Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The image of a pinned insect collection — something living drained of life and placed on display — anchors Ven Jampa Gendun’s central warning in this 45-minute talk: the ego will always try to possess basic goodness, and that temptation must be renounced. He builds toward this through Lama Thubten Yeshe and Jungian shadow psychology, arguing that basic sanity lies prior to both virtue and its repressed shadow, and that our very dissatisfaction with ordinary life proves we are healthy enough to know we are unwell. Poor self-image — not external circumstances — is identified as the root obstacle to growth. The session closes with a refuge recitation and a guided taking-and-giving meditation: dark smoke dissolving self-centeredness, white light given to a loved one.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 23 HoM 1993 06 16.mp3
UUID: e9402cef-0b0a-4cb4-be2b-ac0c9e925c98
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1993-06-16
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.5 minutes
Words: ~4,026
Sometimes you just like this quite often in talking about cyclic existence. One of its attributes is that the attribute is that there’s always this fluctuation from high to low. So yesterday, last week, I think I was sitting on the floor, and I’ve come back up in the room. I don’t know what I did to deserve it. So we begin by redirecting.
I think it’s the nature of our situation, isn’t it, that we get out of touch with those values, those ways of being, those guidelines that we hold important, that sometime in the course of our life we’ve felt are worthy of our commitment in some way. But we get out of touch with what really makes us happy. So there’s this continual necessity to remind ourselves to stop and pause and to reprioritize our values. Above all else, perhaps we want peace and perhaps additionally to be of service to help others to find that same peace. And that’s one of the prime values, I think, that we all want at some deep level of our being.
But sometimes we lose sight of that very simple fact. Maybe it’s not so simple as that. And the way that sometimes material things get blown out of proportion or the nature of our relationships or some status or some power or some achievement They become ends in themselves. We quit asking ourselves whether they’re really what we want. Sometimes it’s not so much that we don’t get what we want.
It’s that when we do get what we want, we find it’s not what we wanted at all. You know, taking this opportunity to pause and reevaluate what it is that we really want, what really brings us happiness, what really works for us as very unique individuals because we are very unique individuals. So we have so many we have many qualities in common. But still our histories and our idiosyncrasies and our methods and ways of thinking and our attitudes are are very unique to each of us. So each in a way, of us has to find our own path, our own way.
But in having searched and explored and journeyed the path, that way becomes an expression of a universal way. Though each of us has a very unique path to travel, the traveling of a path that’s common to all all living beings. You know, in this this process of redirecting, reprioritizing, this continual reorientating ourselves toward something within inside of ourselves, something which is intuitive or perhaps at times, from time to time, glimpsed. We have some taste of or some experience of as a basic basis for the real resolution of our our problems about what it means to be an ordinary human being, a being who is living a life out of ignorance governed existence. You know, we you know, the I always I often talk about the fact that we have to the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha.
The Buddha is what’s inside of ourselves, and trying to instill some confidence inside of our in in ourselves, in our own basic goodness. You know, there’s this one saying which I’m quite fond of and which has a great deal of truth. If you believe you can or if you believe you can’t, you’re right. And we have to believe we can. That’s terribly important.
And we must appreciate our own basic goodness and the basic goodness inherent in all living beings. You know, there’s some some kind of goodness about us, some kind of something tremendously sane about who we are, very basically. And something sane about our dreams and our aspirations, the noblest parts of ourselves. And I think we all know that at some deep level of our being, in our hearts. Though we we might be afraid to admit it even to ourselves, that we we find it it may be difficult for us to bear this burden of divinity, which we all share in.
And talking about this basic sanity, this basic goodness which which we all share. By basic goodness is meant a natural goodness. A goodness which is not conditional, which does not depend upon being any particular way. It is not a stance or a belief of any kind. It is not something we can contrive to be.
Every stance, every posture and belief we adopt and identify with creates some inner division activating an opposite tendency inside us, the shadow. If we try to be good, we will have to be repressed what we can see about as our bad side. Basic sanity is not a stance that creates a shadow. Rather, it is more like the radiance of the sun itself, unconditional because it is beyond both our attempts to be good and the shadow these attempts create. So, you know, the the shadow in, I guess, in Jungian terms is is usually conceived of that those reprehensible aspects of ourselves.
