Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Ven Jampa Gendun opens this 45-minute commentary on Śāntideva’s tolerance chapter with the legend of Śāntideva floating up to an impossibly high throne at Nālānda — a closet bodhisattva who humbled his detractors before vanishing into the sky, his voice echoing from empty space. The central argument is motivational: real tolerance cannot be built on “should,” only on a self-directed recognition that anger is destructive. Gendun outlines two methods — seeing clearly the harm of anger and the benefit of tolerance within your own experience; then tracing the causes of anger to eliminate them. He unpacks the chapter’s opening verse through a sustained treatment of karma: skillful actions create perceptual patterns that make the world appear pleasant, and one moment of anger can destroy what a thousand eons of generosity built. A glass of water perceived as nectar by a celestial being but as pus by a hungry ghost illustrates how experience is constructed rather than given. Suited to practitioners already working with Śāntideva’s text.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 Tce 1991 02 20.mp3
UUID: 84299a22-e9f8-4991-acc6-7824ee997cab
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Tolerance (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1991-02-20
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.4 minutes
Words: ~5,324
The author of this text. He was he lived in the eighth century in India, Northern India, and he lived in what was then the greatest seat of Buddhist learning in existence, the Nālānda Monastic University, which is near fairly close to Bodh Gaya in modern Bihar state in Northern India. And I I feel some affinity with with Śāntideva. He was oftentimes referred to as he who possesses the three activities, he who is caught up in three activities, eating, sleeping, and defecating.
And that’s why I feel very close to The story behind his actual composition of this text is that he was a closet bodhisattva. He display his immense qualities, his realization. And because of this, many of the monks at Nālānda looked down upon him. They looked upon him as being rather worthless, no good, who didn’t do anything, didn’t contribute to the monastery. And it got to the place where they they simply wanted him to leave.
They wanted to get rid of him. And they began to talk about, you know, how can we get rid of old Śāntideva, figure out some scheme. And they had this idea that if they could shame him into leaving, then that would be the most skillful way for them to get rid of him. So they went to him and they said, you know, Śāntideva, I I guess they said Śāntideva. I don’t know what they said.
But if I were to guess, they said, Śāntideva, you know, please give us a teaching. We request that you give a teaching to the entire assembly of monks and lay people and nuns. And he said, well, would you what kind of teaching would you like? Would you like a commentary on a particular text, or should I speak from my own experience? And they all giggled under their breath.
Speak from your own experience. So they they this announcement that that Śāntideva was going to give this this teaching throughout the surrounding areas. And there they, you know, many many people came from long distances to hear this teaching by Śāntideva. And to embarrass to embarrass even more because they thought he was going to make a fool out of himself when he did get the teaching. But even to embarrass him even more, they constructed an extremely high throne.
And there no step. There was no way to up to get up to it. So came the day of the teaching and all the throngs were massed around and he approached the throne and he noticed that there were no steps. There was no ladder. And he simply floated up and seated himself on top of the throne and he began to give a teaching from his own experience.
And as he proceeded, he when he got to the ninth chapter, the ninth chapter is extremely profound chapter on the nature of reality, on emptiness. As he proceeded through this chapter, he began to float up and up into space. And it got to the place where only a very few people could see him, but we all could hear him until finally he vanished and only his voice sounded resounded from the sky. And he gave the tenth chapter. No one could see him.
They just heard his voice. And that teaching became what is now called a Bodhicaryāvatāra. You know, if we’re really going to commit ourselves to helping others, to working with our own as well as other’s neurosis, then we’re going to have to develop tolerance, which is the the sixth chapter. You know, I I I’m not in a position to talk about it in every way. I’ve had teachings on it, on the sixth chapter, the entire book.
But I I thought it would be something worthwhile for for us together for myself personally. You know, they say that if you really want to learn something, teach it. And I try to and for us to to to work together and and learn about ourselves and learn a little more about how they develop tolerance, patience, how to overcome our anger, our aggression, our hostility. You know, the the but I I I do know. I mean, you know, we the our motivation for all our various actions are quite complex.
