Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A verse from a seventeenth-century Zen monk — “If you point your cart north when you want to go south, how will you arrive?” — opens this 47-minute talk by Ven Jampa Gendun on the Three Principal Aspects of the Path. That image anchors his central argument: external practice is hollow without right motivation. He reframes going for refuge as something everyone already does — to money, status, relationships, alcohol — and asks whether those refuges actually solve anything. The three qualities of enlightened mind (wisdom, love and compassion, inexhaustible creative energy) and the three refuges are then laid out in plain contemporary language, with Buddha located not in a painting but within the practitioner. He closes with a review of the first two principal aspects — renunciation and opening the heart to others — and leads a short loving-kindness meditation. Accessible to newcomers with no prior background assumed.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 3 PA 1989 02 17.mp3
UUID: 2a6957d5-3b57-4d62-8e92-91106f11b30b
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Three Principal Aspects of the Path 1988-1990 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1989-02-17
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.7 minutes
Words: ~6,017
One of my one of my oldest one of my best friends, he was a I think about a seventeenth century Zen monk. We spent we’ve we have spent a lot of nights together, me and this Zen monk, and through his poetry. And just a verse. Buddha is your mind. The way goes nowhere.
Don’t look for anything but this. If you point your cart north when you want to go south, how will you arrive? So, you know, very much whether our activities, no matter what they might be externally, whether whether they’re called spiritual or psychological, whether mundane, whatever, if they’re actually going to be a way of transcending in a very significant way, a very profound way, our problems begin to solve the you know, the our ego problems, hatred problems, our attachment problems, our confusion problems. It’s very much dependent upon our attitude, our motivation, the reason why we’re doing what we’re doing, regardless of what the external appearance may be. We can be prostrating, can be doing all kinds of holy rituals, gestures, but in fact we can simply be creating more causes of suffering for ourselves, more causes simply extending you know, the domain of our ego into what are supposedly methods for solving our problems.
Now we can be indulging in spiritual materialism. Then on the other hand, if our motivation is correct, if we have some understanding, some proper attitude, then no matter what we do, whether it’s even going to the toilet, eating our food, it can be a way, a method for actually bringing ourselves happiness as a in the case of the Bodhisattva, for example, whose whose every action is conjoined with this altruistic aspiration to benefit others, whose every action is is conjoined with compassion and love, then everything that he does, everything, sleeping, eating, going to the toilet, it is all some some way is advancing him spiritually, solving his problems, but more than that, isn’t is seen as a way to benefit others. So it’s not so much what we might do on the outside. It’s very much dependent upon our internal attitude, you know, our motivation. So within the the usual Buddhist context, there is a initially, there’s always this moment of reorientation.
Reorientation. You know, setting our cart in the right direction, setting our priorities. You know, we’ve had a long day. We’ve had had to deal with the office, had to deal with kids. You know, we get we get caught up in many trips.
We get caught up in many necessary activities. And who’s to say whether all the struggle that we’ve gone through this day or completely in our entire life up to this very moment is and has in any way been of any benefit whatsoever, this continual struggle to find happiness which we’re all of us are engaged into moment by moment. The only way we can be sure, only way we can begin to know, to have some confidence, is when we begin to understand our own motivation for doing what we’re doing. That that all these great struggles that we engage into, that unless we have our priorities set right, we may actually begin be working against our own self interests, that we lose sight, we lose perspective of where our happiness actually comes from and what are actually the sources of our problems. So there is this question of going for refuge initially as a way of reorientating ourselves.
The idea of refuge is not something new. It’s not some eastern trip. We’ve all been going for refuge our entire life. You know, whether this refuge has been to other people, it’s been to money, social status, whether it’s been to work, sex, drugs, alcohol, whatever. We all have some method, some conception about how to solve our problems.
