Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Opening the 129-minute session with a frank conversation about discouragement on the spiritual path, Ven Jampa Gendun quotes Shakespeare’s Macbeth — “Therein the patient must minister to himself” — to argue that practitioners are both the patient and the doctor of their own minds. He connects this to the Buddhist teaching on going for refuge, explaining anxiety and faith as its two driving motivations, before leading the group through a body-relaxation and loving-kindness meditation. The bulk of the session continues the course’s running analysis of the ten negative paths of karma: stealing, sexual misconduct, and lying are each dissected through the traditional four-branch framework of basis, thought, actual action, and culmination, with lively Q&A covering edge cases such as compassion-motivated theft and the cultural relativity of sexual ethics.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 07 3PA 2007 04 02.mp3
UUID: db76844a-6b2b-459c-b62c-3027b7b96234
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Three Principle Aspects of the Path 2006-2007 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 2007-04-02
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 129.0 minutes
Words: ~11,478
How is everybody? Good, good, good. It’s getting cold. We’ve got the air conditioner on. What do people think?
I was talking to someone tonight, and they were sometimes we have tremendous expectations, don’t we, of ourselves? We put a lot of pressure on ourselves. We expect big changes. And we become very discouraged, and quite often we want to give up. I think sometimes we overlook the subtle changes that are in fact taking place.
We’re looking for dramatic changes, and maybe that’s a bit unrealistic. I’m curious. I mean, many of you are old students. Some of you are newer students. You know, what what do you think about that and how you feel about that?
Any anybody wanna I don’t think it’s subtle changes. Subtle changes. Yeah? You notice something. Reassurance, some encouragement.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You shouldn’t do a lot of shitting on yourself. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s not so good, isn’t it?
Yeah, it’s a difficult one. We’re not we’re not as I I always like to come back to this one saying, we’re not as wonderful as we imagine or bad as we think. We’re in there somewhere, and we have to be, I think, be a little more humble about, at the same time, keep pressing the envelope. Keep trying. But, yeah, I was this person I was talking to, was discouraged.
Sometimes you just say, what’s the use? I think I’ll go shopping. The lessons that are learned aren’t always pleasant. Having to face a lot of the shadow and things that we would rather not admit about ourselves. We want it all bright and shiny, warm and fuzzy.
But it’s not it doesn’t seem as if the path is that way. There’s a lot of disillusionment along the way. A lot of coming, you know, of coming becoming honest with ourselves and finding ourselves, you know, what learning about ourselves. I guess it’s all a learning process, isn’t it? I was talking about the motivation.
It’s something I guess it’s a never ending process, isn’t it? We always have to keep re motivating ourselves, keep picking ourselves up. We fall down, we fall in these holes continually, and it becomes a habit. But maybe we climb out of these holes a little faster than we did before, and maybe we can begin to even avoid some of these holes, begin to learn about ourselves. There’s a lot of, I think, unfounded unfounded hope and a lot of wishful thinking.
And there there are two basic in the traditional presentation of going for refuge, and I tried to get across the fact that what we mean by refuge, and it’s not something that is particularly Eastern or Buddhist. It’s you know, we we’ve all been going for refuge in some way or another our entire lives, what it is that we or who it is or some line of how we can operate in this world to find the happiness that we want and rid ourselves of our problems. And there’s two fundamental motivations, the driving impulse behind that in terms of an anxiety and faith. Anxiety and faith. Generally they term this fear, but I like the word anxiety.
Beginning to look at these reoccurring patterns that keep coming back again and again over the course of our life, the same recycled dissatisfactions and disappointments and frustrations. This play that we’re enacting in some way, we are the main character and the various actors change and the scenery changes and the props change, but the plot remains very much the same. So in a circular motion of our thinking and behaving, it just keeps coming back all the same. It’s this time, then it’s that time. Oh my god, not this time again.
And you begin to develop some kind of undercurrent of anxiety. And you become a bit weary of going through the same difficulties again and again and again, just in different guise, a different form or different appearance. But basically, he realizes it’s the same situation. But we have great hope, don’t we? By hope, mean unfounded hope.
Unfounded hope is, in a way, an obstacle. When the situation becomes hopeless, you’ll find a way to get better. You actually become sincere about changing. I think more than that, to a large extent, like to put some cosmetic changes, you know, a little bit of makeup to make ourselves look a little better, feel a little better. Basically, I think it’s quite difficult to really want to change.
Was thinking about this today, and I thinking, you know, I don’t know so much about the twelve step program that they have, for example, in Alcoholics Anonymous, but I know at some point, you know, you have to the bottom has to almost drop out before you really are ready to bring about those kinds of changes. Hopefully, hopefully, you know, we can use our intelligence. We don’t have to go through the experience of having the bottom dropped out. We can develop some kind of wisdom around what is actually happening. We can learn from our experiences over the course of our life.
Our experiences, we keep missing the lesson or we keep dismissing the lesson, that reality keeps bringing us in one way or another, like water off a duck’s back. Some of us are pretty hard headed, I think, in that way. I believe that sometimes you just have to decide. Decide to stop feeling bad about yourself. Decide to stop wanting what you do not and apparently cannot have.
You must decide to stop believing that your real life, the life you were supposed to have as opposed to the one that you do have, this one in which you have been feeling unfulfilled, unappreciated, in love is elsewhere. Having come to this realization, I like to think that I have accepted it gracefully. Neither searching nor waiting brought me the romantic ending I had in mind. I see now that neither regret nor anticipation served me well. Now I tell myself what I am is living my life and I had best get on with it.
Know, this clinging to our hopes that something’s going to come along. I guess that’s what our society, our culture teaches us, isn’t it? If you set up the right circumstance. I remember being brought up with that idea. Maybe this is before your time.
This is back in the early ’50s when there was a great expectation about science, that science was going to solve all of our problems. Electricity, it was going to solve all our problems. It was like if you did the right thing, you went to the right university, you found the right wife, you got the right job, you know, like father knows best, you know, this kind of I don’t know if you’re familiar with that. It was like an idyllic situation. You had two and a half kids and one and a half dogs and things like this, one and one and three quarters cars.
