Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Ven Jampa Gendun opens this nearly two-hour session with a story: an elderly woman crosses mountain passes to a Himalayan guru’s cave and, given three words, says “Sheldon, come home” — anchoring the core claim that real practice lives in everyday relationships, not in retreat. After a guided loving-kindness meditation radiating from self to all beings, he reviews the Wheel of Life — the three poisons at its hub, the six realms, and the twelve links of dependent origination — with a pointed metaphor: pruning branches never ends; only cutting the root of ignorance brings freedom. He then summarizes the first principal aspect (determination to be free) and introduces the awakened heart, citing the Dalai Lama’s “wise selfishness”: dedicating oneself to others is the surest route to one’s own happiness.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 15 3PA 2007 07 28.mp3
UUID: 75ce9ff0-ed25-4e91-b065-6fbb0d0bc7cd
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Three Principle Aspects of the Path 2006-2007 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 2007-07-28
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 109.7 minutes
Words: ~10,209
Can you hear me better now? That’s better. Okay. I just thought I’d share a little something with you. You know, the idea that, you know, we come here and we study and we meditate and we do all the things that we do, take the form of spiritual practice and so forth.
But really, great deal of our this is like a training ground, a place where we can experiment, a laboratory. But the real place where most of our practice takes place is out there in the real world, isn’t Well, the world. I don’t know if it’s real or not. And our relationships and our work and how we interact in our daily lives. And that’s really where we have to really be concerned and be mindful about our practice.
There’s a story in there. Sometimes it’s easy to get out of touch, I think. Our practice becomes theoretic. It becomes something otherworldly. If it weren’t for all these people out there, I could really learn how to love or something like that.
I could really get on with my practice. The world is just a hassle. Once upon a time, an elderly woman visited her travel agent and asked for a ticket to Tibet. Her travel agent looked at her askance and said, Madam, why don’t you try Florida or the Caribbean cruise? Tibet has very few conveniences.
The old woman knew her mind, however. No, she replied firmly, Tibet is my destination. There’s a guru there I wish to see, so please arrange my ticket. Soon she flew off to Nepal. She traveled on a series of trucks to the Tibetan border, waded across the rocky rivers, walked through passes, traveled across the plateau, and finally reached the capital of Lhasa.
There she announced, I’m here to see the Guru. The local people responded, You’re not even halfway there yet. It’s a long and difficult journey to the Guru’s cave. Furthermore, after you arrive, you will only be allowed to share three words with him. Fine, she replied.
Three words will be sufficient. So they put her on a yak and they rode off across the plateau toward the mountains. Reaching the monastery high up in the Himalayas, she immediately joined the line devotees who were visiting for an audience. Slowly, the line crept forward toward the mouth of the Guru’s cave. Near the front, a monk said to her, do you know how to do prostrations?
And are you aware that you only are allowed to speak three words to the The old lady responded, Yes, I’m aware of all that. When her term came, she walked through the curtains and, without prostrating, she stood firmly before the Guru and spoke her three words clearly and firmly, Sheldon, come home. So I don’t know, I’m not quite sure what that story meant, but anyway, thought it a cute story. It kind of reminded me, you know, no matter how far we may go in the lofty spiritual planes of our thinking and on our journey to our travels to insight and the ethereal planes of love and compassion and so forth. Sometime or other we have to come home and deal with what’s going on in our own kitchen and in the bathroom and the people who we’re living with and the people we work with, that we interact with every day.
That’s where I think the real mark of practice. For sure we have to study, you know, about our options, what alternatives are open to ourselves, other ways of looking, different perspectives. Perspectives. And we have to train, no question. And one of the best training methods is within our laboratory of meditation.
Within that kind of safe and restricted area, we can experiment with particular states of mind and we can evoke these skillful states of mind, we can become accustomed to them, we can begin to develop, make them more and more a part of our everyday consciousness. But in the end, the real practice, I think, is how we relate with our everyday lives, in our interactions with all the seemingly events of our everyday lives. Essentially, there’s one hundred and eight volumes of the commentaries to the Buddha’s words and so forth. There’s thousands and thousands of texts. But essentially they are all trying to help us to develop ourselves, to grow.
Most simply, simply, most simply, we just want to try to a little more understanding, a little more caring. So, know, if in our everyday relationships we can be a little more understanding, try to see, you know, the underlying forces at work, both around us and within people’s minds and within our own mind, and to be a little more caring, that’s all, a little more sensitive and a little more patient, then I think we’re going a long way. And I think all that we do here, all of our efforts that we’re making are really finding some value. Otherwise we can go through the motions and we can mistake that for a practice. And then the gathering together of information and the doing of that retreat or the reciting of these mantras or whatever.
And they in themselves are not inherently beneficial. So, you know, I think it’s good to just maybe take appreciate our everyday opportunities to practice in the little ways. So in this process, the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha. This way we could orientate ourselves back to this particular option. We could take of lots alternatives in our lives.
But in this one we’re simply trying to develop our inner qualities and how these are skillfully and virtuously expressed with those about us, you know, in terms of wisdom, love and compassion, developing some kind of inner strength, and translating those into some practical way of improving our relationships with others and improving in some small way other people’s lives. Sometimes we can’t do all that much, but we can always do something, if only wish that we could do something more. That in itself can be beneficial. And trying to raise, you know, we have to do something. Our practice can’t be remained theoretic.
Simply like words on a page. They have to have some life to them. We have to do something. You’re late. It’s okay.
I decided to be patient today. It’s part of my practice. Sorry, Chip. No, it’s okay. So we were talking about you.
What are you? Interesting. Some real great practitioners. And our Sangha, our Sangha. A sense of spiritual community undoubtedly supports our efforts to be free.