They’re they’re they’re very subtle. Almost any action that we perform, there’s a there’s a multi many, many motivations coming together. And it’s quite difficult to discern. Most of our motivations are unconscious, we aren’t even aware of. Let alone those we try to analyze and say why am I doing what am I doing?
Understand. We have to clarify our motivation. This is why initially in recommitting ourselves to a direction, we try to clarify what is my motivation for being here. This creates some kind atmosphere where with the proper motivation, some learning, some change, some growth can take place. So, you know, what what are the possibilities of motivations?
If we just speak of motivation in terms of of I don’t know what to call it, actually. Something I came up with a word social imperative. Now why do we do what we do? Not not in terms of psychology, but in terms of, you know, am I doing what I what am I doing this act because I want to do it? Or am I doing this because in other words, is this a self self directed act or other directed act?
It seems as there’s three three possibles three possibilities. One is what I do, I do because I want to do it. What I do, I do because even though I don’t want to do it, it’s an end to what I want to achieve. For example, you know, I want to become a doctor, but I don’t want to go to university. I don’t like to study.
I don’t want to become a doctor. I must it is preferable. Because I want to become a doctor, it’s preferable for me to go to the university. I as if I must go to the university in order to achieve what I want. So though what I’m doing at this moment is not what I want to be doing, it’s preferable for me to be doing it to to achieve what I ultimately want.
And then the third possible type of motivation is other directed. I learned one way or another that I should do what I’m doing. Self directed, I want. Preferable, I must. Other directed, I should.
So why, you know, why are we going to try to become tolerant people? What is our motivation? We’ve all many of you have had teachings from the high lamas, spiritual teachers, masters about the benefits of developing tolerance, the benefits of developing love and compassion. But do we really want to? Or do we still see that hatred, anger, hostility, and aggression have some kind of payoff value for us?
Now again, I think I I mentioned this last week that it has we’re going to we’re very much operating on the level of pleasure pain principle. Now why is it we aren’t loving people that we desire to be? It seems strange. It’s because we don’t choose to be. We don’t we don’t don’t see the necessity to be loving.
We don’t see the necessity to be to develop tolerance. You know, if we see the necessity, then there’s going to be the the the consistent, creative, wholehearted effort. It’s going we’re going to see opportunities to be loving, opportunities to be tolerant in in in our in in all our daily life. You know, we’re going to be predisposed to see the the opportunities to act, to cultivate, to become what we want because we want it very much. It’s our self directed, self determined, autonomous ly derived value which is necessary for us to be happy.
If it’s a should, you should be tolerant. You should be more loving. And this will never happen. It will never be integrated with our mind. Only when we see the necessity for ourselves within our own experience using our own reasoning, using our own intuition, And then the mind becomes porous.
It becomes aware. You know, rather than what doing what we should do. What we you know, there’s never there’s a simply, I want to do. I there is this is what I want to do. Therefore, in order to to do that, in order to achieve that end, I must do this, which is it’s preferable that I do this to get what I want.
I I want to become a a loving person. Therefore, certain types of ways of relating are preferable even though they might be difficult, even though they might be painful, Even though I there might be great fear involved. But I I begin to sense an absolute necessity to change, to become that. So I’m willing to the only time I can act is now. I’m willing to to take that chance to be that vulnerable.
It’s never going to happen on the basis of should. No matter how many times the high lama tells you you should be tolerant, you should be loving, it’s in your best interest. Unless you discover that for yourself, unless you discover everything that the Buddha discovered for yourself, it will never be here. There will be another change. It’s just like pouring oil and water.
There’s no integration. It just floats there. There’s a zen saying, I guess, zen saying. I can blame everything on zen. Like, get rid of goodness, dispense with virtue, and people will behave as they should, feel as they should.
That’s right. That’s really a rather dangerous thing to say, isn’t it? Get rid of goodness. Dispense with virtue, people will feel as they should. Then do as they should.