It was kind of an idea. And I think everybody kind of held out hope that this was a poss this was a possibility. They if they only did the right thing, if they followed the the the promise, that was held out. But there was a lot of disillusionment. A lot of people spent their life doing the right thing, and they were cheated in the end.
They didn’t get what they were supposed to. But I think we still hold out some kind of hope that that right person or that right cause or that therapy or the right guru or the right teaching is going to come along and change ourselves in one way or another. That factor X that’s going to turn our life around. And there’s never this basic orientation, is fundamental to Buddhism, that we have to change our minds. Above and over, you know, over and above all, everything else that we might change, it is our minds.
And that’s hard. It’s not an easy task. That may be why we keep avoiding it in one way or another. Anyway, I have great admiration for all of you and tremendous respect that the people who stay with it, who stay at it, especially as a layperson, especially in the you know, with family, commitments, job, so forth. It’s almost like swimming upstream, isn’t it?
There’s a lot of the currents moving in a different direction, to a large extent, in our society. I guess this is why sangha is so important, coming together from time to time, to inspire yourself, to give yourself some encouragement, and give yourself some tools to work with meeting the difficulties and working with your mind. Macbeth, the Shakespeare’s Macbeth. I like this verse, this quote, a stanza from Macbeth. Macbeth asked the doctor, Canst thou minister to a mind diseased, raze out the written troubles of the brain, pluck for the memory a rooted sorrow, and with some sweet oblivious antidote cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff which weighs upon the heart.
And the doctor answers Macbeth, Therein the patient must minister to himself. You know, it’s quite difficult to really feel that we are not only the patient, but we’re also the doctor. That within our mind lies not only the disease and the dysfunctions, but also the cure. That we have the potential to change for the better, to make ourselves better. I guess it’s in in a way, it’s kind of I remember once the the Dalai Lama, it was in Bodh Gaya.
And there there was was a teacher by the name of Christopher Titmus had given a Vipassana course in the Theravadan tradition. And the Dalai Lama was asked if he would just talk to these people at the end of the course. And he came and, you know, all these groupies came along with him to listen to his talk. And he at one point in his talk, you know, he he explained to he said how much he admired what the people were doing and their dedication, their discipline. And then he at one point in his talk, he just he said, it’s it’s all it’s your responsibility.
I think whether the change is made or not is is up to you. You know, your teacher can be of tremendous help, can be of catalyst, can be a support and along with your Sangha, the spiritual community. But in a way, it’s very much up to one’s own determination, you know, one’s own intelligence and beginning to have some kind of insight. And if things are ever to get better, it’s I myself who are going to have to make them better. I can’t really in a way, I can’t really depend upon anybody else.
I can there are certain realistic ways we can. We have our teachers, and we have the spiritual community, and we have the Dharma. But they they are our our real supports. But it is ourselves who are the doctors, and we have to begin to understand the disease and begin to cure ourselves. I don’t know.
One’s alien body with its abscess or humor or tummo or broken bone into the hands of the surgeon. And its most elementary information and skill will trans anything the patient need to know. The patient must cooperate one green capsule three times a day, keep the leg elevated, force fluids, but need not understand how or why. The responsibility lies with the surgeon. The problem is his, and his the accountability for failure and the credit for success.
Patient and surgeon do not learn from the same text. Many people go to a psychiatrist as if to a surgeon and many psychiatrists regard them as psychic surgeons. When such a patient comes to a therapist, a relationship of considerable length may result but little else. For the job can be done, if at all, only by the patient. To assign this task to anyone else, however insightful or charismatic, is to disavow the source of change.
In the process of personality change, the role of the psychiatrist is catalytic. As a cause, he is sometimes necessary, never sufficient. The responsibility of the patient does not end with free associating with being on time, paying his bills, or any of the other elements of cooperation. He is accountable only to himself, and his accountability extends all the way to change, which is the change which is desired, the achieving of it, or the giving up on it. So, you know, we’re very fortunate, aren’t we?
I think we have to you know, part of the path is counting your blessings and, you know, feel empowering oneself, that we have all the necessary conditions that we need. We have, you know, really some wonderful teachers. We have the teachings, and we have the support of a spiritual community and and the physical facilities too. So it’s it’s, I guess, counting our blessings and and who we are and the wisdom that we’ve developed over the course of our life and may and and learning from our various experiences and trying in some realistic way with some kind of a gentle discipline to and envisioning the type of person that you want to become and consistently day by day in some kind of humble manner without pushing, without a lot of shoulds, without just begin to put these foundations between beneath those that dreamed up person that you want to be. And maybe over time, we begin, as with as you said, we begin to see some subtle changes.
We’re actually know? Yeah. I think that can we become our own source of inspiration, our own encouragement because we do see some changes, and this validates what we’re doing. And I don’t know. That all of this thought this thinking just came when I I was talking to this particular person this evening, just before I came here.
And just trying to, I guess, encourage her and help her to come back to some kind of practical reality and not thinking in terms of creating pressures within oneself to be somebody other than you are or having these shoulds that we place upon ourself. But, you know, we’re trying to see the reality of our situation and appreciate the reality of the situation and work within the limitations that we all have in some way or another. But being and taking encouragement from the small changes that we make and having some greater vision. You know? It’s not going to it’s not going to happen this year or maybe next year, but, you know, it’s happening nonetheless.
Nonetheless. And just kind of being happy by living in the present and rejoicing in what it is that you are doing. So, you know, in this process, we simply I guess we just have to keep picking ourselves back up again and again and again, you know, this reorientation. This is why we go through this this readjustment of our motivation. We we recite this formula of going for refuge.
It’s a way of getting ourselves back on track, recommitting ourselves, encouraging ourselves. Ourselves, encouraging ourselves, reenergizing ourselves, re taking stock and getting getting our priorities straight Again and again and again and again. And the inner focus the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha. It’s it’s really wonderful to have something to work toward. You know, we have like most of modern day therapy, it’s it’s only a matter of pathology.
They don’t have it’s only well, they have this complaint, this symptom. Let’s get rid of that symptom. But they don’t have a measure of health, only normality. But we have a we have an idea of what it looks like to be a healthy person. And then beyond pathology, beyond what’s wrong, what what can be right, how we can be successful in the living of our life and fulfill our potential as human beings.
