← Robina Courtin

Afflictive Emotions (7 March 2008)

Robina Courtin · 7 March 2008 · 1 h 44 min · Tse Chen Ling via Internet Archive

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  • 8:01

    In other words, a really simple way to put goes on every day that ought to be a very powerful guide. For us to work on our minds is to say like this, like I just said, there's the outside world, the people, the things, the weather, the events, the food, the up, the down, the mountain, the leaves, the toilet, whatever's out there, the people, and then there's you. You think about it. That's the universe, isn't it? For each one of us individually. There's the world dancing in front of me and then there's me. Okay?

  • 11:16

    And that's what we have to find out. And if it feels difficult, then it means you have one of the samsaric states of mind. It's really simple logic. And the fundamental one is called ignorance, whose very nature, and now we're getting to it, is fear. Its primordial nature is fear. And then it gives rise to the other ones, whose nature is all fear. Attachment. And then when that's thwarted, aversion. And then all the other variations, anger, jealousy and the rest.

  • 17:18

    Such that... When you have rid your mind of them, and you know, using Buddha's terminology, that's when psychologically speaking you've realised emptiness, got insight into how things actually do exist, as the Buddha would put it, such that when you've achieved this, as Lama Zopa puts it, there is no fear. Now that seems inconceivable to us. And again, as we've pointed out often enough, one of the crucial differences in Buddha's psychology is that he's got a much more radical...

  • 32:10

    Ordinary gross level, fear of thieves and fear of rapists and fear of guns and fear of not getting sleep and fear of the husband leaving you, fear of being fat, fear of being ugly. I mean, you just name it, you know. Fear is the taste in our mouth every day because it is simply the nature of these unhappy states of mind. Don't think you're abnormal. Join the club, okay? It's called Saṃsāra. One

  • 40:44

    pain coming and you have a fear of death and those things are you know if you have an illness and you know that when you wake up in the morning you're going to have pain all day or you have some terminal illness so how would you define this fear that's a good one that you're encouraging us to have how would you define that Lama Tsongkhapa have how do you define it how would you call it how would it feel like no i'm not saying that it would it's good to have the fear but i'm saying that um

0:01 Who needed a cushion? We'll move forward a bit. Yeah, move forward. Let's squeeze right up. Come sit here. Sit here. Report an error

0:12 Don't be afraid. Yeah, it's fear. It's not fear. Report an error

0:19 Okay, so move so that other people can't get past you. So come on, darling. Move right. Come over here. Squeeze up. Come on. Hi. Report an error

0:29 And just get chairs in the middle of the aisle or something. you. Thank you. Report an error

0:33 you want to be right here? Report an error

0:41 There's a place here then. One more here. Come on. One more place here. Two more places here. Three more places here. Look. Report an error

1:00 One more here, get another cushion here, come on. Why are you closing all the stuff behind you and there are people sitting there? Take the screen away. Just let people squeeze behind there. Move the screen, Miriam. Squeeze everything over in the corner and then just sit behind here. Just move the throne away as far as you can. Report an error

1:22 Move it back. Report an error

1:33 Grab a few more cushions here or chairs, whichever you prefer. Bring some chairs. Bring Report an error

1:43 some chairs Report an error

1:53 down as well, easier. some more cushions back here. Report an error

1:55 Shantideva, Shantideva, Shantideva, Shantideva, Do you want a Report an error

2:15 I'll put this here anyway. No, you want a cushion? Then there's seats for three more people on the floor here too. Cushions. going to be right. Report an error

2:26 Nobody wants the chairs. Okay, three more for the floor here. Okay, Report an error

2:37 can you all hear me now? Okay. Report an error

3:01 All right. Report an error

3:04 People way back there. Come on up here. Bring a chair if you want. Bring chairs if you want. Report an error

3:21 Okay. Okay. So it said fear on that note, didn't it? It said fear on that poster. That's interesting. Well, I'll sing a little prayer to start, remembering that the prayer is just focusing us to express in our minds if these thoughts make sense to you, make them your thoughts. I'm sitting here, I think. Report an error

3:43 You know, to listen to Buddha's take on this stuff, to hear the Buddha about how he talks about the human mind, how to deal with it, how to develop our qualities, how to lessen our neuroses, that's what he's on about. Report an error

3:55 And I'm sitting here to listen to this so that I can take some tools away to apply in my life to my mind, so that in turn, even more marvelous, I can also benefit others, help them do the same. So think, this is why we're sitting here. Report an error

4:10 Not a single little prayer that expresses that. And if any of you think you're Buddhist already, then just reiterate your reliance upon the Buddha and his techniques. Report an error

4:22 Chodam Chokhe Choknam Lajan Chobadu Dagni Khyap Suchi Dagichon Yen Gipes Tonam Ki Drolapen Chir Sanghe Dvapasho Sanghe Chodam Chokhe Choknam Lajan Chobadu Dagni Khyap Suchi Dagichon Yen Gipes Tonam Ki Drolapen Chir Sanghe Dvapasho Report an error

4:46 It's really interesting, you know, and we mightn't always... Report an error

5:10 See it like this because I think it's really hard to sometimes see, to hear the Buddha in a very down-to-earth way. We love to make him all holy and walk around with long faces and being mindful and everything, thinking we're being good Buddhists, right? But the point is, the point is to see our minds. And so what they say, what the Buddha says, you know, he calls this suffering that we all know about, fears, jealousy, depression, anxiety, worries, low self-esteem, you know, all of this, which we think of as kind of real life and we think of as psychology. Report an error

5:41 Well, he calls it saṃsāra. So do not mystify that word. All he means by being in saṃsāra is doing the daily garbage that poor old demented minds do. I mean, there's different levels of suffering. We can see this. He talks about suffering. So we might not be in prison right now. We might not be living on the street. We might not have a husband who just left us or a broken leg or about cancer. Report an error

6:05 Some of us might, which is what we tend to think of as suffering. Most of us maybe have a home to go to and something reasonable and a house and a few dollars in the bank. So, you know, in ordinary worldly terms we don't have suffering. But this is the heart of what suffering really is, Buddha says. And even being caught up in this level of saṃsāra, the day-to-day neuroses, is the source in the future of the gross kind of suffering. Report an error

6:29 So for the Buddha, beginning to see our own minds and get in touch with these neuroses, this is the beginning, I mean the real heart beginning of practice. Of course, the first level is you control your body and speech. At least you don't harm others. But that's just your preliminary. That's priming you. That's getting you ready to do the actual job of looking at your mind, understanding this crazy saṃsāra that is an internal experience. Report an error

6:55 There's nothing outside. We think of saṃsāra as some sexy place out there where you're allowed to have sex and drugs and rock and roll. But you've got to give up for boring old nirvāṇa. It's a very cliché way to think about it. Being in saṃsāra means if you have attachment, if you have anger, if you have depression, then you're in saṃsāra, okay? It even goes to more subtle levels. Report an error

7:16 But this is the stuff that's the day-to-day stuff. And even this sounds easy. We know these words. It's not complicated, you know. But we can see how hard it is to recognize our part of it. Because this type of suffering arises, as we know, when something out there comes along and triggers it. A person. Report an error

7:48 they, the various states of mind we have. Technically speaking, it's very simple to say it like this. But experientially, it's enormously difficult to see it this way, even though it's easy to say the words. Report an error

8:01 In other words, a really simple way to put goes on every day that ought to be a very powerful guide. For us to work on our minds is to say like this, like I just said, there's the outside world, the people, the things, the weather, the events, the food, the up, the down, the mountain, the leaves, the toilet, whatever's out there, the people, and then there's you. Report an error

8:26 You think about it. That's the universe, isn't it? For each one of us individually. There's the world dancing in front of me and then there's me. Okay? Well me, me is the one we're trying to talk about here. And what does that mean? It means my response to that stuff dancing in front of me. It sounds easy. It sounds simple. Report an error

8:47 There's the eye, these eyes that do the looking, and then there's the stuff you look at, isn't it? That's it. It's real simple. And if you say, there's a cup and there's me, you're not stupid and will get confused about, oh, where's me and where's the cup? You'll say, there's the cup and there's me. But when it comes to a person being mean to you, where's the problem? Oh, it's not me. It's there. I'm sorry you're wrong. Report an error

9:08 This is the problem. This is the part that is kind of brain-splitting for us. Because the nature of these neuroses, of these samsaric states of mind, is to be completely hooked by the thing out there. We know there is a red cup out there. We know there's a person saying words out there. But if the words are, Robina, you're a creep, we lose all our common sense. Report an error

9:44 We cannot possibly see our part in that. We can't see how our mind is doing some interpreting. We can't see that. We can see it when it comes to saying there's a red cup. We realise we have a thought in the mind that says there is a red cup. And if you've got good eyesight you can say that's a valid opinion because indeed other people would agree it's a red cup. Report an error

10:04 But when we say there's a problem out there, no, no, no. Buddha would say no, that might be true. That person might be a creep. They might have a lot of problems in their mind. They might be a really crummy cup. They might be ugly. They might be rude. But that's not your problem, Buddha says. That's their problem. Your problem is your view of that person. Report an error

10:23 And that's the part we have to look at. Technically, it's easy to say it. But you check your life. We ask about what's your problem. We'll say it's that person, that thing. She did this. She said that. He did this. They did that. He is this. She is that. But everybody agrees, we'll say. Everybody has a problem with that person, we'll say. Report an error

10:41 That is proof. That I am right in my assessment of that object. Well, you might be right. The person might be a creep. And everybody on earth might think they're a problem. But that still is not the issue here. And this is the part that's difficult. This is the part that's impossible for us. This is the part that makes us go crazy. But this is what practice is. So it's sort of like, it's true. That person out there did a rude thing. Report an error