This is a great confidence in Buddha nature and basic sanity. Tremendous faith in the in our own basic wisdom, intelligence. If you know, it is it is almost as if operating on the basis of should obstructs the operation of our basic sanity to be good, to want to be good, to see that it is in my best interest to be a caring person, a loving person, a tolerant person. I never get a chance to exercise my own wisdom. My mind is so full assurance, and my my activities are are so other directed that I never quite know what I want, what I feel, what is meaningful for me, what I need to do for myself.
And how much are we conditioned by our society and our culture that we we we really don’t know and who we are? To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best night and day to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting. You know, it’s not to say that we we it’s that we should not be good, that we should not be virtuous. And that good goodness and virtue will bring us happiness, but we must see that for ourselves. Somehow we have to contact what our own experience, our own understanding, find out what it is that we want, what works for me as a very unique individual to be myself, then we don’t have to be heavy handed with ourself.
We might find that we are basically loving people, and we’re basically kind of people to our own subproblem. And and there’s no we otherwise, we’re locked in a struggle between what I feel I should be doing and what I feel is more natural to me. We do violence to ourselves, and we’re not acting ethically. The Bodhisattva’s ethics of nonviolence, non harm even to oneself. You know, what I what I want and what I have learned that I should want.
You know, we don’t even know to a large extent. We can’t we can’t distinguish between the two. What we’ve been taught to want and what is expression of a very deep basic need. And we may be really want to be loving people. I think we do.
I think this is the is the faith that we can have in Buddha nature. That love, caring, relating on the basis of nonviolence is simply an expression of a mind which has gone beyond neurosis. It’s our natural state of being. Most of us have been told that we should be tolerant or we should be patient. And and Śāntideva in the text says, there is no evil comparable to hatred and no practice as noble as tolerance.
In all manner of ways will I learn to be tolerant. In all manner of ways will I learn to be tolerant. But we have not consistently, creatively, wholeheartedly practiced developing it because we have never deeply wanted we have never deeply seen the necessity to become tolerant, to become loving. We still there is still some basic assumption at some level of our awareness, which holds that that that anger, hostility, aggression have some payoff value, but somehow they are appropriate in certain ways, in certain occasions, at certain times. That they they are actually in my self interest.
We hold that. Quotation by Rabindranath Tagore, Indian poet. The religion that we get acquainted with from outside, from books of scripture, can in no way become our own religion. Its association with us is only a matter of habit. To unfold one’s religion within oneself is a lifelong aspiration of every human soul.
Now we have to to discover for ourselves everything that Śākyamūni Buddha discovered for himself, everything that Jesus Christ discovered for himself. And I would say we’re very fortunate, more than fortunate, that we have teachers, that we have a path, that we have exemplars, guides. It’s as if we don’t have to make up the path all over again, but we do have to rediscover for ourselves, but we have we do have to walk the path for ourselves. And and this, you know, particularly with respect to tolerance, we won’t become tolerant unless we see a necessity to become tolerant, unless we begin to see the destructive quality of anger, of hostility within our own experience, using our own reasoning, using our intuition. Then we avail ourselves of our basic sanity.
And we can overcome these basic assumptions that somehow hatred and anger and aggression and hostility are useful. Otherwise, it’s simply going to be pouring the water of our of the teaching of our teachers’ teachings upon our mind, And the two are never going to mix. There’s never going to be any real change. So in the development of tolerance, there are two methods. In the over the development of tolerance and the overcoming of hatred.
And the first is exactly what I’ve been talking about up to now. We must self directly want to develop tolerance. We must self directly want to overcome our anger, our hostility, our aggressiveness. Not because we should, but because we clearly recognize with with our reasoning, within our own experience, and our intuition that it’s in our own best interest for whatever reason, whether it’s a base reason or noble, but it’s in our best interest. And we have to see the destructive nature of anger.
We have to see the wholesome wholesome, healthy quality, constructive quality in nature of tolerance. And we’re identifying anger as our enemy. Now if we do this, then we’re going to channel all our energies into the difficult but necessary actions to develop tolerance and to overcome anger. So the first is method is to identify the destructive qualities of anger, hostility, aggression. To identify, recognize the constructive wholesome, healthy qualities of tolerance.
