Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Ven Jampa Gendun opens this 123-minute session with an unexpected bridge between Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Dharma practice: the ACT distinction between values — ongoing ways of living — and goals — things achieved once and for all — reframes Buddhist qualities like wisdom and compassion as a daily expression rather than a distant destination. After a guided loving-kindness meditation expanding from self outward to all beings, he works through links nine to twelve of the twelve links of dependent origination: grasping, the fully activated karmic seed called existence, birth, and aging and death. A live classroom experiment with the young-woman/old-hag optical illusion makes the abstract point about karma and perception viscerally concrete. He then examines how the state of mind at the moment of death determines which karmic seed ripens into the next rebirth, including the story of the emperor Ashoka dying in anger. For practitioners already following the series.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 25 3PA 2007 10 01.mp3
UUID: 215e38bb-4818-468c-b29c-3f519279e464
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Three Principle Aspects of the Path 2006-2007 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 2007-10-01
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 123.0 minutes
Words: ~10,450
What? How is everybody? I’m good. I had a nice walk today. Good weather.
Good weather for a walk. On this weekend, I guess more exactly on Friday and Saturday, I did a course on a particular type of therapy called ACT. ACT. ACT, A C T. It’s called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.
And I’ll just share just a little bit what we talked about or what the presenter talked about. One important aspect of ACT is around commitment. By commitment you begin to get in touch and begin to find out what you’re all about in terms of your values. Values are extremely important. And it seems as if that’s been coming up for me according to my karma over the last couple of months or so, you know, various places, I’m I’m always coming across this word values.
And there was quite a quite a lot of discussion about values, and it’s something that’s central to Buddhism, I think, as well. You know, values are are like desired qualities of an ongoing action. So it’s something that we want to keep on doing all the time is our values. What is important, you know, we’ve talked about, for example, in our meditation last week, thought about if we attended our own death, our own funeral, we probably will attend our own death. What would you like to have heard about you, the influence, the role that you play on people’s lives and so forth.
So getting in touch with what our life represents, what in our heart of hearts we’re all about, that which brings meaning to our life, gives us a sense of fulfillment. But values, those are types of values. Values can be anything from I value good health, or I value my relationships, I value wisdom, or I value love and compassion. There’s a difference between values and goals. Goals are something that we can achieve once and for all.
You know, you have a goal of getting a degree at university, and you go to university and you complete all the requirements and you’ve achieved your goal. Or maybe you have the goal of getting married. So you find the right partner and you get married and you’ve achieved that goal. So it’s a closed ended proposition, but values are ongoing. It’s like when you’re traveling to the West, you can always keep traveling to West, to West, to West.
For example, if you value good health, it’s not something that you achieve once and for all. It’s an ongoing activity, a constant maintenance of your body and so forth, and doing exercise and taking care of your diet and so forth. So it’s an ongoing activity. You value that. It’s a value.
If it’s in terms of your relationship, you want to have intimacy and good communication and so forth is not something that you achieve once and then it’s finished and you need to know more. It’s something that has to be continually maintained. It’s an ongoing process. So values are things that are ongoing activities. So that becomes like a something which is like a way of life that you find fulfillment, a style in which you live.
And values give us a sense of abundance. Sometimes goals, and I’m afraid sometimes the ideas of the goal orientation of Buddhism can give us a very great sense of lack. Goals are what we lack, aren’t they? If we didn’t lack, we wouldn’t have this goal to achieve. They give us some kind of orientation.
They can provide us purpose and so forth. But they also can remind us of what we aren’t. Values can begin to we can implement values even in the smallest of ways in our everyday life. You know, we begin to make some kinds of various commitments in our everyday life. And I was thinking about how we can how this is related to this motivation and our going for refuge, this idea of commitment within Buddhism.
And what is it that what are the values of Buddhism? And it it seemed to me that that the idea or the the the notion of wisdom and, you know, wisdom isn’t just a thing out there in that we’re all struggling to achieve. And once we get that thing, we’ve got it once and for all. But it’s an ongoing process, isn’t it? It’s a value.
It becomes like a way of life in expressing whatever wisdom that we do possess at present in our everyday life and making a commitment to see how in this situation, in various relationships and difficulties and problems that life is continually dishing up to ourselves, how do I express my wisdom? How do I express how do I go beyond my this fiction, which I’m always, in one way or another, projecting upon people and situations? What part of it is is my own delusion playing in it? What is beyond my mind’s constant creating of fantasy? What is the reality of the situation?
So it’s like wisdom becomes important, this ability to cut through, to see things directly, to know things as they actually are, both in everyday little occurrences that happen to us in the seemingly insignificant events of our life, but also, of course, obviously, in a very profound sense. In a profound sense, for example, seeing deeply into the nature of reality and the nature of self, that type of wisdom. But all these various levels and layers of wisdom, it becomes a central value to working with that wisdom, just as love and compassion, you know, awakening our hearts, you know, our relationships and so forth. You know, if helping people is important, then you can begin to that can be expressed, How can I express that today? You know, it’s not something that has to be held.
You know, Wait till we get the certificates that we’re bodhisattvas, and then we’re going to do something. We can do something each day. But, you know, Just smiling at somebody, that can make somebody happy. And that’s the way expressing that value in your everyday life. Making a cup of tea for somebody.
So, you know, these these are values. And I think it’s I think it’s for me, it becomes a little more workable than thinking about a Buddha that I’m going to Buddhah that I’m going to achieve eons and eons and times from now. You know, sometime in the far distant future, some goal. It only makes me feel, you know, gives me a sense of almost discouragement in a way. But in talking about, you know, the wisdom that I do presently possess, and the love and compassion that I do presently possess, and how I can express those, how I can make that kind of a lifestyle so that these what it is, they become a value, which I make some kind of commitment to employ various strategies, both short term and long term, in expressing them.
