Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A vivid description of the taking-and-giving visualization — suffering absorbed as black smoke that dissolves self-centeredness, happiness released as white light — opens this 45-minute session in which Ven Jampa Gendun brings the sixth chapter of Śāntideva’s guide to awakening (the chapter on tolerance) to a close. He unpacks two final verses on tolerance’s ultimate and temporal benefits, explains the Buddhist term Tathāgata as “one who has seen the way things are,” and uses an analogy of a king’s official to argue against retaliation. A sustained thread throughout: the mind has no fixed nature and becomes whatever it is trained toward. The session closes with a frank Q&A, including a practitioner who confesses he has run out of enemies after years of practice, sparking discussion on communication, conflict resolution, and karma.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 34 Tce 1991 05 22.mp3
UUID: b6733909-6993-4efe-9843-1170b9c42f0d
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Tolerance (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1991-05-22
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.2 minutes
Words: ~4,959
It means that may be true. You know, what might be happiness for you may not be for me. It may be suffering for me. But still, it is your conception of happiness, and that’s what you want. Everybody in this room, behind those eyes, there’s someone who wants to be happy and doesn’t want to suffer, completely equal, no difference than myself.
Then how can I use you? How can I bring you suffering? How can I find happiness at your expense? You know, if we this is the platform upon which we can build this sense of altruism. And then we begin to in dependence upon this sense of equality, we go on to contemplate the disadvantages of self centeredness, the advantages of other centeredness.
And all of these are working against our unquestioned basic assumptions. Our two primary core assumptions upon which we base our life are self centeredness, the effectiveness of self centeredness as a means to find happiness, and self grasping. The misconceiving of the nature of the self. These are two primary delusions, two primary assumptions, mistaken ideas, distorted premises upon which we base our life, and that’s why we suffer. That’s the only reason we suffer.
There are no other reasons. If we can remove these two distorted conceptions from our mind, we no longer suffer. We remove the basic cause. Seeing the disadvantages of self centeredness, the advantages of other centeredness. It is said that all misery in the world comes about through seeking happiness for yourself alone at the expense of others.
All happiness in one’s life, fulfillment, feelings of well-being come about through wishing others happiness, through a sense of going out to others. Then we practice what is called the actual exchange of self with others. And this is an imaginative technique where we exchange self centeredness for other centeredness, and we play a role. We try to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, as it were, and try to see the world out of their eyes, try to see the situation from their side. How does it feel to be that person?
And then finally, all of these practices are brought together in the visualization technique called taking and giving, where we imagine beginning with one individual. We can begin with ourselves, since that’s the person we’re most concerned with naturally. We imagine their difficulties, kind of trouble, some suffering. And knowing that this person wants to be happy just like myself, we become involved, we become concerned, this regard, positive regard. And we develop a sense of compassion.
You know, just like I don’t want to suffer. I’m sure this person doesn’t want to suffer. I know that. I’m sure they don’t want to suffer. Sometimes, if you live in India, all these beggars you become insensitive, desensitized almost by necessity.
And it’s quite easy to develop the sense that they don’t want happiness as much as I do, that they don’t mind being cold, they don’t mind being hungry, They don’t mind being impoverished. It’s okay for them, but it’s not. May be more accepting of it, but they don’t want it. They want all the good things in life just like you, no doubt. So this person wants to be happy just like myself.
I know that because they’re just like me. I’m going to take on their suffering, and I’m going to place it at that one place that’s caused me all my problems, all my difficulties, my own self centeredness. And you take on this suffering in the form of black smoke, and it eats your own self centeredness like acid. And then you remember the advantages of other centeredness. And though this person doesn’t have this suffering, you know they want to be happy because they’re just like you.
And I want to be happy. I’m sure this person is just like me, they want to be happy, too. So you give away your own happiness, your body, your creative potential, all your enjoyments in the form of white light, and it changes into whatever would make this particular person happy. And you develop this ability to take on their suffering and give away your happiness in this visualization technique. And and this becomes a very powerful method to forgo one’s egocentric involvement, to begin to be able to see the world from other’s points of view, to be able to let go of something, to to cherish other.
But it’s only imaginative. And finally, you think, you know, it’s not enough to do it in imagination alone. I want to do it in fact, in reality, to be able to alleviate others’ suffering, to bring them happiness. And the only way I can do this, the only the most productive way of being which I can the basis from which I can act out of is to be a Buddha. This is our paradigm, our model of a person who is experiencing unremitting peace within and compassionately works without in order to help others to experience the same.
