Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Using the image of a young man who learns to drive and thereby becomes a driver — his whole world changed — Ven Jampa Gendun argues that genuine practice transforms who we are, not just what we can do. In this 111-minute session he examines the two causes for going for refuge: constructive anxiety about recurring suffering, and faith — not religious sentiment but the universal act of imbuing a person or idea with significance. He distinguishes blind from experience-grounded faith, then leads a structured rejoicing meditation through four time spans, extending gladness to friends, strangers, and rivals. The second half unpacks Tsongkhapa’s three stages — listening, reflecting, meditating — with the striking image of eyes without legs versus legs without eyes. A Q&A closes on the three traditional scopes of fear and the value of a multi-life perspective on practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 08 3PA 2006 10 09.mp3
UUID: 11c7e6dc-2ace-4c80-b89b-edde4ca25862
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Three Principle Aspects of the Path 2006-2007 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 2006-10-09
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 111.0 minutes
Words: ~10,977
She pays because she pays, sorry. Okay. She pays, thank you for that. And to receive, you know, to to, you know, we have to begin to find some kind of confidence in ourselves and be encouraged and to give be given to being transmitted the skills where by we can begin to work in our own self development to begin to help ourselves to solve our problems. So it performs an extremely important function in terms but even over and above that, think you need a community in a way.
We are always talking about Sangha. And the Sangha isn’t necessarily, but it’s a very important part of it, the Robe Sangha, the groups of monks and nuns. But another important part of Sangha, which probably is of most immediate relevance to ourselves, is just our fellow practitioners, those who share the same values and hopes and aspirations and are trying along with you to change for the better. We have a the word sangha in Tibetan is. Means virtue, and means to aspire or seek.
So those who those who aspire toward virtue, and the highest virtue is liberation. We may not know quite what liberation looks like, some kind of freedom from a lot of our dysfunctional patterns. But we have a we have an idea of the type of person that we might like to be in terms of of being perhaps a little more kinder, a little more patient, have some kind of insight into our own minds and hopefully how other people’s minds are working so we can be of in some even if only limited benefit in limited way be of benefit to others. And sharing. So I think it’s really important that we we have to create, know, I talk about I’m always talking about, can you hear me okay?
Okay. I am always talking about adjusting my motivation. And, you know, we are talking about, in terms of adjusting motivation, we’ve been going through these last few weeks around the notion of development of the two causes for going for refuge, and those are what are the two causes for going for refuge? I don’t know. That’s a question.
Two causes for going through refuge. Anybody? Just an exam. Two causes. Two causes for going through refuge.
Then I think everybody’s got the cause for going for refuge, isn’t it? Dissatisfaction. Renunciation. Renunciation. Does that come before or after going for refuge?
You go for refuge and then I think you’re onto something, but maybe we that’s a maybe that’s putting the the cart behind the horse or something like that. What? Yeah. That’s one of them. Okay.
Faith? What is the other one? Fear is this constructive anxiety. So constructive anxiety around the around the reoccurring problems of our life and and beginning to become a bit anxious or fearful. It’s just things that really never gonna change unless I do something.
And then faith that there is some kind of possibility for to solve our problems and there are some methods to work with and finally some kind of real solutions. So my point in this is that, you know, in talking about these two causes, anxiety and faith, we we kind of create the inner ecology of mind which nurtures change. Basically, we want to change. And I think that’s the simplest way that we can state the the the the why we’re here. The purpose of Buddhism in general is to bring about some kind of constructive positive change in our life.
But we only we not only have to create an inner ecology of mind which is conducive to that change, but also an outer one. And we have to create a mandala where our mind is, where our aspirations that which we are trying to changes that we are trying to bring about are supported. And part of that mandala is not only the physical situation that’s building, which is problematic at present, as many of you know, but also those teachers, but also those who are those fellow practitioners who share our mandala with us with us. And this creating kind of greenhouse where we can experiment, where where these fragile shoots of these new ideas and behaviors and can find some kind of nourishing ground. And they’re kind of, supported and protected for time being where we can share a lot of the hidden parts of ourselves, the neglected spiritual parts of ourselves which which we, you know, the world just doesn’t have much place for what we’re doing here on the on the whole.
You know, the world has its mantra. The mantra of bigger, better, more. And it is kind of the mantra that doesn’t really lead to any kind of solutions. It just creates more problems with the kind of mantra that we are trying to work with here. And a mantra means to protect the mind and we are trying to work with our mind, but the mind is not just something in here.
It it it is it’s it’s a system, and part of that system is your mandala, and part of that mandala are our fellow practitioners. So I think people, so we have to create and, and contribute to this mandala, to, and because we share, realization is not something that you just gain in isolation from others, but mental well-being, health, what it means to be a happy, loving, sane human being is a social phenomenon. I mean, that’s what the Mahāyāna tries to promote. That’s that’s its vision of what mental health is all about. It’s finding our place in the world amongst amongst the family of things and the people that we share this planet with.
And and this is like a microcosm, the kind of world that we would like to create. And so helping each other and supporting each other and working together, I think is a real part of our practice. It’s not something a practice practice isn’t something that you just do on your cushion or you do for, you know, forty five minutes in the morning if you’re lucky or if you’re really dedicated or whatever, however much time you have to spend. But it’s how we lead our daily life and very important of that is what we do in connection with Buddha House and your fellow practitioners, your Sangha. So I appreciate when people like Helen, they they go out of their way.
They make some kind of effort to promote the Sangha and what we’re trying to do here. Think it’s extremely important. It’s probably more important than what I do. I just kind of create a little bit of confusion along the way. Anyway, so we’ve been talking about I don’t know if you remember.
Anyway, did you have a good break? Mhmm. So this is Buddhism one zero one. Or maybe it’s one zero two. Yeah.