11:12 Yep, you're right. Then what's your problem now? And that's what we have to find out. And if it feels difficult, then it means you have one of the samsaric states of mind. It's really simple logic. And the fundamental one is called ignorance, whose very nature, and now we're getting to it, is fear. Its primordial nature is fear. And then it gives rise to the other ones, whose nature is all fear. Attachment. Report an error

11:42 And then when that's thwarted, aversion. And then all the other variations, anger, jealousy and the rest. Report an error

12:03 else we don't really care i there are rapists living next door you don't care because they haven't raped you or your people speaking this is true There are lots of horrible people on this earth, lying and stealing and killing. But you know, as long as they're not lying and stealing and killing in relation to you, we don't really care. Report an error

12:21 And this is a simple fact, okay? This Report an error

12:26 is a person in front of you doing ugly things. And you're responding to it in an unhappy way. That's simple, logical proof that you have a problem. Report an error

12:39 It's very simple. It's not being judgmental. It's a simple, logical statement. This is the way you work with Buddha's stuff. We're not saying the other person doesn't have a problem, but that's not the point here. That's the thing that's so hard for us to hear. They might have a problem, but that's not your problem. Report an error

12:59 Let's look at yours. And the simple fact is, if you're agitated, offended, hurt, upset, irritated, unhappy in response to that, that is the simple proof you have a problem. That's it. No argument. That's it. And your job is to identify that. That's it. Of course, you might have to choose. Maybe it's impossible to be around this person. Maybe they are really such a maniac that you aren't able to bear it. Report an error

13:29 That's fine. Don't blame them. But just think, I can't cope with this one. I'm leaving. See you later. Report an error

13:37 Because if you can't cope with it, it's like the mountain. If you can't get up that mountain, you don't blame the mountain. You just realize you can't cope with it. So you stop and go back. Report an error

13:48 But the point is, the whole point, and this is the initial stages of practice, this is the essence of Buddhist practice, being your own therapist. is learning to identify, to label accurately that thing that's going on in your mind that is the source of your pain. It's really, really simple. Like I said, technically simple to speak it, unbelievably difficult to apply it. Report an error

14:14 We all know, you know. Because the nature of these unhappy states of mind is that they're violently attracted to the outside object. Now, Report an error

14:32 like I said, the person might be a maniac. run at one million miles an hour and hook into the outside object. So all we're seeing is the outside object. All we're seeing is... Report an error

14:53 That is not the discussion here. And that's the thing that's really interesting to try and hear a thousand times. It is not the point when we come to this level of practice what the other person's problem is. That isn't the issue. That's not the issue. It is the issue if you need to help them, which is the compassion wing. If you want to help this person with their problem, then indeed you do need to know what's going on. Report an error

15:17 They are your business. But the wisdom wing, they are not your business. You are your business. What is happening in your mind is your business. So the root delusion, this term delusion refers to all these unhappy states of mind, which we in our culture assume are normal parts of us, that we'd be abnormal if we didn't have them. Report an error

15:38 Buddha is the exact opposite. He says we're abnormal because we've got them, which implies we can be free of them, which is the purpose of being your own therapist as far as the Buddha is concerned, to identify your neuroses. And slowly, slowly, one baby incremental step at a time to rid your mind of them. So this fear business is very interesting. Report an error

16:01 We experience fear. We have fears in different ways. We all see this. And again, we usually look at the object. We all have attachment. For some people it's bodies. For some it's money. For some it's power. For some it's need to be loved. So we identify the problem usually in terms of the object. Buddha's not concerned with the object. Report an error

16:18 He's concerned with the state of mind. So fear is fear is fear. It doesn't matter whether it's fear of flights or fear of heights or fear of ugly people or fear of going too fast in the car. It doesn't matter what it is. The point is in every case all the time we have to get in touch with what's happening inside here. Report an error

16:41 That's again the path that's difficult. So fear, why fear? What are we afraid of we should think? This is the way Buddha says it. And of course it's tough, it's hard to see it. But we've got to start somewhere. We've got to start with the words. And then each day we put meat on those bare bones until eventually it becomes our own experience. Report an error

17:04 You've got to describe the recipe first. Even if you can't make the cake, you've got to have the right words. So Buddha would say that the very nature of all these unhappy states of mind is fear. Such that... When you have rid your mind of them, and you know, using Buddha's terminology, that's when psychologically speaking you've realised emptiness, got insight into how things actually do exist, as the Buddha would put it, such that when you've achieved this, as Lama Zopa puts it, there is no fear. Report an error

17:44 Now that seems inconceivable to us. And again, as we've pointed out often enough, one of the crucial differences in Buddha's psychology is that he's got a much more radical... Report an error

17:55 what we can achieve psychologically. Report an error

18:00 much more radical view of how much we can work on this mind of ours and he has this very radical view that distinguishes absolutely between what we would simply call the positive states of mind and the negative ones so you know we know we have love kindness generosity patience forgiveness compassion we know those ones and we Thank you very much. Whether they're inside ourself or whether we're on the receiving end. Report an error

18:25 We know they're the nice ones. Then we have anger, jealousy, fear, depression and all the rest and we know they're the mean ones, the unhappy ones and the less of those the better please. We know these words. Well this is the point, the radical point the Buddha's making which is a bit of a shock to us in our contemporary culture. He makes this absolute distinction between these states of mind and says that the negative ones are not permanent. Report an error

18:48 They're not innately part of us. They do not belong. Report an error

19:06 if you assume anger is natural, it would be unnatural to get rid of it, wouldn't it? If you assume jealousy and fears and depression are natural, you'd be nuts to try and get rid of them. So just by saying this casual throw-off lines we have in the West, oh well it's natural, we're all born this way, what we're really saying is, this is who I am, I'm stuck with it, what to do? Report an error

19:28 What a depressing point of view. The Buddha makes this absolute distinction between them and says we can rid our minds completely of them and become these astonishing, marvelous, kind, wise, loving, fearless, courageous, compassionate beings. So when we hear those words, we hear religion. So we go, oh yeah, la-di-da. Do not hear religion, please. Hear psychology. Hear life. Report an error

19:54 Down to earth, in your face, life. Because that's what we're dealing with here. So that if it's true that the neuroses are not at the core of my being and I can get rid of them, oh my God, what an amazing statement, then I'd better recognize them, hadn't I? So I can identify them and extract them. Report an error

20:19 This is what practice is. It's simple words. Hear my words. These words are not complicated. A ten-year-old can understand these words. But putting life in them, putting meat on these bones, as I said, is kind of hard. But you've got to start somewhere, at least with the right words. And then you just plod along, day, month, year, life after life. Long-term view, you know. Working on it. Report an error

20:22 This is what practice is. Report an error

20:47 We all know practice makes perfect. So we understand that process. If we were talking about learning math here or learning cake making, we'd all be gung-ho. We'd be prepared to stumble and make mistakes and pick ourselves up and keep doing it, knowing that practice would make perfect. But it's the same here, working on our mind. The trouble is that the pain of the fears is so hysterical. Report an error

21:08 We don't have the patience to bear it. We are frantic like junkies to make it go away. So we hear that Buddha's got some methods. Then we go home and then we go next day, oh, I tried to meditate, it didn't work. Like, I tried to understand E equals MC squared, I couldn't get it. I mean, plain stupid, but that's how we treat spiritual practice. And the reason is because of the nature of the very delusions themselves, which is fearful. We are too terrified of them. Report an error

21:37 We are afraid of the fear. It's too painful for us. We are just desperate to make it all go away. So one of the first things we have to learn to do... Is learn to accept the pain of these states of mind. Accept the fears. Accept the pain. This is the part that makes it so difficult for us. Because it's sort of like you're lost. You're completely lost. You're freaking out. You're lost. And you haven't got a map. Report an error

22:04 You can almost argue you've got reason to be fearful, haven't you? But if you're still lost but you've got a map, well you don't have reason to be fearful because you know eventually you'll find your way. Are you hearing my point here? So you're still lost, but you've got a way out. Well, that's the approach here. For a person who really has listened to Buddha's teachings and takes them on in their own life, and that's your call, no one has to, and it's individual choice. Report an error

22:28 But if you've looked into the Buddha's deal and you like his approach and you've got some confidence that it's a decent map for you to follow, then you can learn to be brave in the face of being lost and being full of the anger and depression and jealousy because you've got a way out. Report an error

22:43 But we're such junkies, like I said, we want to be out now. But it's irrational because you can't build, Rome wasn't built overnight, whatever they say. But it's because it's dealing with our fears, it's hard to bear. But that's the first, one of the first stages of practice is having the courage to bear the pain, knowing that you're working on it every day and slowly, slowly, slowly you'll find your way out of it. Report an error

23:11 So it's sort of like learning to love the garbage, learning to love your anger, learning to love the fears and the anxiety and the panic and the jealousy. I'm not kidding, I promise. But that takes a lot of courage. Report an error

23:26 So how is it that all these delusions are rooted in fear? Why fear? What's all that about? I know it sounds so abstract to us because we don't get this deeper view of the Buddha. He says it's because we have this belief in an intrinsic self. Report an error

23:44 These are the words for it, okay? These are the words. We don't get it. We don't go, oh, I see, that's why I'm afraid. Oh, how silly of me. I must not believe in the intrinsic I. Boom, no fear. Doesn't work like that. But that's the reason. And that all the delusions from there on, this primordial one is the root. Report an error

24:04 They call it the root delusion. And it's labeled simply ignorance, ma-ripa, unawareness. Rigpa is awareness, ma is the negation. So it simply means unawareness, but it's this primordial. I mean primordial in the sense that we can't even identify it. We can't even identify the emotion that it is. It's so profound within us. It's absolutely in the bones of our being. And all the others, attachment, anger, pride and the rest, are like offshoots of it. Report an error

