Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Here is the proposed paragraph:
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Ven Jampa Gendun opens this 47-minute introductory talk by unpacking what “path” and “awakening” actually mean: awakening is correcting our fabricated, partial contact with reality; path is alternating wisdom with love and compassion, the two wings a bird needs to fly. He names ego-grasping and ego-centering as the two root misconceptions to eventually uproot, then builds the motivation to do so through the four reversals — appreciating rare human opportunity (contrasted with a beggar working twelve-hour days in Calcutta), confronting impermanence through the image of a train moving unstoppably toward its station, and understanding karma as compulsive recurring mental patterns, illustrated by a smoker automatically reaching for a cigarette and by wheat seeds from Egyptian pyramids still germinating after three thousand years. Suited to newcomers encountering Buddhist ideas for the first time.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 TPA 1990 03 18.mp3
UUID: 419bc6ab-21cc-410f-ab72-8d5f13960ed3
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Path of Awakening (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1990-03-18
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 47.2 minutes
Words: ~6,062
What did I say? We haven’t talked about awakening. The the path to awakening. So there is a couple of things that need to be explained right off. What do we mean by path?
What do we mean by awakening? And the idea of awakening is that though we may think that we’re we’re not asleep, that we have a contact with reality from the point of view of Buddhism, I think if we don’t even have to accept the various doctrines of Buddhism if we simply use our basic intelligence and examine our situation we’re going to find that our contact with reality is very partial. Most of what we believe to be reality whether we are talking about inside ourselves or outside of ourselves is a set of fictions which the mind has constructed. You know, each of us live in our our own individual world, our our world of images and projections. It’s like a a fabricated world.
And we live because we live in this fabrication, this world of our own making, we’re very much strangers to ourselves and very much strangers to those about us, other people. And we don’t really experience our life. There’s something between ourselves and our life. We only experience our thoughts about life and we and our alienated projections about life. So just to give you, you know, is going to be elaborated on.
This idea that we are only half awake, that we live, we don’t have we only have partial contact with reality. The idea that our life is based upon some basic assumptions, some beliefs, some ideas, core ideas, and that many of these are mistaken. And therefore any types of actions which originate in dependence upon mistaken ideas are self defeating behaviors because our actions are not appropriate with the situation, with the reality. And there’s to be there’s going to be some discord. Our actions are going to be inaccurate.
They’re not going to be fit to the occasion. And this is experienced as dissatisfaction, frustration, disappointment. But this is going to be, you know, the the very much the path involves a systematic contradiction of our self defeating behavior in the sense of becoming aware gradually, layer by layer, of our mistaken beliefs, wrong assumptions, inaccurate ideas, and contradicting them so that remodeling them so that our model, our conception of the way things are accords appropriately with the way reality exists. Then we can act appropriately. We act with certainty.
Our actions fit. They’re appropriate. Now the idea of a path is, you know, if we just take from the the Pali, the word path, means putting one foot in front of the other. So in the case of Buddhism when we describe describe a path, we’re talking about putting one foot in front of the other in the sense of putting wisdom and method, wisdom and method, or skill and means. And generally what we mean by method or skill and means is love and compassion.
So the essence of the Buddhist path, the essence of the way in which we awake is through love and compassion on the one hand and wisdom on the other. It’s like the two wings of a bird, with only one of these. It can’t fly. So there is this always this emphasis in the dual development of love and compassion on one hand and wisdom on the other. And the form that this wisdom takes and the form of this love and compassion take will vary throughout the path.
Different types of wisdoms and different strength and capacities of love. Buddhism takes as the starting point the fact that we’re healthy sane human beings, that we have this potential, that we all have some basic basic sanity. We have to exercise that sanity to bring it to bear on the problems of existence, problems of disappointment, frustrations, problems of alienation, authenticity, the the feeling of the seeking of union with ourselves, with other people, with the world about us, the feelings of loneliness, fragmentation. You know, we could go through a long, long list of the types of universal problems which confront what it means to be an average human being, an ego based human being. That we have some basic goodness, that we have some basic intelligence to operate from.
That we have problems, we have various faulty ways of thinking, wrong patterns. You know we list these patterns in terms of attachment, hatred, jealousy, spite, miserliness. They’re said to be eighty four thousand. These faulty patterns which we usually operate out of like programs, unhealthy programs. But we aren’t our programs.
We aren’t our patterns. We all have some wisdom no matter how obscure and faint that wisdom might be. We all have some love no matter how limited, no matter how exclusive that love might be. We all have some energy, some spiritual and mental energy. This this aliveness, exuberance for life.
