Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The spinning firebrand — a lit stick whirled at night that appears to form a solid ring of fire — is Ven Jampa Gendun’s central image for the ego’s illusion of solidity in this 29-minute session. He works through links two, three, and four of the twelve links of dependent origination (karmic formations, conditioned consciousness, and name-and-form), then gives a sustained psychological account of how all five aggregates unfold sequentially within a single moment of experience, estimated at one seventy-fifth of a second. Drawing on Piaget’s developmental psychology, he traces ego’s evolution from the infant’s first split between self and not-self, through feeling-tones (pleasant, unpleasant, neutral), perception, the aggregate of mental constructions (emotions, beliefs, concepts), and finally the narrative consciousness that fills in a coherent scene. Suited to students with some grounding in Buddhist psychology.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 18 H and M of B 1992 09 16.mp3
UUID: c990b1b3-ddf0-4a65-aad7-690ce0a158b7
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Buddhism (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1992-09-16
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 29.3 minutes
Words: ~3,435
This gives rise to the second link of dependent origination, which are called karmic formations or action formations. And this is illustrated by you have to take my word on it by a potter forming pots, a potter forming pots. So our experiences are never devoid of the influence of previous experiences and actions. You know, that is to say our minds which determine our experience and motivate us to act are conditioned by our previous experiences, by an action. Our streams of consciousness have imprinted upon them, and we’ve talked about this quite a lot, have imprinted upon them latencies, predisposing us to particular reactive patterns due to past experiences, past ways of acting, imprinting various latencies within the mind, encoding information.
You know we talked like as an example of a DNA molecule which has information encoded into it. Likewise, our minds are not blank slates. They have our evolutionary history imprinted upon them and indeed act as information. When and as we’ve discussed, when meeting with the various particular appropriate objective conditions, this information begins to express itself in various reactive patterns, ways of relating, ways of interpreting, ways of organizing one’s reality, ways of reacting, responding. We have tendencies, habitual ways of organizing, habitual ways of interpreting, relating.
So these latencies, these encoded information are karmic formations. The second of the twelve links of dependent origination. These conditioning factors, these impressions left by past experiences, past actions. And they possess the capacity to influence our future, our future experiences and future actions that we’re going to create. So, you know, as I said, our consciousnesses are not simply blank slates.
They are not simply raw consciousness uninfluenced by past experiences, by past actions. But they carry traces of our experiences, our actions in the form of these latencies, these karmic formations. So this is the third link of dependent origination, consciousness. But more specifically, conditioned consciousness. Consciousness plus karmic formation, latency.
The impressions left by our past experiences and actions implanted on the stream of consciousness. This is illustrated by a monkey, which is the mind. This monkey is climbing in a tree in which there’s fruit. So the fruit is the karmic formation, and the monkey is mind climbing in this tree. But these karmic formations are yet to be picked.
They are yet to be activated. So these latencies imprinted on the consciousness express themselves as certain programmed mentalities, programmed materialities. That is, are furtherances in the struggle of ego to ground itself, to secure itself and to extend itself. The ego can never be permanently secured. It’s like the apparent continuous circle of light that appears.
If you take a stick and you light the end of it and you whirl it around at night, it looks like there’s a solid ring of fire, a solid ring of light. But in fact there’s no solid ring there. If one were to relax, even for a moment, we would see that what appeared solid was simply a matter, an impression arising from a continuous repetitive motion. And this is the way, this continual repetitive motion, this reoccurring compulsive patterns gives the appearance of solidity to the self, And this is the misconception that we’re laboring under. And to maintain this misconception, we can never quite relax.
Just as when we’re ruling the firebrand, the moment we relax, the misconception, the appearance dissolves. We see it’s discontinuous, it’s only a point of light. It’s not as solid as it appeared. But in order to maintain that impression of solidity, of continuity, of unchanging, we have to be involved in the struggle so that we can never secure the self. The ego can never be completely secure because it’s based upon misconception and this need to be continually be recreated moment by moment.
