Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A spinning firebrand that looks like a solid circle of light — even though it is only a moving point — gives Ven Jampa Gendun his central image for ego in this 46-minute introduction to Tsongkhapa’s Three Principal Aspects of the Path. He argues that ego fakes solidity through speed and repetition, then struggles endlessly to maintain the illusion. He opens by surveying indirect methods for raising consciousness — nature, meaningful work, spiritual community, devotional offerings, the arts — then guides the group through a counting-and-noting breath meditation. He describes the qualities of an enlightened mind as extensions of seeds every listener already carries, before identifying the two root misconceptions underlying all suffering: belief in an unchanging independent self, and the conviction that self-cherishing brings happiness.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 1988 02 19 3PA.mp3
UUID: 2a44ac6b-d9a3-4578-9379-2dc9de93586a
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Three Principal Aspects of the Path 1988-1990 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1988-02-19
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.0 minutes
Words: ~5,481
Can use to begin to solve our problems. It’s not the, a particular problem that we may have at that particular moment, but it’s the elimination of the underlying neurotic patterns for which that particular problem is merely an expression of, particular instance of. So we’re talking about meditation in the context of a spiritual life. We’ve talked about By spiritual life we mean the raising of the level of consciousness. Whether it’s the deepening of our love and compassion.
Whether it’s the fostering of wisdom seen into the nature of reality, or the development of creative energy, spontaneous actions in the world. And in this process of this development raising of our consciousness we can basically use two methods. One is the direct method and one is the indirect method. And we have to use we use them in combination if we’re going to be skillful because we all have various dispositions, different capacities. In using these indirect and direct means in combination according to our particular predispositions, then we can find the right formula which works best for us.
So we’re talking about meditation as the direct method. Do you have a pillow? Do you have a pillow, Granny? Yeah. Meditation is the direct method.
But in combination with the direct method of meditation, we can employ indirect methods to raise the level of our consciousness. The level of awareness, wisdom, and love and compassion. And then develop this spiritual, mental, physical energy to act in the world. And then we can use indirect methods. For example, simply going out into the country, being near nature, going into retreat for a few days in that type of environment raises the level of your consciousness quite naturally.
It’s a beneficial change in our thinking. Things become clearer. The type of work that we do, for example, influences our level of awareness. Work which is productive, which is beneficial, you can feel that is useful, that you can take pride in. There are some occupations which are probably more skillful.
Those occupations which directly are a benefit to others. Some the various caring professions by their very nature help us to raise the level of our consciousness. And what we do in our daily life, our lifestyle, having particular practices that you do every day, eating nutritious food, regular meal times, regular exercise, study, relaxation, periods of silence. These are all indirect methods to help us to raise the level of consciousness. And also we can use methods such as Hatha Yoga, Tai Chi.
These all have a beneficial effect on our minds. And even the arts and enjoyment of good music, good literature. Some of my greatest inspiration comes from fiction. I think if it’s coming from a high level of consciousness of the author or the the composer, then he can sort of lift our own consciousness up to his level. So good music or good literature, good art can raise the level of our consciousness.
It reflects the level of the consciousness. It reflects the level of the composer or author’s or the artist’s consciousness itself. And very practically there’s karma yoga. For example, simply doing voluntary work, useful, worthwhile work for the benefit of others with little or no self interest involved. And simply associating with like minded people who are spiritually inclined.
This is the idea of the spiritual community. We talked about the fact that the feedback system within a group, this can act not only negatively, which it usually does in inhibiting positive change, but it can have a positive effect if the group in which we are becoming associated with is at a higher level. Our level of consciousness will become raised. That our actions of body, speech, mind, which are discordant with this higher level of thinking, this higher level of consciousness, will become inhibited. And those expressions of our body, speech, and mind, which are in accordance with a higher level of consciousness, are promoted.
And thus, we naturally begin to think on a higher plane. And also having a relationship with a spiritual master, someone who is more advanced than ourselves. And by seeing in concrete reality the fruit of practice gives you great confidence. It’s not an abstraction any longer. That’s not words which were written two thousand years ago which perhaps might work today or may not or who knows who wrote these words and perhaps he was just being romantic and abstract.
