Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A neurologist’s patients awakening from forty-year comas and describing “a very sweet feeling… at home at last” gives Ven Jampa Gendun an arresting opening for arguing that Buddhahood is not an imposed ideal but a dimension of experience we have already briefly touched. In this two-hour session from his Three Principal Aspects of the Path series, he establishes that wisdom, love, and compassion exist in seed form in everyone, drawing on Asaṇga’s nine images of hidden Buddha nature. He then leads the group through the nine-round death meditation, covering the inevitability of death and the relentlessly shrinking lifespan (likened to an overnight train journey), contrasting Tsongkhapa’s and Gampopa’s differing third supporting reasons. A Q&A addresses long-life practices, the karma governing lifespan, and prostrations — their role as antidotes to pride, as purification practice, and the meaning of each of the four contact points.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 15 3PA 2006 11 27.mp3
UUID: 3bc704a6-53ca-4fa7-8670-1f2581266426
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Three Principle Aspects of the Path 2006-2007 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 2006-11-27
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 119.3 minutes
Words: ~11,021
Okay. It’s cool in here. It’s nice in here. You know, we’ve been talking about, you know, investigating our motivation in terms of trying to come to some positive reason why we’re doing what we’re doing. What is our intention?
And quite often we we talk about the fact of making the inner focus of our life Buddha and we talk about some of the attributes and the qualities of a Buddha like wisdom and love and compassion and so forth. And then we last week for example, talked about the how you become a Buddha with the various practices of the six perfections such as generosity and ethics and so forth. And just going through those, you know, kind of kind of very roughly to give us some some idea. And we talk about the path leading to Buddha, bringing about this kind of an ultimate transformation. So I think at some point, you know, we it begins it all sounds very fine and good that we have to begin to question.
Hopefully, you’re questioning, you know, as we go along all the time. Question, I think is very important, creating doubts and then finding ways to resolve those doubts. And if then you find some knowledge for yourself. You find understanding for yourself. And rather than simply gathering more and more information, which may just simply complicate your life and not really help you to solve your problems.
So doubt is a precursor to true knowledge. So by all means, we should question. You’re welcome to question me, but also question yourself and what is the relevance of a lot of what is being said. You know, know, by all means, don’t just take it on board. Try to make it your own.
Think about it. You know, that we’ve been what we’re talking about in in a way is is a rather radical different approach to how we can live our lives in many respects. Very it’s very, you know, it’s very different than the mainstream way of of looking at a successful life. You know, as we were just talking about this, it’s very little to do with eight worldly concerns. It has to do with what we might call spiritual concerns or concerns of what our ultimate value to ourselves.
True happiness, in other words. But we have to say, well, you know, is all of this talk, is it some is it some religious fiction? Are we trying to impose upon ourselves some some mode of being, some way of thinking which which bears little resemblance to who I am, to who we actually are. You know, how can I relate this to myself? Something how can I something which I can identify, which resonates, which speaks to something about my own experience?
Or is there is there something which naturally suggests that this way of life or these various practices, this approach to life that we’re talking about, is it in fact not only possible, but more importantly, is it actually rooted in my own reality and something which is natural to myself? You know, something which is this an organic development or something which is being posed from outside? Some you know, which I have to kind of twist my mind into some kind of straight jacket of preconceived thoughts and dogma in some in some way or another. So, you know, for an for an answer, I think we have to look inside ourselves and to look closely for what is more often than not overlooked about ourselves or more often than not we refuse to acknowledge about ourselves. That within the shadow lies not only the reprehensible qualities or sordid qualities, the types of qualities that we’d rather not admit about ourselves, that we’d rather not know about, see within ourselves, but also within the shadow lies the golden element, you know, Buddha.
So, you know, we we’ve talked about what what is a Buddha, someone who’s awake. What does it mean to be awake? We talked about the fact that essentially, primarily, is wisdom. And what is it about ourselves that naturally suggests such a possibility in terms of ourselves? So we all have some knowledge, some experience of reality, however faint and obscure that knowledge, that wisdom might be.
It’s it’s still there. We we talked about the fact that awakening is characterized by love and compassion, you know, like that of a of a mother for her only child. We all have some feelings of love and compassion, however limited and however exclusively our present love and compassion might be directed. It’s still there in some manner, in some form, to some degree. You know, we talked about the fact that that awakening is characterized by a personal power and effectiveness, a will which is able to overcome challenges.
How does that relate to myself? You know, we all have some personal power, however weak, however unrefined that personal power might be. We talked about the fact that we transcended in terms of awakening. These qualities of wisdom, love, and compassion, personal power find some kind of practical expression in the Bodhisattva, in the Buddha’s everyday life in terms of skill and fearlessness. So in terms of of you know, we all have some degree of skillful means no matter how how in unspontaneous, how misdirected.
We all have some fearlessness. We all have some no matter how how fleeting, no matter how easily intimidated easily intimidated our fearlessness might be. So the point I’m trying to make is that if we look within ourselves, we, you know, in terms of we’re trying to see that that we’re not imposing an abstraction upon ourselves, something which is simply a theory which has no relationship to who we are, in fact, in our present state. That all of these qualities of love of wisdom and love and so forth have their causes within us in the seed form at present. You know?
We there is no unbridgeable gap, you know, between ourselves and the goal, let us say a Buddha. It’s simply a process of nourishing these seeds which are already present within within ourselves. You know? This wisdom, no matter how how faint and obscure it might be, it’s still there. So we just have to nourish that wisdom, develop that wisdom.
We have to in terms of love and compassion, no matter how limited and exclusive, you know, in terms of I love you, I don’t love you, how parochial it might be. Still, nonetheless, it’s there, at least in a seed form. It’s simply a matter of nourishing it. So I think we can begin to see that the goal that we’re seeking, you know, whatever a Buddha is like, we we’re trying to develop some feeling about this this model of sanity which we’re orientating ourselves toward that we can aspire to, we can we can create we can make some kind of commitment to. That it is is not divorced from who we are at present.