And this is how we’re seeking to ease the pain of our existence. And we have to look up, check up within our own experience to see if, in fact, our particular method, our particular refuge is working, hasn’t been providing the solution to your problems. And then beginning to prioritize, readjust your priorities in your life to to get back to what’s important, to get back to what actually makes you happy as an autonomous individual. Not what you’ve been told will make you happy, not what others might like for you to do to make you happy, but within your own actual experience, your living experience. So within Buddhism, have a particular, what, direction.
It may not there are other possible directions. Now we talk about the Buddhist direction. It’s one of many possible directions. We call this direction Buddhahood. Happy, loving, healthy, sane human being.
It’s in Buddhahood, it’s enlightenment, whatever that might be, is where my problems are ultimately going to be solved. So we continually are reorientating ourselves in that direction. You know, we have some basic wisdom, some basic sanity. And if we provide ourselves with a realistic model, then we can a model which accords, which is harmonious with the way things actually are, then this can be a way of actually solving our problems in the sense that our mind is naturally going to tend toward that which we can see of as bringing us happiness. It’s naturally going to move away from that which we can see of as bringing us suffering.
Now we must be sure we have to check out within our own experience. Are our conceptions of happiness and suffering, are they in accord with actual nature of reality? Otherwise, we may we might very well be making the same mistakes again and again and again. You know, just as if we conceived of putting our finger, our hand in a in a flame as happiness. If we were to conceive of that as happiness, then we’re going to begin we’re going to be burnt again and again and again.
You know, you know, we’ve all had the experience, but we missed the lesson. So Buddhism is help is simply helping us to try not to miss the lesson so that we can learn from our past mistakes, so we don’t continually repeat our past mistakes, that we don’t aren’t bound by our past history. So there can be some linear growth involved in this rather than cyclic existence. See, going around in the same repetitive patterns until you die. So we go for refuge.
So we go for what? We we we take a direction. And we call this direction Buddhahood. We call this direction enlightenment. Now, you know, this is you know, what what this quality, well, what is enlightenment?
You know, it’s perhaps a very abstract idea to most of it, enlightenment. We’re somehow trying to make this idea relevant to ourselves. And some you know, the idea of some way you know, it’s very it’s I think it’s extremely difficult to actually sincerely, deeply feel that you can change to become a happy, loving, healthy, sane human being. Somehow you think, well, within the context of all these hang ups that I presently have, all my problems, maybe I can make slight adjustments. Maybe I can attach a small happiness transplant, but no major plastic surgery, major transformation.
So this is very much this takes some working, I think. Some working. It takes tremendous confidence in your own native intelligence, in your own brilliant sanity. Working toward becoming all that you can be, developing this potential. We begin to develop a model.
You give yourself a direction, and the mind will naturally begin to flow to that direction. The mind, due to its native intelligence, flows into its conception of what it is to bring it happiness. If we we conceive of Rambo as ultimate model of being, you’re naturally going to begin to manifest rainbow like qualities in your everyday life, quite naturally. You know, what we respect, what we revere, what we hold up as models, we’re going to tend toward that. This is the quality of faith.
Faith in Buddhist perspective is there’s three types. Some of you were here last night when we were discussing awareness and knowledge. There are three types of faith. Overall, it’s quality of seeing the object clearly. One type of faith called the faith of clarity.
Faith of clarity. Then there’s the faith of wishing to obtain, wishing to attain, wanting to attain what you see for yourself as being worthy of your of your existence. And there’s the conviction, the faith of conviction, which is knowing that you can do it. This is what we mean by faith. The faith of clarity, the faith of the wish to obtain, and the faith of conviction.
So we use as a model a paradigm of sanity within Buddhism, the Buddha, enlightened being. And this enlightenment has three basic qualities that somehow make it more relevant to us. Three basic qualities. Firstly, it’s an awareness of how things actually are, simply knowing the situation. Without any misconceptions, without any mistakes, without any devoid of our longings of how we would like it to be, how we think it should be, how we wish it were to be, but in fact how the situation actually actually is both conventionally and ultimately.
