Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Ven Jampa Gendun opens this 96-minute commentary by reframing renunciation as “definite emergence” — like a butterfly from its cocoon — rather than mere giving-up. He first gives detailed mindfulness-of-breathing instruction, treating meditation as “willingness to be realistic” and using the image of a wide pasture that tames a wild bull by leaving it nothing to fight. He then explains the Three Jewels before surveying Tsongkhapa’s three principal aspects: the determination to be free (which must hold in sunshine as much as despair); compassion as that same mind turned outward toward others equally; and the wisdom of selflessness, illustrated by a boy who has permanently labelled himself a “C student.” The commentary closes with an extended loving-kindness meditation radiating outward from self, to enemy, to all of Adelaide. For practitioners already following the series.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1988 02 12 3 P A P.mp3
UUID: f63a064f-5b5c-40cd-9f0f-63bc4a7d27da
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Three Principle Aspects of the Path 1987-1988 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1988-02-12
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 96.0 minutes
Words: ~9,234
First we did mindfulness of breathing meditation and then we took refuge. We recited the refuge formula and generated some positive motivation for listening and for myself talking about the Dharma. And we recited the Four Immeasurables. And then we talked about the three principal aspects of the path and then we meditated on loving kindness or I did metta meditation. So I think I’ll continue with that format, but perhaps some people voiced the opinion that we could have asked for time for some questions, so we’ll try to fit that in too, so it’s kind of a busy schedule.
So we’ll begin with the mindfulness of breathing meditation. So many of you haven’t come along before or perhaps aren’t familiar with the way I view meditation in general. The practice of meditation is our willingness to be realistic, an expression of our compassion for ourselves. Now, what aren’t we doing when we meditate? We aren’t trying to hear cosmic sounds, see visions, visions, color lights, or go into trances.
These ultimately are of no use to us and they can be an actual sidetrack. In that sense, though they might appear not harmful, since we can simply waste a lot of our time and energy in their pursuit, they’re harmful. So this is what we’re not trying to do, more than. We’re simply trying to consciously create the space in which we are able to expose our neurotic games and begin to heal our minds. You know, our very self deceptions, which we’re continually running away from in our daily activities.
So we stop acting, we stop speeding, we sit down, and we begin to see ourselves. We begin to observe our life. We aren’t trying to do anything in particular in the sense that our usual ego centered patterns of competition, ambition, always trying to gain. In some sense, we’re trying to lose something. So we’re trying to create a sense of space.
We’re setting aside some time using a technique, a method in order to be and learn about ourselves, to observe ourselves. In this sense, practice of meditation, the study of Buddhism is learning about oneself. And then we take what we learn about ourselves and apply it to our everyday life in order to relate with ourselves and others more skillfully, try to make a more authentic, meaningful, meaningful, and a happier way of life. Begin to eliminate our suffering. Begin to cut through our neurotic patterns which are continually playing out, which were completely under the control at this time.
So just in general in meditation, we don’t hold the mind too tightly nor too loosely. If you try to hold the mind too tightly, the very energy that you’re applying to hold the mind is going to rebound or reflect back at you, and it’s going to agitate your mind. Nor do we let it go. Just let it go wild. There’s a Zen saying that the the best pasture is a is a the best fence is a wide pasture.
So we have this wild cow, wild bull of a mind, and we give it plenty of room to run around. We give it so much room that it doesn’t make sense anymore for it to keep fighting because there’s nothing to fight against. And so slowly, it begins to see the senselessness of running purposely. It begins to settle down, begins to eat grass, and finally, it falls asleep. So the basic practice is just simply to be present, to be here right now.
We use the technique of watching the breath, mindfulness of breathing. So mindfulness is the factor of mind which holds the particular object, and then we can call it memory. And then there’s the effect of awareness, which knows what object and how it’s being held. So we apply this to mindfulness of breathing. We’re simply remembering to watch the breath, and We use our awareness to know that we have our breath as the object, that we haven’t wandered to another object, that we haven’t been distracted.
Because it’s such a simple practice, we don’t get sidetracked into some kind of exotic, romantic notions about what we’re doing. It’s very boring, which means the ego quickly gets bored. It means it’s not particularly entertaining. We’re practicing to develop a sense of composure, a sense of creating space. The whole sense of what we’re doing is to develop some transcendental common sense.
To begin to undo the neurotic patterns which are usually controlling this. You know, it’s a basic position, the foundation of Buddhism that we’re healthy people. We use meditation to create the space so that this healthy quality, this basic sanity which we all have, can begin to work on our problem. So it’s not our problems which are the source of our suffering. It’s our attitude towards our problems.
So I think, and very much openness seems to be the way that we can begin to heal our minds. Openness to ourselves and to others, to the truth. Simply open to what’s happening, to what’s going on now is the way we can begin to heal the difficulties and go beyond ego, which is called us in our acts as the source of our problems because of its attitudes in working and dealing and relating with others and ourselves. In Tibetan the word for meditation is gom. Gom means getting used to.
So basically in meditation we’re getting used to seeing the way things actually are, not how we would like them to be, not how we remember them to be, but how they are in actual fact. And this has a liberating quality. We no longer live in our world of projections, our world of fantasies and dreams. We begin to see how things actually are. And I think reality is a blissful state.