He didn’t quite follow what he said. But he was one of these ideas that do as I say, not as I do. But in fact, there are people who are putting into practice these various teachings who live dedicating their lives to others, who live in the pursuit of truth and wisdom, wisdom. Who try to express love in everything they do. And to be able to see this is an inspiration and a real joy.
And this automatically begins to raise the level of our consciousness and gives us confidence that it is possible that we ourselves can emulate. We ourselves can be like this person. And then there are the various devotional practices. You know, it’s simply offering a few flowers or incense with some devotion, with some understanding. We have to very much be concerned with not with the balance in our practice between intellectual and devotional.
We have a balanced practice should be able to make use of both aspects of our personality. So just offering a few sticks of incense, a few flowers with some devotion, with some understanding. You know the idea of offering a flower to Buddhahood, to to wisdom, love, and and this compassionate actions in the world. You know, giving something towards that end. Ultimately, if we carry this to its final outcome, we give our life over to this process.
We give our life over to Buddhahood. But we can begin to take a small step simply by offering a flower or a stick of incense, a candle. And we can make prostrations, chanting rituals. They all have their place. They all have great meaning and can add very, powerful effect on the mind.
Most people, most worldly people will feel threatened by many of these practices in the sense that the practice of Dharma is the active application of antidotes to negative states of mind. And because of that, then Dharma becomes a threat to their happiness because their happiness is based on negative states of mind, what they presume to be happiness. That is attachment, self-cherishing. And anything which is opposed to that appears to be a threat. For example, we make prostrations.
We can make prostrations with various motivations and various understandings. But one understanding that we can make use of is simply as an antidote to our pride that we lower ourselves before something which is much higher than ourselves. Something we want to exalt and hold above ourselves. And when you make prostrations you’re looking at the level of everything from the point of view of feet which Which is quite a humbling experience. And it’s difficult to have pride in such a circumstance.
And begins as an antidote in it. A way to oppose our negative states of mind. And obviously people who don’t see the various negative states of mind, who don’t see attachment and jealousy and pride, etcetera, as being negative, as being dissatisfactory see no use in these practices. So all these are various methods, indirect methods, to raise the level of our consciousness. All have their place in our practice.
But they themselves cannot carry us to the ultimate possibility of mind and fulfill the potential that we all possess. The level of raising up our consciousness higher and higher. So it’s absolutely necessary to make meditation a part of your practice. This is the direct method of dealing with the mind, of working with the mind. The direct method of meditation that can become a source of sanity, a source of mental health.
We can begin to undo the sub strata of neurotic patterns of which all our particular problems are simply expression of a manifestation of compulsive reoccurring patterns, mistaken notions, mistaken systems of belief, mistaken sets of ideas, mistaken core assumptions that we’re operating our lives in dependence upon. And we can begin to confront these mistakes. You know, if we never confront our problems, we’re never going to really solve them. We create auspicious beginnings, new scenarios. We change partners.
We change jobs. But for some reason the same problems keep reoccurring. We can’t understand why. We keep manipulating the exterior world and we still have the same basic problems. That’s because we haven’t first recognized that it’s our attitudes which are the source of our problems.
And secondly, that it’s necessary to alter attitudes, that they’re based on mistaken conceptions. And unless we sit down and begin to really take a look at our mind and what is the source of our problems, then we’re always going to be externally orientated. We’re never going to begin to see the source of our problems within ourselves. So in meditation we’re beginning to see where our problem’s coming from, beginning to identify the faulty patterns which are the source of our problems and confront our difficulties. It’s not an easy process, but it’s a very necessary process in order to finally, once and for all, heal our mind, begin to correct these mistaken patterns.
And that’s all it is. There’s nothing particularly mystical about it. We have some basic core assumptions which are wrong, which are incorrect, and we’re going to discuss those a little bit tonight. And the best way to begin to notice these is the development of mindfulness and awareness. And this we can most effectively foster through meditation.
And one of the best ways, one of the most simple processes is mindfulness of breathing. And that’s what we’ll do for a few moments now. So if you’ll get comfortable. I talked about the technique of just becoming in general mindfulness of the breath. And we use the technique of counting to help us develop, give us a grosser, coarser object in which to for our mind to attend to.
