Karmic Tendencies

Executive Director of Temple Buddhist Center Victor Dougherty explores the three types of personalities in Buddhism and explains how we can transform ourselves through Insight Meditation and playful inquiry.

Transcript

And so good morning everyone and a big welcome of course to all of our friends joining us from afar.

We've had people joining us from Canada and Switzerland and Oklahoma and all around the world so it's really delightful that our sangha is kind of spreading out.

My teacher used to tell the story of this rocky road that everybody would be walking down and on either side of the road were two things.

On one side of the road was a bonfire,

A huge raging fire and on the other side of the road was a beautiful crystal clear stream or pond or pool and people walking down the road and the people who would jump into the crystal clear pond would pop up in the fire and the people who jumped into the bonfire would pop up in the cool clear pool.

This story is pointing at the Buddhist practice and path is a one of self-inquiry.

It is a path of questioning and observing going deeply within and examination and so when we seek outside of us these ponds or crystal clear pools in the form of diversion and distraction,

Addiction,

Sense pleasure,

All these things that are so wonderful we fail to recognize what is desirous or needy of those things and then we pop up in the fire but when we jump into the fire going deeply within and examining these things that are sometimes difficult to look at,

Difficult to feel,

Hard to experience,

We then have the opportunity to become aware of it and when we become aware of it we are able to purify fear,

Greed,

Hatred,

Delusion and when we purify that we begin to know more and more who we truly are and when we know who we are we know who everyone is and we pop up in the pool.

So today's talk is about karmic tendencies and so I opened with this story because I'm asking everyone to be courageous,

Okay.

On Hawkins scale of consciousness the midline between the negative vibrational consciousness and the positive consciousness or positive vibrations,

The midline is courage.

Having the courage to go within.

So let's talk about karmic tendencies.

Psychology east and west acknowledges that children are born into this world with distinct temperaments and styles and so Buddhism describes this as karmic tendencies that we come into the world with.

Western psychology calls this our genetic inheritance and so this however is only one part of our personality.

Later on our innate temperaments are conditioned by parents,

Siblings,

Our family of origin,

Teachers,

Friends,

Neighborhoods.

It's conditioned by our environment and so through the interaction of inheritance and conditioning,

Nature and nurture,

Our personality is formed.

The West has produced dozens of descriptions of personality and a wide range of theories to account for personality development,

Temperament,

Cognitive styles.

Each theory highlights different aspects of the personality,

Patterns of desire,

Relationships to power and authority,

Degrees of autonomy or even modes of thinking and there are many wonderful ways to explore your personality.

Getting to know you,

So to speak,

There is the Enneagram,

There's the Myers-Briggs,

There's the Minnesota Multiphasic Examination,

The list goes on and on and on.

All of these things are wonderful opportunities to begin to really unpack this form that has been given your name and that has accrued the many experiences over the years.

One of the great Rimposhes used to say,

You have been given this beautiful,

Wonderful laboratory to play in and experiment with,

Just don't go poking around in other people's laboratories.

In Buddhism,

Personality systems have flourished and the ancient list makers of the past have described basically three types and they are all we need right now to illuminate the whole process of transformation.

What do I mean by that?

We talk about it all the time.

Everybody's always talking about transformation.

You see,

The unhealthy patterns of our personality can be recognized.

We can shine the light of awareness on these and then they may be transformed into a healthy expression of our natural temperament.

The goal here is to understand our nature so that we can transform these unhealthy patterns into healthy ones.

Our temperament,

You see,

Is not a weakness.

There is nothing wrong with anyone.

We are a perfect expression of consciousness.

Our temperament is not a weakness,

But it is a place where we can cultivate strength.

It is the path of the spiritual warrior to go within.

As the Buddha said,

Though one should in battle conquer a thousand times,

He who conquers himself has the more glorious victory.

Buddhist personality types were first described in the text,

The Path to Purification,

By the Indian scholar Buddhaghosa,

Almost 1,

500 years ago.

These three main personality types are known as,

And they have two sides,

Yin and yang,

Greed,

Fear,

Anger,

Wisdom,

Confusion,

Balance.

Sometimes you also hear these talked about as grasping,

Aversion,

And delusion.

Now all three types,

And the six of them all together with the yin and the yang,

Aspects exist parallel to one another.

It is up to you to analyze and question yourself as to which category that you believe or feel that you fall into,

Which traits manifest the most in your thoughts and actions.

