Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this just-over-two-hour session, Ven Jampa Gendun draws on Abraham Maslow’s distinction between deficiency and growth motivation to map the levels of Buddhist aspiration: wanting relief from immediate pain, then individual liberation, then the Mahāyāna commitment to awakening for all beings. He argues the Bodhisattva path is genuinely holistic — humans are both private individuals and social beings, and well-being cannot be won in isolation. The session then turns to the eight worldly concerns — pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and ridicule, fame and disrepute — using the story of Dromtönpa and a circumambulating old man to show that even sincere religious activity is hollow until these compulsive patterns stop governing one’s choices. A guided loving-kindness meditation is woven throughout.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 11 3PA 2006 10 30.mp3
UUID: b955d335-40e0-438d-9b59-42473d7db258
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Three Principle Aspects of the Path 2006-2007 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 2006-10-30
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 124.2 minutes
Words: ~13,380
Can you hear me okay? Yeah. Good. Yes. We’ve been talking.
You know, initially we adjust our motivation. It’s the quality of the intention behind the action which determines the quality of the result of that action. So we practice again and again adjusting our motivation, why behind, in this case, listening or talking about the Dharma. Know, and whatever we do when we undertake some kind of activity, it’s useful to look at your motivation. I think it’s helpful in the short term, in the immediate situation, but it’s quite necessary in terms of feeling assured that the long term results will be beneficial rather than something that you might not want for yourself.
So, we’ve been talking about this in terms of going for refuge. And what is our motivation? How do we develop a positive motivation? How do we go for refuge in general? We said that there were two basic causes.
One of them was the constructive anxiety. So that’s a big word. It’s kind of a maybe kind of a fancy psychological western term. Normally, we in Tibetan Buddhism, they’d probably just say fear. Anyway, some anxiety about the continued reoccurrence of many of the dissatisfactory patterns, the same going through the same repeating attitudes and the various actions and and the various same types of results again and again, the same falling into the same holes again and again and again, even against our better judgment, even against our will.
So we develop some kind of underlying anxiety that things aren’t going as we might like them. This helps us to overcome our unfounded hope that these holes in our life, that these these reoccurring problems in our life are somehow going to go away all by themselves or additionally or that we can rely upon the same methods, the same attitudes or means of dealing with our problems. And even though they haven’t really worked as we want them to work in the past, still this is an unfounded hope that they will in the future for some reason or another. It’s not very reasonable or rational in our thinking, but this is an emotional response that we can keep trying, you know, the same, more of the same, and somehow the results are going to be different. They’re going to be more of what we want.
So in order to overcome this unfounded hope, we we develop constructive anxiety that I have to change my my attitudes, my beliefs, way I’m working with my problems. And then but the other is the other complement of this is the cause for going for refuge to some kind of faith. You know, if is if anxiety kind of is the reason why they’re behind what we do, bringing about the change. Well, we have we’re going to change into something. You know, we just don’t change it in and of itself.
But there’ll be some kind of transformation into something. What is that something? So it’s also the notion of a purpose for bringing about change. So there’s a reason behind and a purpose for. And the purse purpose for is born out of faith.
We we develop some kind of trust in redefining how we look at our ultimate welfare. What is where does our treasure really lie? What is true happiness? In other words, what is in fact a true refuge for ourselves? And I’ve probably mentioned many times that we the idea of going for refuge isn’t particularly Buddhist or Eastern.
It’s we’ve all been going for refuge our entire lives, whether we called it that or not, whether we thought of it in that way or not. In terms of some people go for refuge to their families or to money or to politics or to science or to drugs or to sports. Where you go to define your happiness, where you go where you go to to forget your suffering. And maybe we so developing some kind of faith in alternative refuges because our particular refuge really hasn’t delivered the goods. It hasn’t brought us the happiness that we want.
It hasn’t solved the problems that we’re trying to be rid of. So this faith overcomes our fear around change, taking a risk, you know, change, growth always involves some degree of risk, being willing to bear with the insecurity of exploring unfamiliar territory, of getting to know what feels alien at present, what the unfamiliar, what we’re not accustomed to at present. So it is the faith which overcomes this fear. So these are the two basic causes. But in addition to constructive anxiety and faith, there’s the two main causes for going for refuge.
There remains one additional special cause for a special person who has a special goal. So this cause is the fear of passive peace, which the Bodhisattva, a special person who who seeks the the goal of complete, perfect enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. And they find refuge in great compassion. So we have in general, we we talk about two causes for going for refuge, constructive anxiety and faith. But for the Bodhisattva, it requires another refuge.
Because the Bodhisattva is trying to has dedicated his heart to the welfare of all sentient beings. And in order to do that, has to be in the world with others. He has to share the world of others. And therefore, he there’s only one one thing that a Bodhisattva fears, and that’s the passive peace of his own solitary liberation. And so as as an antidote to that fear, fear, he develops great compassion.
Out of great compassion, great compassion will not allow him or her to remain in in a passive peace. It motivates him or her to to stay in the world and working with others in order to benefit them. You know, the the nature of the path that we travel is determined very much where where it is that we want to go, you know, where we hope to find our refuge. Refuge. So, you know, like, where does your treasure lie?
That that’s that’s the that would determine the path which is going to get you there. So this in turn is determined by our motivation. The why behind our going for refuge. You know, why why why this particular treasure? You know, why get involved in spiritual practice in general?
You know, what’s the intention, the purpose behind it? This is a I’d to read a quote by some of you might be familiar with him. It’s Abraham Maslow. He was an American psychologist and he was quite well known in the sixties and seventies. He he he you know most of psychology deals with pathology, know, what’s wrong with people and how to make them better.
That’s fair enough. But he wanted to find out why people what was right about people and what made them right, you know, why healthy people were healthy. So he he he he concentrated in that area psychology, which many most have never done. Feeling that psychology had concentrated too much on human weakness while neglecting its strength, Abraham Maslow sought to round out the picture by studying emotionally healthy individuals. He regarded human nature as basically good, but saw the innate tendency toward growth and self actualization as rather weak and fragile, easily overcome by social pressures.
Maslow distinguished between deficiency motivation, in which the individual seeks to restore their physical or psychological equilibrium, and growth motivation, in which individuals seek to go beyond what they have done and been in the past. People may welcome uncertainty and increase in tension and even pain if they see it as a route toward greater fulfillment and their human potential. So, you know, taking the lead from this and seeing how this we can interpret what we’re talking about in terms of these various refuges and these various motivations for going for refuge and the nature of our goal. We can distinguish two overall types of motivation which is behind an individual’s efforts in traveling the spiritual path. The why behind what it is that we’re doing.
There is deficiency motivation and essentially deficiency motivation is orientated toward the negative avoidance of physical and mental difficulties in the future. You know, want, of lack, deficiencies, and the removal of any type of suffering, of dissatisfactoriness, any type of future situation. So that’s like a deficiency motivation, trying to remove what’s wrong, you know, coming at the nature of what it is we want from the negative point of view. Also there is the growth motivation in which we are orientated not from the negative point of view but in terms of fulfilling our positive potential. You know, what can be right about us?