We’ve been you know, we we have to adjust our motivation. We’ve been talking about these two causes for motivating ourselves to look for alternative refuges in our life. You know, the the notion of refuge wasn’t particularly Buddhist or Eastern. It’s not particularly new to any of us. We’ve all been going ref for refuge in one way or another our entire life and taking stock and reflecting, is my particular refuge working?
Is there some kind of payoff? And if it’s not, if it’s and if we’re continually to if we’re continually experiencing more or less the same problems, the same disappointments, frustrations, dissatisfactions, then maybe we have to begin to investigate other possibilities. So, I mean, the possibilities with in terms of Buddhism are called Buddhadharma and Sangha as alternative refuges and resources which we can avail ourselves of, which we can make use of and perhaps in a way that is more profitable. It can help us to in a real in a realistic fashion, real practical terms to solve our problems to change. And so but we have to it can’t be something faked.
None of this you know, we’re not trying to be good boys and girls and we’re trying to score some kind of brownie points or some kind of merit. We have to actually change our mind. Changing the mind a little more subtle than we our normal approach, how we might think it to be. It simply can’t be done in a very mechanical fashion. And otherwise, it’s more or less, you know, taking taking on this information or even becoming rather holy and sincere without having to penetrate down to a deeper level of our being.
We, you know, I think we have to, to the degree that we’re able to entrust ourselves to other possibilities, to that same degree we’re going to change. And the only way that we can do that is to be sincerely at a deep level of being motivated to do so. And part of that is developing the sense of I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. But that’s not enough. There’s lots of sincere people who continue to suffer their entire lives.
Then but so we have to actually cultivate some kind of faith in some other possibility. In order because we we you know, otherwise, what we do here becomes something very much like just pouring pouring oil on water. It it just kind of floats there. It’s not integrated. It doesn’t become a part of our being.
By creating some kind of faith, you’re willing you are letting down your defenses. You’re opening up to other possibilities, creating the the internal conditions whereby to whereby you’re susceptible, where you’re where you a change is possible. We’re not we’re not simply recreating the dysfunctional grounds of ego, simply perpetuating our problems. But we we have we have to be able to develop some kind of trust in something other than what we’ve been working with up to present. So this requires some kind of faith.
You know, we we talked how we talked about how faith overcomes our fear around change. Normally we talked about the fact that when we normally we cope with fear, you know, fear is a very unpleasant feeling. So generally, generally when we experience fear, we have a tendency to withdraw, to to nearly circumscribe our life and what we become involved in so that we don’t meet with the unexpected, the unknown, you know, which arouses fear within ourselves. Fear blinds us to the need for change and reinforces our resistance to change. The new possibilities are not explored.
The unfamiliar, what whatever is unfamiliar or alien or unknown or unexpected is rejected. We shy away from it. It keeps us in a kind of a groove. It keeps us stuck. We don’t explore other possibilities openly.
Only perhaps at a very superficial level of our mind, but not at a deeper level. It is faith that we have the courage and confidence necessary to abide with the uncomfortable tensions. You know, there’s a certain tension that’s aroused during the transition of any type of behavior, of new thinking, of new of any type of new learning. When there’s when there is some kind of adjustment or when new thinking or new patterning of our thought process begins to take place. You know there’s there’s the there’s the diminishing of the old and the new is yet to be born.
And in that transition there’s this un there’s a sense of uncomfortability, there’s a certain tension, there’s certain underlying anxiety. And what is it what is it that helps us to to be willing to enter into that and abide with that tension? It is our faith. You know, faith in in the in the in in ourselves, we have confidence that we can change, we have faith in the in the method, in the means, and we have faith in the outcomes. You know, we don’t quite know what we’re going to look like on the other side of change.
You know to demand to know all the details of the outcomes of change is just another way, another strategy for doing nothing. And nothing ever will change. So in in we have to have some kind of confidence that on the other side of change, even though we don’t know quite what it may look like, that we’re going to land on our feet, that our life is going to be a better life, that we’re going to be a better person and relating in a better way, that we’re going to have gone beyond some of our old problems. The bigger problems will have lessened in their impact and our mind will be more resilient. We’ll be able to, you know, get out of these holes that much faster and begin to avoid any of the old holes that we kept falling into time after time after time.
So in trying to change, we’re trying to consciously direct ourselves along a systematic course of change. I mean that’s what Buddhism is, isn’t it, in a way? In trying to grow, we’re essentially trying to change. So that’s the bottom lying is that we’re trying to change. But, you know, I think, you know, by way of example by way of example, why why I I I emphasized change in this way?
From a Buddhist let’s take an example. From a Buddhist perspective, growth is very much associated, for example, with the altruistic qualities of love and compassion. Okay? I think those who have been around Mahāyāna Buddhism for any length of time who could could could really go along with that, that part of what we are trying to do, to a great extent what we’re trying to do, are developing the qualities of love and compassion. You know, they are without love and compassion, there could be no complete awakening.
There can be, you know, these are are not only for ourselves, but love and compassion are indispensable motivation behind working productively with others, which is at the very heart of Mahāyāna Buddhism. So but even even if we were to set aside Buddhism or religious thinking in general, just in a very secular humanistic way of talking. That to to to that the altruistic attitudes of love and compassion are necessary if if only to find some kind of meaning and connectedness with others, you know, and simply to to be a happy person in the world. They’re quite important qualities, aren’t they? So it’s we we talk about love and compassion in just these ways as as particular qualities.