If the object is too subtle initially, our mind is going to easily go to a more stronger stimulus. For example, sounds or thoughts. So we increase stimulus slightly as an initial step because our mindfulness and awareness is weak initially. So we count. In out one.
In out two. In three. In out four. In out five. And back down to one, up through six, back down to one, up through seven.
Now to help us develop our awareness, we’re going to use the technique of noting. That is, we’re going to note everything which occurs in our mind. We’ve already began noting the breath. We note it by acknowledging when we breathe in, we note it in. When we breathe out, we acknowledge it by noting out, in, out.
Now if a thought arises, we can merely acknowledge it thinking. If we’d go to a sound, hearing. If there’s a pain, feeling. We’re simply not indulging in any of these distractions, but we want to know what what our mind is attending to. If it’s in if it’s involved in thinking, we want to know that.
So we acknowledge it by the simple technique of noting. Thinking, thinking, planning, fantasizing, remembering. You can become more specific. But in general, thinking. In, out, one.
In, thinking, thinking, in, out. Then you go back to the breath. In, out, two. Hearing, hearing, pain, pain, feeling. And come back.
In, out, one. In, out, two. Okay. So it’s a very simple but effective technique in development of mindfulness and awareness. Okay.
Let’s try that for a few minutes. The wisdom and clarity within our own mind becomes a source of refuge for dealing with our problems, with solving our difficulties, going beyond these neurotic patterns which serve as the basis for other disappointments, frustrations, dissatisfactions. We go for refuge to the Dharma, the methods or the techniques we use in order to develop and get in touch with that wisdom within our own minds. And this is all done in the context of a spiritual community, the Sangha, which support, inspire, help us to implement the Dharma, the various methods for raising the level of our consciousness. So we’re talking about refuge.
And last week we talked about the fact that ultimately our own enlightenment which is our refuge when all our difficulties, all our problems finally come to an end. And we talked about some of the qualities of an enlightened mind. Now what does enlightened mind, what is it like? What is a Buddha’s mind like? So it’s an awareness which sees things as they actually are.
That a knowledge, knowing truth, the reality directly, clearly, without any bias, without any prejudice, unmistakenly, without misconception. That is to say it’s a it’s a wisdom consciousness. It’s awareness and knowledge that simply accords with the way things are are. Therefore, it’s not mistaken. It’s in harmony with the way things actually are.
A mind which is in harmony with the way things actually are. And if the state has a feeling quality of love and compassion, of a burning desire that all sentient beings be free from suffering, that they should grow, that they should develop, that they ultimately should become enlightened themselves, and taking the sole responsibility to bring this about in reality. That’s the way it feels. It’s a it’s a great longing. When we in Buddhism, when we talk about love and compassion, love is simply in one in the usual sense that it’s meant.
You know, we use the word love quite loosely in the English language. We say we love Kentucky Fried Chicken. I love to hit you in the face. It becomes a rather meaningless term. What we mean is the word like.
I I like Kentucky Fried Chicken. I like to hit you in the face. Here love means, in the Buddhist context, in this context, the simple wish that someone might be happy, may you be happy, like we we do in our our loving kindness meditation at the end of the talk. It’s a very simple wish, a very selfless wish. It has no self reference involved in it.
It’s simply not going to another, may you be happy. That’s quite clean and clear what we mean by that. And compassion is a simple wish, may you not suffer. So this mind of enlightenment wishes all sentient beings equally that they be happy. Not only that they be happy, but they have the highest bliss which the mind can experience, that is enlightenment.
And they never experience the least suffering. They’re willing to take the responsibility to bring this about. This is the feeling quality of an enlightened mind, emotional quality. And then it has experiential quality. It experiences inexhaustible mental and physical energy, creative spontaneous energy, which leads to creative actions, spontaneous actions in the world, responding to the needs of others, like inexhaustible generosity, unconditioned freedom, unconditioned freedom.
So these are the qualities of enlightened mind that we talked about last week. So we can ask, okay, that sounds pretty good. That’d be nice to have. But is this Could this be just a romantic notion? Maybe it’s just an abstraction that somebody’s dreamed up in their While they were sitting by the fireplace, some nice quiet evening listening to music.