If we begin to tap into it, if we search for it, if we gain the confidence that it’s there and begin to direct our attention to use it as a source of solving our problems, problems of, ego based existence of being an ordinary person. You know, these were very much essentially, you know, I talked about problem solving. And the two most basic problems, you know, by the direction of Buddhism is to the problem of suffering, of distress, of anxiety. One American anthropologist by the name of Gregory Bateson said that psychological misery has its source in the pathology of epistemology. That’s a lot of words.
The pathology of epistemology. That means we have some unhealthy ways of knowing. But because we know we understand things wrongly, unhealthily, we experience psychological suffering. So gaining gaining some confidence that we have the basic potential to solve our problems, that we have the ability to understand the way things are. And making use of the path, the methods, uncovering all the various levels of mistaken awarenesses, correcting them, consistently contradicting them, coming bringing our ideas, conception in accord with the way things are is the way we travel the path.
One foot after another, love and wisdom, love and wisdom, love and wisdom. What I’m going to describe by the path to awakening is a path by which we can correct our mistaken, unhealthy ways of knowing to those which are healthy in accord with the way things are. Then we can experience fulfillment, satisfaction, and peace, and we’re actually able to love others. So we’re going to direct ourselves toward our two most basic epistemological errors, our two basic misconceptions upon which all our other misconceptions have their basis. And these are ego-grasping tendency and ego-centering tendency.
These are our two most basic mistaken ways of behavior. And by ego-centering tendency I mean the tendency that we all have which arises spontaneously, naturally to place ourselves central to our world. I, I, I, me, me, me, my wants. That we seek happiness at the expense and exclusion of others. And from the point of view of the reality of our situation such a way of relating, such a way of operating our life is self defeating.
Rather than finding the happiness that we’re hoping to seek, that we’re seeking to find, we’re actually causing ourselves more and more pain. So it’s finding happiness at the expense and exclusion of others. There’s no question about reasonableness, the rational quality of finding happiness. And we have every right to seek happiness and to find happiness. But if we go further than that and try to find happiness at the expense and exclusion of others, then we’re defeating our purpose.
So but before that, these are extremely deep rooted, mistaken ways of knowing. To get to that level, to dig down this far, we have to begin we have to begin to uncover more coarser types of mistaken notions. But even more so, we have to develop the determination to get at this. You know, that there’s a resistance to change. There’s a this is simply our inertia.
But over and above that, there’s a fear of change. And the the what we are going to change into is unknown, present. There’s a a tendency to seek to secure the self. To to maintain support what has gone on in the past and extend it in the future. There’s a resistance to change, and we have to we all experience this in our everyday lives.
And what to say about trying to uproot these two most fundamental aspects of what we consider ourselves to be, our approaches to life, to trying to change these fundamental and are almost what we call our fundamental nature. There’s going to be a tremendous resistance. Therefore, initiative, we have to develop this determination to change, determination to be free. And to do to do this we have to first have the confidence that we can change, that there’s some potential. Without this then we’re never going to embark upon the difficult task of actual change.
It’s going to be wrought with fear, with doubt, and simply the lack of confidence will defeat our purpose. So the beginning of the path is to beginning to appreciate who we are, that we have the potential to change, that we have this basic intelligence that I am not my pattern, that I have some wisdom, some love, some compassion, and sameness of energy within me. And to begin to appreciate the circumstances that we have a chance to change, appreciating very much, very deeply who in fact I am. Generally we have a very negative conception about ourselves, feelings of insufficiency, that I don’t have quite what it takes, that there’s something wrong with me, that there’s something lacking within my environment, within my situation, which forces me into the situation to not take advantage of who, in fact, I may be. We always find excuses for breaking off the difficult task of actually embarking on the real possibility of change.
So the beginning, you know, we have to develop this determination to change to uproot these two basic misconceptions. Ego forming tendency, egocentering tendency. We begin that with what is called the four reversals. And the first of these four reversals is simply appreciating very deeply who you are and developing this confidence, developing this inspiration within yourself. Beginning to realize that I have within me the potential to become a happy, healthy, loving, sane human being and believing this very deeply.