24:37 So Report an error

24:41 even once we understand intellectually this kind of simple... Psychological structure, this simple psychological makeup of our neuroses. There's the root delusion or negative state of mind, named ignorance, which is this absolute assumption of a self-existent, intrinsic, real, findable, pointable meanness, separate from all the yous out there. Report an error

25:08 Having that gives rise to attachment, this huge bottomless pit of neediness. Report an error

25:29 working effectively day to day you know that's the one that is there at the default mode this i mean attachment's hard enough to see because it's there every split second in our mind there's this primordial assumption i'm missing something Report an error

25:46 therefore it's this constant frantic search something such that I think when I get it, it'll assuage the pain, it'll alleviate the pain, it'll calm the panic. It's like we're constantly spending all our day allaying the panic. Getting the next taste, the next smell, the next cake, the next person, the next green light, the people praising us, things going nicely. That's what attachment does every second. Report an error

26:17 Every second craving to get what it wants through the five senses. And that's what we mean by happiness. When we have to some extent a day when we got most of what we wanted. That's what we mean by happiness. And then what arises the split second that it is thwarted, and that's a thousand times a day, is what's called aversion. Report an error

26:36 At the gross level it's called anger. Or for a person who's more internalized, it's called depression and hopelessness. But the state of mind is aversion. And this attachment and aversion are working absolutely hand in hand. You're almost as if you can't separate them. And they're going a million miles an hour and they're happening a million times a day. We're running frantically between them. Report an error

26:58 These are all the offshoot even of the most primordial one. The ego grasping, known colloquially, ego grasping, maripa, ignorance, primordial mistaken sense of self. Report an error

27:12 So then the gross levels of jealousy then and the pride and all the manipulating, the wish to harm others and the vindictiveness and all that stuff, they're all the offshoots of all this aversion. Depending, for many people don't think they're angry, but you might say, oh I'm frustrated, I'm irritated, I'm annoyed, I'm depressed. Report an error

27:31 Well, they're all variations of the state of mind called aversion, which is the bare state of mind beneath what we call anger. A person who voluntarily expresses it out just has it in that particular way. A person who goes in, in depression and hopelessness and kind of this inertia, it's also anger but it's internalised. Report an error

27:50 You're the object instead of someone else. One is more volatile, one is more inert. But the point is when we start to see our minds, we recognise the state of mind beneath all of them is aversion. Aversion, the simple word aversion, which is the exact flip side of attachment. So the energy of attachment, in general terms, the energy is like excitement, anticipation, wanting, needy, which causes things to look lovely or exciting. Report an error

28:17 We anticipate getting them. Believing when I get it, I'll get happy. That's attachment, generally speaking. And then when it doesn't get what it wants, or it gets what it doesn't want, the attachment is instantly gone and turned into aversion. Irritation, frustration, annoyance, panic. Oh my God, this can't be like this. This shouldn't be this way. And the more we get inside our mind, the more we can see this panic, this fear. Report an error

28:43 We're at the edge of it the whole time. And all we're trying to do is allay it. Allay it. Put it aside. Get that next thing. Get the next smell. Get the next taste. Desperate, frantic, to keep that panic at bay. Because if you look into strong anger, if you look into people's eyes, when you see really raging angry people, check their eyes. Report an error

29:02 They are in a complete state of panic. Their eyes wide with fear. Paranoid. Look at a dog, you This is how the delusions are. This is what Buddha means by Saṃsāra. Report an error

29:18 You know, of course, in our culture, we think it's only if you're on the outer edge of it very extremely that you have a mental problem. The rest of us are normal. Buddha's got a more radical, expansive view. He says we're all mentally ill. It's just a question of degree, that's all, which is kind of a shocking point, but this is what he's saying. And the nature of all of them, as I said, is fear, panic, anxiety. Report an error

29:41 They're variations. We can see some have more, some have less. The thing even we call instinct for survival, we give it capital letters and we say it's a scientific truth. When you're attacked, fear arises and we say we need that fear otherwise we'll all lie down and die or something. But Buddha just calls it ego grasping. It's a great example of the arising of this sleeping lion called ego grasping because it doesn't manifest in a gross way. Report an error

30:08 This root delusion is there beneath the others. What's manifesting day to day is the attachment, the nigginess, the anger, the irritation, the annoyance, the depression. You understand? They're all the symptoms of this primordial one. It's only when something very fierce happens, like a car nearly crashes into you, when the very strong fear arises, the very strong panic comes, the heart beats and everything. Report an error

30:36 Well, that's what they call instinct for survival. Buddha simply calls it ego grasping. That's the symptom of the root delusion. Again, such that if you have removed it from your mind, there would not be fear in the face of that car crash, that drowning, that person nearly killing you with a gun, the loud noise or whatever it might be that causes us to have fear. Report an error

31:00 So it's just interesting, psychologically speaking, to understand from the Buddhist point of view, that all these normal daily ways we experience of all the panics and worries and fears and anxieties, they're all variations of the same thing. They're all variations of fear. Just depends on how strong, isn't it? Fear of the things that won't happen. Fear of the things that will happen. You check us. We leave in anticipation of all the things we want, which is attachment. Report an error

31:26 We look at the panic and fear to think it mightn't happen. Then all the panic and fear of the bad things happening. So most of the time we can see these delusions, we're living in our fantasy heads. We're not dealing with reality at all. And we can see fear, anxiety is right at the heart of all of them. We can see it, we can see it. Report an error

31:44 We're all riddled with fear. Report an error

31:58 engage in life in case this in case that i mean we can see we're living in fear of course the more we get the more we more we have in this life the more fears we're going to Report an error

32:10 Ordinary gross level, fear of thieves and fear of rapists and fear of guns and fear of not getting sleep and fear of the husband leaving you, fear of being fat, fear of being ugly. I mean, you just name it, you know. Fear is the taste in our mouth every day because it is simply the nature of these unhappy states of mind. Report an error

32:27 Don't think you're abnormal. Join the club, okay? It's called Saṃsāra. One Report an error

32:38 of the things already I'm pointing out here is it's normal to be abnormal, okay? So stop thinking you're abnormal. Accept that you are crazy. Accept that you're deluded. Accept that you have fears. Accept that you're neurotic. This is really the first step. Because if you live in denial, and then when you do realize you've got fears, then you feel bad about it and feel guilty like as if you shouldn't have. No, you're in saṃsāra. Report an error

33:00 You should have fears. It's normal. It's how it is. It's abnormal not to have fears, unless you realize emptiness and really done all the work. So it's normal. So already you can relax. And I think really this is not kidding. Even if we talk at this level only, we've gained something, I think. That, you know, it's sort of like bad enough you're angry. Report an error

33:19 But, you know, what happens to us is we get angry about being angry. Bad enough you have fears, but then we have fears about having fears and that we shouldn't have fears. Bad enough you're jealous. So we make it double trouble and then we just go spiralling down into complete insanity. We lose the plot. Report an error

33:36 So part of the thing we have to develop, and I'm really not kidding, is this enormous courage to accept where you're at. Have a good sound assessment. It's like if you're trying to assess where you're at. You want to go off to Weight Watchers. There's no point in thinking you're thinner than you are and getting all over excited. There's no point in thinking you're fatter than you are and getting all depressed. Report an error

33:55 You've got to be realistic. You've got to see the facts. What is it? Where am I at here? What's the status quo? Then you can apply the antidotes. Same here. You have to recognise, OK, I've got attachment, I've got anger, bit of jealousy, lot of this, some of that, out of control here, lousy mouth, crummy this, whatever it might be. Report an error

34:11 You've got to be realistic. Don't make it worse than it is and don't make it less than it is. This is what we do. So we have to be realistic. And then it's sort of like, OK, here I am, completely lost, but you know what? I do realise there's a map here and I like Buddha's map and I'm going to start applying it. Report an error

34:31 So already you get courage, don't you? Again, these analogies for me are so helpful. And this is already the first level of practice, to cultivate this courage to accept where we are at. So another one is like, you know, your garden is a disaster, totally overgrown. But you have no idea there's a thing called botany. Report an error

34:54 You see other people's beautiful gardens, you freak out, you don't know why yours isn't. So it's reasonable to feel freaked out because you don't know what to do. You're panic-stricken. Then one day you discover the laws of botany. Do you get my point here now? You've suddenly got the book. Your garden's still the same but all of a sudden you can now feel happy about wading into that garden knee deep because now you have the methods. Report an error

35:17 Are you getting my point here? That's the attitude we have to develop. So stop trying to get rid of your fears. Just let's get rid of the fears about the fears first. Let's get rid of the anger about the anger. Let's get rid of the anger and fears about who we are. Then we can begin realistically to be brave in the face of it, to see it for what it is and recognise there is a herb and there is a weed and now I can do this. Report an error

35:38 And you've got the long-term vision. You can see what your garden will be like in even 50 years' time. And because you have the methods now, you can start to enjoy the process. But the irony of our attachment is, like, you know, once it might have been we were attached to a new fridge in a new house. Report an error

35:56 We're now attached to the idea of, so you know we'd say, oh well I'll be happy when I get a new fridge. Well now we say, oh I'll be happy when I get rid of anger. It's not like that. You've got to learn to be happy now. Anger and all. And I'm really not kidding. This is a very liberating concept and it's not, it's not, it's not, it's totally appropriate. Report an error

36:14 Because the fact is, due to a lot of practice, your garden is out of control. It won't change overnight. But you've now got the methodology. Now you can enjoy it. Same with yourself. And that's the courage that I meant before. The courage to accept where you're at. Because the irony, the terrible irony of ego is it's self-hate. Report an error

36:36 It's self-hate. Ego is self-hate. Ego has got nothing to do with thinking you're an important person. Ego is self-hate. So we have to have the courage to start saying positive things. Yes, it's true, I'm angry, I'm out of control, I'm jealous, I'm this, I'm full of fear, whatever. But it's cool because it is not my true nature. Report an error