This is any this applies to any working with any afflictive emotion. This is the most important foundation. Otherwise, the rest of this will be of no use. It won’t be of any avail. To touch within your own experience and see the destructive quality of attachment, pride, jealousy, hatred, ignorance, and see within your own experience the positive benefits, advantages, of openness, of love, of humility, wisdom.
Then then there’s no struggle. There’s no shoulds about it. It’s something that you want to do. And you’re you’re willing to involve yourself in preferable action, though they may be difficult because it’s toward an end that you’re seeking to achieve, that you’ve autonomously decided upon, determined for yourself out of your own experience. The second method is to gain a deep understanding of why we become angry and then to work to counteract, to eliminate the causes we have uncovered.
So the second method is to begin to identify, to come to an understanding why is it? What are the causes of my anger? My hostility, my aggression. Why do I become angry? Once we begin to identify them, then we begin to make use of counter agents, antidote to begin to eliminate this cause.
So one is to develop the motivation, the absolute seeing, the absolute necessity to go beyond anger, to develop tolerance, and the other is to begin to see why I become angry in the first place and begin to eliminate this cause. So, Śāntideva, we’re actually going to begin the text. And I I think I some of you know, I I taught last year a text called Three Principal Aspects of the Path which was fourteen verses long. And it took me a year and a half. So this this this chapter I had.
Know. Anyway, I think a hundred and twenty two verses. So we’ll we’ll begin. The very first verse. Of tolerance.
Whatever good such as acts of generosity and worship of the Sugatas I have amassed during a thousand eons. We’ll all be destroyed in a moment of anger. Whatever good such as acts of generosity and worship of the Sugatas. Sugatas is is an epithet, a name for the Buddhas. I have a mass during a thousand eons.
We’ll all be destroyed in a moment of anger. And the most difficult to understand, but still the most destructive quality of anger is that it destroys the skillful actions that we have created in the past. So karma this is karma. karma is action. So there’s there’s intentional action and actions of intention, intentional actions, and actions of intention.
Actions of attention actions and intention is an urge, an impulse toward. The the mind is given some kind of a volition, an direction of the mind. So like a magnet jumping around. It moves. There’s an impulse to to to relate with a particular object, to think in a certain way, some kind of impetus.
That’s intention. Actions of intention. So, you know, this directionality of the mind, it it draws us into intentional actions, actions which have been brought about through intention. So there’s impulse, intentional action, and this draws us into actions of intention. By intentional actions, particular states of mind, ways of thinking, feeling, perception, You know, we’re we’re we’re drawn in to intentional actions into particular states of mind, particular mental actions, mental actions such as feelings, perceptions, ways of thinking, emotions, perception.
And and these motivate motivate us to speak and to act and to choose to speak and act in certain ways. So karma also refers to the mechanism for which provides for the continuity between the creation of an action and the experience of its result. There has to be some bridge between the two. Just like, you know, the seed of a plant is characterized by a potential to produce a resultant plant. That’s what we mean by a seed.
It has this it has a potency. Like a flower seed, it has a potency. That’s its characteristic that is able to produce a plant, a flower. It has that potential, that capacity. It has that what we would say that genetic information stored in the seed, which when activated through conditions, soil, water, brings about gives gives is able to give bring about a resultant plant or flower.
So likewise with our actions, all of our various actions, mental, physical, verbal, they leave some kind of imprint upon the mind, some latency, some impression, some some it’s like a complex of information. It’s just like it’s something that’s encoded. It’s just like a DNA molecule in a way. Okay? Some kind of patterning patterning of the mind takes place, which is placed upon the mind.
These so these are called karmic latencies or action latencies, action tendencies. They they they have a potential just like that seed that when they’re activated, they’re able to give direction, impetus to the mind, where the mind is going to go to, move to. They they’re able to instigate processes of mind. And this activation of these karmic latencies, these karmic seed is what we mean by ripening of karma. And when when with the activation of karmic latency, when it meets a particular objective condition, then a particular impulse takes place.