And this can lead us to the point where or it can lead us to the way of thinking about them that that they are isolated factors or particular functions of our mind that we that we’re trying to cultivate. You know, like trying to cultivate flowers in your garden. We’re trying to create we’re trying to grow the the flowers of love and compassion in the gardens of our minds. But so there’s this there’s there’s a there’s kind of an unexamined assumption in talking in just the ways that we do about the developing of these qualities and the cultivating of qualities such as love and compassion, that we can we can that they stand apart from us in a manner that that we can grow gardens of gardens of love of the flowers of love and compassion in our minds. Just as we can grow gardens and gardens of flowers in the real world, in the actual gardens in our yards without in any way appreciably changing ourselves.
There’s some kind of an assumption that that we stand apart from the change, that that we that we can take these beautiful flowers of love and compassion in our minds and on special occasions, we can we can give them to our closest friends when it fits our desires, when it works for us, when when when you know, when the it fits in with our our situation, We can be open with all these beautiful blooms that we’ve grown in our mind and give them freely to all our friends on their special occasions. And we’ll think what beautiful people we are. Think of ourselves in those kinds of special ways. So we have a we have a mistaken notion that we stand apart from change. A young man who learns to drive a car thinks differently, therefore feels differently.
When he meets a pretty girl who lives fifty miles away, the encounter carries implications he could not have felt as a bus rider. We may say then that he is not only drives a car, but he has become has become a driver. So this young man, okay, learns how to drive a car. He has not just acquired another skill. And a skill, what to say of a skill that stands apart from him, but he has become something other than he was before.
You know, this is a rather simple minded example or analogy, maybe in a way. But his in in having become a driver, his world has changed. The way he he relates to the and his world are different from the way they were before. You know, we aren’t isolated egos cut off from the rest of our own minds, for ourselves and persons, you know, and the rest of the world as we normally conceive of ourselves. You know, the mind doesn’t end in you know, we have this idea of a skin capsulated ego.
That somewhere we are in here, this isolated factor. Unrelated to the world that our mind exists within the skin in that sense. That we have redraw this big black thick line around ourselves in isolation from everything else that isn’t it. So it’s not just that it’s part of our Buddhist training that we are to develop, that we are to acquire the altruistic qualities of love and compassion. But it’s that we are to become loving people.
You know, we that that we people who are aware of or are sensitive to and concerned about the happiness and suffering of others. You know, love and compassion permeate our thinking. They they they affect our behavior. They color our whole our whole other qualities too. You know, love and compassion are manifest, in a sense, operative even when they are not manifest in our mind.
Still they are in some way operating. They pervade the entirety of our being. They alter our perceptions. They, our experiences, our relationships. Our world has changed by developing love and compassion.
They change ourselves and our world. So to to grow is, you know, trying to emphasize this this idea of what change is. To grow is to change and to change who we are is to change our world. We can’t go home again. We’re never going to be quite the same person we once were before.
And we’re never going to be able to function in quite the same ways. You know, we aren’t going to, we can’t go down the same familiar streets and to the same places that we once knew and as we knew them before. You know, our self identity, identity, our values, our beliefs, what it is that makes us happy, what it is that makes us unhappy, where we’re willing to invest our energies, our time, our resources, our relationships, our work, our interests, our pursuits, they’re all in some way, in some to a lesser greater degree and to some extent or other, they’re going to be different than they were before. We don’t stand apart from change. We are the change.
You know, it’s not that we’re requiring another altruistic quality. We are becoming loving, compassionate people. You know, the the point is that emphasizing growth has changed in this way in its nature, is that in cultivating these qualities, no matter what they may be, they are going to have a real world impact. They are going to affect how we live our lives and how we experience the world and the quality of our felt experience. And if not in most of the significant areas of our life.
So we cannot, we may not be able to foresee all the impact that the development of love and compassion will have in our life in a real way, Not in a, you know, it’s not as if we could control love and compassion, but we trust them because we know they are for us, they are not against us. By cultivating love and compassion, are going to be better people living in a better world, leading a better way of life. We trust in that. We’re we’re in this way, the sense is we are going to love and compassion. We’re going for refuge to love and compassion themselves.
Love and compassion become a, like, a refuge for ourselves because we trust them. We’re going to give ourselves over to them and allow them to take them take us where they will because they we have the confidence, because we have faith in the ultimate qualities. The ultimate types of experience and ways of life that they can bring us are going to be all for the better. So we do this all the time in one way or another. The idea of going for refuge.
The idea of faith is nothing particular to religion. What to say of Buddhism? What to say of faith in the Buddha Dharma Sangha? We’re we’re continually empowering people and things symbols around us, but also the ideas within our mind. The idea of empowering, imbuing with value, with significance.
You know, the the the in this way they’re able to in turn exert a tremendous influence influence upon ourselves. There’s a there’s a reciprocity in empowering these these people, these these symbols, these things and ideas because they in turn will influence ourselves. So, you know, for you know, the a lover empowers the beloved to the degree that, you know, if she let me use my male female examples. Okay? Mhmm.
How do I get in trouble here. She she just smiled. Her her lips, corners of her mouth just turn up upward a little bit. His his the the lover’s mind is filled with joy. You know?
Or if they go downward, despair. That’s how much he or she has empowered the beloved. Just that little insignificant turning upward or downward in the corner of the lips can affect them in that great of a way. You know, we empower things. People’s many people’s lives are run by money.
They’ve empowered money to that degree where they give over their life to that money, to the gathering more and more of it. It’s that powerful thing in their life. Many people assemble. You know, some people on Anzac Day, you see the diggers with tears. You know, they look up at the flag, and there’s the blowing of the the bugle and tears are coming to their eyes.
So they’ve empowered that symbol of what it’s of what all all of their experiences, of what they’re of what they’re what they stand for and what their country stands for. The symbol of the flag, they’ve empowered it. That’s able to, in turn, influence them. Many people, lives are dedicated to the idea of world peace. The idea of world peace is they’ve imbued it with that much power that in in in turn, they’re willing to work for an idea to make it a reality.
