishes you each take a portion. So these three people they went into an Indian restaurant and they had this big meal and it was really a cheap Indian restaurant.
And they walked out and immediately having walked out of an Indian restaurant one of them falls over dead. And the second one begins to roll on the ground writhing in pain holding his stomach. And the third, he’s feeling alright, no problem. But he’s beginning to think, see, one just fell over dead. This one’s rolling on the ground holding his stomach right in pain.
I think it was the food we just ate. And know, and though he’s feeling no discomfort whatsoever, he knows his time is coming. And it develops, it arises in him a huge sense of regret of having eaten that meal. So even though we’re not experiencing any difficulty, discomfort from the past actions that we have created, the negative actions that we’ve created, our time is coming. And so we develop a sense of regret.
I wish I hadn’t done that.