The positive attainment of well-being, however we might define it. So we have deficiency motivation in the sense of looking at our situation from a negative point of view, removing any type of want or deficiency or lack or suffering or misery, whatever it is that we don’t want in the future. And on the other hand, have growth motivation, which looks our goals in terms of what we wish to achieve in terms of a positive attainment, and this in terms of our well-being. This growth motivation can be divided into two levels. Primarily that growth, which is primarily intended for our own welfare, primarily intended for our own welfare, and growth, whether it self development, self actualization, which is primarily intended for the welfare of others.
So within this within this growth motivation, we can distinguish between two levels of motivation. One where it’s done out of a primary wish for one’s own benefit, and one which is primarily done for the benefit of others. So here, if we if we apply this to Buddhism, we have the the growth motivation primarily intended sake of ourselves and which we seek the lesser awakening of individual liberation. Sometimes this is termed the Hīnayāna. And then there is the other growth motivation, that which is primarily intended for the welfare of others.
And this is the intention to achieve highest awakening for the sake of all sentient beings, whereby we bring about not only our others’ welfare, but both the welfare of ourselves and others. So within growth motivation, there is the the intention to bring about the welfare of oneself, and that is to say the that is the motivation of the lesser vehicle. And there’s the growth and there’s the growth motivation, primarily intended to bring about, to achieve Buddhahood for the sake of bringing about the welfare of both oneself and others which is the motivation behind the Mahāyāna or the great vehicle. So a Bodhisattva is someone who has heroically dedicated their life to the goal of highest awakening for the sake of all sentient beings. This word Bodhisattva, Bodhi means awaken or sometimes translated as enlightenment.
Sattva means hero, one who is heroic with the intention to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. And this this person only fears one thing. And that is to say the and therefore they only what we fear, we seek some kind refuge from. And this Bodhisattva seeks refuge from the seduction of a solitary peace, you know, where where he has fulfilled his own welfare and withdrawing from the world of others into an isolated realm of his own passive peace. So he’s actually afraid of that state, and so he he looks for some kind of refuge from that state.
And his refuge is great compassion, his own great compassion. It that that protects the bodhisattva from the self absorbed oblivion of solitary liberation. It’s an this self absorbed oblivion of solitary liberation is an awakening, but it’s an individual awakening, and therefore, is said to be a lesser one. So there are you know, if we look at the nature of ourselves, there are two fundamental aspects to ourselves. There is you know, what it is that constitutes the dimensions of our being, of who we are.
On the one hand, there is the private aspect of ourselves. You know, that part of ourselves which is inaccessible to others, which is lived out through our own inner experience, the the the private domain of our of our inner world, the the of our self, of the eye. On the other hand, there’s a there’s a social aspect to ourselves, that part of ourselves which is lived out through our relationship with others, with being in the world with with others. So this is this is the the the the eye of the outer domain. From the point of view of the holistic, it seems as if Mahāyāna or the great vehicle, universal vehicle is concerned with the totality of the person.
That’s why I use the term holistic. From the point of view of holistic approach of the great vehicle, the lesser vehicle, the Hīnayāna, is seen to fall to the extreme of individualism, you know, which it doesn’t take into account that we as human beings are social beings. Mental health is a social phenomenon. It occurs within the context of society in the world that we live. That if we are to actualize our fullest potential, our human potential, we have to not only make effort in trying to find some kind of experience of inner peace for ourselves, but we also have to make make effort in finding some kind of meaningful and skillful way of being in the world with others, which are interrelated necessitate entails.
So the presupposition here is that well-being is not something simply to be to be found in isolation from others. It’s not simply a solitary acquisition, you know, of some kinds of realizations for yourself alone, but is a social phenomena. This is where we can find the the fulfillment of our highest goal within the context of bringing about our own inner peace in terms of our private experience, our private aspect of ourselves, but also in being develop being able to develop ourselves to an optimum being a way of being with others and being able to skillfully work with others to help them also to find peace. And this is why, you know, I mentioned that the Mahāyāna sees that the Hīnayāna falls to the extreme of individualism. They’ve only it’s only they develop awakening, but only partially so.
They haven’t really developed their full potential, the, you know, the totality of who they could be. So we are social beings. Mental health, our our our ultimate welfare is necessary necessarily brought about in terms of concerning ourselves with others in in in addition to ourselves, not to the exclusion of others and not isolated from others, but but in with regard to others as well as ourselves. And somehow our goal has to take in consideration that we are we exist in in a relationship with others. So our desperate I read another quote.
Our desperate need is to realize that we need both qualities in life. We need individuality and we need relationship. We can’t have one at the expense of the other. No man can be fully an individual unless he is fully related, and his capacity for genuine relatedness grows in proportion as he becomes a complete individual. And it’s like yeah.
These two aspects of life are yoked together by a deep and ancient bond, for they are really two sides of the same archetype, two faces of the same reality. So the path of the great vehicle necessarily begins with ourselves. That’s, you know, that’s where the path begins. That’s the only our own self interest is the only reality that we recognize at present. That that’s, you know, if we’re if we’re to be, you know, genuine, if we’re to be honest with ourselves, that’s where we’re at.
So we we the path, we must begin. We have to start from where we’re at now, not where we like to be or where we think we should be, but where we’re at. And that is very that entails recognizing that for the most part, we’re involved in our own self interest. But ultimately, you know, our goal doesn’t lie there. That’s that’s merely a starting point, isn’t it?
Our our our ultimately, our goal lies with others and caring for them and being and actively working about working for their welfare. So though we start with ourselves, necessarily so, and that’s not an end in itself. That’s only a a step along the path, the journey. You know, the the initial focus of of the great vehicle, Mahāyāna, is upon our personal problems, you know, our own suffering. We if we never develop a deeply felt genuine and sincere determination to be free of our own problems, to free of our own suffering, how could we ever develop that concern for others?
We can’t. We only know we at best, we only know others’ difficulties and problems and suffering vicariously, secondhandedly, but we know our our own immediately and through our own direct experience. So if that doesn’t move us to do something, thinking about others’ suffering never will. So we begin we have to begin with ourselves in developing this attitude of wishing to be free. And this is what Śāntideva means. Śāntideva was an eighth century Indian master who wrote the Engaging in the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, one of the most important texts in Mahāyāna Buddhism where he says, if we have never before dreamt even our dreams such an attitude as this for our own sake, how will we ever develop it for the sake of others?
What this means is that in the practice of the great vehicle, Mahāyāna, just like the great the lesser vehicle, the Hīnayāna, first, we have to we have to it asks us to to expand the scope of our motivation. Everyone has has a a the normal deficiency motivation, wishing to be free of, you know, their their their want and pain and suffering. Even animals have that. You know? There’s there’s no great accomplishment wanting that you wish not to suffer.