So conditioned consciousness gives rise to ways of thinking, Specific patterns, systems of mentality, systems of materiality. Our body is a specific configuration of materiality, a system of mass and energy. So these constitute the five aggregates or name and form, which is the this is the fourth link of these twelve links, name and form. The fourth of the twelve links of dependent origination. And this is illustrated by a boat with four passengers in the boat.
So these boat and the four passengers represent the five aggregates. The boat is aggregate of form. And then the four passengers, the remaining four aggregates, the aggregate of feelings, perceptions, mental constructions, and consciousnesses, which make up the psychophysical personality of who we are. So the five aggregates comprise the totality of our experience. Within the five aggregates there is nothing left out that one can actually, that can be noted as our experience.
Everything that we experience is contained within these five aggregates. They constitute all that we are, the I or the self. They all co arise each moment in dependence upon interconnected conditions. So you know an aggregate is this idea of aggregate. It’s like a collection, sometimes a bundle, a pile.
Not an independent solid unit like a brick, but is a collection of lots of little particles. So the self is made up of lots of little particles rather than one fixed thing that goes on, continues on. Some kind of heap which goes on, keeps on going. So the apparent continuity of the person is nothing other than this ceaseless activity of a stream of mental and physical phenomena or events and they held together as a temporary unified system by some kind of recursive feedback. I’m talking about the development of the five aggregates, a quotation I’d like to read.
Development of a moment of experience is not instantaneous, but develops over a very brief period of time in five stages corresponding to the five skandhas. Skandhas is a Sanskrit word which is translated as aggregates. Corresponding to the five skandhas or aggregates, culminating in the conscious experience. So our conscious experiences do not arise instantaneously, but arrive in five stages corresponding to the five aggregates. The duration of an experiential moment has been variously estimated by Buddhists, a fairly common estimate being approximately one seventy fifth of a second or about thirteen milliseconds.
So we’re instantaneously, well not instantaneously, once every one seventy fifth of a second arising, we’re being recreated as it were. Every one seventy fifth of a second. Happy birthday. So what we experience as instantaneous, that is to say the five aggregates, the totality of our experience of a being, the five aggregates, is actually built up over time. Very short time, but built up over time.
Through the influence of misknowledge or ignorance there arises the cling to a sense of a separate self which leads to, as I mentioned, idea of basic bewilderment. With panic, the energies, there’s, as it were, some kind of undifferentiated field Out of this sense of panic, bewilderment, one seeks to secure one’s position, to manage, to gain control, to emerge out of this sense of bewilderment. So the undifferentiated field becomes frozen into first a primitive distinction, the primary dichotomy of self and not self. But a baby does not learn. And if you’re interested, I think Piaget, the Swiss psychologist, talks about how a baby develops a sense of self.
And we take it very much for granted, but it is a learned process. Beginning to differentiate between self and not self is a learned process. You know, what we’re able to make, you know, we have a high degree of control over our fingers, but I can’t do the same with that glass of water. You know I don’t have that same degree of manageability of control over that. So you know a baby begins to differentiate itself slowly over time, learns what is self and what is not self.
For a large part of a baby’s infancy, the mother is included in the ego identity as part of self. In fact, initially everything is part of self. That is to say, there is no conception of self. But slowly over time there begins a differentiating process. Some kind of primitive distinction begins to arise as to what is self and what is not self, I and not I.
Now this not problematic. This is the conventional nature of reality. This is useful, functional. But it’s only when this dichotomy is absolutized that this what is in fact simply a convention, a manner of speaking, a way of operating the world becomes something more than that. It becomes an absolute division as if the self and other and that self were something more than a mere conception in the mind.
I don’t mean that as if the division between self and not self were more than a mere conception within the mind. That in fact it exists in reality, that we begin to develop what is a skin encapsulated ego, the boundary of self, that becomes an absolute boundary between self and not self as being absolute, not simply a manner of convention. And this becomes the of this the ego is formed. This is the beginning of the first aggregate, the aggregate of forms, the initial split into ego and the world. Ego and the world I find myself in.