It has freedom in reality by knowing reality. You know in the West, I think Aristotle said, And the truth shall set you free. But this is very much the premise of Buddhism. Simply by knowing what is, the truth, the facts, you’re free. We use meditation as a technique to get in touch with the way things actually are.
You know, when we’re breathing in, we know that we’re breathing in. Now this might not seem to be an earth shaking realization or insight, but it may be the first time we’ve ever come in contact, known, been in the present, been there now, with what was actually going on. Usually when we talk to someone, when we’re walking down the street, we’re eating our meal, our mind is chattering away. Completely involved in projections, fantasies. We almost never see what we’re doing, know what we’re doing, listen to other people, taste our food.
So this is a practice, a very simple practice of being here now, of knowing what we’re doing. When you’re breathing in, you simply know that you’re breathing in. When you’re breathing out, you simply know that you’re breathing out. And this begins to carry over into your other activities of your everyday life. You begin to become aware, to be mindful of what you’re doing.
And this immediately has the effect of cutting down this neurotic dialogue which is constantly on in your head. Think excessive thinking is pathological. We need to think and we need to think well, but the excessive thinking is a source of great is unnecessary unnecessary and is a source of suffering. And also, by coming in contact with the way things really are, we’re no longer dealing with projections the way we think they are, but in fact we can deal with them more realistically and more skillfully because we’re dealing with them the way they actually are. And just simply knowing when you’re breathing in, that you’re breathing in is a way, a technique, a very simple method for developing this ability to get in contact with reality.
So although it seems like a very simplistic technique, it has very profound ramifications, applications in our life. So in this way, meditation isn’t simply sitting cross legged, attending to a simple process. It’s an openness, Openness to your environment, to other people, and most importantly to yourself. It’s not a very comfortable experience to face the garbage in your mind, but it’s the only way we’re ever going to learn about ourselves and then begin to be able to use the techniques, the methods to become more skillful. We aren’t even trying to use the meditation as restfulness, to relax.
You know, if you’re trying to be restful, the very thought you have to be on guard against restlessness, and that very paranoia against restlessness is going to agitate your mind. If you’re trying to relax, the very effort to relax agitates your mind. You cannot try to relax. We’re just observing the breath. A very simple process.
And we’re learning. So something about the simple techniques of mindfulness of breathing. First, there’s the posture. We can go into the posture in great detail. For example, the sevenfold posture of Vairochana.
Essentially, a posture where you feel some confidence, some stability. If your physical posture feels stable, this is going to reflect in your mental attitude. You’re going to have stability of your mind. I think it’s important to come to an understanding of the sense of meditation, that we’re trying to develop some composure, some presence in the world. You’re here, you’re present, this sense of self, a purposefulness in what you’re doing.
It’s a very simple process and we’re going to try to do it perfectly. Not in the sense of any idealistic perfection, but we’re going to become totally involved in one action for once in our life, even if it’s only for two minutes. We’ve probably never done this before. For two minutes, completely, totally involved, clear in one action. So in this way, this simple process is quite revolutionary, It begins to carry over into other parts of our lives.
So we want some stability, some feeling of confidence in bodily position, where we don’t feel that we’re going to fall over any minute, if some wind comes along that’s going to blow us over. A feeling that you’re there, that you’re present. Confidence. The backbone should be straight, as far as comfortable. It’s preferable to keep the eyes open, but if necessary, if you have a lot of thoughts coming and you think it’s best to keep it to close your eyes, you can do that.
If you keep your eyes open, then you can simply focus them along the sides of your nose or at some point, perhaps a meter, a meter and a half in front of you on the floor. Just tuck the chin in slightly so there’s a little pressure. And then in this tradition, we place the right hand over the left and thumbs touching. So these are just, you know, some points of posture. You can use or not use them as you like.
I think the main point is the feeling of stability and confidence and purposefulness in your sitting posture. You know, there’s an interrelationship between the mind and body. We sit like a Buddha. We develop the mind of a Buddha. This is very much the thought of Zen.
We develop the mind of a Buddha and expresses itself through our physical posture. So your physical posture will reflect in your mind. Know, they say there was a Zen master. One of the student came to him. He began to talk, and the master looked at him and he said, Quiet, quiet.
What you are speaks so loudly, I can’t hear a word you’re saying. Just by seeing his bearing, his posture, the way he carried himself, he knew what the mind of that disciple was like. So we’re expressing ourselves and how we sit, the way our gestures, body language you might say. So this is also true in our meditation. Sitting with purposefulness, with stability, with confidence that you’re doing something with purpose, with Zen, if you like.
So, technique. We’re going to observe the breath coming in and out. Now, initially, just going to observe the general breath. And we can note when we breathe in. We note mentally, not verbally, mentally in and breathing out.
We note out. In, out. And then we can count. In, out, one. In, out, two.
In, out, three. In, out, four. In, out, five. Up to five. Come back down to one.
Then go up to six. Back to one, up to seven, eight, nine, and ten. By that time, we should have stopped. But if you were doing it on your own, then you can come back down to one through five again. You don’t have to use this technique.
It’s just an aid to help you in your mindfulness to give you a a grosser object to help hold your mind to that object. So we’re mentally knowing noting. In out one. Definitely, your mind is going to wonder. You know, you you might in out one, in and out two.