So, you know, we idea of we empower people, things, and symbols through the significance that we give them. Know, with that we we attribute that they’re able to affect our lives for the better in some way. That it’s is an investment of value of our life’s energies that gives that we grant to something. That makes it extremely valuable to us. That that it makes it important to ourselves.
So if this significance is if, you know, this value that we give to these these people or these things or these these these symbols or these ideas, if it’s positive, then then we we tend to gravitate toward them. We tend to we tend to move towards it, to to to to make use of these objects, to to try to emulate them, to embody them, to own them, to identify with them, to become a part of them, to, you know, sign up for membership to them, to make use of them, just maybe just to possess them. Because that we have a sense that they’re going to help us to solve our problems. They’re they’re going to make our life better for ourselves. That’s why we see them as significantly positive.
And we imbue them. We empower them such that they’re able in turn to influence in ourselves in a very positive way. They contribute to our well-being. They help us to achieve their our goals. They themselves are worthwhile goals to achieve.
In other words, we have a kind of faith that this person, this thing, this this symbol, this idea is is going to make our life better for us. So the idea of faith isn’t in particularly religious idea. We we operate on the basis basis of faith every day of our lives. So whether we’re religious or not, whether we we are aware of or not, a great deal of our life is led on the basis of faith. And faith but there are many types of faith.
And each has its own unique ability to to to influence our mind, to influence our behavior. You know, for example, there’s there’s influence our behavior. You know, for example, there’s there’s there’s blind faith, which is faith, a type of faith without any supporting reasoning or without any evidence. And then there’s misguided faith, faith which which is based upon faulty reasoning, inconclusive or or faulty evidence. And our faiths such as these are continually being undermined by our own by own logic, by our own experience, by our own reasoning.
And moreover, they only exert a superficial and short lived influence in our lives. On the other hand, there are there are types of faith which are based upon sound reasoning and based within our own experience. And these are the types of faith which are highly regarded as the basis of our practice within Buddhism. You know, these types of faith have which are, like, are valid inferences and which are based upon within our own experiences, what we’ve come to know for ourselves firsthand. So they what we directly see for ourselves, they have some kind of enduring stability and strength.
And therefore can exert a profound and lasting influence in our lives. So faith is important because it’s going to influence in turn because we’re going to we in power the objects to which we imbue, which we direct our faith, and they are going to influence our mind in turn. So the faith in Buddhism is a heartfelt trust or that the objects of our refuge have the power to protect ourselves from this this undercurrent of anxiety about these recurrent sufferings of our lives. You know? That that we that all of these dysfunctional patterns pathologies of our lives, that they’re able to act as reliable resources for ourselves that we can make use of in achieving what is what is of ultimate value and concern to ourselves.
Not only salt not only removing our problems, but fulfilling our dreams, our noblest aspirations. So so, you know, we we credit our our our refuge with a fundamental importance. You know, we we we give that something, that refuge, a substance, a reality for ourselves, a reality which might not be obvious to ourselves, which which may not be presently accessible to ourselves. But nonetheless, we we we we it plays a primary role in shaping our thinking and therefore in the way we behave. It it it it it helps us to find some way to work with our problems.
You know, what we’re doing is trying to work with our problems at a deeper level than normally we’ve been working with them. And we’re trying to to fulfill our fullest potential. And these are tremendous goals, and we have to have very profound refuges, resources in order to to to realistically be able to achieve those goals. So in practice, the faith of Buddhism is it takes some courage. You know, I I’m emphasizing the fact that it’s faith is just not some kind of it’s only not for the simple minded.
It’s just not some kind of artifact of religious sentimentality or romantic notions. But it’s it’s something that we use every day of our lives in one form or another. And moreover, if we want to change our minds, if we want to be able to solve our problems at a deeper level, then we have to find some way to access these new refuges for ourselves. We have to be able to to at a at a deeper level of our being in order to achieve these really profound goals that we’ve set for ourselves. And it is a profound goal.
It’s not simply trying to to find some kind of comfortable niche for ourselves, but to find freedom for ourselves and develop ourselves such that we’re able to help others to find that freedom. And this is a tremendous asper something really high and noble to try to aspire to. It’s not something ordinary. And so there’s those refuges, the objects of our refuge must be something much greater than the ordinary that we normally see about this, that we ordinarily come in contact with, that we ordinarily relating with, that we ordinarily have our faith in. So, you know, it’s it is said of the Buddhists that in the beginning, they ask us only for offerings or for simple acknowledgment and for small offerings of of water or fruit or flowers or something something nice like that, something simple.
But in the end they demand our very flesh, which is to say that ultimately our Buddhist refuge or our Buddhist faith asks us that we progressively give over more and more of ourselves, our life and our life energies, to that which we ourselves are the final transformation. We give we give over more of our life and our life energy to our self becoming Buddha, to the solutions that are fundamental problems and being able to be of greatest benefit to all living beings. And it’s a we give over more and more of ourselves through the generation of our faith in the in what the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha stand for. In order to perfectly and completely awaken ourselves for the sake of all sentient beings. So we’ve got a lot to do.
So the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha, the embodiment of wisdom, love, compassion, and personal power, and the fearless and skillful expression in our daily life. That’s our refuge. We we begin to orientate ourselves. We begin to to trust in that as a real workable means to help us to solve our problems and to realize our fullest potential. We we we we empower that.
And our mind you know, the mind is not a thing in itself. It is a process. It’s always evolving. It’s always moving. It’s constantly undergoing change.
And where does it change? If we can begin to give it some kind of directionality, some orientation, then it’s going to naturally move toward that. And so we begin to to to create this the the context where it naturally tends toward, inclines itself toward Buddha, our own wisdom, our own love, our compassion, and their development, and how these are expressed in our daily life. But we also have to, you know, we have to we have to do something practical in terms of promoting those qualities, bringing about this change. And we do that by means of the Dharma, you know, the trains, the techniques, the methods that we have to work with.