So, you know, we call that a Buddha. And when we we define it in terms of developing wisdom, you know, seeing the way things are, some clarity of mind beyond delusion, beyond confusion, beyond our this set of fictions that we’re continually projecting upon the world around us and our relationships and other people and so forth, trying to see the truth of things. And we have some means, the techniques, the trainings. We’re really fortunate. Really, really.
We’re really blessed. We have the dharma, some real tools to help us to work through our problems and become a successful person. And we have this community who we can depend upon in some ways, in various ways, Like, the social situation that we that we can come to and find new inspiration and find new guidance. We can rejuvenate ourselves and and go back out in the world and try to carry some of that over into our everyday life. And and, you we’re continuing and we’re very blessed to be working with the Mahāyāna, the universal vehicle.
We have people like Lama Zopa, his old and our teachers who keep reminding us where true happiness in fact, lies. It doesn’t lie within the isolated realizations of our individual worlds, but it lies within finding some way of being of connecting with the world of others and being there for others. That real happiness, real the real path to be an accessible human being lies into to the proportion that we are able to develop love and compassion for others. A real sense of caring, genuine, and wanting to be a benefit. And we were continually being reminded of that.
And that’s not a it’s not a romantic notion. It’s not a and then his holiness, the Dalai Lama doesn’t simply pay lip service to that. That’s the way he lives his life. And our other teachers, we have these models. So we try to look to these models and try to continually raise the level of our motivation, you know, know, go beyond our own egotistical ends, our own narrow vision of what a good life can be, and try to open up to to the possibilities of actually developing love and real compassion and developing ourselves so we can be just that more much more benefit for others.
So that’s a lot, and we’re very fortunate to have that opportunity to be able to do that. I go for refuge until I’m awakened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Through my practice of generosity and the other perfections, may I become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I am awakened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha through my practice of generosity and the other perfections. May I become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings.
I go for refuge until I am awakened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha through my practice of generosity and the other perfections. May I become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings. May all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. May all sentient beings be inseparable from the joy that is without sorrow.
May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free from attachment with some and aversion toward others. Reverently, I prostrate with my body, speech, and mind. I present clouds of every type of offering, those actually arranged and imagined. I disclose all my negative actions accumulated during beginningless time and rejoice in all the virtues as superiors and ordinary beings. Please remain at the end of cyclic existence and turn the wheel of Dharma for migrating beings.
I dedicate all virtue, my own and that of others, to the great awakening. So we’re going to meditate. So if you’d like to take a firm, comfortable posture. We’ll meditate first working through the body, relaxing the body, then meditating on mindfulness of the breath. And then we’ll meditate on loving kindness.
I’ll lead you through that practice. So we begin by relaxing the body, starting at the crown of the head, the scalp, the forehead, feeling the wrinkles in your brow beginning to smooth out. The pressure in and around your eyes diminishing. The muscles of the face softening, relaxing. Your jaws relax.
And the muscles at the back of the neck, gently turning your head to the side a few times and stretching, loosening. Relaxing the muscles of the throat. In the upper back, feeling the burden, the heaviness that we carry on our back beginning to move down through your body into the ground. Your shoulders, perhaps rotating your shoulders a few times and letting them drop comfortably to the sides. Your hands are soft, relaxed.
Lower arms. Upper arms. Arms. It just is at ease. Relaxing the heart the lungs, the middle of the back, the stomach, Releasing the tension that we hold in our stomach muscles, allowing your belly to go soft.
Relaxing throughout the intestines. And holding your trunk erect, relaxing your lower back muscles. Relaxing throughout the pelvic area. The buttocks. The upper legs.
Lower legs. Your feet are soft. Bring your awareness to your body in general, noticing any tightnesses, any tensions within the body. And focusing on those areas and consciously relaxing, softening, feeling the tension diminish, tightness loosen. Body becoming comfortable at ease, A sense of physical well-being pervading your body.
It feels good to be in your body. And then bring your mind to the breath. Just easy gentle and not flow the natural breath. If it’s helpful use the techniques of counting and noting the breaths. Now we’re going to meditate on loving kindness and we’re going to begin with ourselves.
So imagining yourself in front of yourself, if you can’t see yourself, it doesn’t matter. Just feel that all the various feelings of caring and love and so forth that we’re going to develop are being directed towards yourself. So whatever you may have done in the past, whatever mistakes, you can simply develop a healthy sense of regret. You can you can begin again. And however you may conceive of yourself, whatever it is that you want to become, you can be that.
But just for this present moment, we wanna set aside the past and the future and simply become friends with ourselves, our present selves as we are now. So just develop some kind, caring feelings and direct them towards yourself, wishing yourself well. May I be happy. May I be well. May I grow.
May all the good things of life come to me. Be kind to yourself. Wish yourself well. Now think of someone that you like, that you love. Imagine that person feel that that person is in front of you.
And remember all the various kindnesses that this person has shown you, the good times that you share together. And begin to direct out, to radiate out toward this person the kind caring feelings which naturally arise when you think of this person in this way. The feelings of wishing them happiness, May you be happy. May all the good things in life be yours. May you be well.
Wish them happiness. Wish them well. Now think of someone that you neither like nor dislike, a stranger. You just feel indifferent toward them. Just feel that that person is there in front of you.
You don’t know this person’s story, and therefore, they don’t matter to you. But in fact, they’re very much like yourself. They want to be happy. They don’t want to suffer. No different from yourself.
So simply out of the the goodness, the generosity of your own heart, just wish well to a fellow human being, a fellow human being just like yourself. Simply wish them well just as you do yourself. Now think of someone that you don’t like, someone you have problems with. Imagine that person in front of you feel that they’re there. So this person wants to be happy and doesn’t want to suffer just like yourself, and perhaps their method of finding their happiness, solving their problems has come in conflict with your methods, finding your own happiness, solving your own problems.
It’s just the conflict of self interest. And just as you have to begin to forgive yourself for the mistake that you’ve made in the past. Maybe it’s time to begin to forgive them for the mistakes that they’ve made. Forgiveness is the price that we pay for freedom, for practicing the Dharma, for learning how to love. So simply out of the goodness of your heart as best you can.