36:57 I can change this garden. I have the methods and I can get a beautiful garden. And I'm really not kidding. This is the courage we have to develop. And we've got to be very clear and rational about it. Instead of just this constant beating yourself, like as if somehow the beating of yourself is a virtue. We think it's a virtue. Report an error

37:16 So bizarre. But we run like a magnet to the negativity. And again, the way you respond to that mean person at work. Report an error

37:31 that's proof of what you think of yourself you really see bad stuff in other people, even if they are bad, and it really upsets you and it freaks you out when you see their negative qualities, that's because that's the stuff in you that you are pinpointing. That's the stuff in you that you have not been able to cope with. That's your garbage. Report an error

37:56 I always say, 27 people can praise you. One person says one negative word and which one do you run like a magnet to? We all know the answer. That's the proof of how ego works. We love to hate ourselves. We love to go on about the negativity. And we can easily misunderstand Buddhism and accuse Buddha of always going on about the suffering. Report an error

38:17 But all he's trying to do is point out the stuff so we can identify it. If you go to the doctor and you've got cancer, You don't want him just to keep praising your non-cancerous cells. I'm very happy I've got non-cancerous cells. Let's just talk about the nice things, Doctor. No, no, no, you want him to look at all the stinky stuff. Report an error

38:34 Because then you know what you can work on. So we have to look at the stinky stuff, but don't over-exaggerate it. What if you're dying of terminal illness? Report an error

38:44 What's that got to do with it? Well, it's not just a neurotic fear. It is a neurotic fear. It's a completely neurotic fear. But there are certain fears that are real. I hear what you're saying darling, but not at this level. Like some people are on the verge of homelessness, and they know that next month they're not going to pay the bill, or they have an illness that they know, like MS or something, where they know they're going to get into more and more pain. Report an error

39:12 That's right. So then what's that got to do with having a Why would you want a deluded response to it? We're talking about a deluded response, not a rational response. I'm just thinking that there are two different kinds of fear. I'm talking Buddha's deal here. That's your view. I know, darling, my darling friend here. I know what you're saying, but I'm using the term maripa, which refers to the primordial grasping at the neurotic self and the deluded fears that are at the base of all the delusions. Report an error

39:40 Of course, this is the problem, isn't it, in English? The words here, you know, attachment is seen as a good thing. We're using different words with different interpretations. But I'm only talking here about the deluded ones. The ones that cause panic and blind us from seeing what to do and cause us to make ten times a mess. Already bad enough having cancer, having fear on top of it just makes a complete disaster. Report an error

40:01 But what the Buddha's saying is, isn't it, that we can have all these things that do happen in life and deal with them, of course. And we can have, you know, Report an error

40:44 pain coming and you have a fear of death and those things are you know if you have an illness and you know that when you wake up in the morning you're going to have pain all day or you have some terminal illness so how would you define this fear that's a good one that you're encouraging us to have how would you define that Report an error

41:12 Lama Tsongkhapa Report an error

41:24 have how do you define it how would you call it how would it feel like no i'm not saying that it would it's good to have the fear but i'm saying that um There are some things that are simply neurosis where you have a fear of someone not liking you or you have a fear that someone's going to bring up anger in you. Report an error

41:47 So some fears you're saying are valid and some are not? Yes. So what do you say though? What do you say to what Buddha said? What do you say that Buddha says that it's irrational and you don't need to have it but you can get rid of it? Wouldn't you like to? I mean you're going to get cancer anyway. Is that what you're saying? Yes. Yes. Okay. Report an error

42:02 You're going to get cancer anyway, let's say. So it's sort of like, if you're going to get cancer or die, even without cancer, we're going to die, our husband's going to die, we're going to get old and wrinkled anyway. The Buddhist idea is why add to the problem by having all these neuroses? So the radical point is we can get rid of these neuroses. It's not being moralistic or cruel to say, you're all abnormal, you shouldn't have fears. Report an error

42:25 It's really being radical in going to that point where Buddha says, you know what, you're going to have cancer and death. And husbands leaving you and not go crazy. And still be happy. Now, I just think, I mean, have you not seen the Dalai Lama? Have you not noticed he's a happy guy? But have you not noticed a sixth of his population have been murdered and continue to be slaughtered? Every day they come to Damsala, he's in tears, you know, but then he cracks a joke about Mao Zedong. Report an error

42:51 And we like to hear about him, but we sort of really would rather hold on to our right to have these things, like, you know, okay, he's the Buddha, I'm an ordinary person, I'm allowed to have fear. You kind of get my point here. So I am talking radically, but kind of purely. I'm not being moralistic and I'm not being idealistic. Report an error

43:09 But I think it's an outrageous idea, is what Buddha's saying, that you aim for this point where you can go beyond all fears in the face of death, slaughter, rape and everything else. That's what he's saying. Then my point is, given that I have now got cancer and I am in the midst of fears, then I will also learn to love that and accept it and know how to identify it so I can go beyond it. Report an error

43:35 So it's a combination of having enormous respect for it, but at the same time knowing where I'm heading about it, rather than I'm allowed to have it. You understand my point? And that's a big difference, you know. Because I think the trouble is as soon as we hear the Buddha's theme that it's suffering, to have fears, we get all moralistic and beat ourselves up. But already we beat ourselves up. Report an error

43:57 So we keep defending our right to have things like it's normal. But I think it's really powerful to make the point, Buddha says it's all abnormal, but given that I've got it, let's embrace it. Report an error

44:09 You get my point? Then it's kind of, you're aiming for the long term, which is the radical one of getting rid of it, but given that I've got it, let's see and work with it and swim in it and taste it. Rather than I'm allowed to have it, which is this defensiveness we have. You see what I'm saying? Are we communicating it? I think that all fear is a survival instinct and it really comes down to our fear of death. Report an error

44:37 I said that's what Buddha calls ignorance. That's what Buddha calls instinct for survival is this rising of the self. Because if you realise emptiness, that fear is finished. Do you agree with that? If you don't fear death then you can overcome all other fears. Report an error

45:02 you're thinking that you're suggesting that yes well i think probably yeah because you're probably the way to say this is the most it is the most primordial because death we think of as the annihilation of this self so it's true if we can if we can embrace impermanence embrace the Report an error

45:30 we all communicating people? think I understand what her point is. Scylla, that's Hope. I think it would be very appropriate for you to tell the story that I've heard about the nuns you met who were tortured by the Chinese. Oh, I see all that. Yeah, maybe. I'll see. Thank you. Yeah, I will. I think the death one is the deepest one we have because why? It's an annihilation of this very self that we think we have. Report an error

45:56 It's true. And once we've really got in touch with that and there's an embracing of that one, then already it's kind of all the others fall into place. Or fall out, but they fall off, don't they? You're right. Absolutely. I think it's a very good point, actually. Report an error

46:09 So any more questions folks now that we're on the question mode? Yes. We have to pass the microphone. We do. Okay. Pass it over. There we go. We should have these ambient mics that just pick up the noise from everywhere. Report an error

46:22 Go on darling. Hi Robina. Hi. So I have a friend who has three kids and when she got diagnosed with cancer she got really worried. She's not a Buddhist. What she did was she... became concerned with her family used her fear of death slash protection for her kids to self-advocate. So when she goes to the doctor, she always asks questions and she's a very, very strong woman. So personal difficulty is that I to stay away from extremes, right? Report an error

47:00 So the talk about fear of death and allowing our ego to... Lama Tsongkhapa Looking at the ego grasping as it relates to fear of death, it kind of leads to the grasping which is saṃsāra. It can kind of translate to an all or nothing thing. I'm not explaining it very well. You said you're trying to keep away from extremes. So what's the point there? So is there not such a thing as a healthy fear? Report an error

47:36 You see, this is the same point that Silla's making. We need to define our terms, you know? Let's just simply define our terms, but I'm trying to use Buddhist psychology here, because we each got a different definition, haven't we? Report an error

47:48 Darling, wouldn't you agree we each have a different definition of these words? We all have different definitions, don't we? Having what apply, darling? Report an error

48:00 I know, but first we have to define our terms, don't we? Okay, so let's define what we mean by fear. And I'm using that terminology here. Silla's one about the natural fear if you've got cancer. I understand that. The fear that your children might die. But let's pretend to have another word for it. It's called compassion. It's called concern for others. It's a reasonable state of mind. Report an error

48:22 So the distinction I'm trying to make is this. There are some states of mind, Buddha says, that are rooted in the neurotic self. So in their nature, they are kind of... This is a term we use. That's a very intelligent thing. It's called common sense. So we've got to make this distinction. The fear that I am talking here is this one of the constricted, panic-stricken, distorted, neurotic, one that causes the heart to beat, that sees irrational things, whether it's for your cancer or anything that's imagined. Report an error

49:17 That's the point that Buddha's saying about all these things of mine that at the moment permeate all the other good stuff. So in this case of my friend, because she has compassion on me. She's doing an incredible job of taking care of her children, given that she's going to die. But you know, this is the point though about fear of death. The Buddha's saying, you know, hey guys, he's saying, hey guys, we're all going to die, but you know what, we all live in the absolute fantasy that we're going to be here tomorrow. Report an error

49:43 And everybody in this room would laugh, will laugh when I say you could die today. We'll go ha ha ha, don't be ridiculous. Well that's the result of primordial fear. That is the result. We have such primordial ideas not existing that we have created the complete fantasy that we believe is an absolute scientific truth that I will wake up tomorrow morning. Report an error

50:04 Now you hear these words, it sounds ridiculous. You're going to say, well of course I'm going to wake up tomorrow morning. But excuse me, you do your market research even in a 10 mile radius tomorrow morning and you go door to door. You do your market research. You're going to find an awful lot of people die tonight. Report an error