When we have the company of like minded friends, we understand the priceless value of sharing our spiritual life with others. It is a gift to have people in our lives whom we trust, people who encourage us when we are down. It is a blessing to be able to share our insights with others and to have people to whom we can give and receive in ways that are healthy and loving. Meditation fundamentally questions the powerful tendency towards separation that governs so much of our world. So many of us feel discontented, disconnected, both from those around us and from a deeper understanding of who we are.
It truly helps to have understanding companions when we feel as though we are swimming against the current. So we have these three refuges, these qualities, you know, these alternatives within our own mind, the development of these qualities, making this kind of choice in the practical dealings of our everyday life, putting forth the efforts in terms of working with the trainings, the meditations, the teachings, the techniques and so forth. But ultimately, we want the truth of things, whether it’s Buddhist or whether it’s non-Buddhist, whatever package it might come in. And trying to get at it for ourselves, and trying to embody that truth as best we can. And this occurs within the spiritual community of the Sangha, like us.
And again again, trying to raise the level of our motivation. Trying to overcome this extreme of individualism, that sense of isolation and disconnectedness. And trying to reengage in the world, if only one other person. Trying to be there for somebody else, setting aside our own agenda as best we can, our own material. As best we can, just trying to arouse a sense of altruism, a beneficial intention, even for one another person.
A lot of practice practice, you know, there’s we have to be aware, we have to apply antidotes, but we also have to go through a lot of repetition. We’re laying down new pathways within our mind. We have to do the same things over and over and and over over again. This is what the word meditation means in Tibetan, to familiarize, to accustom. These ways of thinking and being become like a habit.
So we actually have to generate and feel them. And sometimes it’s a bit of humbling process because if you really touch, are you actually feeling these feelings that we’re describing? And can you feel it with just other person? What to say of all sentient beings? Beginning there, and then through repetition, we can expand upon that in some genuine sense.
So, guess, we’re talking in this way, and talking about adjusting our motivation, bringing ourselves here this room to the present moment, and what we’re about, and what we want our life to be about. Just creating that kind of interface. So maybe you’ve had a busy day, maybe you’ve lost, you you had your practical necessity that you had to work with, that you were caught up with, and perhaps rightly so over the course of the day. Okay, so, you know, maybe we can create some kind of interfacing, setting that, leaving those outside with their shoes. And okay, now we’re going to say, we’re going to stop speeding and stop distracting ourselves from ourselves.
And what is important to ourselves? What is important to us? What’s important to me? What makes me feel good about myself and my life? What’s going to lead me to a rich, full, meaningful life that I want for myself?
What kind of values are important? Okay. You know, this is what we talk about. This is what Buddhism hopefully is about, just that. Working with this precious, crazy life of ours, and trying to live it the best we can.
And opening ourselves to that kind of space, know, opening up our minds. We’re kind of creating some kind of receptivity in our minds. 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. 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 sentient beings abide in equanimity, free from attachment for some and aversion toward others. Reverently, I prostrate with my body, speech, and mind. I present clouds of every type of offering, those actually arranged and imagined. I disclose all my negative actions accumulated during beginningless time and rejoice in all the virtues of superiors and ordinary beings.
Please remain until the end of cyclic existence and turn the wheel of Dharma for migrating beings. I dedicate all virtue, my own and that of others, to the Great Awakening. We’re going to meditate. I thought we’d meditate on loving kindness. So if you’d like to stand up and stretch for a moment, then we’ll sit.
Taking a comfortable firm posture. Begin with the relaxation of the body, getting in touch with your body, starting at the crown of your head, the scalp. Feeling the wrinkles in your forehead and your brow beginning to smooth out, the pressure in and around your eyes diminishing, muscles of the face softening, relaxing. The jaws relaxed. And bringing your awareness to the back of your neck, perhaps gently turn your head to each side a few times, very gently stretching, loosening the muscles of the back of the neck.
Relaxing the muscles of the throat. Bringing awareness to your upper back and shoulders. Perhaps rotating your shoulders a few times, lifting them and allowing them to drop comfortably to the sides, feeling this burden, this weight that we carry around on our backs moving down and your body into the ground. Like there’s some weight that’s been lifted off your back. There’s a sense of relief.
Bring your awareness all the way down to your hands. Your hands are soft and loose. Relaxing your lower arms and your upper arms. Chest is at ease. Relaxing throughout the heart area.
In the lungs, the central region of your back. Your stomach. Releasing the tension that we hold in our stomach muscles, just allowing your belly to go soft. Relaxing throughout the abdominal cavity. And holding your trunk erect, keeping your back straight, relax your lower back muscles.
Your buttocks. Upper legs, lower legs, And finally, your feet. And bringing awareness to your body in general, just roughly scanning the body, noticing any tightnesses, any tensions remain in the body, any the areas of discomfort. Focusing upon those particular areas and constantly softening and relaxing. If there’s an area of discomfort, don’t try to avoid it or struggle against it or resist it.
Just breathe in, surround it with a caring acceptance. It’s part of who you are at the present moment. Be kind to yourself. Just allow it to be. It’s okay.
Your body becoming comfortable and at ease. Physical well-being pervading every part of your body. It’s a nice place to be in your body. Just be your body. Nowhere to go, nothing to think about, nothing to do.
Just give yourself a break, a chance. And then bring your mind to the breath, just the easy, gentle, in and out flow of the natural breath. If it’s helpful, you can use the techniques of counting and noting the breaths. Bring your mind back to the breath. So now we’re going to meditate on loving kindness.