I wonder when he’s gonna finish talking. I wonder how I’m gonna if I can catch the bus or not, what time. And you’re you’re gonna go off for maybe, you you might be on the breath for fifteen seconds. You might be off on some side trip, on some plan, some memory, some fantasy for the next two minutes. The moment you become aware that your mind has wandered from the object of meditation, I.
The breath, you bring it back. But you bring it back without any judgment in the sense that, Oh, I can’t meditate. I can’t do this. I’m no good. I never had meditated.
I can’t do anything right. This is unnecessary. As a matter of fact, it’s quite unskillful. It’s going to be unpleasurable to meditate if it’s consistently an uptight experience for you. So as we meditate, we develop the mind, train the mind just as if we’re training a puppy dog, you know, very gently.
You’re trying to pay for training a puppy dog and it runs you know it has to go to the toilet, so it runs off and you just gently place it back, and it runs off. And, again, you pick it up, and you gently place it back. But if you get uptight with a puppy dog, things aren’t going to go very well. He’s gonna get upset. You’re gonna get upset, and and this isn’t the way to train.
He doesn’t know what you want him to do. He’s not very yeah. He he has no idea what the paper means. He has no connection. It’s up to you with your intelligence to be skillful.
And part of this skill is patience. Simply bringing the puppy bar puppy dog gently back to the paper over and over again. Finally, he will get the idea of what you want him to do. Likewise, slowly the mind is going to understand what we want it to do, just like that puppy dog. But we don’t want it to get there’s no sense of agitating ourselves, getting uptight.
This is unskillful. It’s going work against us in the end. So it’s said that meditating is very much like tuning a guitar. In order to get the right sound, we want the mind neither too tight nor too loose. We want the guitar string neither too tight nor too loose.
Likewise, we have to become skillful over a period of time in holding our mind to the breath. If we hold it too tight, we’re not going to our mind will become agitated. If we hold it too loosely, our mind is going to become dull, and that will eventually deteriorate where we probably fall asleep. So we have to find a nice balance just like tuning this guitar. So we’re going to meditate for a few moments together.
And just take a comfortable, firm posture. Personally. Our ultimate refuge is enlightenment, that is to say, our own enlightenment. And this is rather an abstraction for us now that doesn’t have very much meaning. What do we mean by enlightenment?
So firstly, enlightenment is knowing how things actually are, how things really are, a knowledge of things, seeing them directly, clearly, unmistakably without deception. You know, when we’re practicing the mindfulness of breathing, it’s like we’re beginning to get a taste of what it must be to be enlightened. When we’re breathing in, we know we have knowledge, we see directly, clearly without any deception, without any mistake that we’re breathing in. And likewise when we breathe out. It’s like the first step in a journey to enlightenment.
So what do they say? Even a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. So the enlightened mind sees things clearly, it has knowledge of the way things actually are, without prejudice, without wishful thinking. Secondly, it has the quality of love and compassion, intense, profound, burning love for all sentient beings. This is the way an enlightened mind feels.
It regards all sentient beings equally. It’s like a mother towards her only child. It’s quite unbelievable that that’s the feeling of an enlightened mind. There’s a traditional example they use of a child who has fallen down a well, and many people are standing around wishing that the child might be saved. They can hear the child down there screaming, and they’re all very much concerned.
They have a great deal of compassion. But then the mother of this child comes along. And without a moment of thought, without the least consideration for her own welfare, she climbs down in the well and saves the child. This is the feeling that an enlightened mind has. Without a moment’s thought, without at least concern for itself, it works in the world out the force of love and compassion to eliminate the suffering of all sentient beings equally, completely.
It accepts the sole responsibility for the elimination of suffering of all sentient beings. This may seem unimaginable. We can’t even take responsibility for our own happiness, let alone happiness of all sentient beings. I think the word soul is quite significant. This idea of soul, that it’s my responsibility.
If I don’t do it, it’s not going to get done. We have a tendency to think in almost all cases where we see difficulty, somebody else is going to come along who is better able to do the job and they’ll take care of it. We sort of rationalize our way out of responsibility, even for ourselves, thinking that I’m a victim. I don’t have to take responsibility for my own happiness, that it’s my husband’s and my wife’s responsibility, and my mother’s and my children’s, if not mine. So the idea of taking sole responsibility, accepting that upon yourself, is quite revolutionary.
Let alone the thought of taking responsibility for all sentient beings. So thirdly, it has the experiential quality of an inexhaustible mental and spiritual energy. It has creative action, spontaneous action. Responding to the needs of others, environmental generosity. Most of us, our lives are very much fragmented.
We’re always in conflict. We’re alienated from others and ourselves. There’s no wholeness in actions. You know the first, I’m not psychologist, but I think the first factor in schizophrenia is that we fail to make a commitment to what might be the objective element. That is, we begin to have a split between what we would like to do or think we would like to do and what we do for one reason or another, perhaps social pressures, perhaps you think it’s going to be more worthwhile in some way or another, but it’s not quite what you would like to do.
