Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Opening with the Zen koan “if you see the Buddha on the road, kill him,” Ven Jampa Gendun uses this 141-minute session to challenge the deep habit of projecting happiness onto people, possessions, and situations rather than finding it within. After a body-scan and breathing meditation, he leads a structured purification practice using the four powers — genuine regret, recommitment to vows and relationships, a realistic restraint pledge, and a Śākyamūni Buddha mantra visualization with white-light imagery. The session then reviews the first of the Three Principal Aspects of the Path — the will to awaken — unpacking renunciation as relinquishing the futile search for lasting happiness in external things, examining the three scopes of beings, and working through the precious-human-life reflection with pointed real-world examples. Suited to practitioners already familiar with Tsongkhapa’s text and the twelve links of dependent origination.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 28 3PA 2007 10 15.mp3
UUID: 76dedcfb-e6f1-4550-9907-7928e07c3ef3
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Three Principle Aspects of the Path 2006-2007 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 2007-10-15
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 141.6 minutes
Words: ~9,983
Is that better? Yeah. How is everybody? Feeling a bit frazzled. Okay.
So we begin by adjusting our motivation. As a Zen Master once said, if you see the Buddha on the road, kill him. I know which is a rather radical thought, isn’t it? You know, is you know, you see the Buddha who we take as a metaphor, as the solution to the problems of conditioned existence and the fulfillment of all the possibilities that we can be and solutions to all the various difficulties and sufferings and disappointments and the realization of all our, you know, the evolution, the development of all our qualities in terms of wisdom and love and compassion and personal power and how these find expression in everyday life, you know, we call that a Buddha. If you see that essentially if you see the solutions to life outside yourself, you’re looking in the wrong place.
And we can’t demand of the world that it be other than the way it is. There’s a certain dishonesty. When a man or a woman experiences a fantasy of ultimate peace and wholeness, he or she needs to understand this fantasy as a statement of what he or she could achieve within themselves. But usually, he or she will project his or her image of paradise on another man or another woman, unconsciously asking him or her to fulfill it, to bring into some physical actuality, to deliver it to him. You know, when we see what the good life is about, you know, what it might mean to lead a successful life in realizing the full potential of what life could be.
More than not, you know, we have these images which can arise in our mind from time to time, us. But quite often more than not, project them outside onto another person or a material thing of one sort or another, the right house or the right car or maybe the right job or the Anyway, there’s some person or thing or situation of one sort or another that we see is going to bring us the life that we’ve all perhaps unknowingly been searching for all along. And this is what we mean by if you see the Buddha on the road, kill him because we’re looking in the wrong place. You know, think the, you know, we try to manipulate the world about us. And I think we can do that rather successfully to find pleasure.
And but to find happiness, we have to change our own attitudes, change our own minds. You know, but more than that we’re like the person who’s lost the key, their keys along a dark unlit street. And they look for them, they search for them beneath the street light on the corner because they think how much easier it is to search for them there. But the situation is such that no matter how long and how hard this person may search and how easily the search may proceed they’re never going to find quite what it is they’re actually looking for if for no other reason then they’re looking in the wrong place. Know no matter how difficult and challenging it may be we have to look for the solutions of the fundamental problems of life where they can be found and that is within our own mind.
So this is very much what the orientation about Buddhism is all about, isn’t it? Rather than being satisfied with some simple pleasures by manipulating the things and people and situations about us, trying to find real happiness by changing our attitudes, changing our own minds. So this is what we call a Buddha. In this process the inner focus, this orientation of what Buddhism is all about becomes becoming this happy, healthy, loving, sane human being. You know, this is like an ultimate value, something that is a priority in our life.
And this Buddha can be found nowhere else but with inside of our own hearts and minds. We quit demanding the world that it be other than the way it is, some kind of acceptance, we begin to train our own minds, change our attitudes and that’s the Dharma. You know, working with our neurosis, with all our afflictive emotions, we travel a path. We make use of all the various meditation techniques. We educate ourselves in what options are available to ourselves and the methods for implementing those, the strategies we can use to change our minds.
This process occurs within the social context of a spiritual community. Like minded individuals who share our goal, our aspirations for something more in life than the normality that we see about ourselves. You know, who advises, who teaches, who inspire us, act as examples, whatever way they can to assist one another in helping each other along their particular path. And again and again trying to raise the level of motivation why we’re involved in all of this. You know, the greatest degree of inner happiness, the greatest transformation of our mind occurs through the process of the inner transformation of love and compassion.
But we have to be, you know, the the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. We have to begin somewhere. We have to start where we’re at if we’re ever to actually complete the journey. So, you know, it’s one thing to talk about loving all sentient beings, but it’s, you know, we don’t want to end up like the person who says, Oh, you know, I love humanity. I just can’t stand people.
And for them, humanity is like an abstraction. It’s something that exists only in their own minds, in books, in ideas. They’re not talking about the real flesh and blood people with warts and you know, people are a hassle sometimes, aren’t they? They’re difficult to get along with. But those are the same people we have to learn to love.