It’s simply a matter of degree. And that degree is open to change. And that change is brought about by these various methods, these trainings. So the situation is workable. You know, beyond our all our various conceptions about ourselves, beyond all, you know, that beyond beneath all the continuing continuously changing self identities that we assume, you know, from time to time and time, how we think about ourselves, how we regard ourselves.
Our original face, yeah, remains unchanged just like, you know, like the depth beneath the ocean, you know, beneath the the constantly churning waves. We are all Buddhas-to-be. This we we have the same stuff out of which all the Buddhas have become who they are. The Buddhas of the past, those who are becoming Buddhas now, and all the Buddhas in the future. There’s no difference whatsoever between ourselves and them except a matter of degree.
There’s no unbridgeable gulf between them and ourselves. No qualitative difference between them and us. So, you know, that these people, these happy, loving, sane human beings, and each of us, it’s only a matter of degree, not of kind. You know? God in heaven is a different kind.
Buddha Buddhists are are not a different kind. They’re we are the same family, the family of Buddhas. And it’s simply a matter of bringing about the change, and the mind is open to change. That’s just nature. And that change is simply a nurturing the seeds which already exists within ourselves and our eventual flowering.
That’s all. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
Nothing more than that. Just the development of these seeds that we presently have within us. You know, I think this is can be quite useful. You know, the you know, we’ve talked about the different metaphors, the way that we can we organize our thinking around what it means to develop ourselves in the practice. And here we we can talk about achieving our goal in terms of of of a potential going over to actuality by means of cultivating.
But we’ve also talked about another metaphor, and that the metaphor is that of of a lotus. You know, rather than a seed being developed into its result. The lotus is is the revealing of that which is already there, you know, by by by peeling back the the the petals, revealing a self existent Buddha, a a a pristine, luminous, perfect awareness, which is which is unchanging, which is always ever present, simply waiting to be revealed. So in in this way, you know, we can take some kind of heart in some respects. We can you know, when we get down on ourselves, when when when we look out of our garbage mind and we think this all there is of me, and we get pretty heavy with ourselves.
We can understand that that within that with amongst those that garbage is gold, even at that very moment. We can we can take some kind of refuge in that, have to take some kind of solace in that, find some kind of way to not let us ourselves feel the situation is impossible. It’s simply a momentary way that we’re viewing ourselves, but it’s not it doesn’t reflect the reality of who we are. It’s not because awakening is far away or extremely near, or because because it moves here and there, but because it is shrouded in veils of afflictive emotions that it remains unrealized. So according to this metaphor, the metaphor of a lotus, There’s nothing which needs which which needs to be cultivated.
It’s a no way another way of organizing our experience or our thinking around the path. You know? There’s nothing that needs to be improved on, only the making of manifest, a dimension of our being that is naturally whole, naturally complete, and pure, but which presently lies obscure even for ourselves due due to the overlaying of afflictive emotions. That’s all. You know, there there’s lots of ways that the in the past that the Indian masters have tried to get this across.
I I probably have read this before. I think when we were talking about Buddha nature. You know, this is Asaṇga, one of the greatest of Indian masters, and trying to, you know, to help us to overcome our self our sense of self impoverishment that we have, that we don’t quite have what it takes. That just that just seems to be something fundamentally flawed about ourselves. And everybody else out there seems to know what they’re doing in some way, and at least seem pretty solid.
But on this side of the of the looking glass, it’s all confusion. It seems almost hopeless at times. So we’re trying to encourage ourselves not to give up on ourselves. That within our mind, even at the present, even in the most, like, there’s darkest of moments, there’s some light. There’s some luminous quality about ourselves.
Like Buddha within a locating lotus, honey covered by bees, grain in its husk, gold within filth, treasure beneath the earth, the shoot of a great tree and a small fruit, a statue of a Buddha wrapped in rags, a future ruler in the womb of an ugly woman, a precious image within a clay mold. In just that way, obscured by the stains of adventitious afflictions, the element of Buddha exists in all beings. And and I think we know this to some degree. It’s hard to either acknowledge it or we continually overlook it. We we leave it behind.
You know, in in in our in our life’s finest moments, you know, the I think in a in a limited but very real way, we have an intimation about something of very precious with inside of ourselves. You know, we have a fleeting glimpse of what, you know, just a glimpse of what complete awakening might be like. You know, moments when when we moments when we have we experience some kind of freedom and openness, moments when we have a sense of basic goodness about ourselves. You know, it’s almost almost beyond our rational thinking or reasonable thinking. You know, moments when we have a sense that of that there is within inside ourselves an intelligence, some kind of basic caring, some some type of power and decency about ourselves, basic to ourselves, that we don’t have to pretend or to to contrive to be.
It seems to be a natural element within ourselves. You know, moments of inspiration when the when the clouds of our obscuring conceptions part, and suddenly the world is revealed with infinite possibilities. We could almost do anything. There’s sometimes that sense about ourselves. You know, when we have creative moments, when we when we take something which is unformed out of imagination and give it shape, some kind of practical reality, and we see it manifested before us.
And there’s some kind of magical quality about that. Moments when we’re of self forgetfulness, when when we we find ourselves speaking or acting with unthought of wisdom, you know, with with with courage and and act with kindness that we’ve never even imagined ourselves to have before, considered ourselves being that way before. You know, there are moments of of communion when when we feel that at oneness with sometimes with nature or with another person, but sometimes with ourselves when we feel whole, you know, when when when our feeling of incompleteness has eased somewhat, and we feel in our oneness. We feel a sense of unity, an integration, integration, a wholeness about ourselves. You know, there are moments when we when we when we’re totally present and wholly attending and we experience pure, perfect contentment in the simplest of things.