And not only is the key words are compassion is experiencing within, compassionately working without, and skillfully. There’s these three qualities. Peace within, compassionately working without, but skillfully. And this is what a Buddha does for a living. And this is what I have to become for the sake of all these beings who are just like me.
This becomes the motivating force of your life, for your growth, your practice. Śāntideva, this is what is being alluded to in verse and taken up in the eighth chapter, the method of developing this awakening heart. Śāntideva concludes this teaching by describing the general benefits of the practice of tolerance. First from the ultimate point of view, the ultimate benefits to be derived from tolerance, and then the temporal benefit. He goes on to say, This alone should be my task, for it pleases the tathagatas.
It genuinely accomplishes my own purpose and it dispels the sufferings of the world. This alone should be my task, for it pleases the tathagatas, it genuinely accomplishes my own purpose and it dispels the suffering of the world. The word Tathāgata means one gone to suchness, one gone to suchness, suchness, thatness. By this, it means the way things are, beyond conception, beyond all our distorting conceptions which we superimpose upon the world. Before we made those distorting super impositions, there was something there, that.
We don’t know what it is yet, because the moment we name it, we’ve distorted it. But it’s that. The suchness, the way things are. Person, the Tathagatas, is one who has gone there, who knows, who has seen the way things are. I mean, beyond all our superstitions, beyond our conceptions.
One who knows. And such an individual dwells continually in this reality. They’re always in contact with the way things are. You know, we live in a world of fantasy. This is a primary delusion in which we live.
And we very rarely touch reality, as it were. This individual is the paradigm of Buddhism. You know, one who dwells in such a state is the personification of an ideal being. We take this as a model, the ideal being, ideal way of being. We as individuals are seeking to actualize this ideal way of being.
So if we shift our perspective for a moment, pleasing such a being and I was alluding to this previously when I talked about the composition of these prayers if we please the Buddhas, it’s equal to actualizing our own potential, of that same way of being. You know, if there is someone who is very wise and very compassionate and they’re very pleased with the way we’re acting, we must be acting very wisely and compassionately. By pleasing someone who is wise and compassionate, we are approaching their same state. There must be something very wise and compassionate in the way we are acting. In other words, to please the Buddha is to ourselves become a Buddha, or to become more Buddha like.
Śāntideva is talking about this practice of tolerance. That is, this practice of tolerance genuinely accomplishes our own purpose, our own welfare, and helps us to solve the problems of the world, because it’s helping us to become more Buddha like. And the more Buddha like we become, the more we solve our own problems and the more we’re solving the problems of the world. Śāntideva goes on. He’s describing the ultimate benefit of the practice of tolerance: become more Buddha like.
You bring about your own welfare, and you are coming closer to bringing about the welfare of others, describing the temporal benefits of tolerance. And he presents it from first an analogy, and he is showing the pragmatic benefits of tolerance and tolerance. Although a single one of the king’s men may harm a great many individuals, farsighted people, even were they able, would not retaliate, for they would realize that he is not alone, that he is supported by the might of the king. Likewise, do not underestimate a weak person who is causing you harm, for he is supported by the guardians of hell and the compassionate Buddha. You know, he is being supported by the guardians of hell and the compassionate Buddha.
As we discussed previously, no matter how real a hellish state may appear to the person, to those undergoing it, it comes into being solely on account of the self destructive elements within our own mind, within our own psyche. Again, Śāntideva, in his fifth chapter, the same book, he asked, Who intentionally forged the weapons in hell? Who constructed the burning iron floors? The Buddha taught that all such things arise from evil mind. You know, the guardians of hell are incarnations of our own anger, of our own paranoia, of our own aggression, of our own hostility.
And the Buddhas are incarnations of our own love, of our own compassion. The world is very much a reflection of our own mind. The quality of what we see outside of ourselves is a reflection of the quality of our own mind. Whether it’s going to be a Buddha or a guardian of hell is dependent upon our own mind. Śāntideva goes on, Hence, one should respect all beings, just as subjects would respect their irascible king.
But even if such a king were angered, would he be able to inflict the agonies of hell such are experienced by displeasing a sentient being? And even if that king were satisfied, he could not possibly grant one of the states which could be attained by pleasing another creature. You know, this is reminiscent of I couldn’t remember, maybe some of you can remember the phrase from the Bible where it says, Though one may win the world, if in the process one loses one’s soul, you have won nothing. In the process of winning the world, if you lose your soul, you have won nothing, you have lost everything. You know, in the process of achieving happiness that we all want, we all want happiness.