So we have to begin somewhere, don’t we? And we can begin with even if one other person. So imagining in your own mind’s eye and one other person who you have a natural liking perhaps and love and caring for and thinking, you know, that through this process of listening, reflecting and meditating, implementing these teachings and educating ourselves and changing our minds that we do here on Monday evening from seven fifteen to sometimes quite late, isn’t it? That maybe I can be a little better person, not just only for my own piece of mind, but for this person, this person that you imagine in front of yourself to be there be to be there for them significant way. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
I I would really like that. You know, somebody you really care about, you know, that you could be a little more compassionate, a little more caring, understanding, a little more patient. I would like to be that for you just to make your life a little bit better, a little bit easier, a little bit happier. That would make this evening worthwhile if that in itself, if nothing more were to be gained than just that. So I’m going to involve myself in this practice, these three stages of listening, reflecting, and meditating, educating myself, and changing my mind in some small way, even if only a few steps this evening on that long journey for you.
I’m doing this for you. So if we do this in accustoming our mind again and again to cultivating this motivation, this positive attitude, the intention behind what we do, then I think it becomes easier, you know, it becomes, it becomes our second nature, and we can begin to it arises easier upon familiarity, and we begin to we can begin to genuinely broaden the scope of our intention to include maybe two, three, maybe four, until maybe someday we actually can take all of humanity, maybe all of sentient life within the scope of our imagination, and genuinely do what we do for their welfare. We can aspire to that, that we have to begin somewhere. So the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha, which we’re trying to actualize by means of the Dharma within the social context of a spiritual community. And again and again and again again, we’re using the level of our motivation, you know, the why behind and the purpose for what we do.
I go for refuge until I am awakened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha through my practice of generosity and the 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 generosity and the other perfections may I become a Buddha for the sake of all beings. I go for refuge until I am awakened to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha through my practice of generosity generosity and the other perfections, may I become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings. May all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.
May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. May all sentient beings be inseparable from the joy that is without sorrow. May all sentient beings abide in equanimity free from attachment for some and aversion toward others. 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’re going to meditate together. We’ll begin with progressively working through the body, relaxing the body, getting in touch, grounding ourselves within the body, the very sensations and feelings within the body.
Then we’ll practice the six part breathing exercise. Breathing in comfortably, But when exhaling, extending the exhalation, pushing out, imagining emptying the lungs of all the stale air that’s been building up. Again, breathing in normally, comfortably. Again, extending the exhalation. Doing this six times.
Then we’ll meditate on mindfulness of the breath, you know, using the techniques if we find it helpful of counting and noting the breaths. Noting, you know, simply emphasizing what is my present experience. What is my mind involved in at this present moment? Is it in knowing that we’re breathing in, I’m experiencing the breath, and simply emphasize that by noting in, breathing out, knowing that you’re breathing out, I’m experiencing the breath, noting that, emphasizing that by noting out. When your mind wanders, moment you become aware of that, you can congratulate yourself on becoming aware of that.
And then simply note, hearing the car, the truck going down Portrush Road or something like that. Hearing, then come back to the breath. Feeling, maybe it’s a sensation, sensing, come back to the breath. A great portion of the time it’ll be thoughts and pictures in the mind. The thoughts are just words going through your head.
Nothing more than that. Just a mental event, sinking, come back to the breath. Okay? And then I thought we’d meditate. You know, we’ve been talking about we’ve, finished the our, looking at the twelve links of dependent origination, due to the first link of ignorance, misconceiving the nature of the self, the I, we go on to create actions and both negative and positive actions.
So we’ve talked about how we can apply what are called the four powers in purifying the negative actions that we’ve created. I thought, and we’ve done this practice before, I think it’s a useful ongoing practice. So by applying these four powers together. First, the power of repudiation. So developing a reasoned and deeply felt felt sense of regret toward the negative action that you created previously.
Just simply calling the mind some negative action, acknowledging your miss that it was a mistake, you know, to quit trying to rationalize it in any way, somehow justify it in some way or or it was a mistake or that, you know, that it was somehow not wrong. And so there’s no evasion, no self deception. But as well, there’s no self judgment. You know, we make mistakes. But we can’t change the past, but we can change the effects our past has on our future.
So we cease identifying with this particular unskillful way of acting by repudiating it, by developing this genuine self sense of regret with regard to that action. I really wish I hadn’t done that, you know. I was really angry. I lost it. Or I was, you know, I was full of attachment or jealousy or whatever, pride.
And you made a mistake. Okay. We’re not perfect. But I can we can develop, you know, we can use our wisdom and apply it to these past negative actions so they don’t carry over into our future and cause us more problems, more suffering, unnecessary suffering. So developing, you know, this is the most important of these four powers.
Without a genuine sense of regret, there’s no purification. Purification means that we associate, we can create a situation where these negative seeds, or the karmic seeds, will not be activated and therefore will not ripen into some type of felt experience of suffering. And that’s, it’s, there’s nothing particularly mystical. There’s no, we’re not calling on any divine being. It’s we created the negativity, and it’s our own minds can ameliorate the effects of that negativity, the conditioning factor within our mind.
We can create a a a we can associate that with a condition whereby that karmic seed will not be activated in the future, but it won’t won’t happen without a deep sense of regret. So it’s an education process and why we should regret. What are the faults of that kind of action? And then basically, it’s going to bring us some type of suffering, some type of unwanted experience in the future. And moreover, it keeps us stuck.
It acts as obstacles for our own present development. And we we that’s the power of repudiation. And the second is the power of reliance. And this is relying upon those same objects toward whom we created the negativity. And it’s said that we can create negativity toward two types of objects, the Three Jewels, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and sentient beings in general.