Just for this present moment, set aside your hurt, your grudge, and wish another fellow human being well. Wish them happiness. And all the people in this room, people who take trying to take responsibility for their lives, to bring about change for the better in their lives, trying to learn and grow. And I wish everyone in the room that they find whatever it is they’re looking for, whatever would make them happy, wish that they had it. Love, peace, realization.
Direct, radiate out the wish of happiness and that well-being to everyone in the room. Extending this wish out further and further to all of Burnside, people in their cars and buses on the streets, in their homes, watching television, cooking, eating, getting ready for bed. Wish that they’d be happy that they not suffer. Extending this wish out further and further to all of Adelaide, people on the streets, in offices, in shops, factories, in their homes. Further and further to Melbourne and Hobart, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Alice Springs, Darwin, Perth, the entire country.
And eastward to New Zealand, northward, East Timor, Malaysia, Southeast Asia, all of Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, North America. The feeling that of taking the entire world into your the people’s black, white, red, yellow, all the animals, all the insects, everything that lives on the earth is touched by your wish that they’d be happy, that they not suffer. And directing his wish in all the directions of space. Further and further without any feelings of limitations or limits. Until finally, without any boundaries, without any center, pervading all of infinite space, may all beings be happy.
May they be happy. May there be only peace. And then bring your mind back to the breath. And then get in touch with your body, the feelings and sensations within your body. In a slow and easy, relaxed manner, become aware of what your surroundings, but just take your time.
There’s no hurry. So we’ve been we’ve been we’re discussing karma, and we went through the four general principles of karma. And now we’re beginning our discussion of some particular areas of karma. And we said that, you know, there there are an infinite number of thoughts that people have and out of these thoughts arise an infinite number of actions. But the Buddha categorized our various actions into those which occur most easily for ourselves and which have a significant outcome, the heaviest type of results.
And this categorization was in terms of the ten paths of karma. And we said that there are the ten positive paths of karma are a means of preventing and acting as antidotes to enacting the ten negative paths of karma. So in order, if we’re going to help ourselves by, you know, trying to adopt the ten positive paths of karma, we have to know what the ten negative paths of karma are. In order to that an action be included amongst the ten positive paths of karma. We have to know what those negative actions are.
We have to know what their consequences are. And then we have to, based upon that knowledge, we have to use our our discrimination. And begin to resist and change this the attitudes that we have to actually abandon those ten negative actions. So we’re working through the ten negative paths of karma. We’re analyzing them in terms of heaviest form.
And the heaviest form of each of these actions is said to occur within our method of analysis, is in terms of a complete path of karma. And we said that complete path of karma has these various criteria that we’re going to use as a basis for analysis. In terms of there’s some basis, there’s a thought, there’s the actual action itself, and then a culmination. With regard to the thought, we said that there were three components which make up the thought. There was the recognition, there was the, motivation, and the particular afflictive emotion.
So that’s the criteria that we use using in order to understand what a complete path of karma for each of these ten negative paths of karma is. And last week, we went through the first of the ten negative paths of karma, that of killing. So we’re going to continue our discussion of these ten negative paths of karma. And we’re going to discuss them in terms of the complete path of karma using this criteria of these, these four branches. So the second of the ten negative paths of karma is stealing.
So this would many of you still have the handout that we have. And these are defined in your handout intentionally and unmistakably making another’s wealth, or we can just say property, can’t we? One’s own by means of superior strength and authority or secretly by stealth. And we’re going to talk about what those mean. So, we’re going to analyze the negative action of stealing in terms of these four branches.
The first branch is that of basis. So the the basis of stealing, what is the object is something that is owned by another, something that another considers as mine, as belonging to them. If it’s not considered as if there’s no one who considers it as their possession, as mine, then it’s not stealing to make use of that object without, you know, to take that object without permission. So we’re talking about taking something in which someone else considers as theirs. That’s the basis, that kind of object.
So then the second branch is the branch of thought. And with regard to that, there has to be recognition. If you So we’re always talking about a complete path of action. That is to say, when all of these criteria are complete, then the action is of its heaviest form. If in in terms of the recognition, if you were to mistake the object that you’re stealing, you’re meant to take one thing and you took another, then this branch, this factor, this component of recognition would be missing.
The action would not be in its full form. It would not be a complete path of action. It’s still negative. It’s still a form of stealing, but it’s not the complete, the heaviest form of of the action of stealing. So if you miss if you mistake the object that you’re stealing, it’s not what you intended to steal.
You took the wrong box, and it turned about to be turned out to be empty, or it turned out to be full. Anyway, some mistake in your recognition. The second element of the thought was motivation. So here it’s the the intention or simply the, yeah, to do the wish or desire to take something without permission that belongs to another. So understanding that it belongs to another, that someone considers it as theirs as and having the wish or the intention to take it without permission.
And then finally, the afflictive emotion. And all the all the afflictive emotion with all of these ten negative paths of action can be either of the three poisons, you know, attachment, hatred, or ignorance. We can steal out of attachment. We can steal out of hatred. We can steal out of ignorance or a combination.
In terms of the actual action itself. Okay, we can talk about the agent of the action, who it is that’s doing the stealing. With regard to stealing, it doesn’t matter whether you yourself steal the object directly, or you have someone do it for you. It would still be a complete path to action even if you were to talk someone into stealing something for you, hire them to steal it for you, you force them to steal it for you. It’s not necessarily done have to be done by yourself.
So the agent can be either oneself or another. In terms of the nature of the stealing, it doesn’t matter whether the stealing is done by directly, by, you know, hitting somebody over the head, or whether it’s indirectly or by stealth. That means sneak, no one, the person doesn’t know that you’re stealing. Like a burglar sneaks into somebody’s house and steals something. So the stealing can be either done forcefully dare I say, directly or indirectly, simply by stealth, surreptitiously.
In either case, that would be complete. There’s another form of stealing, which isn’t, which we sometimes don’t think of stealing, but in fact it would be considered stealing. If you borrow something and you don’t intend to return it, that would be this actual action of stealing. Also stealing to benefit somebody else is stealing. This actual action would be complete.
You know, like Robin Hood, you know, steal from the rich to give to the poor, and that’s stealing. It’s the actual action of of stealing would be complete. And then the fourth branch is cOmination. What brings it to a conclusion? So when when when you actually come to the thought, now it’s mine.