So right there we begin a split between our inner world and how we express this inner world in the objective element in real life. The way we can begin to heal this split, the way we can begin to develop spontaneity, way we can go beyond constantly having to watch, set up a judgment, and this constant ongoing conflict that we have is the development of this spiritual energy. This is an expression of wisdom and compassion. Compassion conventionally working spontaneously like a mother jumping down a well to help others, and wisdom which understands that in fact there is no self which is judging, which is guarding, which needs to be satisfied. So, in this way we begin to split this conflict, this gap between who we think we are, our values, what we would like to be, and how we express them in reality.
We become whole, we become spontaneous, creative in our actions, skillful in our actions. There’s no gap between the, what has Eliot called, between the thought and then the shadow falls and then there’s the action. So that’s what we mean when we go for enlightenment, we go for refuge. These are the three factors of a Buddha’s mind. His quality of seeing things clearly, directly, having knowledge of the way things are, a burning love like a mother for an only child, and creative spontaneous actions acting in the world for the benefit of others.
We go for refuge to the Dharma. Dharma is a Sanskrit term. It could be translated perhaps as truth, the teachings, doctrine, probably a lot of others. So, what is Vedanta? Anything which raises the level of our consciousness, anything which takes us from desire, attachment, to openness, to generosity.
Anything which takes us from hatred and anger to a state of love and compassion. Anything which takes us from ignorance, self-cherishing, to a state of wisdom, to a state of understanding, the oneness, the interdependence of all that lives. Anything which raises our level of consciousness in this way we can call Dharma. This is the way we achieve Buddhahood. This is the technique, these are the methods by which we go from our present level of being ordinary beings to becoming extraordinary beings, to becoming Buddhas.
You know, a Buddha is simply someone who is experiencing unremitting peace, who acts in the world in order to eliminate suffering out of the force of his compassion and love. That’s what a Buddha is. There are many Buddhas. The way we become a Buddha, the way we attain enlightenment, is by using the Dharma, these methods of raising the level of our consciousness. This is the refuge.
What is the word refuge? It’s simply that which protects us, that which helps us gain sanity, authenticity, happiness, that which protects us, eliminates our undesirable state by suffering all our disappointments, frustrations, difficulties. That’s what a refuge is. And here’s your third refuge, the refuge of Sangha. Sangha is simply another Sanskrit word that means spiritual community.
So the spiritual community is a coming together of voluntary coming together of individuals by choice, individuals who have accepted responsibility for their lives, for their happiness. You know, they’re no longer going to be victims. They’ve decided they want to develop themselves. They want to develop themselves as human beings. They want to grow.
They want to change. And so they come together with this common idea of growth to support each other, to act as an inspiration for one another, to teach each other, to act as a model, as examples for one another. You know, we’re very much interdependent. We’re not living in isolation, though we may feel that way, that we may act that way. This is merely an appearance.
That’s not the way things really are. Last Sunday, two Sundays ago when we had Buddhism in the Caring Professions. Sue Dixon was talking about family therapy. One concept of family therapy is that they don’t see the individual as being isolated. They see the family as being part of the individual as part of a whole.
This whole is going to come to some sort of balance. There’s going to be always some type of feedback which is going to hold a balance, it’s going to hold everybody into some position which has been worked out, which seems to work over a period of time. No matter whether this is actually a healthy situation or not, it’s working in some sense. It’s not falling apart, it’s not disintegrating, it’s holding itself together. Situation.
In order to change, for one individual to change, it’s going to be extremely difficult. Any sort of going out of this pattern, this reinforcing pattern that’s working, is going to disrupt the entire family, isn’t it? So we’re all interrelated. We’re all interrelated in the sense that for one of us to change, it’s going to be extremely difficult because everyone else is going to be reinforcing his old habit patterns, his negative unskillful patterns which are going to keep drawing him back into his old unskillful states. But if we have a spiritual sangha, really by becoming a part of that sangha, really becoming part of a new pattern is going to raise the level of your consciousness because everything within that complex is going to reinforce positive states, is going to reinforce growth.
This is the necessity and value of a spiritual community. But really becoming a part of it, what is automatically through body, speech, and mind raised in one’s skillfulness. Because we’re not independent, Enlightenment is a social phenomena. It’s not done in isolation. We’re not isolated individuals.
We’re part of a mandala, if you like. So that the Sangha, the spiritual community becomes a refuge, becomes a way of protecting ourselves and raising the level of our consciousness. So Buddhism has faith in enlightenment because it has faith in individuals. It has faith in people. It has faith in our potential.
And we have to have faith in ourselves. We have to begin to trust ourselves and allow some space in our lives for our own inner wisdom to begin to solve our problem. There’s not much, in a way, others can do for us. It’s very much a matter of our own effort. Others can guide us, they can support us, they can help us physically, But the initiative has to come from our own side.
And the end enlightenment comes from our own wisdom, our own discovery. We have to give ourselves a chance to begin to trust ourselves, you know, based on intuition, based on reasoning, based upon experience. We have to get more and more confidence in ourselves, that we have a source of untapped wisdom, a source of untapped compassion within us. And as our confidence in ourselves, our trust in ourselves begins to grow, we quite willingly begin to express it more and more. And when we see others reacting positively, and this reinforces us, and this reinforces the whole idea of Sangha, of the spiritual community.