Moments of real being, almost a perfection. Moments when when nothing more needs to be added, when then there’s nothing missing than what is there before us, what is around us, what is within our side of ourselves. Moments when we when we when we’ve experienced a deep peace. You know, within this ceaseless restlessness of our search, we find just for a moment exactly what it is that we’ve been searching for all along. You know, what has always been at the end of our path, and we find our home.
Those moments, that life, these peak experiences that we’ve all experienced from time to time in our life. Life. Once in a while, very rarely perhaps, and fleeting, but nonetheless, this moment exists for all of us. It’s very sweet feeling, he said. This is a this is a quote from there’s a book called Awakening.
It was written by Oliver Sacks. Oliver Oliver Sacks is a British neurologist. He worked with he’s done lots he’s worked with many, many different types of people. And he wrote a book called Awakening. These were people who had been in comas for I think over over forty years, a group of people.
And he he he experimented gave them a drug called L-DOPA. And many of them there was a movie made out of this, if you remember. And he gave them a drug called L-DOPA. And many of them came out of their their coma, which they had been in for thirty or forty years. And this is what they they were this is what they were saying, one of them said, talking about his experience.
They all receded. They all back went back into their coma eventually. It was only temporary awakening. It’s a very sweet feeling, he said. Very sweet and easy and peaceful.
I am grateful to each moment for being itself. I feel so contented like I’m at home at last after a long, hard journey, just as warm and peaceful as a cat by the fire. And then Sacks says, and this was exactly how he looked at that moment. And then he quotes a verse by D. H.
Lawrence. Like a cat on a chair at peace, in peace, and at one with the master of the house, with the mistress at at the home, at home in the house of the living, sleeping on the hearth and yawning before the fire, sleeping on the hearth of the living world, yawning at home before the fire of life, feeling the presence of the living God like a great reassurance, a deep calm in the heart, a presence as of the master sitting at the board in his own greater being in the house of life. You know, the I you know, we’ve all had these trend these transcending moments, full of deep meaning when we when we take when we touch what we might call the sacred of life. And this is what I think is, you know, it’s like this is what these moments of intuition. These experiences kind of pull us on.
You know, quite often we talk about, we emphasize, and quite rightly, suffering as a motivating force. And it is like suffering which pushes us from behind. But it is these peak experiences, these moments of touch touching something sacred, these moments of these moments of perfection withdraw us on, you know, to to some kind other reality, to another dimension of being. You know, we we’ve all had such moments. And though they’re rare, still they do occur.
And their occurrence, they point to something beyond themselves. You know, Something a dimension of depth and mystery at the heart of our being, at the within underneath the surface of our own minds, at the root of our life, other possibility dwelling just beneath the surface of our mind to another state of being, and we call that other state awakening. So this can be we can be our own inspiration to ourselves in this way. But we have to do the work. We can’t rely upon chance or fleeting causes to suddenly sweep over us for these moments to occur.
But we have to try to open and remove the impediments, the hindrances to continuous unimpeded awakening being. That’s the goal of life. That’s what the mind ourselves have always been striving for in one form or another. However, it might have looked to ourselves at the deepest level of being. That’s where we belong.
That’s our home. So the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha. This awakened state is at the center of all our striving, all our struggles. But we have to create the conditions, create the causes to bring it about in fact. And that’s the Dharma.
And we depend upon others, the spiritual community, to assist us in doing this. And we try to raise the level of our motivation, the why behind and the purpose for all of this. That’s that it’s not simply an escape from a difficult world, but a way to bring these experiences that we want for ourselves to others as well. I go for refuge until I’m awakened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Practice of generosity and the other perfections, may I a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings.
I go for refuge until I am awakened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Through the 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’m awakened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Through my practice of generosity in the other perfections, may I become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings. 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. May all sentient beings have happiness in 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 for others.
Okay. So we’re going to we’re going to meditate. And we’ve we’ve been we talked. You know, this section that we’re going through in Three Principal Aspects of the Path is the way that we can begin to shift our priorities. And and, you know, I think in things you know, I try to I try to talk about things, and I try to think in my own way.
You know, what how I can try to take these ideas, and I try to make them my own as best I can without without hopefully, don’t pervert them or diminish them. So in terms of we’re shifting our priorities in away from the eight worldly concerns, as we’ve been talking, away from these these compulsive preoccupations that we normally have in terms of pleasure, pain, gain, and loss, and so forth. And the way that we’re doing this is first in terms of our priorities of this life. So, you know, thinking about the fact of our precious human life and all its you know, what it’s possible of achieving. It’s it’s potential so that we understand it.
Its usefulness, we will value it, and we won’t let it go to waste. We won’t let it go to waste in the sense of we won’t let it be consumed by our pursuits of the eight worldly concerns. And that’s not that’s not the best thing that we could do with our life, the eight worldly concerns. There there are more important things that we can do with our life. So if you value your life, you you want to make the best of it.
And how can we make the best of it? Well, one beginning in one way, we begin to shift away from being completely absorbed, completely caught up in the where the concerns. And we’re beginning to free our minds from these these constraints that we can move on to to our goal lies beyond that. And and this chance that we’re going that we have to make use of this life, you know, however precious it might be is not going to last forever. It’s definite that we’re going to die, and we don’t know when.
So last, you know, we’ve been talking about the looking at the preciousness of our human life, and we began last week going through the nine-round death meditation, but we got through the first of the nine rounds. First, the first root is that death is inevitable, and there were three supporting reasons. And the first of those reasons was that everyone must die. So we’re going to meditate on the fact that everyone must die. And again, I I sort of you know, there are traditional ways that trying to relate these as best as I can to make them accessible to ourselves.
So but it’s important that you do this from your side, you know, taking examples, which are which you which resonate for you, which work for you, working with your own experience, which you’re understanding. You know, we want this penny to drop. So there’s some kind of movement of the mind. Some, You know, we have to touch the right spot. You know, with the the we have an innate sense that we’re going to we’re always going to be here, and that’s the spot we want to hit, and we have to aim our arrow at that.