That is the culmination. The moment that you think now that object is mine, the action is complete. Okay. Okay. Now we come to a tough one.
I don’t know what to say about this, but anyway, we’ll talk about it. Sexual misconduct. Sexual misconduct is to intentionally intentionally and unmistakenly indulge inappropriate sexual relations. Okay. Okay.
What is the basis of inappropriate sexual relations? The basis. There are four basis. Four basis. One is inappropriate partner.
Okay, what are some of the examples of inappropriate partners? That would if one were in a committed relationship, oneself, and you went outside, that that partner would be inappropriate partner. If that partner if that other person were in a committed relationship in a partnership, even if you weren’t, that would be an inappropriate partner. Okay. So someone who is in a committed relationship, oneself or the other.
A close relative. I’m not sure, maybe third removed or something like that. Anyway, that would be inappropriate base. Someone who is living has a vow of celibacy. That would be an inappropriate base.
There is an, you know, okay, so this is when we come into a difficult traditionally presented. And then maybe we can talk about it, maybe. But I wouldn’t want it’s it’s important that you know the traditional presentation. Would be from the traditional presentation, and most of these are the way it’s presented in the text, in terms of men. But the same would apply to a woman.
They just use the term, if a man does this, if a man does that. The same would apply to if a woman did this, if a woman did that. If a man has sex with a man, that man is an inappropriate basis. If a woman has sex with a woman, that woman is an inappropriate basis. Now I realize this isn’t in keeping with a lot of our modern day thinking, but I’m giving I’m presenting the traditional presentation.
Having said that, I think I know there is one teacher by Lama Thubten Zopa is the abbot of the Kopan Monastery in Nepal, which is like the the basis where where the FPMT, the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahāyāna Tradition, is where it grew out of that. And he has said he thinks that a lot of this is dependent upon the culture at the time. Maybe, you know, I mean, so I can only give that reference that, you know, that according to different cultures, according to different times, what constitutes sexual inappropriate base, and therefore what constitutes sexual misconduct would be would change. Okay. So maybe there is a loophole here.
I don’t know. I don’t I can’t say. I’m just giving the information that that I’ve gathered. I know this holiness is having to to having to rethink this around what what constitutes sexual misconduct. I will say this.
I think we have to say this. Any, any, yeah, here we’re talking about a particular, the ten categories of types of actions which easily occur and are heavy forms of negativity. But what we can say is any action that is motivated by a negative emotion, is an afflictive emotion. Any action which is motivated by an afflictive emotion, attachment, hatred, or ignorance is negative. Any action.
And, you know, the reason I I think of this is because I remember once that the past, junior tutor to his holiness, the Dalai Lama said, he was trying to emphasize this point. And I didn’t want to get too heavy with this, but the very fact of if you and he used the example. If you were to look in a mirror for no purpose other than see yourself, you’re probably looking in the mirror out of attachment. Right? That is a negative action.
I mean, it might be such a mind it might be terribly mindy negative action in that. It it would have the slightest negative result. I’m I’m not so I’m not talking about how heavy it is, but it is a negative action. So we have to say to that that no matter what the negative what no matter what the action, if it’s if it is motivated by the afflictions, it is negative. So whether the whether the sexual relationship is between a a man and a woman, if it’s motivated by by attachment, desire, so forth, it’s negative.
Whether it’s between a man and a man, if it’s motivated by attachment, it’s negative. And so we’re talking about here the heaviest forms of these. So I think we have to keep this thing some kind of perspective. Maybe that’s a I don’t know if that’s a useful perspective or not. Because we aren’t finished with some of these difficulties around sexual misconduct.
Because here we talked about inappropriate partners, different individual, you know, the basis on which it would be inappropriate to have. You would be getting some kind of negativity with regard to that. Someone who’s living under celibacy, someone who’s in a committed relationship. But there’s also the other types of the other three objects. And the other three objects, second one is inappropriate parts of the body.
Now this is a traditional representation. The the the the appropriate part of the body, it we put this negatively. Any other way of sexual relationship other than vaginal sex is inappropriate part of the body. Okay, I’m just giving you the traditional presentation that other people might want to practice other types of means of sexual relation. That’s up to you.
You know, that maybe the negativity is so slight. I mean, it it is probably it’s going to be motivated by attachment. That’s all I’m saying. Therefore, there is going to be negativity. You know, we’re not saying somehow it’s we’re not making a moral judgment.
Again, I guess we have reemphasize that. And then it’s not as if it’s it’s not as if it’s dirty or it’s simply an expression of attachment. And it’s the nature of this situation that those actions which are motivated by these afflictive emotions bring about a a some type of dissatisfactory result, consequence. There’s you know, it’s not that’s all we can say about it. That’s our only standard.
We’re not saying it’s wrong or it’s dirty or we’re just saying it’s quick that these types of actions are going to bring about something undesirable result. Okay. Third type of basis is inappropriate place. So we have inappropriate partner, inappropriate part of the body, inappropriate place. This would be for examples.
Again, this is traditional examples near your spiritual teacher, near a temple or a stupa. I mean, you know, some place that is that you have seen as holy or you have tremendous respect for to have sexual relation near those places or at those places. Another practical, I think this is one of the more practical ones, is it is having sexual relations at a place which is very rough, where you might actually hurt the other person by having sex there. That’s I think that’s very considerate, you know, rough ground. Anyway, that’s what the text says.
So in an inappropriate place, inappropriate time. Again, this is you know, we we according to our modern day ways of thinking that some of these, we wouldn’t consider as inappropriate. And I’ll give you some examples. Inappropriate time. When one has taken the, for example, we take the eight precepts, we take a vowel of celibacy.
If you were to have, that would be inappropriate time to have sexual relationships. But so that’s, that sounds fair enough. Another, another possibility would be in terms of time would be when your partner is not inclined. All of these are based on not bringing harm. All of the Buddhist ethics, either to oneself or to others.
So if your partner were not inclined, then that would be inappropriate inappropriate time to have sexual relations. If there was if you had some kind of disease which made sexual relationships unsuitable at that time, that would be inappropriate. Okay. Now comes some maybe, some more difficult areas. When the mother is not the mother.