So, having this faith is an affirmation of our basic goodness, the basic goodness of life. The question was life never was meant to be easy. Life was never meant to be easy. Buddhism takes position that we should all be Buddhist. Ultimately, we will.
Our life, whatever it might be, should be experienced as blissful, creative, loving. But we don’t have to believe anything. Buddhism doesn’t ask us to believe anything. It simply asks us to take wisdom, to take love and compassion, and creative spontaneous actions as the basis, as the themes of our lives, the basis on how we react with others, and see for ourselves by our own experience. We don’t have to believe at all in anything.
We can just begin to trust in our own experience. We’re experimenting. So we have to try. We have to try. You know, of the founder of Buddha House, his name was Lama Yeshe.
He once gave a talk. Lama Yeshe used to use transcendental language. I mean, his use of language was quite unique. It was poetry, but for me it was poetry. For some others, they couldn’t understand a word he was saying.
And one time he was saying, you know, we come here. I don’t know English. I have something to say and I try to tell you. Maybe you don’t understand, but I try. That’s all that’s important is I try.
And there was a couple months ago I watched the video called One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, And in it, Nicholson, Jack Nicholson, he was in this mental institution. I’m not sure what it was, but it was in the bathroom and there was this huge marble maybe sink, which obviously he could not lift. There was no way he could lift it, but he was taking bets that he could lift the sink. Everyone was betting they couldn’t lift it. He tried to feel strange and strings, these strings.
He knew he couldn’t do it. And then they all kind of poo pooed him. He said, well, at least I tried. You know, it’s the whole idea. At least I tried.
You know, When you die, no matter how far you’ve gone in life, no matter how much realization, no matter how much happiness or whatever you may have gained, you can say, at least I tried, and you can die quite happily. Even in your darkest moment, when the world, you know, you find yourself laying in the figurative gutter with this garbage mind, you say, at least I’ll try. And then you pick yourself back up and try. So we can try that. I think trying more than anything else is going to bring us the satisfaction that we’re all looking for.
This attitude, when we sit and meditate. I don’t know, I’ve been looking for a word for it. I think they call it Zen, I don’t know. This attitude of trying, of presence, determination. It doesn’t have to be heavy handed.
So we’re talking about the three principal aspects of the path, a text by Tsongkhapa, which some of you may have a copy. Won’t even get to it tonight, but I’ll hand out some more next week. The three principal aspects of the path: the determination to be free, opening to others, and seeing the way things are. The three principal aspects of the path. A path is something which takes you from where you are at now to where you want to get to.
This particular path is described in terms of three principles. It has three main qualities about it. This entire text, this short text by Tsongkhapa, is going to describe these three principal aspects of the path. The main reason that we continually have the same reoccurring problems again and again and again, that we repeat the same mistakes, the same sufferings, is that we simply do not recognize the source of our difficulties, the source of our problems. And not recognizing the cause, the source of our difficulties, we again and again make the same mistakes again and again.
There’s nothing very mystical about it. There’s nothing otherworldly. We simply make the same mistakes over and over again unknowingly, ignorantly. So we have to begin to gain some perspective on our problem, on the situation, in order to begin to understand what mistakes we’re actually making. We have to become disillusioned with our habitual, dissatisfactory pattern.
These compulsive reoccurring patterns which we more or less at this point are. This is who we are. Our habits, our unskillful habits. How we relate with the world and how we relate with others and ourselves. Have to create some space to begin an immense space where the wisdom has a chance to operate.
We can begin to cultivate more skillful ways of relating with the world, ways in which we’re more in tune with the way things actually are. So renunciation, sometimes this word what I call determination to be free or determination to change. It’s quite often simply translated as renunciation. So what we’re trying to renounce, trying to grow out of, is our particular patterns which ego is using to maintain itself. We have to begin to really have an understanding of the nature of ego and how it’s covering our lives.
Now the fact is that we want pleasure, and there’s nothing wrong with pleasure. We should have a lot of it. Buddhism isn’t saying don’t have pleasure. This is for dirty old men who have who are you know, maybe they’re maybe they had a bad childhood or something. But we try to pattern our pleasure, to conform to past experiences of pleasure.
It’s grasping and clinging to pleasure, which turns pleasure to pain. We are grasping our expectations, are seeking to prolong, trying to fit ourselves in the repetitive patterns. So it’s our grasping, exaggerating, distorting, polluting, clinging attitude that we renounce. Those attitudes that we usually, the way we usually relate to pleasure. So it’s not so much that we are trying to give up anything when we use the word renunciation.
Not that we give up anything, it’s simply that we grow up. We seek to relate with things more skillfully. And we get fed up and we seek to emerge. The word in Tibetan, which is being usually translated as renunciation, in Tibetan is nges ‘byung, which means definite emergence. That literally means definite emergence.
So when we want to emerge, to rise up out of some particular samsaric pattern, our particular style of suffering, our particular dissatisfactory occupation, like a caterpillar, a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. But the problem is we’re afraid to learn. We’re talking about renunciation not simply as a of extricating ourselves from our dissatisfactory patterns, our unskillful patterns that we’re stuck in, that we’re in bondage to. But in the sense of the great vehicle where we’re very much concerned with the development of love and compassion, of benefiting others. Then renunciation, this idea of emerging, takes on a higher quality.