And when we talk about creating negativity toward the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, you know, from their side, it’s no problem, but it is from our side, in the sense that, perhaps you’ve, taken a vow or some kind of commitment, you know, either formally or informally, and for one reason or another, you turned your back on something that you really believed in very strongly at one time, the kind of commitment that you want to make in your life. And so with regard to the power of reliance, we recommit ourselves. It’s like, in a way, you know, when we talk about Buddha as a metaphor, the best possible story that we could hope to tell ourselves about ourselves and who we could be and what we could do with our life, we turn our back on that in one way or another. We get caught up. We get sidetracked in something else.
And we recommit ourselves into being the best person we can be, what it is that we value most in our life, what we want our lives to stand for, making a recommitment, make that another priority. So we call that going for refuge, don’t we? We go for refuge through the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Or in the case of having committed to negativity with regard to sentient beings. Negativity essentially means to bring harm and that’s not what our life is about, bringing harm.
At least if we can’t help others, don’t harm others. That’s not what we’re about. So we can rely upon those same people that we harmed to reestablish more of a representation that we want, that our life stands for in terms of love and compassion. So generating as best you can a wish not to harm but to benefit this that you harmed before. And developing the awakened heart, wanting to be a better person for their sake, or just simply developing a sense of compassion and wishing them happiness not to suffer and so forth.
Using the same objects which we fell down on, relying upon them to pick ourselves back up. The power of reliance. The third power is the power of restraint. So, you know, this is a way we can begin to break the the program. We can be, you know, this unconscious perpetuating these patterns of acting and thinking, speaking in some realistic fashion.
You know, it doesn’t make any there’s no feeling in it, if it’s just words in your head, it’s not so meaningful. There’s no one watching. We don’t have to please anyone. So it’s a matter of changing our mind, isn’t it? And that takes work.
So when I say this is, you know, to say, oh I’m not going to what lie for the rest of my life or something like that something that is probably unrealistic that you but some kind of realistic commitment, you know, where you could practice mindfulness and genuinely commit yourself to fulfilling that that this intention. I’m not going to for the next twenty four hours. And there’s a certain awareness that’s developed in that if you really mean it, a certain mindfulness. Kind of watch your speech more than you normally do so that you don’t unthinkingly or automatically say untruths when you know they aren’t the fact, that you catch yourself or you’re not going to kill for the next twenty four hours intentionally. You see an ant and you stop something stops you, that factor of mindfulness, which you determine, I’m going to try my best not to intentionally kill for the next twenty four hours.
And it interrupts the pattern. It doesn’t come as automatically as it once did. It’s not we begin to break up the habit. And then finally the antidote of what is called the power of applying antidote. So you know there are various ways, traditional means of antidotes.
Disclosure to the thirty five Buddhas of this and so forth. There’s a repetition of various sutras, various mantras. But in fact, we can any type of positive action that we sort of go out of our way to create especially as a counterbalance to this negativity that we previously created can be a power of the antidote. We can apply the antidote in that way. But I thought we I thought, you know, as another means, a way that we’ve done this in the past, we’ve recited the mantra of Śākyamūni Buddha.
You know, this is, you know, he’s kind of our model of sanity, you know, what it is that we’re aspiring to be. However you might presently think of a Buddha, if you do think of a Buddha at all. Whatever the good life, that’s emblematic of a Buddha. And so imagining in front of yourself, you know, we can we can examine the actual, you know, the picture of the Buddha, the painting of the Buddha, and try to call it forth in your mind’s eye visually, the form. Maybe you just see a golden light.
Maybe you don’t see anything. But that’s secondary. But feeling that the goal of your highest aspiration when you’re really in your best mind, when your wisdom and heart are really functioning, when things about your life become clear for you, what you want to do with your life, who you want to be, you know, you know, you know, yours your ultimate values. That’s present before you now. And reciting this mantra, and we’ll recite that together twenty one times.
And just imagining that from the heart of Śākyamūni Buddha, a shaft of white light comes down to the crown of your head and as we recite the mantra together these white lights and white nectars flow into your body. You know, starting from the bottom up, we’re completely filling your body and mind with these brilliant white lights and white nectars. And sort of, you know, just go into this sense of a sense of purity, a purity, a sense of, you know, okay. I’ve gotten rid of that darkness, of that particular negativity. You know, it’s cleansed.
It’s finished. And just allowing yourself to become absorbed in this brilliant white light as we recite Śākyamūni Buddha’s mantra. And then at the end we imagine that Śākyamūni Buddha comes to the crown of her head, turns to the same direction as ourselves and dissolves into white light and enters into ourselves and just absorb into that sense of purity. Was a sense of darkness or heaviness present before. Now it’s just like a light being turned on in a room.
The darkness instantly vanishes. It’s gone. Okay. So let’s try that. So beginning by taking a comfortable firm posture.
So relaxing the body, getting in touch with the body, beginning 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 jaw is relaxed. And moving to the muscles at the back of the neck perhaps gently turning your head to each side a few times just very gently loosening, stretching the muscles of the back of the neck.
Relaxing the muscles of the throat. The muscles of the throat. Moving down to the upper back and shoulders, perhaps rotating your shoulders, lifting them and letting them drop 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. Your body becoming comfortable at ease like some burden has been lifted off your back, your shoulders.
