Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Drawing on American anthropologist Gregory Bateson’s claim that psychological misery is “pathologies of epistemology,” Ven Jampa Gendun frames this 47-minute session around the third of Tsongkhapa’s three principal aspects: seeing deeply into the nature of reality. Suffering, he argues, is proportional to the gap between our beliefs and how things actually are; the deepest illusion is the assumption of a unitary, unchanging, independent self that underlies every afflictive emotion from attachment to spite. He examines three areas where our models need correcting — the nature of the external world, how to relate to it through non-clinging, and the nature of the self — drawing on the Dhammapada and an Einstein quotation on the “optical delusion of consciousness.” He distinguishes Buddhism from psychotherapy: therapy prunes the branches of ego-distortion, but Buddhism aims to cut the root — the unexamined premise of selfhood itself.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 3 PA 1990 08 03.mp3
UUID: c4b55a32-164f-42fe-971d-466d6e66e1c1
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Three Principal Aspects of the Path 1988-1990 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1990-08-03
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 47.0 minutes
Words: ~5,117
Development of motivation. So it’s on these red books. If you have a red book, It’s verse number one or verse number three. So essentially, we’re going through, you know, I think one book which I just I’m reading just now defines love as the will to extend oneself for the purpose of nurturing, the welfare of oneself or others. So it’s a matter of will, and will requires effort.
And the the way that we show that we care about ourselves is by ending our suffering, taking our suffering, taking ourselves seriously and deciding to change. And this this decision to change, to grow, requires that we set some kind of a direction understanding the nature of our problems and therefore the source of our problems, and the source of our problems being with inside of ourselves. And the solution to our problems likewise lies within ourselves. The solution to our problems is our own development, own spiritual growth. And this is in its fulfilled form, we term a Buddha, a happy, healthy, loving, sane human being, someone who has solved the problems of ego based existence and compassionately worked with devotion to help others to experience the same.
And this becomes a principal occupation. Our primary principle, our guiding direction in our life is to develop the Buddha within inside of ourselves. And we do this by means of the Dharma. The Dharma has the system of techniques, methods, the means whereby we were raised. We go from being an ordinary human being to becoming an extraordinary human being.
And this is done in the social context of a spiritual community. As it says here, highest assembly, the assembly of both ordinary practitioners who support us and inspire us, teach us, whatever. And this is the means, this constant resetting of our direction in terms of these three guiding principles of our life, the development of one’s internal principle of fulfillment, one’s spiritual attainments, represented by an awakened one, a Buddha, by means of the the Dharma in the social context of a Sangha. And we do this out of love, beginning with love for ourselves, but beginning to extend that to all sentient beings. So we develop ourselves because we love ourselves, and we seek to develop ourselves finally because we love others.
I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the highest assembly. By the merit I collect from listening to these teachings, may I attain the state of a Buddha to be able to benefit all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the highest assembly. From the virtuous merit that I collect by giving you the teachings, may I attain the state of a Buddha to be able to benefit all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the highest assembly.
From the virtuous merit that I collect by practicing giving any other perfections, may I attain the state of a Buddha to be able to benefit all sentient beings. We’ve been going through a text called The Three Principal Aspects of the Path, which was written by a fourteenth century yogic scholar, Tibetan master by the name of Tsongkhapa. The Three Principal Aspects of the Path, developing the determination to be free, opening your hearts to others, and seeing deeply into the nature of reality. And we’re going to begin tonight commencing with the third of these three principal aspects of the path, seeing deeply into the nature of reality. I think the first step in the process of change, in the process of growth, is we have to begin to challenge our self perceptions, our experiences of reality, how we experience reality, and how do we conceive reality.
To the degree that our notion of reality does not approximate, does not accord with the way things actually are, to that same degree, we’re going to experience frustration, disappointment, dissatisfaction. And the path consists of exploring our erroneous and distorted conceptions that we have and beginning become aware of them. We have to first identify our distorted and erroneous conceptions, mistaken notions, wrong ideas that we have about the world and ourselves. Have to become aware that we are presently holding onto wrong views, wrong ideas, mistaken ideas, and begin to transform them into views, ideas, assumptions, beliefs. Much into keeping with the way things actually are.
The our experience of frustration, disappointment, dissatisfaction is proportional to the degree of the distorting quality of our views, our beliefs, to the degree that our approach, our way of relating is in accordance with the way things actually are to that same degree we’re going to experience fulfillment. Our expectations will be met. We’ll experience satisfaction, contentment. There was an American anthropologist by the name of Gregory Bateson. For a few days a few sessions, we’re going to be reviewing what we talked about in terms of the seeing deeply into the nature of reality.
