Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. “There is no evil compared to hatred and no practice as noble as tolerance” — Śāntideva’s verse anchors this 45-minute commentary by Ven Jampa Gendun. He opens by framing the inner problem: our beliefs and narratives shape perception, so lasting change requires examining the metaphors we live by rather than simply modifying behavior. Moving into Śāntideva’s sixth chapter, he unpacks the principle of conditionality — all things are under the power of something else, so why get angry at a person any more than at the stick in their hand? — tracing how hostility destroys rather than achieves. A Q&A on emptiness closes the session: the green-sunglasses analogy illustrates how appearances persist even after realizing emptiness, and Gendun distinguishes emptiness as the “source” rather than “root” of phenomena, noting the reciprocal dependence of conventional and ultimate truth. Best suited to practitioners working through the Bodhicaryāvatāra in a study group setting.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 Tce 1991 02 13 inaudible.mp3
UUID: d87bd32e-3b08-4b7b-ba78-77a6ccb12024
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Tolerance (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1991-02-13
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.3 minutes
Words: ~1,497
About all of these, we have deeply held belief, the highest core of relating with that world. We organize the world in little packets of meaning, call them story, call them parable, call them premise, call them theme. It is as if reality consists of tales people tell themselves to make sense of the world, to to navigate within it. In other words, maybe it’s not sufficient to try to change somebody’s behavior. Maybe we have to get to the narrative that they are using to make sense of their lives, the metaphor they live by.
Our beliefs inform our perception that our thoughts will make the world. And the way we are present presently relating to the world is appropriate to our particular way of making sense of the world. You know, we we have to make sense of it with what we seek for ourselves, a place for ourselves. And with all our various hope, fear, we’re trying to find some kind of happiness. We’re trying to get rid of our suffering.
You know, given our our present beliefs, given our present assumptions, You know, if we’re not satisfied with our story, with our life, we have to get in touch with our particular narrative upon which our life is based, the metaphors by which we’re living our life to transform them. We, however, are not prisoners. No trap or snares are set about us, and there is nothing which should intimidate or worry We are set down in life as in the element to which we best correspond. We have no reason to mistrust our world for it is not against us. Has it terrors?
They are our terrors. Has it abysses? Those abysses belong to us. Our danger’s at hand. We must try to love them.
And if only we arrange our lives How should we be able to forget those ancient myths that are at the beginning of all peoples, the myths about dragons that that at the last moment turn into princesses. Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible in these people’s being is something helpless that one are just waiting ways of relating with the world. You know, we there’s some kind of there’s a reason that we are angry, that we have hostility, that we relate with aggression. It’s appropriate.
There’s some we have a sense that there must be some pain. For the type of life that we’re living. You know, the pleasure and pain take priority over logic. What we do or don’t do is for most of us to the the the largest extent doesn’t arise out of There’s a verse. The second verse in the sixth chapter of the Bodhicaryāvatāra.
There is no evil compared to hatred and no practice as noble as tolerancece. In all manner of ways, will I earnestly learn to be patient, but earnestly I will. And if we deeply feel that So having become convinced that anger, hostility, and aggression, in fact, aren’t working for us. And seeing the value of tolerance, then this opens up. This creates the the the context of change.
So, you know, he begins to demonstrate time after time, example after example, the deluded rationale of our anger, of our hostility, of our aggression, and the principle of conditionality. All things are under the power of something else. Since they are so empowered, they have no power of their own. They have no power of their own. Everything is under the power of something else.
Why don’t you get angry at his anger anger? If you’re not going to get angry at the stick because it’s under some other control, then why get angry at him? Because he’s under the control of his own anger. He rationalizes any situation to maintain our position. Again and again, he points out how anger is.
It not only doesn’t help us get what we want, but in fact, destroys whatever we have. And he begins to skillfully use skillful use of arguments. Other than the Buddha himself. In in the eighth chapter, where the technique of exchanging self for others is explained, He said, there can be no doubt that the compassionate ones regard all beings as themselves. So why do I not revere these Buddhas who appear in the form of human beings..
I’ll be better next time. Do you have discussions and meditation. And that’s what I want. And, I mean, the verses are quite difficult, so we have to work on our So you’re you’re the analogy that that that you’re giving as far as the green sunglasses is like somebody who has a realization of emptiness in the in the sense that one could be wearing these green sunglasses and though everything appears to be green, you say, Oh, it just appears to be green because I’m wearing green sunglasses. Still appears even though you think, you know it’s not green, in fact, from its own side objectively, but still it appears to be green.
Someone who has realized emptiness, things still appear to be truly existent, but he knows in fact they aren’t truly existent. So the mere green sunglasses would be like somebody who has realized emptiness, but things still appear to be truly exist. They still appear to be green. The root of So there’s maybe we would have to just there’s some kind of technical adjustment we have to make to your question. In general, a root, whatever a root is a cause.
It has to be a cause, and and emptiness is not a cause. But we could say that emptiness is the source of all phenomena. It’s the source of all phenomena. It’s it’s quite not it’s not quite correct to say it’s the root of all phenomena. If emptiness did not exist, we would not be able to make a presentation of all phenomena.
You know? That because things that due to the existence of emptiness, that there exists appearances. And due to the existence of appearances, there exists emptiness, that they have this reciprocal relationship, for example, karma as cause and result. This is conventional truth, and these only are able to operate because of the existence of emptiness. So conventional truth is dependent upon emptiness, ultimate truth, and ultimate truth is dependent upon conventional truth.
Yes. Okay. Phenomena such as long and short, cause and effect, these are reciprocally dependent upon one another. That without long, there’s no short. Without cause, there’s no result.
Without result, there’s no cause. That these rely upon one another. There’s and this this holds true for all phenomena whatsoever. That if you know, that they they all rely on something other than themselves for their existence. That, For example, a flower relies upon causes such as seed, water, fertilizer, earth.
It didn’t exist from its own side, but under its own power. It exists in a reliant manner. That everything relies upon causes and conditions. It relies upon its parts. It relies upon the term used to designate it.
That nothing exists independent of these from its own side. That nothing is what we mean when we say that things do not truly exist. So, you know, this is in the world we have the conventions of external and internal or outer and inner. We say that there are things in the room and there are things outside the room. If you go out the door, then you’re out of the room.
If you come inside, then you’re in the room. This is simply a convention that we use in the world and likewise we use that with respect to when we talk about externally established phenomena — anything which exists as external to the consciousness, those phenomena which are not included within the consciousness are said to exist external, externally established, as opposed to those phenomena which exist within the consciousness or included within the consciousness. And what we mean is those those phenomena which are in which we have a relationship of feeling with, that there is a that we have that we that which is external to the feeling faculty external. That which is felt with that is experienced as feeling is internal.
So, okay, I made a mistake. What we mean, that which is connected with our feelings is considered internal. That which is unconnected with our feelings is external. For example, we can cut our fingernails and we feel no there’s no pain. There’s no feeling.
There’s no pain. We can cut our hair. There’s no feeling. Those phenomena which we interact with and there’s no feeling which can be like we hit the table. We don’t feel the striking of the table.
The table is not connected with our feelings. Therefore, anything which is unconnected with our feelings, we call external. That which is connected with our feelings is internal.