Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute session, Ven Jampa Gendun opens with a reframe of taking refuge: not formula-recitation but an inner “unfreezing” of forces of clarity and compassion that have become blocked within us. He then unpacks a verse from Tsongkhapa’s Three Principal Aspects of the Path line by line — the four powerful currents of birth, aging, sickness, and death; karma reinforced by neurological habituation; and the iron cage of grasping at a fixed self-image. A clay-sculpture analogy makes the point vivid: hardened clay resists reshaping, but soaked in the understanding of dependent existence it becomes pliable again. From there he turns to the awakening mind, arguing that concern for others is a psychological necessity, not sentimentality. The session closes with a guided loving-kindness meditation expanding outward from self to enemy to the entire universe. Suited to practitioners already working within the Lamrim framework.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 14 3 PA 1998 05 30.mp3
UUID: 29aba427-d1ae-4a1b-bb96-733ce8031667
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Three Principal Aspects of the Path 1988-1990 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1998-05-30
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.5 minutes
Words: ~4,431
This is a Tibetan master who lived in the United States, Chogyam Trungpa. He died about two years ago. He’s talking about taking refuge and reciting what we just recited. There is ordinary physical level of just repeating the formula. We just repeated the formula of going for refuge.
I go for refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha. But this also involves a process happening within us. Regarding this inner level, we have the instruction to take refuge in something which is abiding, something which can actually offer refuge. We can only take refuge in something certain, otherwise taking refuge would be a pure fiction and would not provide the security we want. So on the inner level, taking refuge means surrendering to those forces of which we ourselves are, so to speak, the last transformation.
These forces have, in a way, become frozen in us. Taking refuge thus means to commit ourselves to a process of unfreezing so that life’s energy, or whatever we want to call it, these forces, that operate through us and somehow get blocked, can flow through freely. This becomes a very profound way, I think, of taking refuge. There’s entire process of reorientating of what it means to begin to practice a spiritual path. Initially, and for the most part, what we mean by worldly person is someone who sees their happiness and the cause of their suffering outside of themselves, in the things and the people and the world around them.
They become lost in this world, and there’s no way out. It doesn’t bring the happiness, and it doesn’t remove the suffering that they’re seeking. So the process becomes a disillusionment of some insight into perhaps it’s our attitudes more than anything which determine whether we’re going to be happy, whether we’re going to suffer in any particular situation, with any particular object, with any particular person. So it is reorientation towards seeing that it is with ourselves where the causes of happiness and suffering reside. That within ourselves we have some clarity, some basic sanity, some wisdom if we’re only willing to cultivate it, to get in touch with it.
So, you know, this reciting this, you know, Buddhist are always reciting this quite often. And then I was You know, all these various practices that we can we can cultivate, that we can work with. It just occurred to me earlier when we were doing this Tārā practice that we do on Friday evenings at six thirty. It’s like as if there’s a seed, say the seed of wisdom, seed of love and compassion, the seed of inexhaustible energy within us all. All these various practices are like beginning to cut away the weeds, the bushes of our limited conception of who we are, which don’t allow the sunlight, the sunlight of truth, the sunlight of appreciating who we actually are, to get to it, this seed, and germinate it, cause it to grow.
By reciting a verse like this, if it’s done with some understanding, some sincerity, it creates some space, you know, pushes aside the weeds just a little bit, pushes aside the bushes just a little bit, and allows some sunlight to get to the seed of wisdom within ourselves, the love and compassion, inexhaustible energy within ourselves, and gives them a chance to grow. So this idea of reorientating ourselves toward our own potential, You know, this idea that it is our birthright to be happy, to be loving, sane people, if I want to give myself the chance. So this is like recommitting ourselves to giving ourselves that chance to be everything that we should be, everything that we can be. I think this is the meaningful way to take refuge and have some sense about it, some purpose. We’re talking about the three principal aspects of the path.
Renunciation,, developing the determination to be free, opening to others, and seeing deeply into the nature of reality. We finished the first path, developing the determination to be free. Based upon this, based upon developing this determination to go beyond all states within the boundaries of ego, that’s seen all reoccurring, impulsive patterns that we usually exist within as being dissatisfactory, we make a firm determination, we energize ourselves, motivate ourselves to develop our capacity to go beyond the ego, to transcend these patterns and become everything that we can be. This is the determination to be free. But, you know, as I’ve talked about, you know, this is only one aspect.
