Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute talk, Ven Jampa Gendun opens by threading a Martin Buber quote — “If I am not for myself, who will be? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” — through a discussion of karma as personal responsibility rather than fatalism. He argues that genuine change takes years, not weeks, and that Western individualism makes it hard to experience oneself as part of a greater social whole. The session continues a series on Tsongkhapa’s three principal aspects of the path, focusing on renunciation understood as gradually loosening the grip of hopes and fears rather than withdrawing from life. He then introduces the four results of karma — ripening, experiential, functional, and environmental — illustrated with concrete examples. A guided compassion and self/other exchange meditation closes the session.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 09 H and M of B 1992 08 19.mp3
UUID: 975c55a0-128b-43c7-a610-78a5a9f2fff6
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Buddhism (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1992-08-19
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.2 minutes
Words: ~4,922
Begin by adjusting our motivation in the process of reorientating ourselves, redirecting ourselves, getting in touch with some of our central values, with that which you have somewhere along the line determined, which are meaningful for you as a very unique individual. There’s a quote by Martin Buber in which he says, if I am not for myself, who will be? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when? If we don’t love ourselves, if we don’t take our own problems seriously, if we don’t aim to take responsibility for ourselves, then who can we expect to do that for if we ourselves do not?
And this is the process of beginning to love ourselves, beginning to we’re going to be looking at karma. And one of the messages of karma is that we are not victims, that we can take control of our destiny if we’re willing to begin to work with the present situation. This is probably why it’s such great news to study, to reflect, to meditate. Because the more that we know the present situation, how it evolved, the more possibility we have to intervene in a skillful manner in order to arrive at whatever goal that we’re looking for, whatever type of happiness that we’re seeking, To be able to understand the various forces which are operating, all the near and far causes which have brought the situation come into being at this present moment. And I think then we not only are not thrown off balance, overwhelmed, but we can begin to work on various perhaps more subtle levels.
Now I think oftentimes we have a very linear view and that’s nothing new. It’s something which has plagued us in Western society a great deal in the Western culture. We see A causing B and we don’t see the interconnecting network of very subtle conditions and very subtle causes which culminate in B. And we oversimplify that and we see I have a problem B. And And we try to trace it back to A, A is my problem.
If only I could get rid of A. But we don’t see that the whole problem is in terms of the context, our world view. It is the entire, all the various attitudes, beliefs, ideas and assumptions that will all of this subtle and coarse conceptions that we’re bringing to the situation. You know, people, I think we realistically, very practically have to work at two levels in working with our problems and dealing with our difficulties and situations. And we want to experience happiness very immediately, and I think that’s quite justified.
And we can go about it in various manners and have various tools and have various means. Having money, having clothing, you know, stylish clothing, comfortable place to live, nice car, or even a car that runs. I could use a nice car. I think these are worthwhile. And we also want to be able to develop some composure, some balance, some some quality of some peace of mind in the immediate moment.
I think this is really necessary and worthwhile and I think it’s quite achievable to some degree. But also the whole context, the more long range, the more deeper ways of looking at our situation in terms of the whole world view, the way the whole ideas about what problems are, about what actually becomes a problem play. Our ways are skilled in dealing with problems. So not only do we have to have work on a very coarse materialistic level, not only do we have to work on the very coarse psychological level, but we have to deal also at another level of a very profound approach to the problem of life. And hopefully, Buddhism is can offer something that perhaps not at the materialistic level, but hopefully at the immediate psychological and more profound level such that we can begin to not only experience some taste of a decrease in the frequency and the strain and the duration of many of our difficulties, We can begin to see some gradual overall diminishment and improvement of the quality of our life over some considerable time.
I think if we look, I know the Dalai Lama has said that if we simply look continually in terms of short term gains, we’re going to be continually perhaps frustrated. You know, the mind, your mind didn’t become this way overnight. These problems that you are now experiencing have the causes have evolved over considerable time. And many of them not only have evolved over considerable time during the course of this life and from the childhood onward, So many of the problems that we are dealing with are, I think, a-historical, whether you had a good childhood or a bad childhood or whatever. And then still we have certain common problems which simply being ordinary human being entail.