So, you know, we’re always talking about the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha. Well, do I express Buddha as a value, as wisdom and love and compassion and a sense of inner strength of personal power. And how can I express my Buddha today? In what kind of ways can I manifest those Buddha like qualities which I possess and as a way of life? So Buddha becomes more of that rather than an abstract goal, it becomes a style of living, the way I carry on my activities in my everyday life.
I think it maybe maybe it makes the ideas and the notion of Buddha and so forth and these qualities that we associate with Buddha a little bit less abstract, a little bit something that will only come about in some far distant future time, which isn’t perhaps all that relevant to myself. But in fact, you know, Buddha is what we do every day. Buddha is as Buddha does. You know? If if love and compassion and wisdom are important to us, if they’re a high value to us, what am I going to do to express my Buddha today, that value today and tomorrow?
And, you know, we can bring that down to the immediacy of our present situation. The motivation. One way that we can express this value of wisdom, this high priority that we place on wisdom, love, and compassion is through our coming together as we do, trying to develop ourselves, educate ourselves, cutting through a lot of fantasies, cutting through a lot of mistaken beliefs and wrong assumptions and so forth through this process of listening, reflecting, and meditating on the Dharma, and actually implementing these methods. This is the strategy. I mean, this is the way that we express this value, that becomes something real for us.
It demonstrates its importance to ourselves. And in doing that, I think we realize the great abundance of ourselves and not so much what we lack about ourselves. So in coming together the way we do, listening to the Dharma, meditating, discussing, so forth, this is an expression of an important value for ourselves. So we can we can we can kind of feel good about ourselves because we are, in a very practical way, implementing what is important to ourselves in a very real way, you know, just like smiling if love is important to you, just as if resisting offering some resistance to our anger and our various delusions if inner strength is important to you, trying to cut through to the actual nature of the situation, if wisdom is important to you. So Buddha becomes important to ourselves.
And the way that we express that importance in terms of our commitment to some type of real activity is by coming here and doing what we do. So the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha, which we try to realize by means of the Dharma within the context of spiritual community. And again and again, trying to raise the love of our motivation, you know, the why behind and the purpose for what we do. You know, that we’re we’re doing this not just for our own selves alone. It’s a matter of, I think, accustoming ourselves, familiarizing ourselves with a different approach to seeing where our happiness lies and how to find that happiness in terms of changing our attitudes, accustoming ourselves to the idea that we can do something in an altruistic way, not so much with what I can myself and can get out of it, but how it how it makes me that much more able to help others, that kind of orientation, and making that familiarizing ourselves and accustoming ourselves to that kind of attitude, you know, as a real as a real means of actualizing these values, of becoming that Buddha.
So, you know, each of our hearts, thinking of one other person, bringing it down to some practical measure that you would like to be there for in a in a little more significant way, a little more caring, a little more patient, a little more understanding. And I’m doing this for you, even though if it’s only indirectly, even though you may never be aware of it. Nonetheless, my intention for doing what I’m doing this evening is in great part to be there for you. I go for refuge until I’m awakened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Through my practice 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 of suffering and the causes of suffering. May all sentient beings be inseparable from the joy that is without sorrow. May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free from attachment for some and aversion toward others. 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 to 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’ll begin with simply moving through the body, relaxing the body, you know, just becoming present in these different areas of the body. If, you know, if you can, if you wish to, you can imagine that what is being suggested, the tension diminishing or the tightness loosened and so forth, is actually occurring.
Perhaps you can actually feel that. But minimally, just be aware of these various areas as we move through the body and becoming aware of the feelings and sensations in these various parts of the body. And then we’ll practice the six part breath exercise, breathing in normally, comfortably. Upon the out breath, extending the exhalation, emptying the lungs of all the stale used air that’s built up over the day, over time. Breathing in comfortably, normally.
Again, prolonging, extending the exhalation, emptying the lungs and doing this six times. And then I thought we’ll meditate on loving kindness and I’ll just lead you through that, trying to evoke, you know, again the words I love you are not love. Love is a feeling, an emotion. The words are like a finger pointing, so we don’t want to get hung up in the finger. We want to try to come to feel what is being indicated by the words.
The words can help us to induce those feelings which they’re associated with. So if you’re trying to actually you can use your imagination, your your past memory of of having felt this way and associating it with these various people as we move through these varieties of people. So taking a comfortable firm posture. Beginning with relaxing the body starting at the crown of the head, the scalp, the forehead feeling the wrinkles in your brow beginning to smooth out, the pressure in and around your eyes diminishing. Muscles of the face softening, relaxing.
Your jaws relaxed. Move around to the muscles at the back of the neck. Perhaps gently turn your head to each side a few times. Just very gently loosening, stretching, relaxing the muscles of the throat. Moving down to the upper back, shoulders, perhaps rotating your shoulders a few times and letting them drop comfortably to the sides.
Feeling this burden, this weight that we carry around on our backs beginning to move down and through your body into the ground. It’s like some weights been lifted off your back. Moving all the way down to your hands. Your hands are soft, loose. Relaxing your lower arms.
And your upper arms Your chest is at ease. Relaxing throughout the heart area and the lungs and the central portion of the back, the stomach and releasing the tension that we hold in our stomach muscles. Just Your buttocks. Upper legs and the lower legs. To feet And bringing your awareness to your body in general.
Noticing any tightnesses, any tensions in the body, any places of discomfort. Focusing upon those areas, consciously relaxing, softening, feeling the tightness loosen, the tension diminish, breathing into those areas of discomfort. Feeling the discomfort dissolve. Your body becoming comfortable, at ease. A feeling of physical well-being pervading your body.
