Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Ven Jampa Gendun opens this nearly two-hour session with an unexpected comparison: meditation should be as ordinary as eating lunch, not a solemn ritual — a point he introduces by drawing on a group-dynamics course he had just completed at TAFE. He then reframes going for refuge as faith built through intuition, reasoning, and personal experience rather than formula-recitation. The heart of the commentary is a systematic treatment of karma and rebirth: Jampa Gendun explains subtle mind and subtle energy as the vehicle of continuity across lives, then walks through the four modes of karma — their infallibility, augmentative power, the principle that uncommitted actions bear no fruit, and that no action is ever lost — using an extended smoking analogy to make the teaching concrete. The session closes with a guided loving-kindness meditation expanding outward from oneself to all beings. Suited to practitioners with some grounding in Buddhist thought.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1988 03 11 3 P A P.mp3
UUID: 6e15d9d1-0ce0-4413-888a-42935f8dba44
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Three Principle Aspects of the Path 1987-1988 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1988-03-11
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 117.9 minutes
Words: ~11,796
Everyone comfortable? Do you think the window’s closed? Isn’t too is it a draft? Is it okay? Okay.
In meditation, we’re doing something very ordinary. Now I recently took a course at TAFE called Training in Group Dynamics and the group leader was talking about strokes, that is affirmations, compliments. He said that just as when people go without eating, they become sick. Likewise, when people go without strokes, they become sick. This was his thought.
And I have a feeling likewise that going without meditation, they become a little bit sick. That one way we can become well, one way we can heal ourselves is through the regular consistent self discipline of meditation. But I think it should be looked on something like eating. You know, we don’t think taking lunch is particularly a special event in our lives unless it happens to be a very special meal. It’s something we do regularly as part of our physical health.
And likewise, meditation should become part of our mental health program. Something very ordinary, just like eating food. We sit down and meditate regularly doing something very ordinary. It’s important not to begin to invest it with extraordinary qualities of being some sort of ritual, that it’s a very solemn occasion. I want you to feel quite natural and spontaneous in meditation.
It’s something you sit down and you do, just as you sit down to have a meal. And whenever thoughts arise in our meditation, we simply observe them as thoughts. Generally, when thoughts arise, we take them as being the subject. We identify with the thought as if I’m this agent thinking these thoughts. Usually when we have thoughts, we’re not aware that we’re thinking.
We’re not aware of thoughts as thoughts. Like, for example, when we’re planning a holiday and we’re thinking about perhaps going to Queensland up on the Barrier Reef and the nice white sand and the crystal clear waters and the beautiful coral with all the beautiful neon colored fish floating around and snorkeling in the clear water and the warm water washing down it. It’s as if you’re there, you know. It’s as if you’re actually experiencing being in Queensland on the beach. It has this quality because we’re not recognizing thoughts as thoughts.
It’s as if when we go to the movie, we forget that we’re out to a movie, and the movie becomes almost a reality. But once we become aware that this is merely a movie, the patterns, the appearances of people on the screen aren’t really people, Once we become aware that our thoughts aren’t the agents, that we aren’t our thoughts, then we can begin to notice their transitory quality, their translucent quality. We don’t have to identify with our thinking. We can simply accept the thoughts arising. They will abide for a while and they’re going to cease.
Like any object, you know, when we’re sitting in a meditation, if we hear a sound, sooner or later that sound is going to cease. We know that very much. Likewise, thought is just another object as is sound, as is or as visual objects, you know, tactile objects, whatever. Thought can be thought of as simply another object. This is object of the mental consciousness.
So we begin to see thought as merely an object, nothing more than an object. So we don’t have to suppress thoughts nor do we indulge in them. We can just begin to, in our meditation, begin to see them as transitory, as translucent, as merely an object of our mental consciousness which arises, abides, and the while will cease. And so we can begin to accept thoughts without having to struggle against them. So in meditation, there’s no need to control, there’s no need to suppress, there’s simply acceptance, just observation.
We don’t need to discriminate, that is, good thoughts, bad thoughts. We don’t need to become involved in any kind of struggle at all with our thoughts. So this is the basic meditation, the cultivation of acceptance, the reorientation of the root of our identity in being rather than becoming. So, this cultivation of accepting quality, and this carries over into our everyday life. Events can happen to us and we no longer have to struggle against them, try to control them, suppress them, try to manipulate them as we once did.
We can become more accepting because we realize just as there are thoughts, all the various events which are taking place in our life arise and abide for a while and are going to cease. This doesn’t mean that we can’t act in the world. In fact, we act much more clearly because we see the situation much more clearly. I’m not clouded by any need to act. As Atisha once said, the greatest patience or the highest patience is non attachment to activity.
Not not the feeling where one can merely observe, but the new compulsiveness to act. So this meditation is a very simple and direct method. We simply use the breathing because it’s there. It’s something very simple to get in touch with. We don’t have to create the object in meditation.
So, the technique is simply to know the breath. When we’re breathing in, we know that we’re breathing in, and if thoughts arise, to know that thoughts have arisen by we can note that thoughts have arisen by thinking, by mentally noting thinking, for example, to help us to know the breath from moment to moment. So the technique becomes the goal. There’s nothing more, nothing less than that. Simply knowing the breath.
That’s the technique and that’s the goal of the meditation. So we’ll meditate on mindfulness and breathing. So, I go for refuge to the Buddha in the Dharma and the Sangha. I keep talking about going for refuge and what its possible various meanings might be. There are as many levels of refuge as probably there are individuals, and we all have our particular interpretation.