And Gregory Bateson, an American anthropologist, said that he conceives psychological misery as epistemological error, pathologies of epistemology. Psychological misery is conceived of as pathologies of epistemology. Epistemology simply means the way we know things, the way that our assumptions about the world, how we know the world. We have some kind of errors in the way that we understand the world, our assumptions about the nature of ourselves. If suffering individuals ever expect to get rid of their misery, they have to be prepared to let go of their mistaken deep seated conceptions and beliefs about the world, about the world in general, but more particularly about our life.
You know, our convictions are constantly being contradicted and validated by our own experience and by our own rational understanding. So, you know, we’ve all had the necessary experiences, but we we missed the lesson. It’s as if we don’t need any more lessons. We don’t need any more experiences, but we need to to have the experiences point out that they’re in fact invalidating many of the our assumption, many of our beliefs upon which we base our life, our behavior. You know, we’re constantly constantly missing these lessons.
So Buddhism is simply pointing out some of the mistakes we’re making along the way, helping us to become aware of some of our erroneous beliefs, wrong conceptions. So the the central assertion of Buddhism is that we are all living our lives based upon mistakes. And that’s not catastrophic. This can be this the situation is workable. We can correct our mistakes.
But some basic mistakes. And that because we have not spotted these mistakes, we we create suffering for ourselves out of these mistakes. We create a world which is, by its very nature dissatisfactory because our world is mistaken. It’s based upon mistaken notions. You know, very much we’re creating the type of world that we live in.
It is participatory universe. And if our method of participating in the universe is based upon erroneous conceptions, our actions will be inappropriate. And this is experienced as suffering. Inappropriate actions, actions which are not in harmony with the way things are. So we’re trying to outgrow those erroneous conceptions, beliefs that we base our life upon.
So this world that we construct for ourselves is based upon varying levels of illusion. So to grow out means to become disillusioned, unillusioned. So the illusions you know, we have various levels of illusions. The the levels of illusions may be as we’ve talked about in the past in developing determination to be free. The illusion that I have a sense of insufficiency about ourselves, that I don’t have the potential to develop, to solve my problems, that I don’t have the proper circumstances, all the necessary conditions to develop myself.
The illusion may be that I’m going to live forever, that I’m immortal. The illusion may be that my life, my happiness is not under my control. It’s governed by external factors or by chance. The illusion may be everything’s okay. It’s satisfactory.
The illusion may be that self centeredness is the most effective way I can find happiness for myself. But the primary illusion is the illusion of a mistaken notion of the nature of reality, about the world that we live in. So, you know, we grow up with models of the world. We’re to we’re model builders above all else. We have a a model of the world in which we put all our trust in, yet which is constantly, in countless ways, being invalidated, being shown as false.
So this and this way of talking isn’t isn’t necessarily a bitter a bitter way of seeing the world. It is not a cynical approach to the world. We’re talking about a type of life which is marked with frustration, disappointment, and dissatisfaction. Such a type of life is based upon illusion. And peace only comes in letting go of illusion, you know, becoming disillusioned, up uprooting these mistaken notions, wrong models, beginning to contradict them, to see that they’re invalid, and replace replace them with models, conceptions, which are in keeping with the way things actually are.
From the Buddhist point of view, you know, a person suffers because he or she has a very limited viewpoint of the way things are. We ignore other levels of reality. We dismiss other possibilities other than what we believe in or are capable of perceiving. It’s as if we only adhere to that which we presently know as if there were no other possibility. So from the point of view of Buddhism, we continue to suffer because we persist we persist in living a life characterized by stubborn, closed mindedness about learning anything which about the world which might disturb our present view of reality, which we feel might threaten our ego identity, our present sense of security.
So with respect to seeing deeply into the nature of reality, Buddhism is not saying that is is not telling anyone that you should or should not believe in a self or not believe that that the self exists. This is not the point. It is saying that when one looks at the way one suffers, when and the way one thinks and responds emotionally to life, it is as if one believed that there were a self which was unitary, which was unchanging and independently existing. When we look at the way we emotionally respond to life, when we look at the way we think and experience, then we think, we respond emotionally, and we experience the world as if, from a context, as if we had a type of self which was unitary, unchanging, and independent. But upon closer analysis, no such self can ever be isolated.