50:39 the big strong one when you get the cancer or the carnivore knocks you over. there's, anyway, back to her point, there's an intelligent appropriate, it's got nothing to do with fear, it's just kind of doing with, it's to do with wisdom. Report an error

51:19 It's so abstract for our mind even to hear these things. Whereas if we have got in touch with impermanence, which is what Buddha says would be the truth, Buddha says we're not living in touch with truth right now. So being in touch with truth, no fears. The nature of fear is you're living in denial of truth. That's why we have fears, the irrational ones. Report an error

51:38 So being in touch with truth, I've got three kids, I could die soon, that's not fear, that's common sense. Report an error

52:13 There'd be no fear. Lama Zopa Rinpoche was a little boy. He was said to be a meditator in his past life, okay, which assumes he's realised emptiness and blah, blah, blah, done all this job of removing from his mind the neuroses, let's just say that, okay. So there he was, he was 80 years old, and he saw, it was up in a mountain in a monastery, up in Solukundu, and he said, he saw across the river all these pale-faced, strange, straw-haired, straw-coloured people, you know, they had straw-coloured hair, you know. Report an error

52:42 I've never seen these people before, all these Anglos. And when he wanted to go to see them, so he brought a bowl of potatoes and was on this rickety bridge to go across to make this offering to these weird people. And he fell in the water. And the way he told the story was most interesting. He said, oh, the thought occurred to me, the person known as the Laudo Lama, that's who he'd been recognised as and reincarnated as past Lama. Report an error

53:11 From Laudo, he said, the thought occurred to me, hmm, the person known as a Laudo Lama is about to die. Very rationally, he said. And then he said, and his head was bopping up and down for air, by the way. He wasn't sort of just sinking to the rock, to the ground like a stone thinking this. He was going for air like any normal person would. Then he said, I didn't know anything about emptiness. Report an error

53:37 But he said, there was no fear. There was no fear. So this is the point. If we can imagine this, because this is inconceivable in our normal psychological world, if we can try and imagine this, that there's a person who doesn't have ego grasping, which is the primordial fear, doesn't have attachment, anger, pride, jealousy or all the rest, has enormous levels of love and wisdom and compassion and joy and fun and all the rest. Report an error

54:05 If we can imagine that, then for that kind of person, being run over by a car, shot with a gun, Falling down the mountain, drowning, then recognizing it's happening. They're dealing with it in the most sensible way to try and save themselves. But their mind is stable. There's no hysteria. There's no gripping. There's no constricting. There's no panic. There's no blinding. There's no losing sight of what's going on. Like we all know occurs now at the smallest rising of fear, panic, anxiety. Report an error

54:38 Look at us, you know. We don't need to fall off a mountain or nearly drown to feel fear. Just to have a person who doesn't like us, we have a mental breakdown. The thought of the money not coming next week, the thought of getting too fat or having some sickness, we are freaking out at the drop of a hat. Report an error

54:53 Do you see my point here? So in this sense, join the club. We're all in it. Be kind to ourselves. Recognize this is a status quo. But this marvelous idea that Buddha is saying is in the long term. It is not innate. We can go beyond it. That's what he means by nirvāṇa, all these boring words. Nirvāṇa means the ceasing of fear. Report an error

55:13 The ceasing of the suffering. That's what it means. He's talking psychologically. We'd like to put it in the sky. So I mean it when I say it's radical what he's saying. It is radical what Buddha's saying. It's outrageous what he's saying we can accomplish, you know. But we've got to get our heads around it because we can't imagine it. Report an error

55:31 We have no reference point for this type of talk in our culture that assumes fears are normal, anger's normal, death is normal. Not death, on the contrary, fear of it. So it is outrageous what he's saying. So I think to be radical in the way we understand it and then be nurturing and kind to ourselves, given that I'm living in these fears daily, that at least knowing I've got the path out of it, I can learn to work with it while I've got it, rather than beating it up and living in denial or defending my right to have it, which is how we do now. Report an error

56:01 It's the only way we can rationalise it. We've got to be very honest, in other words. Okay, I am angry, I am depressed, I am jealous. It's true, Robina. And look how it causes you suffering, sweetheart. So you have kindness to yourself. Look what it causes me to do to others. And you begin to have kindness to others. Then you own it, accept it. That's a huge part of practice. And we really make changes and we can do that. Report an error

56:23 Are Report an error

56:30 we communicating here? Any questions, anybody? Report an error

56:36 Any kind of questions? Specific fears you might have yourselves or things you want to talk about? Go on. Yes, we have a mic. Report an error

56:47 Go. So, I heard of this experiment where the Dalai Lama is so admirable that if you take a paper bag behind him and pop it, he doesn't react. I was quite struck by that. For example, Daniel Goleman actually gave that example in a talk, and it's like I thought, oh, I want to do that, but I don't want to go, obviously. Report an error

57:12 So how does that work then, practically speaking? I'd have to go to millions of retreats and have auspicious circumstances to even come one iota closer to his level of enlightenment. Report an error

57:31 I wonder about the practicality of how attainable this goal is. It's one thing to aspire to it, but what do you have to do? Report an error

57:42 catching yourself get irritated? You've been practicing for years. You know all the answers. I know, but I want to hear it again. I want to hear it and you can sit and tell me again. Report an error

57:52 You know, Report an error

57:57 again, the point to me has to be this one of the analogy of the garden. eradicate in yourself that because I haven't seen it. Report an error

58:00 you know you the thing is when we hear You've got to have a 50 year plan, don't you? And what I'm getting at is, once you're confident you've got a plan, you've got to have that confidence. There's no benefit in saying the Buddha knows how to make it better. You've got to have confidence the Buddha can make it better. Because you can choose him or you can go choose Jesus. I don't mind. But you've got to be confident you've got the right botanist. Report an error

58:38 And then you just learn to enjoy the process. You've got to enjoy it. Otherwise if you're just thinking I'm only going to be happy when you get your 50 foot oak trees, you might as well kill yourself now. You get my point? Report an error

58:51 For me, I try to be realistic. You must be realistic. Am I on the right track if I say, okay, well, there's the Dalai Lama and then there's me. So I have limitations. So how do I work with that? I don't want to be enabling my self-concept of having limitations. That's right. Another analogy. Pretend the Dalai Lama is like Mozart. Report an error

59:22 You have to know first of all that you can become like Mozart, don't you? You have to know that. If you just think there's Mozart and he is me and I can't even play C major scale, there'll always be this huge division between you and Mozart and you'll just reify him and put him up in there and oh how depressing I can't play like Mozart. Report an error

59:36 But once you realise you can become like Mozart, don't you think you're going to have energy and inspiration just to keep trucking? So it's the aspiration. It's the aspiration. It's the confidence that you can become like that and then the aspiration to become it and then the patience. And enjoying it on the way. And I'm really not kidding. And that's the tough part for us. Because the neurosis in us wants to be perfect now. Report an error

59:59 And we're satisfied with nothing less. But that's just attachment talking. And it's just another thing to beat ourselves with. And it's just very unrealistic. We've got to be humble. And in that humility, you get courage. But you know you're on the right track, it might take 14 lives. And then remember, always the holy, all the Lama stages, when they, you know, you see, you hear about the Buddha, you hear about your Guru, all this rubbish, you know, you hear about the Dalai Lama, all this stuff, and he looks so perfect and perfect, he's so perfect, he's so perfect. Report an error

1:00:26 But then once you realise he was ordinary like you too, it's very humbling. You suddenly cut that barrier between you and him and you realise he's there to show you, hey guys, you can do it too. And that's always a big, you see with the Lamas, when you realise I can do it too. Report an error

1:00:56 the right track it doesn't matter you've got a million miles to go you've got the map and you enjoy the journey and sincerely you're really focused on the journey on the goal you won't lose sight and when you get a lot of compassion that'll give you the energy to really work hard at it because you're going to have such empathy for others but you really will enjoy the journey you really will enjoy every single step of the way and that means accepting i'm not there yet and but that's cool i i have have got got anger anger and jealousy but it's not permanent it isn't who if what defined me that's the part that's huge that we have to have so the self-compassion is absolutely Thank you. Yeah. Report an error

1:01:37 Yeah, yeah. Okay, go. Go, darling. Go home. Oh, yes. Report an error

1:01:55 with fear of imminent death you mean not fear of death in five years but only tomorrow just that we've been discussing oh i see or getting hit by oh okay yes i think um on a daily People in general tend to fear rejection and acceptance. Yeah, absolutely. And I think we're kind of on the brink of talking about how that is just in your mind as well and your perception of somebody dancing in front of you, calling you names and whatnot. Report an error

1:02:21 Sure, sure. Report an error

1:02:25 You wanted to say that. You don't ask me a question. Right. Okay, good. Thank you. Yes. Thinking about the relationship between fear and karma because I'm just reading from... Please close it to the mic. I was wondering if you could say something about the relationship between fear and karma because generally we have a tendency to keep reenacting or confronting situations of trauma and fear and whether it's something in our own mind that generates these causes and conditions. Report an error

1:02:58 Oh, I see what you're meaning, yeah, sure. In the most simple way we can talk about karma as the process of just habit. So forget even a past life, let's say. Forget the cosmic idea of karma. Let's even just think in this life. You've got the habit to do things a certain way. You can see that tendency. You can see we're just creatures of habit, aren't we? We learn something, whether it's good or bad, and we keep doing it, right? Report an error

1:03:18 So we get stuck in that groove, and then it's painful to change that groove. Well, just extend that a few countless lifetimes. So of course, if you sit down at the piano today and you start whizzing your fingers up and down, we can deduce you've practiced it really strongly in the last recent period. Report an error