We’re going to begin with ourselves. So the feelings that you’re going to develop are going to initially be directed toward yourself. And whatever mistakes that you feel you’ve created in the past, you can just simply develop a healthy sense of regret and you can begin again. Whatever you want to become in the future, you can do that, you can become that. But just for this present moment we want to set aside the past and the future and simply befriend ourselves as we are at this present moment, just who we are, with all our faults, with all our wonderful qualities, just who we are.
Simply generate some kind, caring feelings directed toward yourself. May I be happy. May all the good things of life come to me. May I be well in body and mind. Be generous with yourself.
Be kind to yourself. Wish yourself well. Wish yourself happiness. Now think of someone that you naturally love, that you like. Imagine that person there in front of you.
If you can’t see them, it’s not important. Just feel that these feelings are being directed toward them. And remember the many kindnesses that this person has shown you, the good times that you’ve shared together. And begin to radiate out, to direct out toward this person the kind, caring feelings which naturally arise when you think of this person in this way. Feelings of wanting them to be happy, not to suffer.
May all the good things of life be yours. May you be healthy and wise. Wish them well, wish them happiness. And now think of someone that you neither like nor dislike, a stranger, someone that you see sometimes, once in a while, maybe in a shop or at work, wherever. You don’t know this person.
You don’t know their story. The one thing you do know about them is that they want to be happy. They don’t want to suffer just like yourself. So simply out of the generosity of your heart, just going out to a fellow human being who’s just like yourself, it won’t cost you anything. Wish them well.
Wish them happiness just as you would yourself. And now think of somebody who you have some problems with, difficulties with, some hard feelings perhaps. Imagine that person there in front of you. This person who wants to be happy and doesn’t want to suffer just like yourself. And perhaps their way of finding happiness, their way of solving their problems has come in conflict with your methods of finding your own happiness and solving your problems.
It’s just a conflict of self interest. And just as you have to begin to forgive yourself for the mistakes that you’ve made in the past, perhaps it’s necessary to begin to forgive this person for the mistakes that they’ve made. So just for this present moment later, but just for this present moment, set aside your hurt, your grudge, your anger, and try your best to see somebody who simply wants to be happy and doesn’t want to suffer and makes lots of mistakes along the way. And out of the goodness of your heart, just for this present moment, let go of the hurt, the grudge, the anger. If you ever want to be free, you’re going to have to learn how to forgive.
Just for this moment, forgive and wish them well. And then radiate radiating out this wish to everyone in the room. All these people are gathering together, doing the best they can, looking for some ways to solve their problems at a more fundamental level, exploring, working with their minds, searching. This radiate out a wish of happiness and well-being to everyone in the room. Extending this wish out to all the Burnside people in their cars, buses, on the streets, in shops, in their homes, cooking, eating, watching television.
Extending this wish out to all of Adelaide, people in cars and buses and factories and department stores and office buildings and their homes. Extending this wish out further and further to all of South Australia. Further and further to Melbourne and Hobart, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Alice Springs, Darwin and Perth, the entire country. And then eastward to New Zealand and northward to East Timor, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, all of South Asia and Asia and westward to Europe. And Africa and South America, North America.
Just feel as if you’re taking the entire world into your heart. All the peoples, black, white, red, yellow, all the animals, all the insects, everything that lives on the earth is touched. And by your wish that they’d be happy, that they’d not suffer. Extending this wish in all the directions of space. Further and further, without any limits, without any feelings or limitation.
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. Just a vast open space in the feelings of the heart. Feelings of the heart.
And then bring the mind back to the breath. And then get in touch with your body, perhaps the pressure of your buttocks on the cushion, on the chair, some feeling sensation within the body. In an easy and relaxed manner, become aware of your surroundings. If you’d like to stand up and stretch, you’re welcome. So we’re looking now.
We’re doing a review. Almost finished with it. The first two of the three principal aspects of the path, and then we’ll begin the third of the three principal aspects of the path, the awakened mind. So we started with going through the first of the principal aspects of the path, developing the will to awaken, determination to be free. Last week we talked about the quality of of an approach to life which is lived under the control of karma and afflictive emotions.
We call that conditioned existence, an existence which is conditioned by karma and afflictive emotions. cyclic existence, if you like. It had three marks: suffering, impermanence, and selflessness. Now we’re going to look at the outcome of such a way of life, a type of life, an approach to the living of life, which is being driven behind by karma, residue of these conditioning factors within our mind, and in the present moment, you know, under the influence of dysfunctional patterns of mind which arise uncontrollably. So we are not in control, we are not free.
Our lives are, in some extent, beyond our control. Even if we wish to exercise control, there are limits which our way of life places upon ourselves. We simply cannot do everything that we might like to do. We have the momentum of the past, without conscious awareness would carry on indefinitely into the future. Moreover, this is perpetuated by these continual recurring afflictive emotions arising uncontrollably within our present minds.
We’re in a difficult spot. This time we’re going to talk about what that looks like in terms of the wheel of conditioned existence. So we went through this in pretty much detail. We’re just going to go through it roughly just to remind ourselves of some of the details. So this is our friend, Yama, the Lord of Death, or symbolizes impermanence, and within his clutches are, you know, he holds our life.
It’s the wheel of existence. So it’s an ignorance, most basically we’re talking about an ignorance driven way of life, which we call the wheel of life. It’s the misguided attempt self to secure itself, to make of itself something solid, concrete, independent and enduring. The ultimate outcome would be to identify ourselves as some, you know, like ultimate ego hood, and we be setting concrete and we would extend throughout the universe, unchanging, solid, then that would be the ultimate outcome of the process. It’s not supported by reality, such a way of thinking, therefore it can never be fulfilled.