But it asks us but but both the lesser vehicle and the great vehicle asks us to begin to expand the scope of that motivation, wanting to be free from our immediate problems and difficulties in terms of directing, you know, what is is merely being directed at the elimination of our immediate problems to to begin to see our problems in in a greater scope in terms of the lived quality of future states of being, you know, to extend our our our perspective from simply, you know, meeting the immediate demands of gratification of our ego, ridding ourselves of immediate problems, reacting to whatever it is that we become involved in in that from that motivation, that point of view, to one to begin to become more future orientated in terms of wanting to rid of future sufferings, all possible difficulties in future states of existence. So we begin to extend the our perspective. Our deficiency and motivation is is being developed. But just like the lesser vehicle, the Mahāyāna, the great vehicle, asked us to expand our our perspective, our scope even further in terms of what we see as the nature of our problems. That not only the problems and difficulties and the wants and the needs and the sufferings of of future states, but of any state within cyclic existence, within these perpetual cycles of dissatisfaction that we keep revolving around in.
So, you know, that that beyond the mere elimination of the relatively superficial problems to one of looking at our problems in a very deeper way and actually seeing the nature of our problems in terms of their basic causes, in terms of ignorance and so forth, and beginning to to develop determination to be free of the of the root of our problems, not just the elimination of the, you know, the ongoing difficulties as they as we meet them, but to begin to eliminate them altogether, all problems and sufferings altogether. So the attainment of our complete well-being. So the the the we evolve our deficiency of motivation from in our spiritual practice from one of of growth, seeking our our personal welfare to one of seeking complete peace. But that so that’s in common with the with the lesser vehicle, you know, the seeking one’s own individual welfare, one’s own individual peace where where all the difficulties, all the problems, one has one has found the fulfillment in terms of one inner dimension of one’s being, one is at peace. But so that’s where the lesser vehicle stops, the Hīnayāna ends.
But the Mahāyāna asks us to go further. It’s quite demanding of us. It asks us that we we we not leave off there. That it asks us to expand the scope of our concern even further. That we we that in fact we begin to include the welfare of not just ourselves, but the welfare of all others.
That we we we it asks us to evolve or develop motivation to of our spiritual practice for one of the growth primarily intended for our own welfare to to one of growth primarily intended for the sake of all other beings. So it’s asking us to extend the scope of our growth motivation behind our practice, whatever it is that we’re doing. So therefore, our our the central focus of our practice becomes the elimination of our of any hindrance or obstacle in our ability to to bring about the welfare of others, to help others, and help them to find to rid them of suffering and help them to find well-being. So it is it is accomplished in this very goal that we accomplish the ultimate welfare of both ourselves and others. The notion is that in developing the ability, you know, if you really want to help somebody, you have to be somebody yourself, don’t you?
The more you the more you want to give, the more you have to be in order to be able to give that. So the the the Bodhisattva develops this intention, you know, this this this noble aspiration to be able to benefit others in the in the most optimum way possible to the maximum ability that, you know, we could that a human being can to develop. In order to achieve that in, he or she has to develop their their their capacity, their abilities, their their skills to the to the optimum level, to the maximum possibility a human being can achieve. That’s the that’s the that’s the that’s the the rationale behind it. If I’m going to help you, I have the ability have the ability to help.
Therefore, I’m going develop that ability. Therefore, in order to what is the maximum possibility? That is to say, I have to become a Buddha. A Buddha is simply someone who has the optimized human potential to be a benefit, both in terms of themselves and others. So the the holism of the great vehicle emphasizes that to be a self, you know, you know, we’re important as individuals.
We, you know, we can’t we can’t try to to it wouldn’t be healthy, I don’t think, to deny that, to to to to try to pretend that you aren’t concerned with self, that you that that that we are we are essentially self directing unique individuals whose experiences actions and concerns are valuable in and of themselves. But at the same time, we are social beings, you know, who are inextricably bound up related to the world of others. And but these two ways of being, you know, being for oneself and being for others, are are not necessarily in conflict as we normally conceive them to be. You know? They’re just mutually they’re two mutually necessary aspects of human life.
You know? Self assertion and self integration. And getting what you want and at the same same time helping others to get what they need are two ways that we actually live our life, our everyday life. And it’s both of these are necessary for a successful life. So on the one hand, a living on the one hand, a living system is an integrated whole with its own individuality.
It has the tendency to assert itself and to preserve that individuality. As part of a larger whole, it needs to be integrated itself into the larger whole. In order to have a healthy life, you need to search yourself, and you need to be integrate integrate yourself. So our our our our self fulfillment and our social responsibility, We’re we’re always moving between these, aren’t they? Even in a family, you know, you know, filling up your own stomach, but then again being concerned about the stomachs of the people who are near you.
Fill you know, bringing about your own welfare, concern with your own needs, bring you know, having to, you know you have to eat in order to fill your stomach. You have to take care of yourself. But at the same time, we we can’t that can’t be the end of of how we act in the world. You know? Then we would be simply it would be like a cancer, which simply is a parasite on everything else around us.
We we are part you know, we we exist relation even within a family. So we need we need, you know, that these two, self fulfillment and social responsibility, are not antagonistic, but are are two mutually their synthesis is is integral to the to the great vehicle, the Mahāyāna. His this is what I think what is the Dalai Lama means, his holiness, Dalai Lama means when he said, we are selfish, but we can try to be at least wisely selfish. And what does he mean by by being wisely selfish? You know?
If if if the greater our concern and and compassion for others, the less problematic our lives will be for ourselves. In fulfilling the needs of others, our own needs are fulfilled. You know, if if if the interest of others, our interests, then there’s no conflict. How can there be a conflict? No one would deny you that if you were simply trying to help them.
They would never prevent you from doing that. You know? That we we in in in seeking to grow and ultimately to awaken, to bring for the sake of others, we we bring about our our own highest possible potential. And therefore, we bring about our own ultimate welfare as a byproduct in in achieving that end. So altruism is the most skillful way to be wisely selfish.
The way that we can bring about self interests, bringing about peace to the inner domain, this individual aspect of ourselves, but also the way that we can most skillfully be in this world with others, the way that we can most healthily relate and most beneficially be. So in this process, the the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha. And this this becomes our goal. This is our orientation, whatever Buddha might be. This you know, I think, essentially, in this context, a Buddha is someone who experiences unrelenting peace within some within themselves.
So they have fulfilled their own welfare. But moreover, they they skillfully and fearlessly work with others in order to help them, help others to experience the same. So that’s the that’s like the best thing we could be. We could make of our lives, what we could do with our lives is to find inner peace and develop the skills and the fearlessness to be able to help others to do the same. And that that’s the orientation that becomes the inner focus of our life.
And we actually have to do something, and what we do in order to achieve that in is practice the Dharma. You know, we we involve ourselves in the various practices and the meditations. We try to understand the truth of things. And this is you know, it’s said that the the Buddhas do not wash away sins with water, nor that it removes suffering with their hands, nor do they transfer their realization to the mind of others, but by their showing of the truth, all would be made free. If we’re if we’re if we’re you know, it is the truth which makes us free.
