Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Ven Jampa Gendun opens this 36-minute session with a striking image: samsaric life as an endless chain of corrective actions, each one spawning another, because every response is rooted in the same mistaken view of self. Drawing on a Buddha quote — “suffering alone exists, none who suffers” — he argues that clinging to a self that needs improving makes liberation structurally impossible. He then organises the Buddhist path around three deep assumptions everyone carries: about the nature of the world, how to relate to it (quoting Einstein on the “optical delusion” of separateness), and the nature of self — the linchpin holding all other afflictions in place. The session closes with a guided contemplative meditation on admired qualities, personal transformation, and where current habits are leading. Suitable for practitioners beginning to engage with the view of emptiness.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 3 PA 1989 05 05.mp3
UUID: 9da0ee69-9c93-4e9d-837c-9dd13da42536
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Three Principal Aspects of the Path 1988-1990 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1989-05-05
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 36.4 minutes
Words: ~3,419
What stem from this erroneous view that we’re holding, you know, based upon illusion, can only only create more of the same. They were talking about karma. The cause and effect relationship. You know, where where actions are coming from a mistaken viewpoint then we’re always going to have to be correcting, making corrections of our initial, of our previous action and again those are going to be based on a mistaken viewpoint and again we’re going to have to make correction. We’re going to have to keep cleaning up the mess that we made before.
In other words, in a never ending process. You know, one action leads to another corrective action leads to another corrective action without end. So it’s like it’s just consistent, infinite regression that we’re involved in. You know, life becomes a perpetual motion of cleaning up our messes that we make. We have to we have to keep fixing ourselves up, keep improving ourselves.
You know, as as long as we believe that there’s somebody that needs improving, as long as as long as we agree that there’s a self that suffers, you know, what is the corollary to saying that there’s a person that there’s a self who suffers. Then that that is associated with there there there is a self which whose suffering needs to be alleviated, whose suffering needs to be removed. And so we have to keep constantly removing our suffering, improving ourselves. There is no possible end to our suffering. You know, each is conceptually meaningless without the other.
As long as we conceive of suffering itself, then we’re going to have to be constantly involved with relieving suffering of that self. As long as we’re constantly involved in it, that’s gonna be meaningless to keep up with the act, the work. There’s no end to it. You know the Buddha said, suffering alone exists, none who suffers. The deed there is but no doer thereof.
nirvana is but none seeking it. The path there is but no one who travels it. So as long as we believe in a self that is suffering, that needs improving, you know, that needs to be served, that needs to be made happy, you know life becomes an endless treadmill of frustration, disappointment. You know this is what we call cyclic existence. An unenlightened existence, ego based existence.
The misconception of the nature of the self. This is developing some feeling as a basic introduction of why we’re even addressing the problem of the nature of the self. And then as we go along begin to understand how we can begin to address it and begin the method of gaining, identifying, gaining awareness and transforming. You know the misconception of the nature of the self and ultimately of the mind is, as I said, is the linchpin which holds the whole thing together which keeps all the other afflictions, erroneous models locked into place. So one of the optimistic aspects of Buddhism is that we don’t have to weed out all the erroneous, all the errors individually.
Now if we make our effort at, pulling out this one pin then the others are going to disperse, the others are going to break up by themselves. Without seeing deeply into the nature of reality, you know, without the view of selflessness, without the view of emptiness, then Buddhism simply becomes a sublime ethic, you know, embodied in the Bodhisattva’s ideal of, you know, courageously carrying on for three countless eons through with heroic deeds in order to alleviate the sufferings of all sentient beings. It’s a very sublime ethic. But without emptiness, without the view of selflessness, then it is simply that, a sublime ethic. It has no possibility of finding actual actualization. We can never go beyond our suffering, that we will be bound by egotistical existence, ego based existence.
And therefore, there’s no hope of ending the suffering all sentient beings. There’d be no possible way of removing all the suffering of all sentient beings. Without without this view of selflessness and emptiness, Buddhism could not go beyond conventional psychotherapy. You know, for well, Buddhism, psychotherapy, and a great part of Buddhism, a part of much of Buddhism, you know, prunes the branches of our of our misconceptions about what it means to be normal, about what it means to be sane, what it means to be a worthwhile person. The view of Buddhism and meditation and the the aim of meditation is that cutting at the root of this tree, namely our deeply unexamined deep seated beliefs about the fact of who that person is in the first place.
About what it means to be a person at all. So in this way this I think is the contribution that Buddhism can make over and above conventional psychotherapy. That rather making the person normal, sane, a worthwhile person, Buddhism calls into questioning the very nature of the person themselves. While going beyond simply seeking to create a healthy ego, seeking to transcend the ego altogether. So you know we can talk about, basically we can talk about you know the three major areas of concern.
Both of conventional psychotherapy and Buddhism. And how they, and the possibilities of making, of model making. You know how these three major area of concern about something that things that we have very deep seated beliefs about, assumptions about. You know which deep which to a large extent guide and determine all our actions. The first is the assumption of the nature of the world.