Simply knowing directly without any error the actual situation, reality. And secondly, it has the quality you know, we’re talking about the feeling quality of enlightened mind, of this happy, healthy, loving, sane human being. It has the feeling quality of an intense, burning, overflowing love, like the love of a mother for her only child. This compassion, this love, this awakening heart. But even more than this, it has the intensity such that it’s simply not satisfied in wishing others to be happy that they not suffer.
It has the quality of willingness to take responsibility, to bring about this actual fact, this quality of involvement. This, I think, is essentially what we mean in love and compassion. The you know, the compassion is very much a social expression of wisdom, understanding that our situation, that we aren’t these isolated individuals who we conceive of ourselves to be, that in fact this is very much a matter of an optical delusion, this feeling of separateness, that Dale’s happiness is in no way concerned with my happiness. And we have a an absolute commitment to our own egos, to bring in ourselves happiness unquestioning. And it’s the overcoming of this and the willingness to become involved in the difficulties and the happiness of others.
And this over as it were, an overflowing of love that we have for ourselves toward others. Getting to like ourselves, getting to like others, and feeling very much of a part that we exist within a field of sentient life. This intense burning love, wishing others happiness and willing to work for their benefit. And thirdly, it has the idea of energy, inexhaustible energy, of spontaneous creative energy, creative rather than reactive. Most of our energy is bound up in reactive patterns, simply replaying the same old programs again and again and again, as I mentioned before.
But here, you know, existing within an open fluid state and spontaneously, it’s like environmental generosity. Spontaneously, like a vac you know, like when there’s a vacuum, the atmosphere, the air moves into that vacuum spontaneously, filling it up completely. And likewise, when there’s a need, you know, without the thought that I’m doing anything to anyone else, simply the spontaneous activity of alleviating the problems through skillful means solving the situation. So this is the the qualities of an of an enlightened mind. This this quality of knowing the situation as as it actually is, we know we call this wisdom perhaps.
You know, we all have this. Right? Love and compassion like a mother for her only child, willing to take the responsibility for its happiness. You know, we don’t to a large extent, we don’t even take responsibility for our own happiness. So we have a lot of we have some ways to go in this regard.
But at least we can point our cart in the right direction. We can orientate ourselves. And if we if in fact we find this worthwhile, that’s for you to check up. And this quality of inexhaustible mental and physical energy, spontaneous generosity, environmental generosity. So this is, you know, this is what we call a refuge.
This is Buddha refuge. And Buddha, you know, not up in the sky, not up in that painting. Buddha in here, within your own being. You know, that’s your ultimate refuge is your own Buddhahood, your own ability, potential to become a loving, healthy, sane human being. There’s no other ultimate refuge that exists for us.
There’s no other place which can ultimately solve our problem. This is where you can lay the burden down finally. This is when you can really solve the problem of suffering, this problem of happiness once and for all. Keeping this in mind, that it’s the attitude of your own mind, that it’s the attitude of knowing the situation, that it’s the attitude of love and compassion, and it’s the attitude of spontaneously, creatively working to benefit others, is the way to solve our own problems. That all you’re gathering together of money, holding on to your partners, buying new houses, whatever, can bring some type of comfort, some immediate easing of the pain perhaps, but it’s not an ultimate source of refuge.
It’s not going to ultimately solve your problems. In fact, it could complicate your problems. In fact, what you hope to bring your happiness may in fact become just another source of suffering. We go for refuge, the Dharma. We’re going talking about the Buddha and Dharma.
The Dharma as simply being anything which has the potential to raise the level of our consciousness no matter what it might be. You know, there are various there are various dharmas. You know, Buddha Dharma, Christian Dharma, Greenpeace Dharma. You know, walking in the woods on beautiful day has the ability to raise the level of your consciousness. Anything which can take you from from desire to generosity, from attachment to openness, from hatred to love, from self centeredness to other centeredness, kind of from confusion to clarity as dharma.