And if we’re ever going to wish to become a Buddha and to show others the truth, the actual the actuality, the nature of things, we have to discover it for ourselves. So we have to this becomes our Dharma. And we we we understand that this process occurs within the social context of the spiritual community, the Sangha. So we’re talking about these three refuges, you know, those Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. And we try again and again to raise the level of motivation, motivation, you know, the the why behind and the reason for such that we’re not doing it just for our own sake, you know, just of all of what we’ve been talking about just now, that we try to be developed to some degree an altruistic motivation to be wisely selfish for doing what we’re doing, such that ultimately we we seek perfectly complete enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, Maybe for even for one other person.
And then we we can be assured that the results are going to be positive. We’re going to it’s going to serve what we what we want. 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 for some and aversion toward others. So we’re going to meditate. If you’d like to stretch your legs, then we’ll sit. So we we can meditate on mindfulness of the breath, and then we’ll meditate on loving kindness.
So take a comfortable firm posture. We’ll begin by relaxing the body. First step, beginning at the crown of your head, bringing your awareness to the scalp, to the forehead, feeling the the wrinkles in your brow begin to smooth out, the tensions beginning to move down and out of your body. Feeling the pressure in and around the eyes beginning to dissipate, to lessen. Muscles of the face becoming relaxed.
The jaw is relaxed. Relaxing the muscles in the neck perhaps turn your neck your head to the side gently a few times. The softening, loosening. Moving down to your shoulders. Let’s rotate in your shoulders a few times, keeping your back straight and letting your shoulders drop to the sides at ease.
Feeling the burden, the tension that we carry in our shoulders moving down through your body into the ground. Your hands are relaxed. Your lower arms. Upper arms. Chest at ease.
Letting go of the tensions that we hold in our stomach muscles. Just let your belly go soft. Relaxing throughout the pelvic area, the buttocks, The upper legs. The lower legs. And your feet.
Bring your awareness to the body in general, noticing any tightness, any tensions. Bring your awareness to that area, consciously relaxing and softening, feeling the tightness loosen. Your body is comfortable, at ease, relaxed. And then bring your mind to the breath. Just the easy, gentle in and out flow of the natural breath.
It’s helpful using techniques of counting, noting the breath. Now we’re going to meditate on loving kindness, and we can begin with ourselves. So whatever mistakes that you feel you may have created in the past, you can simply develop a healthy sense of regret and begin to move on. And whatever changes that you want to make in yourself, you can become anything that you want to be. But for this present moment, we want to set aside the past and the future and simply get in touch with ourselves in the present moment, be kind to ourselves, and wish ourselves well.
So just develop generate some kind, caring feelings towards yourself. You want to be happy too. You don’t want to suffer just like everyone else. May I be happy? May I grow?
May I not suffer? May all the good things of life come to me. Be kind to yourself and wish yourself well. Now think of someone that you like, that you love, and imagine that person in front of you. If you can’t see them, it doesn’t matter.
Just feel that the person is there and recall all the the good times that you’ve shared together. Remember all the kindnesses that this person has shown you. And begin to direct outwardly, radiate out towards this person the kind and caring feelings which naturally arise when you think of this person this way, you know, feelings of wishing them happiness that they not suffer. May you be happy. You know, all the good things in life for years.
Wish them well. Wish them happiness. Now think of someone you neither like nor dislike, a stranger. I mean, that you’ve seen but you really don’t know. Imagine that person in front of you.
Though you don’t know their particular story, still you can be sure that they want to be happy and they don’t want to suffer just like yourself. And just as you wish your own self happiness and not to suffer. Simply out of the the basic goodness of your heart towards another fellow human being, simply wish them well. Wish them happiness just as you do toward yourself. Now think of someone you don’t like, someone you you have problems with.
Imagine that person in front of you. This person wants to be happy and doesn’t want to suffer just like yourself. And perhaps their way of going about finding happiness and solving their problems is coming in contact with your methods of finding your own happiness and solving your own problems with them. This is conflict of self interest. Just as you have to begin to forgive yourself for the mistakes that you made, you have to begin to forgive this person for the mistakes they’ve made out of fear or pain or confusion.
So whatever level you can, in whatever way you can, just for the moment, aside your hurt or your grudge. And out of the goodness of your heart, understanding that we’re all very much alike in our difficulties. Wish them well. Wish them happiness. Imagine these four people together, yourself and these three others.
Though each has appears very different to you, though you feel have different feelings for each of them from the point of view that they all want to be happy, None of them want to suffer completely equal. And without any bias, radiate out a feeling that we should have happiness and well-being to all four equally. And all the people in this room, people trying to take responsibility for their lives, trying to work with their problems at a deeper level, looking for happiness. And I wish that they find whatever it is they’re looking for, whatever it might be, wish that they had it. Radiate out a wish of happiness and well-being to everyone in the room.
Extending this wish out further to all the people in Fullerton, people in their houses cooking, watching television, eating, getting ready for bed, all the people in their cars, in the street. Further, through all of Adelaide, all the department stores, the office buildings, the factories, people in their homes, and buses, car. Extending this wish out to all of South Australia. In Melbourne, Hobart, Sydney, Brisbane, Alice Springs, Darwin, Perth, entire country. New Zealand, northward to East Timor, Indonesia, Southeast Asian, Asia, sending this wish out to westward to Europe, Africa, South America, North America.
Just feel as if you take the whole world into your heart, all the people, black, white, red, yellow, all the animals, all the insects, everything that lives on earth is touched by wish that they’d be happy that they’re not sadder. Directing this wish out in all the directions of space. Further and further without any sense of limitations. Until finally, without any boundaries, without any center pervading all of infinite space, I wish we all be happy. May there be only happiness.
May there be peace. Bring your mind back to the breath. And then getting in touch with your body, feeling sensations, feelings within the body. And slowly and gentle and relaxed manner, becoming aware of what’s going on about you. Just take your time.
There’s no hurry. So we’re looking at the the first of three principal aspects of the path, the will to awaken. And we said this particular section, the body of the text, in terms of the first fundamental of the path is divided into three. The reasons why we should develop the will to awaken, the way to develop it, and then the point at which it has been developed. And we looked at the reason why we should develop it.
And this was in the third verse without the real renunciation. There is no way to end your struggle for pleasure. For pleasure is sought in the seas of conditioned existence and to clinging to such existence will utterly enslave you. Thus, at the outset, seek the will to awaken. So we have to develop a real determination to be free of these reoccurring dissatisfactory patterns of our life, our ways of thinking and behaving.
It takes a lot. I think we really have to energize ourselves and motivate ourselves to get unstuck. We really have to want to. It has to be something beyond curiosity or speculation and some intellectual idea of interest to ourselves, but almost of a necessity, almost a need. We we see that there’s no alternative open to ourselves.
We have to change, basically. So that requires a real determination on our own part, some kind of commitment to change. And then the the what we’re going to begin to look at tonight is the way to develop the will to awaken. And, you know, I think we we I think I emphasized a great deal or that our lives are based upon sets of ideas and we have we have core assumptions, we have belief systems. We might not be aware of many of these, but our ways of thinking and therefore our ways of behaving are based upon them.