Based upon this as a foundation, we begin to turn our attention to others, not out of a romantic sentimentality, but seen as a basic necessity if we’re going to develop ourselves to our fullest potential, develop both aspects of ourselves, not only the personal, experiential, private part of ourselves, but also the public part of ourselves, social self, that part of ourselves which exists in relationship to others. If we’re going to develop that, which is an aspect of ourselves, then we have to begin to develop more skillful ways with relating to others. This culminates into finally opening ourselves to others. It becomes a spiritual necessity, a psychological necessity, to take into consideration other people in our lives, even at a minimal level. Even at a pragmatic level, if we just want to lessen our own problems, lessen our own dissatisfaction and suffering, we can do this very readily by concerning ourselves more and more with others.
Our own problems, we can gain some perspective on them. They don’t quite seem so big as they did when we’re completely wrapped up surrounded by I, I, me, my problems, my ones, as if the world revolved around us. By seeing others’ difficulties, others’ problems, it puts our difficulties into a better perspective and we can deal with them more properly. They don’t quite have the same painful aspects as they once did. So both from a very existential point of view, from developing ourselves to complete potential, and also from a pragmatic point of view, of helping us to reduce our suffering very immediately by concerning ourselves with others.
It becomes a necessity to open ourselves to others. It’s not merely a sentimental romantic idea. The idea of opening to others, The altruistic intention to become enlightened, and I’ve talked about enlightenment, you know, these qualities of supreme knowledge, of a burning love and compassion for other sentient beings like a mother of her only child, and this inexhaustible energy willing to work to alleviate the sufferings of others, to benefit others, the qualities of enlightenment. This altruistic attitude of wanting to attain such a mind, such a state, it takes as an object of observation all sentient beings. It observes all sentient beings, not just the people we like, not just the people we’re attached to, but all sentient beings.
And it has two objects. One is all sentient beings and the other is enlightenment, you know, sanity, you know, mental health. And it has as an aspect the quality, the feeling tone of such a mind, of such an attitude, this great compassion, and the wishing to free all sentient beings of suffering and the causes of suffering. In order to develop such a mind, it’s necessary to reflect upon how sentient beings suffer. We’ve done this through extending from our own experience.
We reflected upon within developing this determination to be free as a foundation. In developing this we considered our own difficulties, own dissatisfaction, frustrations, disappointments. We simply begin to extend this to others, that others are in the same situation that I’m in, that I’m not so unique in the world. Others are experiencing the same pain, same frustrations, the same loneliness as myself. Unless we’ve actually developed this foundation and seen suffering within our own mind, we’re never going to be able to look to extend this feeling of compassion that we feel towards ourselves, to others.
And then by seeing the suffering we have within ourselves, we can actually develop some compassion for ourselves, wishing that we didn’t suffer. And we simply redirect our attention to others and knowing full well that I’m not unique, that others are undergoing the same experiences that I’m undergoing. We begin to develop compassion for others. This determination to be free becomes a determination to help others to grow, to help others be free. So do we have This is the actual text.
There’s a I’m not sure if there’s enough to go around. The Three Principal Aspects of the Path by Tsongkhapa. I’m actually going through this, and I referred to it once in a while. I was just going to refer to it. At the bottom line.
So we The next to the last verse, we’ve we’ve just finished. I finished that last week. It finishes, Thus the intelligent should generate the supreme altruistic intention to become enlightened. Why? And how do we go about doing this?
All ordinary beings are carried by the continuum of the four powerful currents, are tied with tight bonds of actions difficult to oppose, have entered into the iron cage of apprehending self, inherent existence, are completely clouded with the thick darkness of ignorance, are born in cyclic existence limitlessly, and in their births are tortured ceaselessly by the three sufferings. Thinking thus of the condition of mothers who have come to such a state, generate the supreme altruistic intention to become enlightened. The first line, All ordinary beings are carried by the continuum of the four powerful currents. This line can be interpreted either of two ways. Either as the four powerful currents being birth, aging, sickness and death.