The nature of the world. Our assumptions concerning the nature of the world. You know anything that we perceive outside that we feel is external to us, we’ll call it the world. You know here we may believe that for example, that the world is a cruel world, it’s a benevolent world, it’s an orderly world, it’s a chaotic world, it’s explicable world, it can be explained or it’s inevitable, it’s beyond imagination, it can never be explained. Now we can have all these various interpretations, all these various assumptions, beliefs about the world.
You know, perhaps the world is permanent, perhaps the world is impermanent. In the collection of the of the sayings of the Buddha, the Dhammapada, the very first verse in talking about the world and Buddha Buddha’s position on the world. We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.
Speak or act with an impure mind, and trouble will follow you as the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart. We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act with a pure mind and happiness will follow you as your shadow unshakable.
So, you know, this the Buddhist and the Buddhist position, that we are very much a part of the world. That in fact we are constantly creating our world. That we aren’t separate from it. You know that the fragmentation that we feel, the alienation that we feel, that we experience are products simply of dualistic conceptions, of dualistic thought. Thought.
And just as our own thoughts are constantly in flux likewise the world that we’re creating is constantly changing. And though we might not be able to comprehend the total scheme of things. In this world, hate never yet dispels hate. Only love dispels hate. This is the law.
Ancient and inexhaustible. So the world is not chaotic. It follows laws. Predictable. The law of cause and effect.
The law of karma. You know, beginning to take an underst- to gain an underst- understanding of the Buddhist position, the beliefs of the nature of the world. The second major area of concern, second major area that we have assumptions about is how to relate with this world. You know we might believe that the best way to relate with the world is could be characterized by a loving relationship or perhaps a hating relationship. Relationship.
A relationship of trying to dominate. A submitting type of relationship. A clinging type of relationship. Non attaching type of relationship. A relationship of interdependency or a relationship of seeing the world as an adversary.
We all have to some extent some of these beliefs, some of these ways of relating. So, you know, the way that the way of relating to the world, the Buddhist position on the way the way of relating to the world is is a logical consistent logical consequence of how the Buddhist sees the world initially. You know, if if the world is constantly in flux, if it’s constantly changing, then the only proper relationship should be non clinging, non attachment. This stands to reason that if you attempt to grasp and cling to the things of the world, then you’re going to experience disappointment, frustration. You know, if things are transitory, then to hold on to them is to only court pain.
You know if we see the world as being separate from ourselves, You know, as being in dependence upon ourselves and we seek to conquer it. What do they say about conquering nature, for example? To serve to serve mankind, to serve humankind. If we see that the world, that which is external to ourselves, is something to be conquered, exists independent of ourselves, then in that very process we’re going to destroy ourselves. Since the world and ourselves are interdependent, the world and ourselves are interdependent.
You know, that’s an interesting point that Bateson, the anthropologist, was making about discussing the theory of evolution and how we think that from single celled beings, multi celled beings evolved and there is a lineage of development of evolution down from to the present from mammals and monkeys, homo sapiens, to present day mankind. And he sees the unit of evolution as being the being and the environment. They cannot be separated. The being cannot exist without a particular environment. And that environment cannot exist without that being.
That they’re not they’re completely interdependent. So the unit of evolution is the environment along with the being. If we’re very much interdependent. And failing to see this interdependency and seeking to conquer our environment, we’re going to destroy ourselves. So as a consequence of that, then the proper way to relate would be to exist in harmony.
You know with those laws, which you know govern both ourselves and our environment. And if we attempt to gain control, if we try to force those things which are beyond our control and we’re simply going to aggravate. And not only that, it’s futile. With respect to seeing ourselves as separate from the world, you know our assumption that we have, that we harbor. Just a quotation from Albert Einstein.
A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. Thus, you know, the proper way of relating to the world becomes respect, love, and compassion.
You know rather than seeing the path as seeking to perform perfect actions in a perfect world, seeing the path as a means to develop the capacity to act appropriately, to enact appropriate actions in an imperfect world. Simply developing proper relationships you know with people about you and the world in general as a means of going beyond conflict, as a means existing within harmony and with the way things actually are with the types of models which are associated with peace, with fulfillment, and meaningfulness. So the third major area of concern of our assumptions, some of our core assumptions that we have is is the nature of the self itself. So you know some people we may have beliefs that there is a self, we may have a belief that there is no self. If we believe for example that we have an assumption that there is a self, we have the idea that there is a self.
Now we can either believe that there is a self or that the self is an illusion. Yeah? I think I don’t think think we could maybe you could. We have an assumption that there is a self or that the self is an illusion. That the self exists or the self is an illusion.
For those who harbor the belief that there is a self, that the self exists, I’ll say that. If it exists then it can be either mortal or immortal. It can be mortal or it can be immortal. It can be responsible or irresponsible for what goes on. It can be created by God or it can be created by chance.
