Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Opening with the blunt provocation that someone in the room will be the first to die, Ven Jampa Gendun uses mortality to energize this 31-minute commentary on karma and the nature of self. He explains what actually takes rebirth — not the gross body but a subtle mind supported by subtle energy, drawing on Einstein’s matter-energy equivalence and a horse-and-rider analogy to clarify the distinction. The self, he argues, is merely a label imputed onto that mind-energy continuum; ego arises when we mistake that label for something independently real, which is why change feels threatening and we resist it. He then defines karma both as urges directing the mind toward objects and as latent dispositions impressed upon the mind across lifetimes, closing with a detailed example of how smoking habits show the conditioning of labeling and craving in action.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 10 1988 03 11 3PA.mp3
UUID: 08321e05-957a-4953-ace0-bdcfee3d73ca
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: ~3,353
You know, we may think that we’re special, but this is misconception. Another epistemological error, some of these errors that we’ve been talking about. Why should you know, someone in this room is going to be the first to die. No one wants to be the first to die. It’s sad.
It’s very unfortunate, but it’s normal. We must accept. There’s nothing to that why should the universe single us out that we aren’t going to die? Someone in this room will be the first to die. We don’t know who.
We don’t know when. So this chance, this opportunity to realize this potential isn’t going to last forever. It’s going to come to an end. So this is beginning to help energize us, to motivate us. I I better do something.
For in fact, if the mind does go on, if there is such a thing as rebirth, the possibility of of less desirable future states. Yeah. It’s possible. You know, if we look at our lives, what are the predominant characteristics of our mind in our daily activities? You know, are they love?
Are they positive states of mind? Wisdom? Or are they anger, desire, hatred, attachment, jealousy, misery, and spite. Now which are most predominant in your everyday life? The Buddha said if you if you want to know what what you’ve done in the past, look at your body.
If you want to know what will happen to you in the future, look at your mind. So we’re going to look at that aspect from the point of view of karma. Karma simply means action, work, work of body, work of speech, work of mind with the various actions. karma and rebirth are very much tied up together. So, essentially, you know, we’re talking about when we talk about rebirth, what goes on to a future life.
And we have to begin to develop some feeling about what it is that actually takes rebirth. What does rebirth mean? Now, remember I used to think that, you know, this idea of rebirth meant that when you die, the somehow this body goes somewhere else and kind of transformed somehow. I really didn’t go into it very much. I wasn’t didn’t have a very good picture of it, but somehow, I couldn’t see how this body was gonna go somewhere else because, you know, it gets smashed up in a car accident or it gets it gets buried in a coffin and it rots or it gets burnt in a crematorium or something like that.
So it didn’t, you know, it didn’t make any sense, the idea of rebirth because I was the body, you know. I’m the I’m my body. I’m my brain. There’s this identity with the physical aspect of myself. What we’re talking about is the subtle mind and subtle body, which is going on to a future life.
The subtle mind is supported by a subtle energy pattern. This is what we mean by body. And this is a gross energy pattern. You know, I think about Einstein’s theory of relativity. What is it?
E m E equals m c squared. Anyway, that matter and energy are interchangeable. So what we have in more or less is a pattern of energy taking on a particular form. And we call this our body. And this supports the consciousness.
It supports gross consciousness. And likewise, there are various levels of consciousnesses. And we talk about gross consciousness such as eye consciousness, that is eye consciousness that sees this table, for example, that sees forms, ear consciousness that hears sounds, eye, ear, nose, smells, tastes, body consciousness, feels, textures. These are what our gross consciousness is. And there more subtle types of consciousness.
For example, dream consciousness is more subtle than a gross sensory consciousness is. We can come to a level of subtle consciousness. This is what is going to go to a future life and karma. But consciousness and energy always go together comparable to a horse and rider. You know, the rider guides the horse.