We all have, in fact, our own individual refugees. For some of us, it might be money. For others, it might be their job or their spouse. So, refuge is not particularly a new thing for any of us. We’ve been going for refuge our entire life.
And the Buddha is going for refuge and going for refuge to the Buddha and Dharma and the Sangha and really reciting the formula, I go for refuge to the Buddha, go for refuge to the Dharma to the Sangha. Perhaps there’s not of much benefit. It’s very much of the feeling behind that. What is the motivation? In fact, it’s very much a degree of faith.
I think the word faith is used quite often in Buddhism but it has a distinct meaning as perhaps it has in the Christian religion, the word faith. It has the idea of aspiration, of a movement toward. It means where we’re placing our heart. It’s something that we respect and that we wish to emulate. We wish to become that object that we have faith in.
For example, we take refuge in a particular state, the state of Buddhahood, enlightened state, and we say we have faith in that. This faith is developed upon our intuition, reasoning and our own experience. Developing faith in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, the enlightened state, the state seeing directly into the way things actually are, the love and compassion, and creative spontaneous actions in the world, the qualities of an enlightened mind, an enlightened state of being, an enlightened way of acting in the world, taking refuge in the Dharma, the methods for actualizing the state, the truth, the way things are. In the Sangha, the context where all these things can be brought about, the spiritual community which acts as a support, examples, inspiration, guidance. So, are our refuges and we have to develop faith in these refuges.
Intuitive faith is by way of developing, we have a sympathetic vibration. You know, when some vibration of what we might say our Buddha nature, something within ourselves touches a cord in our hearts which is very rarely touched. Knowing what is said is true beyond words, beyond logic, beyond intellect, In the silence of our heart, we know that’s arrived. So, it’s hearing perhaps some words broken by someone or something that you read or it’s something that you see and say that’s true. And it needs no explanation even to yourself because it touches something very deeply within you, beyond intellect, beyond the need to verbalize.
So, we can have faith from the point of intuition when someone talks about enlightenment, the necessity to develop love, compassion in your life, if you’re ever going to have a fulfilled, satisfying way of life, the possibility of real wisdom beyond mere information, beyond mere knowledge, but actually seeing very deeply as the way things are. There’s something right about that. Especially when you have come in contact with, as I fortunately have, many realized beings whose words have a great power over one’s mind. You know, it’s very interesting. Two people can say exactly the same words as has been my experience.
But for some reason, when one of my teachers says these same words, it can be a very moving experience. When another, possibly meaningless. Something is touched very deeply and there’s some kind of movement of the mind beyond words. I remember Lama Yeshe used to say that words are for weak minds, that the truth of things is beyond words. And that’s where we have to feel, we have to try to reach beyond the intellect, conceptions that we have about things, and try to work with it, try to see things directly and feel things within our own heart.
So, it’s this faith which is born out of intuition, this sympathetic vibration when a cord in our hearts is struck by something that is said or something that we read. And then, there’s faith born out of reasoning, know, coming to understand the logical possibility of an enlightened state, possibility of liberation, the possibility of sanity. I mean, it’s coming to one who understands the information, sees the reasonableness of the possibility that there is a state beyond sorrow, beyond all our problems, beyond all our difficulties, a state of enlightenment which is characterized by seeing directly into the way things are, loving, compassion, spontaneous actions for the benefit of others in the world, that these are not the romantic notion. They are simply not being made up. They are logical possibilities.
Once we begin to understand the nature of the mind, the nature of our problems, We can see that there are methods, very logical, reasonable methods, whereby we can solve our problems and we can reach this state of enlightenment. Seeing the connection between, for example, the moral, intellectual, spiritual qualities of kindliness, sincerity, fearlessness, wisdom, love, all these various qualities that these realized beings have. A sense of humor. But somehow there’s a connection between those who practice the Dharma and these very qualities. There seems to be some consistency between those who are devoting some part of their life to the cultivation of their mind and these qualities of love, compassion, wisdom, humor, sincerity, kindliness.
We can see that and we can reason that there must be some connection. These people are actually expressing or exemplifying the possibility of developing the mind using these very methods. So, we have evidence that people actually are going beyond the ego or reducing the power, the influence of ego in their lives. Happy, sane, healthy people that the dharma actually works. It’s not that we all would like to hope it works, but there is some realistic method to get ourselves out of these problems.
So, in the beginning, it’s a longing faith. We hope it works. We’re not sure, but we hope, because the other methods haven’t seemed to work very well to this point. So, we’re going to try this method, and I’m not sure about it. I hope it works, because I’m putting a lot of work into it.
If we can see using our reasoning that the methods logically work, that there are those who are practicing the methods and expressing or achieving the realizations of these methods, that it is working for them, then we can develop some real faith. So, we can develop faith through intuition and reasoning, seeing the logic of the methods, and then through our own experience, which is probably the most important of the three, that we actually begin to find some peace within ourselves. We actually begin to experience some of the fruit of practice ourselves, some of the fruit of the practice of Dharma. We find one day that we’re happy people. It’s kind of a surprise.
It kind of sneaks up on you, I think. From time to time, you just look at yourself and your situation, and you look back perhaps ten years, fifteen years, and you realize that you’re a much happier person, more fulfilled, more satisfied, more beneficial to others and to yourself. And you wonder why. And you realize it’s not an accident, it’s not some chance happening, it’s because you’ve been cultivating your mind, you’ve been cultivating the causes for happiness, for meaningful way of life, for being able to benefit others and yourself all along. So, we begin to realize the fruit of our practice within ourselves, within our own experience.