That's the self inquiry,

This path of exploration,

And I want to emphasize playful curiosity.

This is not an opportunity for shame and guilt,

Not an opportunity to whip yourself or blame those people that caused me to be this way.

It's not about that at all.

Now all of that is again delusion,

Which helps you understand which category you fall into.

So instead there's a playful curiosity.

Yeah,

What makes this form tick?

Why do I say and do the things I say and do?

You must also be aware of the fact that while judging your personality,

You must remain unbiased.

You will need to let go of all inhibitions and fear and not worry about the outcome.

None of these traits are evil.

None of these things are not supposed to be there.

That's a denial of reality.

Instead,

These are a part of our being.

We all have quirks and drawbacks as well as our positive attributes.

The path to purification wants that we allow our positive personality to take charge and guide the negative aspects at their bare minimum,

Keeping them sort of at bay,

Being aware of them.

It's not so much doing as a focusing on allowing the positive strengths aspects of our nature to take precedence,

To become more of the norm than always looking for the bad things,

The glass half-empty,

Focusing on that.

Darn it,

Why did I say that?

Why did I do that?

And then beating ourselves and just doing more and more and more of that.

Instead,

Focusing on what is the beauty?

What is the perfection?

What are the positive aspects that are born as a result of these other tendencies,

So to speak?

So,

The idea is to eventually release these negative aspects through awareness.

And as we progress as humans and achieve our fullest potential and realize our true nature.

So,

All of these different things,

Myers-Briggs,

Enneagram,

Multiphasic,

All these different personality exams and things like that usually come with some sort of a little test or a questionnaire so that you can kind of get a feel for,

I wonder which one I am?

Again,

Playful curiosity.

So,

In the spirit of playfulness,

I am going to ask you a few questions.

You don't have to jump up and answer them.

You don't even have to keep track.

Just know that all these things are out there and available to you.

But again,

It's just this openness to self-inquiry.

Alright,

Here we go.

So,

Play with me.

When you see a brand new,

Posh,

Expensive car driving down the road,

What do you think?

Do you think A,

Wow,

I want that.

B,

Why do people have to flaunt themselves so much?

Or C,

There is no way I can ever afford something that nice.

When you see a happy couple lost in each other,

What might be your thoughts?

A,

Will you be jealous and will inadvertently envy the two of them if you're not currently in a healthy relationship?

B,

It is so inappropriate for people to get this cozy in public.

You kids get a room.

Or C,

Do you feel somewhat dejected and lonely for not having someone special in your life?

But all the same,

I'll try to be happy for them.

Jack Kornfield used to say in this path of self-inquiry,

Notice what you notice.

Here's a good example.

When you go into a friend's house for the first time,

What is the first thing you notice?

Do you notice the handsome sub-zero refrigerator that you would love to have in your own kitchen?

B,

Do you notice the cluttered living room that would be much more welcoming if she got rid of a few chairs and rearranged all the rest of the furniture?

Or C,

You don't notice much at all and then when you go home you can't remember a single piece of furniture that she had.

After watching a movie with a partner or a friend,

You are most likely to comment,

A,

I love seeing movies by that director.

Let's get another one when we return this movie.

B,

I can't believe how badly they butchered this story from the book.

From now on,

It's only foreign films for me.

Or C,

Why were they shooting at that one guy?

And the last question,

In school you were usually,

A,

Chatting with your friends,

B,

Correcting the teacher,

Or C,

Doodling and daydreaming.

Okay,

So in the spirit of inquiry,

With this playful curiosity,

If any of these resonated with you and struck up perhaps an interest,

Now that you are homing in on your type,

You may be wondering,

How do I transform?

The founder of modern chemistry,

Antoine Lavoisier,

Said that nothing is lost,

Everything is simply transformed.

When we first start to recognize our personality type,

We sometimes don't like what we see.

None of these types sounds particularly romantic or flattering,

And to see ourselves clearly can feel sometimes discouraging and even a little bit scary.

Trying to reject or erase your underlying nature,

However,

Is a mistake.

We're not trying to get rid of ego.

It's not a demon.

None of these aspects of us are evil and need to be,

You know,

Run out of town on a rail.

That's a mistake.

That is a trap.

These types are not character flaws that you should blame yourself for.

They are intrinsic aspects of human nature that everyone experiences.

This is not a you problem.

This is just a human problem.

Each temperament has its unique strengths as well as its unique challenges,

And therefore the task for each temperament is different.