You know, wherever they wherever the rider reins the horse, the horse goes in that direction. But it’s the the horse which provides the mobility, provides the conveyance for that rider likewise. The mind is always existing conjunction with energy. The energy has the quality of motility, movement. So the mind has a vehicle, some way to convey itself.
So you have this subtle consciousness which is supported by subtle energy. Okay. Upon this, we label. We we designate I, person. Okay.
Who is the person? You know, when we say I, me, Jampa, monk, but who is that? It’s not the body, is it? It’s not the mind, is it? It’s neither one of those two.
We can we could examine this. We’ll examine this later on when we talk about seeing into the nature of reality. We’ll look into this more deeply. The person, the I, the self, the being, jampa, the monk, is it is the being which is being designated, imputed, projected, labeled onto the body and mind. If there’s a body and mind acting as a basis, the point that we designate, we impute person, I, self, monk, Jamba.
This is who I am. This is actual conventional self. Upon the basis of a subtle mind and subtle energy pattern, we impute self, I, jampa, whatever, on the basis of this very subtle mind, this very subtle energy pattern. This is what goes on to the future life. This in this way, we can talk about taking a rebirth.
You know, this we have certain dispositions, both mentally and physically. When they in accordance with these dispositions, the subtle energy becomes associated with a grosser energy pattern. Perhaps that grosser energy pattern is in the is the bodily pattern of a dog. The dependence upon that gross energy pattern, the gross consciousness will arise, which will be the consciousness of a dog, a dog consciousness. Upon that dog body, dog mind, we impute dog.
So therefore, I can talk about taking rebirth as a dog. There’s a subtle consciousness, subtle mind associated with a subtle energy pattern existing within me right now. Upon that, we designate I, person. That’s all the person is. The person is not something more than that.
We designate that on the gross mind, on gross body, and that’s who Jampa is. A particular instance of this long continuous stream of subtle consciousness associated with subtle energy pattern. Know, can divide. Jampa is here. The gross body, gross mind.
We design Jampa. But through this continual taking of rebirth, dying, there’s this subtle stream of mind, subtle stream of energy which is associated with that. This is the mere I. This is the Self which has existed from beginning of this time and will exist forever. It never comes to an end.
The mind is always replicating itself in its own similar type. Likewise, the energy. This energy, this subtle mind and energy is going to continue forever. It’s going to take, become associated with grosser types of energy patterns, bodies. You know, the body of a hell being, the body of an animal, the body of a human.
Various types of energy patterns, taking on various configurations in accordance with their cause, law of cause and effect. in dependence upon these gross physical patterns, gross consciousnesses will arise. We take on the mentality of these gross physical patterns. It becomes like the limiting factor. You know, we’ve talked about this perfect human rebirth, this opportunity we have now.
The fact is a dog cannot achieve enlightenment in that particular gross pattern of energy that it’s associated with. Its mind cannot realize its potential in association with the physical physical energy pattern of a dog. Aside from a few exceptions, it’s only this particular gross energy pattern which has the potential to support the consciousness in such a way that it can realize its full potential. It’s a very rare possibility when you consider all the possible patterns that we could be associated with. All the infinite possibilities of beings throughout the universe.
But what happens? We take this particular subtle mind in conjunction with this subtle energy pattern becomes associated with a particular gross energy pattern which generates a particular gross consciousness. On the base of this, we designate I, Jampa, self. We begin to identify, grasp at this I as no longer being imputed, no longer being designated. We have a we have a gross mind, gross body.
Upon this we designate and then we name, we put tag on, jampa, I. What happens? Due to the force of ignorance, we say, Oh, don’t say that. Being a force of ignorance which obscures the actual nature of the I, we think that the I exists independently of the mind and body. It’s not dependent upon the mind and body.
We just imputed it. We just designated it. We just labeled it upon the mind and body. But due to the force of ignorance, we no longer we think it’s independent of the mind and body. So now we have an eye.