And this is a great source of inspiration, a great source of faith. It inspires you to apply yourself even more. Faith is very much an affirmation of our own goodness and the goodness of life. And, the greater our faith, the greater this affirmation of the goodness of ourselves and the goodness of life. We begin to believe in ourselves that we can really be happy and we can really benefit others and that life can be a meaningful, fulfilling experience.
It’s really faith. Faith through intuition, faith through reason, and faith through our own experience. So, it’s this faith which really brings about change. This faith is our refuge. We’ve been talking about the three principal aspects of the path.
We have to have faith that these principles, that these three paths actually exist and they actually lead us somewhere, that there are methods to help us travel this path, that they actually work, and that we ourselves can do it. We have to develop this faith through intuition, through reasoning, and through our own experience. This is going for refuge. It’s not the saying of the formula, the words. It’s this faith which goes beyond words.
But it’s only born out by listening, by examining, and by practice. Developing the determination to be free, opening to others, and seeing deeply into the nature of reality. Somehow, these three paths encompass all the necessary methods to actualize our full potential. There’s nothing left out. There’s nothing that needs to be added outside of these three.
As a foundation, we have to develop the determination to be free, to realize our potential. Within our potential, there’s our own private experiential world and our potential relating to others. So, as our foundation, we develop the determination, I’m going to grow. I’m going to realize my potential. Whatever we might call that potential, call it Buddhahood, enlightenment, Christhood, whatever, it has two aspects: our own experiential quality, our own private world, our own peace.
And it’s going beyond sorrow, our own afflictive emotions, which disturb the natural peace of our mind. We have to have some method to go to find that peace, to realize that potential of ourselves. This is seen deeply into the nature of reality. And we need to fulfill our potential to its utmost, that is being able to relate with others, our social self. You know, we very much are interconnected, interdependent with others.
We don’t live in isolation. We don’t exist in isolation. And therefore, our happiness and realizing our full potential cannot be realized in isolation. We have to develop that aspect of ourselves which exists in relationship with others, a public self. And this is realized in opening to others.
So these are the two aspects of our personality. You know, this is an existential approach to fulfilling our potential. Through these three paths, we can realize everything that we are. We can have faith in that. We can begin to understand it through our intuition reasonably and in our own experience.
So, we’re talking about the first, the foundation, developing the determination to be free. We’re stuck. We’re stuck in ruts, ingrained patterns, the fantasy of ego, however you like to put it, and we need some real energy to get ourselves unstuck, to bring to break up these patterns, which are unskillful patterns. By unskillful, I mean those types of habitual compulsive reoccurring patterns which are going to bring us suffering. That’s unskillful.
There’s no sin involved. There’s no evil involved. It’s just mistaken ways of acting which are going to bring you suffering and you don’t want to suffer. Therefore, we say it’s unskillful. That’s all.
We’re making some basic errors in our understanding, in our way of knowing the world. We have to develop the energy to begin to break out of these patterns. First, want to develop skillful patterns, that those type of patterns which are going to bring us happiness, and then ultimately go beyond all patterns altogether and exist in spontaneous creative actions like a wish fulfilling tree. Oftentimes, they compare the Buddha to a wish fulfilling tree. Anyone can come along and pluck the fruit.
The tree doesn’t say, Come and pick me. The tree doesn’t say, Oh, I think I’ll grow this fruit so I can help that person. Situations arise spontaneously with communication there’s benefit. The tree is there, someone picks the fruit. Spontaneous creative actions with beyond thought, beyond conception, beyond all patterns, perfectly fluid and open to the needs of the present moment and the present individual who we’re trying to communicate with.
No preconceptions. So we’re talking about the methods to develop this determination to be free, to energize ourselves, to be able to break out of these unskillful patterns and begin to develop more skillful ways of responding to the world, of acting in the world. We can begin by looking at our own potential. You know, we call this Buddha nature the dynamic quality of mind, that it’s changeable, that the identity we have, the conception of who we are is not who we are, in fact. For various reasons, we usually have a very negative self image.
This very acknowledgement of that type of self image limits us in what we will be able to achieve, what we will even try to achieve. You know, they talk about it’s very much talk about women’s liberation these days. You know, a woman says, I think I’ll be a nurse. What she really means is she wants to be a doctor, but she doesn’t think she can become a doctor, does she? And, this works in many, many ways like that.
You know, our own conception of what we can’t do is going to limit what you can what you are trying to do, and not only that, but what you will be able to do. Our world is very much shaped by our conception of it and our conception of ourselves. So, we have to get in touch with who we really are. And the fact is that we have an unlimited potential. We call this potential Buddha nature, dynamic quality of the mind.
It can be changed just like molding clay. It can be created into something very grotesque, something very utilitarian like an ashtray, or something very beautiful. But it can be changed using the, you know, the conventional reality of the law of cause and effect. We have this potential. We have all the necessary conditions.
We have the leisure and fortune to realize this potential. We’re born in a free country. We met the dharma, the various methods. We aren’t We’re healthy physically. We’re healthy mentally from the point of view that we have intelligence, that we have some kindness in our hearts, some aspiration, some perspective on our problems.
There’s nothing stopping us except our own lack of initiative, own lack of motivation to change. Everything is there that we need. It only lacks effort. But this chance to change isn’t going to last forever. It’s definite that we’re going to die.
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 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? Are they anger, desire, hatred, attachment, jealousy, misery, and spite? Which are most predominant in your everyday life? The Buddha said if you want to know 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, just 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, I remember I used to think that this idea of rebirth meant that when you die, this body goes somewhere else and it kind of transformed or somehow I really didn’t go into it very much. I 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 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 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.