It sounds very nice, but is it possible in reality, you know, can we practically develop such a state? Is it just simply a fabrication? So the doubt should arise because it sounds too good to believe, doesn’t it, that one could develop such a mind, that I could develop such a mind, that maybe it’s just a fantasy, some romantic thing. Something written by the the Beatles in the sixties or something. Are we simply trying to impose some abstract ideal on upon ourselves and trying to fit ourselves into some straight jacket of what we call enlightenment and trying to twist our mind and some brainwash ourselves in some way to conform with these ideas, these qualities of enlightened mind?
Or are these qualities of wisdom, clarity, knowing, seeing, love, compassion, creative spontaneous actions? Are they simply an extension of qualities or potentials that we already possess now? And if we look at our actual experience at ourselves, we can begin to see that these lofty qualities, these almost unimaginable qualities are simply an extension of qualities we all possess. Now, everyone in this room possesses. We all have some knowledge, some experience of reality.
However faint and however obscure it is, we all have some wisdom. We’ve all seen in some way the nature of reality. Even when we know when we’re breathing in that we’re breathing in, this the reality of that moment. We all have some feeling of love and compassion. However limited it may be, however exclusive it may be, there are moments when we do simply wish, may you be happy, may you not suffer.
So this potential, this quality is already there. And we all have some energy, some creative energy, no matter how unrefined it may be, no matter how unspontaneous, contrived it may be, fabricated with some energy, some reaction to the world. So all these qualities are present in their seed form now. So all these qualities that we’re talking about which are ultimate refuge, which constitute enlightenment are present within us now. That is to say our ultimate refuge, enlightenment is simply an extension, a development of all the qualities we have now.
The seed is with us at this very moment. It’s not an abstraction. It’s not a fabrication. It’s not a romantic notion. It’s an actual fact.
You know, in our finest moments, our noblest noblest moments, we sometimes get a little bit of taste of what it might be like, of what freedom might be like, of what spontaneity might be of what love. We get a little bit of taste of enlightenment, a little bit of taste of nirvana. We simply have to remove all the obstacles which are preventing us from developing these qualities. And we have to create the conducive conditions. You know, just like when you plant a seed, the seed in itself is not sufficient.
We need water, soil, soil, nutrients. With the seed as the main cause and the water and the soil and the sunlight as cooperative conditions, we can grow a flower. So we all have the seed of enlightenment within us now, the seeds of wisdom, the seeds of love, and the seeds of creative action, spontaneous loving actions in the world. So we need to create the conducive conditions. And we need to remove the obstacles which prevent our growth, the growth of these qualities.
So these conditions are the three principal aspects of the path. Developing the determination to be free, opening to others and seeing deeply into the nature of reality. So we have the seed and we can attain the goal. But even traveling the path I think becomes a source of joy and a source of inspiration. This is a quotation by Don Juan.
He’s talking to Carlos Castaneda. He’s a Yaqui, he’s a northern Mexican Yaqui Indian, a man of wisdom. Years ago I told you that in his day to day life a warrior chooses to follow a path with heart. It is the consistent choice of the path with heart which makes a warrior different from the average man. He knows that a path has heart when he is one with it, when he experiences a great peace, a pleasure, traversing its length.
So it’s the consistent choice of the path with heart which is our present refuge, is going to lead us to the realizations of everything that we can be. We’re talking about the three principal aspects of the path by the fourteenth century yogi scholar, Tsongkhapa. There’s two photographs, two large photographs on the altar, and directly in front is a small image. That’s the image of Tsongkhapa, the author of this short text, The Three Principal Aspects of the Path. Developing the determination to be free, opening to others, and seeing deeply into the nature of reality.
So we have various our lives are based on various sets of ideas, systems of belief, assumptions, core assumptions that we act as a foundation for our concepts and how we work with our life. And the degree that these paradigms, what I mean by paradigm, the models that we construct of reality. We all have our own models of the way reality is working. And the degree that these models and these paradigms accord with actual reality in proportion we will suffer less or greater. If our paradigms, if our models are significantly discordant with the actual way things are, we’re going to consistently meet with frustration, disappointment, and dissatisfaction.