Moving all the way down to your hands. Your hands are soft and loose. Relaxing your lower arms, just letting them go soft. Your upper arms. Your chest is at ease.
Relaxing throughout the heart area. The lungs, central area of the back, stomach. Releasing the tension that we hold in our stomach muscles, just allowing your belly to go soft. And relaxing throughout the abdominal cavity. The lower back muscles, the buttocks, the upper legs.
The lower legs. And your feet. And bring your awareness to your body in general. Just notice any tightnesses, any tensions, any feelings of discomfort in the body. And focusing upon those areas, consciously relaxing, softening.
If there’s an area of discomfort gently breathing into that area accepting dissolving the discomfort. Your body becoming comfortable at ease, a sense of physical well-being pervading your body. It feels good to be in the body. Just be with your body. Then practicing the six part breathing exercise breathing in comfortably normally extending the exhalation emptying the lungs and doing this six times individually.
When you’ve completed the six part exercise, gently in a relaxed easy manner bring your mind to the breath. So if your mind wanders gently, patiently bring it back to the breath again and again. Bring your mind back to the breath. Now Now we’re going to meditate on applying the four powers. So beginning with the power of repudiation calling to mind some negativity that you’ve created And from as many points of view as you can, sincerely developing a sense of regret that you you added one and one to make two, you added one and one to make two, you made a mistake.
I wish I hadn’t done that. Without any self judgment, without any self recrimination, focus upon the action and develop his genuine sense of regret with regard to that action. And the second of the four powers, the power of reliance. If it would if your negativity involved breaking a commitment of some sort or a vow or promise, then reestablishing our commitment, reestablishing our priority, taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and spiritual community if it if the negativity involved harming another person, a sentient being. And again reversing what it is that you’re about, you’re not about harm, you’re about helping.
And as best you can develop a sense of caring for this person or this being that you harm. Develop a sense of as best you can sincerely wanting to benefit in some way even if only sometime in the future or if not harm that they not suffer. And the third of the four powers, the power of restraint in some realistic, honest fashion. Developing a determination not to repeat this action again for a specific period of time only just a short time but something you’re really willing to try give it your best even if it’s only for two hours. At least try.
And finally the fourth of the four powers, the power of antidote. So for this we’re going to recite the mantra of Śākyamūni Buddha. If you like you can examine, take a look at the painting of the Śākyamūni Buddha. Just like memorizing, but this is a visual memory. Just go over all the various details, the colors, the shapes, the overall impression.
I just like recalling a memory of some visual object, just in a very relaxed manner. Don’t strain. Don’t try too hard. Just be satisfied with whatever appears. Just recall what Śākyamūni Buddha appears like.
Just be satisfied with whatever appears and just try to hold your mind to that. And then as we recite the the mantra of Śākyamūni Buddha, imagining from the heart of Śākyamūni Buddha or just imagining even if you can’t see anything that from from what it is that you value most in terms of the person you can be. The end of the Buddhist path. A shaft of white light comes down to the crown of your head and as we recite the mantra your your mind and body completely filled with brilliant white lights and nectars completely eliminating any darkness, any heaviness, any traces within your mind of this past negativity that you created. Imagine the Śākyamūni Buddha comes to the crown of your head facing in the same direction as yourself and dissolves into a brilliant white light entering through the crown of your head and you become union oneness with the body speech and mind of Śākyamūni Buddha.
A sense of purity, whatever negativities were created completely gone you did something about it. It’s finished. And just allow yourself to become absorbed into the brilliant white sense of purity, of clarity, a vast open space. And bring your mind back to the breath. And then get in touch with your body, your feelings and sensations, feeling the pressure of your feet on the floor, the pressure of your buttocks on the seat or on the cushion.
Just get in touch with your body sensations and feelings. And then easy and relaxed manner just slowly become aware of your surrounding. So we’re bringing the first of the three principal aspects of the path, the will to awaken, to a finish. We’re just going to last week we completed the twelve links of dependent origination. And we’re just going to go through something of a very quick review of the important points that we’ve covered thus far.
And then we’ll move on to the second of the three principal aspects of the Path, the awakened heart, the two meditative traditions for the developing bodhicitta, the altruistic aspiration to achieve awakening for the sake of all sentient beings. So in you know if you there’s some extra copies of the three principal aspects of the path you’d like to follow along. Anyway just going to review it very quickly and as we go along, please, if you have any questions, any points that you’d like to bring up, this would be, you’re welcome to, okay? So in his text, you know, it’s, I think, what is it about? Fourteen verses long.
If you know what you’re talking about, you can just say a few words. It’s effective. If you don’t, then you have to talk a lot. Tsongkhapa begins with homage to all the foremost holy lamas. So in this is quite traditional but to begin with the homage to paying reverence or respect to one’s teacher, one’s spiritual lama.
It helps the reader. So why is Tsongkhapa doing this here? He’s trying to help us to understand that the realization of these three principal aspects of the path depend, necessarily depend upon having a spiritual teacher, a Lama and by all means, when I say this, you shouldn’t even begin to think I’m referring to myself but someone who really knows what they’re talking about. And you know, it’s not just, you know, we are, it is the Lama who helps us to gain some kind of belief in ourselves. You know, I can do this, that I can attain this.
And inspires us to actually try, overcomes our sense of apathy, our inertia, our sense of feeling stuck. But more than that, they actually have the methods that they’ve worked through with themselves. And they can share these means, techniques, the educational process of bringing about the kinds of change we want. And then they themselves are like a living embodiment of what they’re talking about. And we need inspiration, don’t we?