Those those parts of ourselves that even we don’t even want to admit to ourselves at times. And that, you know, the the foundation of the path is acknowledging our basic goodness beyond good and beyond these dualisms of good and bad. You know, quite traditionally, this is termed our Buddha nature. It’s the fundamental working basis of transformation. If we do not possess basic sanity, if we do not possess basic goodness, this Buddha nature, that we would not be able to appreciate the possibility for change, for growth, for another way of being.
It is strangely enough, and I think it’s worthwhile to think about, our very feelings of dissatisfaction with our present state of being is an expression of our basic sanity. To be normal in an insane society is not to be healthy. It’s simply not good enough to cope. And there’s something telling us which produces an unease, which doesn’t allow us to become indifferent to our present state, to become numb. Our pain is like our truth, and it’s necessary to listen.
One of the greatest obstacles to working with the acutely mental ill is that they do not see the inappropriateness of the way they’re relating, of their actions, of their behavior. So it is our basic sanity which helps us to see that normality is insufficient, is not enough, that there must be something more to life. So we we the starting point that we begin to acknowledge is our own confusion. We don’t quite know what we’re doing or how to go about solving our problems, but that we know there’s some kind of uncomfortability, some kind of dissatisfaction, some kind of pain. So becoming aware of that, becoming aware of ignorance is our first step toward wisdom, toward a solution to our problems.
You know, this pain is our kind of intelligence. It’s a statement about ourselves and what it means to be an ordinary human being. It’s something that we all share, it’s a commonality. That there’s a quote by Idries Shah where he says, I’ve heard all that you have had to say to me about your problems, and you ask me what to do about them. It is my view that your real problem is that you’re a member of the human race.
Face that one first. So it’s it’s telling us that this is the nature of our situation, ignorance governed existence in which we all share, everyone in this room, I suppose. I don’t know. And it’s telling us that we are acting inappropriately or unskillfully, not in our own self best interests. Our pain is telling it’s an awareness of our confusion.
Our pain is a sign of our basic sanity. We are healthy enough to be aware that we are sick and it is time to get better. So, you know, we have to begin to value ourselves, even in our pain, even when we don’t have it together. You know, we are precious because we have Buddha nature. But additionally, we are vulnerable because we are confused.
So we have to be gentle with ourselves because we are confused, but we have to have courage. We have to respect ourselves because we are Buddhas to be. These happy, healthy, loving, sane human beings. So some kind of some kind of gentle, consistent commitment to being all that we can be, and all that we feel at some level that we should be. Believing in in ourselves and understanding our pain helps us to to develop in our love.
You know, I often quote Thich Nhat Hanh where he says, you know, to understand is to love, and love to love is to understand. And understanding nature of our pain and what we’re about, and the fact that we’re ordinary human beings, helpless to help ourselves. And here love means the choice, the volition, the commitment to solving one’s problems. The will to extend oneself for the purpose for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s well-being. And this comes through understanding the nature of our situation confronting our problems.
But also not only our problems, but also our assets, that we are the basis for solving those problems with inside of ourselves. And then to be that. You know, I think to to be all that we can be is a Buddha. To be who we really are is to be a Buddha. To be nobody else but you but who you are In a world which is night and day trying to make you everybody else is the most difficult battle that we have to fight, and we have to fight it every day of our lives.
We have to continually keep reminding ourselves, continually reprioritizing, reorientating, redirecting ourselves. You know, we’ve always tried to do our best to be the person that we thought we were. And what we have not achieved up to now, what we could not have been up to now, we can determine to become. To I think to be yourself is to be a Buddha. You know, simply this optimum mode of being.
At a very basic level of what we’re doing, the work that we’re involved in, We have to believe in ourselves. Lama Thubten Yeshe, the founder of Buddha House, who died about seven years ago. The main problem, the problem. What is the problem? It is an 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 our quality, that is the worst symptom to be healthy, to be liberated. This is the main problem to eradicate, to cut. As long as you decided, having preconception that I am the self pitying one, you decided, you decided already that you are the bad guy. You decided already.
So when you decided you are the bad guy, you always do bad actions. Anyway, I’m worthless. I’m bad guy. So I do bad one. Of course, that’s the way it is.
That’s true. And our life becomes a self fulfilling, self defeating prophecy. The Buddhism is not asking us to to believe in any sort in some sort of dogma, but it is asking us to to open ourselves up to the possibility that we could be mistaken about ourselves and who we are. I mean about the basic quality of who or what we are. That I am not these patterns, that I am not these confusion, that I am not this anger, this hatred, this attachment.
