Do you experience any of these seven underlying tendencies?

Adapted talk given in Waldhaus Zentrum, Germany, summer of 2026.

Aug 11, 2026

Seven Underlying Tendencies

From a Dharma talk given at a retreat in the Waldhaus Buddhist Zentrum, near Koblenz, Germany. This edited and adapted version comes from the talk given in early August 2026.

Summary

This talk explores seven underlying tendencies that shape human consciousness

Pleasure-Seeking,
Reaction, Aversion and Unresolved Issues
Views,
Doubt,
Conceit (including superiority, inferiory and the ideal of equality, Pride
Existence/Becoming,
Ignoring/Ignorance.

The edited talk explores features of these tendencies, which grip our lives and relationships, and ways to dissolve them through clear seeing, reflection, meditation, and wise engagement in daily life.

Do you avoid hearing feedback about your latent tendencies?
Do you avoid seeing the presence of your tendencies within?
Do you avoid expressing your tendencies to others?

Seven Underlying Tendencies

The talk this afternoon falls into two areas.

The first area: underlying tendencies and how they influence the mind, consciousness, communication, and activity. The second area: a response to a regular and very appropriate question, “Is meditation really essential?”

Movement of Tendencies and Their Influence on Consciousness

With tendencies, we look at a movement that comes from within. That movement has a history. It lands on consciousness, which connects with something or someone—including oneself.

Two possibilities:

The tendency moves and influences consciousness, which has already landed on an object or person.

Or the tendency moves through the being and pushes consciousness onto something.

Important to get this clear from the beginning: a movement and a tendency impact consciousness, either by landing on what consciousness already holds or by driving consciousness toward some object.

As human beings, we live vulnerable to these tendencies. The Buddha, whom I regard as the supreme psychologist—restoring kindergarten—speaks about these tendencies and ways to work with them. That’s what I want to include in our exploration.

1. Pleasure as an Underlying Tendency

The first tendency: pleasure. Many people make a huge effort and spend a lot of money to maximise pleasure, to place pleasure at the centre of existence. Outwardly and inwardly, namely through desires and thinking, we keep moving in the same direction towards the seen, heard, smelt, tasted and touched. We deceive ourselves when we think we have a choice. The habit dominates the mind.

The underlying movement of pleasure keeps repeating. Due to conditions, it keeps pushing consciousness toward pleasant experiences. The tendency and the thoughts can move fast. The Buddha said he could not think of an analogy to match the speed of thought in consciousness, with a tendency behind it.

Sometimes the tendency arises so quickly that we repeat its long history without really knowing what’s going on.

2. Reactions, Aversion, and Unresolved Issues

A second primary area: reaction. Here something unresolved stays active. We keep repeating the same way of viewing and interpreting an issue. Again and again, we judge in the same way, then wonder:

“Why do I still feel like this?”

“Why am I still stuck with this aversion, this judgmental mind?”

The underlying tendency dominates. It decides the way of looking. We might shift perceptions a little, make small adjustments, but the powerful tendency—toward aversion, reaction, judgment—stays strong for years, sometimes for a lifetime.

We don’t enter life with a clean sheet or start off free from tendencies. They come into existence with us.

If you doubt that, reflect on twins, your own children, or any babies you remember. The differences jump out. Different babies show different tendencies. They come into the world with them. Whether that begins at conception, in past lives, in DNA—whichever view one takes—by birth the tendencies already function. Confirmation lies in the differences between babies in the same home, including twins.

3. Conceit, Pride, Arrogance, Self-righteousness

Another significant tendency: conceit. In stronger form, pride; stronger still, arrogance; stronger again, self-righteousness. Here the “self,” the “I,” keeps arising.

We often don’t realise that conceit moves in three directions:

Superiority — the obvious one, with all its consequences.
Inferiority — another ego trip, and equally unwholesome.
Equality — surprisingly, also linked to conceit.

With superiority, we know the pattern: someone looks down on others, full of absolutist views and perhaps emotional charge or a cold attitude. We often stand on the receiving end of this.

Yet inferiority also belongs to the same conceit family. In this ego trip, one feels low self-worth—not good enough, not successful enough. Others appear better off. Self-blame comes in. We regularly put ourselves down. That repetition becomes a tendency, reinforced by the thought, “Others are better than me.” Over time, the view hardens: “I am not good enough.” The “I” and the tendency fuse. We act as if that belief holds absolute truth.