So we’re talking about this ignorance driven existence, at its hub, the driving force at its center, is depicted a pig, which symbolizes ignorance, a snake, symbolizing hatred, and a cock, or a rooster sometimes, which symbolizes attachment. So this is what keeps the wheel turning. Attachment is the attitude of the mind getting involved and stuck. It gets fixated on an object of the senses or some ideal even within our mind. It can’t let go.
Addicted. Know, some kind of obsessive desire, you know, I have to have that. And moreover, attachment is always based upon what is called improper mental engagement, which is a long word. It simply means that we always exaggerate the nature of the object. In terms of when we exaggerate the positive attribute of the object, its attractiveness, and then we filter out any kind of negative qualities, the mind is unbalanced.
It’s not seeing the object for what it is, really is, in its true nature. And dependence upon it, go on to develop attachment. We fixate on it. We wanted to make it I and mine. We wanted to bring it into my territory, to make it a permanent part of self, to make that attractiveness, that potential to bring bliss, to make it a absorb absorb it into our being.
On the other hand, when we focus upon, when we pay attention to the negative aspect of the object, and go on due to the force of this improper mental engagement. We exaggerate the negativity of the object. We filter out any positive qualities. Again, the mind is imbalanced, but this time toward the negative side. Then we develop fearful angered repulsion.
We wanted to make it a permanent part of not self, not I, not mine. We want to remove it, get rid of it, destroy it, separate ourselves from it permanently. It’s depreciating ourselves, it’s devaluing, it’s invading our territory. There’s pig which is ignorance. So this is a mistaken way of knowing.
And there’s two levels of this mistaken way of knowing. One is with regard to the conventional, and this has to do with the law of cause and effect. We simply do not understand the deeper causes of our happiness and suffering, and we keep making mistakes. We have some kind of a mistake in knowing with regard to that. But at the ultimate level, have a mistake in knowing with regard to the I, the Self.
You know, when we look at the way that we normally think and react emotionally to life, it is as if we believe that we are a partless whole, enduring in an unchanging manner, existing independent of our body and mind, and on all the causes and conditions who make us, in fact, what we are. There is something at the core of our being who we identify as I, me, Champa, and it becomes our lifelong project to gratify what is in fact a mistaken sense of I, this I. Anything which is seen as a threat is pushed away. Anything which is seen to enhance and is drawn into this eye, into its vortex, swept up into its vortex. So this is basic ignorance.
It’s contradictory, it’s incompatible with wisdom. So that’s what keeps the whole thing driving. It keeps it going, it keeps the wheel turning. And then the next concentric circle depicts beings moving in and out of one world into another. So it’s divided up into a light half and a dark half.
Dependent our karma, and our positive karma, negative karma, and so forth, we will move on, we will uncontrollably be drawn into re embodiments, you know, which are frozen projections, you know, expressions of a tendency to organize our reality along in particular ways, all the way from that of the real hell realms. You know, we are involved, we are co authors, we are co creators of our particular realm. Know, it’s appropriate to how our minds view things. From from the from the from the the paranoia and the hatred and the pain of this hell realms up to the, you know, the bliss of the god realms. You know, these are it’s all particular fixed modes and expressions of our of our of our present minds, our karma, the ways our minds are conditioned.
So, you know, there are those who are being drawn down to on the dark side and those who are moving toward, you know, perhaps freedom on the light side. So, you know, essentially two possibilities. Then the third concentric circle depicts the six levels of our particular world, of our particular realm. In Buddhist cosmology there are three realms of existence. There are the formless realms, form realm, and the desire realm.
The formless realm and the form realm are achieved through meditative concentrations. Their greater and more and more subtle experiences of peace. Our realm, where we live, is called the desire realm. The desire realm has six levels. It is, you know, beginning from the bottom, there’s the hell realm, the hungry ghost realm, the animal realm, human realm, demigod realm, and God realm.
So these six segments depict the six levels of, you know, where we live. There’s Adelaide right there. Just make a left at the Then finally, outer ring. It represents the mechanism which perpetuates this process called the twelve links of dependent origination. The mechanism by which we perpetuate cyclic existence, you know, this process of compulsive rebirth that we’re all involved in, that we’re under the control of karma and afflictive emotions.
So beginning with, and then we’ll just go through them very quickly, just to remind ourselves. We want to get a sense, we want to appreciate the role that ignorance is playing in this process. By ignorance here I mean, due to our ignorance we grasp at a false conception of a self. I, Jampa, you know. We hold the I to be a singular, solid unit, unchanging, existing independently of body and mind.
That’s basic ignorance. That’s the primal moving force out of which the whole system evolves. So what we want to appreciate is the part that ignorance is playing in the process. We can try to apply remedial remedies to a lot of our difficulties. You can each of the afflictions has a particular direct antidote.
Attachment, you can meditate on repulsiveness. Hatred, you can meditate on loving kindness. Jealousy, on rejoicing. But these are all remedial. These can diminish the power of these various patterns of mind, but it cannot remove them.
They all arise dependent upon ignorance. This misconception is the nature of the I. And this is what keeps the whole thing going. So, you know, when we talk about freedom, as far as Buddhism is concerned, the only real freedom is the freedom from ignorance. Then everything else follows.
And it’s like if you have a tree and there’s all its branches and all its leaves and flowers and so forth, we can prune the branches and they’ll continually grow back and we can prune them back again. So it’s a never ending process. But if we use the axe of wisdom and we cut the roots, then the tree, all the branches and leaves and so forth, will wither by themselves. We don’t have to do any more than that. So we want to get a sense that we’ve described the situation that we are, this problematic approach.