Birth, aging, sickness and death. These are like four powerful currents which are carrying us all our way, we’re swept up in. We’re carried along in the wake of these. Or the currents can be thought of as sensuous desire, sensuous desire, desire for conditioned existence. By conditioned existence that would be any type of existence which is within the boundaries of ego.
This idea of different styles of suffering within the dissatisfactory quality states within the realm of ego, conditioned by ego, conditioned by ignorance. Sensuous desire, desire for conditioned existence, ignorance. We can talk about two types of ignorance. One, ignorance is ignorance with respect to the law of cause and effect, karma. Then there’s ignorance with respect to the nature of reality, the nature of the self, of phenomena in general.
Then the fourth current are wrong views, sometimes called perverted views. Wrong views such as nihilism, eternalism, holding that wrong ethical codes are types of supreme conduct, and they’re like you know, sacrificing animals, things like this. Some people have the belief that these have beneficial effects, they have this type of ethics, or, you know, asceticism, sleeping on beds and nails and things like that. These are called the four powerful currents. This is another way this line can be interpreted.
Are tied with the tight bonds of action is difficult to oppose. We’re bound by our previous karma. This idea of we’re tied, we’re bound by our actions. Difficult to oppose, and difficult to oppose because of habitual tendencies. When we talked about karma, when we talked about the law of cause and effect, one of the effects of actions is that we repeat them, that we become habituated to them.
The more we enact any type of behavior, the easier it becomes the second time, the greater the tendency to repeat it, and the more difficult it is not to repeat it again. You know, for example, or whatever. This is even borne out by within physiology. I think it’s called facilitation. Within the knowers, the neuron junctions of the mind or the brain, the nervous system.
As an impulse goes over a synaptic junction, the junction between two nerve cells, the more it goes over that same path, the easier it becomes to go over that path again. So you develop pathways, tendencies, habitual patterns, and they become very difficult to break because it’s the easiest way for our energy to flow is along these patterns. They’re difficult to oppose. I’ve entered into the iron cage of apprehending self. Due to observing the self, we misconceive its nature.
Conceive of it to inherently exist, to exist unchanging, independent. We grasp onto a fixed permanent identity, for example, the model of our self which isn’t related to anything, isn’t related to our culture, our society, our peers, our values. Because of that, we’re drawn into the various afflictive emotions. We’re going to talk about this quite extensively when we come to the third path, seeing deeply into the nature of reality. It becomes extremely necessary if we’re going to develop any profound transformation, to see the actual nature of ourself, the nature of who we actually are.
Without this, without seeing deeply into the nature of our I, our person, it’s very difficult to bring about any radical change. You know, we can make only some kind of cosmetic changes, and make some nice makeup, make it a little more pleasant, in a way. The ego conceives itself, you know, it has a model of itself. You know, I’m this way, I’m this much intelligent, I’m this much pretty, I’m going to get this far in life, I’m this likable. It’s kind of has all its various measurements, all its various attributes, qualities, characteristics, and it develops a model of itself.
That’s fine. That’s our identity. No problem with that. But we have to understand that this model is simply a model, That it doesn’t exist independently of our value system, of our culture, our peer group, our society, of how we actually behave. But what ignorance does, it cuts off all this dependency.
It sees that this model of our self is somehow fixed, independent, existing apart from everything else. That this is who I am, independent of whatever I do, whatever I may think, however I may change, and holds onto this identity and holds it very tightly. It makes it very difficult to change. Why? Because we identify with this conception of who we are, this image of who we are as if we were that.
To change this conception means we have to die. You know, if you’re old, I’m a stupid person. I’m a stupid person. I’m a stupid person. To become an intelligent person means a stupid person is going to have to die.
It’s a very gross example. To actually begin to conceive, I’m not so stupid, means that somebody has to die. That conception of yourself, that model of yourself as being such a stupid person, and we hold onto these models for our security, afraid of open fluid states. So we resist change, and it becomes very difficult to change because of this fear of losing who we are. By beginning to more and more understand that I am not this model, that this is purely, you know, a reference point, some identity, useful, a convenient convention, then it allows us to be more fluid, more open, allows us to change.