Initially it was an undifferentiated field, but due to this, you know, the sense of bewilderment, trying to secure as if the situation is going to take oneself over, one cannot relax into that undifferentiated field. One has to and the way that one begins to freeze, one begins to control is to begin to secure the self in space and time, to define oneself, fixate as to who I am and who I am not. So I can gain control over what I am not and incorporate it that which is seen as attractive into who I believe I am, my ego identity, my ego territory, and begin to exclude those elements which I see as threatening to get a permanent sense of security as having a not a part of myself, as having a permanent not self. So this first primitive split occurs between self and not self. In the sense of this knowledge it is absolutely tied.
It is made, it’s simply not relative but it exists in reality. It’s not a matter of conception, a matter of convention, language, but it exists in fact. That’s the first step in this process of the evolution of the five aggregates, the evolution of ego. Then I’m going to read a quotation describing the second stage. We developed the aggregate of forms.
Then in the second state we develop the aggregate of feeling. So having made this first basic split, and I’m quoting, having made the first basic split between inside and outside and having acknowledged the sensory patterning in the outside, there was a reaction of feeling toward these patterning. So feelings are relative to the survival of the primitive sense of ego that has already appeared at the level of form determining what sensory dharmas or phenomena are attended to. Feelings are either pleasant, unpleasant or indifferent depending on whether the outside patterning are apprehended as supportive, threatening, or neither supportive nor threatening. So we now have differentiated between self and not self.
And then our initial primitive reaction, our initial stand, a mode of relating with what is not self is in terms of feeling. I have determined, I have created this distinction between self and not self. Now the second step is how am I going to react to what is not self? We call those feelings. I’m going to have pleasurable feelings toward them, unpleasurable feelings toward them or neutral or indifferent feelings toward them This is the second step, depending upon whether I perceive them as being threatening, supportive or neither.
In the third stage, the third aggregate is the aggregate of perception, sometimes called recognition, sometimes called discrimination, aggregate of perception. In the third stage, the aggregate of perceptions, feelings refer back to the inside, which then reaffirm itself and tries to take charge as a switchboard or central processor. There are primitive judgments, discriminations involved in this level. Judgments in near or far, large or small, strange or familiar, looming or receding, frightening or relieving. All these judgments are in reference to the inside, now apprehended as a distinct self and the outside grasped onto as a distinct object or thing.
So now we’re beginning, we’ve created this dichotomy of self, not self and our initial reaction is in terms of feeling, pleasurable feeling, unpleasurable feeling and different feelings. And then we’re going to perceive these objects in accordance with our feelings. This is good, this is bad, this is threatening, this is supportive. But also neutral types of perceptions such as this is short, this is long, this is a dog, this is a cat. All of these ways that we’re going to organize, some have affective qualities, others do not, when it’s in the case of neutral feelings or indifferent feelings.
The third aggregate, aggregate of perception. And the fourth stage is the aggregate of mental construction. It is the stage at which the intellect as naming and meaning interpretation comes in. It is the level which complexes or formations of concepts with affects are projected onto the outside together with names. So there is recognition of actual objects.
A chair is recognized as a chair with all the connotations of a chairness. A chair is the thing to sit on. It is also the thing we first stood on to wash dishes as a proud little boy. It is also an example of a seat, something we offer to our guests and so on. All the belief systems we have, philosophic, religious, economic, political, personal, and all the various emotions that we have, love, hate, conscientiousness, faith, embarrassment, are all contained within this fourth aggregate, the aggregate of mental constructions.
They’re all stored and ready to be applied to developing perception at the level of mental constructions. So we’re beginning to, okay, this process is occurring over one seventy fifth of a second. The primitive distinction between self and not self relating to what we call objects, not self, in terms of feeling. Then recognizing, developing perceptions, in dependence upon those feelings as attractive, unattractive. Then in dependence upon that, generating various emotions, the fourth aggregate mental construction.
For example, with respect to attractive objects, we develop attachment. With respect to repulsive objects, we develop aversion, hatred. So all our beliefs come into play, our principles, our guidelines, all of our various mental premises that we operate on begin to come into play. Our experience at this level of the fourth stage. Then at the fifth stage, the aggregate of consciousnesses.
We are conscious of a thought or perception. Consciousness is the narrative that gives the formations, that is the mental constructions. A context. It’s like we’re going to fill in a complete story with all the richness of our reality. And we simply don’t have single objects existing in vacuums, but they exist within a gestalt, a context.