We resist the change, we resist growing because we don’t want to learn. We don’t want to learn because we don’t want to accept the responsibility which learning, which growing entails. The responsibility of taking into consideration, of acknowledging the equality of ourselves and others in their fact that they are suffering. We don’t want to grow. So, in the sense of what we call the great vehicle, that is the sense of Buddhism which is concerned very much with the development of loving kindness and compassion, what we renounce is any barrier which stands between myself and others.
You know, in the sense of anything which stands between my openness to others, which stands as a barrier to making myself more accessible to others, more available to others, more gentle to others. Anything within our experience which acts as a wall between myself and others is what we’re renouncing, is what we’re trying to grow out of. So we have to develop a determination to be free. Without this consistent determination, now this word consistent I think is important. You know when things are going badly, when you’re depressed, everything’s dark, you think, Oh, I would do anything.
I would meditate twenty three hours a day. If my guru told me to stand on my head for two weeks in a row, I’d do that. You would do anything when you’re in a depressed state, when it’s dark, the moment the sun shines again, it’s all forgotten. Now it’s okay. You don’t even think about you forget how it was maybe yesterday and the fact that maybe tomorrow it’s going to be dark again, it’s going to rain again tomorrow.
But today the sun is shining, everything’s okay. So the determination to be free has to carry us through even during the periods of sunshine. You have to have some consistent determination. It can’t be a question of going up and down. Actually, when we’re quite depressed, when we’re very down, there’s very little that we can do to develop our mind.
The best we can hope to do is bring ourselves to at least a neutral state where we aren’t so depressed anymore, let alone try to really raise the level of our consciousness. So it’s probably only when we’re feeling inspired, somewhat awake, that we can really make significant changes in ourselves. And these are the times we least want to make effort because everything’s okay. You see no point in having to change because we forget our pain very quickly as if it never happened, as if tomorrow, as if some difficulties, some problems, the source of our suffering isn’t in fact still there, just waiting. We haven’t really gotten rid of the causes.
The same patterns are there waiting to meet the conditions and then we’re going to experience the same sufferings again. But we’d rather not be aware of that. We’d rather play in the sunshine. So we have to develop this consistent determination to be free in order to begin to break patterns which we’re stuck in, these programs, compulsive reoccurring patterns which are governing our lives. This is the determination to be free.
It’s an expression of our creative energy. So that’s the first principle of the path, this determination to be free. And the second is opening to others, essentially developing love and compassion. When we direct the thought to eliminate, separate ourselves from suffering towards ourselves, we develop the determination to be free, renunciation. When the same thought that is the thought to separate from suffering is directed towards others, then we develop compassion.
This is the same mind, the same attitude, it’s just a different object. First we have to turn that mind, we have to develop that mind and turn it towards ourselves. Finally wanting to get rid of our suffering once and for all, to grow and go beyond these unskillful patterns. We take that same attitude and we turn it towards others, because in fact others are completely equal to ourselves. Everyone wants to be happy.
No one wants to suffer. Exactly alike. No difference whatsoever. We take this attitude and we point it toward others. Others become our object and we develop compassion, which is the thought to eliminate the sufferings of others.
So it’s a direct result of insight into the reality of our own situation. So we have to understand our own dissatisfaction, our own frustrations, our compulsive reoccurring patterns which we’re stuck in. First, we must first develop the determination to be free and then understanding our own situation, realize that everyone else is in the same situation and point this mind which seeks to separate from suffering towards others and based upon that we can develop really solid compassion and love for others. It’s not a sentimentality which comes and goes with sunshine and the rain. It’s based on the actual situation we find our own selves in.
So the Dalai Lama he always said that we’re naturally selfish, we’re naturally concerned with ourselves, so why not be skillfully selfish? That is, begin to take others as more important than yourself. Because in taking others as more important than yourself, cherishing others more than yourself, all the happiness that you’ve been trying so hard to find is going to flow to you quite naturally. You won’t even have to make any effort, but here we are, we struggle, we sweat, we cry, trying to eke out a little bit of happiness just for ourselves, and we get very almost no result. Simply beginning to change the object of our concern towards others, we’re going to realize more happiness than we had ever imagined.
This is the way we can become skillfully selfish by holding others dearer than ourselves. You know whenever we’re concerned with ourselves, all wrapped up in our problems, I, I, I, me, me, difficulties, my disappointment, Our problems become like thick dark clouds, heavy dark clouds, as if they’re never going to go away. It’s all I can see. It’s completely shrouded in my problem. No solution in sight.
That the mind which begins to become concerned with others, which directs its attention toward the problems of others. In contrast, in comparison, our own problems become insignificant. They just don’t seem as important as they used to. When you think about what’s happening in the world, it would be a shame to be so caught up in our petty difficulties, our petty concerns that we usually caught up within, you know, sixteen hours a day. You know, how would you like to be an Ethiopian?
In the streets of Calcutta, you know, we do have our problems, and we have to deal with them, but we have to put them in some kind of proper perspective to the suffering which is going on in the world. And by being concerned about others, we can do just that, put our own suffering perspective and make it workable. This has the consequence of reducing immediately our own suffering just by becoming less concerned about our own problems. So we can go begin to go beyond our neurotic obsessions, you know, with this eye eye my problems. Maybe I’m not pretty enough.