Yeah. When the when the female partner is pregnant, when she is nursing, when she’s menstruating, these are traditionally speaking, are also said to be inappropriate times. It’s said there’s also this is a funny one. I don’t know. Maybe it’s not funny.
I struck me as funny at the time. Inappropriate time would be and it it also covers excessive number of times in in a short in one day. And it said that and the number that was given was five, five, five in a row. More than five in a row is considered excessive. So I don’t know.
Anyway, So those are some so they’re they’re in terms of basis inappropriate party inappropriate parts of body inappropriate place inappropriate time. I guess it’s, you know, just becoming mindful of these things and thinking about them. Yeah. And then the second branch is the thought. Again, there has to be a proper recognition by recognition.
You know, if you mistake, if you have sex with the wrong person. Well, I mean, it could be. I mean, you could think, you could think, this is, it’s actually, it’s a very perfume. You could think that you could believe that this partner was not in a committed relationship. And but in fact, they were, but you believe they weren’t.
So then you wouldn’t it would it would not be in a proper rec recognition. Or if but if you believe they weren’t in a committed relationship and you had sex with them and they weren’t, even though they weren’t, it would still be, you would you would be, inappropriate partner. Even if you if you believe they were in a sexual in a committed relationship, even if they turned out they weren’t, it would be inappropriate partner because you believe they were. So you have to think, oh, this is who I think it is. It has to be correct, that recognition.
In the case however, in the case of a of a of a person who has a who has a vow of celibacy, it doesn’t this you don’t have to recognize the person properly, whoever you have sex with. That would be this would be complete. You would have proper recognition because it’s another human being. You don’t have to recognize him in particular. It doesn’t matter whether you recognize him incorrectly or not, you know, this person or this person, but it’s another.
It’s it’s if you have a valid celibacy. So the motivation is simply the intention or desire to have sexual relation. The afflictive emotion is any either, any of the three afflictive emotions of attachment, hatred, and ignorance. Okay. And then the third branch is that of the actual action.
And again, we can talk about it in terms of agent. And believe it or not, there seem to be some differences of opinion with regard to the agent, whether you have to do have the sexual action yourself or whether you can make somebody else do it for you. Some of us I think Tsongkhapa says, in order that this the actual action be complete, you have to do it yourself. That’s Tsongkhapa holds that opinion. And then finally, the culmination of sexual, misconduct is when the when the two people unite.
Yeah. When they when they we’ll just leave it at that, unite. So that would be the cOmination. Okay. So that covers the the three, negative paths of karma with regard to the body.
Killing, stealing, sexual misconduct. Now we’re going to look at the four negative paths of karma with regard to speech. The first, you know, these are, lying, divisive speech, harsh speech, and senseless speech. Senseless speech. Lying is to intentionally and unmistakably say words that alter a discrimination, the meaning of which is understood by another.
You know, for, you know, if we’re saying, for example, saying, you know, that such and such is the case when in fact it’s not, but changing the discrimination, changing your perception, what you know to believe to be the case, not what you know, what you believe to be the case as being, but saying it otherwise. Simply what we mean by line. Okay. Looking into four branches of lying. First is the basis.
So here we’re going to look at what is the direct object, the lie that we tell. There are eight types of lies. And these, I mean, it’s not very complicated once you hear them. We can tell a lie with respect to eight types of knowledge. The first four are we can tell a lie with respect to something has been seen, something that has been heard.
That’s that’s actually the first is something that you’ve seen. The second is something that you’ve heard. And the third is is a group group together, something in terms of you’ve you’ve you’ve figured out or you perceive something through your nose, something through your body, through your tongue, something you smelled, something you tasted, something you felt that those they group those as one. And the fourth is something that you know, through your cognition, through your mind. So those are something that we know that we’ve seen, something that we’ve heard, tasted, smelled, touched, and something that we’ve come to understand.
Okay? Those are four. Then the the other four are simply the opposite of those. Something that that you can tell a lie with some which with respect to something that you haven’t seen, something that you haven’t heard, something that you haven’t felt, tasted, or touched, and then finally, something with respect to something that you don’t know, that you don’t understand. So this is the way of categorizing the basis.
This is the direct object. The actual lie that we’re telling, we can differentiate these eight types. You know, saying, I did not see that when in fact you did see it. We’re saying that I did see that when in fact you didn’t see that. So those are the types of lies we can tell.
Now, with regard to the indirect object, that is to whom we’re telling the object, the person you cannot lie to yourself. Strangely enough. I always thought we’d lie I thought we did that a lot. But anyway, the the other it has to be someone other than yourself. And this is for the complete karma.
Right? And the line requires that the person understand the meaning of what it is that you say. If there’s if there’s if they don’t understand the meaning of what you said, then this factor and basis is not complete. There has the other person must and, like, you can’t you can’t lie to a dog. You can say, know, you can say to your dog when you’re leaving, I’m gonna be home in ten minutes, but you but you know you’re gonna be home in an hour, but they don’t know.
You know? So that it would be a lie, but it would this this factor, this branch of basis would not be complete. Person has to actually understand. You know, I guess you can lie to some, you know, somebody with didn’t speak English language, you know, and say, they’re trying to get a which way is the such and such a building? And you say, oh, you know it’s there, but you tell them to go there, but they don’t understand English anyway.
So all that then that brings up another problem. But anyway, so the they have to the it has to be person other than yourself, and they have to understand what it is that you’re telling them. Then the thought. Again, there’s recognition. Here, maybe recognition, rather than using the word recognition, we said the same word in Tibetan can be translated as discrimination or perception.
So here, the lying is to alter or distort a discrimination or a perception. You you you perceive something in order to miss to to, to mislead the other person. You you say the contrary of what it is that you actually perceived. But in fact, it doesn’t even have to be something perceived. If you believed you perceived it, if you believe that’s what you saw, and you say the opposite.
So again, it’s not, you know, if you believe that you saw someone saw this particular person, even though you you missed even though you didn’t actually see them, in fact, but if you believe you saw that person this particular person at such such a place and someone asks you, did you see such and such a person at such and such a place? No. I didn’t see them. But you believe you did. So that that would constitute the a lie.