No such type of self can ever be found. And that life based upon such a model reality is associated with disappointment, is associated with frustration and dissatisfaction. On the other hand, a life which is based upon a model of selflessness is associated with peace, is associated with tranquility, clarity, spontaneity, and absence of suffering and conflict. That’s all that Buddhism is saying. We respond emotionally to situations.
We experience situations. We think in terms of as if we had a unitary, unchanging, independent existing self. Based upon that mode of belief, we experience suffering. A type of life which is based upon a model antithetical to that. A type of model which is based upon that there does not exist a unitary, unchanging, independent self, is associated with the experiences of peace, non suffering, non conflict, harmony.
So it becomes a pragmatic approach to the problem of existence. You know, we may be unaware that we harbor such a belief. You say, no. I’ve never thought about that. I’ve never thought to myself, oh, I’m unitary.
I’m unchanging. I’m independent existing. You know, this actual conversation may have never arisen in your mind, this way of thinking. But our emotional responses of attachment, of hatred, of jealousy, of spite, are indications that we harbor such a belief. These are signs, indications that we have such a belief, because they all arise dependent upon such a belief.
All the various afflictive emotions, those types of emotions which disturb the peace, the tranquility of the mind. Such emotions as attachment, as hatred, anger, spite, jealousy, all arise dependent upon this belief in a unitary, unchanging, independent self. These are that these arise is a sign that you are holding such a belief whether you’re aware of that belief or not. You know, both animals and humans act as if they had a self to protect, as if they had a self to preserve, to foster. So this type of behavior is automatic.
It’s instinctive, and it’s considered to be normal. For example, when pain arises or discomfort arises, that pain or discomfort is seen as being outside of oneself, as being external to the self, extraneous to the self. There is the conception of the self would naturally be happy if all if the if I could remove that pain and suffering from my ego territory, from my ego domain. And so we react with fearful and angry repulsion to anything which is associated with that pain, with that suffering, in order to eliminate it from our ego territory, our ego domain. In the hope of getting some sort of sense of security, some sort of comfort from not having that pain, that suffering, that object which is associated with that pain, that suffering.
On the other hand, when some sort of pleasure arises, the automatic response is to try to incorporate that pleasure into the ego territory, into our ego domain, into the self. So the pleasure is seen as extraneous to the self, lying outside the self. And there’s an automatic response of seeking to incorporate that pleasure into oneself. As if the self would always be happy if that pleasure could be made a permanent part of oneself. So we react with craving.
We react with desire to incorporate that pleasure into oneself, into our ego identity, in order to in the hope of getting some sense of security, some kind of comfort from having that as part of ourself. So desire, hatred, all the various afflictive emotions have as their foundation, the belief in a type of self, in such a type of self, whether we’re aware of it or not. All of these afflictive emotions are indicators that we harbor such a belief. Such types of beliefs do in fact exist within us, And they play a great part in our emotional responses to the world and the type of world that we’re creating for ourselves. You know, to persist in living a life which is characterized by ignoring other realities, other possibilities, is to live not only a frustrated life, but ultimately one that is inexact, you know, incomplete.
It’s illusory. All their actions become, as I said, inappropriate, erroneous, limited. This is beginning at the idea the principle of karma. Where actions are coming from mistaken viewpoints, they lead to the necessity for corrective actions. You know, we always have to keep cleaning up the messes that we make again and again.
We always have to be again and again struggling for happiness, again and again seeking to eliminate suffering. Because our actions are inappropriate, because they’re incorrect, they’re not in keeping with the way things actually are. So we always have to be making, constantly creating corrections. As long as we believe that there is a suffering, as long as we believe that there is a self suffering, and it’s necessary corollary that there is a that this suffering needs to be relieved, then there’s no possible end to our suffering. You know, each each would be conceptually meaningless without the other.
As long as we believe in the existence of suffering self, it’s necessary that we continually be preoccupied with the relieving of suffering. It becomes sort of our major preoccupation. The Buddha said, suffering alone exists, none who suffers. The deed there is, but none but no doer thereof. nirvana is, but no one seeking it.
The path there is, but no one who travels. So as long as we believe in a self that is suffering, that needs improving, that needs to be served, that needs to be made happy, Life becomes an endless treadmill, a treadmill of frustration. This treadmill we call cyclic existence. This is what we call unenlightened existence, ego based existence. This treadmill of constantly having to relieve ourselves of suffering, of constantly having to find happiness again and again.