Just be with your body. Just be with your body. And then we’ll practice the six part breath exercise breathing in comfortably normally extending the exhalation emptying the lungs again bringing in normally extending the exhalation doing this on your own six times And when you’ve completed the exercise, bring your mind to the breath, just the easy gentle in and out flow, the natural breath. If you find it helpful use the techniques of counting and noting the breaths. If your mind wanders distracted, congratulate yourself for becoming aware of that gently and patiently bring your mind back to the breath.
So now we’re going to meditate on loving kindness and we’re going to begin with ourselves. So initially, the various feelings that we’re going to develop are directed toward yourself. So whatever you may have done in the past, the various mistakes that you may have feel you’ve created, you can develop a healthy sense of regret, and you can begin again. And whatever you want to become, you can become that. But just for this present moment, we want to set aside the past and the future and get in touch with ourselves as we are now.
Be kind to ourselves and wish ourselves well. So simply develop and direct toward yourself some kind, caring feelings to that person you are now, that person who wants to be happy and doesn’t want to suffer, that person you are now. Befriend yourself and wish yourself well. Now think of someone that you naturally like, someone you love. Wish that person 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 think about some of the many kindnesses that this person has shown you, the good times that you’ve shared together. And begin to direct out, radiate out toward this person the kind, caring feelings which naturally arise when you think of this person this way. Feelings of wishing them happiness, They did not suffer.
May you have all the good things alive. May you have joy and abundance. May all go well for you. May you be happy. Wish them well.
Wish them happiness. Now think of someone you neither like nor dislike, a stranger, perhaps someone you see in a a shop or on the street or in an office, someone in the newspaper or on television, someone you don’t know, and imagine that person there in front of you. And though you don’t know this person personally, one thing you do know about them is that they want to be happy, and they don’t want to suffer just like yourself. And just like yourself, they’re experiencing dissatisfaction, pain, disappointment, frustration. So, actually, you know this person well.
You know a lot about them. And simply out of the the goodness of your heart, going out to a fellow human being just like yourself, wish them well out of your own feeling of abundance. Wish that they’d be happy too. May you be happy. May things go well for you.
Now think of someone that you don’t like, someone you have some problems with, and imagine that person there in front of you. This person wants to be happy and just doesn’t want to suffer exactly like yourself. Perhaps their method of finding their happiness, eliminating their suffering has come in conflict with your methods of finding your own happiness and solving your problems. But that’s just a conflict of self interest. And just we have as we have to forgive ourselves for the various mistakes that we’ve made in the past in harming others and hurting others, whether intentionally or not, perhaps we have to begin to forgive this person.
So just for this present moment, set aside your hurt, your grudge. Just for this present moment, set all that stuff aside and try to look into their heart of somebody who wants to be happy and doesn’t want to suffer just like yourself and makes makes lots and lots of mistakes in doing just that. And now the kindness of your heart and so that you stop hurting yourself. Let go of your hurt, your grudge just for this present moment and wish them well. Wish them happiness.
And then take the mind of all the people in this room, the people who are really trying their best, trying to take responsibility for their lives and their minds, trying to grow. And then radiate out the wish happiness and well-being to everyone in the room wishing that they find whatever it is they’re looking for, that they find peace and fulfillment and meaning in their life. Wish them well. And extending this wish out further and further to all of Burnside, people in the cars and buses, on the streets, in their homes, watching television, preparing dinner, eating, getting ready for bed. Wish all of them, whatever they might be doing, whoever they are, that they’d be happy, that things be well for them.
Radiate out and touch everyone in Burnside with your wish for their happiness. Extending this wish out further and further to all of Adelaide people on the streets, in department stores, in offices, in factories, in their homes. Extending out further and further to all of South Australia. Darwin, Perth, the entire country. And eastward to New Zealand and northward to East Timor and Indonesia, Malaysia, Southeast Asia.
Asia, westward to Europe, Africa. South America, North America. Just feel that you take the entire world into your heart. All the people, black, white, red, yellow, the animals, all the insects, everything that lives on the earth is touched by your wish that you’d be happy, that I not suffer. Just have that sense, that feeling, that wish.
And extending this wish out in all the directions of space. Further and further without any feelings of limitation, without any limits. Until finally without any center, without any boundaries pervading all of infinite space. May all be happy. May there be only happiness.
May there be peace. Just rest your mind in that feeling. And then bring your mind back to the breath. And get in touch with your body, sensations and feelings within the body. The pressure of your feet on the floor or your buttocks on the chair, your hands and your lap, all the various sensations of your body.
And then in an easy and gentle manner slowly become aware of your surroundings taking your time. So we’ve been looking at the twelve links of dependent origination, you know, the process whereby we perpetuate these cycles of dissatisfactory existence, which we call cyclic existence or conditioned existence. And by conditioned existence we mean a way of life, an approach to living, which is under the control of karma and afflictive emotions. karma and afflictive emotions. Most basically mean a way of life which is driven, which is propelled by ignorance.
Ignorance with regard with the misconception with the nature with regard to the nature of the self. in dependence upon misconceiving the self, in that we we concretize, solidify what is in we conceive as permanent, independent self, which we becomes we become attached to, which we which we dedicate our life to perpetuating perpetuating an existence of what is in fact the object of a misconception. And we involve ourselves in various actions in order to to bring about the happiness of this misconceived self and eliminate the suffering of what we have, this misconceived self. In defense upon ignorance, we involve ourselves in formative actions, you know, both negative and positive. And these leave impressions.