Then the climate of “equality” appears. Society loves to speak about equality, to work toward equality, but often this functions as a romantic ideal. In that ideal, the mind points a finger: “You cause inequality.” Underneath, a voice whispers, “I know better. I stand superior to you.” The ideal of equality can reinforce inequality. The desire for equality becomes a romantic ideal that feeds a strong tendency.

Real life confirms diversity. Even in this hall, no equality exists in the strict sense. We might subscribe to noble values, yet clarity, skills and knowledge vary. Some people carry certain tendencies; some have dissolved some or all of them.

Our exploration: to recognise which tendencies predominate in our own life. We need not tackle all seven at once. If just one strong tendency shows itself, we can focus on that one and work mindfully and carefully, with the intention to change the conditions that give rise to the tendency. When we understand how to weaken and dissolve one tendency, the same principle applies to others. After all, they remain only tendencies—subject to change.

“Only” sounds like an understatement, but still: they can change.

Sometimes people say to me on retreat, “Christopher, we come for the tasty, nutritious food,” which we gratefully receive every day. Others say, “We come for your humour.” You are not hearing much of that today. Some say they come for the practice. We do not even come here with a shared purpose.

Time, Patience, and Commitment

We have seven primary tendencies and have looked at three or four already. Working with them calls for quiet, persistent focus. One can’t attend a retreat, sit for a few days, and then expect to walk out completely free of tendencies. That view doesn’t match reality.

I remember teaching retreats back in the 1980s at the Royal Thai Monastery in Bodh Gaya. The Dalai Lama remained more accessible then, not yet the global “Hollywood star.” I invited him to speak to meditators. I didn’t tell them in advance. He simply walked in. I offered him a chair; he said, “No, no, I’ll sit on the floor.” He gave a talk and answered questions. We enjoyed a very appreciative hour.

One point he made stayed with me. Speaking of practice, he said, “You really have to give it time.” He suggested giving three years of steady practice to something important. Then he added, with a smile, “If the practice doesn’t work, try Christianity.”

That kind of generosity of spirit appears often in the Buddhist tradition; not many traditions would say something like that.

So, we need willingness, commitment, and dedication to work with an area where the tendency does not support our life. That tendency may reach back to conception or before. This presents a challenge. Blaming other people or the past can distract. It can function as an escape route. We need to take responsibility for our relationship to the present condition and practise diligently.

Using the Gaps When a Tendency Falls Away

Remember: a tendency does not operate every moment. It cannot. If it ruled us 24 hours a day, we couldn’t function at all.

Because the tendency sometimes drops away, space opens. That space can serve for reflection:

When does the tendency show itself?

What triggers it quickly and easily?

We need the impermanence of the tendency in order to know the space without it. From that space, we look back and see more clearly:

Where does this tendency appear?

With whom?

Under what conditions?

Then we go further. We not only recognise the tendency and where it lands, but also see where it lands strongest:

At work?

At home?

With neighbours?

With family?

Upon groups of people?

Upon oneself?

We also ask: does it arise at a particular time of day, in certain circumstances, before or during specific encounters?

If we know, “When I meet this person, this tendency might arise,” we can prepare. Without preparation, we walk in with the old mindset, and then we give the person authority to “stick a finger down our throat.” If we forget to prepare, we also forget to “shut our mouth,” or close our mouth tight.

Preparation may require:

Some deep breathing
A clear focus
A quiet determination to look the person in the eye
Not lowering the head
Not glancing around nervously
Not scratching the head in confusion

All these little gestures often signal doubt, irritation, or fear. They show our lack of readiness.

We need to prepare so we can see another clearly without the tendency taking over. We might repeat this preparation a hundred times, often feeling, “One step forward, three steps back.” Please don’t give up. That only shows the tendency has a strong grip. Wanting, fearing, desiring, reacting—these forces run deep.

Awareness holds more power. Dedication and willingness to take that next step carry more strength than the tendency.

Views

Another important theme: views. In the Noble Eightfold Path, the first factor, “right view,” means ethical, clear, wise, skilful, proportionate and necessary.

If the view constantly refers to “the other,” we get nowhere. The view leaps over oneself and lands on the other: their behaviour, their faults, their attitude. The more we fixate on them, the more authority we give them. We manufacture images, stories, and explanations about them. Then the other seems to hold all the power.

In effect, we say, “I have no authority. I hand it over to you because I keep thinking and projecting onto you.” Their behaviour then appears to continue unchanged, maybe for years, partly because we keep feeding their image.