Something which which kind of pushes that button, which touches that, makes us feel a bit uncomfortable. I’m not always gonna be here. If you feel a bit uncomfortable, that’s a good sign. That means you’re touching the right spot. Yeah.
So, okay. So let’s take a let’s try that. So we’re going to meditate on go through some of these. I’ve talked about some of the ways that we, you know, precious human rebirth, you know, imagine in terms of freedom, what we’re free from, certain constraints which preclude the practice, a successful practice, and certain attributes, qualities that we possess in a positive fashion, you know, and which are which are necessary prerequisites for practice, you know, for a successful practice. But you also from your side, you know, the I’m only giving examples.
You know, the Buddha only gave examples. He didn’t give them specifically for each individual person. He gave a there were, like, a general. You know, if you you know, if we can make appointments with the Buddha, we he said, well, could you tailor some practice specifically for me? And he would say, well, today, want you to meditate exactly on this, this, this, this.
But maybe we don’t have that opportunity, so we have to be inventive and tailor the practice for ourselves. So take a comfortable firm posture. We’ll begin by relaxing, beginning the crown of your head, the scalp, the forehead. Feeling some kind of tension which beginning to move down through your body into the ground. The pressure around your eyes, within your eyeballs beginning to diminish.
So the release, relief, pressure. The facial muscles relaxing, softening. Your jaw is relaxed. Muscles in the neck, grips. Turn your head to the side a few times gently.
Just loosening, softening, relaxing the muscles of the neck, the muscles in the throat. Moving down the shoulders. Perhaps rotating your shoulders a few times and keeping your back straight just letting your shoulders relax to the sides, feeling the burden that we carry in our upper back, in our shoulders beginning to move down through your body into the ground. Shoulders, your back, upper back beginning to relax. On your hands.
Allow your hands to go soft, limp, relax. Your lower arms. Just as it is. Releasing the tensions that we hold in our stomach muscles. Just allow your belly to go soft.
Keeping your back straight, allow your back, your lower back to relax. Tightness. Relaxing throughout the pelvic area. Your upper legs and thighs.
Lower legs. Your feet. So bringing your awareness to your body in general, noticing any tightnesses, any tensions in the body. Bring your awareness to those areas. Consciously relax and soften.
Feeling the tightness loosen, the tension dissipate. Body becoming relaxed, at ease, comfortable. And then bring your mind to the breath. Just the easy, gentle, in and out flow of the natural breath. If it’s helpful, could use the techniques of counting and noting the breaths.
So now we’re going to meditate on the inevitability of death. And the first reason is everyone must die. So no matter who we can think of, whether it’s a king or a president, a saint, great musicians, strong men, athletes, musicians, every one of them is going to die no matter what they do, no matter how intelligent, no matter how powerful, no matter how saintly. Think about all the life forms which have evolved on the earth since its very beginning, from single celled organisms organisms to complex celled organisms to fish to amphibians to mammals to humans over the billions and billions and billions and billions of years of this planet up to the present. Every one of those life forms was born and they died.
What’s so special about me? Consider all the people presently living living on the planet, perhaps five billion people, millions of billions of people in China, and a billion in India. They all feel very unique. We all feel each of us feels unique. We know others are going to die.
What is so unique about me that I won’t die? Hundred years from now, all of us living now will be dead. But you’re not dead yet. What consider think of three things that you would like to have accomplished before you die. And if you didn’t accomplish, you would regret.
Three things that you would have liked to have done with your life. And bring your mind back to the breath. Get in touch with your body. Notice the feeling sensation within the body. In a gentle and relaxed, easy manner, slowly become aware of what’s going on about you.
Just take your time. So we’re beginning to the shift to priorities away from being preoccupied with the eight world concerns as the the measure of a successful life. And we do that by first beginning to understand how special our human life is, how useful it is, and how rare and difficult to find. So we do we don’t you know, some if you value something, you don’t want to allow it to go to waste. You no longer take it for granted.
Just like our eyes. I doubt if many of us wake up in the morning and they go, wow. It’s fantastic. See colors and shapes. Maybe that’s fair enough.
I don’t but if you lost your eyes, you’d appreciate that. So there’s a connection between fact, value, and which leads us to action. But this this precious human life that we have isn’t going to last forever. It’s definite. We’re going to die.
We don’t know when. So we’re looking we’re trying to convince ourselves of that, not maybe to overcome our beliefs to the contrary that we harbor some assumptions, core assumptions that we have. And so we’re we’re working through a nine-round death meditation. So the purpose paradoxically by becoming increasing our mindfulness of death, we become more conscious of life. The trying to yeah.
I think this is even true in worldly worldly worldly context. That’s trying to live a quality life, whatever it might be. So in terms of how we go about doing this is the nine-round death meditation with three roots. Death is inevitable. We it’s uncertain when we’re going to die and at the time of our death.
Only the degree that we’ve developed our mind and the positive imprints that have been we’ve imprinted on our our mind will be of any use. And each of these roots is supported by three reasons. So this the first of the three roots, death is inevitable, or sometimes this is simply said death is definite. The friend the first supporting reason is everyone must die. We went through that, you know, to we just meditated on that.
Kings and and no matter no matter who they might be, no matter how powerful, how rich, how saintly, and so forth, they’re going to die. All that is born is doomed to death, decay, and then there’s nothing unique, nothing special about our each of ourselves. So I have to make that connection with some the the belief that we’re now holding. So we touch them. We touch the right place.
Oppose that that belief, we probably harbor at some level. And the second reason the second reason is supporting the inevitability of death is your lifespan is continually decreasing without any extension forthcoming. Your lifespan is continually decreasing without any extension forthcoming. You know, even as we sit here now, we’ve gotten that much closer to death. Know, seconds become minutes, minutes become hours, hours become days, days become weeks, weeks, months, months, years, and years eventually become a lifetime.