Maybe there’s not gonna be enough left for me. You know, this is the way people freak out. Totally concerned, wrapped up in themselves. So when we begin to be concerned with others, with their welfare, then our own problems automatically lessen. I’m one person.
The ego is a limiting factor in our lives. I think almost all spiritual paths see our identity, how we conceive of ourselves, our self image as being restrictive, that we somehow have to find a way to go beyond this identity, this who we think we are. Within trying to solve the problem, our difficulties, we usually have a sense of a negative limited self, poor me. By acknowledging that negative, limited, poor me self, the amount of resources, the wisdom, and understanding we can bring to a problem is also limited. Our only limitations are those we acknowledge.
By going beyond the boundaries of our ego, even conventionally, being concerned with others since others are infinite, then proportionally the reservoir of wisdom, of love, the ability to deal skillfully with problems is going to increase. We begin to tap into unimaginable wisdom, unfathomable love, the more we begin to concern ourselves with others simply because we are not holding, acknowledging our limited self pity and therefore limiting our wisdom, our love which we can bring to solve our problem. You know, I’m one person. Others are infinite. In order to solve the problems of one person, I need that much wisdom, that much skill.
In order to begin to solve the problems of infinite number of people, I need that much wisdom, that much skill, which is going to draw upon our inner resources, which is going to make us grow more, to go beyond who we think we are, how we respond to others in the world. So it presents an infinite potential. Presents a potential, a possibility to become a Buddha, by becoming concerned more with others than with ourselves. By consistently being concerned with only ourselves, the most we can hope to attain is perfect complete egohood which hasn’t gotten us anywhere, which has only been a source of suffering. So that’s the second principal aspect of the path, opening to others, going beyond ourselves, opening to their problems, their difficulties.
The third principal aspect of the path is seeing deeply into the nature of reality, seeing the way things really are. So essentially, ultimately, this is a wisdom consciousness, the wisdom which understands the nature of reality. But in terms of our self, the nature of selflessness. So we’re talking about the wisdom which understands selflessness or egolessness, identilessness, they all mean the same thing. So at present we have a misconception about the nature of ourselves, of who we are.
It’s because of this misconception that we remain trapped in these reoccurring patterns, that we can’t go beyond them. We live in a world of our own projection, of our own fantasies. We’re condemned to a prison of our own making. And we keep wandering in circles of dissatisfactory patterns which we’ve created for ourselves and continue to create by which we maintain a fiction of an ego, of a self which exists unchanging independently. You know, there was a student who went to his Zen master and he was in great suffering and in great pain.
Said, Oh, master, please, please, please unchain my mind. Unburden my mind. My mind is in chains. Make it free. Make it free.
The master said to him, show me it show me who it was who first enslaved your mind. You know, we we have enslaved our own mind, and it’s only ourselves who can free ourselves. So all our various dissatisfactory states, all the afflictive emotions, by that I mean desire, hatred, jealousy, miserliness, they all arise in dependence upon ignorance, ignorance with respect to the nature of the self. I’ll give you an idea. It’s a comic.
There’s two boys walking they’re walking home from school and the one is looking at his report. He just received his test report back. And he says to the other, that new teacher really did a number on me. And then he says, I thought I got a B on that test and he gave me a C. Then he says, How did he know I was a C student?
So we have a young man who thinks, who’s got himself pretty well figured out. He’s got his identity all worked out. He’s a C kind of person. He’s a C student. He’s going to go on to get a C job, grade C job, marry a grade C wife, have a grade C occupation and raise grade C children.
He’s holding to a fixed self image of who he thinks he is, in dependence upon the group he exists in, his peer group, independent of other times when he acts as perhaps an A student, he doesn’t focus upon that. He just is focusing on one narrow aspect of himself and holding and saying this is me, this is who I am, I’m a C student, I’ve always been a C student, and I’m always going to be a C student. So this is in a very simplified way is how the fact of maintaining the ego identity, grasping to an independent self, independent of all the various factors, environment, culture, our intelligence, and our various actions over a period of time limits us in a very simplified way. Actuality, everything that, all the very subjective emotions which arise, desire and hatred, they also are based upon this self grasping. In order to protect this self, which I think is somewhere maybe between, well, you get away from me.
I’m fed up. And you kind of poke yourself, you know. Here’s somewhere, this eye, you know, that’s fed up. I can’t stand this other guy. I can’t stand.
It’s somewhere in there. You know, it’s like you can almost grab hold of it. When you’re really angry, there. It’s very solid. Heart’s pumping.
Based upon this feeling that there’s a concrete, permanent, unchanging self, if someone enhances this self image, if someone promotes this self image, my friend, come to me and I’m going to hold on to If someone detracts from this self image, if someone seeks to destroy, threaten this self image, go away. I’m going to kill you. So based upon this grasping for a concrete self, which in fact doesn’t exist at all, it can arise in detachment, it can arise in hatred, and all the various afflicting emotions which are the source of all our suffering. So we have to begin to observe and see through this deception, this illusion which ignorance creates. We’re trying to maintain a sense of identity, persisting through time and existing in space.