That does not encompass the totality of my being. You know, we all have a story which we live by. And quite often these stories that we have about ourselves are subjugating and impoverishing. And so we have to begin to rewrite the story of our lives to to promote preferred outcomes, the type, the plot, the way of being we would like to live, to rewrite our own story, that we have that choice, we have that power, we have basic sanity. So we begin to redirect ourselves, to begin to write the story of our lives in a preferred manner.
The unique outcomes which we as very unique individuals prefer, that we find valuable. Somewhere along the line, guidelines and ways of being which we have found worked for us. These self validating experiences which we don’t have to justify to anyone else’s side of ourselves and not even to ourselves. Authentic ways of being, who we actually are. So the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha, our preferred story, this metaphor of what it means to be a happy, loving, healthy, sane human being, who’s someone who solved their problems at a very basic level, and out of their compassion, skillfully works with others in order to help them to do the same.
And we seek to actualize, to to promote this preferred story of our life, to perform it in actual fact. The means, the methods, or the dharma. And this all takes place within the social context of a spiritual community. Those who help us to develop our preferred story, to help us to express our unique outcomes, which we deem worthwhile, which are worthy of our life and our effort, our being. And trying to raise the level of our motivation such that we’re not doing it just for ourselves, but an ever widening circle of others, taking universal responsibility.
That we don’t this basic goodness. You think that you can take a little pinch of basic goodness and keep it in your pocket. So the idea of privacy begins to creep in. That is the point at which you need renunciation. Renunciation and the temptation to possess basic goodness.
It is necessary to give up a localized approach, a provincial approach, to accept a greater world. You know, we can’t own our basic goodness, our Buddha nature. Or maybe it would be more quick to say, our ego can never bring our basic goodness within its own domain, within its own control. We have to renounce the temptation to try. You know, it’s there, but we can never possess it, our basic goodness.
We can We can’t make it another object for ego’s manipulation, another something which we can put in our collection box. Yeah. With all our other things that we’ve collected over the course of our lives. You know, the like the image that comes to mind is of someone who has an insect collection, you know, having pinned all these, taken the life out of them and putting them in in some kind of display. So giving up our localized approach, our habitual identification with the displays of ego, and beginning to accept a greater world.
Now we can only we can only be our basic goodness. We can only express our beauty. We cannot we have to live out of this deep part of ourselves, our basic sanity, as a style of life. We cannot own our basic goodness. We can only be our basic goodness.
So we have to to believe in something of ourselves, something perhaps that only presently we can intuit and commit ourselves to being more of ourselves. To that part of ourselves which from time to time perhaps we only catch a fleeting glimpse of. Some kind of inexpressible experience perhaps. So we have to believe in ourselves and commit ourselves to becoming more and more of who we really are. So we have to ask ask ourselves what is what is stopping us?
What is preventing me from from growing to from becoming a happy, healthy, loving, sane human being, at some level, I feel I can become, and which is in fact our birthright. If you believe you can or if you believe you can’t, you’re right. And this becomes our refuge. And this is where we have to continually be redirecting ourselves to being who we can be, to believing we can, and then we’re right. And our life will express that rightness, and things will go well.
You know, we can have that assurance, that confidence. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. From the virtuous merits that I collect by practicing giving and the other perfections, may I attain the state of the Buddha to be able to benefit all the living beings. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the highest assembly. From the virtuous merit that I collect by practicing giving and the other perfections, may I attain the state of a Buddha to be able to benefit all sentient beings.
I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the highest assembly. And the virtuous merit that I collect by practicing giving and the other perfections. May I attain the state of a Buddha to be able to benefit all sentient beings. We’re going to meditate, and we’ll begin by rousing our motivation through the cultivation of love and compassion. And we can choose as an object someone we’re having some problems with.
You know, it’s a pretty difficult object, I think it’s we’re up to it. So, someone you’re having some problems with, some difficulties, someone you don’t like, we’ll go through the three levels of compassion and love toward them as best we can. You know, you’re trying to sincerely, using your creativity, your skills, your various experiences and imagination to induce these seeing something in a new way, some kind of movement of mind, some kind of shift in perspective to bring how you view this particular person. You can do that. And then we’ll meditate on taking and giving.