This is a gross energy pattern. You know, think about Einstein’s theory of relativity, what is it, E equals MC squared, anyway, that matter and energy are interchangeable. So, what we have 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. When we talk about gross consciousness such as eye consciousness, that it’s 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, gives it our gross consciousnesses. And there are more subtle types of consciousness. For example, a 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 your future life. Consciousness and energy always go together. They’re compared like a horse and a rider. The rider guides the horse. The rider reins the horse, the horse goes in that direction, but it’s the horse which provides the motility, provides the conveyance for that rider likewise.
The mind is always existing in 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 designate I, person.
Okay, who is the person? You know when we say I, me, Jampa, monk? 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 could examine this, and we’ll examine this later on when we talk about seeing into the nature of reality. We’ll look into this more deeply. Deeply. The person, the I, the self, the being, jampa, the monk, is the being which is being designated, imputed, projected, labeled onto the body and mind.
There’s a body and mind acting as a basis upon that we designate, we impute person, eye, soul, monk, jampa. 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.
In this way, we can talk about taking rebirth. Now thus, we have certain dispositions both mentally and physically. 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. Dependence upon that gross energy pattern, a 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, 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 can designate that on the gross mind, on gross body, and that’s who Jump is. A particular instance of this long continuous stream of subtle consciousness associated with subtle energy pattern. Now, this can define Jampa here.
The gross body, gross mind. Your identity, Jampa. But through this continual taking of rebirth and 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 beginningless time and will exist forever and 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 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 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 the 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 basis 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 gross mind, gross body. Upon this we designate, we name, person, jampa, I.
What happens due to the force of ignorance? We say, Oh, don’t I said that. Due to the force of ignorance which obscures the actual nature of the I, 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 now 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, we create ego, this process of grasping and clinging to an eye which exists independently. So now we’re stuck. This is who I am, you know. 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 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. 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 stream of mind, even though there was a constant change in that mind, I was consistently labeling I, I, I, I, I. So, we’ve got this constantly changing pattern of energy, body, constantly changing pattern of consciousness mind upon which we’re consistently labeling I, I, I, I, I. These various patterns you know, they’re the logical outcome of cause and effect. They didn’t arise by it’s not a matter of chance.
You know, they’re the outcome of discernible variables. This particular gross body, our present mind, have very definite causes. There are effects arising from very definite sources, causes. These sources, these causes are actions of body, speech, and mind. 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 this very subtle mind, this very subtle body. Now, we can we can use an analogy. You know, we talk about the subtle mind as being as if it were a radio, simply being on. 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. What it’s playing and what particular program it’s actually blasting out is a pattern of gross consciousness.
And the subtle energy is electricity, which is empowering the radio. So, actions of body, speech and mind are creating, 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, and mind determine what kind of music, what kind of news is going to come out of that radio. So, when we talk about karma, we’re actually talking about is essentially an urge, an impulse, the 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 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, impulses. So, that’s one way of looking at karma. Another way is the karma is 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 impressed upon the mind itself.
In the Prāsaṇgika Madhyamaka school, the highest school of Buddhism, karma is said to be form. 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 the 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, implanting of patterns, tendencies, dispositions, latencies.
So, 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 into 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, if you do unskillful actions, may take the body of a hell being. What does that mean? It 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. We’re going, 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. This kind very much becomes involved with the twelve links of dependent origination. It seems like one thing always leads into another. What we call happiness, the mind may have a sensation, dependence upon that. We have a tendency to habitually label this particular type 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. I’m going to give an example. Here’s example of smoking, okay? We’ll talk about smoking.
First off, it’s a very long and complicated sequence of actions. There’s this long white, this 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 set afire. That would be we have to have been conditioned to label this particular object in that way. Someone who has never seen a cigarette before is not going to pick up that cigarette light it up.
He’s not going to have a habit of smoking. He has to be in some way influenced, conditioned to see that as something which is to be picked up, put in your mouth, set afire. And then, he has to conceive of that object, the fumes from that object, 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 of smoking, as pleasurable, he’s going to seek to repeat this action again in the future. He’s going to want to maintain contact and repeat contact again and again and again because he’s conceiving of this 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, 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.
Therefore, for many of us, a cigarette cannot act as a condition, an object, an object for bringing us pleasure. It cannot be a pleasure. It’s not a pleasurable object. That’s our individual karma. This cigarette is not pleasurable for me because I don’t have the karma.
That is, I don’t have the habitual labeling process to label intake of the toxic fumes as being pleasurable. We don’t have this tendency or this disposition. We can carry this further. We can say that these people, myself for example, we don’t have a very strong karma to get lung cancer. We all may in fact have karma to get lung cancer, but unless that karma exists in conjunction with the karma for seeing, for impurity labeling, taking in toxic fumes as pleasurable, that karma to have lung cancer is never going to be activated, probably.
Lesser chance. So, someone who labels a cigarette as being pleasurable is reborn into a realm, I mean mentally, which has a higher rate of lung cancer in it. We each live in our own karmic worlds due to our conceptions, tendencies, dispositions of mind which are simply rising through our karma, habit patterns. Some of us live in a world where we’re going to have a better chance to get lung cancer than another. Why?
Because we’re going to see smoking as being pleasurable, another won’t. This is simply to carry on the ultimate outcome of these various habit patterns that we’re operating within. So, someone, you know, for example, a smoker may not presently have a craving for a cigarette, but again the potential is there. You know, we’re talking about karma from the point of view of potential or latency. When the proper conditions aggregate, come together, such as seeing another person smoking, such as just having a nice meal, such as the nicotine level in the blood system dropping below a certain point, then the potential, the karma for smoking will be activated.
