Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Opening with an analogy drawn from a group dynamics workshop — people wither without “strokes” just as they wither without food — Ven Jampa Gendun argues that meditation should be as ordinary as eating lunch, not a solemn ritual. In this 31-minute session, he guides practitioners through mindfulness of breathing, using a holiday daydream to illustrate how unexamined thoughts grip us the way a film grips us once we forget we are watching a film. He then reframes going for refuge not as formula-recitation but as faith in three forms: intuitive (a cord struck in the heart beyond words), reasoned (the logical possibility of liberation), and experiential (realising, almost by surprise, that years of practice have quietly made you a happier person). The session ends by grounding all of this in the Three Principal Aspects of the Path — determination to be free, opening to others, and seeing reality clearly — with a closing reminder that the precious conditions for practice, including good health and access to teachings, will not last forever.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 09 1988 03 11 3PA.mp3
UUID: b3b6c38a-a12d-459e-ac5f-d7eb925e35f5
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Three Principal Aspects of the Path 1988-1990 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1988-03-11
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 30.7 minutes
Words: ~3,515
So in meditation, we’re doing something very ordinary. Now I recently took a course at COPE called Training in Group Dynamics, and the group leader was talking about strokes, that is affirmations, compliments. He said that just as when people go without eating, they become sick. Likewise, when people go without strokes, they become sick. This was his thought.
And I have a feeling likewise that you’re going without meditation, they become a little bit sick, that one way we can become well, one way we can heal ourselves is through the regular consistent self discipline of meditation. But I think it should be looked on something like eating. You know, we don’t think taking lunch is particularly a special event in our lives unless it happens to be a very special meal. It’s something we do regularly as part of our physical health. And likewise, meditation should become part of our mental health program.
Something very ordinary, just like eating food. We sit down and meditate regularly. Doing something very ordinary. It’s important not to begin to invest it with extraordinary qualities of being some sort of ritual, that it’s a very solemn occasion. I want you to feel quite natural and spontaneous in meditation.
It’s something you sit down and you do, just as you sit down to have a meal. Now whenever thoughts arise in our meditation, we simply observe them as thoughts. Generally, when thoughts arise, we take them as being the subject. We identify with the thought as if I’m this agent thinking these thoughts. Usually when we have thoughts, we’re not aware that we’re thinking.
We’re not aware of thoughts as thoughts. Like, for example, when we’re planning a holiday and we’re thinking about perhaps going to Queensland up on the the Barrier Reef and the the nice white sand and the crystal clear waters and the beautiful coral with all the beautiful neon colored fish floating around and snorkeling in the clear clear water and the warm water washing over you. It’s as if you’re there, you know. It’s as if you’re actually experiencing being in Queensland on the beach. It has this quality because we are not recognizing thoughts as thoughts.
It’s as if when we go to the movie, we forget that we are at the movie, and the movie becomes almost a reality. But once we become aware that this is merely a movie, that the patterns, the appearances of people on the screen aren’t really people, once we become aware that our thoughts aren’t the agents, that we aren’t our thoughts, then we can begin to notice their transitory quality, their translucent quality. We don’t have to identify with our thinking. We can simply accept the thoughts arising that were by for a while, and they’re going to cease. Like any object, you know, when we’re sitting in a meditation, if we hear a sound, sooner or later that sound is going to cease.
We know that very much. Likewise, thought is just another object as is sound, as is or as visual objects, you know, tactile objects, whatever. Thought can be thought of as simply another object. This is object of the mental consciousness. So we begin to see thought as merely an object, nothing more than an object.
So we don’t have to suppress thoughts nor do we indulge in them. We can just begin to, in our meditation, begin to see them as transitory, as translucent, as merely an object of our mental consciousness, which arises and abides awhile and will cease. And so we can begin to accept thoughts without having to struggle against them. So in meditation, there’s no need to control, there’s no need to suppress, There is simply acceptance, just observation. We don’t need to discriminate.
That is, good thoughts, bad thoughts. We don’t need to become involved in any kind of struggle at all with our thoughts. So this is the basic meditation, the cultivation of acceptance, the reorientation of the root of our identity in being rather than becoming. So this cultivation of accepting quality, and this carries over into our everyday life. Events can happen to us, and we no longer have to struggle against them, try to control them, suppress them, try to manipulate them as we once did.