1:03:35 Wouldn't we deduce that? Well that's the meaning of karma. So the same way, if we see you've got a strong tendency for being generous, we can deduce you must have practiced it. Or anger. So the changing of it, You're starting a new habit, isn't it? One little baby step at a time. Isn't it? That's why we can know, we can have the courage to go beyond it. Report an error

1:04:24 we communicating? Go on, the next person. Oh, go darling, yes. Yes, I got the mic. Go. Report an error

1:04:33 I'm embarrassed to admit that lately I've been experiencing depression and I wonder if you can give me some practical advice for when I feel that way. See, this is the one where we start to get into karma now, you know, meaning in the long term, listen, in the long, listen darling, in the long term, it's where we get into karma as well. Report an error

1:04:54 So there's two major factors at play, and again using the analogy of being good at piano to force us to see this as a normal process. You know, you've got the two things, you've got the habit inside you furiously rushing forward with the momentum, right? Playing the piano a certain way, haven't you? You understand? And that's what's propelling you forward. Report an error

1:05:30 so you've got your the old habits from the past okay talking in karmic terms now not just about 10 years of practicing piano but countless lives of all kinds of things leaving imprints in your mind the way Buddha would say and then much of it unconscious in the depths of our unconscious so there you are you know with all sorts of millions of little imprints in the mind all going along deeply and here you are on the top of that you know doing things in a certain way practicing on your mind mind, purifying purifying your mind, cleaning it up, right? Report an error

1:05:59 But what you're going to do is you're going to have suddenly little seeds from the past that you didn't see the evidence of popping up now that cause, that experience as fear or hopelessness or depression. Lama Tsongkhapa So one generalized way to think about it, if you think of this process of cleaning up your act, and you're clearly doing that, you're really practicing hard, you know, you're clearing up this level of weeds that allows the weeds that you didn't even see before to suddenly pop up to the surface. Report an error

1:06:27 And so there's all sorts of ways, psychologically speaking, they talk about how karma ripens in terms of emotions, you know. And so let's say paranoia. Report an error

1:06:56 much benefit in trying to unravel what is this depression about. It's just seeing it in general terms as you cleaning up on this level, going better and better and better at it, and these old junky stuff coming to the surface. So the generalized attitude would be, as Lama Zopa said to one of my friends who'd been practicing for years, and he was out of his brain with whole new levels of anger and pride, right? Report an error

1:07:20 He thought he was going crazy. And he'd been practicing for years. And Rinpoche just kept saying, fantastic, the dirt has to come out, the dirt has to come out. So I'm really not kidding here because I think if we do take as a given for the moment Buddha's view of consciousness going back and back and back and back, we can see how profound unconscious is even from a week ago. Report an error

1:07:40 Undealt with stuff from even a week ago. Can we imagine if Buddha is right and that we've got a mind that goes back and back? There must be an awful lot of stuff under there darling. So the general attitude is we don't always have to try and sort it out what it is. It depends on the time and space. But sometimes it's to see it as an old junky stuff that's coming out. Report an error

1:08:28 You're going beyond it. And at other times, of course, because it can be inarticulate. I mean, I've heard Lama Zopa say, for example, one time about karma, you know, that even just like depression, say at night only, is the result of sexual misconduct from who knows how many lives in the past. I mean, it's incredibly subtle if you start to see it all, you know, and try to find out what the cause is. So don't even try to go there. But generally speaking, this is one attitude towards it. Report an error

1:08:52 And other times, of course, it's good to identify, uncover it, unpack it. You understand? Report an error

1:09:16 then knowing, like, everything is impermanent. Report an error

1:09:32 You spoke about the intrinsic belief and the intrinsic self as being the root here. I just was hoping that you would talk more about that and what the notion of self and the distinction between self and mind. Okay. Where are we going for time? Okay, this is really the very essence of the Buddha's wisdom teachings, you know. Report an error

1:09:53 When he uses Buddha's psychology, he gets down to this one. I just say the words, you know. Each of us, according to our level, put meanings on these words. All we can do is that. Report an error

1:10:03 Well, first of all, you've got mind. We've got to establish that there are some phenomena that exist. So there's a thing called mind, which is your river of mental moments, your thoughts, your feelings, your emotions, your unconscious, your subconscious. The term given for all of that stuff is mind. Buddha would say it's not physical. He would say it doesn't get created by somebody else. He would say it doesn't come from your mummy and daddy. Report an error

1:10:25 And he would say it doesn't come out of nowhere. It's a continuity of little kind of causes and effects that go back and back and back, like a river of mental moments. That's a generalized way to talk about your mind. Mind exists. So then Buddha's saying like this, he says, we first have to establish that which exists and then we can discuss it. Report an error

1:10:44 And he's saying there are some phenomena that our deluded minds think exist, don't. And then there are some phenomena that our reasonable minds think exist that do. So, what is something that doesn't exist? Okay, let's give an example. Let's say there's chocolate cake in front of us, right? But let's say I have huge attachment and neurosis about chocolate cake. That means the delusion in me, the liar in me, what it sees is this, a divine delicious chocolate cake such that when I put it in my mouth, I will get happy. Report an error

1:11:18 Now that's what my attachment is seeing. And then you maybe who have got a reasonable mind say, well there's a pretty good chocolate cake and I can see it's not a bad one and I'll probably enjoy it. So you could say, simply speaking, what you're seeing is a correct object. What I am seeing is an object that doesn't exist. I'm seeing, in other words, delusions. Report an error

1:11:38 They do relate to some aspect that does exist, chocolate cake. But what delusions do... as Lama Zopa puts it, is decorate on top of what does exist layers upon layers of fantasies that don't exist. Emily, Report an error

1:12:06 so we can all agree. though, okay? Are you hearing this? This is the way. So there is a chocolate cake. There is a mind. There is a self. real simple. What's your name? Report an error

1:12:07 We've all got I's, we've all got E's mostly. We can say there's a human being sitting on this chair and she just spoke and she said her name is Emily. So at a conventional level, like the cake, there is an Emily. Well, self is a term that's synonymous with the word I or person. It's real simple. So there is the self called Emily. Nobody's arguing with that, like nobody's arguing with a chocolate cake. Report an error

1:12:27 But what Buddha's saying is, given that there are phenomena in the world... A self and a chocolate cake. The various delusions in our mind lay on top of those things certain aspects of those phenomena that are fantasies. Report an error

1:12:43 So the lie that attachment is telling is a divine delicious will make me happy cake. The lie that ignorance, the deepest delusion tells is an intrinsic findable self-existent self. See that's the part that's hard to hear. So right now Buddha says Emily grasps, this ignorance in Emily grasps at the Emily as being a self-existent intrinsic Emily-ness. Report an error

1:13:12 We don't think we see ourselves this way because it's a really subtle delusion. We can almost see how we fantasize the cake, you understand my point, but it's very hard to see this deep mistake that ignorance makes and that's the trick. So the commonest way we do is we annihilate, we chuck the baby out with the bathwater and we say, oh well, Buddha says there's no self, oh what the hell, nothing exists, might as well kill myself. Report an error

1:13:38 That is exaggerated, it's too far. So the way he talks is, and especially Tsongkhapa, he talks about Buddha's thing about the two truths, okay, that he talks how things exist ultimately or finally, actually, bottom line, and he talks about how things exist conventionally. Report an error

1:13:58 So conventionally we establish there is an Emily, we establish there's a cake, we establish there's a toilet, we establish there's love, hate, colour, you name it, whatever the universe consists of, we have to establish it, we give it a name, we define it, we all agree, it exists honey, conventionally. Report an error

1:14:15 Do you understand my point? But the trouble is, our delusions in here, the fantasies lay on top of those things, lots of crappy stuff that just aren't there and we don't realise we do it. So let's say, you know, there's a person called an Australian person. We can establish such a person exists. But let's say I'm a racist and can't stand Australian persons. Report an error

1:14:35 So when I see Australian persons, I see an ugly person, a mean person. You understand my point here? I overlay on top of a truth a fantasy. That's the way to think about what exists and what doesn't. Things exist. Selves exist. Emilys exist. But self-existent Emily? No. Ugly, horrible Australians? No. Report an error

1:14:55 Delicious cake that will make me happy? No. So that's what we have to extract. We have to see the state of mind, what it's called and how it lies in particular. Attachment embellishes the good things. Aversion in my mind embellishes the bad things, in the ugly Australian. Ignorance in my mind embellishes the self-existent ugly Australian, the self-existent delicious cake, the self-existent I-ness. Report an error

1:15:20 And that's the tricky one to see. So that's some practice and stuff there. It's a practical issue. It's technically not too difficult. We just have to be very skillful in hearing it appropriately. So things exist. Report an error

1:15:37 The things that don't exist are the overlay of the lies in my mind on top of the things that exist. Okay, if I say there's two Emilys there, then I've got a big problem. We can argue even conventionally there's only one Emily. But, you know, at least we can establish there's conventionally an Emily. But then if I've got attachment, I see you as Divine Emily. Report an error

1:15:58 Which isn't the truth. It exaggerates, which causes me to manipulate you to make you give what I want. Do you get my point? That's a lie. If I have aversion for Emily, that makes me dislike you and want to punch you in the nose. That part of me is a lie. It's not causing me to see you properly. And of course, because ignorance is beneath all of these delusions, for all of these mistakes we make, ignorance assumes a self-existent delicious Emily, a self-existent ugly enemy, a self-existent whatever it might be. Report an error

1:16:21 And that's the hardest delusion to see. So there is a self. there's not an intrinsic self is a cake but not a divine delicious cake from its own side there is australians and emilys and this is and that's you know but it's these lies that overlay on top of the truth that's the stuff we're trying to extract a good way to Report an error

1:16:55 So one of the things that Tsongkhapa says, it's very interesting, it's very helpful this, what Buddha says is we have this deep primordial tendency to go to the two extremes, as he puts it. So as soon as we hear Buddha say, you know what, there's no eye from its own side, we'll go, oh, there's no eye at all, and we'll chuck the baby out with the backwater. Report an error

