Four Immeasurables Retreat with B. Alan Wallace - Sydney 2014 (part 2)

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0:51 I've elaborated fairly extensively on the distinction between this hiddhunya and yudhamuniya, or between pleasure and well-being, because it's an immensely important distinction. First of all, clearly, it's not that one is good and one is bad. We need both. Report an error in the passage at 0:51 Highlight the passage at 0:51

1:11 But in Buddhism, we have this phrase, practicing Dharma, practicing Buddha Dharma, practicing Christian Dharma. Dharma is not equivalent to Buddhism. But the meaning of practicing Dharma is that one is viewing reality. Setting one's ideals, engaging in practice, leading a way of life that is oriented towards the realization of genuine happiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:11 Highlight the passage at 1:11

1:35 And practicing just following a mundane way of life means that one is still really, insofar as one is doing that, one is really oriented towards the pursuit of hedonic pleasure. So whether one is practicing Dharma or not is not a matter of technique, whether you're meditating or not, but rather what are your aspirations, what are your motivations. Report an error in the passage at 1:35 Highlight the passage at 1:35

1:59 What's it all about? And so I've been involved in scientific research and meditation since 1992, so a long time. Report an error in the passage at 1:59 Highlight the passage at 1:59

2:11 Offhand, I don't know of a single scientific study that's really focused on the yidamona, the yidamonia aspect. So many studies, it has to be scores if not hundreds of studies of mindfulness now. And you look at what's it all about. It's about stress reduction, it's about productivity, it's about health benefits and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 2:11 Highlight the passage at 2:11

2:36 Overwhelmingly, maybe without exception. It's not a criticism of the technique at all. I know John Campbell quite well. He's a wonderful man. But it is a case, as with yoga in the modern world, yoga for hedonic pleasure, meditation for hedonic pleasure. And whether it's mindfulness, I teach shamatha a lot, maybe it's shamatha for hedonic pleasure. And so, whether one engages in meditation, whether it's actually leading on a spiritual path, whether it's maturation, of transformation, of greater and greater freedom, getting right to the roots of suffering and getting right to the roots of genuine happiness. It's not simply a matter of technique. Report an error in the passage at 2:36 Highlight the passage at 2:36

3:20 It's also a matter of one's motivation. So this is very strongly emphasized, more so than any other tradition I know of in Mahāyāna Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, the primacy, the utter centrality of motivation. Report an error in the passage at 3:20 Highlight the passage at 3:20

3:35 Because one may tap into the same techniques, the four immeasurables and so forth and so on. But it may really be, the motivation may be to simply, so you have more pleasure. So, the final point, I'd like to go to meditation and go to a very familiar one. We'll return to settling the mind, body, speech and mind are in the natural states. Return to mindfulness of breathing. Holly Cannon, within these early records of the Buddhist teachings, this is a method that he taught more frequently than any other and it's a very simple method. Report an error in the passage at 3:35 Highlight the passage at 3:35

4:08 I think it's especially relevant, germane. ...appropriate to our modern times because it appears to me, having traveled a lot, lived in modern times for more than six decades, that there's a very, just generally speaking, a very high level of addiction to two things, stimulation and activity. Report an error in the passage at 4:08 Highlight the passage at 4:08

4:31 I spend a lot of time on airplanes and it's very rare to find a person who would be sitting quietly and still be awake and not doing anything. They'd rather play solitaire, they'd rather read those... Report an error in the passage at 4:31 Highlight the passage at 4:31

4:44 ...magazines they give you on the airplane. They'd rather do almost anything, it seems, than to sit quietly and simply be present. Report an error in the passage at 4:44 Highlight the passage at 4:44

4:55 So a study was done just a few months ago, read a couple of accounts of it. They had a group of men and women, I think it was done in the United States, pretty sure, a group of men and women, and they had them sit with nothing to do for 15 minutes, as I recall. I don't remember all the precise details, but I think it was 15 minutes. And they're just sitting there. Report an error in the passage at 4:55 Highlight the passage at 4:55

5:16 And they had an option to just sit there for five minutes with nothing to do, nothing to read, nothing at all, just sit there. Or they could give themselves electric shocks. Report an error in the passage at 5:16 Highlight the passage at 5:16

5:27 Not life-threatening ones, but nevertheless, an electric shock. Fifteen minutes. One quarter of the women couldn't stand it. They started sticking their finger in the socket. Twenty-five percent. Two-thirds of the men couldn't stand to be still and just be with their own minds for fifteen minutes. And they're sticking their finger in the socket. Report an error in the passage at 5:27 Highlight the passage at 5:27