You know, I I sometimes use the the idea of I used to do a little bit of sculpture a long time ago. And there’s a You know, when you actually do a sculpture with clay, for example, if you leave it set for a while, it becomes a little bit hard, but not very hard, not brittle. It has, you know, you’ve worked all these various shapes, you know, all the various features on the face, for example, if you’re doing a bust. This becomes very difficult to make any changes. You almost have to chisel away the hard clay.
It’s very difficult to work with it. But if you take that and put it back in water, and let it soak in there, this is And you take it back out, it becomes much more pliable. You can work with it again. You can really mold it again. So this becomes the idea of coming to an understanding of selflessness, of seeing into the nature of reality of who we actually are.
It is like taking our identity, our model of ourself, and putting it and soaking it in the understanding that we are dependently existing, that we are constantly changing, that we’re not fixed. We’re placing the fluid of our understanding, of our wisdom, of selflessness, and we take it back out, and we can really work. We can begin to really make some very positive transformations and radical transformations with our mind, with who we are. But for now, we’ve entered into the iron cage of apprehending self. It makes it very difficult to work with.
Due to this, thinking I’m this way, you know, we’re motivated toward ego-oriented actions, ego-oriented actions, like contaminated actions, actions which are going to support, maintain, promote, enhance this model of who we are, of the ego. This causes us to be swept away by the four powerful currents. Due to the action of the ego, we engage in actions. We engage in actions of attachment for those things which promote the ego. We engage in actions of aversion, hatred, for those things which seek to distract, detract from the ego.
And with other things we act with indifference, when there’s some confusion about how we should act. All these various actions bring about this quality of the four currents of birth, aging, disease, sickness, death. So this It goes on to say that we are completely beclouded with a thick darkness of ignorance. This is the root of all our problems, all our difficulty. This is what causes us to misconceive the nature of our ego, causes to misconceive the nature of our self as if it existed inherently.
As a final result, then we’re swept away by the four powerful currents. We’re caught up in dissatisfactory states. So I’m afraid I never quite get as far as I hope. I’d like to take time for a commercial, commercial break next week. You know, I talk about I’m talking about now, about opening to others, developing this awakening heart, The thought to develop yourself, to develop the skills, abilities in order that you can help others to find peace and find peace within yourself.
All I can do very much from my side is just use a lot of words. But next week, there’s going to be a person who actually expresses in his life, in in his very being, what these words are trying to get at. His Holiness, Sakya Trizin, is coming Wednesday to Adelaide. You know, he’s going to be here for one week. He’s going to give some talk Thursday and Friday evening, and then Saturday he’s going to give a daytime meditation course on the compassionate way of life.
And, you know, we can use we can talk. I can talk a lot about opening to others, developing love and compassion. I can talk about it from various points of view, reasoning, experience, intuition. But it’s an altogether different matter. When you see someone exemplifying what I can only talk about, It becomes a real inspiration.
You know, they talk about, in Buddhism especially, but in Buddhism in general, and I think in all the various religious traditions, the necessity of having a spiritual teacher, some spiritual guide, an exemplar, if you like. Someone who can not necessarily through words, but we have to know the instructions, have to know the techniques, the methods, but by his very being, his very example, can lift our minds up, can inspire us, inspire us, which goes beyond, you know, all the pettiness that we usually dwell in, all the various conceptions that we may work with in our minds. But you see something very real there. You feel something very real. And without this, I think it would be extremely difficult to wholeheartedly devote yourself to a spiritual path, to be very sincere, to really believe, as I’ve been talking about, to some very deep part of yourself in the possibility of becoming a happy, healthy, loving human being.
But when you see others actually doing it, manifesting all these qualities that I can only talk about, then really get your real confidence and real conviction and real trust in the path. So this is just like a little commercial I’m making here. I hope you will take advantage of the opportunity of meeting and listening to a person who, in his very life, expresses everything that I would like to be and everything that I try to talk about in these Friday night talks. So now we’ll meditate on loving kindness. Consider your own difficulties, your own problems, dissatisfactions, and the fact that you want to be happy.