Almost imperceptibly without pause, without any relent relentlessly. Our our life creeps is creeping on inexorably to towards death. And the way I the image that I have about this, that I think about it in general. You know, if you’ve ever taken I don’t know if if you’ve ever been on long train journeys. You know, in India, most of these journeys are long.
Even when it’s a short distance. And sometimes, anyway, you have oh, wait. Especially overnight journey. You know, you’re sleeping in your bunk and you and the train is just, you know, even through the night, you know, no matter what you’re doing, whether you’re, you know, you’re reading the paper, you’re drinking a cup of tea, you’re talking to somebody, you’re laughing, whether you’re having a difficult journey and sweaty and hot and packed in together, whether it’s comfortable, you’re you’re writing your first class it’s air conditioning. And even as we even in the night, and as you lay there in in your in your in your bunk, you hear the wheels continually turning, turning, turning, turning in exorbitantly, and then you’re without pause, matter whether you’re happy or unhappy, you’re still moving, moving without pause, relentlessly through the night until finally you get to your destination, and you have to get off.
You don’t have any choice. That’s where the train stops. So that’s that’s kind of the you know, we’re we’re sitting here in a I always you know, I I heard there’s there’s one teacher in Canada who gives meditation courses on ships. I don’t know. I get I think it’s true.
And I was thinking, like, you can imagine we’re on the ship now. And and we’re we’re even though we don’t feel it, we’re actually moving toward our destination. Even as we talk about death, even as we meditate and whatever, we’re actually getting it a little bit closer and closer. And then we dock, and then we have to get off. So and moreover, there’s no way that we can get a life extension.
It’s not in the nature of things. When we get to the end of the journey, we have no choice. Life comes to an end. We have to get off. So in a that’s kind of the we aren’t normally, we aren’t aware of it.
We don’t But it’s the fact, isn’t it? Just because we aren’t aware of a fact doesn’t mean it’s not the reality. So your lifespan or our lifespan is continually decreasing and there’s no extension forthcoming. That’s the second of these supporting reasons to the inevitability of death. The third supporting reason here here, I’m going to talk about this in two ways because it’s interesting.
I’ve never I haven’t found out why, but because, you know, following Lama Tsongkhapa’s outline for this explanation is slightly different than previous Lamrim explanations, the graduated path explanation. For example, the precious jewel ornament of liberation by Gampopa. Gampopa was a great Kagyu master, Kagyu master lived previous to Tsongkhapa and his presentation in of the nine-round death meditation, he has a different point here. And so I thought thought it might be useful to talk about each of those. Tsongkhapa is interesting because I’m not quite sure why he uses this reason. That’s why I’ve I’ve done some research, but I haven’t come up with the answers yet.
So according to Tsongkhapa’s presentation, you know, so we’re talking about the three reasons which support that our death is definite, that our death is inevitable. Okay? The reason that he gives is the amount of time spent during your lifetime to develop your mind is insignificant. See, I’ve always felt that didn’t support that reason. But anyway, I’m not going to judge Tsongkhapa, but I’m going to present it.
And so his the reason that he gives now is the amount of time spent during your lifetime developing your mind is insignificant. I mean, that’s that’s a it’s a really profound thought. It’s a worthy thought worthy to consider and meditate on. Okay? So he’s he says, you know, okay.
Ask yourself. How much time do you actually spend do you devote to to study, to learning about your mind, to trying to understand your mind, to develop your mind? Let us say, how much time do you actually spend practicing? As opposed to, you know, in the average day, how many hours do you you spend sleeping? You know, for some reason, I there’s a there’s a I read a they put that in somewhere in Germany, they have a in the the middle of the town square, they have a they have a on a on a big stone pillar, they have a stone bed.
They have monument dedicated to bed because that’s where we spend about a third of our life. I thought that was a waste of money. But anyway, if it makes them happy, think it’s okay. Yeah. They actually have a monument to a bed.
Anyway, so how much time do you spend sleeping? How many how much time do you spend at work? I’m not saying work can’t be a practice, but how much time do you spend in normal type of work? Normal type of work that work? How much do you spend eat how much time do you spend eating?
How much do you spend social time do you spend socializing? How much time do you spend traveling? You know? How much time do you spend feeling depressed? How much time do you feel time do you spend feeling lazy?
How much time do you feel frustrated, bored? On the one hand. And how much time do you spend trying to understand yourself, work with your mind, to improve your mind, benefiting others? You know, when you add up those figures, the amount of time we spent in perhaps ways which aren’t of high quality, we’ll say, in terms of practice, are are hugely outweigh those times when we actually work with changing our minds and benefiting others. So this is, you know, this is the way that presents this this point.
It’s an interesting point and it’s worth it’s worth thinking about. But but to present the point as it’s presented by Gampopa. Gampopa was a direct disciple of Milarepa, who was one of the most famous of practitioners in all of Tibet, in Tibetan history. He was he achieved enlightenment in one lifetime. It’s quite an interesting life story.
He he killed his he was his fam his father died, and his the relatives on his father’s side cheated his mother out of their inheritance, took all their property and so forth. And so as a way of revenge, he he practiced black magic. And eventually, he caused the destruction of their house when they were they were having this party. And the house fell down on them, killing all of them. Initially, he was he thought it was pretty great, I guess.
After some time, he felt a great remorse, and he he he regretted what he did, and he decided to devote his life to practice of Dharma. And he went through really harsh years of devotion to his guru. His guru put him through difficulties, which, you know, would have destroyed most men, most people, would have made it at least they would have given up. But he didn’t. And through this process of his guru devotion, he was able to purify this all of these great negativities that he accumulated.
He retreated into the mountains, and there he attained Buddhahood enlightenment in that lifetime. So he’s held up with high regard what’s possible. But he was quite an exceptional individual. Anyway, he had a number of number of disciples, and one of his close disciples was that of Gampopa. Gampopa wrote a wrote a Lam Rim or a a text on a graduated path called the jewel ornament of liberation.