So we in solving these very profound and deep problems and the problems which evolved over a considerable length of time, even considering just the course of this life, We have to look at perhaps a longer range time than we normally look at for difference, for change. You know, I think as the Dalai Lama said, if we can look at five years and ten years, we should be able to see some quality improvement in the quality of our lives. I think so. But if we look at it from one year, I think if we look from day to day and they think it’s not working and there’s something wrong, then perhaps they have unrealistic expectations. Perhaps a great deal of the path involves disappointment until you become have an As I think it mentioned in the newsletter or maybe it will in upcoming newsletter, I’m not sure.
We have this notion of instant everything. You just rip open a packet and you throw it in some hot water and there you have it. And I don’t think that’s the case with the evolution of the mind. And I think it’s only unrealistic, but it’s perhaps shows a lack of understanding of the nature of situation and what we can, how it can be, strictly dealt with. You know, creating and working with our problems specifically with many of our difficulties that we are, that we, you know, hopefully I want to be able to be able to apply something when I walk out the door tonight.
That immediate, that’s you know that I want to feel that somehow I have something, a tool that I can go home with and deal with my problems a little more skillfully. But also I know that I’m not going to perhaps be able to see some of the immediate connection between a lot of perhaps what we’re talking about, a lot of that reflecting and meditating on. That I think it would be too simplistic to think that I have to only deal with solution A in order to get to solve solution B. That to think, to gain some overall understanding of the nature of my reality in all its very subtlety. And somehow we’re changing the mind.
Think that’s what Buddhism is concerned with. And you know not so much to solve the immediate problems but begin to see the themes, the reoccurring patterns of our problem. And to change our mind set state that they no longer arrive. And once the problem arises we can use various mind training techniques to be able to gain some perspective, be able to shift, to be able to reframe it in such a way that it becomes workable. But still it’s a problem.
The thing is if we to in evolution of the mind and development of the mind or change of the mind working with these concepts these ideas of karma and Dharma of love and compassion and working with an idea of selflessness that we simply have fewer problems. That which was a problem previously, unnoticeably perhaps no longer is a problem or it’s only a slight problem. Our mind becomes smoother. It becomes more flexible. Things aren’t as problematic as they used to be.
And to notice the absence of problems is very unusual for many people because they become too habituated to the sense of problematic approach to life. That life is somehow something to be solved rather than to be lived. And we sometimes miss the experiences of peace when we’ve gone for a great deal of time without any problems. It’s a very subtle quality of experience. When we’re happy, we’re quite perhaps aware of it.
When we’re sad, we’re quite quite aware of it. And I’m not talking about boredom, I’m talking about a sense of peace. And things go along well, when there’s no problems, when there’s no difficulties. And I think it’s on this level that we can begin to notice some difference over time Because our mind is becoming, you know, the mind, this basic sanity is finding a way to express itself. And it’s finding its way of expression in terms of that which was difficult previously, that which was problematic previously simply is no longer problematic, is no longer difficult.
It’s not there any longer. And somehow there’s some understanding and some way of dealing with that situation such that it’s no longer a hindrance, a problem. And talking about karma in the sense that if I am not for myself who will be? I think I would like for us to begin to try to relate some of these things in our discussions to our everyday experience so that we can make them more perhaps applicable. We can see how they can apply them, make use of them even when we walk out the door.
But also beginning to see that a great deal of this education that is a cultivation of another type of world view. That is the complex of new ways of seeing, new understanding, new ways of relating. And I think these only evolve over time because who we are has evolved over a great deal of time. To change that is also going to take time. If I’m only for myself, what am I?
And this is also another part of our view that we’re trying to work with in the terms of ourselves as social being. You know, know many of my teachers in India, one of the most would note that one of the most marked qualities of Westerners is their individualism. This almost to an extreme that they That they don’t see, it’s very difficult to see them as part something greater than themselves. Maybe they’ll be willing to extend it to their families, some sense of belonging there. But they don’t have a sense of, we’re very democratic.
We don’t have a sense of what is best for the majority. An awareness that we have a rightful place, that we’re part of something of a greater whole than just this one individual. You know, we’re very much concerned with the rights and the, you know, perhaps these are all justifiable. You know, we can’t argue that. Well, I’m not arguing that.