Whatever you may have done in the past, whatever mistakes you may have created, you can simply regret them and determine not to repeat them again in the future. You can begin again. However you may conceive of yourself, whatever identity you may hold to, you can change. You can become anything that you want to be. You can begin again.
But for the present, we have to become friends with ourselves, we have to accept ourselves. Even the bad parts of ourselves, even the parts of ourselves we don’t like, we have to have some compassion for because they’re parts of ourselves. So be gentle with yourself, be kind with yourself, and wish yourself well. And direct positive feelings towards yourself. May I be happy, may I grow, may I not suffer, may I be well.
Just wish yourself well. Direct positive feelings, warm feelings, kind feelings towards yourself. Now think of someone that you like, that you love, someone of the same sex, and imagine that person in front of you. Even if you can’t see them, doesn’t matter, just feel that this person is there in front of you. Just remember all the good times you shared, all the kindness that this person has shown you, the happiness that you’ve enjoyed together.
Begin to radiate out, direct the positive feelings of caring, of wanting this person to be happy, that naturally begin to arise. Just direct the positive feelings of wishing well happiness to this person. Okay. Now think of someone that you neither like nor dislike, a stranger. Imagine that person in front of you.
We want to try to go beneath the superficial appearances which we usually cling to, which we usually judge people by. Now, whether they’re male or female, beautiful or ugly, old or young, try to go beneath this, beneath your economic status, education, intelligence, personality. Try to see the very essence of that person, that there’s someone there who wants to be happy and doesn’t want to suffer, just like yourself. Just as you wish your own self happiness, begin to wish this person happiness. It’s very much a reflection about how we actually feel about ourselves deep down, as to how we feel about that essential person.
Direct positive feelings towards this person. This person just wants to be happy just like yourself. Think of someone who disturbs your mind, someone you have problems with, an enemy, and imagine that person in front of you. This person wants to be happy and doesn’t want to suffer just like yourself. Perhaps their method of finding happiness, eliminating their suffering, has come in conflict with your method of finding your happiness, eliminating your suffering.
But it’s just a conflict of interests, yours and theirs. You’ve hurt others either intentionally or unintentionally in the past to find the happiness that you were looking for. Now this person has done the same to you. Just as we have to begin to forgive ourselves for the mistakes that we’ve made, we have to forgive this person for the mistakes they’ve made toward us. So just for the moment, set aside your grudge, your hurt, your anger, and see a person very much like yourself, doing the best they can to find some happiness in life, being very confused about how to go about it, making many, many mistakes along the way, and wish them happiness.
Now imagine all four of these people together, yourself and these three others. Just try to feel they’re there. Usually, we would have feel different feelings toward these people. Some we would feel close to, others distant, and a third we wouldn’t care about at all. We try to see them with respect to their essence, that they’re all equal from the point of view of wanting happiness and not wanting to suffer, that there’s no difference from this point of view.
Without any feelings of bias, just radiate out good feelings to all four equally, wishing them happiness, wishing that they’re not suffering. And all the people in this room, taking responsibility for their lives, for their happiness, trying to find a real method to work with, to develop, to grow. Radiate out positive feelings to everyone in the room, wishing them happiness. May you be happy, find peace, and work to bring others peace. And everyone on the block, whatever they’re doing, whatever they’re saying, eating, cooking, getting ready for bed, they’re doing it and saying it in order to find some happiness.
Radiate out positive feelings, wishing that they might find that happiness, touching everyone on the block. Spreading out further to all of Adelaide, all the people in their cars and buses walking on the streets and shops, in their homes. Further and further, extending out, opening your heart, radiating out wishes to all of South Australia, all the people, animals, insects. Further, opening your heart further to Alice Springs, Perth, Darwin, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Hobart, the entire country. It’s radiating out good feelings, stretching out to all the whole of Australia.
Further, radiate out further. New Zealand. Expanding out, radiating out to all the southern hemisphere. Further and further. Opening your heart, enveloping the entire world in your concern and caring, all the people, black, white, red, yellow, all the animals, all the insects, everything that lives on the earth is touched by your wish that they’d be happy.
Further and further radiating out into space in all the direction. Extending out further. Until finally, without any boundaries, without any center, pervading all of space. The wish, may all things be happy. May all things be happy.