And within the jewel ornament of liberation in the section on inevitability of death, He he lists that this third reason supporting the inevitability of death as the body is composite, is a composite of constantly changing causes and conditions. The body is a composite coming together in aggregate of constantly changing causes and conditions. So, you know, all that comes into so we can we can we can this is we can kinda work on this. We can to think about this, expand upon this. And all that comes through all that comes about through the existence, anything which arises in dependence upon our causes and conditions through the aggregation, the coming together of causes and conditions.
This table, our bodies, this building, the universe, mountains, with all whatsoever are subject to going out of existence through when those causes and conditions eventually disperse when they when they have run their course. If in the very next normal, you know, the the notion of impermanence or subtle within Buddhism is that objects are arising from moment to moment, such that they don’t they don’t remain even for a second moment. They arise, abide, and disintegrate momentarily. That’s what subtle impermanence means. If in the next moment, a a similar type of cause and condition does not aggregate, then the continuum comes to an end.
You know, things can’t abide, can’t sustain themselves even for two moments. They they’re not they don’t have that within their power. They’re always other conditioned. They’re always other powered. That they depend upon the aggregation, the continual aggregation of of the continuity of a similar type of causes and conditions for them to endure over through space and time.
If in the next moment there’s a similar continuity of a similar type of causes and conditions do not aggregate, come together, act sustain and support, then whatever the object is, whether it’s a universe or whether it’s a body, come to an end. That’s gross impermanence. It stops. The the the continuity of that. So, you know, the the this is in this is this is in their very nature, and it applies equally to all things, universes, mountains, bodies, single celled organisms, atoms.
Whatever is born is bound to die. That’s its nature. Nothing goes beyond that nature. You know? We cannot you know, this isn’t it’s in the very nature of things.
The the the sūtra, it’s a quote. The sūtra on the ten grounds, the Buddha said, aging and death are produced by the condition of birth. And then there’s a comment on this statement where it says, which is taken to indicate the Buddha’s realization that death is not the mere absence of life, but life’s destruction. A state produced indirectly but inexorably from the creation of life itself. You know, how many doctors they write on death certificates, cause of death, birth?
Maybe thrown out the profession. Maybe rightly. I don’t know. But the the very the very cause of birth entails death. It it belongs to the sphere of conditioned or compounded phenomena.
So by compounded phenomena, that’s synonymous with impermanent phenomena. What we mean by compounded, that means composed of causes and conditions. So all that is composed of cause and condition will decompose. Everything that’s integrated will eventually dis disintegrate. It’s in the nature of them.
There’s no they cannot be maintained even for a second moment. You know, after having in other words, all that is born is in the very nature by the very nature is doomed to decay, to disintegration, and finally death, eventual death. And having been born, we must inevitably die. That’s in our very nature. It’s in the nature of things.
Now we’ve been now we may be in our prime, beautiful and strong, But did you never see in the world a man or a woman eighty, ninety, or a hundred years old, frail, crooked as a gable roof, bent down, resting on crutches with tottering steps, infirm, youth long since fled with broken teeth, gray gray scanty hair, or no or none, wrinkled with blotched limbs? And did the thought never occur to you that you are also subject to decay, that you also cannot escape it? Now we may be healthy and able to care take care of yourself, but did you never see in the world a man or a woman being sick, afflicted with grievously ill, swallowing in his own filth, was lifted up by some and put down to bed by others? And did the thought never come to you that you are also subject to disease, that you cannot escape it? Now we are alive and seemingly invincible.
But did you never see in the world the corpse of a man or a woman one, two, three days after his death, swollen up blue black in color and full of corruption? And did the thought never come to you that you are also the subject to death and that you also cannot escape it? So, you know, the the point is so we’re trying to we’re trying to guide we went through three reasons. That everyone must die. And we, you know, just using as many examples as you can.
We went we went through the both living, those in the past, and those present, and all the varieties of possibilities. And and you cannot you cannot find one that for some reason hasn’t died or will not die. So what’s so special about me? You know, this it’s it’s it is always others who die. It is if, you know, we don’t have the sense that I’ve I’ve gone through this process.
There’s always others who die. And therefore, there’s a sense that I’m not going to die. I haven’t died yet. Death is always something that happens to another, not to this. But there’s no reason that it shouldn’t happen to this because it happens to all others.
And what is the difference between ourselves and others? There isn’t. We’re not unique. We’re not special in that way. Inevitably, everyone must die.
And moreover, that we are continually coming to that point, you know, we simply don’t know. There there you know, even even the even within Tibetan Buddhism, we talk about long life practices. There there are two there are two karmas which control the time of death. There there is a a a karma there is a certain karma which controls the the expand the life our lifespan. Okay?
That this lifespan might be seventy years, it might be forty years, it might be twenty years. That that karma that lifespan cannot be changed. That karma cannot is fixed. But but there is there but there can arise hindrances what are termed untimely deaths. And due to certain due to various conditions which don’t allow us to live out that potential of that lifespan.
And even so this is the purpose behind these long life practices to to if to ensure that we you know, that we’re that we’re able to to remove any hindrances which would prevent us from living out the full potential of our karmic lifespan. But but given that lifespan, there’s no increase coming. There’s no matter of practice can lengthen it. So these lifespan these various practices are simply to to remove the possibility of untimely deaths before our our potential lifespan is realized. And fully we’ve lived it out to the possibility of how long we can live in this life.
Once that is reached, there’s no there’s no extension forthcoming. It’s not in the nature of things. And then finally, this third part, either we can, you know, we can think of it in terms of and it’s useful. The amount of time that I that I make use of in the course of this life in developing my mind and practicing time is insignificant compared with, you know, all the busyness of my life. It’s interesting in in the busyness And within the Buddhist psychology, busyness is a form of laziness.