We can become more accepting because we realize, just as there are thoughts, all the various events which are taking place in our life arise and abide for a while. They’re going to cease. This doesn’t mean that we can’t act in the world. In fact, we act much more clearly because we see the situation much more clearly. I am not clouded by any need to act.
As Atisha once said, the greatest patience or the highest patience is non-attachment to activity, not the feeling where one can merely observe, not the compulsiveness to act. So this meditation is a very simple and direct method. We simply use the breathing because it’s there. It’s something very simple to get in touch with. We don’t have to create the object of meditation.
So the technique is simply to know the breath. When we’re breathing in, we know that we’re breathing in. And if thoughts arise, to know that thoughts have arisen we can note that thoughts have arisen by thinking, by mentally noting thinking, for example, to help us to know the breath for moment to moment. So the technique becomes the goal. There’s nothing more and nothing less than that.
Simply knowing the breath. That’s the technique, and that’s the goal of the meditation. So we’ll meditate on mindfulness and breathing. So we go for refuge to the Buddha and the Dharma and the Sangha. I I keep talking about going for refuge, and what it’s possible various meanings might be.
Now there are as many levels of refuge as probably there are individuals, and we all have our particular interpretation. We all have, in fact, our own individual refuges. For some of us, it might be money. For others, it might be their job or their spouse. So refuge is not particularly a new thing for any of us.
We’ve been going for refuge our entire life. And the Buddha is going for refuge and going for refuge to the Buddha and Dharma and the Sangha. And merely reciting the formula, now I go for refuge to the Buddha, go for refuge to the Dharma, to the Sangha, perhaps it’s not of much benefit. You it’s very much of the feeling behind the what is the motivation of it. In fact, it’s very much of a degree of faith.
I think the the word faith is used quite often in Buddhism, but it has a a distinct meaning as perhaps it has in the Christian religion, the word faith. It has the idea of aspiration, the movement toward. It means where we’re placing our heart. It’s something that we respect and that we wish to emulate. We wish to become that object that we have faith in.
For example, we take refuge in a particular state, a state of Buddhahood, enlightened state. We say we have faith in that. This faith is developed upon our intuition, reasoning, and our own experience. Developing faith in the Buddhadharma and the Sangha, the enlightened state, the state of seeing directly into the way things actually are, the love and compassion, and the creative spontaneous actions in the world, the qualities of an enlightened mind, enlightened state of being, enlightened way of acting in the world. Take refuge in the Dharma, the methods for actualizing the state, the truth, the way things are.
In the Sangha, the context where all these things can be brought about, the spiritual community which acts as a support, examples, inspiration, guidance. So these are our refuges, and we have to develop faith in these refuges. Intuitive faith is in by way of developing we have a sympathetic vibration. You know, when some vibration of what we might say our Buddha nature, something within ourselves touches a cord in our hearts which is very rarely touched. Knowing what is said is is true beyond words, beyond logic, beyond intellect.
You know, in in in the silence of our heart, we know that’s that’s right. So it’s hearing perhaps some words spoken by someone or something that you read or it’s something that you see and ex and sensing that that’s true. And it needs no explanation even to yourself because it touches something very deeply within you beyond intellect, beyond the need to verbalize. So we can have faith from the point of intuition when someone talks about enlightenment, the necessity to develop love and compassion in your life, if you’re ever going to have a fulfilled, satisfying way of life, the possibility of real wisdom beyond mere information, beyond mere knowledge, but actually seeing very deeply is the way things are. That sound there’s something right about that.
Especially when you have come in contact with, as I fortunately have, many realized beings whose words have a great power over one’s mind. You know, it’s very interesting. Two people can say exactly the same words as has been my experience. But for some reason, when one of my teachers says these same words, it can be a very moving experience. When another, possibly, it’s meaningless.
Something is touched very deeply, And there’s some kind of movement of the mind beyond words. I remember Lama Yeshe used to say that words are for weak minds. That the truth of things is beyond words. And that’s where we have to feel. We have to try to reach beyond the intellect, the conceptions that we have about things, and try to work with it, you know, try to see things directly, and feel things within our own heart.