To a very large extent, men and women are a product of how they define themselves. As a result of combination of innate ideas and intimate influence of the culture and environment we grow up in, we come to have beliefs about the nature of being human. These these beliefs penetrate to a very deep level of our psychosomatic systems, our minds and brains, our nervous system, and even our blood and sinus. We act, speak, and think according to these deeply held beliefs and belief systems. So I think, you know, this will to awaken, this determination to be free is a bit determining to become aware of and begin to challenge many of our become aware of many of our erroneous ideas, our systems, mistaken beliefs, our wrong assumptions.
You know, I I talked about previously about Buddhist therapy is truth therapy. You know, it’s the truth which is going to make you free. So we have to get in touch initially with with where it is we’re going wrong in our thinking, in terms of our ideas, in terms of our beliefs, our assumptions, and begin to challenge them to see that they are that there’s a disparity between what we come to understand reasonably and through our own direct experience and what we have learned. You know, all these various mistaken ways of learning can be unlearned. New learning can take its place.
We can we can learn we can relearn how to live our lives in terms of the the developing ideas and beliefs which are which accord with the reality of the way things are beyond the set of fictions that we’re continually projecting upon the world and ourselves around us. So most all of us harbor, you know, what what is you know, a lot of what we’re going to be going through is simply helping us to become aware of where our thinking is going wrong, where we’re beginning to recognize within our own sets of beliefs, where are some of our mistaken beliefs, what are some of the wrong ideas that we’re basing our our judgment on in the way we conduct our life. You know, for example, most all of us harbor ideas about ourselves that we’re limited, that we’re insufficient, that we’re incomplete. It’s as if all that were necessary for happiness lies outside of ourselves. Outside of ourselves somewhere about us, we can find the missing pieces to ourselves to make ourselves feel complete.
We we we we take for granted our human lives as if they happen by mere chance, as if as if they possess no other purpose or Mhmm. No other meaning than simply the the the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. That that we we have a sense that we that the for most people, you know, the the fullness of life, what a successful life might be, can be as determined in very much by what we own or what we come to control. That’s the measure of a successful life in one way for many people. That’s one of the core ideas or assumptions or beliefs.
So we think and act as if we are going to live forever. And as and and even if we have some some you know, we we put the veils between ourselves and our impending death, the inevitability of our death. And even if we were to, in some degree, become aware that, you know, in fact, I’m going to die, but still, it’s far enough in the future, sometime in the the in the the long distance that it may not concern us now at present. In one way or another, we we feel ourselves to be victims of of factors which are more or less external to ourselves. You know, life seems to be happening to us like like a like an accident, like in a car and somebody crashes into you.
You know, life is like, the events of our life seem to be being imposed upon us in one way or another from the outside, as if our lives were not under our control or they weren’t the outcomes of what we do experience, weren’t an outcome of of our previous ways of thinking and acting as if it’s beyond it’s not our responsibility in some way or another, what it is, what we do experience. So we, you know, we look at others in a material world as if they hold the promise of lasting happiness. Yet if as if, you know, we could we could find some kind of refuge in something outside of ourselves. You know, I talked about all some kind of final refuge, some kind of you know, I talked about these before, like, you know, taking refuge in your family, taking refuge in power, money, politics, belonging to an organization, all the possible, you know, possible ways that we feel that we can solve our problems, find the happiness that we were looking for, something outside of ourselves. Our refuge is always external to ourselves.
You know, we look to others to others in the world about us as if they can bring us lasting happiness. As if, you know, we grasp to what to that which is momentary. You know, know, something which this world about us and all the things in it, which are continually slipping through our fingers like like like when you pick up a handful of sand, you know, it’s escaping between your fingers. It runs out out of your hand as if they were going to last forever if we could hold on to it in some kind of fixed and unchanging way. And that’s one of the notions that we relate with others and the things about us with.
We we we we we conceive of true as true happiness that which is in fact merely a merely a lessening of previous suffering or merely a moment’s pause in the constant stream of suffering. And then we we grasp as if to these momentary moments of of lessening of tension, but diminishing of dissatisfaction as if this were in fact true happiness. And we orientate ourselves toward this. This this becomes what we see as our ultimate welfare in some way or another. We mistake attachment for love.
We we we seek the sacred in illusion. We we we view this tiny ego island of ours, the island of ego as all as the universe, as if there no there does not lie anything outside the boundaries of our own tiny world of ego. That would that’s all that we know, and we can’t imagine anything beyond that as if that is all there is to know. And more over, we take this entire set of fictions to be to be absolute truth and to be objective truth. We seem to be have some kind of self assurance that this is the way things are if we ever if if indeed we ever question these these ideas and these assumptions and these beliefs at all.
So when when this I mean, we’ve we’ve we’ve fabricated a world for ourselves. And when this fabricated world comes into rubs up against the the way the world as it actually is, inevitably, there there there is disappointment, there’s frustration, conflict in some way or another, in some form or another. So there’s fundamentally there’s a a flawed approach to the living of our life. You know, it’s like a like a someone who who refuses to acknowledge that summer changes to fall, and they dress inappropriately, and they fall ill. They suffer.
So we’re very much like that person, I think, in many ways. So in developing this so we had I mean, this is really a pretty heavy handed way of presenting it. It’s pretty bleak. But we have to I guess, we have to look at our situation in a very in a really realistic and dispassionate way if we’re ever to go beyond our unfounded hopes and fears, if we’re ever going to develop this energy to which determines to change once and for all. You know, that there is other possibilities.
You know, if we if if if there weren’t the possibility of freedom from all of this, then maybe it would be self defeating to talk about it. It would simply depress us to look at our situation. But it’s this is meant to help us to look beyond. You know? If if if you never you know, it’s as if you become we become institutionalized like a prisoner.
You know? It’s not so bad after all, and we never seek freedom from it. You you be it ever so humble, no, how however depressing and dissatisfactory it might be at home. It’s all that we’ve come to know. We just have to look it by with it, and it’s it’s a fact that I think there was a on the news yesterday, there was somebody who was being released after thirty two years of prison, but he refused to leave.
You know? That’s his home. There are you know? So we found we found a home in. You know, this we have a sort of a nostalgia for these it’s all that we know.
And so, you know, in order for a prisoner to want to freedom, he has to or she has to become dissatisfied with the present state of his ex of existence. So what, where he is. And but also understand that there’s something more than this. That is that there really exists other possibilities, alternative, which are infinitely more fulfilling, more meaningful, meaningful, more of what a person would want for his life if he knew of it, if he if he had faith in its existence. So in developing the you know, we we need to develop a very very strong will to awaken because without it, we’ll never overcome our unfounded hopes and fears.