But most essentially, the truth of things, the way things are in their actual nature. And again, emphasizing the quality of the of the external nurturing condition, you know, this this the Sangha, those who assist us in this process, who who validate what it is that we’re trying to do, who encourage us, inspire us, advise us, and whatever whatever it takes to help a a fellow, you know, human being go from an ordinary being to becoming a Buddha. That’s what we do. And we try to raise the level of our motivation again and again. So such that we are doing it for our own ends, not for our own limited needs and narrow self concerns, but for an ever widening circle of others.
You know, I was talking to to the monk who has recently came over, the Australian monk who just came over from Perth and that the or assisted in the retreat on three principal aspects of the path that was just that was held last weekend at Kangaroo Island and been I’ve able to do to do to to And he was saying, we we went out for a cup of coffee last evening yesterday, and we were talking about his experiences and sharing some ideas. And he said, you know, what they hear at the center, they don’t hear anywhere else. We the world just doesn’t talk about these things. It’s not conducive. It’s taking everyone in another direction.
So we have to so I hope you forgive me, but I’m talking about these things in this way. But I think we have to I have to keep reminding myself. But I think it’s useful if we we keep hearing about these ideas. You know? I think it I think it’s necessary.
It’s kind of a a rarity in our everyday lives that we even talk about Buddha and help and helping ourselves to solve our problems at a deeper level. What to say of helping out others to help themselves to solve their problems at a deeper level. So forgive me. 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 a refuge until I’m am awakened to the Buddha, Dharma, and 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 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 of some and aversion toward others. So if you’d to stand up and stretch your legs. Anyway okay.
So we’re meditating. We’ll meditate on mind mindfulness in the breath. And then we’ll meditate on on this this practice of rejoicing. I think it’s a useful meditation. This we we’ve done this before.
So, you know, I talked about the fact that to a large extent, you know, we story our lives to a large extent. We are the biographies that we’re that we’re continually telling ourselves about ourselves. And oftentimes, we feel a sense of poverty about ourselves, a sense of we don’t feel so good about ourselves, a sense of insufficiency. Something wrong with me. I don’t have quite what it takes.
So a lot of this has to do with we quite often overlook or we dismiss what we do do. What the in in the sense that, you know, we dismiss the richness of ourselves. You know, who we are and what we do and all the good things that we do. We tend it doesn’t quite fit in with a lot of the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves. So we kinda it gets overlooked.
It gets it gets left out or maybe a footnote somewhere. It’s not really part of our story. It’s not who we really are. And, out of this is not because we don’t have wisdom and we don’t express it from time to time. It’s not because we don’t have love and compassion and we don’t express it from time to time.
It’s not because we don’t act powerfully from time to time. It’s because we quite often overlook it. We don’t notice it. We don’t remind ourselves. It’s not part of our present story about who we are.
And so a lot of our stories are quite impoverishing. That’s who I am. I really can’t be any other way. I don’t have quite what it takes. So we have to, as it were, we purposely and consciously look at what we do do right.
You know, we actually have to hunt for it. You know, I’m not talking about finding a cure for cancer, know, winning a Nobel Prize or something. It’s not that. It doesn’t have to be like that. Sometimes it comes sometimes you have to look for it.
It has to be you have to be a little bit humble. Sometimes we have to rejoice in even the small things. Being a little pay more patient or maybe you let somebody get in front of you who is in a hurry in the line or something like that. Just a small kindness. Our lives are made up a lot of a lot of accumulation of a lot of incidents.
And if we begin to take notice of them consciously, then then maybe we can begin to change the story line of our lives. And in doing that, you know, our lives are are very much conditioned by these stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves, you know, who we see ourselves, the type of person we think ourselves to be. So we can we can begin to alter our own self image and begin to have greater confidence that we that we we do have the resources to change our solve our problems. We do have the talents and the ability and the intelligence. We do have some native wisdom and some some level of compassion because we see it.
We take notice of it. Anyway, this is simply meant to help us to reinforce the the good that we do do. And then we can also do it in terms of others. The world is at such a bad place after all. People can.
People can be trusted in some ways, in many ways. Some ways, in many ways. We don’t have to be so isolated and defensive in how we relate with others, that there are some good people in the world who actually treat us well, who are doing good things in the world. So taking a comfortable posture. So this posture is keeping you know, we’ve talked about the sevenfold posture of Vairochana way, but most importantly, the back back straight.
But even more importantly, the attitude that we bring to our sitting. And in in Zen tradition, if you sit like a Buddha, you are a Buddha. And that we have to have a sense we bring a sense of dignity, sense of purpose for us to what it is that we’re doing because it’s important what we’re doing. And we we can acknowledge that, but even the our physical posture, the way we hold ourselves with a sense of dignity, a sense of uprightness. So beginning, taking a firm comfortable posture, beginning by relaxing the body, bringing your awareness to the crown of your head, the scalp, the forehead, feeling the wrinkles in the brow loosen, smooth out.
And the pressure in the eyes, around the eyes, beginning to lessen, to dissipate. The facial muscles beginning to soften and relax. The jaw relax. Moving down to the neck, perhaps turning your neck to the side gently a few times. Just softening, relaxing the throat, the neck muscles.
Moving down to your shoulders, perhaps rotating your shoulders a few times while keeping your back straight, just letting your shoulders hang. Relaxing, feeling the tension, the burden that you carry on the shoulders move down, out through your body, and up to the ground. Your hands are relaxed. The lower arms. Upper arms.
Your chest is at ease. Letting go of the tension that you hold in your stomach muscles, your belly soft. Relaxing throughout the pelvic area. Your buttocks. Upper legs.