Life is a problem for ourselves. It presents a series of problems that we continually trying to solve. And we’ve never come to a conclusion. And we never will. We can just keep pruning back the branches again, the leaves and so forth.
But until we remove this very first link, the very origin, the source of our problems, the cycle of existence will continue very much in the same way it is now, indefinitely, ad nauseam, ad infinitum. Freedom means freedom from ignorance, most basically. So that’s the first link, ignorance. It’s depicted by the iconography, it’s depicted by a man, a blind man with a staff. It’s ignorance.
The staff means he’s supported in reality, that misconception, he is supported in reality by that misconception, the nature of the self. We start holding tightly to this false misconceived self, we naturally want to make the self happy. Okay? Fair enough. In order to accomplish that, we engage in all the various types of activities.
That is to say, we create formative actions formative actions, karma. We create karma actions of body, speech and mind. Sometimes negative, sometimes positive, but nonetheless we’re creating karma. And this is depicted in the iconography as a potter forming a pot, a shaping. He’s conditioning the pot.
He’s creating karmic seeds within our mind. These are the residue left over from our actions motivated by ignorance. As opposed to, it’s interesting, you know, as opposed to, you know, a Buddha does things, does lots of things, you know, what we call enlightened activities. But his actions are likened to the tracks which are left, the trail or the tracks left by a bird flying through the sky. You ever seen the tracks, the trail left by a bird flying through the sky?
No, it doesn’t leave any tracks. All his actions are completely spontaneous without effort, leaving no residue, unconditioned. Moment by moment, they’re simply arising without having conditioned by what they’ve done in the past. Every moment’s new. Our actions are calculated, arise most basically out of ignorance.
They arise out of various conditioning factors within our mind, residue of what we’ve done in the past, influenced by what we’ve experienced, all the tragedies, all the good things of our life, both good and bad, but nonetheless always being conditioned by this baggage that we bring to every moment of our life, that we filter, we see things through and interpret. So the second link is this potter forming these pots, formative actions. These actions then leave some kind of residue on the mind. They condition the mind. A seed is implanted in the mind.
This is the third link, consciousness, but just not plain consciousness, conditioned consciousness, consciousness in which these karmic seeds have been implanted. This is depicted by a monkey jumping through trees, where there’s lots of fruit in the trees. So, the monkey mind, there’s all these pieces of fruit. The pieces of fruit are these karmic seeds. Due to these karmic seeds, we go on to, you know, the karmic seeds are activated.
A seed is characterized by a potency. Essentially, a seed is information, isn’t it? genetic information. I mean, it has some substance material, but it is the genetic information which, when activated, begins to organize. That information finds expression, is translated in the way that it begins to organize its environment.
It begins to draw certain molecules out of the, you know, they’re present, you know, the nutrients from the soil, different elements and begins to arrange them in a very predictable manner, configuration. It’s quite fantastic to think about it. This information, which is encoded, like the D. N. A, for example, begins to find expression and how it begins to arrange its environment in a very specific design, a very specific way.
And sprout grows. So a sprout is the expression of information in conjunction with material substance. So this is what has been encoded in our mind. karma is information. When that information is activated at the moment of our death, the dying consciousness is projected into new life.
It is just like a leaf being blown by the wind, you know, choicelessly. It will, through its addiction to re-embodiment, to continuance of life, it will enter into a fertilized ovum. And this gives rise to name and form. So the consciousness enters into a fertilized ovum, giving rise to name and form. These are the five aggregates: aggregates of form, feeling, discrimination, compositional factors, and consciousness, which constitute the being.
So this is depicted by there’s a man in a boat. The boat usually there’s I think there’s usually four men in a boat. The boat is the body, and the four people in the boat are the four mental aggregates: feelings, discrimination, compositional factors, and consciousnesses. So this is what constitutes our being. So the consciousness is drawn into the fertilized ovum of its prospective parents, of its new parents.
After three weeks in the womb, In dependence upon this name and form. This is the basis of our being. What would you call it, that stage? The fetus, the three week in dependence upon that embodiment, plus there are these factors of consciousness, there’s feelings and discriminations and compositional factors. This is simply a way to organize consciousness.
You could just briefly say there’s body and consciousness. Essentially, that’s what constitutes who we are. Consciousness, body and consciousness is there. So that is for the first three weeks. After the first three weeks, the growing embryo begins to evolve sense faculties, sometimes called sense spheres or sense sources.
That is to say, it develops a medium by which it begins to relate with its environment. It’s able to interact with its environment. It’s able to register the register the environment. It develops eye sense faculties, the medium by which it can begin to see and hear, smell, taste. So, you know, it begins to relate with its world.
This is depicted by a house with six windows. Are sixth sense sixth spheres eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mental sense faculties. So at this point, we’re talking about the evolution of the fetus in the womb. It’s now developed the ability to begin to relate, it begins to know its environment. What happens with that?
Then the next link, contact arises. When so you have this sense faculty. When that and an object and a consciousness come together, when these three come together, there is contact. Like, for example, you have the eye sense faculty, the developed medium by which consciousness can relate with the physical world, that interface between consciousness and the physical world. When a physical object, like a flower, the eye sense faculty, the medium of interface of exchange and consciousness, when those three come together, there is what’s called contact.
And this contact always has an evaluation. You know, it’s never only a neutral. There’s always, terms of the objective quality, the object is seen as either agreeable, disagreeable, or neutral. The mind is taking a stance, you know, with regard to to the object. It’s either attractive, it’s either, you know, like, is that object threatening or is it enhancing?
Is it Is it okay or is it not okay? Maybe it doesn’t know. Then it’s kind of, your mind’s whew, whew, doesn’t quite know. Then it’s, you know, we call that neutral. But actually, it doesn’t know.