It’s peculiar. I mean, it’s looking at things in a particular way, but people who are running here and there and they would that’s without any significance, without any real meaning to what they’re doing. It’s it’s considered a form of laziness. You know, they they don’t have to commit themselves to really at least from the point of view of Dharma practice doing what is really important. And then the, you know, in terms of Gampopa’s presentation, this third reason supporting the inevitability of death, and that the body is composite.
It is of causes and conditions. And therefore, it necessarily is subject subject to decay and death. That which is born, that which comes together through, you know, arises through cause and condition is doomed to death. And we can, you know, we can see this. We can you know, whether it’s a solar system, whether it’s a mountain, or whether it’s something as fragile as our own body, there’s no getting around it.
And I I I think in Buddhist Buddhism, I think it it tries to look at our situation as realistically as possible, as frankly as possible. It tries to say that we have to you know, we don’t in a way that we don’t have a choice but to live in accord with with the nature of things. If you try to live otherwise, you’re going to lead a frustrated, limited life. You’re going to experience the price of living that way is suffering. And if our thinking is not in accord with the way things are in the reality, then we’re we are inevitably going to experience disappointment.
Inevitably, there’s dissatisfaction, discontentment, a frustrated way to live a frustrated way of living our life. We don’t have any choice. I think Krishnamurti said for the intelligent person, there are very few choices in life. Maybe he was extraordinarily intelligent. I don’t know.
Obviously, I think he was. So okay. Let’s would oh, we can we can can we we can. Would you like to talk? Let’s talk a little bit.
I’ve been talking a lot. Would you do you have any questions or do you have any comments, anything you’d like to share, points you’d like to bring up? No. No. I don’t think so.
I was not. No. I think he’s talking. Well, I mean I mean, I guess it’s a matter of degree, isn’t it? Everybody could take on take that on to some degree, some more than others.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I mean, some of the greatest masters of, it’s always a matter of degree.
It’s always relative, many of these notions. What comes to mind is one of the great masters, Indian masters, Atisha, who who reintroduced Buddhism into Buddhism into after after its decline. I mean, he was almost a saint, but he would but he used to carry around a little stupa reliquary monument. Okay. Okay.
There’s a gold one. And and this symbolizes the Buddha Buddha’s mind. It’s a representation of the Buddha’s mind, and he used to, you know, carry one with him. If he’d have a negative thought, you know, he it was a story about him, you know, traveling to Tibet, which was a long arduous journey. And he would he would be riding along as he’d say, stop.
And he would get out the stupa and he’d circumambulate the stupa and make prostration because he had a negative thought. Negative thought came to his mind. And, I mean, sometimes we hear about these, you know, these saints, we would think of themselves as the greatest of sinners. You know? So, you know, maybe and I can I can understand?
Maybe their own eyes, they thought that way of themselves. So but compared to us, you know, what can or compared to me, you know, what can you say about them? You know? But I think so I think it’s a matter it’s it’s pretty it’s pretty relative, you know. Maybe he he wasted time sometimes.
Might be a flick of an eye or something like that. Know. Anything else? Anybody have any comments? Yeah.
So, yeah, I think the I mean, generally, long life department wow. These things are beyond me, to be honest with you. I mean, part of them is they give you permission to do a particular practice long life practices. There are certain deities which are connected with long life, like, for example, White Tārā and so forth. Amitayus.
Yeah. But I don’t know. What do you think? After it’s up to you. That, it’s up to you.
Alright. After What what what is it up to you? If you if you eat right and stay stay out stay out of the rain and everything? I think that’s that’s my understanding. I mean, that that you there that the life span is fixed.
And but that there is this what’s called untimely death and due to certain conditions hindrances which can arise, which is what we call we might call premature death. And that these practices and these empowerments can help overcome those hindrances to premature death. That’s the these things. I I don’t know very much about these things. It’s hard to it’s hard to get information about these things.
Let me pick up a little information here. So quit smoking. No. I’m joking. I’m joking.
Yeah. That’s true. That’s true. It’s kind of the I remember the first time I saw people prostrate, I thought, I thought it was something like a cult. You know?
How can how can they do that? You know? Don’t they have any self respect? You know? So prostration is a is a is a is an antidote to pride.
For one thing, it’s, you know, it’s like, it has I guess it has a lot of meanings. One of the the word, the Tibetan word for prostration is and means hand, to like, you want to take something in your hand. You want to take in your hand. Something you aspire to.
So all of these notions, like faith, they have they have a sense of of another word another way of translating the same word we use for prostration is homage or simply reverence. So we it’s a way of so the and this can be expressed in three ways, mentally, verbally, and physically. Mentally, can faith have faith or think of the excellent qualities of the object. Verbally, we can recite praise, recite words of praise and so forth. And physically, showing we can actually do a bodily prostration.
So it’s it’s, you know, that’s only one area, one component of the overall meaning of this word. So it’s it’s so first off, it’s a one of the one of the one of the big obstacles to learning is pride. A person who has pride thinks that they know it all. This person really has nothing to offer me. I already have all the answers.
And so with with pride, you’re closed off from learning. It’s an obstacle to opening up to some kind of positive influence. So the opposite of pride is a sense of humility. I sent but humility has the idea of that it’s not a matter of putting oneself down. It’s one has a sense of one’s own worth, but but understands the value of the object and then and and sees the object as in some way offers you something that you want, some quality or some knowledge or whatever.
So this you take a you you momentarily, consciously take a one down position. And and I said that the water flows downhill. It doesn’t flow uphill. So you put yourself a little bit lower in this sense. So this is because you want this this quality, whatever it is, to flow down to you.
So in before, like, a teaching and so forth, and then you come to the teaching with the sense that, you know, I I I’m not a basket case, but I have I have some problems. And there are certain areas that I’d like to work with. And if you have something to offer, then I’m going to listen as open minded as possible, and I’ll I’ll check it out within my own experience and using my reasoning. If it’s useful, then I’ll I’ll make use of it. So you kind of, in some way, open yourself up to this possibility, and you and you say, well, you know, just temporarily take a a one down position.