Your knees, your lower legs, your feet. Bring your awareness to your body and notice any tightnesses, any tensions, and bring your awareness to those areas and consciously soft and relax, feeling the tightness, the solidity diminish, disperse. Body becoming comfortable. Feels good. And then bring your mind to the breath.
Just the easy in and out. Gentle flow of the in and out of the breath using the Now we’re going to begin by rejoicing in terms of our own actions, what we’ve done, what we’ve said, and so forth. So we want to begin by recollecting, recalling something that you did prior to one month ago, before one month ago. Just go back, something that you feel good about, that you feel was worthwhile, that you like about yourself or what you did, and simply congratulate yourself. Feel good about yourself.
Be pleased with yourself. Something more than one month ago. We’re going to do the same, but now we’re going to the span of time is before one week ago, but prior to one month ago. So before one week ago. Something that you feel good about, that you are pleased with yourself more than a week ago, but before one month.
More than a week ago, but prior to one month ago. Again, the same. But now the time period is more than one day ago, but before one week ago, more than one day ago, but before one week ago, something that you did. And finally, something that you did today. You’ve been up with only something very small, almost insignificant.
Find a way to feel pleased about it, to feel good about yourself. Rejoice. Something small. And we’re going to look at others. Beginning with a friend, somebody that you like.
Think of a friend, somebody that you like. Think of something that good that they’ve done, that was worthwhile. Simply rejoice. Be glad for them. Be glad in what they did.
We can do the same with a neutral person, a stranger, someone you neither like nor dislike, but you know of something that they’ve done that was worthwhile and was fortunate. You could be pleased for them, be pleased for what they did. And then finally, someone you don’t like, especially someone you’re jealous of. Something that they have, some qualities, some possession, something they did. See if you can be happy about it.
And then bring your mind back to the breath. And then get in touch with your body, feelings, sensations in the body. And then slowly in a gentle, easy manner manner, become aware of what’s going on about you. Just take your time. There’s no hurry.
So we’ve been looking at short text, the three principal aspects of the path. And it was the overall text was divided into three part parts, the prologue, the body, of the text, and the conclusion. And we started going through the prologue, and that began with the preliminary offering of praises, and that was contained in the first line, Homage to all the foremost holy lamas, and we talked about lama in terms of the external lama and the internal lama, the necessity and the qualities of both of those. And then we began the actual the second of the three preliminaries, the preliminary of the pledge to compose.
I will explain as best I can the essential meaning of all of the conqueror’s teachings, path praised by his noble children, the path for the fortunate seeking liberation. And this was the setting out the three principal aspects of the path. The essential meaning of all the conqueror’s teachings, that was the first of the three principal aspects of the path, the will to be free, the path praised by his noble children, the second, the awakened heart, and finally, the path for the fortunate ones seeking liberation. That was the third of the three principal aspects of the path, the correct view. And then the the third of the three preliminaries preliminaries was that of the preliminary of encouragement.
That’s in the second verse. Listen with clear minds. Those fortunate of you who unattached to the pleasures of conditioned existence and striving that your lives of freedom and richness will find meaning, entrust yourselves to the paths pleasing the conquerors. So we we talked about the to whom Tsongkhapa is addressing his teaching to the listener and those who are unattached to the pleasures of conditioned existence. So, you know, unattached we mean not getting caught up in these chain reactions and complications of karma and afflictive emotions, you know, which we call conditioned existence.
Conditioned existence is existence which is conditioned or influenced or under the control of karma and afflictive emotions. And those who are unattached, those who have are interested in developing the will to awaken, that they simply want to develop themselves, they want to grow. Finally, it’s creating some kind of space, some kind of perspective. So we aren’t continually caught up in the complications. These chain reactions that we normally lose ourselves in, attachment, anger, jealousy, and so forth.
The striving that your lives of freedom and richness will find meaning is the most important, the most useful way that we can make use of our lives. These This window of opportunity which is described here as life of freedom and richness. Going to talk about what constitutes freedom and richness, but enough to that that we all have it. We’re we’re quite fortunate, but we we more than not take it for granted. But the the the the greatest use that we can we can make use of our lives is to awaken our heart and cultivate love and compassion.
This is a real, you know, as was talked about, a real refuge for ourselves. So those, you know, those who are interested development of love and compassion, that is the awakened heart. And trust yourselves to the paths that pleasing the conquerors. You know, this is the the third of these three principal aspects of the path, the awakened mind. I just say, know, we we have to develop this understanding of the deeper nature of things, especially with regard to the nature of the self, the I, and the way things about us exist if we’re ever going to free ourselves completely from the afflictive emotions.
All the various afflictive emotions, these patterns of thinking, such as attachment, hatred, pride, and jealousy, so forth, they all arise on the basis of ignorance. And here, ignorance is is more than just not knowing. It’s a misknowing. A misapprehension about the way things exist. We have a a misconception about the way the I exist and dependence upon that.
And hatred, they all have at their core a sense of a solid, concrete I. Based upon this, we make a distinction, an absolute distinction between that I and what is not I, other. And out of that arises attachment for that which is other that enhances ourselves and aversion for others which seem to threaten ourselves. So all of this proliferation of of negativity and so forth all arises on the basis of this basic misconception of ignorance. So that’s the path which pleases the conqueror as developing the wisdom or the awakened mind which understands the which acts as an antidote to this ignorance.
So it it mentions that that we are to those fortunate ones. So who are fortunate? So those who have who are develop developing an interest in the these three principal aspects of the path and in the practices which by means of which we can generate these within our own mind. There are three stages of training which this involves. So the way that we can actually go about this through the trainings of listening, reflecting, and finally meditating.
And these these are emphasized again and again. You know, this is this is a really an intelligent grounded way to approach what we’re doing. To to work in with these three stages or these three levels in terms of listening, reflecting, and meditating. Listening and reflecting without meditating is like having legs but no eyes. Meditating without listening and reflecting is like having eyes with no legs.