That is this reactive pattern. Before that person knows it, they’re reaching for a pack of cigarettes, taking out the cigarette, placing it in their mouth and setting in a fire. Out of all the infinite objects that they could have taken to mind at that moment, due to this conditioning factors of having just, you know, seeing a person smoking, nicotine level, or just having finished a meal. This particular potential has been ripened and they’re going to act out the results of that karma, of that potential. With there’s no choice involved.
There’s no awareness involved. Put your hand against the reach for a cigarette, take it out, place it in the mouth, and light it up with no awareness. It’s purely a reactive pattern arising through this potential being ripened through coming in contact with some condition. It’s purely mechanical, cause and effect. There’s an impulse arose due to an objective condition, an urge ripened, reaching out, action occurs.
Purely, it’s all unconscious. You know, sometimes these urges, these impulses are so short lived that we’re not even aware of them. We’re not aware that they’re occurring. We say they’re unconscious, they’re subconscious, but they’re occurring all the time, all these various urges, all these impulses. But sometimes, these slight impulses are like a nuclear chain reaction.
They ripen one insignificant karma, which ripens another one, which ripens another one, which eventually precipitates some sort of gross action of body, speech, or mind. Some train of thought arises, some desire, some craving. This is very much involved in the twelve links of dependent origination, so perhaps some of you are familiar with this. Sensation gives rise to feelings, rise to desire, gives rise to craving, gives rise to becoming. One way of looking at twelve links of dependent origination is not necessarily from the point of view of many lives, but in one moment we can go through twelve links.
And this is the way to calm them. Maybe the condition ripens, bringing about some results. This is the way a smoker is born, in a smoking realm. It doesn’t have to be another physical realm. We all live very much in our own little realms and this is the way our karma is creating our own worlds, shaping our own conception of reality.
So, we’re talking about karma and the fact of developing more skillful patterns. And we can talk about constructive karma, constructive actions, sometimes called virtuous actions. Those are types of actions which induce feelings of happiness. Those are tendencies of mind which predispose others to impute happiness on various sensations. For example, by meditating that all sentient beings have been our mother and that they have raised us in kindness again and again, we are creating the causes whereby someday we will have the disposition, the mental disposition, that whenever we see a person, any thinking of being, we will be happy.
That person will be a source of joy for us. We’re creating that disposition to conceive, to label, to project upon any sentient being, any person, in such a way that they’re going to bring us great happiness, great joy by creating this tendency of mind, creating the cause, meditating on all sentient beings, having been our mother, and having raised us in kindness again and again, So we can begin to skillfully mold our future reality by becoming aware of the law of cause and effect karma. When we talk about the subtle energy pattern, we’re talking about the mind, we talk about the subtle energy pattern, how the subtle energy pattern is being modified, shaped by our actions in body and speech. It’s said that the ripening effect of killing is having a short life. Now whether we kill ourselves or whether we kill others, there’s still the simple basic fact of the cutting off of life force.
The cutting off of life force modifies the energy pattern within ourselves in such a way that we ourselves will in the future have short lives. In other words, killing others weakens our own life force and therefore we have a shorter life. Is some mechanism whereby we can actually begin to see that these actions have a means, have a foundation, have support for being carried over into the future, that the actions are not lost and that they don’t happen and then they’re just completely dissipated as if they never happened. So, such a person who shortens life force, whether that life force is the life force of a being we label I or other, is modifying his own subtle energy pattern in such a way that in the future he will have many illnesses, medicines will be ineffectual, he will have a short life. In exactly the opposite way, saving the life of others has the result of long life.
So, when we talk about karma, traditionally we talk about it from the point of view of the four distinct modes of karma, of cause and effect of actions. Four distinct modes of actions. This is what we necessarily have to develop some conviction in. When we talk about the law of cause and effect, and when we talk about it in connection with an association with external phenomena, it seems quite simple, straightforward. We’re dependent upon it.
We have faith in it. I have a bowl and in this bowl I put some flour on, put some eggs and some baking powder and some chocolate powder. Chocolate chips? Sugar. Sugar.
I mix it well and I preheat the oven and I pour it into a greased baking pan. And as I’m reading the baking, I shut the door. Now, I don’t have to sit there and say, Come on, cake. Come on, cake. Rise, go.
I’ve created all the necessary causes and now I have the conditions, the necessary heat. And I have faith that the law of cause and effect is going to run its course, that when I open that oven twenty five minutes later, there’s going be a nice cake having arisen, and I don’t have to concern myself with it. Do this every day of our lives. We turn the key in the car. It’s a very long process of going from closing the switch to that engine turning over, We don’t even think about it.
We take it for granted. Likewise, when we begin to investigate, we can begin to see that there is a connection between our actions having an ethical consequence. Actions of both body, speech and mind, each having an ethical consequence in the same way that my putting this cake together as a cause is going to give rise to a particular effect. So these various effects arising from causes have four distinct modes whereby we can begin to investigate the nature or the relationship between the cause and the effect, actions and the results. So the first is the results of actions are infallible, are infallible.
So, this is very simply put that within nature there is a similarity of type between cause and effect. in dependence upon planting a wheat seed, a wheat plant grows. We don’t get oats, we don’t get rice, we get wheat. There’s a similarity between the type of seed that we planted and the type of plant that arises from that seed. We take this very much for granted.