You know, if you conceive of putting your hand in a flame as pain, as pleasurable, if you have that conception for some reason, then you are going to consistently experience pain over and over again and we don’t learn. We aren’t. We have all had the experiences but we missed the lesson. So the idea, the purpose of dharma is to help us not miss the lesson. You know, it’s raining reality all the time.
But like a like water running off a duck’s back, none of it sinks in. So dharma is simply the methods to help us get in touch with the way things are, to begin to help us readjust our model of reality so that finally it accords perfectly with the nature of reality. And once that occurs, there’s no more dissatisfaction, no more suffering, no more frustrations, no more disappointment. Our actions of body, speech, mind are perfectly in accordance with the way things are. So the determination to be free, this first aspect of the path, is the way we begin to transform this model, this paradigm of our conception of reality, what the world is actually like and how we are to function in it.
We need a more accurate model because our model is presently inaccurate. We experience all the various problems that we do. So ultimately, we must see the absolute necessity and develop the energy and skill to completely transform the two basic core assumptions from which we all the various other mistaken conceptions of the reality stem from. Which serve as the basis for all our various beliefs, our assumptions, our ideas, our concepts which are bringing us all the difficulties that we encounter. We believe from the depth of our being in an independent, unchanging self.
We believe from the depth of our being in the efficacy of self-cherishing. That is to say that by concerning ourselves solely with ourselves, that putting ourselves first we are going to gain the happiness that we desire. Both of these are completely mistaken, but we don’t believe they are. So we have this is the model. This is the foundation from which we’re operating.
And this is the foundation, the model which is bringing us all our problems, all our suffering. And this is the purpose of dharma is simply to transform these models, These systems of belief which are erroneous into correct models, correct systems of belief in which we no longer hold that there exists an unchanging independent self in which we understand that it’s not self-cherishing which is going to bring us happiness, but cherishing others. So essentially we’re saying that we’re stuck in a particular pattern, in a dissatisfactory pattern. So this pattern is based on the struggle for security, on the maintenance identity, of a real identity, an unchanging identity, the fear of an open state, this fear of separation, the hope of union. There’s an ongoing struggle to secure the self in space and time.
You know, I don’t know if you are you familiar with the word fire brand? A fire brand. If you take if you have a if it’s dark and you have a glowing a stick which is glowing on the tip and you whirl it about I probably all did this when you were kids. You whirl about. It looks like it looks like a circle, doesn’t it?
Yeah. They go fast enough. It looks like a solid circle. But it’s only just in actuality, it’s just the tip, just that one point which is moving very quickly, this moving firebrand. So in this way, through the struggle and the speed of these patterns of ego, we develop the sense of solidity in the same way that this moving firebrand, even though it’s merely a tip of light, if it moves fast enough and it holds the same pattern, begins to take on a specific configuration as if it was really a circle.
It begins to appear as if it were a solid circle even though it’s only a point. So likewise through the speed and the repetitive patterns of ego, we begin to see something solid, something which exists, persists in time and exists within space. This ego is beginning to secure itself. So ego is the grasping. It’s this action.
It’s these mental events. This there’s nothing which is grasping. There’s nothing which is initiating these mental events. There’s nothing which is the inactor, the controller. It is this process of securing, this process of patterning, which is ego itself.
There’s no agent involved. There is no one or thing performing these actions, but it is one of our most basic beliefs that there is. It’s one of our most basic assumptions. So this factor of ego, we have to become experts in ego ultimately. Ultimately.
We have to get to know it very well, which is to say getting to know ourselves. By its very nature, it’s dissatisfactory. An illusion can never be made secure. It must be continually recreating itself, reconfirming its existence, re reestablishing reestablishing its identity, its credentials. It’s an ongoing struggle that can never rest.
You know, just like this firebrand. The moment it stops, the circle the circle disappears. This is the nature, the problem of the ego, the constant speed and the constant deception. So in this way, you know, that the ego cannot deal with real people and real situations. Because to deal with real people and real situations requires an openness and a fluidity, and it’s actually this which ego fears most, which it it is impossible for it to interact with.