And the way that you and actually physically prostrating yourself is a way of you know, like, even I think even even, I think, social animal like wolves. Wolves do this. And then they they to the leader of the pack, they take a one down position. They lower themselves. And that’s a way of that’s a way of indicating that they that they are that they aren’t they aren’t striving to be the the leader of the pack, that they’re willing to take.
Acknowledging. Anyway, I know what the anthropology anthropology of wolves is. So there’s a sense of so there’s so you’re bringing that to whatever the situation. A sense of of of putting yourself in a position of trying to open yourself up something which is which you value, which may be of value to you. And you’re giving that and you’re empowering that object at least temporarily with importance in this and and and giving generating yourself a sense of respect.
So there’s all it’s also it can be a means of purify. So it’s a purifying. For example, in the practice of the there’s one particular practice called the the practice of the thirty-five Buddhas or it’s more properly known as the confession to thirty-five Buddhas. And so these these particular Buddhas have have, during the course of their their their their practice, created the the causes whereby they are able to act objects by means of which we can purify specific areas of negativities that we have created in the past by generating a sense of respect and admiration for these individuals and reciting their names verbally and thinking and developing a sense of respect mentally and physically doing prostrations. Actually, we can purify negativities.
So prostrations can act as an antidote to pride. They can act as a means for purification of past negativities. And it’s a way of opening ourselves up to to the the value of the situation so this you’re more receptive to what’s offered being offered. These things like that. Yeah.
So as far as occasions, anytime. But it doesn’t have to be it doesn’t have to be it can be mental, verbal, and also just putting your hands together. There’s a prostrations. And then the three point prostration, you know, what is that way, what you call five point prostration? Half what they call half prostration, where you just put your knees and your hands and your forehead touch the ground, or full length prostration.
Those are different types of physical prostration. But anyway, this it’s it doesn’t need necessarily have to take that form. Just this is a prostration. Bring your hand together. And then some people do a hundred thousand prostrations.
That’s a practice of hundred thousand prostrations. It takes about well, but, you know, you you could do it over a period of time. You could do, you know Hundred. Hundred. It just takes three years, three months.
That’s right. Yeah. That’s right. Some people can do it. Is it mechanical to do it that way?
You know, you like to work that. It’s like math. You know, it’s like doing exercise. Everything can become a mechanical mechanic. Yeah.
Yeah. Mean, I these are the areas that I I can’t I can only repeat what my teachers have said. But according to so I don’t have any understanding around these areas. But it’s these areas which are to anyway, answer to your question is yes. For example, Lama Zopa, he would say, you know, it’s they say that every taller people create more merit because they cover more atoms of the earth when they when they do a full length prostration.
And you should bring your arms out, spreading them out, and bring them up in front of you. And that he Lama Zopa stretches his feet out behind him in order to cover more area, more atoms of the earth. So this is Lama Zopa is he’s he’s like a he will admit. He’s like a a bank accountant, like an accountant. He wants to get every every atom of merit he can.
And for him, it’s really it’s no it’s not fake or it’s not mechanical in a way. He he feels that he for the sake of others, he’s try he has to use everything, every every skillful method that he can know of to create as much possible merit as he can for the sake of others. He’s always thinking that. Alright. Everything he does, he tries to use it to create merit for the sake of others.
So even if it’s stretching out his feet, this is the littlest thing he figures over time if it’s repeated, he’s going to add up. But his practice is beyond me. Right? Yep. You know, beyond my scope.
So there’s yeah. So there’s four touching the crown, forehead, throat, heart. So this has sometimes this is this kind of a company. The the Buddha has what it’s called has something that has different names. Crown protuberance.
A crown knot. A bump on his head. Yeah. This so this yeah. There’s thirty-two major marks and eighty exemplifications.
Or thirty-two major and eighty minor marks. Different words. Think Lama Zopa used the word exemplifications. Anyway, these are listed in in the Mahāyāna Sūtra, one of her Mahāyāna Sutras. So Buddha has many different marks.
He has like a wheel on his hands, wheel on his feet, has all these various characteristics. One of these characteristics, which is an important mark or uses crown bump on the Buddha’s head. And this bringing touching your crown, touching this point on your head is a way of imprinting the potential to to achieve that that particular mark of a Buddha. And then touching your forehead, he has a what’s called a hair curl between his eyebrows. And this is said to imprints that potential.
And then the throat gaining the speech of a Buddha, and then the heart, the mind of the Buddha. So that’s that’s one significant one way of thinking of the significance. Alright. Sometimes this is all three, body, speech, mind. But, generally, crown the crown protuberance, hair curl, speech of the Buddha, mind of the Buddha.
So those four points are touched in prostrations. And then placing the the thumbs inside the hands. This is like a jewel. So you’re you’re offering a jewel. So you you you have something you’re holding your hands, a jewel.
And then keeping when you when you when you prostrate keeping your fingers together, this imprints the the potential to the Buddhist said to have web webbing between between his fingers. Anyway, I’m just repeating these things that I have heard. So keeping your fingers together. Don’t don’t stay down on the ground too long. You should rise up very quickly having once you don’t don’t relax on the ground.
This is rising out out out of the three lower realms very quickly and bringing up all sentient beings out of the three lower realms. Yeah. Anyway, those are some of the points. I guess there’s there’s lots and lots of details. A lot of it’s, I think, is mindfulness.
They help you train in mindfulness. But some of those are some of the points that I come to mind. So we can dedicate the merit we’ve created together. 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.
May 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 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, and may the forlorn find hope, constant happiness, and prosperity. May there be timely rains and bountiful harvest. May all medicines be effective and wholesome trees 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 powers 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, the the three principal aspects of the path that have not arisen, arise and grow. May those that have arisen, may they never diminish but increase more and more. In the land so called by snow mountains, you are the source of all happiness and well-being.
Powerful Chenrezig, Tenzin Gyatso,. Please remain as the end of cyclic existence. Thank you.