1:17:17 That's the extreme view of nihilism. It's not true, we've gone too far. Then we have... The other one, he says, you know what? Eyes do exist conventionally. There is a self. And then we'll go, oh, thank goodness, grasp. And we'll reify it. That's the other extreme. So we have the extreme of making there be too much. And Buddha would argue with the Christians and the Hindus and the Muslims. He's saying they're doing exactly that. Report an error

1:17:42 They're reifying this self that they call atma or soul. They're saying there is something from its own side. That's extreme, he says. It's too much. Well the other one, the nihilistic, maybe you can say the existentialist or the western materialist world, we're all nihilists, there is nothing, you know. You get my point. So Tsongkhapa says this, every time you hear the self is empty of existing from its own side, you think, ha ha, that means it exists conventionally, it's dependent arising. Report an error

1:18:13 It brings you from the brink of nihilism and forces you into the middle way which is in between here. Report an error

1:18:29 it means nothing, we've got the wrong view. But it means it's dependent or rising, that's the very essence of conventional. Then every time we hear that something does exist conventionally, the impulse is to grasp at it, to reify it. No, no, no, you say, that means it is empty. Because finally, as His Holiness said in New York in September, the essential meaning of emptiness is dependent arising. So these two together, it's very tasty, very tense, very kind of grounded as anything to keep you from being nihilistic or to reify, which are the deep instincts in our deluded mind. Report an error

1:19:08 And we can even see this philosophically in the world. This is how you'd argue. You understand? So for me, I think of the middle way, which is in between these two, as like Harry Potter's nine and three quarters platform. Kind of the infuriating, you're going to nine to ten and you miss nine and three quarters. Report an error

1:19:23 It's like this impossible place in the middle, which is like the middle way. Really, just a way of saying it. So we've got to find that middle way. And the middle way, when you've got it, finally, ultimately, the deepest meaning of it, is when you know that dependent arising means emptiness and that you know that emptiness means dependent arising. Report an error

1:19:42 Right now we're completely split in half. We think they're separate. And we rush off into the wrongs to wrong views. Which is why Tsongkhapa is a lovely one of applying for your mind the practice every time you hear conventional reality dependent arising. You remind yourself, hey, hey, Robina, that means it's empty. And every time you hear empty, you say, ha, ha, that means it's dependent arising. It's very tasty. Report an error

1:20:05 Okay? All right. Yes. Yes, darling. In a second. About emptiness? You hold it. You hold it. Go. How are we going for time? 8.30, okay. Report an error

1:20:21 She led my very first pilgrimage to Tibet in 2001, to India and Nepal. She was my first chasing Buddha. Well, she actually called it Finding Buddha. She thought Finding Buddha was nice, but I really changed it to Chasing Buddha when she left. Report an error

1:20:37 Go on. My friend's still from Australia. I get everything that you're saying. I'm a beginner, and I'd like to know some practical ideas. Report an error

1:20:57 I'd like to know. Yes, darling, I know. Well, this one, straight away, this one, you know, one of the things about fear, we just look carefully at it, I know this is sort of being rational and cognitive, but that's how we should be sometimes. Because what fear is... You would agree, forget whether it's valid, like, you know, Silla's point is true, because of course we don't want our mother to die or whatever it might be, but it's this panic that arises that is constricting and prevents us from being clear, isn't it? Report an error

1:21:25 So suddenly you see all the bad things, you can't deal with it and you're not very much up to anybody else. So one approach to it, especially this one, sweetheart, because fear is living in, is coming, Buddha says, and you see this is so true, we're living in denial of some truth. So it's so obvious, it's embarrassing, but death is a truth. Death is not abnormal. Death is something that does occur to anything that came into being. Report an error

1:21:53 But because we have attachment and love and all the good things too of our mummy, and whatever it might be, and want her to be there every day, the idea that she won't be, forget about our own death, is just too terrifying for us. So the practical way, one way I say this for myself, okay. Report an error

1:22:39 Because the reality, aversion, attachment, fear, whatever you want to call it, they're all living in terror of something we do or don't want. So we have to confront this is the reality. And I know, I mean this is silly, maybe it's a silly example, but I'll tell you. As a little girl, we had to go to the toilet, or the labby as we called it in Australia. Report an error

1:22:59 We had a back, you know, outside the backyard, a labby, a toilet. It was only three steps. I'd open the back door. Report an error

1:23:19 is this and in front of me was a big backyard and when there was no moon it was pitch dark so I remember one day opening the door and I decided if I walked into the middle of the backyard there wouldn't be any fear because I'd be seeing what's there So what I'm trying to get at is fear itself is terrified of this thing that might happen or shouldn't happen or if only it didn't happen and oh my God what will happen if it does happen. Report an error

1:23:43 So it is happening. So walk into it. Walk into it. Say this is happening and then become active with it. Be useful with it. Do something with it. See it for what it is. Don't deny it or hope it isn't this way. Then you'll find the way to help. You'll see the reality. You'll check with the doctors. You'll go to see your mother. You'll do the things accepting the fact that death does come. So accepting reality is the exact opposite of fear. Report an error

1:24:14 So that is a cognitive thing. You talk to yourself like you would to a child. Are you hearing me? It doesn't mean it works right away, but you try to be rational, and that's very profound. Report an error

1:24:26 But you know something else that's kind of interesting is when you're a little girl again and something goes wrong and you run screaming to mummy, assuming you have a nice mummy, and what does she do? I find this very interesting. And you're terrified, right? Something's happened. And what does she do? She'll put her arms around you and she'll tell you, oh darling, it's okay. Report an error

1:24:44 Guess what? You feel better. Right there. didn't do anything she just told you it's okay that i find kind of outrageous she simply told you it's okay and you believed her so we have to almost be like our own little mummy Report an error

1:25:00 So walking into it, being practical. even, I mean, for me, Again, another example for myself, and it's just to do with, say, running this prison project we've got. And, you know, we spend like $30,000, $40,000 every month, and I'm the one who's got to bring in the money, right? And we've been sort of living on a song and a wish for 12 years. Report an error

1:25:21 I can't believe we've existed so long. You understand my point here? So sometimes, at three in the morning, I can't sleep because I'm panicking about the money, wondering where it's going to come from, this kind of thing. I do that a lot less now. But then what I do is I think, OK, what's the worst thing possible? I will run out of money. Report an error

1:25:38 I have to tell all the staff, sorry guys, we didn't have a job. We'll write to all the prisoners and say, I'm sorry, we're going to have to have a break for a month or two until we find more money. We'll recoup and we'll start again. Report an error

1:25:47 So then if I think that, how can there be fear? Because we've helped people for 12 years. This is the reality. Businesses go broke all the time. So walk into it. Your mother will die one day, sweetheart. It mightn't be this time, but she will die. So you better use this as a great opportunity to face that fact and deal with it and then know that you're going to die. Report an error

1:26:09 So get that learning as well. Speak the truth. See the truth. Are you hearing me? So we've got to have courage is what I'm saying. This is all about courage because the delusions are all about fears. So counteracting with courage, seeing it for what it is, walking into it. Darling girl, we're such little tentative little kind of sookie babies as we say in Australia. Report an error

1:26:33 Are you hearing me? I've got to be very kind of, you know, courageous. Because things happen, sweetie pie. So let's see how we can deal with it. I remember Martin Luther King saying, it was about anger. He said, it's okay to say that's no good, that shouldn't be happening. Then you say, what can I do about it? That's what gives you power. Report an error

1:26:59 But just sitting in it, oh my God, this shouldn't be happening, oh my God, this is terrible. Whether it's depression or anger or anything else, that's what makes us insane. We've got to act. Get out there and get into it and act. That gives courage. Report an error

1:27:15 can help others deal with their fears. That's always a hope too, that one. Definitely. Report an error

1:27:49 The chocolate cake is that one and I have opinions. Is that opinion something that I leave my life, opinions and thoughts? No, it's a very good point. This is what really Buddha is saying. Buddha is saying that finally we are all walking around having opinions about everything. would be too good a way about everything. Report an error

1:28:11 No, no, no. It's a question of establishing what is an opinion that is valid. So, okay, I will say to you, there is a green cup. Would you agree? Conventional? No, but, okay, good, so listen. Will you agree there is a green cup? Now, you really could say, and this is the very essence of emptiness, that that really is an opinion. Report an error

1:28:32 But we've all agreed that we can call it, we could have called it a, but we didn't. We call it a green cup. So it is an opinion. And this is Buddha's final point. There is nothing other than that opinion about this that makes it a green cup. We have all made it. Now, if you say there's a disgusting, revolting, ugly green cup, that is a lie. Report an error

1:28:52 That's an opinion that is an emotional, neurotic opinion that hasn't got a valid basis. Yes, because my opinion is different from... No, no, that's not the point. That's not the point. No, I'm not discussing that. No, that might be true, but that isn't the point here. We have to be able to establish that there is not such a phenomenon as a disgusting, revolting, ugly green cup. Report an error

1:29:21 That is an opinion that I have made up. Everybody, I mean, you know, six, you know, like millions of people all hated Jews. They all agreed on their opinion that Jews were horrible and should be burned in gas ovens. Because lots of people agree doesn't make it right. And because only one person thinks it doesn't make it wrong. It's not a question of whether people think it or not. It's a question of whether you can validly establish it as a truth or reality. Report an error

1:29:46 As a truth. Reality, truth, same meaning. So what Buddha's saying is we are all walking around with a bunch of opinions. Good enough at a conventional level we can agree on some opinions are valid. Green cups, Emilies and Rabinas. Good enough. Even he says you go further, that even is an opinion too. Then there's the other junky stuff on top that are not valid opinions. They are diluted distortions and they're the ones that cause the problem. Report an error