It can’t make up its mind with regard to that. Is it safe? Is it okay or not okay? Is it okay or not okay? You know, this is the basic question every organism is always asking.
And even a bacteria. Is that okay or not okay? From that it evolves a feeling. Okay? Contact is a man embracing a woman kissing.
It’s contact. As of yet, yet, there’s no so the dependence upon contact, that’s the objective evaluation in terms of the object, the primal initial evaluation terms of the object. Is it agreeable or disagreeable? Then there’s the subjective reaction, which is feeling. How do we experience that object?
Its experience is pleasant, unpleasant, neither. The mind is still trying to come to some kind of subjective determination of the object. Feeling. Feeling is essentially experience. You know, this is primary.
It’s the initial subjective reaction to the object. This is, in this iconography, it’s depicted as a man with an arrow in his eye, a very strong, vivid feeling. In dependence upon feeling, then craving arises. Craving is the eighth link. So here, okay, what do we mean by craving?
Craving is a generalized desire to not be separated from pleasant feelings or a desire to be separated from unpleasant feelings. A very generalized desire to be either separated, to be not separated from pleasant feelings. So the mind is taking a stance. It has a feeling, this object. And now, how is it going to relate?
It depends upon that feeling. A craving arises. What is that craving? It’s a generalized desire in terms of not wanting to be separated if it’s a pleasant feeling, or to be separated of when it is an unpleasant feeling. Just generalized.
And then initial that kind of reaction due to feelings. Then the the and this is Then is depicted by someone drinking alcohol. There’s some kind of addiction arising. Then the ninth link, in dependence upon the craving, there’s an intensifying of that craving. But this is, we begin to what goes is called grasping.
Grasping arises. So grasping is an urge to reach out and grasp at a specific object. The craving was a generalized, not wanting to be separated from an agreeable object or craving to be separated from a disagreeable object. But how are we going to do that? Grasping is an urge to reach out and grasp at the specific operational means of how to bring about that end.
How I going to not separate from that disapproval or am I going to separate from that disapproval object? So it’s like, you you think, I want to play some music. Okay? And then you actually reach over to your CDs and you grasp on them. This is the one I’m going to play.
So there’s a generalized craving if they’re listening to music. And then there’s a grasping. I’m going to play this one. This is the way I’m going to satisfy that craving by this particular one. You know, you can’t just listen to generalized music.
There’s no such thing. You have to always listen to a particular song or, you know, whatever. So this is the one, so this is the actual urge toward, the impulse toward a particular way of satisfying that generalized craving in terms of a particular means. So this monkey, he’s up in his tree and he’s actually picking a fruit. One of these karmic seeds that had been planted previously is being picked.
This is going to serve as the operational means to satisfy your craving. Leads to in dependence upon craving and grasping. Next comes the tenth link, which is called existence. So existence is depicted by a pregnant woman. So this is like, okay, you’ve picked that CD out of your collection there on the shelf, and you’ve put it into the player.
Okay? It’s really juiced up. I mean, whole system’s about ready to go. You had this desire to listen to music, you had to urge the impulse of a particular one, and you put it into the CD player. It’s not playing quite yet.
This is a case of giving the cause the name of the result: existence. It’s going to bring about existence. Okay? So this woman’s pregnant. Everything’s just it’s a pregnant woman.
It’s ready go, it’s just about to give birth. The karma’s being activated. This information is just about to be translated into giving some kind of expression, bringing about some kind of result. And this karmic seed is activated. Then this will bring about the eleventh link.
in dependence upon this existence, the consciousness is to enter into a fertilized ovum, a particular parent. And the first moment of the new life is called birth, and this is depicted by the woman giving birth. So the information begins to initial translation of that information, that karmic seed, and it’s some creation of a new life form. And then finally, in dependence upon birth, the twelfth link arises. Aging begins.
This moment, immediate after conception, aging begins. And finally, at the end of that continuum of that being, there’s death, the cessation of that continuum. And this is depicted by man carrying a corpse on his back. This is very, very roughly, very briefly went through these twelve links. So this is what perpetuates this particular way of our approach to our problems.
It has an evident origin in ignorance, going on to create various types of actions, positive and negative, which condition our consciousness, which then are activated at the moment of our death. We will grasp. You know, like watering a seed. You know, if you can have a seed, like an actual fact, you know, they have found wheat seeds in the pyramids of Egypt which are five thousand years old and they haven’t sprouted. But they’ve taken those wheat seeds and they’ve put them in earth and they’ve watered them and they sprouted.
Their potency remained after five thousand years. It was was able to germinate. So we have in our this is just a way of talking, it’s a metaphor. It’s really hard to understand. I mean, for me maybe it’s a seed.
You know, a seed is a potency. There’s some kind of conditioning factors which can act as a potency. When they meet with the correct conditions, just like that wheat seed meets with soil and water, that information is translated into something, into a sprout. These seeds in our mind, these potencies, when they’re activated, how are they activated? By craving and grasping.
This is like water and soil. And then the mind has this urge, impulse toward perpetuating its existence in terms of embodiment, and moreover, a particular type of embodiment. How satisfy my craving? Which CD am I going to pick? You know, it’s condition factor.
We don’t choose we’re not free to choose any of those CDs. It would be nice if we could. We’d always choose maybe the God realm or something, I don’t know. We’re driven. It’s choiceless.
We want to listen to music, that’s not our choice. Which CD we choose, that’s not our choice. It’s all a mechanical process, one link to the next. It’s all determined. The only time that we can begin to enter being in this process, when we become aware, then we can begin to create some kind of choices.