Breaking through this wrong misconception about ourselves that I don’t have what it takes and this negative self image that we generally have about ourselves is limited. You know, our only limitations are those we acknowledge and beginning to break out of this self defeating pattern that we’ve established for ourselves. Begin you know, whether we call this getting in touch with our Buddha nature or Christ nature, getting in touch with our own divinity or or the potential what it means to be a human being, whatever, however, what we we may want to call it. But beginning to believe in something more than you’ve been up to now, that you have unlimited potential and beginning to see that, beginning to focus on positive aspect of yourself. And over and above that to begin to appreciate that you have all the necessary external and internal conditions to become the type of person that you want to be, that we can change.
You know, if you look at look at about us in the world, you can begin to appreciate the great fortune that you have. And we don’t always do this. We, we oftentimes look we narrow down our perspective, focus only on our problems and our insufficiencies and what I don’t have or lacks. human beings are quite caught up with what they lack. How would it be to be a beggar on the streets of Calcutta, for example?
You go out and beg, twelve hours a day, standing on a street corner, and maybe you get enough money to feed come home and feed your family for that day if you’re lucky. How much opportunity do you have to develop yourself in that kind of a situation? Do you have the the energy? Do you have the time? Do you have the inspiration to do anything but fall asleep at the end of that kind of a day?
What happens if you were in Ethiopia, starving, watching your family die? What can you do to develop yourself? What can you can you carry on any type of practice, any type of cultivation of your potential in such a situation? It’s impossible. What happens if you’re in a repressive society where you aren’t allowed to meet together, where you aren’t allowed to read books, when you where you aren’t allowed to where religion is not cannot be practiced openly, for example, or spiritual methods?
What would happen if you were psychotic, If you were undergoing some kind of drug therapy which dulled your mind? What happens if you were an alcoholic? What happens if you were undergoing a if you were completely caught up in materialism, thinking night and day, how can I get more power? How can I get more money? And you’re beginning to appreciate who in fact that you are, that you have some kindness, that you have some caring, that you have some wisdom, and that you have some inspiration, some interest in developing yourself, which is extremely rare and very precious element within ourselves.
That the great majority of the world, whether they have that inspiration to to develop themselves to grow as individuals or whether they do not have the circumstances simply do not have the opportunity that you have, that everyone in this room has. That, you know, we are affluence in Australia. It’s very much dependent upon a great deal of oppression in the world. And that to make use of this opportunity is to is to is to refuse to appreciate the pain and the suffering which our affluence is bringing about in the world. You know, whether we I’m not talking about any radical economic theory, but this is the the way in which the world has evolved.
You know, we have there’s a hierarchy of needs. First, we need some kind of, we have to have our our clothing, food, shelter taken care of. Then we can begin to consider our more social needs. We have to have we have to have feelings of security, freedom from war, freedom from threats, and above that, certain psychological needs need to be met, feelings of well-being, stability, security. When we get to the very top, once all of these myriad of needs are met, then we can begin to concentrate on spiritual needs.
Only then, most of the world does not have that luxury, that time, and that potential in terms of the circumstances they find themselves in. And on top of this, having some interest is extremely rare and we have to appreciate ourselves. But this opportunity to change, this opportunity to grow with all of these combinations, these rare combinations of internal and external conditions is not going to last forever. It’s definite that we’re going to die when the time of our death is uncertain. And what is going what is the only thing that’s going to be a benefit to you at the time of death?
We bring up the issue of death in order to appreciate our life. Without being mindful of death, we won’t be mindful of our life, and our life will pass by with in meaningless pursuits as if we it didn’t exist, as if it never happened. So in this sense, overcoming our misconception that I’m never going to die. You may not hold this consciously intellectually, but but your way you live your life is an expression that you have this belief somewhere at some level of your awareness. And even if you were to come to the strong conclusion, okay, I’m gonna die, but way in the far distant future, not not not anytime soon.
We all feel this quite naturally. We’re not gonna die next year. We’re not gonna die in two years or three sometime in the farthest in the future. This is what we this is a belief that we have. This is an idea an assumption that we’re making, and there’s no valid basis for this assumption.
There’s everyone is going to die, whether he’s a king, whether she’s a queen, dictator, holy person, criminal, saint, musician, artist, everyone must die. And politician. I don’t know the politician. I think it passed a law, couldn’t Everyone. And our lifespan is continually decreasing.
You know, it’s like you get on a train in in Melbourne. And over that train, you’re going to. And no matter what you’re doing on that train, you’re reading a book, talking, laughing, sleeping, eating, moment by moment, no matter whether you’re aware of it or not, the train is still moving closer and closer to its destination. Closer to its destination. No matter whether you’re spending your time usefully on that train, having a good time, bad time, bored, it moves just as fast.
