Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Ven Jampa Gendun opens this 46-minute session with a secular passage about “taking time for what matters most,” then uses it to reframe going for refuge as a conscious realignment of priorities rather than a formal ritual act. He examines the eight worldly concerns — hopes and fears around pleasure, gain, fame, and praise — as forces keeping behavior mechanical and ego-driven, and explains the Three Jewels in accessible terms: Buddha as an inner model of human potential, Dharma as any method that opens the mind, Sangha as a community of mutual support. The second half is a guided loving-kindness meditation moving from oneself to a loved one, a stranger, and a difficult person, then expanding in widening circles to all of Australia and ultimately all living beings. Accessible to newcomers, with an emphasis on psychological parallels over ritual framing.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 H and M of B 1992 10 21.mp3
UUID: 4b1e29f2-623b-4808-8e30-8668c19c4999
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Buddhism (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1992-10-21
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.9 minutes
Words: ~3,297
It’s nice to see you all again. So we begin by adjusting our motivation, redirecting ourselves, reorientating. I guess it’s very much a matter of readjusting our priorities. What is most important for me as a very unique self actualizing individual? Someone gave me something and I thought I’ll share it with you in terms of what I just mentioned about the necessity to reprioritize.
It says, take time for what’s important to you, for what makes you happiest. Take time to be with those you love and share your deepest wish, most secret dream, your favorite fantasy. Take time to look around at all the goodness, at the gladness the world can offer. All of it is yours, if only you take the time. The quality of our actions is determined by the character of our motivation, the quality of our intention, that we have to reflect upon why it is what we do more than what we do.
And to take the time to make sure it is in accordance with perhaps our deepest, most cherished values. What is most important to me? What works for me, not what I’ve been conditioned to believe or what I’ve been told or what I might like to believe, but what actually works within my own experience. And having done that, some sort of courageous authentic response to one’s own truth, to live the life of our dreams, what we hold to be most worthwhile, to live out our our finest dreams as it were, to take the time to get in touch and having gotten in touch to begin to express what it is that we feel in our everyday life, in our various practical affairs. And so there seems to be two levels of mental operation that need to be worked with.
One of them is determining our motivation, getting in touch with our motivation, what our values are and then developing the determination to express them, to find a way to manifest them, to make them a part, to heal the split between our thinking and our behavior, to make ourselves whole again, holy. Unless we begin to overcome our fears, go beyond our hopes, then there’s always going to be a split of some degree. Even though we begin to feel what it is that is of most value to ourselves, we have to, as it were, use our wisdom and our intelligence and summon up the courage to live out those most deeply held values, the most cherished dreams that we all have. So the process of redirecting ourselves, as it were in traditional terms of going for refuge, it’s very much a matter of realigning our allegiance from a life passively lived on the basis of hopes and fear. That is to say, of pleasure, fear of pain, hopes of gain, fear of loss, hopes of fame, fear of notoriety, hopes of praise, fear of ridicule.
Going beyond all those hopes and fears which constitute, which influence, which determine our behavior. And choosing in the in the freedom of one’s own wisdom, one’s own love, and the necessity to to respond from an authentic place of our being with creative acts, choosing to actively grow. And then the the a shift in our motivation from for our growth, from that of simply from one of self concern to concern for other. And it is this general trend toward shifting the psychological center of gravity for the the foundation of our our various actions from one of total self absorption at the exclusion and expense of others to an opening out and at least in some small way making or incorporating, integrating a social awareness as a determining factor in the way we act in the world. And that we are very much interdependent with others and our acts impinge upon others.
And trying to find an appropriate place, an appropriate way to relate in the world. So in the course of going for refuge, this process of redirecting ourselves, reorientating ourselves, the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha. And as I’ve tried to emphasize, it’s not a Buddha outside of ourselves, but the Buddha inside of ourselves. That is to say, our paradigm of sanity, our model of the evolutionary destiny of humankind. You know, what we can orientate our mind toward, our actions toward, some sort of principle in which we can begin to integrate all our various activities around which has meaning for us, which has the potential to at a very basic level to solve our problems, both our internal problems and finding peace within and in terms of the problems of finding overcoming the conflict, the alienation, the isolation from others, finding an appropriate way of living within the world.
We call that a Buddha. And this is achieved by means of the Dharma. That is to say the methods, the means by which we actualize Buddha, at which we’re able to raise the level of our consciousness in all its various manifestations. You know, anything which can take us from hatred to love, from self centeredness to other centeredness, from miserliness to generosity, from ignorance to wisdom. That which has the key, that which is able to move the mind, to expand our awareness, to help us to go deeper.
That is the dharma, no matter what form it may take. And this all occurs, this process of growth, of evolution within the social context of a spiritual community. You know, those individuals who have taken the goal of awakening to be a central part of their life. The development of love and compassion and creative activity and the benefiting of both oneself and others as important values which they are seeking to integrate, to make it a more important place in their life. Individuals who come together to support one another, to inspire one another, to encourage one another, to teach one another, to cry on each other’s shoulder, whatever it takes to facilitate the growth of another individual, to bring about their well-being.