And the greatest possibility is if we can remove ignorance. Then the whole process ceases. Then we choose. Then we have freedom. Then we’re liberated from this compulsive, self perpetuating system that we keep, this feedback system which perpetuates itself.
So that’s the way of existence. That’s the situation we find ourselves in. That’s where we have to be free of. Now, we want to gain some kind of sense about what freedom means as far as Buddhism is concerned. To be free from this process, this process which is being driven by karma and afflictive emotions, most basically ignorance.
This is why we remove ignorance from our mind. You know, have to Tsongkhapa says in his text, Meditating in this way, when your thoughts are turned day and night toward liberation, and not even for a moment do you entertain a wish for the splendors of cyclic existence, then you have given birth to the will to awaken. Tsongkhapa says, Well, you know, in this, we try to see that anything within this system is, by its very nature, suffering. Even the best of times is not completely satisfactory. It’s not what we truly want in our heart of hearts.
It’s not reliable, lasting happiness, which somehow is not involved in suffering, either suffering of suffering, the suffering of change or the pervasive conditionality. It’s just a problem, a never ending problem which can never be fully solved. It’s not within that system. There’s no solution. You have to step outside.
The solution is to step outside of that system. You know, we have to learn to care for ourselves, to be concerned about ourselves, maybe in ways that we haven’t been concerned about ourselves before. It has to matter in some way to ourselves. If we as suffering individuals are ever to solve our problems at the most fundamental level, we have to find where it is we want in our heart of hearts. Then we have to develop a powerful, consistent determination to be free, to be free.
And to confront our self deception. It’s not easy, I don’t think. I think it’s a big project that we’re embarking on, to go beyond these mistaken beliefs, to actually begin to identify them, what to say goes beyond them. Mean, maybe that was probably one of the great insights of the Buddha, to identify a system which no one had identified before, and moreover, to see what was the origin of that system, which everyone took we had never even it’s like trying to describe to a fish what water is like. It’s such It’s so all pervasive that we know nothing else other than, you know, we don’t know what non water would be like.
It’s beyond our, you know, we can’t even begin to get a handle on it. You know, what is dryness? Could you describe dryness to a fish? You know, you’re being silly. This is some fantasy of yours.
There’s no such thing as dryness. There’s not even wetness. A fish doesn’t even know wetness. It’s so close to ourselves, you can’t see it. It’s like the glasses.
You know, you don’t see them. You don’t see what’s right what’s right what’s right against your eyes. It’s difficult to even see that we’re in the system here, let alone what the alternative would be. If we don’t, the system will inevitably keep repeating itself. You know, most dangerous thing about the past is when it becomes our future.
And this is what we just keep repeating. So, okay, the first of the three principal aspects of the path: developing this determination to be free, the will to awaken. Okay? We’re just very briefly going to go through the three principal aspects of the path: the awakened heart. So appreciating the fact that everyone, that I’m not unique in this situation, everyone is in the same situation as ourselves.
And I think, you know, especially in the Mahāyāna Buddhism, the great vehicle Buddhism, they’re trying to help us to expand our vision about what a successful life might look like, what it means to fulfill our potential, what real meaning is. How are we going to lead a rich, full and meaningful life? What does that look like? Is it just giving one’s own, some experience of inner peace? Is that the best we can do?
Or can we have a greater vision than that? Okay, you know, we have our self interests and we have to acknowledge that. And maybe we have to, you know, part of our our efforts have to be in that direction. But does should that be all consuming? Should that be our only aim?
You know? And what we’re how are going to make use of this crazy, precious life of ours? So, you know, there’s an alternative there, you know, that Mahāyāna, the great vehicle, is trying to suggest to ourselves that maybe we can begin to include others, you know, within our vision of what a good life might look like, you know, the benefiting of others. And what if you could if you could find peace for yourself and at the same time develop the abilities to be of optimum benefit in helping others to do the same? Wouldn’t that be even better?
I mean, doesn’t that appeal to ourselves even more than just getting your own? Getting your own, sure, but over and above that. You know, I The great vehicle of Buddhism is trying to tell us, we have two aspects to ourselves. I think we have to, you know, it just doesn’t have to be an abstract idea or a theory, but I think it’s very relevant to our everyday life. Trying to, you know, even in the small ways that we do, trying to lead a good life.
Then we want inner peace, okay? There is the inner aspect of ourselves, our private world, the world of our private events. That part of our self which is inaccessible to anyone else, even to loved ones. You can tell them about it and they might be able to empathize and identify with it, but it’s your own direct personal, internal experience. And how do we satisfy that, that aspect of ourselves?
Through peace or bliss, whatever word you want to call it, it doesn’t matter. But that’s not all that constitutes who we are. It’s not. We exist in this with others. We are social beings.
Part of our self, what constitutes who I am, exists in relationship to others and world about me. So, you know, from the point of view of the Mahāyāna, the great vehicle, the Hīnayāna is seen to fall to the extreme of individualism. That we are after all isolated, ego is cut off from the rest of the world, and I only have to take care of this part of the picture in order to find the good life. And I think that’s a mistake. Even in our everyday life we know this is not the case.
We have to find some meaningful way of being in this world with others, relating with others. And is called love. And I don’t mean that to romantic or, You know, just kind of a fantasy. But it’s this word that we’ve used by which the best way that we can be in this world with others, that the quality of the mind in this kind of relating, this way of relating in terms of our intention, how our mind is is interacting with the world about it, how the quality of mind we call love. That’s the best possible way we can relate.
It seems. So, you know, but love in itself is, you know, it has to be translated into the outcome of that love. Love is not an end in itself. It is a movement toward bringing about a change. And this has to do with happiness.