This is one thing that’s sadly missing in our modern day life. You know, real models who inspire us to go beyond ourselves, who don’t allow ourselves to be satisfied with normality. So the Lama can also be thought of not only as an external Lama but our internal Lama, our own internal teacher, our own Buddha nature. There’s a sense of the more that we devote ourselves, we empower the external lama, then there’s an integration process where we begin to identify what we’ve seen up to now as qualities of this person in front of us as within inside of ourselves more and more so. So we actually begin to empower our own Buddha nature.
It becomes we give it some kind of space to find expression in our everyday life. So in a way it’s a very skillful means. Know devoting ourselves to to our Lama is a is a profoundly skillful means of developing our own obscured and and neglected basic intelligence, our own caring, our own personal power, which we, you know, first we project it outward, and then we begin to recognize it within ourselves, that within shadow is the element of gold. You know, the starting point of the path is to relate positively to both both the sun and the clouds. In the beginning, it’s the clouds which which predominate.
That’s that’s mostly what we see is only the clouds, only the pain and the confusion in our life when we begin to look inside of ourselves. We stop distracting ourselves so much to the outside. So we have to have faith and begin to commit ourselves to to something which might not be all that obvious to ourselves at present. That might be lie hidden, you know, like the sun behind the clouds. And the sun, for the time being, we take as a teacher who inspires us.
But sometimes the clouds begin to break up and we get a few rays of light, even in terms of our inner being. And we begin to get a sense that we have an inner teacher who is also guiding us, and there’s a basic intelligence that we can rely on more and more. So using metaphor of cultivating a flower, like a seed, we systematically have to cultivate the qualities, the seeds of wisdom and love and compassion and personal power and how we skillfully and fearlessly express these in our everyday life. Also the metaphor of the the unfolding of a lotus, you know, simply removing there’s something there’s a there’s a perfection of being preexisted within our own minds. And it’s simply the unfolding of those lotus petals which reveal what has always been there.
Like there’s a treasure and the lid is opened, revealing this, this, what, this preciousness that’s always been. Nothing that needs to be improved on. Simply the obscurations, obscurations, what is impeding our awakened nature from continual manifestation. So in this homage to the the foremost holy lama, This can be taken to set out the three scopes. Sometimes this is referred to as three capacities of beings or three perspectives of beings, you know, like different stages maturing of an individual and their perspective.
Foremost can be taken to mean an individual of lesser scope. You know, someone, traditionally speaking, this isn’t someone who has a perspective on doesn’t get so completely caught up in this life, stepped back, if only slightly, and is willing to spend some energy and some time and adjust their behavior and ways of thinking in terms of how this is going to affect their future lives, that they want to create a situation for themselves where they can have a good physical form, sufficient wealth, have a long life, you know, favorable conditions. So they practice the law of cause and effect, you know, karma in such a way that they ensure that they bring about such a situation in the future. I think we can think about that in terms of minimally trying to create a situation for ourselves where we can have a platform for carrying on from where we’ve gotten up to now. Don’t know about you, but maybe we won’t finish the path in this life.
I don’t know. Possible, okay, but maybe not. So we have to make some kind of contingency plans. If I don’t become a Buddha in this life, I like to be able to have the situation where I can carry on my practice. I can meet with teachers.
I have all the necessary conditions and circumstances where I can progress from lifetime to lifetime, onward, upward. So creating some, dedicating some space in your mind, some energy in what you do to ensure that you create the conditions for such a way of life in the future. So that’s the being of small scope. The being of middling scope is that we, know, well, you know, what we’ve looked up to a great deal up to now when we, most of what we looked up to now is developing this determination to awaken, the will to awaken. You know, we went through all the twelve links, we’ve gone through the various types of suffering and so forth, that within cyclic existence there’s nothing really worth being, nothing worth worth having, that none of it is of a reliable and lasting happiness.
It’s simply not with it to be found within that system. And when we talk about cyclic existence, a way of life which is under the control of karma and afflictive emotions. It’s just an app. This particular approach to life, ignorance driven approach to life is flawed by its very nature. We’re never going to in it, we’re never going to find the real happiness that we all in our hearts of hearts seek.
It’s just not there. It’s not that it doesn’t exist. It’s just not within this particular system. There’s a particular approach to life which arises out of ignorance, has its origins within ignorance. That’s all.
We develop the being a militant scope develops determination. I want to get rid of ignorance. I want to be free. You know, that’s what liberation means, doesn’t it? To be liberated is to be liberated from ignorance and in the control living under the control of karma and the afflictive emotions.
Essentially, that’s what it means. Finally the Lama. And this is setting out the third of the scope. So there’s a progression in this maturity that’s in the visual, the perspective they have on this situation in their life. And that the Lama is the being of highest scope.
That they realize well you know I’m not alone in this situation you can just look around us. It doesn’t we don’t have to look too far. Other others are in the same exact situation as myself. There’s no, you know, superficial differences but essentially very much like myself and just as I don’t want to suffer yet I suffer and just as I want to be happy yet I don’t have real happiness they’re in the same exact situation as I’m in. And so we can develop a we can broaden our perspective and our approach to living.
And what would be the best possible way I can use my life? Well, want happiness. Okay. That’s fine. We have every right to find that happiness.