That’s you know, what what what it is to say is that it’s something which is worthy of becoming involved in as a means, as a real means, a realistic means to solve your problems. You know, we’re talking about an orientation of your life, you know, taking some principle as a working basis for operating, for relating with the world and yourself. Rather than, you know, over and above the various temporal methods you may be employing to keep some central principle, some guiding factor always in mind. That it’s only your quality of wisdom, only your quality of loving compassion, of energy, of creative activity, which is ultimately going to solve your problem. That if we go to those things which in some way raise our mind from desire to generosity, attachment to openness, then these are going to solve our problems.
Desire isn’t going to solve our problems. Generosity is going to solve our problems. Hatred never solves your problems. Love is going to solve your problems. Confusion never solves your problems.
Clarity has solved your problems. Continually reorientating ourselves, keeping this foremost in our mind, factor of mindfulness, knowing our situation and bringing this information to our various situations as they arise, the quality of going for refuge to the Dharma. And the third refuge, Sangha, spiritual community. You know, a coming together of like minded individuals who have made a choice, a choice to grow, have taken responsibility for their own lives, for their own happiness, who come together as a means of support, to act as examples for one another, to teach one another, to cry on each other’s shoulder. That’s a that’s a benefit to act as teachers for one another, inspirations for one another.
A real source of refuge, a real way to work with your problems realistically outside of any other types of methods that you may have developed for yourself. Buddhism in this sense, in this regard, has faith in enlightenment, has faith in our potential. So we have to have faith in ourselves. We have to trust ourselves. We to allow ourselves become everything that we can become.
You know, the the idea of I saw a teacher when I was in Victoria. And actually, saw it on a mug too. It said, what did say? Life is a bitch and then you die. Yeah.
Yeah. That’s one that’s one approach. You know? I mean, that’s one attitude you could take for life. But, you know, Buddhism is very pragmatic in a way.
The sense that if one were to adopt that attitude, in a sense that there’s no objective reality. Way we can make out of our life, we can make out of our relationships in the world just about anything that we want. So why not you know, if it’s a dream, let’s make it a good one. Let’s be a little more skillful in how we how we go about relating what type of world that we’re constantly recreating. Because in fact, we are constantly recreating that world in which we exist.
So Buddhism is very much pragmatic in that sense. It has it has faith in our potential and our ability to create a world of great beauty, of great meaning, of great purpose from this. A self authenticating experience, a very quality, high quality type of existence with great depth. It has faith in the goodness of life and the goodness of ourselves and our own basic goodness. So we have to, you know, take some chance with ourselves.
You know, perhaps at times be a little bit allow ourselves to be a little bit vulnerable, to trust some of our basic sanity, to begin to use to get in touch and take some refuge in these qualities of wisdom, love, and compassion, creative activity. So in this sense, you know, again and again, relying upon one’s own experience, the fact is that Buddhism asks you know, we don’t have to believe in anything. Buddhism doesn’t even ask us to believe in Buddhism. Simply to take the qualities of wisdom, love and compassion and creative activity as the central focus of one’s life, you know, some guiding principle in one’s life. And experiment.
Just try. Try an experiment to see how it works. Maybe you’ll find that you might surprise yourself. And then five years from the down the line, you may look at yourself and and see yourself as you never could have imagined yourself to be, that that you now cannot have conceived yourself to be, that you may find yourself, you know, in spite of yourself, a happy, loving, healthy, sane human being. It kind of sneaks up on you without you even knowing about it.
So we’re going to oh, wait. So this is our basis for refuge. This is where we keep reorientating ourselves, keep pointing our cart in the right direction. So there’s a if you’d like to recite the refuge first along with us, there’s some sheets. To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, I go for refuge until I am enlightened.
Through the merit I create by practicing giving in the other perfections, may I attain Buddhahood for the sake of all beings. To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, I go for refuge until I am enlightened. From the merit I create by practicing giving any other perfections, may I attain Buddhahood for the sake of all beings. To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, I go for refuge until I am enlightened. Through the merit I create by practicing giving and the other perfections. May I attain Buddhahood for the sake of all beings.