Negative mental states, desire, hatred, miserliness, jealousy, and so forth, are themselves experienced as suffering from the point of view that these various afflictive emotions, that’s why they’re called afflictive emotions, disturb the natural peace of the mind. Therefore, we may not be aware of it, though we may not conceive of these afflictive emotions as states of suffering, they in fact are because we have not been able to become aware of what the natural peace of the mind is. Therefore, we have no gauge or standard by which to conceive of very subtle types of our various pleasures as being actually subtle types of suffering. But once we begin to get in touch more and more with a natural peace of mind, using that as a standard, then we begin to see that even what we conceived of as pleasure before is actually a more subtle type of suffering. So, even though some people may say I find a great deal of pleasure in that desire, some people promote desire.
It’s as if low levels of desire over short periods of time are quite pleasurable. Know, they look at magazines or whatever and they desire arises and they find it pleasurable, the stimulation. It’s difficult to see this as low levels of suffering, subtle levels of suffering. So the effect that a negative state of mind will have will be similar in type to itself. That is, a negative state of mind as experienced as suffering will have as a result a future state of suffering.
There’s a similarity in type between cause and effect. Likewise, positive mental states are experienced in themselves as happiness. In the Christian Bible it says, I’m not sure if it’s the Bible, but there’s a saying, A virtue is its own reward. Virtue is its own reward. A virtuous state of mind, a positive state of mind is pleasurable within itself.
It’s happiness in itself. States of generosity, love, faith are experiencing happiness in themselves. But they also give rise to a similar an effect which is similar in type to themselves, happiness. We can begin to see from this, you know, some people are predisposed to depression, for example. It seems that some people are predisposed to happiness.
For example, people who are angry, anger will give rise to further states of anger until one is in a position where the more anger that you have, the more objects you find that are suitable to be angry at. You find more things to be angry at the more you’re angry. It becomes a cycle of depression, of anger. If you can begin to induce happy states of mind, you’re going to find more things to be happy about. As a result, first you’re going to have a result of that positive state of mind, which in itself is happiness.
This will be associated with whatever you’re coming in contact with at the moment. You will find happiness in that object. This will induce further states of happiness. This is the way we can begin to conceive of what it must be like in hell. You know, a person becomes angry.
Fear, paranoia, He gets to the place where every object becomes an object of paranoia, every object that becomes is necessary and needs to be destroyed until the very fact that he himself needs to be destroyed. His whole environment becomes fearful and even himself. This would be the ultimate outcome of such a state of mind. So, the results of actions are infallible. It depends upon constructive actions only resultant happiness can arise, A result which is similar in type to itself, unhappiness cannot arise.
Suffering cannot arise from constructive actions, virtuous actions. This is the infallibility of karma. So, if you gain a conviction in this relationship then you’re going to naturally be led to engage in constructive actions because you naturally want happiness. And if you think that these constructive actions will have a result similar in type to themselves, then you will naturally engage in constructive actions. If you’re not sure, then maybe you will and maybe you won’t, upon how much trouble it is.
So, we have to develop some conviction and we avoid negative actions, destructive actions, because we realize they’re going to bring us suffering. The second distinct mode of karma is that actions are highly augmentative, highly increasing. So even insignificant destructive actions can give rise to greatly increased results, vastly increased results, both in the case of destructive actions, greatly increased suffering, case of constructive actions greatly increased happiness. So all the various energies, mind and energy, various latencies, they don’t exist in isolation. As in this example I was mentioning about smoking, The ripening of one karma, of one potential can act as a chain reaction to ripen others.
There’s a traditional example which is given of King Ashoka. This was in the time of a previous Buddha. There was a begging boy who saw the Buddha walking along and he developed great reverence, great respect for the Buddha. And he became very much overjoyed and seen him, and he was, oh, I wish I could offer him something. I wish I could give him some kind of gift, but I have nothing to give, because he was very poor.
And out of this sense of joy, out of this sense of longing to offer something, he picked up a handful of dust and he held it up and said, oh, wish this was a handful of gold dust. And with all his heart, he made this wish, this feeling, this had this motivation. And it’s said that as a result of having offered what amounted to the gold dust, a handful of dirt, He created the karma to be born as King Ashoka, the greatest king of India, of historical ancient India. So this is the traditional example of what is exemplifying the highly augmentative quality of actions that they are vastly increasing. But we can see this.
If we look in our everyday life, we make one choice. We choose between A, B, C, we choose B. Choosing b opens up other choices, e, f, g, which weren’t available if we had chosen a or c. So we make we make a small choice. We choose b.
B opens up D E F, we choose F. This opens up other small So throughout our long process of our life, we’re making small choices, which open up other small choices, which open up other small choice. If you look at this, some people think consider this as being that the hand of God, for example, is working in their lives. In fact, in my own case, having left Midwestern town in Ohio, I decided I went to California, San Francisco. So that opened up other avenues, possibilities to me, other ways of thinking which I couldn’t have known in Ohio, other ways of styles of living.
Unknown to me in Ohio back in the Midwest. Things are very conservative, very close. So, I went to I was in California. Opened up new possibilities. And, I decided, well, I’ll go to Europe.
I went to Europe. Let’s open up more possibilities. I went to Europe. Let’s open up the possibility of going overland to India. Going overland to India, I met the dharma.
This opened up by the possibility. I eventually became a monk. In Ohio, it was impossible for me to become a monk, more or less. I may have had the karma to become a monk, but I had to have all these other karmas as conditions previous to that in order to ripen this karma to become a monk. I had to make but I was involved in many subtle choices along the way, each one opening up some other new avenues, which led me along this karmic route to becoming a monk.