And then it reaches its destination, and you have to give off. The journey is over. And how much time do we spend making use of our life, making use of our potential, developing ourselves? And this coming to some real basic, the beginning of spiritual life, you might say, of psychological life orientation is to come to a real deeply felt sense that it’s not the things outside myself which are gonna determine my happiness, but my attitude toward those things. I’m gonna determine the quality of my life.
And we can see this. I mean, when I lived in India for a number of years, saw, you know, people who had nothing. Absolutely. They’re living in the mountains, in mud huts, with burlap bags over the the door, cardboard walls, literally. Very happy, jolly, laughing, peaceful people.
And here, people have everything. People what? Somebody this four hundred million dollar guy had committed suicide, somebody in Melbourne just a few days ago. Four hundred million dollars committed suicide. So, you know, I mean, we want a comfortable home.
We want nice stylish clothing, good food, delicious food. These are all make life add to the the enjoyment of our life. But without the proper attitude toward these things, then what could be sources of pleasure become sources of pain, whether it’s people or things or status. So we have to make this this orientation that the, you know, the as Blake said, the mind is in its place, in its way, can make a heaven of hell and a hell of heaven. It’s our attitude toward these things which either can make them sources of pleasure or make them sources of pain.
So understanding that we have to develop our mind to some degree. Some of our energy, some of our time has to be taken in that way to develop the qualities of love and compassion, the qualities of wisdom. And how much time do we spend in the course of our day in developing our mind? Mind? And if you check up, how much time do you spend sleeping, eating, socializing, working, traveling, being bored, being depressed?
Not much time. At best, not much time, if any. So we have to develop some determination to make use of our life. And and we simply don’t know when we’re going to die. The uncertainty of time of death.
And this is one of one of the most important of all realizations. And there are all kinds of various exotic, esoteric realizations that we can come to in in the course of our study of Buddhism or in any spiritual path or psychological path. But amongst all of the possible understandings, it is the uncertainty of the time of death which will give us what energizes the most to grow. It cuts through all our hypocrisy, all our banality, all our our laziness. People you know, we don’t people die at any age.
They die in the womb. They die at birth, one year, five years, ten years, you know, twenty five, twenty eight, thirty two, thirty six, forty, forty five, fifty, fifty two, fifty eight, whatever. People can die at any age. We simply don’t know when we’re going to die. There are many causes for death.
You know, we could there’s many there are many causes for death as there are people. There are wars, famines, floods. You know, even if we feel safe right now, there’s the possibility of heart attacks or cancer. And is it if we look at our body, it’s extremely fragile. Just a simple bubble in the bloodstream can cause our death.
Just a simple blow on the head can cause our death. You know, when you look at it, when you see a car twisted on the road and you see all those sharp edges, mangled, metal, glass slivers sticking out, and you realize that and then you compare it to this nice, easily punctured skin that we have ourselves wrapped in. I think it’s a little bit frightening to think that you’re zooming down the highway at eighty, hundred kilometers an hour with this potential always around you. It’s not meant to frighten you, but it’s meant to to appreciate opportunity because you simply don’t know how long you’re going to have this opportunity to develop yourself. So, you know, these are we’re we’re following a path as I explained, as I’m going along, trying to develop this determination to grab.
You know, looking at your life, you know, we have you’re laying there on your deathbed. Maybe you had an accident. Maybe you’re sick. You’ve got your your life to gather together. You’ve got your mortgage here, your stereo, CD player, what else?
Your car your car registration. It’s all around you. All the good things that you gathered together works so hard. And all your loved ones, you know, crying, praying, holding your hand, doctors, nurses, and you’ve got tubes stuck in there, all kinds of injection, and cardiographs. You know, at that moment Yeah.
What can be a ben at any any benefit to you? No matter how can any of those possessions, can that mortgage save you? Can that deed to your you know, you’ve you’ve cleared up your mortgage. You own your own. Can that help you at that moment as your mind begins to slip away from the body?
This connection, connection, this bond begins to dissolve. Your mind, you know, things are beginning to grow dark. You can’t quite hear clearly. Sounds are indistinct. It’s begin your vision’s beginning to fade as the room is darkened.
Just the shapes, you begin to go into yourself. At that moment, can and can your can your CD players be of any benefit? Can you your deed to your house, your car? Even the people who loved you, who sincerely want you to be happy, they hold on to you. Don’t can they hold on to your mind as it steps away from your body?