And in either case we don’t get very far. So the image which is quite often used in explanations is that as if meditation is like putting ourselves with eyes and they put themselves on the shoulders of someone who has sound legs. And the sound legs are listening and reflecting or just thinking about validating what is heard and then actually meditating on it. So meditation is like someone who doesn’t have legs but can see, whereas listening and reflecting is like someone who has legs, can move about but doesn’t have eyes. So but this combination of the two, listening, reflecting, meditating, then we can travel to any destination that we so desire.
So there are three stages in this process of developing these three principal aspects of the path. We begin the first stage which is listening. Listening involves listening to and studying the teachings within it but it requires something of an open mind. You know that we have to have a receptive mind. A mind that does not unthinkingly reject or distort what is being heard or what is being read.
So this is the initial stage. We, we, you know, we need to begin to gather information. We need to begin to understand the terms, the various categories, the structure of the teachings. This is this is where we learn about new ideas. The new and different ideas.
The listening stage. Then there’s the second stage, that of reflecting. So this involves carefully considering what you have received to understand in order to clarify what is the significance. You know, what is the meaning of what I have heard? We we critically examine whatever we’ve heard, whatever we’ve read in the light of our own reason, in the light of our own experience.
We have to to it doesn’t do any good to simply accept dogma or accept because someone said it so. That really won’t help us to change our mind. We have to critically analyze it for ourselves in terms of our our own ability to reason and in terms of does correspond to my actual experience? Are these teachings true or not? Are the ideas presented, are they logical?
Are they internally consistent? Do they agree with my experience? And are my methods of reasoning and evaluating my experience? And we even have to look at that and see whether they’re valid or not. So through this process of questioning, doubts will arise.
Doubt is within Buddhism, we talk about two types of doubt. One is called afflictive doubt. The other is what we say? Constructive doubt. That’s why I always like that word constructive.
Productive doubt. Healthy doubt. It’s a very valuable level of mind doubt. And it was like, you know, there’s a process in in Buddhist psychology where you go where you move from a wrong view to a correct view, to direct experience. And in this transition period, the mind begins to vacillate.
Doubt is a two pointed mind. It vacillates between the factual and the non factual, between the correct position and the incorrect position. Now in many of these areas we’re holding an incorrect position, an incorrect view. We have some wrong ideas. And in moving to the correct position, we have to move through this no man’s land of doubt.
We’re we’re not quite sure. It could what he says could be true, but maybe it’s not. So the only way that we doubt is a very creative state. It’s a very useful state. It doesn’t feel very comfortable, but it’s the but it’s a type of tension that I was talking about before in in in terms of change.
There’s a certain uncomfortable transition which is associated with some kind of uncomfortable feelings with tension, which we have to be willing to abide with, to remain with. The doubt in itself is highly prized. It’s, I think, Āryadeva says in his Four Hundred, really having the doubt whether things are truly existent or not shakes the very foundation of cyclic existence. Just the doubt about that, you know, whether ignorance, as conceived the the way things are as conceived by ignorance is true or not. Just having the doubt is a very powerful state of mind.
It’s not a final state by all means, but it is part of the process in coming to a real understanding for ourselves. So through the dissolutions of our doubt, we come to knowledge. We know for things for ourselves. How much how much do we really know for ourselves? I think we we know very little for ourselves in a way.
You know? Most of how much information I gathered over the years I’ve been studying, and I knew very little for myself. That’s amazing. But I think that’s true of all of us in whatever way. How much time do we actually come to know for ourselves?
That’s what that’s our refuge. That’s where change will really take place. Anyway, so this is the stage of reflecting or or thinking about it or examining, the second stage. Finally, the third stage is meditating. So this involves integrating the newly acquired knowledge, you know, into our being, into our character.
It’s way it’s like putting it into practice. It’s like, it’s a practice in the sense of of actually doing or being whatever it is rather than simply thinking about it. Rather than thinking about love and compassion, we be love. Yeah? There’s a big difference, isn’t there?
So this is a meditation. It is the being of that love that we’ve been hearing and thinking about. And then we put it into practice and we actually be it. And the idea of meditation, in Tibetan, the type of meditation is the Tibetan word is gom. Gom simply means to familiarize.
It’s not very mystical. It’s not very otherworldly. It’s to get used to, to habituate to some degree, to integrate. You know, we we we and again and again, it’s like we have we have a recipe book and we follow the recipe, add two parts of equanimity, one part of all of mother sentient beings, sentient beings having been our mothers and remembering their kindness, and we follow this recipe and we are able to skillfully evoke particular states of mind and we get used to them and we begin we familiarize and eventually they become who we are. They become our second nature.
They become our actual nature. We change. So that’s the third stage, the stage of experiencing new and different ideals for ourselves. So at the listening stage, gather the bare facts together. We we see how the information kinda fits together.
Then at the reflecting stage, using your reasoning, your own experience, you you create and clarify doubts, and we gain knowledge for ourselves. We gain certainty. Certainty is tremendously powerful. You know? It’s that you’ve moved through the level of doubt, and now you know for yourself.
You know? It’s like, know, no one can change your mind because you know. There’s a real confidence. With this confidence, we can we we embark on this third stage. The stage of meditation, all the doubts and all the hesitations have disappeared.
And now we experience the true significance of the teaching for ourselves. Through accustoming ourselves, our mind to this newfound experience, again and again and again, we we we it becomes our second nature, becomes our actual nature, we change, we evolve. So, because our practice, because our progress along the stages of the path involves these three stages of listening, reflecting, and meditating, again and again, Tsongkhapa says, Those fortunate ones interested in developing the three aspects of the path, listen. You should listen. Okay?