You can begin to understand why I spent one year just on the first two principal aspects of the path. It takes me a while to get to it, I think. We’re talking about the three principal aspects of the path. And we’re going to simply review them very quickly over the next week or two, the points. We finish the first two aspects of the path, developing the determination to be free and opening our hearts to others, the development of love and compassion, the mind of enlightenment, the altruistic aspiration to achieve highest enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings.
So just to give you an idea about the the three principal aspects of a passage, kind of refresh your memory. You know, one of the one of the main reasons that we continually experience the the various difficulties that we continually are undergoing, you know, the these particular patterns of existence. You know, that we can we’re repeatedly moving from one dissatisfactory situation to another dissatisfactory situation, you know. You know, we’re always trying to, what, have auspicious auspicious beginnings. There was a movie called Five Easy Pieces many years ago.
There was this line, auspicious beginnings. The character was always moving on to auspicious beginning. Jack Nicholson was always moving on to auspicious beginnings. And then find a new wife or a new husband, we get a new job, we move to a new geographic location, new home, but it seems as if the same problems keep cropping up again and again and again. The scenario is pretty much the same, but the just the characters and the location change from time to time.
They’re pretty much the same problems. You know, we aren’t really perhaps really identifying the source of our difficulties accurately enough. Perhaps we’re being a little bit superficial in our our our estimation of what our difficulties in fact might be. As I mentioned the other night, you know, basically from the point of view of Buddhism, we’re making two basic errors. The error of ego grasping, misconceiving the nature of the self.
And the second is self centeredness or self-cherishing as an effective way to find the happiness that you’re seeking. That in some way that this me me first attitude is somehow a of some use to you in in gaining the happiness that you’re seeking. So we have to bring these two factors into question as if the two basic errors that we’re making upon which all our other problems are based. That and and all the various patterns that we’re involved in, all the various compulsive and neurotic programs that we’re caught up in are all stemming from these two basic epistemological errors, errors in the way that we understand or the way that we know. So in in developing the determination to be free, we’re talking about a way of you know, we talk about renunciation, this idea of renunciation.
Renouncing a particular pattern. You know, our attachment to our particular patterns. Renouncing attachment to particular patterns. You know, the way in which ego is trying to secure itself, you know, the way it perpetuates itself. The ego is constantly trying to maintain a sense of continuity through space and time.
That there’s something unchanging, independently existing, which has moved down continually. It’s a permanent factor throughout time. In essence, I was a child, and then I became a teenager, and then I became a young man, and I became a middle aged man. And this constant this constant sense that there was something continuous down through this which I call I, which I grasped to as myself. You know, the fact that this, you know, it’s very much involved in repetitive patterns.
And, you know, hopefully, we can sort of develop this idea when we look into the the seeing deeply into the nature of reality. How this patterning is taking place and how to begin to break it up, to begin to make the ego a little bit more transparent. So in all of this, we’re seeking pleasure. So, again, you know, we want pleasure. Everybody in this room should be blissed out from the point of view of Buddhism.
There’s nothing wrong with pleasure. There never has been anything wrong with pleasure. But it it is our our seeking to pattern pleasure to preconceived to past memories, to preconceived notions about future possibilities, which turns pleasure into pain. Our grasping at pleasure, our clinging to pleasure, which turns pleasure into pain. So pleasure has never been a problem to anybody.
It’s never been a problem to anyone. But our attitude toward it perhaps has been a little bit unskillful up to now. So in a sense, we have to very much begin to see that any type of pattern existence what we’re talking about in pattern existence is egoistic existence, a type of existence which is based upon the action of trying to secure the self out of fear, of an open fluid way of relating. That any type of state within such a type of existence is dissatisfactory. It’s not peace.
It’s not contentment. There’s always conflict. The mark of ego is conflict. The mark of cyclic existence is conflict. This is its primary quality.