So it’s a matter you know, it’s interesting, this idea. I tell you, this is in relation to this, but it’s a good example. It’s, you know, it’s very very much a mental act. In, in one of the, the vows of a monk is not to eat at the wrong time. And, you know, when you can be excused from this, you know, if for various reasons you can be ex you can eat in the evening and so forth.
But in general, the one a monk or a nun is not to eat at the wrong time. And generally, this is taken to be approximately twelve o’clock. You know, one should begin the meal before twelve o’clock. Now, according to the moral discipline, the Vinaya, if, if, if say a monk were to, if their, if their watch were wrong, you know, and they thought it was twelve thirty. They thought it was twelve thirty, but in fact, it was eleven thirty.
And and they look at their watch and it’s twelve thirty. Oh, it doesn’t matter. I’m gonna go ahead and eat. And they eat. They’re breaking that bell even though it’s eleven thirty, in fact, because but they believe it’s twelve thirty.
So it’s according to one’s belief. On the other hand, the contrary of this would be if if you what monk’s watch was wrong, and they their watch said eleven thirty. But in fact, it was twelve thirty. And it’s always and the monk said, oh, it’s it’s only eleven thirty. And they eat.
But in fact in fact, it’s twelve thirty. They would not be breaking their vow. And so it’s according to it’s a mental action, which determines the outcome, we infringe these vows and or not. But here so it’s according to one’s belief. The motivation is the intention to tell a falsehood.
You know, wanting to misrepresent the truth as you understand it, as you believe it to be so, wanting to deceive the other person. And then finally, the afflictive emotion, as in all the cases, is either the three. We can lie out of attachment or hatred or ignorance. The branch of actual action or lying. You can you can you can do it, oneself by saying words yourself or but you can also say by not you can also lie by not saying anything, you know, that to, know, for example, if someone were to come up to me and say, oh, you must have a profound realization of emptiness.
Emptiness. And I just kinda sat and smiled, knowingly smiled. I don’t say a word. That’s a lie. Because I’m communicating that person is going away with the wrong impression, with the wrong understanding.
You can lie. So to tell a lie, it’s necessarily words. You can, you can, you know, shake your head. You could point, you know, which way they go. You, you, you know, they went that way.
You, you could point over there. So, so it’s not necessarily that the, the actual action be done with words. We can, we can lie with gestures or silence, for example. It can be, it can be done by yourself lying or is having someone lie for you. So you yourself are just causing someone to lie when that you yourself would be committing the action of lying.
And then finally, the culmination. How does the action complete? The lying is complete when the listener understands what you say. If the listener doesn’t understand what you’re saying, then there’s no conclusion. There’s no cOmination.
This if if they don’t understand if they don’t understand statement, then it’s considered senseless speech. So the person has to understand what it is that the lie for it to it to that’s the culmination. When a person understands, then it’s finished. It’s a full complete path of lying. The second of the paths of speech.
Oh, yeah. Let’s Let’s have a let’s talk about these things. Okay? Maybe it’s been more useful than but we still have a little ways to go with these. So does anybody have any comments or does anybody wanna share anything?
Any questions? Steal somebody’s slave? Well, would the act of of having a slave be stealing? Because How is that? Yeah.
Because you heard that example of it sounds like it sounds like it. I don’t know where I don’t where we’ve fallen amongst us, but maybe it could be considered stealing somebody’s liberty. No. It Not serious relationship? No.
Multiple partners or just having having relationships? Not relationship because it’s just one night standings. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No.
It’s not sexual So now here, we’re talking about complete path of action and the motivation. It has to be the indirect motivation has to be one of the particular emotions. If you were to yeah. I mean, if you were to you might motivate motivate out of compassion. And the the the the I think the the typical example that’s given for that is, you know, if you if you were at this if you were living in Nazi Germany during the second world war and you were hiding some Jews down the basement and we’re looking for Jews.
Do you have any Jews here? Starving. Yeah. Yeah. Those weren’t his carrots, but obviously the action was.
Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah. So the so the actual action is is stealing, but the motivation is important.
As we mentioned before, and that that we all of these are cumulative throughout this, what we call, path of action each stage. But the most the most forceful of all of these various branches is that of the motivation. You can have the affliction in case these negative cases, the affliction is like this. That which brings about the intention. So out of compassion, you you you intend to steal these carrots.
The intention is to give these carrots. What do you think of what do people think of that case? I think that actually depends on that that sense that you know something is wrong. That’s probably my guideline. You that’s right thing to do.
It’s a strong feeling that you need to continue on with it regardless of whether people are saying you should or not. Yeah. The same thing with this, you can have an understanding that, you know, this is not quite right or you perhaps shouldn’t be doing you feel guilty. You know? Yeah.
But what do you think about some people who, like, Nepal where they they sacrifice goats? I think the same sort of thing. They can kinda bring about a benefit. Sure. If you Yeah.
Because when I guess, because of cultural differences, people in in those cultures believe what they’re doing is right. It’s really it’s really complicated. Yeah. Because it’s, you know, one group of people that are dead certain that one thing’s okay. Yeah.
And they look at another culture and say, well, how can they possibly do that? It’s wrong. Yeah. And if they believe what they’re doing is right. Then that’s where the the respect for each other probably comes in, a respect that we don’t understand or or some people don’t understand everything.
There probably some people do, and therefore, we have to is. It’s why the probably why the world is the ladies. But are you talking about sacrificing goats as in killing Yeah. Something? So what what what do you think is what’s the what is the difference?
Is there a difference? No. The mode well, maybe there is in that the motivation might be different because the killing of the guys is Yeah. Think that’s Yeah. Think that’s different of things.
About Through harmony? With the matter of ignorance. Do you think conscience is absolute, or is it relative to your awareness? Conscience. Well, how would how would you define that?
Like, the killing of the goats. It from the I mean, the little that I can say about that is the the the word ethics, what we translate as ethics and morality in in Sanskrit. It’s Śīla. And it literally means cooling. So those the thought behind it is that those actions which refresh, which cool the afflictions, which feel there’s a certain mind is not disturbed.
Are with there with are by by their very nature are ethical. So if the mind is on the contrary, if the mind is disturbed by the action, then it’s probably unethical. The mind is so but the problem is the problem is so I think there is I think there is this factor. The most most of us aren’t aware of of this that subtlety of disturbance within our mind when we do our actions. Most of our minds are so gross that we can do terrible things without even being aware of it.