But the rights and the freedoms of this one individual in terms of other people. But in terms of, know, if I’m only for myself, what am I? Beginning to develop a sense of belonging to something greater than just one single individual and beginning to develop that as part of one’s worldview. Rather in this way our freedom, our sense of individuality, sense of individual rights does not come in context because what we believe is right for myself is right for becomes in a way what is promotes the welfare of the majority. One begins to see one’s self as a part of something greater than this one single individual and one’s values, one’s way of looking at the world, one’s beliefs are established in terms of a greater social conscience.
And it seems like it’s going to be necessary to evolve in this way. We can’t be a world that in the near future of ten billion individuals. It perhaps won’t be workable. But we could be a world inhabited by ten billion social beings. That’s who can live in harmony and who can live in a sense of mutual consideration and caring concern.
That seems to be workable. Maybe this is the way we can begin to evolve ourselves in terms of our social quality. And if not now, when? If I I somehow The only time we have to work with is the present moment. The past is gone and the future is yet to be.
And the only time change can take place, the only time we can make choice, the only time we can make some kind of take responsibility, that we can make some kind of difference, which makes a difference is in each present moment. There’s no other time available for us. So I guess what this kind of reorientating process to begin to concern myself with one’s problems in a very realistic way, taking responsibility, looking at one’s problems both in terms of immediate solution, finding, implementing various types of skillful immediate methods We’re finding immediate medium term, happinesses, but also trying to get a sense that we’re also working on a very profound and perhaps unidentifiable level at present. I have perhaps I’m not being very clear because it’s very difficult for me to talk about it but in the sense that it’s our entire being which we’re bringing to the present moment. It’s not that it’s not just a simple aspect of myself, you know, I have some anger or I have some jealousy or this person is my problem.
It’s because of A, I’m experiencing this problem. But it’s this entire, it’s all that I am which I am bringing to this present moment. And if there’s a problem, it is to a lesser or greater degree a problem of my entire being. All of who I am is somehow problematic. It’s not as if I can take, you know, like when you walk in a supermarket, you can take one thing off a shelf and everything remains very much the same.
But in terms of the interconnecting web of events, both psychic and mental events and how the world around us, I think it would be a mistake to see it only in terms of a very linear, a very simplistic A is causing B. And if I can only get to A through B, then all my problems are going to be solved. I think we have to have a more, what do they call it? It’s the term lateral, a contextual or systemic. Somehow I have to evolve my being in order to be able to deal with these problems most effectively.
Not just involving one aspect of myself, not just becoming more skillful in not becoming angry in this situation or being able to communicate well in this situation. But all about who I am. And hopefully I think one thing about Buddhism is that it describes, it’s a very profound description of life I think. And I think it gives us a handle. It gives us some perspective.
It gives us something to work with. And I think it’s dealing with all of our being in many different levels. And I hope from your side that you avail yourself of all the different possible methods to help you to grow. Now whether they’re Buddhism or not is not the point. Now with the point, we’re trying to make our lives peaceful and try to stick to that.
So whatever works for you, you make use of that because each of you are very unique, but we do have commonalities. And so within these teachings and within all the possible variations and methods of growth to begin to find your way. Each of us, in a way, has to find our own way, that way becomes a reflection of a universal way. And what becomes a central focus in our life is Buddha, the Buddha within inside of ourselves. That is to say, a life based upon growth.
And that is to say, expanding of horizons in terms of our social being and an inward growth and depth in terms of understanding that the nature of reality and the nature of how my mind is operating, ultimate reality. And this is what the method that we use, the means that we raise the level of our consciousness, we actualize Buddha, that we seek to grow is Dharma, and whatever helps me to develop, whatever helps me to go from generosity, go from miserliness to generosity, whatever helps me to go from attachment to openness, attachment to love. These qualities like that, namely generosity, love, compassion, all these qualities, these are self authenticating in a sense that These the qualities that I think each of us has our unique reality. And the Buddha discovered the reality, Buddha Śākyamūni. What does Buddha Śākyamūni mean?
