Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Ven Jampa Ignyen opens this 24-minute talk with a fundamental question: why do individual streams of consciousness remain eternally separate, never merging even in the subtlest states of meditation? He then explains the four formless realms accessible through deep practice—infinite space, infinite consciousness, neither discrimination nor nondiscrimination, peak of existence—and the extraordinary clarity they offer. A crucial warning follows: beings reborn there sometimes mistake their purity for enlightenment or divine creation, yet these states remain ordinary, not transcendent. Turning to ground-level practice, he outlines the Eightfold Noble Path as three pillars: ethics (foundation), concentration (rising from ethics), wisdom (flowering from the settled mind ethics creates). He urges students to transform obstacles into the path itself. Suited to newcomers and those beginning a Buddhist practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 08 Intro to B 2001 05 28.mp3
UUID: 7d2e57dd-add0-4685-b44a-ffe0e61fc8a9
Teacher: Ven Jampa Ignyen
Collection: y Introduction to Buddhism (Ven Jampa Ignyen)
Date: 2001-05-28
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 24.2 minutes
Words: ~2,523
We have these individual continuums of awareness that have existed from the beginning of time, but at no time in the past would they have. Everything’s merged with our awareness. Their awareness hasn’t merged with ours. And our awareness hasn’t merged with other beings’ awareness. That’s how it’s been in the past. In the present, it’s like that.
In the future, it will continue. That we maintain our own individual continuum of consciousness. And it doesn’t merge with the consciousness of other beings. It’s not quite the same as matter. Matter, in fact, can physical objects, in a sense, they have their own continuum like this.
This maintains its own continuum in the present. It’s a continuum of atoms and molecules that maintain from one moment to the next, although it’s completely impermanent. But these atoms and molecules formerly made up something else, and they came together from what existed on this planet and prior to that what existed in this galaxy. They were produced in the center of stars billions of years ago and so forth. These atoms and molecules have undergone various, have been merged in different objects and so forth over a long period.
Our awareness maintains its continuum. And then as I said, it doesn’t merge with other continuums of awareness. And as such, there’s no collective consciousness that we are a part of. But awareness is very similar though from one person to another. Fundamentally, has all the same attributes.
Both. But awareness can be awareness of two different beings can be very closely attuned. But if it were possible that one thing, if there was a collective consciousness, and it were possible that and we were actually all, you know, in a sense, part of the same mind, then we should already be enlightened because we’re not enlightened beings. Or in fact, we should experience what other people experience. I think they can be one can be more attuned with other types of awareness.
It’s a question of whether they our awareness becomes their awareness or their awareness becomes our awareness. This appears to be not not possible. When we pass away. Yeah. Well, it’s yeah.
Yep. It’s said that, actually, in the past, we’ve experienced those states. But in fact, in the universe, there’s different levels. We live in a desire realm, what’s called the desire realm. And above that, there’s the form realm.
And then there’s the formless realm. And in the past, we’ve been born in the formless realm. And there, there’s no gross form whatsoever. And when we’re reborn there, there’s four different levels. There’s the first is infinite space.
The level of infinite space and then infinite consciousness. And then neither discrimination nor nondiscrimination, then nothing at all, these four levels. And then when beings are reborn there, there’s a tendency for that because there’s no they’re not aware of any other beings, because they’re not aware of gross physical form, They tend to think that they’re the only beings that exist. But these states are states of great clarity and subtlety and of almost perfect mental stability. They’re neutral states, but beings there would it’s said that a being reborn there has the the tendency to think that they’re like the only being in the universe, and in fact and that everything seems to be coming from them.
And they would even even develop the idea that they are god or they are a creative being. Having been reborn there. And they’re only aware, oh, there’s, you know, like, infinite space itself. They’re just wherever they turn their mind, there’s just the infinity of space, a perfectly clear, neutral, and stable, pristine. And then beyond that into consciousness, level above that is consciousness itself.
Just this purity of consciousness pervading the entire universe. And then above that, no gross discrimination, which is even a subtle level. And then this level above that is this level of the peak of existence. And having it said that we’ve been reborn there before due to our past actions. And there’s no suffering in these states whatsoever.