Seeds are planted on the consciousness. And out of this, we go on to develop the five aggregates, name and form. Name is the four mental aggregates and form is the physical aggregate of the body. And then as a way of, and this occurs during the gestation period of the fetus, during the first three weeks, as the establishment of the being. And then as a way of relating with our environment, we develop mediums of connection with our environment, which are the sixth sense spheres, you know, the eye sense sphere or the eye sense faculty here, the way that we’re going to relate with the outside world.
So now there’s the inside world and the outside world. Out of that development, we make contact. We actually experience objects about us, either as agreeable or disagreeable or neutral. Dependence upon that, there’s a subjective reaction, which we call feeling, and that is pleasant feeling, in dependence upon agreeable contact, unpleasant feelings, in dependence upon disagreeable contact, and neutral feelings, in dependence upon neutral contact. And then in dependence upon feelings, we go on to crave.
With regard to pleasant feelings, we want to maintain that pleasant feeling, we want to perpetuate it, want to keep it going, we want more of it, want to repeat it again in the future. But also with regard to unpleasant feelings, nonetheless there’s a craving, but in this sense the craving is to be separated from that unpleasant feeling and not to repeat it, a desire or a craving or a wish not that it be not repeated again in the future. I want to try an experiment. I’ve never done this before. So this might fall completely on its face.
It might be a disaster. Yeah. I just it’s an experiment. It has to do with karma. karma is how, you know, is not is how we condition our mind.
Our minds aren’t blank slates, as I try to emphasize, and not raw consciousness, but by conditioned by our past ways of thinking and speaking and so forth, our past experiences. Our minds are conditioned. So when we bring a conditioned consciousness to all that we experience, all that we perceive, it is playing its part in actually what we do experience and what we do perceive. Know, we are the reality is simply not just given to us out there, independent of our minds, being forced upon ourselves. But we are involved in its co creation.
What we perceive, how we come to know the world is very much dependent upon these conditioning factors within our mind, dependence upon our past karma. And I want to try and experiment. I don’t know if it’s going to work. Maybe it won’t. And then I’ll just sneak off and never be heard of.
I want to do there’s a There’s a there’s there’s about there’s so I want to divide the room into two. Two not the room, but the people who are listening. So maybe there’s six on that side and five on this side. So could could so I’m going to show a picture to one half of the room. And I, you know, I just take a look at it, see what it, see what it looks like.
That’s all I ask for now. While I’m showing the picture to the people on my right side, I ask the people on the left side not to look at the picture. Maybe close your eyes. Just for thirty seconds. Don’t go to sleep.
Just thirty seconds. And then we’ll repeat the same. I’m gonna show a different picture to the people on the left side. And then while I’m showing the picture to the people on the left side, the people on the right side, would you look away or just close your eyes? Take thirty minutes, thirty seconds of sleep or if you need it or whatever.
And then I’m going to show and many of you have seen this third picture which I’m going to show. You’ve probably seen this before, but maybe you’ve never done this in this particular way. And I’m going to take a pull upon what you actually see. And just, know, don’t become overly clever. Just what’s your immediate impression?
Yeah. I’m going to see whether, you know, well, we can evaluate it after. If it doesn’t work, there’s no sense evaluating it. Okay? So I’m going to show this picture to the people on my right side.
So the people on the left side, find something to do with your mind for the next thirty seconds. Okay? Don’t look at the picture. So people on my right side, there’s a picture. Okay.
A drawing. Okay. Okay. The people on my left side can wake up, and I’m going to show you a picture. And the people on my right side, would you look away and or close your eyes?
And I’m going to show the people on my left side a drawing. Okay. Okay. Now comes the real trick. Okay.
Now I’m going to ask everyone to take a look at this picture. I’m just gonna show it for a short while. And then we’re going to then I’m going to ask you to take a vote after having shown this picture in terms of what what you saw. Okay? So if everybody will just take a look at this picture for everybody.
Okay. That one. Yeah. Okay. Okay.
Now, the peep how many people Raise your hand. How many people in this last picture that you saw, how many people see a young girl? Raise your hand. A young girl. So it’s four, six, seven, eight.
How many people see an old hag? Oh, that’s interesting. So this is three, four, five. So you see some people saw both. Yes.
That’s an Eerie Yeah. It’s an Eerie textbook. I don’t know if it worked or not. Maybe it didn’t It’s only different because Say what? It did freaking good.
But I didn’t see the old I I know the picture. I didn’t see the old The old the old woman after seeing it then. No? You didn’t see Now I don’t see it. Now I don’t see it.
You see you don’t see the old hag? So I don’t know. I don’t think that I don’t know if it worked or not. That what the point was that what you know, if perhaps if this is many people are familiar with this, you know, it’s most psychology textbooks and, you know, what do we initially perceive? Possibilities.
My thought was, if you were shown this first, then upon being shown this, that would have conditioned you to pick up to see a young girl. On the other hand, if you had been showing this first, this would have preconditioned your mind to seeing an old hag. It didn’t work. Really? It didn’t?
You see you notice one thing. You can’t see both at the same time. No. No. No.
You might You can’t perceive an old hag and an old young girl at the at the same time. You don’t think so? I mean, mean, I’ve seen this picture many, many times. I I think your I think the the theory is quite good. I mean, if you you know, if you look the picture, I’m sure that would be because pre Your your mind’s here.
Condition your mind to see something. Yeah. So what so my point is I I that, you know, what is there is not being forced on you. Your mind is, due to conditioning factors in your mind, it’s organizing that visual field and trying to make it’s just shapes and colors, but it’s trying to gain some kind of recognition. Well, what is that?
What are they what’s trying to organize that? Our minds are constantly trying to organize this chaos about this, these shapes, colors, sounds, into some coherent reality, which we can find some kind of security in. So it’s always trying to recognize. And what is it only can go on its past conditioning, its past understanding, its past experiences. And therefore, you know, our past experiences carry over into what we come to know.