We’ll we’ll never go beyond our preoccupations with what are called the eight worldly concerns. And we’re we’re gonna talk more about what these eight worldly concerns are, you know, our compulsive pursuit of pleasure and our compulsive avoidance of pain and so forth. We have to you know, we’re we’re never going to be able to to really commit ourselves to to a path, to to a sustained confrontation of all of the wrong ideas that we that we harbor, of the mistaken ways of thinking which we base our life on. You know? And we’ll never assist make a commitment to overcoming our most basic dysfunctional patterns of ignorance and self centeredness, and therefore, we’ll never be free of them.
Tsongkhapa, you know, the who’s the author of our text, this very short text called the three principal aspects of the path. He wrote a a a very extent he wrote he wrote a hundred eight no. He wrote about hundred eight volumes, not a hundred eight, eighteen volumes, I think. One of the important texts on these stages of the path to enlightenment, to awakening is called the great exposition of the stages of the path. And in it, he he’s talking about this this very fact of the necessity to develop this determination to be free, this will to awaken.
About this attitude, it is just as Sharawa. There was one tradition which was introduced into Tibet by Atisha, which which preceded Tsongkhapa. And Sharawa was an important teacher of the Kadampa teachings. About this attitude, it is just as Sharawa described it. Suppose it’s no stronger in your heart than a thin film film of barley flour. Okay.
This is the Tibetan example. Okay? A thin film of barley powder spread on the surface of homemade beer. So they made they made they made barley beer, and they would sprinkle some barley flour on top of it. And so you have this thin film of barley flour on top of your your chang, your homemade beer.
Then your feeling that you want to avoid the causes of the cycles of life, what we call origin, will be no no stronger than that. Then your aspiration to reach nirvana where you stop both suffering and its origin will be exactly the same way. And then your wish to practice the path that brings this nirvana will be nothing but empty words. So too for compassion, the state of mind where you no longer bear to see other living beings wander through the cycles, there’s no way you will gain it. And finally, you will never find a genuine form of the wish to achieve matchless enlightenment for living beings, a powerful wish that can urge you on.
And so the greater way becomes for you nothing but some flimsy understanding of the descriptions you find in books. So we have to develop the determination to awaken this the world to awaken. And the the way that we’re going to do it in Tsongkhapa divides this into two parts, developing the the will to awaken with emphasis on the present life and developing the the will the will to awaken with respect to emphasis on future lives or future existences. Okay? So with respect to this first, with emphasis on the present.
This is the the source for this is in the fourth verse. The first the first two lines of the fourth verse where he says Tsongkhapa says, freedoms and richnesses are hard to find, and the life does not last long. Keeping this always in mind will alter the priorities you give to this life. So this is, you know, what does Tsongkhapa mean when he said alter the priorities of will also the priorities you give to this life. Now what are the priorities we give to this life?
And how what are the in terms of operational terms? And how can we begin to define them? So this here we’re talking about what is what is generally termed the eight worldly concerns or the eight worldly dharmas. I’ll read you a little story, kinda illustrates what leads us into a discussion of what the eight worldly concerns. These are our priorities that we that that we used in the guidance of our life.
The criteria by which we make our decisions, we make our choices. I don’t think we realize it. I think it’s we do this unknowingly, unthinkingly. One day, an old gentleman was circumambulating the Rodin monastery. Geshe Drom said to him.
Geshe Drom was a was the direct disciple of Atisha. Atisha reintroduced to the reintroduced reintroduced Buddhism into Tibet after its degeneration. He’s one he’s considered one of the most important individuals in Tibetan Buddhism for having, you know, first Tibetan Buddhism was initially introduced into Tibet by Padmasambhava. It flourished, but then under the reign of a of a particular despotic king, it was wiped almost wiped out. But it was Atisha who reintroduced Buddhism to Tibet.
And Atisha, his direct Tibetan disciple was Dromtönpa. Dromtönpa was a layperson, which is quite interesting. So he’s a very important figure in Tibetan Buddhism. So gay there was a this this old man was circumambulating, you know, walking around the stupa at a particular monastery. And Geshe Drom, this is Dromtönpa.
Geshe Drum said to him, sir, I’m happy to see you circumambulating, but wouldn’t you rather practice the Dharma? Thinking this over, the old gentleman felt it might be better to read Mahāyāna sutras. While he was reading the sutras in the temple courtyard, Geshe said, I am happy to see you reciting sutras, but would you rather be practicing the Dharma? At this, the old gentleman thought that perhaps he would meditate. He sat cross legged on his cushion with his eyes half closed.
The teacher drum said again, I’m so happy to see you meditating, but wouldn’t it be better to practice the Dharma? Now totally confused, the old man asked, Geshe-la, please tell me what I should do in order to practice the Dharma? The teacher, Drom, replied, renounce attraction to this life. Renounce it now. For if you do not renounce attraction to this life, whatever you do will not be the practice of Dharma as you have not passed beyond the eight worldly concerns.
Once you have renounced this life’s habitual thoughts and are no longer distracted by the concerns, whatever you do will advance you on your path of liberation. So to renounce this life, he’s Drom uses the the expression to renounce this life, to give up this life, means to to alter the priorities that we give to this life. And this is this means to to alter the priorities that we give to the eight worldly concerns on how we which determine on how we lead our life. You know? How it means to to give up the eight worldly concerns as the guiding principles of our life.
In doing this, this is the beginning of of genuine authentic practice, which will inevitably lead you to change, to growth, ultimately to awaken. And talking about the these eight worldly concerns, and we’re gonna go through what they are. It doesn’t matter who this is a verse by Pabongka Rinpoche in in his commentary to Tsongkhapa’s text, the three principal aspects of the path. Pabongka Rinpoche was probably one of the greatest masters of Tibetan Buddhism of the twentieth century. Most of our teachers, he is in the he is the in their lineage.
It doesn’t matter who you are, some great sage or saint or master or meditator. And no matter how profound the practice you imagine you are doing, it is all hollow sham if it’s mixed up with the eight worldly thoughts. We find this truth in the words of Yangönpa, disciple of the victorious Götsangpa. So this is a quotation. It doesn’t do any good that the teaching is the holy and secret great completion.
The person has to become the holy and secret great completion. We see a whole pack of cases where a person describes his spiritual practice. It would buy a whole herd of horses, but the person isn’t worth a dog. Religion that’s all words and never gets put into daily practice is all the same as some talk of parrots being taught to squawk. The person in the practice are miles apart.
His main his mind and his religion never quite mix into one. There’s a lump of flour that never dissolves in the batter. Babbling on about spiritual practice and never letting it sink in, leaving it to bob around on the surface like some uncooperative vegetable in a soup is missing the whole point of spiritual practice. I tell you all what I teach as the crux of the practice is to give up on this life. So it’s a pretty heavy stop.
So what does it mean to give up on this life? It it is to give up the eight worldly concerns. It is not to give up your husband or your wife or or your home or your nice clothes or your car. It is to give up the eight worldly concerns. The the eight principles of ego’s world, we can we can say in a way.
The eight these eight concerns are set out in two pair, four in in pairs of four. And how do we say this? Four pairs. Okay. Okay.