And we did it last week and we began with ourselves. And this week, let’s take as our object, someone that we naturally care about, someone toward whom we can quite readily develop the sense of willingness to take on their problems and willing to share to some degree all our happiness and the good things that we possess. Okay. Shall we try that? So if you take a comfortable but firm posture.
Imagining before you someone that you’re having some difficulties with, someone you don’t like. Initially just trying to develop this simple friendly thought. It would be nice if you didn’t have any difficulties. Just a friendly gesture of compassion. May you not have any problems.
I wish you didn’t suffer. I’m going to help you. I’m going to commit myself to working with you in solving your problems. And we’ll cultivate love toward this person. First with a simple friendly thought, it would be wonderful if you were happy.
May you be happy. I’m going to help you commit myself to your happiness. And the way I’m going to express my commitment to you at this present moment is through my meditation, through developing my skills, my love and my wisdom. Someday, I can be of actual real benefit to you. I can fulfill my commitment to you, in fact.
Then bring your mind to the breath. Gentle, easy, in an outflow of the breath. If it’s helpful, we’re using the techniques of counting and noting. We begin by taking we’re going to use as an object someone that we love, someone that we care about, we feel close to quite naturally. Imagine that person in front of us as best you can.
If you can’t see them, it doesn’t matter. Just feel that that person is there. And consider some possible present difficulty, problem they might be undergoing, physical or mental, some type of suffering, dissatisfaction or disappointment. And understand that they are exactly like yourself. They want to be happy.
They don’t want to suffer just like yourself. And put yourself in their position. What would you want if you were in their place? Somebody to help you to solve your problem, to remove your suffering. Imagine at your heart area this round egg of self centeredness.
This has been your whole problem throughout your life. It’s been destroying your happiness, preventing you from ever feeling really loved, cared for. It’s brought you nothing but suffering, your own selfishness, your own exaggerated self concern. Once you’re going to do something tremendously extraordinary, you’re going to take on their suffering on yourself and use it to destroy your own self centeredness. So thinking of that person’s difficulty, their present suffering, imagine it begins to rise up from them in the form of a thick dark smoke.
It begins to move toward you, through your nostrils and downward, and begins to eat away like acid at the egg of self centeredness at your heart. Continually taking on their suffering or their difficulties, continually using it to eat away at your own self centeredness. So now they no longer have that problem, but they still want to be happy. You would want to be happy. If you were in their place, what would you want?
Somebody to help you to be happy. And remembering all the the virtues, all the advantages of other centeredness, How throughout your life it’s been the most vivid, self validating experiences of your life. Your happiest moments were when you cared about others. And imagine this caring, this wanting to be of help to this loved one. You’re going to give away everything that you have to them, something you’ve never done before.
All your possessions, all your creative potential, even your body. You’re going to practice giving it all away and transforming into a brilliant white light at your heart area. This is all that you hold valuable, You’re going to give it to this person to make them happy. And this white light rises up moving out through your nostrils and begins to approach them and transforms into whatever would make them happy, the positive counterpart of that previous suffering. If they were lonely before, a loving companion.
If they were sick, a healthy body. Whatever that would make them happy, that’s what you want to give them. Now you’ve made them happy. This share sympathetically in the happiness they’re presently experiencing. You’ve made them happy.
You can feel good about that and share in their happiness. See the smile on their face. But then consider the possible future sufferings, future problems that this person may have. It could be very specific or it could be just in general, old age, finally death. They’re just like you.
They don’t want to experience that suffering. If you were in their place, what would you want? Someone to help you to work through that problem, to eliminate that future suffering. You can identify with them. And determine to take on that those future sufferings, whatever they might be.
Really wish that you could. And you’re going to place it on your own self centeredness, your own selfishness. It’s like a black like a disgusting piece of meat at your heart. It’s been the source of all your problems, all your loneliness and difficulties throughout your life. Now you’re going to use this other person’s suffering to finally destroy it.
So determine to take on that future suffering. And imagine that it radiates toward you in the form of all types of vicious animals, tigers and lions, jackals, hyenas streaming upwards and through your nostrils and down, completely tearing it to shreds, devouring the selfishness, your self centeredness. Again and again. So now they’re not going to experience that particular future suffering, still they have to be ensured they’re going to be happy in the future. Not going to experience Ensure that they’re going to experience the positive counterpart.
And commit yourself because that’s what you would want if you were in their place, somebody to help you. They’re just like you. So transforming everything that you hold valuable, your possessions, your skillful actions, your own body to a brilliant white light at your heart center.