And it is the consciousness which is supplying the background, filling in all the gaps, all the details, the richness of our reality to give a complete picture. Know continually we’re expand, I mean it’s an expanding out process until we create a total reality for ourselves in one seventy fifth of a second. Consciousness is a narrative that gives the formations, mental consciousness, a context. It is like a constantly circulating radar beacon that checks out the coherence and meaningfulness of the entire scene. It has to make sense of what is happening has to make sense in the light of what one believes, what one feels, what one perceives.
It fills in any gaps it finds with its projections or reasonable hypotheses as to what is there so that there are no uncertainties. The momentum is always towards securing the self in space and time, fixation. Ignoring that which would contradict, which would create uncertainty. This is the basic premise out of which ego is arising, this quality of misknowledge, which has this misclarity, this ignoring, this cultivated unawareness. We know we are here in this familiar and we want to make everything predictable, to be familiar, to be manageable, to be able to control, to manipulate, to dominate.
All of these qualities, these adjectives that would be connotations all lend themselves to this process. We know we are here in this familiar and recognizable world. Otherwise there would be a fear of that world would be simply chaos, the undifferentiated field. Anything does not fit in is finally excluded at the level of consciousness. Consciousness keeps up the storyline as to what is going on to provide continuity moment by moment.
A conscious life follows this storyline as far as it’s able to, so as long as there’s no incoherence to be able to break through. What we normally think of as a waking consciousness is a combination of the fourth and fifth skandhas or aggregates. All five are occurring in every moment of experience, but attention is normally of such coarse grade that we experience the skandhas lumped together in a continuous stream of consciousness. So due to the bewilderment arising out of basic misknowledge and the ensuing continuous struggle to ground to ground anew the now misconceived self, our consciousness is conditioned with a habitual tendency predisposing us to seek security in the body, like a fort. We have the sense that we can withdraw from whatever is conceived of as threatening on the outside, we can withdraw into the fort like structure of the body.
The body is like the fortified nest. The skin encapsulates the ego. This is like a very secure boundary that we’ve developed for ourselves about what is self and not self. It’s like central headquarters from which we can Our ego can make forays out into the world, expanding, solidifying, testing, seeing how the water is. Whether it feels the objects about it, experiencing pleasure, pain or indifference.
And dependent upon how we perceive the object as to whether it’s good or bad, whether it’s attractive or unattractive, or neutral, supporting, threatening, or neither. So perceptions activate mental construction, the emotional pattern, how we’re going to deal with what we now perceive as a threatening person or a threatening object or an attractive object, a supportive object, person. And this brings into play a complex reactive thought patterns, these emotions, our various beliefs, various assumptions about these objects about us, how we’re going to deal with them, our ideals about them. These mental processes take place within the meshwork of consciousness, the background patterns which fill out all the detail, the patterns of psychological workings. This supplies the impetus within which we feel, perceive and think.
But before ego can begin to extend itself, before it can begin to extend out its territory, the evolution of a medium is required. So how so what we’ve just described is the five aggregates. I thought I would finish tonight. But I won’t. I believe I could.
I can’t. I can’t. Can’t. Moving right along. Okay.
Anyway, so how far did we get? We got to got to name and form. The fourth. The fourth. We we thought we got two four of them.
It’s almost. I’m sure we can. Okay. Feeling insecure? No.
Didn’t even notice. I either. Okay, we’ll stop there. I thought generally we dedicate the positive energy that we create through our listening and discussing after our discussion, but I thought we’d it before. I thought we’d do it together.
So giving the positive energy, creative potential, the skillful action that recreates in some sort of direction, some sort of meaning. We create an action and it’s implanted within our mind to ensure that it’s not destroyed and that it is skillfully, its results are skillfully ripened, put to use, we dedicate it. And we dedicate it to something beyond chocolate cake. Though I like chocolate cake. Something perhaps a little bit higher than that.
May I quickly become an awakened spiritual teacher and lead each and every sentient being to the 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 and may it increase long. Thank you. So those who would like to stay, can get a cup of tea and