So it’s this faith which is born out of intuition, this sympathetic vibration when a cord in our hearts is struck by something that is said or something that we read. And then there’s faith born out of reasoning. And you’re coming to understand the logical possibility of an enlightened state, possibility of liberation, the possibility of sanity. I mean, coming to one understands the information, sees the reasonableness of the possibility that there is a state beyond sorrow, beyond all our problems, or beyond all our difficulties, a state of enlightenment which is characterized by seeing directly into the way things are, loving compassion, spontaneous actions for the benefit of others in the world, that these are not the romantic notion. They they are simply not being made up.
They are logical possibilities. Once we begin to understand the nature of the mind, the nature of our problems, We can see that there are methods, you know, very logical, reasonable methods, whereby we can solve our problems and we can reach this state of enlightenment. Seeing the connection between, for example, the the moral, intellectual, spiritual qualities of kindliness, sincerity, fearlessness, wisdom, love, you know, all these various qualities that these realized beings have. A sense of humor, that somehow there’s a connection between those who practice the Dharma and these very qualities. There seems to be some consistency between those who who are devoting some part of their life to the cultivation of their mind and these qualities of love, compassion, wisdom, humor, sincerity, kindliness.
We can see that. We can reason that there must be some connection. These people are actually expressing or exemplifying the possibility of development, developing the mind using these very methods. So we have evidence that people who actually are going beyond the ego, you know, or reducing the power, the influence of ego in their life, and the happy, sane, healthy people, that the dharma actually works. It’s not that we all would like to think hope it works, that there is some realistic method to get ourselves out of these problems.
So in the beginning, it’s a longing faith. We hope it works. We’re not sure, but we hope because the other methods haven’t seemed to work very well to this point. So we’re gonna try this method. And I’m not sure if I I hope it works because I’m putting a lot of work into it.
But if we can see using our reasoning that it must that the methods logically work, that there are those who are practicing the methods and expressing or achieving the realizations of these methods, that it is working for them, then we can develop some real faith. So we can develop faith through intuition, reasoning, seeing the logic of the methods. And then through our own experience, which is probably the most important of the three, that we actually begin to find some peace within ourselves. We actually begin to experience some of the fruit of practice ourselves, some of the fruit of the practice of Dharma. We find one day that we’re happy people.
It’s a kind of a surprise. It kind of sneaks up on you, I think. From time to time, you just look at yourself and your situation, and you look back perhaps ten years, fifteen years, and you realize that you’re a much happier person, more fulfilled, more satisfied, more beneficial to others and to yourself. And you wonder why. And you realize it’s not an accident.
It’s not some chance happening. It’s because you’ve been cultivating your mind. You’ve been cultivating the causes for happiness, for meaningful way of life, for being able to benefit others and yourself all along. So we begin to realize the fruit of our practice within ourselves, within our own experience. And this is a very a great source of inspiration.
It’s a great source of faith. It inspires you to apply yourself even more. So faith is very much an affirmation of of our own goodness and the goodness of life. And the greater our faith, the greater this affirmation of the goodness of ourselves and the goodness of life. We begin to believe in ourselves that we can really be happy and we can really benefit others and that there’s a that life can be a meaningful, fulfilling experience.
It’s really faith. Faith through intuition, faith through reason, and faith through your own experience. So it’s this faith which really brings about change. This faith is our refuge. We’ve been talking about the three principal aspects of the path.
We have to have faith that these three principal aspects, that these three paths actually exist and they actually lead us somewhere, that there are methods to help us travel this path, that they actually work, and that we ourselves can do it. We have to develop this faith through intuition, through reasoning, and through our own experience. This is going for refuge. You know? It’s not the saying of the formula, the words.
It’s this faith which goes beyond words. But it’s only born out by listening, by examining, and by practice. Developing the term determination to be free, opening to others, and seeing deeply into the nature of reality. Somehow, these three paths encompass all the necessary methods to actualize our full potential. There’s nothing left out.
There’s nothing that needs to be added outside of these three. As a foundation, we have to develop the determination to be free, to realize our potential. Within our potential, there’s our own private experiential world and our potential relating to others. So as our foundation, we develop the determination, I’m going to grow. I’m going to realize my potential.