In some way, there has to be a struggle. You know, we can never quite secure an illusion. We have to it has to be constantly recreating, make you know, redefining its territory, reaffirming our credentials. This constant battle to maintain our our sense of ego. And in this, there’s no peace.
So anything which is bounded by this sense, by this quality of reoccurring patterns is by its inherently, by its very nature, dissatisfactory. So it becomes you know, if we’re going to become skillful in how we’re approaching solving our problems, it becomes extremely necessary that we have we look into the subtleties of the way ego is operating, and on a grosser level, to see how our problems are arising, what is the evolution of our difficulties. If we’re going to create the energy to develop the determination to be free, You know, to get fed up with these compulsive patterns, to get unstuck, and say, I want to change. I want I can you know, we have to create some space for more initially for more skillful patterns, but eventually to go beyond all types of pattern existence to develop this spontaneity, this open, fluid way fluid way of relating, this determination to be free. It really takes some energy, and we really have to see our situation very profoundly perhaps, that the nature of the ego, the nature of our situation as dissatisfactory.
Again, it’s not a pessimistic view because ultimately Buddhism is quite optimistic. It’s the ultimate principle of Buddhism that all sentient beings will one day be Buddhists. And everybody in this room is someday going to be a happy, loving, healthy, sane human being without any problems. And then we can sit around and have a good time. But until then, we some work to do, something to work toward.
Very much we’re afraid to grow. Afraid to grow. Have this nice cocoon And it may be dissatisfactory, but it’s home. Something like that. You know, we’re afraid to grow because, you know, we’re afraid to assume responsibility for ourselves and all that that perhaps might entail.
You know, growth very much entails an acceptance of not only responsibility for ourselves, but perhaps, and probably responsibility for others. So we’re very much afraid of this this accepting this responsibility. On the other hand, we talk about getting fed up. I want to change. I want to grow.
But this has to be based upon understanding that, in fact, there is something which can grow, that there is the possibility of transformation, that perhaps you aren’t just kidding yourself. You know, when you get sick and tired of being sick, then you’ll find a way to get to well, something like that. So we have to, in developing this determination to be free, seeing deeply into our situation, the dissatisfactory quality, and that we can only what? It’s as if, you know, you’ve got the best you may get the best room in the prison. You know?
You may get the nicest room, the best suite in the prison, but you still never get to go be out of that out of that prison. It’s still not quite satisfactory no matter how, you know, they they have your video and everything in your prison cell. You’re still you’re not free. Still, you’re not at peace. And it takes it takes this this this determination, this real longing to really want peace.
And if I think, you know, for I mentioned the other night about the two qualities that perhaps help us to develop this energy. One is the the no. Two. There are many. This is This is what the path of developing the determination to be free is all about, the various understandings, realizations that we can use, that we pass through.
But essentially, you know, as I mentioned the other night, developing this energy to change, to help us to get unstuck was one was one what? Was coming to an understanding of a dissatisfactory quality of very much of our life. You know, really confronting your situation, being honest with yourself. You know, it doesn’t have to be heavy handed. It doesn’t have to be depressing.
But it does have to be you know, when we talk about dishonesty, dishonesty is demanding that reality occur in some preconceived notion that somehow things should be other than the way they are. And being honest to with yourself saying this is I have made my world as it is now. And then this is my responsibility, and I can change it. But also the quality of peace. You know, I talked about the light drawing us.
The quality of, you know, when you have a moment of what we might call a peak experience. When life, you know, there’s a sense of complete fulfillment that you need nothing outside of yourself, that there’s nothing needed at that moment. There’s a completeness, a wholeness. And, you know, this experience, I think, supply a great deal of energy, a great deal of inspiration. And it’s this this dual energizing factors of this peak experience when we perhaps have some moment of peace, some moment of what a taste of enlightenment or whatever you want to call it, liberation, and also the quality of understanding their predicament, which we’re in.