All these different possibilities, assumptions, core beliefs that we may have concerning the nature of the self. So, you know, as was mentioned previously, I think it’s a good point. Buddhism is not telling us that we should believe in a self or not, its existence or not. That we have a self or not. The Buddhist position is that when one looks at the way one suffers and the way we think and respond emotionally to life, it is as if one believed that we had such a type of self which is singular, unchanging, independent, existing.
And this is kind of this is this is the assumption that we must make that we’re operating on this basis. Because this is the way we’re expressing ourselves and our behavior and our emotional responses. It’s as if we do have assumption in this type of self which is singular, unchanging, independently existing. Whether we believe in self or not, whether we think the self intellectually is an illusion or not, we must become aware that there within the psyche, within the mind, are various levels of awareness. And we can harbor contradictory assumptions on two different levels within our awareness.
We can I can think of myself intellectually on one level that the self is simply an illusion. That it it is multiple, that it’s changing, that it’s dependently existing. On a deeper level of my awareness, at another cognitive locus, I can be holding the exact opposite view. And they’re never going to be they’re never going to touch each other. They’re never going to be able to transform each other.
And as I begin to recognize, to bring to my conscious awareness, this belief more and more out in the open and begin to expose it and examine it and look at it. All these very deep seated misconceptions that we have have to be brought out and examined, explored. Otherwise it is like oil poured on water. The oil just floats in the water. It doesn’t have it doesn’t mix with the mind.
It doesn’t mix. There’s no integration. There’s no transformation. It’s held at another level. You know when we make this analysis we can become aware that we are holding this belief in such a type of self and we make an analysis, we examine, we explore, and we can’t locate such a self.
And we do this often enough with enough force and we begin to break up this assumption, this model can no longer be supported. It begins to break down and it’s replaced with a model which is associated with more authentic ways of being, more accurate. You know the the Dhammapada said, with our thoughts we make the world. That is, you know, with our beliefs, with our with our assumptions, with our ideas, our models, we are creating a kind of life for ourselves. You know, we’re creating our experiences.
You know, each of us each of us lives in our own world. Each of us is each creating our own world. Our own reality. And this is the life that we live. This is the life that we experience.
The life of our own making. So you know each of these Three Principal Aspects of the path begins to challenge us to examine our models, our assumptions, our beliefs, and to begin to transform them. And in doing that we begin to transform our world in the way we experience the world. We begin to transform saṃsāra into nirvana. So now, you know, we’re beginning to you know, we’re going to set out on this third principal aspect of the path, seeing deeply into the nature of reality.
You know we’re going to begin to slowly uncover these layers of beliefs about the nature of the self, about nature of reality. You know we’re talking about ourselves in the world. You know it’s very much like an archaeological expedition. Beginning to undercover layers and layers of one civilization built upon another civilization. You know, like an excavation.
You know, have layers of beliefs, one built upon another. Even within just with respect to the nature of reality, we have layers of beliefs, different models, one built on top of another. So this uncovering, this like how we say excavating, excavation, these are the stages of development of an individual in coming to an understanding of emptiness. I’ll stop there. I thought in the in the after my little talk we usually do some meditation and try to get in touch with some of our perhaps erroneous models and begin to transform them.
And I thought we’d go through, slowly through, what is called the graduated path. A system of meditations. You know just taking a part of one each evening and just slowly work through them. And then when we come to the seeing deeply in the nature of reality emphasizing that area. So if you would you like to stand up for a minute and then we’ll meditate for a few minutes?
So if you’re sitting in comfortable posture. Now think of someone that you admire, that you respect. What is it about them that you respect so much? What characteristic? What quality?
Now imagine that you yourself have this quality, this characteristic. Just play a role and imagine various situations where you express the same quality that you now admire in this person and that you in turn are admired, respected by others. So take on this quality as if you actually had it and imagine a situation where you express it and others respect and admire you in the same way. Now think of some negative quality about yourself, something you don’t like about yourself. And imagine that you have the exact opposite of that quality, of that negative quality.
You have the positive counterpart. And imagine the appropriate situation where you now express the counterpart, the positive counterpart. Just using your imagination. And think of some positive quality that you now possess, something that you like about yourself. And then imagine that it’s even greater than it is now, that it’s completely developed, fully developed.
And again, imagine situations where you express this positive quality in a more fully developed manner. Now consider what type of person you would like to be five years from now. What qualities would you like to have, characteristics? What would you like to be like five years from now? And what are your obstacles to becoming that type of person?
What stands in your way? And what are you doing to bring it about? What are you doing in your life to bring to become the type of person you want to be five years from now? And where is your prominent your predominant behavior going to take you? Those types of states of mind, behavior, conduct, where are they leading you to?
What can you hope to expect? And then we’ll dedicate positive energy that we’ve created by listening and meditating. Through these merits may I soon attain the enlightened state of Guru Buddha, and may I lead every migrating being without exception to that state. May the precious bodhicitta mind not yet born arise and grow. May that born have no decline but increase forevermore.