And he said, I have evolved a type of reality which I experience as peace, which is characterized by such mental qualities as generosity, love, compassion, ethics. But these are qualities which are expressions of mental health. It is not that we are to be generous in order to fulfill some sort of preconceived standard of morality. But these expressions of well-being, of an optimum mode of being. And so trying to align ourselves with the qualities of an optimum mode of being, and this we call Buddha, the Buddha within, inside of ourselves as the Sangha.
So the realigning of our allegiance from a life based upon hopes and fears, a life which is run on the basis, which is under the influence, which is imprisoned by hopes and fears to a life which is based upon the dedication to growth. Choosing to grow. That becomes an orientation. You’re choosing Buddha from one moment to the next within every particular situation. Actualizing Buddha by means of the Dharma in this entire process, and I think I would like to hope to emphasize this more in the future.
Emphasizing this process occurs within the social context of a spiritual community. That mental health is very much a social phenomenon. And I think we as students need to appreciate this more and to find somehow among us some way of communicating, some way of creating spiritual community, that’s Sangha. I think it’s absolutely necessary. And if we’re to take the chance to create the situation or vulnerability, situation of safety and trust, that we can begin to be vulnerable, that we can begin to express a different way of being, which is not perhaps for one reason or another we have fear that we’re inhibited from.
So then we can find some way to express the very best of us. That we can find some way to express and ask of others their Buddha, their sanity, and all of these qualities which are concomitant with this optimum mode of being, qualities of generosity, love, caring, concern. Finding some social context where this can take place, creating the situation. I don’t think it’s an accident, it’s not an accident, that one of the three refuges, one of the directions of spiritual life is spiritual community and in the Sangha. I think it’s And I think it needs to be emphasized more.
And trying to raise the level of our motivation, that’s that you know, trying to doing this in order that I can become that much better of a person, that much more skillful, that much more caring, that much more Buddha. In order that I can help others to be that much more Buddha, that much more at peace, that much more having found whatever they’re looking for in their life. Perhaps we have to raise in some way our goals. Try to see our our goals as a much depending upon our conception that we have of ourselves. But maybe we can really make some kind of change in the world.
We can be world changing. We can make a difference. 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 refuge to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the highest assembly.
From the virtuous merit that I collect by practicing giving and other perfections, may I attain a state of the Buddha to be able to benefit all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, Dharma, and the highest assembly. From the virtuous merits that I collect by practicing giving and other perfections. May I attain the state of the Buddha to be able to benefit all sentient beings? Let’s begin with mindfulness of breathing.
Just the development of love and compassion. In terms of somebody who’s not who you like, but that is not in your immediate circle of intimate friends. It’s somebody that you like, but you’re not extremely close to. And then we’ll practice what is called exchange of self other meditation. And this, we’re going to play a role.
And trying to look at the world out of someone else’s eye. Putting yourself in their place, feeling their feelings, thinking their thoughts. How would the world look at it from their point of view? And as best you can, trying to put yourself in their place and playing a role and then looking back on yourself and seeing what you say. So developing the ability to have a multifaceted point of view rather than it’s one single point of view that we normally bring to all situations in all our relationships is one single view of I, this person over here.
But maybe being being able to develop develop sympathy, evolving sympathy into empathy, being able to identify more and more with others in a very spontaneous fashion, and the way that we can develop a sense of social awareness and social conscience. So if you take a comfortable upright posture. We begin with compassion towards someone that you like but not amongst your intimate circle of friends. Begin with just a simple friendly thought. It’d be wonderful if you didn’t have any problems.
I would like that very much. If you’re free of all your difficulties, that’d nice. And then strengthen that. May you be free of all your difficulties, of all your problems, all your distraction and suffering. And then strengthen that wish.
I’m going to help you. I’m going to take responsibility for working with you to free yourself from your difficult problem. I’m going to commit myself to helping you solve your problems. Trying to generate that feeling toward this person. I like that very much.
And then strengthen that. May you be happy. I wish you happiness. I’m going to help you. I’m going to commit myself to working with you to find happiness.
And the way I’m going to fulfill that commitment in the present moment is by developing my mind. I’ll be that much more able to help you. If I’m going to meditate on mindfulness and breathing to be able to help you all the more. And then bring your mind to the breath. Be gentle.