But if in the process of gaining that which we want, gaining that happiness, if we do it at the expense of others, then at best we have only gained the trappings, the appearances of happiness. Because at a deeper level, in our heart of hearts, we will have lost our Buddha nature. We will have turned our back to our own wisdom and our own love and compassion. There is a quotation by the Indian poet, What man accomplishes in the outer world is his achievement. If this achievement in the outer world in no way coincides with his inner truth, then it creates a rupture in his very existence.
Self expression is hindered whenever there is slackening in paying off the debt to one’s inner truth. Ugliness appears, there is joylessness. Beginning to follow the inarticulate whisperings of our own heart. And just like our own inner guide. And it’s just to say that we tune in, we keep our ears open.
Because in a way it’s our only hope of becoming sane and becoming happy. And by harming others, by using others, by seeking happiness at their expense, we become deaf and we become lost. And I read a poster recently which said that the natural state of humans is love. The natural state of humans is love. It is indeed the natural state of those who are fully human.
The natural state of those who are fully human is love. Now what do we need to be fully human, to be awake? At the moment of birth, life asks man a question and this question he must answer. He must answer it at every moment, not his mind, not his body, but he, the person who thinks and dreams, who sleeps and eats and cries and laughs, the whole man must answer it. And what is this question which life poses?
The question is, how can we overcome the suffering, the imprisonment, the shame, which the experience of separateness creates? How can we find union with ourselves, with our fellow man, with nature? Man has to answer this question in some way. And even in insanity, an answer is given by striking out at reality, living completely within the shell of ourselves and thus overcoming fright of separateness. The question is always the same.
However, there are several answers, or more basically there are only two answers. One is to overcome separateness and to find unity by regression to the state of unity which exists before awareness ever arose, that is before man was born. The other answer is to be fully born, to develop one’s awareness, one’s reason, one’s capacity to love, to such a point that one transcends one’s own egocentric involvement and rise into a new harmony, at a new oneness with the world. There is always this great tendency, one to regress to insensitivity to the warm state, to become dumb, to try to stupefy ourselves, to go back to sleep, and the other is the intrinsic movement toward wakefulness, to become fully awake. And we’re somewhere in the twilight zone, and we’re always moving back and forth.
Śāntideva, in the final two verses, goes on to talk about the temporal benefits of tolerance. The final two verses of this sixth chapter He is talking about the temporal benefits of tolerance. Leaving aside the future Buddhahood, which comes from loving sentient beings, why cannot you even see the glory, fame and happiness which could be yours in this very life? Even in saṃsāra, tolerance will surely grant you beauty, health, renown, long life, and the extensive joys of a universal monarch. One of the greatest of Indian masters said, and it sounds quite simple but it is quite profound, that there is nothing which does not become easier upon familiarization.
There is nothing which does not become easier upon familiarization. We have to remind ourselves again and again that who we are is the outcome of discernible variables, that is, the results of particular conditioning factors. We are the results of karma, of various conditioning factors, both historical, social, environmental, physical. We do not have any intrinsic, inherent characteristics, such as these patterns that we usually identify with. human nature is no nature, and no nature is Buddha nature.
That is to say, it is open ended. The mind is dynamic in its nature. It has the ability to change in whatever direction we train it. If we again and again contemplate the analysis of this deluded rationale of anger and verify it through our own reasoning, through our own experience, within our own intuition, through the process of familiarization with that contemplation. A new idea, particular way of thinking will evolve and become integrated.
It will become a part of our present mind, of ourselves. It will become our nature. There is no reason why it cannot be, and there are a vast number of reasons why it should be. That is to say, we can change. The mind is transformable.
We can become anything that we want to be. There is nothing that doesn’t become easier upon familiarization. This is what Buddhism is offering. This is what the teachings are about. This is the value of what the Buddhists have offered us, a direction in which to train our mind.
Perhaps now we have had no particular direction. We had no paradigm to work with, no model. We had no context in which to evaluate what is in our own self best interest. We simply operated on the basis of the pleasure pain principle, of gain and loss, of fame and ridicule, of praise and blame. This is all we knew.