Specific due to the patterning of mind, a a process of thinking, for example, a type of thought, a type of feeling, a way of proceeding will arise. Is it like it’s a pro like a program. You have to insert a program that’s giving information. A certain readout, a certain display will take place, a certain operation will ensue. So, you know, the the so we’re getting back getting back to what Śāntideva is talking about.
And this I mean, this is extremely profound subject, and I don’t understand this. But it’s very difficult to do karma in general. But the experience of of feelings, of pleasure, or pain is not an automatic byproduct of meeting with a particular object. The the experience of feeling of pain, of feeling of pleasure. You know, I I I made a piece of chocolate cake.
For me, it’s not the fact that it’s pleasurable for me. There’s not inherent quality of chocolate cake. Some people don’t like chocolate cake. I would imagine that. It’s hard to imagine.
People are strange. There’s nothing inherently pleasurable about about chocolate cake. There’s not any there’s not just by meeting chocolate cake does not mean that one will experience a pleasurable feeling from it. This this applies to everything. But none of the feelings that we associate, you know, with the objects or situations are inherent to those objects or situations.
They don’t exist from their own side within the object itself. It’s our it’s our karma as in the sense of habitual reactions, habitual reactive patterns, which are which determine how we conceive of that object, whether that object is attractive, repulsive, or neutral. And then we and we meet an object. Let’s say let’s talk. Then we’ll get some.
Traditional example is a glass of fluid. I think I mentioned this the other night. To a human being, it’s conceived of as being something desirable, refreshing, pleasant, except to somebody with hydrophobia who would conceive of that as a great dread. To to a a celestial being, it’s conceived of as nectar. To a hungry ghost, it’s conceived of as pus and blood.
To a mosquito, a place to lay eggs, to a fish, or someplace to live. The fact is, you know, it’s not inherently pleasurable. It’s not inherently painful. It determines this quality that we attribute to it, it arises in dependence upon our habitual reactive patterns, the way we organize. And this is the important one of the important concepts of karma.
Skillful actions. You know, by skillful actions, I mean, generosity, ethics, patience, love, faith, many, many. Skillful actions predispose us to organize data, to to to create constructs of the of the object, objective condition in such a way that in specific in specific ways. We we we are conceptually creating out of them constructs which we are predisposed, which we discriminate in a specific way, that we we discriminate as being pleasurable. What does this mean?
This is this is all that we mean by skillful actions, but there’s no moralistic judgment being made. Certain types of actions cause us to, when we meet certain types of conditions, to construct, to conceive of those objects as being attractive. The object in itself from its own side is neither attractive nor repulsive. But from our own side, we we we organize, we project, from own project. We create a construct.
We conceive of that as being attractive. This is we’re conditioned to conceive of objects in this way. Now I mentioned one example. The the cultural variations that we have with respect to beauty. You know, the the different saw some photographs of these.
I think the natives I don’t know. They put large discs in their mouth. This is very beautiful, huge discs. And they see that, and that’s, oh, that’s really that’s really attractive. They’re conditioned such that that that appears attractive to them.
To us, it probably appears repulsive. We’re conditioned to that same exact objective condition appears very much differently due to our conditioning, which is simply another word to say these reactive patterns, which is simply another word for saying our karma. So skillful actions predispose ourselves. You know, all the positive actions that we create, they cause us to to they create imprints, impressions upon the mind, reactive patterning, which cause us to conceive of objects as being attractive. Out of that sense of attractiveness, we experience pleasure.
Unskillful karma, killing, stealing, lying, sexual misconduct, lots and lots of things, predispose us to, when we meet specific objective conditions, to to view them, to consider them as being repulsive, as being unattractive, and we associate feelings of pain with them. This is the way we organize. In this whole reality, we are continually recreating moment by moment. It doesn’t exist objectively out there, this even this room, even our body. That we’re continually this is what we mean by conventional reality.
Convention. Convention means an agreement. Convention means simply that a way of we’ve agreed that this is this and this is this. They don’t exist on their own side as that. You know, that this these large lips are beautiful.