There’s only the very softest level of suffering which is this pervasive suffering. But then one abides there for a long period, and then one is reborn, for instance, as a human. And if one, as a human, develops clairvoyance of their previous life, and then remembers that they were born in such a state, they could think that they were formerly born as the creative being in such an infinite, pure and sort of a stainless place. And now they’ve been reborn on Earth. It’s possible that such beings then develop a theistic view that they were once enlightened and then attain a human rebirth and no longer enlightened, no longer like a supreme being.
But it’s possible to be reborn in such states where one doesn’t have a physical body. But even there, they’re ordinary states. They’re nothing they’re not even the state of a being on the path. Those states are not even a path to the transcendent. But compared to our current state, they’re, like, incomparably clearer and more stable and The ego is still there.
Yes. Exactly. The the I is still there. Grasping at an I is still there. And for that reason, they’re not transcendent states.
That’s right. It’s possible to be reborn there, but those states are not liberation. And I say we’ve been reborn there many times over. But how we get reborn there is if we practice meditation. For instance, if we’re in this life, we go up and we decide we’ll head up to a cave, we go to India, head up into Nepal.
Instead of going, you know, to Mount Everest, wherever we go somewhere else, we find a cave. We sit in meditation for many years, you know, above the snow line where it’s very cool and clear. And through meditating over a long period of time, one begins to develop goes through the nine stages of mental placement and attain single-pointed concentration, where the mind is perfectly pliable, flexible. And having attained that state, we can put the mind on any object and the mind will just sit there and it won’t go anywhere. Mind we’re able to tame the mind in a relative sense.
And then having developed that state, then we can develop awareness of higher realms, like the form realm. And then from there, can develop awareness of the formless realm. And by developing those states in this life, then we generate what’s called invariable karma, where in our next life we’ll be reborn there. But even though being reborn there is a state of sort of mundane bliss and so forth, it’s not very useful to us because it’s still not a transcendent path. Those states are not transcendent paths.
And even though one might remain there for eons in those states, one eventually has to one dies from there and is reborn as a human and so forth. Oh, that’s useful just for lessening our distractions. That’s all. People often go to those types of places because there’s not too much traffic noise and not too many people wandering around. On Everest, ideas, avoid Everest.
Go to some other mountain. Lots of corpses on Everest. Two hundred sitting there. Yeah. It’s if one would have attained Samādhi or single pointed concentration, it’s good to have a quiet place to do it with fewer distractions, not too many people.
Maybe again to go to somewhere like Central Australia, like Ayers Rock or something like that, a bit away from the tourists. It’s good to be in a place actually where it’s been blessed also by past meditators. Recently, one Tibetan lama went to Ayers Rock, Uluru, and he was saying that it was one of the twenty four holy places of Heruka on earth. So that also would be a good place to go. But if one seeks to attain that sort of state, like Samādhi, then it’s good to be in a place where other meditators have been in the past.
Because there tends to be a blessing from their actions that remains in that place. So it just makes it a little bit easier for ourselves. And sometimes the place itself is a big factor. Actually, we’re affected by where we are, and sometimes it’s easier for us to do something in one place than another. And I think the more we get to know ourselves, more insight we have of ourselves, then this becomes more evident as well.
Probably in the beginning it doesn’t matter too much. In the middle it probably matters. Getting towards the end it doesn’t matter at all. For really good practitioners, the worse the conditions, the better. And if possible, that’s how we should practice.
That the more obstacles that come up in our lives, the better it is for us, the more we rejoice. And in fact, to develop the skill of being able to take on all the negative conditions that arise is one of the greatest skills that one can have. So therefore to transform everything into the path. So here, path meaning the path leading to transcendent happiness. Potentially the faster, yes, the better for us.
It’s often why I say that it’s a good time now to practice, because there are many obstacles in the world for practicing externally, but actually we can use those obstacles as a means of purifying ourselves, of practicing. As it says in the Guru Puja, Calling the Lama from Afar, may I take on all negative conditions as the path itself. Whatever happens, whatever anyone says to me, positive, negative, whatever, everything that’s negative, can I transform all transform all of that into the path? It is. Yes.