But that situation has changed. And now we can begin to operate on a higher order of self correction. There is a quotation from Henry David Thoreau. I learned this, at least, by my experiment, that if you advance confidently in the direction of your dreams and endeavors to live the life which you have imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in uncommon hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary.
New universal and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around him and within him, or the old laws be expanded and interpreted in its favor in a more liberal sense. And he will live with the license of a higher order of being. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost. That is where they should be. Now put the foundation under them.
You’ve been very tolerant. That’s the sixth chapter of Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra. Very tolerant. Anybody have a comment? Question?
Anything you’d like to share? I was really laughing at it. Okay. I was trying to wish help and to an enemy. I was trying really hard.
I was really laughing about it. It was very difficult because I had lots of people that I was really, you know, mad at them. I them. So, you know, throughout the couple of years, I would be trying that one. And every time it was very powerful, I mean, it really worked.
I mean, it didn’t really work in terms of, you know, the first three one, you know, for the the life, then you got to the enemy and then Mhmm. I just couldn’t get into the the whole thing of doing it. And then gradually, I realized that I was using the same enemies all the time. But the first two two years, it was I had a good sort of range of enemies I could use, know. After a while I realized I’ve been using that one, it’s quite a shit hard one.
And then recently, a few months ago, I’ve realized that I have using the same two guys for the last, I don’t know, thirty or thirty five sessions of that because I haven’t got any more people to actually really, you know. So I’ve been using famous people like Hitler and people that I’ve really been hurting a lot. But when it comes to actually finding someone that I really have a lot of trouble, you know, really considering as a real enemy, I realized that I haven’t got anybody to really consider as being a really, you know. And those two guys are two bosses that I had, one back in France about ten years ago. He was a real tyrant.
He was terrible. And the second one is another boss that I had here. He was really bad too with a lot of people. And, know, so about half an hour ago I was thinking, you know, well, so, you know, it does work. I mean, there is some some things that really do happen and I just realized that there is something happening in terms of exchanging something and wishing.
But then I was the thing I was thinking that in conclusion is maybe I should put myself in the fourth position because in fact now, you know, I find it quite easy to sort of wish myself health and stuff. And then when I get to the fourth part, the enemy, I will easily put myself there because I’ve got a lot of things that I could deal with myself in terms of being angry with myself sometimes and not really happy with my behavior. And so I had a question, would it be would it be worth sort of putting myself in the fourth position, which is like wishing myself health and then, you know, to that person is the other sex and then a neutral person. And then having myself again, not as an enemy but playing that role of the enemy. You know what I mean?
Is that clear or is open? Yeah. What do you find it useful? It’s just half an hour ago, I just thought maybe, because find I can’t wish myself a lot of, you know, a lot of health and wealth and compassion. But as as a way of maybe translating the whole thing, I thought maybe sometimes it’d be be They’re better off than you are, aren’t They’re better off than you are, aren’t they?
I mean, have you ever just tried to communicate? Have you communicated with them? They have their conception of happiness, and your conception of happiness may come in conflict. So you can get angry at the They have certain patterns which you may not like, so you can dislike their patterns, but it doesn’t mean you have to dislike the person. There’s just some factor in their mind that you don’t particularly like.
I don’t like this about you, but you’re a great person. I think there’s no better way to solve We can work internally, but also in the real world, practically speaking, is to communicate, to develop communication skills, conflict resolution, work in such a way that the person doesn’t become defensive. Begin by admitting that it’s your problem, because it is your problem, they’re not having a problem. And hopefully they’ll, if you present it skillfully, they’ll be open to solution. Maybe you can arrive at some new possibility which neither of you thought of before, a way of resolving the conflict.
They have their point of view. They have their point of view. Whenever the direction most of these people, that’s fine. I hear what you’re saying. As long as you do it my way, we’ll be friends.
That’s how these people But if you can show you might be able to show them a better way, which which would which might accommodate both of you. It might be he might, oh, that is better than my way, and it and it accommodates your position, you know, whatever you want. I’m not sure of the situation exactly. Look, if you can communicate, at least try that, very practically speaking. You know, I’m unhappy.
I have some problems. Maybe we can talk about it and work with it. Have you tried that? People don’t recognize that there’s a problem. Well, there might not be a problem for them.
Yeah. It’s your it’s your problem. So you say, can you help me with my problem? Maybe they have compassion on you. Anybody else have other suggestions?