You know, fluidity and openness demand that we deal with the situation as it is then at that present moment. Not as we would like it to be or dream it to be or would fantasize it to be or remember it to be, but as it actually is at that moment. This is exactly what ego cannot afford to do because it’s based in memory. It’s based in past patterning. So there’s no way it can be dealing with the present situation.
With openness, there comes an awareness of the lack of control. This is a great blow to the ego that it’s not in control. Events are just happening and that there’s no controller of these events. So this is a difficult problem that I hope to go into in the future when we discuss the third aspect of the path, seeing deeply into the nature of reality. The fact of the lack of controller that in fact there is only predictability from the viewpoint of regularity.
There’s some regularity. Therefore there’s predictability. And the ego says, ah, I have control. I can predict it. You know, if if whistle goes off once an hour, there’s an irregularity.
So at one minute till, we can predict that the whistle is going to go off. And the ego says, I’m going make the whistle go off. And it thinks I am going to make the whistle go off. And the whistle goes off. You say, ah, look at me, I made the whistle go off.
Actually, there’s never been any control at all. It’s only predictability based on regularity, these patterns. Fluidity demands a creative response. And the ego’s existence is based upon programs. You know, that’s the difference between creative values and reactive values.
We’re taking these We meet a situation. We refer back to our memory bank. How did I deal with this same situation in the past? We in our disc and we read out how we’re going to deal with this situation as if it were the same situation that existed in the past, as if even if our way of dealing with it in the past was dissatisfactory. Still we have some expectation.
We have some predictability on how the outcome is going to turn out. Even though if we know it may turn out to be dissatisfactory, at least it’s not an unknown factor. If we deal with present situations without referring to our past habit patterns, without dealing to our past programs, then we have an unknown factor. How is this situation to deal with come out? We have to deal with the situation creatively with the factor of unknown.
This requires a great deal of confidence which at present we don’t have. The confidence of the law of cause and effect for example. The confidence in our own basic sanity for example. Presently we don’t have this confidence, this conviction. So we’re always referring back to the security of past patterns.
Even though they’re not satisfactory, at least I know I have some predictability, I can take security in how they’re going to come out. So the ego is combined to compulsive patterns. It cannot act spontaneously. So we have to recognize within our own lives, within our own mind these are unique patterns that we’re enacting out. How very mechanical we actually are.
Someone pushes our button and we react this way. So this situation arises and we develop this emotion. There’s no space. There’s no creative responses. It’s purely reactive patterns.
So we’re stuck, you know, like a like a after after the rains and the car has been driving down a mud mud road. And then when the rain when it rains when it dries up, there are these ruts, and it’s very difficult to and if you get stuck in these ruts, it’s very difficult to steer in any other any other direction than follow these ruts. You know, if we want to go to the right or left, the wheels are stuck in these ruts, and that’s pretty much what we’re involved in right now. We’re stuck in our ruts, ingrained patterns, programs. It’s dharma which is going to help us get unstuck out of these ruts.
First, we can talk about getting unstuck on two levels. First, on the level of the methods. Dharma becomes the method of involves developing skillful patterns. You know, we’re still involved in patterns, but now we’re developing more skillful patterns than the patterns that we had before. By skillful patterns, I mean those types of patterns which would produce a predominance of happiness and a lessening of our suffering.
We call these skillful patterns. So this is the first way we begin to make use of the methods of dharma simply to develop more skillful patterns. But we’re still working within the confines of ego, within the confines of patterned ways of existing. But finally, we use the method of dharma to go beyond all patterning, all modes of patterned behavior, behavior, all styles of suffering, all samsaric occupations. We use the method of dharma to go beyond the ego itself.
And this is freedom, absolute unconditioned freedom from moment to moment. It’s a very inspiring possibility. I know when many years ago, I left. I was raised in Ohio. It’s like a Midwestern town.
It’s a good place to be from. Not much is happening there. I didn’t question very much the values of what was going on around me. But I was forced in the position forced, but anyway, my wife left and I was in the university. I dropped out of school and I moved to California.
And I met people who, for the first time, who were solely involved, solely concerned with ways of being happy. That is to say, it was like a revolutionary thought. I never considered what do I really want. Really makes me happy? I was always caught up in the idea of occupations as far as status, employment.