And even this body that you’re taking such great care of, that you’re given the best of food, perfume, cosmetics, nice soft clothing, Wash it all the time. At that moment, it’s a it’s a no use. The only thing which can be a benefit is how much we have developed our mind, what types of patterns we’ve created. And as someone said it, that death is a radical change of lifestyle, even during the course of this life, what prepares you for change? Is it the things and the people around you, or is it your own developed qualities, your own attitudes that you’ve got?
What helps people to take a chance to be willing to voluntarily go into new situations of change, radical changes? I’m talking about the kind of changes which occur during the course of our life. What how how can we assure that you’re going to land on your feet when your whole world is turned upside down by death, by some tragedy? It’s by our own inner quality, our own inner centeredness, our understandings, our wisdom, our love. So whether we’re talking about the the changes which occur during the course of our life or the great change, that radical change which occurs at the end of this life, It’s only the development of our own mind which is going to help us to carry through it, which we can raise some kind of assurance that we’re going to land on our feet on the other side of this change, of this gap, this this transition period.
And then what, you know, what can we expect? We we, you know, now we get into the idea of karma. karma. These there are many ways that we can look at karma. And one of them, most simply, is in terms of the patterns that we’re laying down, all the various habits, inclinations, tendencies.
So this idea of karma is not there are many karma is a intricate subject. There are many facets to it. But if we, you know, we talk about it in a very simple way. karma is a Sanskrit word. It means actions.
All our various actions, verbal actions, physical actions, mental actions, leave some kind of impression. Our actions of our mental actions leave a habitual pattern in the mind, a tendency for the mind to operate again and again in the same fashion. And then we call these habits. Get in the habit of smoking. You know, we’ll talk about that.
But also our physical and verbal actions, they leave an impression on the subtle energy which accompanies the mind. There’s a but we’ll go on to a future life when this body is finished. But there is a subtle mind and a subtle energy which are like horse and rider. The horse is the energy which has the ability to move. It has quality and motility, and the rider which guides the horse.
And upon these are made are left impressions of all our various actions just like, you know, we can speak of it in in the sense of a DNA molecule which carries this coded message. All our actions, our body, speech, or mind are encoding themselves upon, making impressions upon, leaving traces, recording upon our our subtle mind and subtle energy. They’re somehow modified. Mentally, what will happen is we will have we’re creating tendencies, habits so that when we come in contact with a particular object, a particular program takes over. A recording is played out.
These patterns begin to repeat themselves. This is the main, one of the important aspects of karma is simply this compulsive reoccurring patterns, which which we call our life. Compulsive reoccurring recurring patterns, programs. I I give you an example. The the idea behind what we’re talking about is we’re trying to develop some feeling that, wow, I have to grow.
I have to change. Beginning to identify the quality of your life in terms of these misconceptions and the possibility for freedom from them. Them. An example in terms of karma and these reoccurring compulsive patterns, which are karma. karma is these reoccurring compulsive patterns.
We we conceive a we label a long white, thing may which is made out of paper and has chopped up leaves inside. We we label that as cigarette. Okay? That is something which is to be put in the mouth and set on fire. Now this is our, what we call, our collective karma.
That is to say, we all conceive of this long white paper thing with chopped up leaves in it as something which is to be put in the mouth and set on fire. Now as to whether we do that, that’s in the that’s something else altogether different. But that’s the way that’s our collective karma. That is the way that is our what our habitual way of labeling, of conceiving that object, this long white thing with chopped up leaves inside it. This is our cultural conditioning or our group karma, we can say.
Now some people, they go on. They can see a a they have the they go on to conceive of the inhalation of the toxic fumes from that cigarette as pleasurable. Other people, it’s completely obnoxious, nauseous. So this is our karma, the way we conceive of that. So for some people to put a cigarette in their mouth, we all conceive of that as something which is to be put in their mouth.
Some of us, when they light it, they find great great pleasure out of it. Others, it makes them sick just to be around it. This is our karma. This is the way we compulsively experience as pleasure and and displeasure coming in contact with these various objects. We don’t have any choice in this.
Now, you know, when the situation is such a let’s say there’s a smoker. This smoker doesn’t have any craving presently. But the potential for craving arises, is there in their mind. There’s a latency. There’s a there’s a there’s there’s a pattern set down, a recording, a program.
Now due to some condition, perhaps they just had finished a delicious meal sitting around with friends. Perhaps, they saw someone light up a cigarette. Perhaps they the nicotine level in their bloodstream is is going below a critical threshold, that will trigger one of these recordings, one of these programs, one of these karmic patterns. And before this person knows what they’re doing, they’re reaching for a cigarette and they’re putting it in their mouth. Now that person karma can mean impulse.