Really in that flow of the breath. So we’re looking at the three principal aspects, three fundamentals of the path. Developing the determination to awaken or to grow, determination to open our hearts to others, to open our minds to reality, the way things are. And amongst these, we’re looking at the first of these fundamentals, determination to awaken, to grow. And this. Tsongkhapa, the text we’re looking at, divides this into two parts.
First, renouncing the emphasis on the present state of existence. And this fundamentally, fundamentally most means to begin to deemphasize the influence which our hopes and fears play in determining how we’re going to live our life. In terms of our hopes of pleasure, fear of pain, our hopes of gain, our fear of loss, our hopes of fame, fear of notoriety, our hopes of praise, our fear of ridicule. This is what runs our life, these hopes and these fears. So to deemphasize, The emphasis to reemphasize, to redirect ourselves such that we no longer allow those to be we realign our allegiance to one of growth.
Then Tsongkhapa goes goes on from really deemphasizing the present state of existence to deemphasizing all ego based states of existence whatsoever in future existences. Such that we not only go beyond our hopes and fears, but we are able to transcend ego based existence altogether at its most fundamental level. It’s all dissatisfactory in some way or another. In order we looked at the fact that we have the potential to grow, that we have all the conditions both external and internal necessary to actualize our potential. And that this chance is not going to last forever, this definitely is going to die by the time of our death is uncertain.
And what is going to be a benefit to ourselves at the time of our death? Not only the big death at the end of this life, but also the small deaths that we encounter over the course of our life. Those times in the course of our life when our world is turned upside down. Almost a great confusion, great panic, a great loss. In the future, something has come to an end and the future is yet to begin, an intermediate period, when there’s a state of flux and the new has yet to begin.
In this way, we begin to deemphasize the influence of our hopes and fears in terms of our present state. Then Tsongkhapa begins to look at the deemphasizing the attachment to future states in terms of ego based existence, in terms of what kind of quality of a life, what kind of future are we creating for ourselves. Who we are now is what we have done. What we do now is what we will become. What type of future are we creating for ourselves?
And this leads us to the present discussion of karma. karma simply means action. And we talked, we began to talk about karma last week. karma in the sense of causes which shape our result. The factors which are shaping who we are, our attitudes, are shaping our beliefs, shaping our world.
With our thoughts we make the world and what type of world are we creating for ourselves in terms of our thoughts. What types of patterns, what types of reoccurring themes, what types of predisposition, attitude, beliefs are we developing? The karma has all the very shaping forces which have made us who we are now. So we’re going to continue looking at karma, actions as causes. And looking at in terms of results, there are four types of results with respect to karma, with respect to actions as causes.
There is the ripening result, result similar to the cause experientially, result similar to the cause functionally, and the environmental results. We’re going to look at these four types of results of karma. We mentioned last week that karma as actions of intention and intentional action, actions of intention and intentional action, actions of intention. You know, the impulse of the mind, the directionality of the mind, why we focus upon this? Why this thought arises in our mind and not this?
Why do we follow this, this idea and not this? Why do I concentrate on that and not this? The directionality of the mind, the impulse of the mind to think in a certain way, to react in a certain way. Out of this comes intentional actions, various states of mind, feelings, trains of thought, ways of speaking, ways of acting in the world. All of these bring about specific types of results.
The first thing is called ripening result. It is the overall realm, the level that we’re born into. Whether this be from the hell realms up to, the gods. Now we’re going to talk about some of these realms, in the near future. But these represent the general pattern of our experience of the type of world that we perceive.
The world that lives objectively out there, that we are involved in this co creation and the type of world that we are generally creating for ourselves, type of realm, the type of level. Our predominant, also our predominant attitudes toward it. The overall way that we experience the world. For example, the primary result of killing of the action of killing is to be reborn in hell with an attitude of great fear and an experience of excruciating pain. So whether the idea of hell is, I think hell is probably not only an actual physical place.
It is as real or as illusory as what we take this realm that we generally take for granted. But we can, you know, as we’re going to discuss in the future, we can also take these as attitudinal states. You know, there’s a there’s a the hell realms are characterized.