So, in this exploration, our views matter enormously.

Doubt

Another tendency: doubt. Sometimes doubt helps. A healthy doubt can sound like, “What on earth am I doing with my life?” That question can shake us up in a good way.

But if the same unresolved doubt hangs around from our 20s into our 30s, then into our 40s, it grows. This tendency to doubt takes root, affecting our lives in significant ways.

Healthy doubt brings deep questioning without fear or anxiety. Many people know from experience that a doubt about something once became the spark for real change. In that sense, doubt supports awakening. In the monastic tradition, a saying circulates:

“Small doubt, small awakening.
Medium doubt, medium awakening.
Big doubt, big awakening.”

These one-liners can carry a degree of potency.

A tendency toward doubt, however, undermines authority. It pulls us back and forth:

“Shall I do this?”
“Shall I do that?”
Then friends give advice:
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
“If I were you, I’d do this.”

That person isn’t you, but still the doubt multiplies. Now we juggle three or four opinions. We go back and forth. Turmoil grows.

Later we might tell our therapist or our lover (often not our mother, in case she worries), “I went through so much doubt and confusion, but I looked at it carefully, talked it through, and now I’ve made my choice.” Impressive language—“I made my choice.”

But did we? Or did the mind simply go with the option we thought about the most? I don’t believe in “freedom of choice” in the naïve sense. Usually, many thoughts circle around three or four possibilities; at some point, one stream of thought gains the most mental weight, and we call that “my choice.”

A few weeks later, the old tendency to doubt creeps back:

“Oh my God, what have I done?”

“I thought my partner was out of touch. I left him, leaving myself alone. I hear he started dating 48 hours later.” Then the doubts return in full force.

So doubt can haunt a human being. Be mindful of what you choose.

6. Existence, Becoming

Another common tendency: wanting something to exist or to become.

We want something to exist in our life: a person, a role, an achievement, a possession. This tendency to become somebody rises again and again. Focus narrows around what we want or who we want to become. Consciousness fills up with this tendency. Little space remains to look around, beyond or deeper. This can go on for years or decades.

Meanwhile, much of the rest of life gets neglected or ignored. We run on a treadmill of wanting and becoming.

King Yama, the Lord of Death, roams about, pointing his finger every day at people, indicating their last day on Earth. In monastic life, reminders of death come often.

King Yama doesn’t care whether we are young or old, fat or thin, American, English, German, Indian or Israeli. For example, the super-elite, the billionaire class, ageing day by day, knock on the doors of death while thinking themselves clever for plotting to control the world. Could anything confirm such ignoring of reality?

Death ridicules their efforts. Like everybody else, they cannot control the ageing, dying and death of their own vulnerable existence. Most will lie dead, buried and forgotten within the next two or three decades.

In the Dharma hall in the monasteries, Dharma teachers will point a finger toward the Sangha. “Is this your last day? Maybe your last day … or yours … or yours.” Then we think, “Perhaps the teacher knows something.” Usually not. We receive a reminder that our life can end any day.

A little reflection on death works as a powerful practice. We ask:

“Do I really want a life so heavily ruled by tendencies that they block the chance to see other dimensions of existence—including the birthless and deathless?”

Ignoring and Ignorance

The last of the seven: avijjā. Often translated as ignorance, the concept also means the tendency to ignore.

We can ask, “Who or what do I ignore in my life?” Sometimes the most serious ignoring comes from not even knowing what we ignore. We don’t know. That’s why we need quietness, stillness, walks, reflections. Out of that, something may emerge that we had previously ignored.

Ignoring can also relate to something very recent and concrete. Signals come in:

Thoughts
Feelings
Body sensations

We carry on as if nothing influences us. For example, we ignore continued smoking; we ignore junk food; we ignore the person who needs attention. Naming these areas forms the first step toward change.

If we catch signals early, we can act. Doctors, nurses, and body specialists repeat a central message: “Do not ignore certain signals. Get them tested. See what steps or treatments can help. Don’t leave it too late.”

We need a similar approach with ourselves and, gently, with those we care about.

Working with Tendencies in Daily Life

So, with these tendencies, we look at:

Changes when they appear and when they fade
Primary times when they come on strong
Time of day, location, energy level, company, and so on

Preparation becomes possible when we anticipate a trigger. Then we can ask, “Can I engage in this situation without the tendency running the show?” Afterwards, we reflect when some calm returns, rather than in a state of confusion.