It’s the urge. It’s what it what directs our mind. That that mind at that moment, they just finished this meal sitting back, that mind could have thought of a million objects. It could have thought of great objects, any type of objects, but it it was forced to think of this long white thing with chopped leaves inside of a cigarette either because of the physical quality and the nicotine level or they saw someone, lit it up, or simply the habit of having a cigarette after a meal. Their mind this is how karma works.
This urge, this impulse. At that point, they could have thought of anything. Their mind could have turned toward writing a book. Their mind could have turned toward going for a jog. But their mind turned toward a cigarette, A compulsive pattern.
We call this simply a habit. We call this habit. And due to that, a program was activated. And before they knew it, they were lighting up a cigarette. Now some another consequence of this, that people who, you know, they’re they’re they’re like reborn as a smoker.
People in the realm of smokers have a higher incident of lung cancer. So we can begin to see that due to due to these programs, one type of person is going to have a different quality of life, is going to have a longer health life expectancy. Another person is going to have a shorter life expectancy. One person is going to have more probability of getting lung cancer than this other person. And this is their karma.
This is, just these impulses of the mind, these these programs predispose us to live and experience a certain way of life, to to interpret our experiences in certain ways. Certain, you know, the the trigger of certain certain thought trains, thought patterns. And then they predispose us to a particular quality of life. So the idea behind the understanding of karma is that they are compulsive recurring patterns. There are and with respect to these patterns, are said to be four four four major qualities.
One is that the results of actions are infallible. That these karmic patterns, by actions we call a karma, the results of karma are infallible. Coming to an understanding that that just as in the external world there is a definite relationship between a cause and effect. That you from an from an apple seed, get apple trees. You don’t get pear trees.
You don’t get plum trees. There’s a different relationship. Likewise, between certain types of actions, certain types of karma, what predisposes to experience have certain specific experiences. So from the point of view of Buddhism, we’re not making any moral judgment that one should act in any certain way. If you don’t if it doesn’t matter whether you’re happy or suffering, it doesn’t matter from the point of view of Buddhism of what you do.
But if it matters whether you’re happy or whether you’re suffering, then it makes a great deal of difference what types of patterns you you are creating, what types of karma you are creating, what types of actions you are engaging into because you will experience a definite concordant consequence result in dependence upon that cause. So we say skillful actions have as their results happiness. Unskillful actions have as their results suffering. There’s no moral judgment being made. It is just that by skillful actions, we mean those which are going to help you to interpret your experiences as pleasurable.
Unskillful actions are those which will force you compulsively to label and to react with self defeating behavior and to label situations and experiences as suffering. This is the reality of the situation. This is the law of cause and effect. So the results of actions are infallible. Actions are highly augmentative.
That means they’re highly increasing. Just you know, there’s a there’s one you know, what we have what we are now is what we have done. What we do now is what we’re going to become. That we’re creating the type of future we’re going to experience at that very present moment. That our our our the the future is not predetermined.
That the past only goes up so far. It only goes up to the present. And the future moment is open. This is the only opportunity that we have is at the present moment to work with. Now what the various choices that are open to us can have tremendous significance to to open up future possibilities.
You know, it’s just like a a if you one choice will lead opens up a possibility. If you make it out of the it closes this door and opens this door. And then you’re going along this and then two door two more doors open. Two possible choices. You make that choice and this door closes.
So these other possibilities are no longer available to you. And if we direct ourselves, all our actions in accordance with some sort of predetermined goal, then we our actions become purposive. They aren’t haphazard. And in this way, even simple choices can can open up vast possibilities which weren’t open which which would not be available to us if we hadn’t made even these simple choices. Third third quality of karma.
The results of actions committed are not exhausted, are not lost. This simply means that, you know, just like, the seeds from the pyramids of Egypt, after three or four thousand years they took the there were some wheat seeds that they found in the pyramids and they planted them. And even after three or four thousand years, they still germinated and grew wheat. Likewise, these we can think of karma in the sense of a seed and we’re planting various seeds, positive and negative types of seeds. And no matter how much time might intervene, no matter what, circumstances, might occur during the interval, when these seeds meet the proper conditions.
As in the case of these seeds from the pyramids of Egypt when they they came in combination with soil, water, they they sprouted. Likewise, these seeds will sprout. These programs are going to be read out, going to be experienced.