And that we it becomes a a place where we can practice sanity at its highest level. A place where the best is asked of us and is supported and encouraged and is confirmed and reaffirmed. And we try this process of the inner focus of our life becoming as a Buddha which is actualized by means of the Dharma in the social context of the spiritual community and trying to raise the level of motivation. Beginning if only in a humble first step by including more and more individuals as your area of concern in terms of happiness. We don’t have to be saints, we don’t have to be superhuman, but we have to make begin to make that effort to direct ourselves into the type of person that we want to become five years from now, fifteen years from now, twenty years from now.
Lifetimes from now. So a life rather than simply becoming a repetitive pattern, a never ending reoccurring compulsive cycles of delusion becomes a a purposeful meaningful existence, which is though it may be there may be reoccurring patterns, but it’s more of a spiral nature. There is some direction, is some purposeful quality about our life. There is some movement to a higher order of being. There is some We can feel good about ourselves.
We can respect ourselves in the immediate experience, but we can also have confidence that we are moving toward a very fundamental solution to the basic problem of the human dilemma of what it means to be an ordinary being, an ego based being. And we can try to live on a higher order of existence. You know, we have to have to believe that there is a possibility for something more than normality, something more than mere coping, that there’s a goodness about ourselves and there’s a goodness about life. Sometimes we, in those, our finest moments, when we experience some taste, some slight experience of what life has to offer us. And this becomes a sort of encouragement and inspiration for ourselves to keep going.
But we have to keep re encouraging ourselves. Continually reorientating, redirecting. And then this is what we can do for each other in talking about these issues and encouraging one another. Asking one of the best of one another. So this concept is going for refuge.
This taking the time before we act To find out what works for me and find out what is important to me, for me. And find a way to begin to express it and to begin to reorientate your various activities, thinking and your speaking around that which is going to foster, that which is going to enhance the possibility of my arriving at the goal that I’m looking for, that I want to be, the person that I want to be five years from now, ten years from now, fifteen years from now. And then we can By giving ourselves some sort of direction, a consistent choice of the person that we want to be if we can simply keep reminding ourselves and keep placing before our mind’s eye as it were, the person I want to become. And in all the seemingly insignificant choices that confront us over the course of our everyday life, We can begin to choose a consistent path which is going to lead to the person that I want to be. We’re continually confronted with choice And we have to have some sort of perspective on our situation.
Otherwise, we’re going to be completely under the influence of our hopes and fears. And by hopes I mean that which is simply is going to enhance ego, that which is in terms of the priorities of ego, that which is simply going to solidify concrete, make more and more concrete, firm the struggle to secure in space and time, the misconceived self. That simply is going to lock us more and more into the past habitual behavior, the dead inert unliving quality. Simply acting out of the hollow and empty which constitutes most of our life. So you know creating some sort of perspective by keeping before us our mind’s eye the type of person I want to become and in spite of my fears, in spite of my hopes, the path with growth, the path which is going to help me to find, to express my life’s goal, my life’s dreams, however you may conceive of them, whatever they might be for you.
Then there’s some kind of goodness about ourselves and the goodness some kind of goodness about life. 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 the Buddha to be able to benefit all sentient beings 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 the Buddha to be able to benefit all sentient beings.
I go for a refuge until I am 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 the Buddha to be able to benefit all sentient. Let’s begin with meditation. And we’ll do, first of all, adjust our motivation by the development of love and compassion. Then we’ll do mindfulness and breathing.
Then we’ll do a meditation on loving kindness. So if you’ll take a firm comfortable posture. If it’s useful the mindfulness of breathing to use the techniques of counting and noting. And in the course of development of love and compassion as our initial motivation, we practice in using various individual, expanding the possibility of actually developing these feelings toward different objects. But again, we’ll begin with ourselves tonight.
We can’t develop this sincere wish even toward ourselves to choose to extend ourselves for the purpose of nourishing ourselves and knowing our own difficulties, own problems immediately. If we can’t do that, then how can we ever develop a stable, powerful compassion and love toward others when we can only know their difficulties and their problems at best vicariously, secondhandedly. So love and compassion are very much developed in terms of understanding ourselves and developing the will, the choice to work, to extend oneself, to go beyond one’s present limits in order to nourish oneself, to help oneself grow, to solve ones problems, to heal our wounds. So we can begin with ourselves and then having developed some sincere stable quality of this choosing to work with our problems, then we can begin to extend this understanding, this ability to develop, to make this choice. We can use other objects, we can use those we love and then move on to more and more widen our circle of concern, include more and more people in our area of interest as to their welfare.