So this misconception of the nature of the self is the linchpin which keeps all of these various other misconceptions, all these various other afflictive emotions in place. And one of the the optimistic factors and qualities about Buddhism is that we don’t have to weed out all the errors individually. If we can focus our efforts on pulling out this this one main factor, the nature this illusion of the nature of the self, then the others will begin to break up by themselves. This misconception as to the nature of itself, the nature of reality, of phenomena in general. So without seeing deeply into the nature of reality, without the view of selflessness, Buddhism would be simply a very sublime ethic.
You know, the bodhisattva seeks to highest enlightenment seeks, buddhahood in order to relieve the suffering of all sentient beings. But it without this is a very noble aspiration. It’s, know, perhaps the highest ethic that humankind has ever conceived. But without the understanding of emptiness, the nature of reality, the self, when it can never be realized, it’s a fruitless effort because one can never be liberated. One can never achieve Buddhahood, and the end can never be achieved.
There would be no end to suffering. Without the view of selflessness, emptiness, Buddhism would not go beyond psychotherapy. You know, I think therapy, psychotherapy in Buddhism, much of Buddhism, They try to prune the branches of our misconceptions about, what it means to be normal, what it means to be sane or worthwhile person. But the view of Buddhism and all the various meditation practices aim at cutting the roots, namely our deep unexamined fallacious premises about what it means to be a person at all. So to some extent, Buddhism, and to almost an entire extent psychotherapy, seeks to to develop a healthy ego, to become a worthwhile self actualized individual.
But they can never go beyond that. Buddhism is seeking to go beyond and finally go beyond all egoistic states altogether. You know, first becoming somebody in order that you can become nobody. And go beyond to transcend the ego altogether. You know, in talking about developing some sort of world view, how we’re going to relate with the world, what are our problems basically?
You know, how we’re going to relate with the world around us, what is the nature of that world, and what is the nature of myself. You know, some of the major concerns about psychotherapy, about spiritual path in general. You know, the major areas of concern to both Buddhism and psychotherapy about which we have some deep seated beliefs, some values, some core beliefs, assumptions, which guide and determine our actions. You know, basically, there’s three areas that we can look at in developing some kind of of healthy world view that we have to examine, that we’re trying to solve our problem. The first is our assumption about the nature of the world.
How are we going to conceive of the world? By that, I mean everything that we we conceive as of as being external to ourselves. This is the world. We may believe that the world is cruel. We might believe we might believe that the the universe is benevolent, that it’s orderly, that it’s chaotic, that it’s inexplicable, that it’s, explicable, that we can it can be understood, that the world the universe is permanent, that it’s impermanent.
There’s all various positions, views that we can take on with respect to the world and how we’re going to view it. The very first two verses from the Dhammapada, a very important text in Theravadan Buddhism. 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 the trouble will follow you as the wheel 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.
Thus, you know, in Buddhism, the Buddhist position is that we are very much part of our world, that it’s what we call a participatory universe, that we’re in fact creating a type of world, a moment to moment that we experience, that we live in, that we are not separate from our world, that all of these feelings of isolation, fragmentation, alienation are just products of our dualistic thinking, our feelings of separateness from the world. And this world, just as our mind is in constant flux, the world which the object of that mind is in constant flux, constantly changing. And that the world follows a definite order, though we not we may be unable to perceive that order at present. We might be unable to comprehend the scheme of things, but the world does follow an orderly pattern, an orderly scheme of things. So this is the way Buddhism is viewing the world outside of ourselves, the external world.
And second, there is the assumptions about how am I going to relate with this world. You know, I I get some understanding about the type of world which lies outside of myself. From this, there there naturally arises how am I going to relate with this world. You know, here, we can believe, for example, that we our relationship to the world should be characterized as a loving relationship, a hating relationship. We should seek to dominate the world.
We should seek to submit to the world. We should a clinging relationship to the world and an attaching relationship to the world. We should have an interdependent relationship with the world, that we should have a sense of adversary relationship with the world. Now how am I going to relate with this world that lies outside of myself? In this terms, in the Buddhist position, his in his second area of how to relate, logically follows on from the first, you know, the nature of this external world, consistent with that.
You know, if the world is in constant flux, then the only proper way to relate it with it should be from a position of non clinging. Did you get it? If the world is in constant flux, then the proper way to the proper way to relate with it, the appropriate way to relate it with and by flux, I mean it’s constantly changing. It’s impermanent. Things arise, they abide, and they cease.
So the appropriate way, the most skillful way to relate with such a type of world would be in terms of non clinging, non attachment. It stands to reason. If you attempt to to grasp on and cling to something that’s transitory, then you’re doomed to frustration. You’re you’re, doomed to failure. If one sees the world as separate one from oneself, as independent of oneself, and seeks to conquer it, then because the world, in fact, it acts it exists interdependently with oneself, one is going to destroy oneself.