Whatever we might call that potential, we call it Buddhahood, enlightenment, Christhood, whatever. It has two aspects, our own experiential quality, our own private world, our own peace. And it’s going beyond sorrow, our own afflictive emotions, which disturb the natural peace of our mind. We have to have some method to go to find that peace, to realize that potential of ourselves. This is seen deeply into the nature of reality.
And we need to fulfill our potential to its utmost, it is being able to relate with others, our social self. You know, we very much are interconnected, interdependent with others. We’re not we don’t live in isolation. We don’t exist in isolation. And therefore, our happiness and realizing our full potential cannot be realized in isolation.
We have to develop that aspect of ourselves which exists a public in relationship with others, a public self. And this is realized in opening to others. So these are the two aspects of our personality. You know, this is an existential approach to fulfilling our potential. Through these three paths, we can realize everything that we are.
We can have faith in that. We can begin to understand it through our intuition reasonably in our in our own experience. So we’re talking about the first, the foundation, developing the determination to be free. We’re stuck. We’re stuck in ruts, ingrained patterns, the fantasy of ego, however you like to put it.
And we need some real energy to to get us ourselves unstuck, to bring to break up these patterns, which are unskillful patterns. By unskillful, I mean, those types of habitual compulsive reoccurring patterns which are going to bring us suffering. That’s unskillful. Nothing. There’s no there’s no sin involved.
There’s no evil involved. It’s just mistaken ways of acting, which are going to bring you suffering, and you don’t want to suffer. Therefore, we say it’s unskillful. That’s all. We’re we’re making some basic errors in our understanding, in our way of knowing the world.
We have to develop the energies to begin to break out of these patterns. First, we want to develop skillful patterns. That is that is those type of patterns which are going to bring us happiness. And then ultimately, go beyond all patterns altogether and exist in a spontaneous creative actions like a wish fulfilling tree. Often times, they compare the Buddha to a wish fulfilling tree.
You know, anyone can come along and pluck the fruit. The tree doesn’t say, come and pick me. The tree doesn’t say, oh, I think I’ll grow this fruit so I can help that person. Situations arise spontaneously, there’s communication. There’s benefit.
The tree is there, someone picks the fruit. Spontaneous creative actions with beyond thought, beyond conception, beyond all patterns, perfectly fluid and open to the needs of the present moment and the present individual who we’re trying to communicate with. No preconceptions. So we’re talking about the methods to develop this determination to be free, to energize ourselves, to be able to break out of these unskillful patterns and begin to develop more skillful ways of responding to the world, of acting in the world. We can begin by looking at our own potential.
You know, we call this Buddha nature, the dynamic quality of mind, that it’s changeable, that the identity we have, the conception of it we have, that who we are is not who we are, in fact. For various reasons, we usually have a very negative self image. This very acknowledgment of that type of self image limits us in what we will be able to achieve, what we will be even try to achieve. You know, they talk about it’s very much talk about women’s liberation these days. You know, a woman says, I think I’ll be a nurse.
What she really means is she wants to be a doctor, but she doesn’t think she can become a doctor, does she? And this works in many, many ways like that. You know, our own conception of what we can do is going to limit what you can what you were trying to do, and not only that, what you will be able to do. Our world is very much shaped by conception of it and our conception of ourselves. So we have to get in touch with who we really are.
And the fact is that we have an unlimited potential. And we call this potential Buddha nature, the dynamic quality of the mind. It can be changed just like molding clay. It can be created into something very grotesque, something very utilitarian like an ashtray, or something very beautiful. But it can be changed using the, you know, the conventional reality of the law of cause and effect.
We have this potential. We have all the necessary conditions. We have the leisure and fortune to realize this potential. And we’re born in a free country. We met the dharma, the various methods.
We aren’t we’re healthy physically. We’re healthy mentally from point of view that we have intelligence, that we have some kindness in our hearts, some aspiration, some perspective on our problems. There’s nothing stopping us except our own lack of initiative, our own lack of motivation to change. Everything is there that we need. It only lacks effort.
But this chance to change isn’t going to last forever. It’s definite that we’re going to die.