There was no way I could go from Ohio to here in Australia as a monk sitting up here now having gone through this long process, without this chain reaction taking place. Even very insignificant actions. You know, sometimes I I remember one action I read in the newspaper of a father who had killed this child in a moment of rage. Now, sounds it’s a very terrible thing to happen, isn’t it? But, you can put yourself in his place for a moment.
Child’s been sick. The baby’s been sick, and it’s been crying and crying and crying and crying crying and he’s having he was sick, he’s been having he’s laid off work, he’s having a fight with his wife, all these conditions mounting up, mounting up, mounting up, mounting up. And in one moment of rage, he kills this child. Just one moment. But that one moment, that single action changed his whole life.
His life would never be the same again. How many on the other hand, you know, we create make great efforts at some goal. We spend a great amount of energy, time, thinking, and nothing comes of it at all. It doesn’t change anything at all. Other times, just a moment’s action changes the entire course of our life.
So this is we can begin to conceive the highly increasing quality of actions, of karma. If we gain conviction in this, then we’re going to practice even insignificant constructive actions and avoid even insignificant or minor destructive action. All these, you know, there’s an example which is given. It’s as if we are in a crib, that we’re babies in a crib, in a playpen, We haven’t we had we did not decide to be in this playpen. And there are various objects, various toys in that in that playpen.
We did not decide what objects are going to be in this playpen, but we do have a choice in what object we decide to play with. So we’re in this situation. We’re in this particular life, this particular environment, but within this limiting, within this determinism, we have certain freedom, certain choices that we can’t make, and even the insignificant freedoms that we may have can eventually lead to great results. From moment to moment, if we choose a path of heart, if we choose the way of which is going to lead towards growth, towards constructive actions, towards happiness, then this can lead us there even though we may not be able to make tremendous strides in one single event, in one single choice. For these small choices open up new possibilities, avenues.
We can choose from the next moment to be happy rather than stay in our depressed cycles. We have this possibility, this choice. We cannot say I’m going to be happy all day tomorrow. I’m going to be depressed all day tomorrow, but I have some control over my next moment. I can shake myself out of these destructive patterns that I’m in.
For one moment, that’s going to open up and facilitate the next moment. It’s going to be easier. It’s going to open up. It’s going to lessen the strength of the destructive patterns and increase the force of our constructive patterns. I think this is a realistic way to approach practice of Dharma, that we have small choices.
We have to exercise those choices as much as we can in our daily life. No big events are going to occur in our life which are going to bring us shaking realizations. It’s not in accordance with probably the evolution of mind. The third distinct mode of karma. The results of uncommitted karma are not experienced.
So if you have not committed a particular karma, not engaged in a particular action, you’re not going to experience the results of that action. So there’s a similarity between cause and effect exponentially. For example, the result of generosity is prosperity. The result of loving others is that you are loved yourself. So I don’t think it’s too difficult.
We see this within our own experience. The connection, you know, caring about others. People care about you. Being kind to others, you return as kind as being affectionate. Others are predisposed to treat you in the same way.
So if we gain a conviction in this particular mode of actions, then whenever a desire for a particular effect arises, you know, wish I was like that. It must be nice to be like that. We want that particular quality or that particular object that we admire, characteristic, has a cause that didn’t happen out of nowhere. We can actually consciously create the cause for that to develop, realize, to gain that particular effect. You know, it can be material even.
If you want to be rich, give away everything that you have. It’s amazing that’s difficult to see properly. I think if we want it’s probably much easier to say that most of us want to be loved, we want to be cared for, valued, understood. And if we do this from our own side, initiate this from our own side, it’s going to be reciprocated so we can begin to create the causes for particular effects that we want to experience. If we don’t create those causes, we aren’t going to experience those desired effects that we want.
So the fourth distinct mode of karma. Actions committed are not wasted. Actions committed are not wasted. Actions aren’t wasted. They don’t go away by themselves.
They don’t get lost in the shuffle from taking from one life to another, from moving the office from the back to this front room. We don’t somehow the karma doesn’t slip through slip under the door or under the rug or something. However long a time has passed between the commission of an action, upon the aggregation of the proper conditions meeting the proper circumstances, that karma will ripen. It will give a result. So when it meets a particular condition that karma is going to be activated and the ensuing result will occur.
I think there was there’s found some grains of wheat in the Egyptian pyramid which were probably five thousand years old and they took these five thousand year old grains of wheat and they put them in earth and watered them and they sprouted. These grains were dormant for five thousand years, but they did not lose their potential. When they met the correct conditions, the effect arose, the wheat plant. Likewise, we are creating patterns, potentials, latencies within our mind and subtle energy which when they meet particular conditions which act as a cooperative cause, then they’re going to ripen. They’re going to create some kind of ethical effect, some result that’s going to arise.
But these various latencies can be destroyed. If we see a beautiful object, know, at this very moment, perhaps, you you don’t have any desire in your mind. But if you when you come into contact with a beautiful object, desire arises. So we can infer from this that even though presently there’s no desire in your mind, no manifest desire in your mind, that there is a potential, there is some latency of desire in your mind because when you meet a specific object, a particular mental state arises. Therefore, there must have been this potential for this mental state even when this object wasn’t there.
The latency was there. It met an object. It it ripened, and that particular mental state arose, in this case desire. So there must have been a potential for that desire even when the objects weren’t there. So when we have all these various latencies in our mind, these latencies can be destroyed.