Yeah. You know, what’s actually how it’s disturbing our being. So, you know, relying on conscience, you know, pathological liar, they can beat a lie detector test. There’s no reaction, internal reaction. Just even though he he’s obviously telling a lie.
Or some people can kill probably with very little reaction, internal reaction. Determining whether they were acting ethically or not. But we’re not most of us aren’t in that state of awareness. So we have to rely on, as it were, outside formulas for the time being. Some kind of criteria So conscious for most of us isn’t enough of an indicator because we’re so out of touch.
Tell me, I believe it was ninth century, about a person I can’t remember the name of them, and it’s very vague. But this monk that shot a ruler — between the and he did it because this particular ruler was going to destroy the Dharma at this period of time. And the Dalai Lama’s thoughts on it were that, obviously, that it was a a killing, so therefore, it wasn’t right or wasn’t positive. But then this guy escaped and spent the rest of his life in meditation, and the Dalai Lama was saying that he believed that this person in some way atone for that killing and wouldn’t possibly attract negative karma because I suppose what my what my course question is, is any sexual union without attachment? And, you know, just when we’re talking about inappropriate partners and you’re asking, you know, is there a possibility of, you know, if you have no commitments I know.
I don’t understand. No. I mean, yeah, the basis of sexual intercourse, sexual union is Yeah. Is attachment, desire. Mhmm.
So any so what what we’re saying with with two uncommitted partners, they would not be committing the ten one of the ten negative actions of sexual misconduct. But it’s negative because it’s motivated by attachment. That’s that’s the I think I don’t know. I was trying I was thinking this today, going through this material, that I know there are I I I I’m not sure. I think in order for certain functions to occur, they have to there has to be an element of attachment.
But I I know and I but I know of a case history. There is a it’s it’s about a Jewish mystic. And I in within Judaism that said that part of your your religious duties to have children. Mhmm. But but he he so he was trying to fulfill his religious duty, but he found the act repugnant, repulsive to do it.
But he but his religious duty Overgrown. So I was thinking about it. But still, there must be a moment when he has attachment. I think there must be a moment. But anyway To his duty.
No. I meant no. Meant attachment to the actual Yeah. Sexual injury, of course. Okay.
It’s not but but this discussion is only it would not be That’s right. But yeah. That’s So equally, if you weren’t committed I mean if you were committed. Would it would seem it would seem, and this is only my own speculation, that what they’re saying is, you know, the the primary function of sexual intercourse is procreation. Mhmm.
You know? And so those those ways which are outside of that, that would begin to be sexual misconduct. Mhmm. But even but so but, anyway, even between a committed relationship, there would be more kind of discipline of of monks and monks. Mhmm.
But it’s about anyway. Come out of sometimes, I think, sometimes come out of that culture Yeah. More than that’s true. It could very well be. Why why why why give you that thought?
So they would they would have a they might have a very very different take on some of these issues. Yeah. I I noticed So there’s a few and maybe that’s But there’s another question I was gonna asked. Is there any good reason to look in the mirror? I know this is dry, but you used to do an example.
If you’re looking in the mirror, you were possibly doing it for attachment to to your sense So you have a compassionate motivation. Any other comments? I just want I have to make a few announcements. This is a commercial break. School holidays were accidentally omitted from the program.
So there’ll be no school holidays this year. I’m sure the students will be, the children will be at the greatest point, but anyway. No, all teachings will finish on Friday, April thirteenth and recommence on Monday, April thirtieth. So, you know, in the actual, in the calendar of the program, somebody got carried away with the, with the repeat button. And so, so all teachings will finish on April thirteenth, and they recommence on Monday.
So April thirteenth is Friday. Recommends on Monday the thirtieth. And that’s only teach ings. The meditation sessions will continue as normal. And yoga stretches will continue as normal.
Be off, even there’s a holiday? Yeah. There’s a there’s a holiday next week. So that means we’ll be back on the thirtieth. No teaching.
There’ll be yeah. Next yeah. That that was correct on that on the calendar. The the next week is a a public holiday. And then do you do Thursday morning?
Yeah. You so you will be doing Thursday morning, which is often a repeat of your Monday night. I’m just Monday Monday yeah. Thursday’s a repeat of Monday night. So what will you be doing?
I just just I just replay the tape there. Keep going. I know you did. I feel dizzy. There’s a little cardboard cut out there.
No. Yeah. Yeah. So you will have to assemble Yeah. Yeah.
Then all the teachings will continue till Friday the thirteenth. But next Monday is a public holiday. Then on, it says here, oh yeah, this weekend, Saturday April the seventh and Sunday April eighth will be the Easter course, which is the four close placements of mindfulness. So you’re all welcome to attend. Teaching, Geshe la will be teaching that, And rather than the, he normally teaches the Thirty Seven Practices of the Bodhisattva as a way of life on Sunday mornings.
Rather than teaching that, he will teach the, one of the teachings for his four close placements of mindfulness will be substituted since that will be part of the course, but you’re all welcome, the group meditation will be as usual. Could all older students please assist any new people so they see in the center, that they see in the center make them feel welcome? By showing them around and answering any questions they may have. If you have not registered for the Vajrasattva ceremony, please do so. You can call the office.
And then on April twenty eighth, April twenty eighth is a Saturday. We have mindfulness day. You might consider that. I think it’s quite useful. It’s quite simply presented and, but I think it’s quite beneficial.
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May all beings everywhere plagued by suffering of body and mind attain an ocean of happiness and joy by virtue of my merits. May no living creatures suffer, commit evil, or fall ill. May no one be afraid or belittled with a mind weighed down by depression. May the blind see forms and the deaf hear sounds. May those whose bodies are worn with toil be restored and blissful repose.
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Through these skillful actions, may I quickly become an awakened spiritual master and lead each and every living being to that awakened realm. May the supreme jewel of the awakened heart that has not arisen arise and grow, and may that which has arisen never diminish, but increase more and more. In the land circled by snow mountains, you are the source of all happiness and well-being. Powerful, remain to the end of cyclic existence. Thank you.
Have a nice week.