So I just thought I just thought I’d experiment. I don’t know if it worked or not. So this is our karma, these conditioning factors. That’s all it is. The way that the reason the world that we come to know is dependent upon what we’ve how we’ve conditioned our mind in the path.
It makes sense. We’re always trying to make sense out of our world, trying to create some kind of coherence, some kind of stability for ourselves. And so there’s patterns, order to our universe, rather than simply just shapes and colors being thrown to us chaotically, you know, without any meaning. Our mind is struggling all the time and filling in all the gaps. There’s a it all makes sense.
I’m a jampa, and I’m a I’m a male. And with all these all these various identities, I’m in Adelaide at Buddha House, and the very story that I fill in all the details. And I know pretty much who I am and, you know, trying to secure myself and the self in space and time and solidify it, give it some kind of real reality. I don’t know if that worked or not. Anyway, maybe I’ll anyway, where are we?
We are craving. in dependence upon feelings. We go on to develop a craving, and as I mentioned, terms of unpleasant feelings, crave to be separated, and it depends upon pleasant feelings. Crave. A craving is simply a sense of attachment.
But and as we mentioned last week, when we talk about feeling giving rise to craving, it’s not this is a feeling which is dominated by ignorance. We a Buddha has feelings, this continual bliss, but it doesn’t bring it’s not dominated by ignorance. It does not give rise to craving. Craving, you know, there’s a sense of of a of a of a me over here, an independent self over here, and this object which I associate with this pleasant feeling over there, and I want to incorporate this. There’s a sense of by making it a permanent part of myself, I can partake of that pleasure which I associate with that object eternally.
I want to incorporate that into my ego identity, into my self identity, into myself, and make it mine, a permanent sent part of me. I, me, mind. And so there’s it’s always this craving arises, the basis of a misconception is dominated by ignorance, by seeing that the the the qualities which we associate with that object, its ability to bring pleasure, its potential to bring me happiness and so forth, are in the very nature of the object. And I’m not involved in any way in labeling or projecting or organizing that reality along those lines. Moreover that quality is in the very nature of that object, it’s a permanent aspect of that object.
If I can only possess it, make it a permanent part of the self, then I can experience eternal bliss in some fashion. The develops craving and dependence upon a basic misconception. There’s distorted thinking going on. So, it’s dominated by ignorance. Otherwise, craving would not arise.
We can have feelings without craving. There are feelings which are, you know, which are reasonable and which are where we don’t crave. We don’t go on to we can simply enjoy without the residue, the extra added. Out of craving, that’s where we got up last time. We finished the eighth link.
Out of craving, we developed the ninth link of dependent origination, which is grasping. Grasping is like an intensified craving. So it’s like we’re actually mentally grabbing at particular object. Craving is like a general attachment to pleasurable existence or pleasurable objects, but also to being separated from displeasurable or unpleasant objects, feelings, so forth. So this is a general desire.
But here, craving is like particularizing that desire, you know, giving it some specific object of specific focus. So grasping augments that craving. Craving is the generality, a general approach, and grasping begins to particularize. What is it that is going to bring me that pleasure, that craving wants? You know, it’s like grasping for You know, you want pleasure.
You want the pleasure of food. So how am I going to how am I going to implement? How am I going to you you remember that this is all how am I going to implement? How am I going to implement? How am I going to realize the object of my craving?
I’m going to actually have to grab at some particular object. You know, if I want pleasure, so I want to I want I grab at food or, you know, so the pleasure of eating, for example. So it’s the urge to reach out. You know, like, you want to watch a video, and you actually select one out of the shelf. And then you go to what are they called?
What’s Video shop. Yeah. What’s it? What’s what’s the particular what’s the particular one name? Track.
Track. Track video shop. Okay. And then you go down and say, you you walk in, you have a general craving and you say, I want to watch a video. Then you go actually walk in the shop and there’s all these and you actually take one.
So we’re actually grasping, grabbing on to a particular. So it’s an urge to it’s a way that we can fulfill that craving in real terms. So this is it’s beginning to actualize. What we’re going to do, we’re going to look at, is that this is beginning to actualize. It’s going to activate particular karma.
And how am I going to if I have a craving for if I have a general craving, and then I particularly want food, the pleasure of food, and this this is what comes up at the moment of my death. How am I going to implement that? What’s the operational basis for for for satisfying that craving and grasping? Grasping. What do I need?
Well, I’ve to have a body if going to satisfy that urge. I need a mouth. I need a stomach. If I’m going to actually be able to fulfill that, I need the operational means which are going to help me to implement satisfying that craving. So what am I doing?
There’s all these possible there’s all these seeds of karma within my mind, you know? And amongst them, I’m going to activate a particular type of karma, a karmic seed, which is going to facilitate implementing my grasping and craving. I’m going to grab for a body, a particular type of body, a body which I can eat, you know, which I can eat with, like, you know, if I want blueberry cheesecake, it’s gonna be human. Maybe a dog could eat human. Anyway, you get the idea.
So what you know, this crave this craving and grasping, the general craving and then the grasping for a particular focus of an object, it’s going that that you know, it’s like, am I actually going to bring about the fulfillment fulfillment of that urge. I’m going to do that in cooperation with a particular karmic seed, the karmic seed which I’ve created in the past to take a human embodiment. This is going to assist in activating that particular karmic seed. It’s the the it actualizes the appropriate appropriate operational means. You know, it’s the impelling karma, which I planted up here due to ignorance.