You know, the wishing others to be happy simply we simply means what we mean by love, that they experience well-being. So we have to learn how to love, and it’s in doing that and in fulfilling that mission that love places upon ourselves, that we will lead the most successful type of life. We will actualize our greatest potential. But I mean this even in our everyday life, you know, we keep figuring out how can I be happy, how can I be happy? Life is a long problem, I’m just churning over my mind, ruminating, coming up with plans, you know, figuring it out.
I love, I think, I think if we can cultivate love, I think a lot of the unnecessary pain of our life will be resolved, just in that fact. But moreover, it will act as a motivating force, for us to go, for us to move beyond our present predicament, where we’re stuck and completely absorbed and, you know, and trying to bring happiness to this one entity on this side of the looking glass. And then part of our problem is that we’re so completely wrapped up and absorbed in our own problems. Oftentimes, they’re at the exclusion and expense of others. It doesn’t work, you know, within the true nature of things.
Such an approach in life is self defeating. So anyway, we want to be free. Okay. Good enough. But so does everybody else.
So maybe we can begin to commence the overreaching project of becoming the best possible person we can become, not only for ourselves and finding some kind of inner peace, but being the most successful way we can relate with others in this world, in terms of how we can help them to find the same as ourselves. So we’re trying to develop this aspiration to become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings. And this is the second principal aspect of the path, the awakened heart. And there are two meditative traditions that we made use of. So, you know, it’s not as if we can’t begin somewhere else.
We can’t be somewhere else, though we might like to be. You know, we can’t there has to be some our self interest is all that we know right now. So there has to be some self interest in it for us to even begin to embark, even to think about or take up the difficult task. We can’t be immediately altruistic, set aside our own agenda, our own material. That’s fine.
Mean Buddhism says we have to begin where we’re at, if we’re to begin at all. So, you know, we can begin to see that, awakening our heart and going through this, we’re going to be immediately happier people. I think so. Immediately, in our everyday life. And then setting aside Buddhism and all of that.
They need a more meaningful, richer, fuller life. Look at all the people that we really admire. So it’s a worthwhile project in itself, even for our own selfish interests. That’s where we know that. So, you know, it’s okay.
You know, it’s not like we’re not going to try to meditate on love and compassion until we’re loving and compassionate. Then we don’t need to. We’re doing it for ourselves to begin with. That’s fine. Things always won’t be like that.
There’ll be some kind of change. So we begin with this process of waking your heart. There are two meditative traditions, that of equalizing exchange in self for others, and the seven points of cause and effect instruction. And I’m going to quickly go through I I I got got off the maybe I won’t. It’s nine o’clock.
So I don’t know. I mean, this is what all my teachers tell me. What can I say? I can just repeat them, what they say. But I think I believe them.
You know what I mean? I know it’s you know, we can talk about these things. But I have a suspicion they’re right. That, you know, if we can be a little more loving, little more kind and so forth, life’s going to be that much better for ourselves. Whether we’re Buddhists or not, whether we’re trying to awaken our hearts or not.
We all want to be happy. It seems like this is a really it’s not fanciful. It’s not fanciful, I don’t think. But I think it’s very practical. It’s not current in our society as our values, systems, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look at it, take it up sincerely and try to take it up, you know, look at it seriously.
As the Dalai Lama said, If you’re going to be selfish, at least be wisely selfish. What he means by this peculiar sounding advice is that, in a way, bodhicitta, the awakened heart, is like a huge selfish attitude. When you dedicate yourself to others with loving kindness, you get back far more happiness than you could have ever experienced otherwise. Ordinarily we get so little happiness and it is easily lost. So if we want to be happy as possible, the only thing to do is to dedicate ourselves wholeheartedly to the welfare of others.
When some people hear people first hear about bodhicitta, they confuse it with a sentimental, highly emotional state of mind. Oh, how I want people to be happy. I cannot stand to think of their suffering. They feel so overwhelmed by the needs of others that their minds become depressed. But true bodhicitta is not like this.
It has nothing to do with such an upset and paralyzed state of mind. Instead, it is clear and easygoing, possessing a calm wisdom as well as a deeply felt compassion. It is an attitude of opening our hearts completely and leaving it open as much as we can. So, you know, I think, Leunig, Michael Leunig, said, There are only two emotions: fear and love. Now we live in fear.
Fear is running our life. This is a chance to step out of that way of life and learn how to love. It’s an alternative which is being presented to ourselves. So we can dedicate the positive energy we created. So we created some karmic formations, which have been planted on seeds in our consciousness.
May all beings everywhere plagued by suffering of body and mind attain an ocean of happiness and joy by virtue of my merits. May no living creatures suffer, commit evil, or fall ill. May no one be afraid or belittled with a mind weighed down by depressions. May the blind see forms and deaf hear sounds. May those whose bodies are worn with toil be restored on finding repose.
May the naked find clothing and the hungry find food. May the thirsty find water and a delicious drink. May the poor find wealth, those weak with sorrow find joy. May the forlorn find hope, constant happiness and prosperity. May there be timely rains and bountiful harvests.
May all medicines be effective and wholesome prayers be fulfilled. 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.
For as long as faith remains, for as long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain to dispel the miseries of the world. Through these skillful actions, may I quickly become an awakened spiritual master and lead each and every living being to the awakened realm. May the supreme jewel, the awakened heart that has arisen in life, and may that which has arisen never diminish, but increase more and more. In the land encircled by snow mountains, you are the source of happiness and well-being. Powerful Chenrezig, Please remain at the end of cyclic existence.
Thank you. If you’d like to get a cup of tea or biscuit or whatever, we’ll have a discussion. Otherwise, see you next Monday. Take care.