But if we could find a type of happiness and a way of being in this world in which we were happy and by means of which we could live a life which would assist aid others in finding their happiness as well, that would be the best possible answer to the question of the human condition. One self finds peace and develops the skills and the ability to be able to help others to do the same. There’s maximum possibilities, optimum possibilities. And that would be that’s kind of the best story I could possibly tell myself about myself. That’s we call Buddha.
So the being of greatest capacity develops the determination to be a Buddha, to develop, to awaken. And then Tsongkhapa goes on to say, I will explain as best I can the essential meaning of all the conqueror’s teachings, the path praised by his noble children, the gateway for the fortunate seeking liberation. So he mentions the will to awaken first. Unless unless we genuinely wish ourselves happiness, unless we develop which is what? That’s love, isn’t it?
Unless we develop unless we genuinely wish ourselves not to suffer, that’s compassion, isn’t it? That is saying unless we genuinely develop love and compassion for ourselves, how can we ever really develop it for others knowing their situation only secondhandedly, vicariously? We know our own experience immediately, our own suffering, and our own absence of happiness, and our longing for happiness. We know that within our own experience. If an in dependence upon knowing that experience immediately, directly as we do, if we can’t develop love and compassion for that being, how we genuinely develop with someone else whose their experience is only indirectly?
We can only infer it. We can’t really know it directly. We can’t experience it ourselves. So initially we have developed the will to awaken for ourselves, the will to free ourselves from suffering. You know, if you’re not bothered by the sufferings of cyclic existence, then you will never develop a desire to free yourself from cyclic existence.
You you never be motivated. You will never generally develop the wish nor develop the means to free others if you’ve never thought to free yourself. To actually accomplish this, we have to accumulate what are called the two stores accumulations of merit and wisdom, or positive potential, and wisdom. We develop that through the accumulation of merit, positive potential, through the practice of the first five of the six perfections: generosity, ethics, patience, joyous effort, concentration. And we develop the accumulation of wisdom by means of developing wisdom.
And it is by these means that we go on to realize our fullest potential. We won’t You know, it’s it was interesting. Yeah. So Tsongkhapa says, listen with clear minds to this, fortunate ones who unattached to the pleasures of condition existence and striving that your lives of freedom and richness will find meaning. Entrust yourselves to paths that please the conquerors.
So here, Tsongkhapa is exhorting us, the listener, to to generate these three principal aspects of the path. We have to develop the determination to be free, to change for the better, and what are the directions of our change? They’re both affective in terms of our emotional life and cognitive in terms of the awakened heart and the awakened mind. So have to so this involves an educational process and we’ve talked about this a number of times. Necessity for to implement what are the three stages of listening, reflecting and finally meditating.
At the listening stage, you know, that we see how the information fits together, then we on the reflecting, you know, we understand the understand the terms, the categories, and so forth, the overall structure of these teachings. Then upon reflecting, we use our reasoning, our own experience. We begin to examine critically, you know, is it valid or not? Is it true or not? Is it accorded to my own experience or not?
And so forth. So we develop some kind of confidence. Know, we create, you know, really there’s a doubt, we create doubts. We should question. Buddhism invites questioning.
I mean, by questioning, mean intelligent questioning, fruitful inquiry. Doubt, this process will create doubts. You’re not sure anymore. And there’s there’s a and it’s interesting. Doubt has three stages.
Often in the case of our minds are leaning to the non factual and then as we begin to learn about the actual situation, it begins to find some kind of middle ground where the mind vacillates between, well, I used to think it was that, but could it be? Could it be? The mind begins to open up to other possibilities. Maybe it is that. And the mind vacillates from time to time between these two possibilities.
And then finally, comes down to a doubt which probably is this case. So there’s a transition. People, they don’t like doubt. It’s not a very comfortable place to be sometimes. You want surety.
You want to unquestionably know the way things actually are. But doubt is rather creative state. Even confusion can be a creative state. Like, we’re becoming unstuck, and in that unstuckness, things become a little bit shaky. The ground isn’t quite as firm as it once was.
We begin to question our values and what it is that we used to believe. And it’s a necessary transition to finding some, to moving on to some new understandings. It’s a doubt is a precursor to understanding, to knowledge for ourselves. And we have to change these minds of ours, come to new understandings for ourselves. So it seems as if doubt is a necessary part of the process, though it may not be comfortable.
We have to have some confidence it’s worth it, this questioning process. So all doubts and hesitations have disappeared, then we experience directly the meaning of the teachings. What is actually being gotten at here? And then we accustom our mind to this newfound understanding. And it’s like it becomes our second nature.
We change, and we grow in that way. Without real renunciation, there is no way to end your struggle for pleasures sought in the seas of conditioned existence, and clinging to such existence will utterly enslave you. Thus, at the outset, seek the will to awaken. So, you know, this this idea of renunciation, you know, renunciation is a pretty loaded term, isn’t it?
It’s this word, this term that I use in translating, the will to awaken, sometimes it’s called, translated as determination to be free. You won’t see it initially when the texts were being translated, it was translated as renunciation, you know, a very Christian idea. That was most of the some of many of the early texts of Tibetan Buddhism especially were translated by Christian missionaries. So a lot of this Christian terminology was naturally made use of. And, you know, I guess the idea of renunciation has the notion of aesthetics and hair shirts and depriving yourself and giving yourself a hard time in some way or another.