We’re trying to secure ourselves. We keep rolling back on old patterns of reacting in order to get a feeling of security due to the fear of an open fluid state of being here now, responding to the way things actually are. We keep going back and calling up past programs to deal with the present in order to feel security. This worked in the past. It may not have been a very skillful program.
It may not have brought the satisfaction that I wanted, but at least I have an idea of what it is. The other, being open and fluid in the present, is unknown. It’s a frightening experience to be open to the unknown. So we keep falling back on our old pattern, the need for security. Ignorance is actually terribly intelligent, but it’s making a basic mistake, a mistake with the nature of the self.
The self in fact exists, I’m talking to you, you’re listening to me, you’re there, I’m here, no problem. But ignorance is making a mistake in a way that misconceives the nature of the self. Based upon this simple mistake, all our problems are arising. All our frustrations, disappointment, all our pain, all our sorrow based upon this simple mistake. And we have to begin to develop the wisdom which is the antidote to this misconception, to this mistake.
We have to begin to see the way things really are. So each of these three aspects of the path, determination to be free, opening to others, and seeing deeply into the way things are. They support each other, they work interdependently, they foster each other, They all have the quality of freeing, opening, and growth. Each of them. Each of them enhances the other.
They’re all expressions of wisdom. The creative, social, and existential wisdom. These three paths are the Buddha within us which is calling out. It’s our basic sanity, calling out, trying to call us back, to grow, to love, and to see the way things actually are, to be happy, authentic, sane, loving human beings as we should be. Those are the three aspects of the path.
Last year, we completed the first aspect. So next week we’re going to start, after a very short review, we’ll start with the second aspect that is opening to others. As I said, we have a loving kindness meditation. I’m just going to ask for questions. Maybe one question or maybe no question.
Let’s meditate. I’m tired of talking. So think about your difficulties, your problems, just get in touch with them for a moment. And the fact that you want to be happy. You want to be happy.
No matter what you’ve done in the past, no matter what mistakes, you can simply regret them and determine not to repeat them again. No matter how you may conceive of yourself, no matter what identity you may hold, you can change. You can begin again. You can become anything that you want to be. But for the present, you’ve got to forgive yourself, accept yourself, make friends with yourself, quit torturing yourself, You wish yourself well.
Simply wish yourself well. May I be happy. May I grow. Direct positive feelings towards yourself. And think of someone of the same sex that you like, that you care for, that you love.
Just imagine, just feel that this person is in front of you now. And remember how much you like them, how happy they make you. Simply radiate out positive feelings to this person. And you’ll be happy. And you’ll find all the things that you’re looking for.
This good feeling. Now think of someone you neither like nor dislike, a stranger. You simply feel neutral towards this person. Imagine them in front of you. Just feel that they’re there.
You have to try to go beneath the superficial appearance, beneath the appearance of sex or age, beauty, ugliness, color, beneath the appearance of personality, intelligence, status, economics. Try to complete all that down to the very essence of that person. There’s someone there who wants happiness and doesn’t want to suffer just like yourself. Exactly the same. And just as we wish our own self happiness, we have to begin to wish this person happiness because how we feel about that deep down person is a reflection of how we really feel about ourselves deep down because we’re exactly the same.
I wish that person well. Wish them happy. I think of someone who disturbs your mind, that you have problems with, an enemy, and imagine the feeling that that person is in front of you. This person wants happiness and doesn’t want to suffer exactly like himself. Perhaps their method of finding happiness, their method of eliminating their suffering has come in conflict with your methods.
That’s just a matter of conflicts of interest. You’ve hurt others in the past, either intentionally or unintentionally, find happiness that you’re looking for to eliminate your suffering. And just as you have to begin to forgive yourself for your past mistakes, you have to begin to forgive this other person because they want to be happy. Just for a moment, set aside your grudge, your hurt, your anger. See this person as a person there who’s confused and lost just like yourself, who wants to be happy, and doesn’t want to suffer just like yourself.
No more, be happy. Imagine all four together, yourself and these three other people, All equally want happiness. All equally don’t want to suffer. No difference whatsoever. So radiate our positive feelings equally to all four.
Try to see all four as the same and wish them well equally. And all the people in this room, people seeking for some way to find real happiness, taking responsibility for their happiness. We’re May you be happy. May you find everything that you’re looking for. And you grow.
Now all the people on the block watching television, preparing supper, eating, sleeping, whatever they’re doing, whatever they’re saying, they’re doing it in some way in order to find happiness and to eliminate their suffering. To radiate out positive feelings to everyone on the block, touching them, caring and peacefully. Spreading out further to all of Adelaide, people in their cars and buses and shops and their home. All of South Australia, all the people, animals, insects. Perth, Darwin, Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Hobart, the entire country.
Entire southern hemisphere. Enveloping the whole world with warmth, care, with positive feelings. All the people, black, white, red, yellow, all the animals, all the insects. Insects. Spreading out further.
So finally, without any boundaries, without any center, pervading all that space. You wish, may all things be happy. May all things be happy. Now we can address the dedication. Through these merits, may I soon attain the enlightened state of Guru Buddha.
May I lead every migrating being without exception to that state. May the precious bodhi mind not yet born arise and grow. May that born have no decline. May it ever increase. Thank you.
Please have a cup of tea.