I think these two are going to supply us energy to help us get unstuck out of these compulsive patterns that which we’re very much bound up in. Now we use a course of meditations. First, begin to appreciate who in fact we are, that we have this potential. We have to become intimately we have to develop a real conviction that in our potential, that in our sanity, our potential as a basis for transformation. Otherwise, it becomes a fiction.
That becomes wishful thinking. We aren’t trying to become, for example, Napoleon. I can’t become Napoleon, can I? I don’t have that potential to become Napoleon. He was someone who lived in France many hundreds of years ago.
That would be a deluded thought. That would be not consistent with reality. But I can become a happy, loving, healthy, sane human being. I have that potential. That’s in accordance with the actual reality of the situation.
I’m becoming very convinced of that and trust in beginning to take that conviction, appreciating who, in fact, we are, appreciating our opportunity, the chance that we have. Next week we’ll elaborate on this slightly. That we have the opportunity, the circumstances, the substantial causes to actualize our potential, but in fact this chance isn’t going to last forever. We’re going to die. It’s definite.
And we don’t know when that we may, in fact, lose this opportunity. That in fact what tendencies of the mind are we building up. We talk about death as being a radical change in lifestyle, and that these changes occur constantly throughout our lives, these small deaths. And what helps us through these small deaths, what helps us through these great changes, these upheavals which occur in our lives, during the course of our lives. You know, we’re talking about the quality of karma, the tendencies of mind that we’re building up, the type of world that we’re constantly recreating for ourselves.
What type of world are you recreating? Five years for yourself from now, ten years from yourself now, next life. Developing the determination to change, to grow. First principal aspect of the path. And the second principle, opening ourselves to others, opening our hearts to others, essentially developing love and compassion.
This thought arises in our mind to be separated from suffering. There’s this thought to be separated from suffering. When that thought is directed toward towards oneself, we call it the determination to be free. We call it renunciation, whatever you like. Know, the word in Tibetan is nges ‘byung.
Nges ‘byung means definite emergence. We’re definitely going to emerge like a butterfly out of its cocoon. We’re gonna fly. We’re not we’re not going to be remain stuck in the mud of our compulsive patterns of ego. When this thought is directed towards oneself, this thought to separate from suffering, we call it germination of guru.
When we take that same thought and we direct it toward it’s compassion. Idea of compassion begins with yourself, wishing yourself well, wishing yourself happiness. Maybe I should stop there. It’s getting late. Another year.
So maybe we can take the time to do the loving kindness meditation. So if you can sit comfortably. Get in touch with some of your own difficulties, some of your own problems, feelings of dissatisfaction, and the fact that you want to be happy. Whatever mistakes you may have created in the past, whatever negativities you may have done, you can simply regret them, you can begin again. And however you may conceive of yourself, whatever identity you may hold to, you can change.
You can become anything that you want to be. For the present moment we want to become friends with ourselves, all the various parts of ourselves, perhaps even the parts that we don’t particularly like, but they’re also deserving of our compassion. So just begin to wish yourself some kind, friendly thoughts, wishing yourself well. Be gentle with yourself. And may I be happy.
May I grow, may I not suffer. It’s more positive thoughts directed towards yourself, caring for yourself. And think of someone that you like, that you love, and imagine that person in front of you. If you can’t see them, it doesn’t matter. Just just feel that that person is there in front of you.
Remember all the good times that you shared together, the kindness that this person has shown you, the happiness that you’ve had together. Begin to to direct, to radiate out the caring feelings, wish of happiness, which naturally begins to arise. Just just direct some warm, caring, positive feelings towards this person. May you be happy. May all your desires come true.
Whatever. Just good, kind thoughts. Then think of someone that you neither like nor dislike, someone you feel indifference towards. Imagine that person in front of you. And we want to try to go beneath the superficial appearances that we usually cling to, that we usually judge people by, whether they’re they’re beautiful or ugly, whether they’re male, female, young or old, rich or poor.
Go beneath all of that and try to see the essence of that person. But behind those eyes, there’s someone there who wants to be happy and doesn’t want to suffer just like yourself.