Anyway, you know, maybe renunciation is renouncing the causes of suffering essentially. The hopeless pursuit of happiness in the wrong places or the kind of, you know, the hopeless is, you know, when we we were giving up the projection of unrealistic expectations of finding some kind of reliable and lasting happiness in all the things and the people and situations about us. And I finally think that’s that’s it’s just not gonna work. Renouncing that unrealistic expectation, that holding out, harboring the hope that you’re going to be able to find what it is you’re looking for in this particular person or in this particular thing or in this particular situation — what it is that you want in your heart of hearts is somewhere out there — kind of giving up on that.
There are two great disappointments in life, not finding what you want and finding what you want. More than that, when we find exactly what it is we want. If we find if we know what we want, let alone find it, and we find what it is we want, it turns out to be not what we wanted after all. The craving really never goes away. The desire, we have to just start all over again.
Maybe it’s a peace temporarily for a little while. But it the hunger comes back. We have to move on. We have to go on endlessly consuming in some way. We can’t quite give up the struggle.
We haven’t found what it is that we were really looking for all along. So when we talk about renunciation, renunciation is giving up the struggle, you know, that you’re gonna find what it is that you’re looking for out there. If you you see the Buddha on the road, kill him. It’s not out there. But as long as our treasure lies out there somewhere, that Buddha lies out there somewhere, that’s like this there’s no way to end your struggle for pleasures sought in the seas of conditioned existence.
Right? There’s no end to it. As long as we remained under the control of karma and afflictive emotions, there’s no end to the struggle. We’re always going to have to continually find new happiness. We’re always going to have to continually rid ourselves of suffering.
It’s a it’s a never ending, like being on a treadmill. There’s no end to it. There’s no consummation. There’s no coming to any conclusion. It just goes on and it’s self-perpetuating, self-endless.
So, you know, cyclic existence is the opposite of a path. We embark on a path when we discover a way of opening our lives up to new possibilities, when we have the capacity to step out of the circular patterns of our thinking and acting. So without this determination to be free, we will perpetuate. We will remain stuck. Nothing basically will change in our life in terms of the quality of our life.
Actors and the scenery and the props, they keep changing. But it’s just like, you know, the same it’s like watching the reruns, you know, the same the same episodes again, you know, they just they just give the actors a different name or, you know, it’s pretty much a basic the same plot. Nothing really changes, you know. So the will to awaken is determination to be free of all this. If we don’t if we lack if we lack we have to have the desire, the method, and the effort to be free.
We have to want to be free. We have to have the means to be free, and we have to make actually do the work necessary. If we lack any of those, going to continue to cycle in this perpetual patterns of dissatisfactory existence in one form or another. So bringing this process to an end is what we call liberation. You know, many of us, it’s not as if this idea of renunciation or you know like giving up on something is a new idea.
We all have this feeling, this understanding, this way of relating to things from time to time. But but it’s limited. It’s only a superficial thought of renunciation. We it’s to give up something that we see is the cause of suffering, that’s no you know, maybe that’s intelligent, but it’s not what we mean by renunciation here, you know, just simply giving up the cause of a particular suffering. This is simply a reaction to some kind of short term pain or sorrow.
Something’s gone wrong. And so there’s an emotional reaction to a very specific temporary suffering that you don’t want to experience again or you don’t want to have continue to experience. You don’t want to encounter it ever again. So you say, you you give it, I don’t I I don’t want that. This is not reliable or or or a stable thought of enunciation because it’s not rooted in in a in a really a a vision.
Having some kind of insight into having a vision perspective on the forest. We’re still just working with trees as we come to them in a one by one piecemeal kind of way of renouncing. We really don’t want to be free of cyclic existence in general, a particular approach to life. We just want to be merely free from some particular unhappiness that we don’t want to experience. That’s all.
So the foundation of the will to awaken is understand that it is our very present approach to living of our life which is problematic. You know, we have we if you try to build a house and your tools are somehow flawed, you know, your hammer is wonky and your your your level isn’t level, and your nails aren’t straight. You know, what what you build with those kinds, even with the best of intentions, with those kinds of tools? You know, our approach to this building process is some kind, is not working right. So rather than trying harder, we have to try differently.
So we talked about freedom and richnesses are hard to find and life does not last long. Keeping this always in mind will alter the priorities you give to this life. So, you know, we talked about the eight worldly concerns. What are criteria do we generally refer to in determining how we’re going to proceed with our life, what we’re going to do? Generally, this is bound up in some way with what are called the eight worldly concerns.
You know, our preoccupation with the pursuit of pleasure, the avoidance of pain, the pursuit of gain, the avoidance of loss, the pursuit of praise, the avoidance of ridicule, the pursuit of fame, the avoidance of of, irrepute or disrepute. You know, this is what is what the criteria that we use in determining what we’re going to do and how we think and how we’re going to act and relate and be with this world. Know, it’s it’s in a way it’s kind of child ish. We don’t have any perspective. You know, it’s it’s demanding immediate gratification.
We don’t have any real vision. You know, I will only do with that which brings pleasure. I’m not willing to take up that which involves some kind of legitimate suffering. Completely preoccupied are determining what is going to determine our thinking. Is it going to bring me pleasure?