I can realize the object of my desire. And so this is in terms of our painting or our drawing. This is symbolized by a it’s It’s about almost nine o’clock by a monkey climbing in a tree picking fruit. So what is happening? This symbolizes that the consciousness, that there are the karmic seeds in the consciousness, and one of the karmic seeds is being, as it were, picked or activated.
Due to the nature of this craving and grasping, one of the karmic seeds implanted in our mind is being activated. It’s like a monkey picking the fruit in the tree. So in dependence upon grasping, becoming arises. Becoming the tenth link of the twelve links of dependent origination. So this is becoming oh, becoming.
No. That’s not becoming. That’s an old term I used to use. It should I I don’t know why I wrote becoming. That was an old that was a term I used to use.
It’s a we’re using the word existence. Existence. Okay. Existence. So we have cravings are either pleasant feelings feelings are either pleasant feelings, unpleasant feelings, or neutral feelings.
They’re the subjective reaction to contact. Now, this Buddhist discussion, in this discussion, we’re limiting the meaning of feeling to only what mean by pleasant feelings, unpleasant feelings, and neutral feelings. Feelings in the English language covers a great deal, much, much more than that. Feelings it’s experience of pleasure, the experience of pain, the experience of neutrality or indifference. That’s all we mean.
So you’re not sort of grouping them together. You’re saying that’s all distinction That’s all that feelings here means. Okay. And I thought I understood what you meant by craving until you started explaining grasping. So so we we we have a pleasant feeling.
Yep. We have a pleasant feeling. And so one, there will arise craving is a type of attachment or desire. You want to you have a crave you there will naturally arise. Anytime you experience a pleasant feeling, you want that pleasant feeling to continue.
You crave for it to continue. You you desire that it continue. And moreover, that it would be repeated again in the future. You want more of it. Or you or you crave that, in case of a painful feeling, that you’d be separated, that the painful feeling go away.
You crave that you be separated or that you crave or desire that the craving feeling stop and you not repeat that experience again in the future. That’s craving. So that’s the general quality of wanting pleasure, wanting to be separated from any unpleasurable feelings. But here we’re talking about a particular feeling will arise. We’re talking about what’s happening at the moment of our death.
A particular feeling will arise, either pleasure or displeasure. A memory arises, for example. You will develop a craving for that. Yeah. And just just for general pleasure.
And that would that would be for for general pleasure. But then you begin to consider what type of within the general pleasure, there’ll an urge will arise which is intensified craving toward a specific type of pleasure, you know, which you’ve been habituated to or that you’ve been accustomed to which over the course of your life. Yeah. Is craving then wanting something and grasping, disgetting that something and hanging on to it with white knuckles? That’s what I always Craving craving is a I’d like to watch a video tonight.
That would be good. And then grasping as you go into the video shop and you take one you take one off the shelf. So is it is it the decision to narrow it to the one movie or is it the action of actually kind of, yeah, yeah. The urge to focus. You’re focused upon one Now, it’s an intensification and focusing down of craving.
It becomes grasping where you actually reaching out for particular object of your craving. So craving was already focused attention or something? Craving is just a general desire for pleasure to maintain. Yeah. Maintain pleasure craving for pleasurable feelings and to be separated from unpleasurable feelings.
And then within that pleasurable feelings, you say, Well, you know, I want the pleasurable feeling of watching a video. And then you go down and you pick, I’m going watch, I don’t know, Harry Potter. I don’t know. Yeah. Grasping.
And so these you’re beginning to actually grasp for a particular type of pleasure, but it becomes more very specific, the type of pleasure. And that type of pleasure that you’re grasping for, these begin to nourish these karmic seeds which are present within our consciousness. The karmic seeds to take, for example, a type of let’s say you’re dying. Okay? And and and what what’s happened as you die?
Your body’s becoming cold. You know? Becoming cold. Yeah. The heat is leaving your body, and you’re experiencing it’s cold.
It’s so cold. What what do what you to be separated from that feeling of displeasure. So you you want to be separated from that feeling of displeasure, displeasant unpleasant feeling of cold. You want to be separated from that. And and and you you begin to crave warmth.
I’d like to be warm. Oh, put more blankets on me. Oh, okay. Turn up the heat. Turn up.
You know? And but the body’s beginning to separate from the mind. And the the beginning the bond the bond between body and mind is beginning to weaken. And we we the no matter how many blankets you put on that body, no matter how much how warm the room is, the mind is is no is no longer susceptible to this interacting with the body as it once was. It’s it’s going off into its own fantasy temporarily, and it’s beginning to it’s cold.
It’s it wants warmth. It has urge for warmth. How it’s going to implement that desire for warmth, that craving for warmth, to be warm. And it begins to, you know, think fire, fire. You know, I need fire within these karmic within all these karmic seeds.
It it’s going to that that that grasping for for for heat, you know, is going to nourish a particular karmic seed. Yeah. It’s going to activate a particular karmic seed as an operational means to fulfill that desire, that grasping what it is that you’re grasping for heat. And the next and then you you you activate the karmic seed to be born be born in the the hot hells. You become flames.
You’re born in flames. Everybody’s dying. They get cold. Some people are. I think that’s how we’ve got the Christian version.
They walk in the warm place. Some people die. Some people it varies. No. But but this is just a this is just a possibility of of what you might grasp for at the time of death, what you might crave and therefore grasp for.
Some people, you know, they could let me see. If I’m it doesn’t I’m just giving an example. The the this mechanism also works while while we’re, you know, consciously walking around all that kind stuff. So so it operates just as well as when we’re here. They do.
You don’t have to be dying this very second. Of course, we’re all dying all the time. But Yeah. The generally, the twelve links of dependent origination is explained in terms of this formative action is a propelling action, a type of karmic seed which throws us into a future life, which is activated at the time of death. There are some explanations which in which this is occurring every moment of our life.