And this is also outlined in the document that I spoke of a few moments ago,

Written a thousand five hundred years ago,

Called the Visuddhimagga,

Or the path of purification.

So let's talk about the first one,

The greed or the grasping type.

This temperament will tend to see the good in others and promote harmony and generosity in relationships.

The task for the greed type is to learn to have a wise relationship with desire.

Instead of being compelled to act on every desire,

Everything that passes through the mind,

This type will need to learn how to tolerate discomfort,

How to watch the rise and fall of unwise desires without acting on them.

The recommended meditation is on impermanence.

Impermanence.

A friend of mine went to Europe,

And while he was there he said he would walk down the streets and look into all the windows,

And every window had more enticing and really cool awesome things that you couldn't find anywhere else,

And he could really feel that desire welling up inside of him.

A couple weeks ago,

Nakoya sent me an email with a picture of this cool device for hybrid meetings called an owl.

It has a 360-degree camera,

360-degree microphone,

360-degree speakers.

Oh,

The precious,

The precious.

I could feel it.

So I sat with it,

Purified the desire,

And then purchased it.

But the difference is,

Is I could purchase it with a clear and an open sensation,

Not with a grasping and a clinging.

So the next type,

Aversion,

Remember it's the Buddhist Macarena.

Everybody spends their life grasping,

Averting,

And we're trying to get people to,

You know,

See life with an open hand.

So we kind of got this Macarena going on here.

So the next type,

The aversion type,

Can be very discerning and insightful.

They care about justice,

Fairness,

And they care more about these things than self-interest.

They want to understand what's true and to communicate clearly.

They are not afraid of difficulty and act with integrity,

Even when it's hard to do.

These positive qualities are the flip side of the same coin.

They flow directly from the aversive nature,

Which can be harsh,

Judgmental,

Critical of others,

And even more critical of self.

They can get easily frustrated at the problems of the world and feel like every injustice is a battle that they must fight.

The task for the aversion type is to cultivate awareness of judgment in all of its forms and to let go of imperfections and appreciate moments of joy and spontaneity in everyday life.

The recommended meditation is meta-practice,

Which we will do at the end of our service today.

And the third type,

Delusion.

The deluded type has a natural ability to approach situations with a beginner's mind without assumptions.

This frame of mind gives rise to creativity,

Spontaneity,

And equanimity.

However,

The task for this type is to learn how to reel in their minds and pay attention to find a place of balance and steadiness.

The recommended meditation is study and discussion of the Dharma and to work closely with a teacher.

And this is a reminder of our lending library,

Which is always open.

And there's a beautiful exchange of the Dharma coming in and going out.

So understanding the different temperaments can help us get along better with others as well,

Because we're beginning to know ourselves.

And when we know ourselves,

When we release all these buttons,

No one can push them.

We spend all of our time blaming the person that pushed the button instead of thanking them for showing us the button we have.

Thank you.

I didn't know that was there.

So as we come to know ourselves,

We have friends and family members and co-workers who are perhaps boastful,

Prideful,

Who are overtly critical,

Who are disorganized.

Instead of getting upset at these people and the way they are,

We can appreciate that they too are struggling with their own nature in the same way that we struggle with our nature,

With our temperament,

With our conditioned patterns of speech and behavior.

As our development of self grows and our heart becomes less entangled,

We begin to discover a deeper truth about the self.

We do not have to improve ourselves.

We just have to let go of what is blocking our heart.

When our heart is free from the contractions of fear,

Anger,

Grasping,

And confusion,

The spiritual qualities that we have tried to cultivate manifest in us naturally.

They are our true nature and they spontaneously shine in our consciousness whenever we let go of the rigid structures of our identity,

Of the personality that has been built over the years.

Once spiritual faculties,

Awareness,

Understanding,

Compassion are awakened,

They take on a life of their own.

There comes a point when you no longer have to practice.

The practice is working you.

These become spiritual powers that fill us and move through us unasked,

Unbidden,

Un-efforted.

The pure,

Clear space of consciousness is naturally filled with peace,

Clarity,

Connectedness.

The greater spiritual qualities shine through when our fearful sense of self is released.

These qualities show our fundamental goodness,

Our true nature,

And our true home.

Thank you.

Reviews

Amazing. I need to listen multiple times. I can grasp the essence. Listening to practice I will do

Thank you that was very helpful 🙏😊