These big busts are beautiful. Some certain cultures are considered repulsive. This is our conditioning. This is the way we organize the data. By committing by creating skillful actions, we are predisposing ourselves to organize our reality such that it appears to us as attractive, and therefore we experience pleasure when we come in contact with it.
By committing unskillful actions, we are predisposing ourselves to organizing various data in such a way that they are conceived of as unattractive, and we experience painful feelings in association with them. You know, the the in the development of great compassion. You know, generally, compassion is is is expressed in the thought, may you may you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. But we have to go on from there and develop pleasant love. And pleasant love is such that people — the word pleasantness love, people appear pleasant.
They appear pleasant to us. You know, when a mother sees their child, there’s something it’s like there’s something radiating from the child. It’s like a pleasantness about it. It just little cuddly hands and little cheeks. Just so cute.
I mean, there’s something very pleasant about it. It appears that way. There’s nothing. And somebody someone else looks at it. Looks like a a worm.
If we if we were to consistently begin to appreciate the kindness of others, to focus upon that, then beings would, as if by magic, would begin to radiate this pleasantness more and more and more. And now we we don’t do that. They appear very neutral. They don’t we don’t have any they don’t have any feeling quality about them, attractant. But if we were to concentrate, focus upon you know, their their kindness, which is what we do in developing pleasant love, then they begin to as it radiates a certain pleasantness.
But it it appears that it’s coming from their own side. They just appear likable. Nice people. I have beautiful, really pleasant people. They appear that way.
But it’s simply because we are creating karma, very skillful karma. karma which predisposes us, which a habitual pattern of reaction, which predisposes us to conceive of them as being pleasant. And we develop a kind, a loving feeling of closeness to them. We feel an attraction to them. We’re creating that karma.
This is what we do in meditation, directing the the the habitual reactive patterns of our mind in patterns of our mind in in meditation, getting used to a certain way of viewing people. We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. Speak or act with an impure mind, and trouble will follow you as the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.
We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. Speak or act with a pure mind, and happiness will follow you as your shadow unshakable. I think it makes sense.
The more you understand emptiness, the more karma becomes evident. And the more that you understand karma, the more the emptiness becomes understandable. Know, Śāntideva so what is he saying? Śāntideva, you know, we could how much how much skillful actions do we create in the course of a day? How many times do we practice any types of generosity, caring, tolerance, meditation, whatever, you know, all the various types of large and petty skillful actions that we do create as compared to the negative actions of selfishness, killing, stealing, covetousness, lying, harsh words.
So, you know, that Śāntideva is saying that through the force of one moment’s anger, that all of the that creative potential that we’ve built up which would help us to see the world in a more pleasant way, which would bring us that much happiness that we’ve built over a a thousand eons is destroyed. You know, by here, it’s specifically speaking about anger toward a Buddha or a bodhisattva. And then one moment’s anger. That what does anger do? Anger destroys that habitual reactive pattern whereby things appear pleasant, that we’re able to organize the world in such a way that it appears attractive that we and therefore, we experience associated pleasurable feelings.
Anger has that potential. It it it has that ability to to destroy those patterns within our mind. This is intentional actions, you know, the the turning of the mind. You know, why is it we don’t want to practice Dharma? Why is it that, you know, skillful objects don’t appear to our mind, that we don’t tend towards skillful objects?
Because we’re continually destroying habitual patterns within our mind. That we don’t turn to objects that would support our liver our liberation. We as if we are habituated to turning mind naturally, instinctively, turns toward objects which perpetuate a neurotic compulsive pattern. Of course, we’re continually destroying those constructive patterns through the force of our anger. So that, you know, the so the reason that we have so little temporal happiness is because of anger.
And the reason that we’re still around in this samsaric state, that we haven’t achieved realization of our human potential, that we haven’t become lovely, happy, healthy, sane human beings because of our anger. The reason we aren’t Buddhas. The reason we aren’t happy now and that we won’t ultimately be happy is because of our anger. Everything good that we’re