But generally, it’s explained that this is this process is being this this is this is what is arising at the the moment of death. At the moment of death, will arise craving. It always arises craving and grasping. It will always, even if the end existence, which will nourish one of your karmic seeds, formative actions, propelling karma, which is going to throw you into your next rebirth, depending upon the nature of that craving and grasping existence. So, we’re talking about this is occurring at the time of death.
Okay. I don’t mean to frighten you. I hope I’m not frightening anyone. So what happens? So this is existence.
in dependence upon grasping, existence arises. Existence is a case of giving the name of the result to the cause. What is existence? Existence is the karmic seed. Up here, this karmic seed, it’s been potentialized, it’s been energized, it’s been juiced up.
Before it was just like it was a dormant, but now it’s being nourished by craving and grasping. And it’s we call it existence because it is the potentialized karma, the fully activated karma. It’s just about to give its result. It’s going to throw us into a particular and it’s going to give our mind directionality. It’s going to give our mind an urge to seek out a particular embodiment as a means of actualizing, satisfying or fulfilling this craving and grasping.
So this is existence. It’s going to bring us into some kind existence. That’s why we say it’s giving the name of the result, existence, to the cause, this fully activated karmic seed, which was implanted back here. This karmic seed, propelling karma, is being fully activated by the power of craving and grasping. This is before the next moment of our next life, the last moment of this life.
This karmic seed is activated, and it’s going to yield a fruit. It’s going to bring about a particular type of rebirth, particular type of existence. You know, it’s like It’s like, you know, if you plant a seed, know, like sometimes they plant winter crop. Farmers plant winter wheat. And the seed lies dormant.
They plant it in the autumn, in late autumn. And the seed lies dormant beneath the earth over the winter. And as the earth warms up in the summer and there’s rain in the spring, then what has been dormant is nourished, as it was activated by the warmth of the earth and the moisture and so forth. So this is like dormant seed. And this is like the summer, the spring rain, spring warmth.
And now the seed is germinating. It’s going to actually bring about the crop. Crop. It’s going to grow. But there is one other supportive condition which isn’t mentioned here.
And this is there’s another karma which is going to be as we’re dying, we’re going to create another type of karma. And this is generally mental karma. And we can simply say, it’s the mental state of the dying person. For all ordinary individuals, there will always be craving and grasping at the time of death. But there’s a third condition which is going to serve to activate, which is going to nourish that seed.
And it’s going to help in deciding which of those seeds is going to be nourished because we have infinite numbers of seeds within our mind, karmic seeds from past lives. And this is the state of mind that we die in. When we talked about death, we said it was extremely important, the state of the dying mind. Why? Because if it the ethical quality of the state of the mind as it’s dying will correspond to the ethical quality of the karmic seed, which is being activated.
If you die in a positive state of mind, a positive seed will be activated. Even though there’s grasping and craving, this only throws you into another rebirth. But which type of those rebirths is very much dependent upon the quality of the state of mind as you die. That’s why it’s important for oneself, but also if you’re assisting another person or if you’re influencing the person in their dying, that you help them to maintain a positive state or at least a neutral state and try to prevent it by all means a negative state. And dependence upon these three conditions grasping, craving, and the state of the mind as a person dies will determine which of these karmic seeds is going to be activated, is going to be nourished.
And this represents the becoming or should be existence here represents the fully activated karmic seed, the moment before the taking of rebirth. And this in our drawing? Yeah. To be able to be a person that die rather than others. Which type of what state of mind?
Yeah. Like like yeah. How it affects how how the state of mind is affected by the particular helix seed. I’ll explain that one. Try again.
You said there are an infinite number of a large number of possibilities Yeah. Yeah. That can be brought into operation when a person is dying. Is there a propensity within each individual for a particular type of seed to be there when they are dying, or is it I mean rule? You mean, what in terms of what state of mind they die with?
Yeah. I think no, mean, there’s no I mean, there’s no rule. But I mean, I think generally it’s said that you die much as you lived. Okay. Yeah.
But not necessarily so. There are many exceptions. You know, the people who have, at the time of their death, people who have led quite a miserable life have a conversion or whatever. They die with a very positive state of mind. There are examples of people who have led a relatively positive life, who have died with a rather negative state of mind.
And they’re very surprised. Met someone. Lama Zopa once said that he thinks many of the Geshees at the Sera Monastery, they have a hard time when they die. They freak out. They have a difficult death, he’s noticed.
Is there I mean, I don’t mean to It’s not very reassuring. No. It’s most of them. Well, not from here. It’s your It has but it’s more but that’s the problem.
That’s what he’s it’s it has to be something more than intellectual. It has to be in terms of what you your actual attitudes and mind. Many of these people are scholars, but they’ve never internalized a lot of what they’ve studied. And they have a hard time of it. But there are those yeah.
So it very much depends upon the people around you. They could influence you. I don’t know, I I’ll tell you a story, one of the typical stories. I don’t know if it’s a good idea, though. One of the great patrons of ancient Buddhism in India was Ashoka.
And he built temples and monasteries and he was a great patron. And it said that at the time of his death, one of his servants was fanning him stopped and he got angry and he died in that state and he went to hell. But he didn’t stay there very long. But anyway, so but in general, in general, if you’ve led a good life, you’ll probably have a good death and you’ll probably have a positive state of mind and death. But that’s only in general.
So you try to do all that you can to ensure that the situation is conducive to a positive state of mind at the time of your death. Keep anything that might disturb you. Help the dying person. Have inspirational pictures and quotes, and some ways, props that help you to support a positive state of mind. Or if you have a practice that you can implement we talked about the five powers, which can be applied at the time of death, you know, taking and giving, you know, trying to keep a very positive state as you die.