1:30:15 So the emptiness is being free of opinions? No. Emptiness means that the lies we think are there aren't. The lack of those fantasies, that's what. When we realise emptiness, we realise the lack of the fantasies we've been rejecting. That's what emptiness is. The absence of the fantasies that we've put onto the cup. When you realise the absence of the fantasies, then that's the realisation of emptiness. Report an error

1:30:41 When you finally see the truth. Okay. Report an error

1:30:46 Okay. Very interesting. Anybody else? Go, go. Yes. Good to see you again, Robina. Yes, absolutely. In case you don't remember me, I'm Sīlas San Leon. Oh my God, I didn't remember you at all. I had no, you would never have made me guess a million years ago, Leon. I could never have guessed. That's incredible. Report an error

1:31:04 Happy to meet you again. I just found out today, just about 5 o 'clock today, that a good friend of mine who's fairly young, she's only 18, she has cancer and is going to have all these operations and everything, and the fear isn't so much on my end as hers. She's terrified. She doesn't know how to deal with it. She's never practiced Buddhism in any form. Report an error

1:31:31 And I just want to know what, maybe, yes, exactly. I think it's a very similar one, you know. It's sort of like this analogy of a little girl is a good one. When something goes wrong with your little girl, you desperately need someone to turn to to alleviate your fears. Don't you agree? If, you know, your mummy was a halfway decent mother, when you're crying and you run and she hugs you and says, darling, it's alright. So that's what she needs right now. She needs a person to be strong, to... Report an error

1:31:56 If you like, it affects me to tell her it's okay. To even get to the point, if you're going to start talking about it, it's up to her. She guides the way, basically, in the conversation. But basically to let her know, even this, shocking as it is, is normal. And to then help her, not by giving lectures, but by being her dear friend and being her mother, holding her, helping her hold her own emotions, by being her good friend. Report an error

1:32:19 And that enables her then to look at the reality, forget whether Buddha said it or not, Buddha didn't make up things. Report an error

1:32:34 friend being there helping her be stable allows her to open up to all the things she wants to think about but you'll be able to be holding her that's the way to say it for me not to give her No need to talk about it like that. Just be there as her friend to let her know this is cool. Now let's see how we can do something about this. Yeah, I figured if I tried to teach her how to accept death, she would think, oh, I'm going to die. Report an error

1:32:56 No, that's right. Stupid. That's not the point. But the better way to say it is accept what's happening. Meaning... Except this is how it is, now let's see what we can do about this and really help, you know, be confident to get treatments and to do all these things. And then, you know, depending on the discussion she will bring up, it's up to her. Report an error

1:33:11 I don't give her lectures about it, but it's up to her. If she brings these things up, then it's good to discuss. Because the thing is, we all float along life assuming the status quo is our life and then suddenly something goes wrong and that's when we start to ask questions. So if we're brave enough, we'll use these opportunities to strengthen and deepen our human nature and become wiser and everything, won't we? But just... Report an error

1:33:31 Your job isn't to give her wisdom, your job is to be her friend. Help her ground and stable and hold her fears. And then be there for her whatever she wants to talk about. But to really be there, to really be trustworthy. Isn't it? course. We can all see we're desperate. And that's what compassion means all about. You and your mother too. Report an error

1:33:49 Definitely. Report an error

1:33:56 that's enough, don't you? Turn on. Yes. Report an error

1:34:02 This isn't a question, it's more of a request. That in terms of dealing with fears, we often talk about the eight fears or the sixteen fears at which Torah helps us with. So would you say or elaborate about in the context of the fears and deity yoga? Yeah, the simplest thing is, again, hearing all this stuff is truly psychological. Report an error

1:34:29 Then all these practices like, you know, maybe some people have heard or you do them yourself, visualizing these different Buddha. So the one that's called Tara, okay, this female form, what she represents is the psychological quality of power, of courage. Like there's one that represents compassion, there's one that represents wisdom, all these different qualities and they're just these stylized ways of imagining, you know, that seem a bit alien to us, but they've got a psychological meaning. Report an error

1:34:57 So the energy of this particular practice and the mantra that's done is the one of courage in the face of fears. They often say her name is Dolma, which is liberator, the liberator. And often they call her the liberator from the fears of saṃsāra because she represents courage in action, the very thing I'm talking here. Action, action, act, courage, brave, confront, face, taste, walk into, act. Report an error

1:35:22 That's courage, you know. We all see we need that quality, every one of us. So all I'm saying is there's a particular practice in Tibetan Buddhism that's represented, that energy is represented by the female Buddha called Tara. She's the energy of cutting through fears. So people might like to do those kinds of practices. It's up to you. The practices exist. You can ask about it if they want. There's mantra. There's different things like this. Report an error

1:35:46 These are all the things that are like, these are sort of like all the little extra tools you can use. The essential job in Buddhism is really, not kidding, is to be your own therapist. Report an error

1:36:08 mantras and practices that are like these tools that you use that enable you to do the job better of seeing your mind and dealing with the fears and the nonsense. Report an error

1:36:18 the practices are there for people who want, you know. Report an error

1:36:28 Anything practical in this for people? I mean even if there's 1%, I often say this, you can be a 1 % Buddhist, okay? If there's even 1 % of advice, and think of all, you see this is the point, about Buddhist teachings, it's sort of like if this were cooking class, if this were just raving on about how nice chocolate cakes are, it would be a pretty useless class, wouldn't it? Report an error

1:36:47 If there's nothing practical from this class that you can take away to make a chocolate cake, you should get your money back. So the practical thing here is, and this is very much a part of the Buddhist practice, there are all kinds of meditations and mindfulness and breathing and there's prostrations and there's deity yoga. Report an error

1:37:02 There's so many. But the bottom line is it's cognitive. It's using advice, taking advice that you can use with your mind to counteract the rubbish in your mind. So it's cognitive stuff, you know. So if there's any piece of advice you can take away from today and apply in a practical sense in the face of your own fears and neuroses, then fantastic. But that's the whole approach here that we're using. Report an error

1:37:26 So for people who want it, you can use it, come back with more of it, or take what you've got from here, whatever. But it's got to be practical. And it's not practical, it's not a waste of time, is it? It's just completely rubbish. It's got to be practical. Yeah? Salam. Salam. too long for telling you Report an error

1:37:53 And what is the meaning of Amityus? Amitabha, Amitabha, Amitabha, Amitabha, Amitabha, Amitabha, Amitabha, Amitabha, virus is long life. You confirm what I thought. He's long-living. What, Amideva? Amitaba. Amideva is one, and Amityush. Report an error

1:38:30 I don't know darling, I don't know. I don't know. So I think it's time to go. I think enough food for thought. Something's practical. Maybe anybody who wants the Tara Mantra, let me just sing the Tara Mantra a few times. Everybody wants to learn it. You can have it. And I think there's a CD of the Tara practice. Report an error

1:38:54 I think down, the prison potty, we've got a CD of Chenrezig practice and Tara practice. I think there's a little one of mantra being led. don't know. Report an error

1:39:17 courage to confront our own minds, deal with our own reality and be of benefit to others thinking like us. Om Tare Tutare Ture Soha Report an error

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1:40:53 It's my finding Buddha, chasing Buddha pilgrimage. We've been doing this since 2001, like I said, and it raises money for our prison project. And we have one to Tibet, led by Amy Miller, an American nun, who's done one already for us. She's going to Tibet when, Anthony? May what? May 9th. Okay, that's kind of still taking bookings, I think. Yes. But it's going beautifully, isn't it? Very nice of you. We have a great group, close to 15 people. Report an error

1:41:16 Fantastic. And we'd love to have some more Americans. Yeah, you're starting Kathmandu. We might not stay at the height anymore, but let's talk about that. I want to stay at the height. They got too expensive, I think, but it's a gorgeous hotel. Then you go to Koh Phangan for six days and sit up in the monastery and do a course. Report an error

1:41:31 Then you go off to Tibet for two weeks, and it's amazing. Then we have the same kind of scenario, but we go to all the holy places of India. Report an error

1:41:46 every year on it, but it always gives us the money. So there's maybe stuff out there about that, but that helps our business project, which is fantastic. So that's my commercial, I think. Report an error

1:41:59 don't know, when are we here next? I have no idea. 16th. Of what? During the day of March. Oh, 16th of March, okay. There you go. Next week. Next week? Yes. Oh, is it? Okay. Next Sunday. Sunday. Is it Monday or all day? Sunday. Okay, good. Thank you very much. All day, is it? What about? What are we doing? Report an error

1:42:22 we just did it tonight. Report an error

1:42:26 Maybe we'll go into more details. Report an error

1:42:34 bookends for the thing. We've motivated. Listen to Buddha's teachings, see if it's something useful, take away, work on a mind, help others. So then we think, okay, look, time gone, two hours gone, like a dream, all these thoughts we've had. Buddha would say every thought, every intention is synonymous with the word karma or action. Synonymous, okay? Intention, karma. So we just sow millions of little seeds in our mind. Report an error

1:42:57 Every thought we've had has left an imprint in our mind. It won't go astray. So how fantastic we think may these seeds ripen. in the development of our amazing potential, so we really can be of benefit to countless beings, no matter how long time exists. Report an error

1:43:14 thinking like that. Report an error

1:43:30 All Report an error

1:43:36 right. Thank you everyone. Report an error

1:43:55 Thank you. Report an error

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Talk by Robina Courtin, recorded 7 March 2008. Original at Tse Chen Ling Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/AfflictiveEmotions_20080201. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US. Transcript generated automatically and may contain errors; the audio is the authoritative version.

Recorded at Tse Chen Ling Center, San Francisco, and archived by the center on Internet Archive. More from Tse Chen Ling

Listen on Internet Archive · CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US