That’s the beginning to listen. Okay, but simply that is not enough. I’m sorry. We have to know how to listen. That’s one thing about Tibetan Buddhism.
They’ve got it all down in detail if you’re willing to listen. Anyway, I’ve, didn’t get very far in the text tonight. You’ve been very good listeners. We’ve got a few minutes. Do you have anything we want to talk about?
Any questions? Any points you want to bring up? No. So, yeah, I mean, I traditionally, it’s the the the fear of there’s two there’s two levels of fear for going for refuge. One for the for the being of we talked about the three scopes, the being of lesser and middle scope.
So they have being of small scope has fear and it’s directed toward the sufferings of three lower realms, taking rebirth in the three lower realms. So generally I talk about it just in terms of these reoccurring patterns of suffering, even in the course of this life, and I talk about constructive anxiety. But more traditionally, the being of the small scope, his motivation for going for refuge is fear of rebirth in the three lower realms and the suffering that that entails. The being of the middle scope has fear of in general, that even the upper realms are dissatisfactory. So he doesn’t want to he has fear of any state with that’s bounded by within cyclic existence.
But the fear of the Bodhisattva is not the fear of cyclic existence as such. He has the he is he he he has a fear of passive peace, of, you know, of withdrawing into his own isolated nirvana and being in in the withdrawing into that and being and fear and he has fear of the passivity, the inability of working with others in such a state. So the fear of the bodhisattva, the refuge of the Bodhisattva with regard to his fear of the passive peace of nirvana is compassion. He goes refuge to compassion as a as a means of not falling into passive peace. So there are three levels of fear according to the three scopes.
Yeah. But I just talk about it. Yeah. I talk about it a little bit differently. That’s right.
I think it’s, I think it’s, it really pretty much depends upon the individual. What do you think? I would use it as a form of motivation in some sense. Yeah. If it’s if if it’s to work if it’s actually to serve as a if it’s actually to work, serve as a motivation, then we have to have some confidence in rebirth.
Yeah. Some feeling for that we are going to be in rebirth. Right? So we are going to talk about rebirth in the future. Will talk about some of the reasoning which establishes rebirth.
But in order for that level of motivation, have to you actually have to have some conviction that that you are going to be reborn. So but it’s very useful for sure. If we can talk about it in a way which includes not only future lives, but even in the course of this life, then maybe that that that is more inclusive. And maybe it maybe it can motivate us to to to change even if we saw it in the in this life, what to say of future lives. You know, we’re not quite so sure about the future lives maybe.
But maybe even only in this life, beginning to see the necessity to to that that my methods of working with my problems that I haven’t worked up to now, and I’ve gotta try something else. And even if it’s only confined to this life, I think it’s worthwhile. But you’re right. I mean, what you said. If you can extend that, then perhaps it’s even more powerful.
I’m sure it’s more powerful. What do you think? It’s good. And so, yeah, I agree with what you said. I think that’s quite intelligent.
It’s good. Mean yeah. It’s I guess, you know, we have to we have to work with what we where we’re at. So I think at the same time that we’re that we’re working with this life, we have to also work with the ideas of future lives because, you know, like, Dalai Lama said, you know, when when you talk about when he talks about the Bodhisattva idea and trying to achieve Buddhahood, and if you you need a really vast perspective, you know, a cosmic perspective in what what this is all about. I don’t and I I don’t care how many lives it takes me.
I want to I’m going to keep this practice up. I’m going to continue throughout all of my infinite life. And that kind of vision. And then it takes off some kind of I think it cuts through a lot of ego. I think it takes a lot of pressure off.
You just you just do your work a little bit each day until you then you get you get a bigger picture of things. You know? That this is only part of of of this vast cosmic drama that we’re all part of. And that it doesn’t you know, we we don’t have to overblow our sense of importance or that it all has to be done now or and this is I think it would be a I think there would be a lot of ego involved, a false sense of the eye in that kind in that way of thinking. But if you can think that, you know, this is a long term project, now you have to do the work now or it’s never going to be done.
But but it’s going to you know, I just have to do what I can each day and things will evolve. And I’ll be able to carry on in the future and again in the future And having some kind of really vast perspective, I think maybe helps. And also, we don’t get caught, you know, one of the one we don’t get completely caught up in the a lot of the other the little dramas that occur over the course of our everyday lives. And if you can keep some kind of vast perspective, even on the perspective on this line. Even the perspective yeah.
What do other people think? Anybody? Yeah. I think you’re right. Yeah.
Think so. Okay. So we won’t we we won’t accomplish it at all tonight. So we dedicate the positive energy that we’ve created together. So I hope you consider coming to the dinner as part of our sangha.
I mean, I think, you know, we we talk, you know, kind of a maybe kind of, you know, getting to know each other and socializing. It’s all part of the all part of the path, I think. Male 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. No one be afraid or belittled with a mind weighed down by depression.
May the blind see forms and deaf hear sounds. May those whose bodies are worn with toil be restored and finding repose. May the naked find clothing, may the hungry find food. May the thirsty find water and delicious drink. May the poor find wealth, those weak with sorrow find joy.
May the forlorn find hope, constant happiness, and prosperity. May there be timely rains and bountiful harvest. May all medicines be effective and wholesome prayers bear fruit. May all who are sick and ill quickly be freed from their ailments. Whatever diseases there are in the world, may they never occur again.
May the frightened cease to be afraid and those bound be freed. May the power of the Dharma prevail and may people think of benefiting each other. 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 jewels of the three principal aspects of the path that have not arisen arise and grow, and may those that have arisen, may they never diminish but increase more and more. And the land is circled by snow mountains.
You are the source of all happiness and well-being. Powerful Chenrezig, Tenzin, Gyatso. Please remain till the end of cyclic existence. Thank you. Good night.