I think standing around and crying, that be? No. That that’s not suggested. That would be that could be disturbing to the dying person. Attachment could arise.
That could disturb them very powerfully. I mean, in terms of attachment or it could be aversion. Could anyway, probably a disturbance, something which would be peaceful. But if you’ve, you know, if you’ve done a practice, if you’ve practiced, you know, taking, giving, know, you’re prepared for that time. We we went we went through what I call the five powers, which can apply at the time of death.
That’s that’s something that you can do for yourself to ensure that you you will die as best as certain as you can be, you you will have a positive you will die with a positive state of mind. If you die with a caring, loving mind, there’s no problem. If you die going for refuge to your teacher, to Buddha or Dharma, or to something really worthwhile or just with the thought, may I be able to benefit others in my next life, whatever. That kind of aspirational prayer, that can help. That will nourish a positive a positive karmic seed as opposed to freaking out.
You know? I don’t wanna die. Yeah. And so it’s you can’t be sure. No.
What’s good with it? Nobody’s sure. You can only do your best in preparing for that. This is pictured as a at at approximately these pictures aren’t very clear, actually. Anyway, it’s it’s about nine nine forty five, nine nine fifty.
It’s supposed to be it’s supposed to be Actually, it’s good. It’s good. But it’s not the same picture. I’ve had a look before. No.
It’s not. This is this is very good. That’s a similar that it’s just a white color. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. This is like I think this is a woodblock print. Yeah. This is a it it’s a pregnant woman. Existence is depicted by a pregnant woman symbolizing that the full potential for a new life system is present, but it’s yet to take effect.
So everything’s ready to go. Birth is just about ready to take place. Everything’s activated, fully juiced up, potentialized. Something like that. To craving, grasping Existence is a karmic seed which is this karmic seed which has been activated, you know, completely potentialized like a pregnant woman just ready to give birth.
And dependence upon existence, the eleventh link of the twelve links of dependent origination rises birth. And at the time of taking birth, the consciousness of the dying person is impelled to seek out a type of embodiment. It’s been the mind you know, these conditioning factors it’s it’s, you know, the way how am I going to how am I going to realize this realize this object of craving and grasping. And the mind is conditioned to select amongst those possibilities. A particular type of embodiment which fits with these predispositions, these tendencies that are being expressed at the time of as your mind leaves the body.
And it’s going to seek out that type of embodiment which is going to fulfill that tendency, that that predisposition. So in the consciousness will enter into a particular fertilized ovum of a particular type of parent. That’s birth. The moment the consciousness entering into fertilized ovum constitutes birth, that very first moment. And this is the initial connection to the next life.
And this is pictured by Anyway, it’s a picture by a woman giving birth. Fair enough? So the very initial connection, that first moment, is birth. And dependence upon birth, the twelfth link of twelve links of dependent origination arises, aging and death. So immediately, the second moment of that life, aging begins.
There are two types of aging. One is called the progressive aging. You know, we go through all the various stages of life and so forth. But there’s also the aging, what’s called degenerate aging, or they say the aging which we normally associate, like the deterioration of the body, the organs beginning to deteriorate over time. When there’s always this similarity of type arising, but slightly, know, slight discrepancy of continuity, the body is aging over time.
When that continuity of similarity of type, when it ceases, that constitutes death. So the the the ceasing of the of the continuum continuum of of a continuity of a particular type of embodiment. When that continuity ceases, when the no when when that that that that embodiment no longer is replicating itself, that constitutes death. The continuity comes to an end. That is symbolized by an old aging is symbolized by an old man bent over.
And then death is they’re carrying carrying a corpse away. So, anyway, Anyway, we want to talk a little bit more about how these are being organized, you know, how these occur over our lives. So we’re going to go into is called projected cause and projected effect and actualizing cause and actualizing effect. It’s like summarizing, We’ve gone through these twelve links, and we can see some kind of cause and effect in this causal chain, one link rising from the next, the previous link, and so forth. But we can see how we have to organize these, and we can summarize them and see what the significance, how this all fits together.
And maybe we can we’ll take that up next week. Okay? So it’s, yeah, a difficult subject, I think. I mean it’s difficult for me yeah yeah let’s I’m sorry I’m sorry about that word becoming. I didn’t mean to write that.
Just call it will call it existence. Existence. Is there might be a karmic seed. That’s the that’s the fully activated karmic seed. It’s dependent among some things on ignorance.
Yeah. This whole thing is is rooted in ignorance. Yeah. In ignorance. Yeah.
We’re gonna see. This is one of one of the significance of going through this process is to see the part the fundamental role that ignorance plays in order to develop, you know, this, know, if when ignorance ceases, we no longer commit actions. If we no longer commit actions, we no longer have consciousness conditioned by past actions. If we no longer have conscious conditioned by past actions, you know, the whole thing ceases. When all of this is dominated by ignorance, this whole process.
But there’s an alternative. The whole process can evolve out of wisdom and compassion. A Buddha still has a body, still has aggregates, but that entire embodiment is involved out of wisdom. Bodhisattva still takes rebirth, but not by the force of craving and grasping, by the force of compassion. There’s a completely different way of approaching life other than that which arises out of ignorance, out of wisdom and compassion.
So, you know, there’s still a life, but it’s a different way of life. So if if you’d like to grab a cup of coffee, tea, or we’ll have a discussion around this. I don’t know if this what do you think? Did this work or not? An Eskimo would not see a bicycle helmet.
So what does that say about my karma in seeing something as positive as that? Bicycle helmet? Instead of an old hag, you could it. Oh I see. Yeah, that’s true.
An elderly woman.