And rather than have an adversarial approach to the world, one has to act in harmony with the world because you exist interdependently with it. And if the world follows certain laws, then the proper relationship should be to live in harmony with those laws, to become aware of, and to begin to act in accordance with those laws. You know, to to attempt to control things which are beyond your say is to not only will aggravate the situation, but it’s futile. So learning to becoming aware of and learning to act within the laws, the natural laws in which the universe follows since we’re not separate from this world. And how with respect to seeing ourselves as not separate from the world.
And a quotation from Albert Einstein about the way to relate with this world of ours. A human being is 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 in its beauty.
So from the point of view of Buddhism, the way in which we are to relate with this world, the proper way, the appropriate way, the skillful way that we are to relate with the world should be in terms of respect and love and compassion, acting in harmony with it, understanding that we exist interdependent with it. Then there’s a third major area of concern. There’s the first concern is the nature of the external world. How am I going to relate to that external world? And the third area is our assumption about the nature of who I am, the nature of the self, this internal world.
So possible possibilities of what we may believe. We can believe that there is a self, there is an I, an ego, or there is none. If there is, then this self, I, ego is real, truly exists, or is illusionary. If this self, and I is permanent or is impermanent. That it’s important, unimportant.
That it’s responsible, irresponsible. That it’s created by God, that is created by chance, or that is created by other than that. All of these different possibilities have different views that we may have concerning the nature of ourselves. Now as we mentioned previously, that according to Buddhism, you know, Buddhism is not telling us whether we have a self or not. It’s not saying that we should believe.
I think that’s a better way to state it. It’s not saying that we should believe that we have a self or not. But it’s that when we examine, when we look at the way we suffer, the way that we respond emotionally to life, When it is as if we believed that there were a unitary, unchanging, independent self. Upon examination, no such type of self can ever be isolated. And this is the important point, that a life based upon such a type of belief system is marked with frustration, disappointment, dissatisfaction.
A life which is based upon a different model, A model which holds that there is no unitary, independent, unchanging self is associated with the experience of is marked with satisfaction, contentment, peace. And this is simply a pragmatic approach to life. What type of model we’re going to base our life on. And whether you’re aware of it or not, the type of reality and therefore the experiences that you undergo are based upon your models, your conceptions, your beliefs, your assumptions about yourself, the world around you, and how you are to relate with it. So it’s important, you know, the to to begin to develop models which are going to bring about exactly the effect that you want, the result that you’re seeking.
Basically, Basically, fulfillment, authenticity. You know, whatever your prime values are. Mistaken models, we call them mistaken because they are they are are causes to act inappropriately, leading to the result of suffering. You know, there are there are different the point that’s being made here is that there is no objective, concrete reality. You know, it would be it would be wrong of Buddhism to say, I have a system here which truly exists, which is the absolute.
But the Buddha said, I have a system, internally consistent system of approaching life. Using this model, you will experience peace, tranquility, harmony. If you maintain the model the way you’re operating on, you will continue to experience dissatisfaction, frustrations, and disappointment. You know, with our thoughts we make the world. And that that line from the Dhammapada.
That is with our thoughts, our assumptions, our beliefs, our models, we create the kind of life that we experience. So in this course of moving through these three principal aspects of the path, you know, what we’re doing is we’re calling up our mistaken conceptions, call bringing to awareness our wrong beliefs in order to transform them. And in transforming them, we transform the world and transform ourselves and the experience of that world. You know, we transform what we might say saṃsāra into nirvana. This process of transforming, of calling up to awareness our mistaken conceptions, This process of change.
This is the process of change. This is the process of growth to challenge our self perceptions, our experience of the reality. To begin to see that, to begin to see very deeply that our models of reality and ourselves are often in contradiction to our rational thinking and our experience. That they are constantly being invalidated. And if you want to change we have a certain investment in who we are, and we won’t change.
There’s a certain there’s resistance to change. It’s only when you see it’s in your best interest to change. When you begin to become you know, it’s that the present course of events is dissatisfactory and that there’s a possibility for another another way of existing. You know, That is a possibility for well-being. You know, going through this process, first, you develop a determination to be free.
And this that’s the way we can become to initially disillusion ourselves. You know, this constant going out growing out of illusions, disillusioning, and beginning to challenge our false impressions and transforming them. We also try to begin to open our hearts to others, overcoming our false assumption as to our separateness from others. The determination to be free institutes a