We grasp at an ‘I’. We cling to an eye which exists as substantially independently. That is where you create ego. This process of grasping and clinging to an ‘I’ which exists independently. So now we’re stuck.
This is who I am, you know. I have I have these qualities. I have this potential. I have this particular identity, this particular self image, existing independently of my mind and body, independently of the other various states of mind which are continually arising because they’re transitory, because they’re impermanent, independent of my situation, my culture, my peers, my value system, my social milieu that I live in. This is a very substantial identity independent of any other factors.
We’re very much stuck with who we think we are, this conception of who I am. This way we don’t deeply feel that we can change. You know, I talked about this last week, about when in connection with with dying. One aspect of dying is the dying of the ego, is fear. The change is to die to what you are at this moment.
Now, if you think that’s all you are, it’s who you are at this moment, of course, there’s going be resistance to change. There’s going to be fear of change. So generally, the fear of change is greater than our fear of continued dissatisfactory quality of our lives. Therefore, we don’t change. We resist change.
Because based upon misunderstanding of the nature of what it is that’s changing from the nature of the eye. You know, it’s better to suffer than and be who I am, Secure in that than to be something I don’t know what. You know, to be something unknown, some unknown quantity. Because we firmly identify with this I, and we and because the body dies, which in fact it does, it disintegrates, it would therefore, we think I die. We don’t understand that the I is merely being labeled to the body.
The body is not the I. The I am not my body. Just because my body dies in no way means that I die. I’m merely labeled, projected, designated, imputed on on this body, upon this mind. You know, just as, you know, through our life, we have been changing physically and mentally.
Various mental patterns have been arising throughout our lives. You know, I was likewise, various physical patterns. You know, I’m not physically, I’m not the same person I was when I was two years old. Physically, I’m not the same person I was when I was three, four, five. But consistently, upon these various changing energy patterns, the body, I’ve been labeling a consistent I, consistent person, Jampa, wherever.
Jampa, Jampa, Jampa, Jampa. Even though this this growth pattern is changing a great deal, you know, I’m very much different than I was when I was two years old, when I was seven years old, when I was twelve years old. Likewise, on the mind, you know, I knew very little when I was two years old in the way of information, for example, or in the way of dealing with the world or my intellectual abilities. My mental life was changing constantly. But upon that that stream of mind, even though there was a constant change in that mind, I was consistent consistently labeling I, I, I, I, I.
So we’ve got this constantly changing pattern of energy, a constantly changing pattern of consciousness mind upon upon which we’re consistently labeling I, I, I, I, I. Now these various patterns, you know, there’s a logical outcome of cause and effect. They didn’t arise by it’s not a matter of chance. You know, they’re they’re the outcome of discernible variables. This particular gross body, our present mind, have very definite causes.
There are effects arising from different very definite sources, causes. These sources, these causes are actions of body, speech, and mind. karma, through our actions of body, through our actions of speech, through actions of mind, we are continually shaping and conditioning these patterns of mind and body. So we’re talking about, you know, this very subtle mind, this very subtle body. You know, we we can use an analogy.
You know, we talk about the subtle mind as being as if it were a radio, simply being on. You know, whether it’s playing music or whether it’s the news or whatever, it’s the gross aspect. But the subtle aspect is simply the radio being on. These what it’s playing and what particular program it’s actually blasting out is a gross is a pattern of gross consciousness. And the subtle energy is the electricity, which is empowering the radio.
So our actions of body, speech, mind, you know, are creating and shaping these patterns, these configurations which are going to eventually result in a particular program which we call our life. So we have the radio is on, we have the electricity, and our actions of body, speech, or mind determine what what kind of music, what kind of news is going to come out of that radio. Radio. So when we talk about karma, we’re actually talking about is essentially an urge, an impulse, a directional quality of mind, the mind turning from one thing to another. What causes it to turn this way rather than this way?