Oh, the Eightfold Path is everything. Yeah. And the Eightfold Path really is divided into three. It’s ethics, concentration, and wisdom. Ethics, concentration, and wisdom is really the very essence of the path itself.
Ethics is the foundation. Concentration is what emerges from ethics, and wisdom arises from the stainless stability of concentration. In fact, this process we’re already aware of, that if we have an ethical foundation, the mind itself does tend to settle, does tend to it’s a bit like muddy water. If you leave it long enough, dust and the dirt particles tend to sink. A sense, that’s like the practice of ethics.
By practicing ethics, then all the those faults within the mind tend to settle. Just by the practice of ethics itself. The mind becomes clearer and clearer. And then as the mind becomes clearer, it becomes possible to see how things actually are. And seeing how things actually are is wisdom.
So the Eightfold Noble Path is really the practice of ethics, concentration and wisdom. And ethics is the most important in a sense because ethics means not harming others. So by practicing this very strongly, the mind itself begins to settle. It’s just as if, you know, if we have a bad conscience about something, the mind is a little bit agitated, and it’s hard for us just to relax and, you know, with our mind and the mind be settled. But if you have a clear conscience, then the mind itself tends to be settled.
So in a sense, we have to develop a clear conscience. And as such, then the mind becomes clear. And in that clarity, wisdom is possible. So there’s the Eightfold Noble Path, which is really the correct what is it? It’s correct speech, correct action, correct livelihood are the three to do with ethics, or the three to do with the first part.
Livelihood there means actions of body and speech, meaning not harming others in body and speech. And that’s also reflected in correct speech and correct action. Correct livelihood also refers to the fact that we don’t engage in occupations that endanger beings, such as being a slaughterer or maybe selling drugs or selling alcohol or things like that. Better if we don’t do that. In fact, anything that tends to harm other beings, we should avoid as a wrong way of being.
Then on that foundation, we have effort, correct effort, correct concentration and correct mindfulness. And those three are associated with concentration itself. That is this clarifying the mind, making the mind clear. And then correct view and correct investigation are to do with wisdom itself. So really, the Eightfold Noble Path is dealing with ethics, and wisdom.
Anyway, what we’ve been attempting to do in the last four weeks is just to raise a few of these topics in a very broad, broad way just for us to contemplate a little bit. Because I think there’s some practical benefit in just thinking through these issues. Not to say that we’re gonna resolve them straight away by any means, but we do need to develop an understanding of where we are. And in order to do that, we in order to know ourselves, we need to know our mind, what our mind is doing in the present, become aware, mindful of the nature of our mind itself, our feelings, and so on. Because the path exists within us, the path can only be established internally as a state of mind.
Samsāra really is just our current state of mind. The path is a new state of mind that we generate within our mental continuum. Everything really, in a sense, comes down to the nature of our mind itself. So, anyway, I hope there’s some material anyway to go on and to think about, to contemplate. Also, I’d just like to mention, so we’ve finished anyway this four block of four talks on a Monday night.
Now I think there’s a recommended book list of books and so forth. I think everyone probably got one on the way in. There’s a book list there that’s available outside. And there’s a feedback sheet also that would be much appreciated if that were completed, if people have the time to do that. And there’s a newsletter also, and it gives some more information on further courses.
And then also we’ve got further courses coming up. And for instance, there’s one starting on June the fourth, which will be given by Marika, And so that also should be excellent. And if anyone can attend that, that’s highly recommended. Then also on Sunday morning, if there’s guided meditation from ten AM and a discussion at eleven thirty AM on a Sunday morning. And then also there’s guided meditation on Wednesday morning.
And a learn to meditate class on Monday six pm, which also exists at Noarlunga? Sorry? Noarlunga. Noarlunga. And Semaphore.
And I think there’s details of the addresses of those two places probably in the newsletter. Should be. Yeah. And, otherwise, there’s in the newsletter, there’s, anyway, information on the ongoing programs. And otherwise, just wanna thank everyone for coming for the last four weeks and hope that people will be able to continue to come to various other