Pleasure, pain, gain, loss, fame, ridicule, praise praise and ridicule, praise and ridicule, ridicule, and and and disrepute, fame and disrepute. Okay? Four pairs, pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and ridicule, fame and disrepute. Come on. Those these these are the eight worldly concerns.
So, you know, okay. When you hear this, then the first pair was what? Pleasure and pain. I wouldn’t hear that. You mean and it sounds pretty almost absurd.
It all sounds almost perverse. Yeah. It sounds like we’re we’re we’re we’re to go you know, we’re start wearing hair shirts and sleeping on nails and eating a eating a grain of rice a day and things like you know? You know? It’s like saying, well, you do mean if if I if I want to really practice the Dharma, if I really want to travel a spiritual path, if I really want to grow, do I do I have to stop trying to find pleasure?
Do I have to stop avoiding difficulties and pain? You know, do I have to just allow myself to suffer? Do I have to, you know, give up trying to gain and and try not to avoid loss? So his holiness, the Dalai one the Dalai Lama, he said, humans beings by nature want happiness and do not want to suffer. So this is this is, you know, the actual the very nature within the nature of the mind.
There’s the idea. There’s this even the even single celled animals have react in terms of approach and avoidance. And it’s that’s that’s basic to life. That’s what we mean by sentience. It seems as a characteristic of life is it it avoids it will avoid certain stimulus, and it seeks others.
So his Dalai Lama says human beings by nature want happiness and do not want to suffer. With that feeling, everyone tries to achieve happiness and tries to get rid of suffering, and everyone has the base basic right to do this. So it’s not as if we are to give up trying to be happy or to to give up trying to avoid suffering. Then what does it mean to give up what does it mean to give up on these eight worldly concerns? If it doesn’t mean that in some some perverse way that we are we we are to forego trying to achieve happiness, that that we are for some perverse way try to forego ridding ourselves of suffering.
You know, what are what are we trying to give up? To give up this life means that that the choices that we are making are no longer being driven by our pursuit of pleasure. You know? The choices that we are be that we are making in our life are not being driven by our our our pursuit for pleasure, our avoidance of pain, our pursuit of gain, our avoidance of loss, our pursuit of fame, our avoidance of disrepute, our pursuit of praise, our avoidance of, you know, ridicule or criticism. Those are are choices our life choices are the principles of them which we’re basing our life and by which we determine what we will and will not do in our life are not being driven by this those by those compulsive patterns of, you know, this obsession with pleasure and yet with with trying to achieve pleasure and the obsession with of trying to avoid pain at all costs.
You know, to to the extent that our lives are governed by these eight principles, we are not free to choose the preferable as opposed to the merely desirable. You know, we aren’t free. And what what we’re trying to do is become free. You know, the these eight principles, these eight worldly concerns are the are like the the rules on how to be a a model prisoner in saṃsāra, in cyclic existence. If you wanna know how to be enslaved, these are the rules that you follow, and you’ll do that just that.
So, you know, we to have we have we have to develop a vision of a world beyond the vision of ego’s world. We have to develop some kind of purpose in life beyond ego’s purpose. It means that our preoccupation with with pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain no longer defines our goals and determines our vision and governs our lives and what we can achieve with our lives and who we can be. This is a quote by Ajahn Chah. Ajahn Chah, he died..
He was very influential. He was one of the the great masters of the Thai tradition of this century, of the twentieth century. And he he was the direct teacher of many westerners who are now teaching in the west, many. Ajahn Sumedho, for example, who is a well-known teacher in England. So he’s talking about these eight worldly concerns, these eight world dharmas.
Gain and loss, praise and criticism, fame and disrespect, happiness and unhappiness. This is the world. The person who is lost in the world has no path of escape. World overwhelms him. This world follows the law of Dharma, so we call it worldly Dharma.
He who lives within worldly Dharma is called a worldly person. He lives surrounded by confusion. Where is this world? It is just in the minds of beings infatuated with it. These activities of happiness, unhappiness, and so on are constantly arising because they are characteristics of the world.
The Buddha was enlightened in the world. He contemplated the world. If he hadn’t contemplated the world, if he hadn’t seen the world, he couldn’t have risen above it. The Buddha’s enlightenment was simply enlightenment of this very world. The world was still there.
Gain and loss, praise and criticism, fame and disrepute, happiness and unhappiness were still there. If the if there weren’t these things, there would be nothing to become enlightened to. What he knew was just the world that was surrounds the hearts of people. That people follow these things, seeking praise and fame, gain, and happiness, and trying to avoid their opposites, they sink under the weight of the world. You know, we we should be happy.
That’s the purpose of life. We have every we have every right to to seek and to achieve that happiness. You know, we should not suffer. We have every right not to suffer. These are reasonable and meaningful goals for ourselves.
This is and this is the purpose behind the spiritual path. This is the purpose behind growth. This is purpose behind Buddhism. To achieve real and lasting happiness and be rid of suffering once and for all. Ultimately, to be able to also help others to to achieve that same end.
So but if we are totally preoccupied in ego’s demands and for the for its its demand for for demand for immediate gratification of all of its desires. We will never be willing to to involve ourselves in legitimate suffering, in the legitimate difficulties that the path that pursuing the path, the traveling the path, the committing ourselves to the path inevitably entails. You know you know, there there’s the old cliche, no pain, no gain. It’s just a cliche, but there’s a lot of truth to it. You know?
And if if if you, you know, if you are if you use these guiding rules of ego’s way in which it relates with the and way in which it sees the world, the moment we come up against the difficulties that necessarily and the obstacles of traveling the path. If we if we are habituated to simply avoiding to reacting and turning away, then we we are we are locked in. We we will never we will never take up the task of exploring other possibilities and the tensions anxieties and the the insecurities involved in treading on new ground and and taking up the difficult you know, trying to to work through these mistaken ideas, these wrong beliefs that we’re operating under. You know, we we we won’t We we will not have the energy to commit ourselves nor to sustain that commitment. In other words, you know, if the criteria of our decision making is simply a variation on getting pleasure and avoiding pain, you know, getting gain and loss, all of these eight worldly dharmas, then we will inevitably simply follow our desires.
And what what it is that we desire at the moment. We desire pleasure. And this would be our governing principle. And it’s just like it’s just like a you know, I guess in a way, it’s just like some kind of maturing, isn’t it? You know, we you know, someone who’s even in a very worldly sense, we someone who’s you know, it’s a high school student who’s who wants who wants immediate pleasures.
You know, you see, you know, I want a car. I want my own flat. You know, I don’t isn’t willing to stay in school, for example, wants to quit. And because he wants it all now, he can’t see beyond the immediate gratification of these desires. So, you know, if if you could begin to, you know, work with such a person, you know, explain to them that, you know, if you just stay in high school, stay stay a few more years.
And, you know, your your earning capacity will increase that much. You’ll be able to get that that better of a job. In the long run, you’ll be you’ll be happier. You’ll be you’ll get a be able to get a better car and a better flat. It’s okay.
I’ll stay in school. Yeah. I’ll high school. And then when he finished high school, now now I’m gonna get what I want. But if he had a longer term view, he said, wait a minute.