So if you take a comfortable but firm posture, we’ll begin with ourselves. So begin by imagining yourself in front of yourself. If you can’t see that person, in this case yourself, it doesn’t matter, just feel that you’re there and first develop the simple but friendly thought. It would be wonderful if I didn’t have any difficulty. I would like that very much if I didn’t have any dissatisfaction or problems.
And we’ll strengthen that. May I be free of all my difficulty. I wish very much that I had no problems, dissatisfaction, suffering. Strengthen that. I’m going to commit myself to helping myself, taking responsibilities to solve my problems, to free myself from my difficulty.
And cultivation of love, beginning with the friendly thought. The wonderful thought: may I be happy. I like that very much. May I be happy? I wish myself great happiness.
I’m gonna bring myself happiness, commit commit myself to my well-being. And the way I’m going to express that commitment to myself at this immediate moment is through my meditation. By developing myself, I’ll be able to really help myself. And bring your mind to the breath, the easy natural flow of the in and out of the breath. Bring your mind back to the breath.
And they got to cultivate loving compassion, loving kindness. Whatever you may have done in the past, the various mistakes that you may have created, you can simply regret them and begin again. And whatever identity you may hold to, whether however you may conceive of yourself, you can become anything that you want to be. But just for this present moment, we want to set aside the past and the future. Try to make friends with ourselves and treat ourselves well.
So begin to to generate some kind, caring feelings towards yourself, wishing yourself all the good things of life. Be kind to yourself and wish yourself well. May be happy? May I grow? May I not suffer?
Wish yourself all the best that you can imagine for yourself. Now think of someone that you love, that you like very much. Imagine that person in front of you. If you can’t see them, it doesn’t matter. Just feel that that person is there and remember all the good times that you’ve shared together and the various kindnesses that this person has shown you.
Begin to to direct outward, to radiate out the feelings of wishing this person well-being, to wishing them happiness, but then not suffer, which naturally arise when you think of this person this way. Attract some kind, caring feelings toward this person, wishing them all the good things of life. And think of someone you neither like nor dislike, that you feel indifference toward, a stranger. Imagine that person in front of you. And we want to try to go beneath the superficial appearances that we usually judge people by, that we usually cling to whether they’re male or female, or old, rich or poor, educated, uneducated, attractive or unattractive.
Try to go beneath all of those superficial appearances and try to see the essence of that person. There’s someone there who wants to be happy and doesn’t want to suffer just like yourself. And wish them happiness just as you would for yourself. It’s basically you’re exactly alike. Now think of someone who you’re having some problems with, someone you don’t like, disturbs your mind and imagine that person in front of you.
This person wants to be happy and doesn’t want to suffer just like yourself. And perhaps their methods of solving their problems, finding their happiness, has come in conflict with your methods of solving your problems and finding your own happiness. It’s just a conflict of self interest. You’ve hurt others either intentionally or unintentionally to find the happiness that you were looking for. Now perhaps this person has done the same to you.
And just as you have to forgive yourself for the various mistakes that you’ve made to begin to forgive this person. So just for this present moment, set aside your hurt and your grudge, your anger, and try to see someone very much like yourself doing the best they can to get some happiness out of life. Oftentimes being confused about how to go about it and making many mistakes along the way. Now with the kindness of your heart, out of your heart, Wish them well just as you would for yourself. Imagine these four people together, yourself and these three others.
Though they have different appearances, though you have different feelings for each one of them. Try to see that basically they’re all exactly alike. They all want to be happy. None of them want to suffer. In that respect, there’s no difference.
Without any bias, radiate out a wish of well-being to all equally. Wishing them well. All the people in this room, people are trying to take responsibility for their lives, for their happiness, searching, looking, exploring. Wishing that they find whatever it is they’re looking for. Whatever it might be, peace, love, truth.
Wishing them happiness. Wishing them all the good things of life. Radiating out this wish of happiness and well-being to everyone in Fullarton, to people in their homes, cooking, reading the newspaper, playing, watching television. Everything they do, everything that they say, they do and say because they hope it’s going to bring them happiness, hope it’s going to solve their problem. Wish them that happiness.
Touch everyone in Fullarton with that wish. Spreading out further and further to all of Adelaide, all the people in their cars and buses on the streets, in their homes and shops, factory. Further and further to all of South Australia, all the people, animals, insects. Extending its wish out further and further. Alice Springs, Perth, Darwin, Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Hobart, the entire country.
New Zealand. Entire southern hemisphere. Taking the entire world into your heart, all the people, black, white, red, yellow, all the animals, all the insects, everything that lives on the earth is touched by your wish, perfectly happy. May none suffer. Radiating out in all the directions of space further and further.
Further and further without any sense of limitation or limit. To find it without any boundary, without any center, pervading all of it in its space. May all things be happy. May all things be happy. And then bring the mind back to the breath.
We’re looking at a short text by the fourteenth century yogi-scholar.