Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this brief 6-minute closing segment, Ven Jampa Gendun anchors his teaching on bodhicitta with a story about two monks who met in the desert at night — both consumed by doubt and wavering faith, yet one set aside his own turmoil to strengthen the other, and found himself strengthened in return. From that image, he draws the practical point: loosening the grip of our own agendas, even slightly, can dissolve problems that self-absorption only deepens. He then guides the dedication of merit, noting that while karma cannot literally be transferred, training the mind to wish otherwise is itself a valid practice. He closes by contrasting intellect — bound by proof — with the heart, which operates through meaning and belief, warning against letting pure rationality narrow what we think possible.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 08 H and M of B 1992 11 11.mp3
UUID: d6852cf9-93a5-46dc-8887-e4bf73bf0982
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Buddhism (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1992-11-11
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 5.8 minutes
Words: ~669
Really need for me to stay, and I’m going to go back to my kid. And the wrathful father said to the to the gentle father, you know, that that that night we met out on the desert almost one year ago, I too was full of doubts. I too was full of conflicts. I too had was questioning my vocation. I lost my faith.
I was just like you in that night. And the gentle father said, but why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you tell me that you you also had doubts, that you also had great conflicts in your mind, that your faith your faith was weakening? And the wrathful father said to his kindly father, you know, if if at that moment one of us had not been strong, we would have both been lost. So they were exactly alike.
They both doubted. They both weren’t sure. They both were questioning. But out of necessity, one as it were set aside their issues, their agenda. And out of that found some inner strength whereby to save the other.
And in saving the other, he himself was saved. So this this this we’re all very much in the same position, whosoever in general. But perhaps if we, to some degree, we can set aside even if slightly our own agendas, our own issues, and begin to concern ourselves to some degree with others, perhaps we’ll find our own issues and agendas will solve by themselves, that we can, we can surprise ourselves. We can go beyond some sort of limitation that we’ve set for ourselves. And we can rise to the moment, to the occasion.
We can do something more than we could ever have imagined. And something having been completely absorbed, completely caught up, wrapped up in our own self concerns. You know the value of love when you’re willing to extend yourself to nourishing another person’s well-being. So I think we have to stop there. So we’ll continue that next week.
We’re going to dedicate the positive energy that we created through our meditation, listening, teaching. So though we can’t, in fact, in the four distinct modes of karma, of actions, whoever, if we’re having created an action, it is only ourselves who can experience that action, the result of it. But we can develop the attitude as it were wishing that we could give it away, wishing that I could let it go and have this other person experience positive results of my positive action. You know, the this training of the mind. You know, the bodhisattva, those who have awakened their hearts make illogical prayers, prayers which are quite irrational.
But I don’t think our rationality and our logic should bind us, and we shouldn’t be limited by our logic to what is conventionally conceived possible. Even if it were impossible, that’s what we should strive for. Even if it’s not possible to give away positive actions to others, we can still wish that it were and we can dedicate it to that end. It’s a sense of the way of of working with our mind. The intellect operates on the basis of proof and demonstration and the heart, the soul operates on the basis of belief and meaning.
That which has meaning at which resonates at some deep level beyond our logic, beyond our limited conceptions, intellect. There’s a great thing. We we we are in in danger of losing our souls if we fall to the extreme of only believing the intellect, what is only rationally possible. By holding ourselves to that limitation. May I quickly become an awakened spiritual teacher and lead each and every sentient being to enlightened realm through these skillful actions.
May the 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’d like to get a cup of tea and have a discussion. Thank you.