You know, if you went to, you know, if you went to university or if you went to, you know, technical school training, you’re earning capacity would would be increased that much more. You could get even a better you could get a house, better car. You could you could actually, you know, take up an occupation that you really enjoy, that was fulfilling, that was meaningful for yourself. So, anyway, one one’s one’s vision about what what possibilities, know, and that requires some kind of discipline, doesn’t it? Some kind of commitment because that one foregoes one’s immediate gratification of one of one’s desires.
And not sometimes that’s not easy, is it? One loses, you know, lose your one loses yourself in the immediacy of the moment. It’s it’s as if that’s all there is. And one’s vision of the possibilities is very narrow and limited. So that’s the if we will never seek the preferable, what what what would be in our ultimate best interest?
You know, it’s hard to talk about about Buddhahood, isn’t it? You know, we it’s hard to talk about what that really is. We don’t quite know. But even just to talk about, you know, finding meaning and purpose in our lives, of be of live living authentically, of beginning to lessen some of our problems in our lives, and they’re beginning to find some measure of peace in our lives, and being able to relate with others in a more positive and caring fashion. These are possibilities we can begin to identify with, that we can relate with, you know, even at our level.
But in order to do that, we have we might have to forego using these eight worldly concerns as the guiding guiding principle of our lives. Just one more paragraph and then there’s this is a it’s a nice quote by a. There’s a American nun. There is a common misunderstanding among all human beings who have ever lived, who have ever been born on the earth, that the best way to live is to try to avoid pain and just try to get comfortable. You can see this even in insects and animals and birds.
All of us are the same. A much more interesting, kind, adventurous, and joyful approach to life is to begin to develop our curiosity, not caring whether the object of our inquisitiveness is bitter or sweet, to lead a life that goes beyond pettiness and prejudice and always wanting to make sure that everything turns out on our own terms, and to lead a more passionate, full, delightful life. That we must realize that we can endure a lot of pain and pleasure for the sake of finding out who we are and what this world is, how we tick and how the world ticks, how the whole thing just is. If we’re if we’re committed to comfort at any cost, as soon as we come up against the least edge of pain, we’re going to run. We’ll never know what’s beyond that particular barrier or that wall or that fearful thing.
You know, we never take up, you know, the the legitimate suffering. And if we, you know, if we always have to if we’re if we’re habituated to living in some kind of comfort zone, We aren’t willing to bear with with the inevitable uncomfortableness. This compulsive pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain, the compulsive pursuit of of gain, the avoidance of loss, compulsive pursuit of fame, the avoidance of disrepute. You know, the the pursuit of praise and the avoidance of ridicule. You don’t take risks.
You don’t your life your life basically is lived in fear. Fear of what others might think, for example. Fear of being ridiculed by others, feeling a bit of being in disrepute, but also a fear of, you know, of of losing what it is that we have. How the how the, you know, how of giving up our nice, neat little world, the security, the safety that we find in in what we’ve come to know, this this kind of this prison cell that we’ve constructed for ourselves. You know, this is a this this these actions of the eight worldly dharmas, these these eight worldly concerns are not are not just manifestations of ego as if ego were this thing inside of our head and it does these various actions or thinks these various particular thoughts as these particular ideas.
You know, ego is the action itself. It is is the mental event of which pursues pleasure, which avoids pain, which pursues gain, which avoids loss. That that mental event itself, these patterns of pursuit and the patterns of avoidance, the hoping and the fearing, you know, the the the reconfirmation or the confirmation of of who we are, who we conceive of ourselves to be. You know, ego is is these various is these events. There’s no one or no thing performing them.
We are, you know, we aren’t but we aren’t these patterns. You know, we are we aren’t, you know, these hopes and fears. We aren’t those hopes and fears. These are just the patterns, the the the manifestations, the mental event which constitute ego. If if we if we were them, then how could we ever get rid of them?
And how could they ever be to transcend it? You know, if if if how could we ever go beyond conditioned existence? How could we ever go beyond, you know, the grounds? You know, the the grounds of our being are more fundamental than ego’s grounds. There is a world outside of ego.
You know? There’s a tiny island of ego, which which we see as universe, which confines us, which is and the way that it operates, the way that it manifests is in terms of these eight worldly concerns. You know, the the basis upon which we we make our life choices. So these these eight principles of ego world are the rules on how to be a model prisoner within cyclic existence. Existence.
You know, our world is in a in a way a kind of prison for ourselves. It it has many it’s a many walled prison. And the outer perimeter walls of this prison are these eight worldly concerns. And if we’re ever if we’re ever going to transcend, have to begin to break down these walls in some in some measure, in some some small way. You know, this we have to begin to go beyond, you know, the totally being caught up in the pursuit of pleasure as a as a way to live our life.
We have to go beyond being totally caught up in avoiding pain at all cost in the way that we live our life. You know, we we are attached to this prison that we live in to a large extent. You know, they sell this security that we get out of the routines of prison life. That’s that’s where we’ve come to know. We we we embed ourselves in like a cocoon in which we perpetuate our habitual patterns.
When when we’re constantly recreating the grounds, the basic the basic patterns of behavior and thinking, we never have a chance to leap into fresh air, to leap onto fresh ground. So the the way that we can begin to break out of our presence and begin to dismantle the the this ego’s attempt to establish its own priorities in our life and its reactions against a threat to anything which would against its own survival. There’s a I’m almost finished now. I’ll stop. I’m going beyond time.
This is just another short prayer, and then we’ll stop. It’s a prayer by Kadampa masters, and I just talked about the Kadampa tradition, which was a very important tradition which preceded the tradition in Tibet. It’s like a it’s a prayer of of wanting to go beyond the eight worldly dharmas. If it is better for me to be ill, I pray for the blessings of illness. If it’s better for me to be to recover, I pray for the blessing of recovery.
If it’s better for me to die, I pray for the blessings of death. So this is a a prayer for growth, isn’t it? Whatever is better for me, that’s what I want. And then no matter how difficult the challenge might be, no matter how confront confronting and painful. That’s what I want.
You know, that that’s my priority. You know, that’s what we’re talking about, that shift in the priority that we give to our life. You know, beyond all of of ego’s preoccupations, its constant demands for for immediate gratification, its compulsive patterns of hopes and fears, and it’s and it’s it’s pursuit of pleasure and its avoidance of pain, all all of that. I pray for what will help me to grow. I have faith in that, in a solitary nature of growth itself.
You know? I don’t know what’s on the other side of that growth, but I have trust that on the other side, I’m going to be a better person living a better life in a better world. You know? We have we some kind of faith in that. And so this is this is the real beginning of a spiritual path.
So this is what it means to give up this life, I think. So let’s dedicate the the positive energy that we created together. May all beings everywhere plagued by sufferings 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 none 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 upon finding repose. May the naked find clothing, 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 time that reigns 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 powerless find power 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.
In the land encircled by snow mountains, you are the source of all happiness and well-being. Please remain until the end of cyclic existence. Thank you. Good night.