For example, all our constructive latencies, the latencies, potentials which have been implanted by constructive actions can be destroyed by anger. Likewise, our destructive actions, have been implanted in our mind, can be destroyed through the power of regret. You know, simply regretting these various actions to oneself, seeing how unskillful they were and that they will have as a result some negative consequence. So if we gain a conviction in this mode of karma, Then when aversion for a particular type of suffering arises, a particular negative state, we’re going to avoid the destructive action which is its cause. And you’ll practice the means of purifying the various destructive actions which you’ve already created.
So, have a chance to change in death. Know, considering that we have a chance to change, considering the fact of death brings significance to to the fact of karma. Because it’s only now that we have a chance that we have the time and the conditions, the leisure, the fortune to create the causes of happiness. We can’t create them at any other time except now. So, the real significance of karma, if we apply it, is that we are responsible, that we are not victims, that we have a choice in what type of life we want to live our happiness.
What we do now what what we are now is what we have done. What we do now is what we will become. It’s in our hands. Our life is in our hands. It’s our responsibility.
We have this choice which we are making every day of our lives, every moment of life, it’s conscious or unconscious. It’s necessary to bring it to a conscious level and consistently choose those types of actions which are going to promote the goals that you are intent upon gaining. Real happiness, hopefully. It’s quite much later than I anticipated. Usually, we meditate on loving kindness, so we can can take a vote.
If everybody is has time, then we’ll go ahead and meditate on loving kindness. If some of you have to leave for various reasons, then you’re quite welcome to leave. So we consider our dissatisfactions, our problems, and the fact that we want to be happy. No matter what you’ve done in the past, no matter what mistakes, You can regret them. You can simply determine not to repeat them again in the future.
You can begin again. We have this choice open to us to begin again. And no matter what you may conceive of yourself, no matter what identity you may have, you can change, you can be whatever you want to be. This is your choice. For the present, we have to accept ourselves, become friends with ourselves, be gentle with ourselves, quit torturing ourselves, and wish ourselves well, Have compassion for ourselves.
May I be happy. May I grow. May I be well. So just wish yourself happiness. Be kind to yourself.
Now think of someone that you like, that you love. Imagine that person in front of you. And recall all the happiness that this person has brought to you. All the good time. And simply radiate out towards this person the positive feelings which naturally arise, feelings of closeness, caring, wishing happiness, kindness.
Now think of someone you neither like nor dislike, a stranger, someone you feel indifferent towards. Imagine that person in front of you. We have to try to go beyond the superficial appearances that we usually dwell upon. Appearances of purity or ugliness, age, sex, color. Appearances of education, economic status, personality, intelligence.
Go deep down into that person and try to see the essence of that person. There’s someone there who wants happiness and doesn’t want to suffer exactly like yourself. No difference. And just as we wish our own self happiness, we have to begin to wish this person deep down happiness because how we feel about them, how we relate to them is very much a reflection about how we feel about ourselves deep down, how we care about ourselves. Radiate our positive feelings to this person.
Now think of someone who disturbs your mind, that you have problems with, an enemy. Imagine that person in front of you. This person wants happiness and doesn’t want to suffer just like yourself. Perhaps in trying to find their happiness, their method of finding that happiness has come in conflict with your method of finding happiness. It’s just the conflict of interest.
You’ve hurt others either intentionally or unintentionally in the past to find the happiness that you were trying to look for, that you were trying to get, and now this person’s done the same to you. And just as we have to begin to forgive ourselves for our mistakes, we have to begin to forgive this person. So just for the moment, set aside your anger, your hurt, your grudge, and try to see someone exactly like yourself, alone and lost, and trying the best they can to find some happiness in their life, just like yourself, and wish them happiness. Imagine all four together, yourself and these three others. All equally want happiness, all equally don’t want to suffer.
There’s no difference whatsoever. Usually, we dwell upon the superficial appearance, and therefore, we feel biased. We try to see, essentially, they’re all exactly the same without any prejudice, without any bias, radiate out equally feelings of wishing well, wishing happiness to all four. And all the people in this room, all the people who are searching, taking responsibility for their lives, for their happiness, trying to find a real method to find real happiness, May you be happy. May you grow and find everything that you’re looking for.
Never know suffering. It’s radiating out positive feelings to everyone in the room. And everyone on the block, people watching television, eating supper, cooking, getting ready for bed. Whatever they’re doing, whatever they’re saying, they’re doing it and saying that in order to find happiness and eliminate their suffering. To radiate out positive feelings touching everyone on the back, wishing them the happiness.
Radiating out further, extending out further to all of Adelaide, people in their cars and buses, walking home from shops, coming home from the offices, people in their homes. Extending out further, further, all of South Australia, all the people, animals, insects. Perth, Darwin, Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, over the entire country. Further, radiating out still further, New Zealand. The entire southern hemisphere.
Taking the whole world into your heart, carrying all the people, black, white, red, yellow, all the animals, all the insects, everything that lives, touching them. Extending out further. Further. To finally, without any boundaries, without any center, pervading all of space, I wish May all things be happy. May all things be happy.
So I dedicate the positive energy that we’ve created, the positive action. By dedicating, let’s say that constructive action that we’ve created cannot be destroyed by anger and that we can what we dedicated towards will serve as the ripening condition. Therefore, we dedicate towards the happiness of all sentient beings, towards Buddhahood, then the various positive energies that we create will not be lost along the way, but will act as a direct cause for attainment of Buddhahood with happiness of all sentient beings, nor will they be lost through anger or hatred. Through his merits, may I soon attain the enlightened state of Guru Buddha, and 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, increase forevermore. Thank you for your patience. Sorry to keep you so late.