Perhaps you should look at them like they are in a deluded state of mind, almost like a sick person and feel compassion for them in that way. In that you think that the way you think is a better way of thinking. And for them to be happier, they must achieve it, but they can’t because they’re not thinking correctly. Like, equalize, I sort of tend to put myself on the same level of him completely completely equal. And I’ve had a real run with him last year and with him terrible and stuff.
And just make no difference between me and him. You know, that’s that’s the work I’ve been doing on this particular relationship with this guy. You know? What whatever is done to me, whatever happened with, you know, with our relationship within the work situation, and we’ve gone through quite some heavy stuff. You know?
Equal. And I have tried really through that equanimity with this particular person. And I think I have managed to do that Virtually a hundred percent. I have tried to drop any form of resentment, anger, or and just, you know, he’s got his way of dealing with his life. I’ve got my way of dealing with my life.
I’m trying to reach out and not talking to him. I don’t see him physically, not anymore, but through my my own personal visualization of him trying to show him that, you know, it’s alright. I’m not hurting anymore. Not only that, I can’t I would want to show him some respect because ultimately it’s more important to me to actually respect him than hurting. I really hurt deeply and my family has gone through quite a lot through my behavior, through working through them.
So ultimately, to the point view, view, to go on with my life. So if I or if I stay stuck like I was before, you know, would be really angry at him and, you know, so much energy is being spent on that level then I can’t really go on with my life. Why haven’t and and plus, I mean, I can’t change him. I mean, and I don’t want to change it either. I mean, through, you know, practical things, yes, you know, we have communicated and I express my point of view and all of this.
But further on, I mean, I I I did find it very, very beneficial for me to reach that state of feeling completely at peace with the situation and ultimately reaching out and and giving him my respect. You know, whatever you’ve you’ve done to me, and and I’ve, like I said, I’ve got this friend of mine who’s really hurt When you say they don’t change, maybe it’s because we’re only looking at a a short span. Like, find if you look at someone over ten, twenty years, like, kinda like someone I It was terrible then, but a lot of terrible things have happened to him since then. You can realize it’s sort of the same. So maybe the change should be looked at over a long time rather than sort of saying I wanted to change now.
But even these difficult people change eventually, if you look at it in a long term picture. I’m not saying we should change the other people because I agree with you. We should first change ourselves. But if you look at these people, you realize they’re going through the same sort of bad stuff that we go through, but you gotta look at them long term. Mhmm.
Or you’re seeing them just cracking the whip on me and thinking, you should change now. I mean, there are levels of skillfulness, aren’t there? Are various levels of skillfulness in way to deal with the situation. That would be better than getting angry at them. That would be one step of improvement.
Avoiding the problem. Yes. Oh yeah. It’s better than getting angry. Yeah.
Try it. Buy this guy a present. Change the whole dynamic. Can you imagine what could happen? Well, just this one we’ll just deal with this one person.
You don’t have to buy everybody in the world presents. Buy him a present, see what happens. The by the head or the heart? The mind moves by the head or the heart? Head or the heart.
So what do you mean by head? The head? You don’t mean the body, do you? No. The intellect.
The intellect. Feeling. It probably it probably depends upon your different dispositions, be have predominantly more intellectual or more emotional approaches to to life. So I think I don’t see I think they depend upon the individual. Actually, want to integrate both.
Yeah. Basis of? Yeah. Who rules the mind? Anybody have an answer to that one?
The ego. The ego. Think you’re stand outside of the mind? I think it does, yeah. I think it integrates, well I don’t know.
Perhaps it integrates all the different factors and even perverts it to the way it wants. Perverts it the way it wants. Possibly. So it controls itself? I have no idea.
That’s a good point. I mean, there’s just a bunch of mental and physical processes occurring right there which arise in dependence upon causes and conditions. There’s nobody running the show. There’s a light on but no one’s home. Everything arises depends upon karma.
But karma doesn’t denote or mean fatalism or predestination, does it? Don’t believe in miracles? You don’t believe in miracles? Does karma create the conditions or does it wait for the conditions for things to occur? Wait.
karma is the main cause, and then the conditions are the cooperative cause, like seed is the main cause of the plant, and the earth and the water are cooperative conditions. So these two together produce an effect, requires both. So karma, our past actions, are the substantial cause, the main cause. And then the various people, the various objects, conditions, circumstances that we come in contact with cause various karmas to ripen, creating various trains of thought into various experiences. Well, then it must be that that real time karma.
What is that? karma. And conditions together.