What is it that this urge, this impulse directing the mind? This is karma, Directing it towards some specific object or some certain object to think in a certain way, you know, for to urge us toward a particular object, some particular state of mind, some feeling, motivation. Something which causes us to speak in a certain way, causes us to act in a certain way, and causes us to to choose to act out in a certain way. The impulses. So that’s one way of looking at karma.
Another way is karma is also the latencies, the potentials, the predispositions, which are deposited, which are implanted, impressed in the mind itself. So it’s both these urges, these impulses, and the dispositions, the ingrained patterns, these potentials, dispositions, tendencies which are impressed upon the mind itself. In the Prāsaṇgika Madhyamaka school, the highest school of Buddhism, karma is said to be form. In the case, it’s form in the case of actions of body and speech. Our actions of body and speech modify the subtle energy which is going to go on to a future life.
The actions of mind modify, implant dispositions, potentials, latencies upon the mind itself, which are going to go on to a future life. This becomes the vehicle whereby causes in this life can be expressed as results in future lives, due to the modification of the subtle energy pattern through actions of body and speech, and due to modifications of the mind through actions of the mind, actions of consciousness. In planting of patterns, tendencies, dispositions, latencies. So these our gross mind is modifying our subtle consciousness, our subtle mind. Our gross actions of body and speech are modifying subtle energy patterns.
These are what are going to go on to future life. These in turn will modify what types of gross minds will arise, what types of gross energy patterns we will become associated with. That is to say, what type of body we’re going to take. When we talk about taking a body, you know, if you if you’re if you do unskillful actions, you may take the the body of a hell being. What does that mean?
Means you’re going to become we have predominances of directions or tendencies in our mind. These are going to be expressed in future. This is what we mean by the ripening of karma. These tendencies give rise for us to tend to think in a certain way in the future. That is to say, we’re simply going to have habit patterns.
We’re going to very much think the same way that we’re thinking now. The urge to think in a certain way brings on a certain train of thought and brings on a certain repeating patterns of reacting to the same objects again and again. Repetitive way of conceiving objects, of labeling objects. So it’s these reoccurring compulsive patterns. And in this case, very much becomes involved with the twelve links of dependent origination.
It seems like one thing always leads into another. What we call happiness. Those you know, the mind has we have a sensation; dependent upon that. We have a tendency to habitually label this particular type of absence of sensation similar to what has occurred in the past. You have a sensation.
You will consistently label this type of sensation consistently pleasurable or unpleasurable. How you conceive of that sensation, you know, you have a reactive pattern. So a feeling arises from sensation. We have a I’m going to give an example. Give an example of smoking.
Okay? Let’s talk about smoking. First off, it’s a very long and complicated sequence of actions. There’s this long white piece of long white cylinder there made of paper, which is filled full of chopped up dried leaves. First, we have to label that as something which is to be put in the mouth and and set afire.
That would be we have to have been conditioned to label this particular object in that way. You know, someone who has never seen a cigarette before, he’s not going to pick up that cigarette and light it up. He’s not going to have a habit of smoking. He has to be some way influenced, conditioned to see that as something which is to be picked up, put in your mouth instead of fire. And then he has to conceive of that object, the fumes from that object, the toxic the toxic fumes of that object as pleasurable.
So he’s going to first he has to label the object as something which is to be picked up, you know, placed in the mouth, set on fire, and then this toxic fumes as they enter the body, into the lungs as being pleasurable. Yet it’s another conception, simply another labeling process. Because he labels these fumes, the intake in his smoking, as pleasurable, he’s going to seek to repeat repeat this action again in the future. He’s going to want to main maintain contact and repeat contact again and again and again because he is conceiving of his action as pleasurable. So almost all of us are conditioned through our group karma to conceive of this long cylinder with chopped up dry leaves in it as something which is to be picked up, placed in the mouth, and set afire.
But not all of us are conditioned, have the karma to conceive of the intake of those toxic fumes as being pleasurable. This is very much an individual karma.