Is it going to involve any pain? I’m going to avoid it at all costs. It’s called experiential avoidance in contemporary psychology. And in one way that we’re all involved in that at some level or another, it drives our life. You know, this is like, you know, if we live in a prison, this is like the outer wall of our prison, these eight worldly in which we are trapped.
There are other possible standards that we can make use of. Whether it brings me pleasure or pain, I want to grow. I want to become a better person, and I’m willing to work through the difficulties in order to do that, whatever the journey requires. Having some greater vision of what I could be and what we could do with our life beyond these eight worldly concerns. Tsongkhapa says freedom and richnesses are hard to find and life does not last long.
So we’re trying to change our priorities. What are our standards? How we’re going to what we’re going to use to determine how we’re going to navigate the terrain of our life. There’s a there’s a we have to value our life. It sounds stupid because in a way, but it seems as if everyone should values our life.
It’s the thing we hold most precious, isn’t it? But in way, we take it for granted. And therefore, taking it for granted, we don’t make use of it as we could. There’s a connection between fact and value and its relationship to action. You know, we have to recognize the fact that there are options open to ourselves and that we have the ability to achieve them.
So that’s a fact. I mean, it’s not like handed down from God or something like that. By fact, I mean, if we examine the case, we will see that it is so, there are options and other possibilities, and we have in a way that we could lead our life, and that we can we have the ability to to implement those other possibilities. You know, we have to value our human life. Otherwise, we’re going to take it for granted.
You know, okay, we might, you know, we might not have a million dollars. We might not be in positions of great power. We might not be, you know, drop dead beautiful. Handsome or whatever. We might not be, you know, a great composer with tremendously talented, but we have all that we need to be happy.
We might not have all those other things, but we have all that we need to be truly happy in life. So, you know, so we have to ask ourselves practically what is stopping us? You know, so we look at it. We have to look at, you know, it’s not like counting your blessings. As I just said, there’s a relationship, the connection between fact, value and action.
Fact is counting your blessings, looking at what, in fact, you do have, and that we don’t we don’t overlook it or dismiss it or take it for granted. You know, do you lack the freedom to practice, to transform your mind? What is the reality of the situation? Are you beggar on the streets of Calcutta? You know, we can go through lots of different possible examples and what, you know, in doing this for yourself, what is most relevant?
What actually helps the penny to drop in your own mind? You know, are you are you fighting in the war in Iraq? You know? People you go to the market to buy some tomatoes and you come home with your arms blown off. That’s the reality for some are you star starving in Africa, Darfur, you know, having your village completely burned up around you?
Do you work from sunrise to sunset just to earn enough money for your family for that day? Know? Do you live in a country where there’s no religious freedom? Do you live in a country where religion is banned, where there are no books? There’s no freedom to meet together as we do here.
Are you intellectually disabled? Are you undergoing some kind of debilitating chemotherapy or other treatment or what not? Are you in chronic pain? Are you actively addicted to drugs or alcohol? Do your family prevent you from pursuing your spiritual path in some active way?
You know, do do you have no support from others? Do you have you met no teachers? Do you have nothing? Do you have no materials to read? You know, we’re free of all that.
When we talk about freedoms, mean those we don’t have those obstacles. That’s pretty lucky if we think about it, but we don’t think about it, so we don’t value it. On the other hand, we can look at it from the positive side. Rather than looking at the negative factors of what we’re free of, what fact do we have, the positive factors? You know, we we are human beings with intelligent mind.
We have we have caring hearts, you know, a relatively healthy body. We, you know, we live in a country which which you which is free. You can practice all you know, you can pursue all your intellectual pursuits, your religious pursuits, your spiritual pursuits, whatever. We have unlimited opportunities in this country. We we, you know, we have we can do most almost anything, go almost anywhere.
We can have all our material needs easily met compared to the rest of the world. We met with we have all the physical situations. We have teachers and we have books. We have all the conducive conditions right there, you know, almost like you don’t have to work very hard to find them. You don’t have to search very long.
So we have a complete so we’re just trying to appreciate, count our blessings. So we value that we have all the freedoms and richnesses that we need to change our lives for the better, if we’re willing to make the effort. Right now, there’s nothing there’s nothing that’s lacking. You know? We don’t have to go out and beg for something.
It’s good from the point of view of suffering. So they say humans are very fortunate but they have just the right amount of suffering. If you have too much suffering, it can overwhelm you. If you have too little, then you become apathetic. You become complacent.
So we’re in a pretty good position. We have just enough suffering to keep us on our toes and to want something better. Yeah. That’s why we later on we meditate about suffering. Just understanding that we have this foundation to bring about the kind of changes in our life that we want.
And then we go on to see that if we don’t, you know, we have to make use of this opportunity because it’s definitely that we’re going to die. This opportunity is not going to last forever. We have a sense it will. It’s as if, you know, I’ve always been here. I can’t imagine a time when I’m not going to be here anymore.
That’s kind of we can’t even imagine that. And it’s but that time will definitely come. So we have to actually look this the this window of opportunity that our human life affords us, this precious human life, not just in an ordinary human life, isn’t going to last forever. It’s definitely going to die. And then we don’t know.
Then we’ve lost the opportunity. We’ve lost the chance. Freedom is rich and so hard to find life does not last long. So that we we become maybe we’ll So let’s, should we stop there? And then if you’d to get a cup of tea while we we can discuss some of these ideas.
Okay? Thank you. Yeah. Just milk.