5:50 And in 15 minutes, one of them put his finger in the socket 180 times. Report an error in the passage at 5:50 Highlight the passage at 5:50

5:57 So it's something of an indicator of the times, you know, that there's an addiction here. Some people get addicted to alcohol, to gambling and so forth and so on. The whole atmosphere, the current, the flow of modernity is kind of like the Protestant ethic gone crazy. Report an error in the passage at 5:57 Highlight the passage at 5:57

6:21 Do something. Even if it's completely meaningless, for heaven's sake, do something, don't just sit there. And so we do something, we call it work, and then when we're tuckered out and we do something else, we call it entertainment. And then we become comatose, we fall asleep, and then we wake up to do more work and have more entertainment. So that pretty much edges out yudhamaniya, the actual cultivation of yudhamaniya. Report an error in the passage at 6:21 Highlight the passage at 6:21

6:47 So I'll give a brief analogy and then we'll go right to the practice, but I think it is very significant. A simple practice like mindfulness breathing can be simply a stress reduction technique. It could be useful for all kinds of things, health-wise and so forth and so on. But it can also be a real turning point, the cultivation of this, the cultivation of something as simple, as basic as mindfulness breathing. Report an error in the passage at 6:47 Highlight the passage at 6:47

7:12 I'll give my favorite analogy, and that is imagine a... I understand that your prime minister here is very keen on coal. We have a lot of coal in America. There are whole towns in it. The whole village, the whole town was all built upon, based upon, the economy was based upon their coal production. Well, imagine a village where it's not taking coal out of the ground, but rather burning coal. Report an error in the passage at 7:12 Highlight the passage at 7:12

7:41 So the whole village, the whole economy depends on generating electricity from burning coal. But imagine, though, it's in this scenario, it's a kind of a cartoon, it could actually happen perhaps, Report an error in the passage at 7:41 Highlight the passage at 7:41

7:54 There they are all depending upon this great big coal burning plant. The men, the women, everything is based on that great big. Report an error in the passage at 7:54 Highlight the passage at 7:54

8:05 But it's so fouling the air that many of the children getting sick, the elderly getting sick, lung, pulmonary problems of all kinds, it's really killing them. But it's also keeping them alive because that's where they're getting their income from, right? And you can hardly even see the sun. I mean, just the air quality is so terrible. It's like Beijing or other cities that have terrible air quality. Report an error in the passage at 8:05 Highlight the passage at 8:05

8:28 And so after a while they just kind of think, gosh, maybe there's another way. We're making a living, but this is a living. I mean, we're killing ourselves, dying, lung cancer and emphysema and so forth and so on because of the terrible alcoholity. And so somebody comes in with a bright idea. Why don't we use some of our profits here to put up solar panels, solar panels, so then we can get electricity from a source that's clean and renewable. Report an error in the passage at 8:28 Highlight the passage at 8:28

8:54 And so they save up their money and they... The only problem is the air quality is so terrible. The sunlight hardly filters through. They've got the solar panels up but they're hardly getting anything at all because it's just dark upstairs. So then they feel, ah, okay, we do have an alternative source of energy here but we'll not be able to avail ourselves of that. Can it benefit unless we at least start trimming down the amount of coal that we're burning? Report an error in the passage at 8:54 Highlight the passage at 8:54

9:22 Better air quality, more sunlight comes in. And then maybe we can really get a solution here, but we can't keep this up, otherwise the solar panels are worth nothing. So then they really have to tighten the belt, they have to make some sacrifices. And they do gradually turn down, the air gets clear, they start getting income from the solar panels, then they can turn down the coal more, and then they get more from the solar panels until eventually, with some pain in the process, they completely shut down the coal burning plant. Report an error in the passage at 9:22 Highlight the passage at 9:22

9:53 clean air, good energy, and there's to make a living. That's just an analogy, of course. the analogy is that insofar as, and again, to the extent that we are just fixated on, to flow of stimulation. Report an error in the passage at 9:53 Highlight the passage at 9:53

10:11 There's going to be no play. I mean, we think about it. Genuine happiness is a sense of well-being that arises independent of stimulation, and yet we're always seeking stimulation. So how is that going to work out? Report an error in the passage at 10:11 Highlight the passage at 10:11

10:21 And so... We have two sources of happiness. The type of happiness is pleasure, the hedonic pleasure that comes from stimulation. That's the coal-burning plant. Yes, we get it, but then there's a lot of downsides to it. We're seeing this globally. But as long as that's occupying every thought, every moment of waking day, is more stimulation, more work, more entertainment, more stimulation, work, entertainment and so forth, there's not going to be any time. Report an error in the passage at 10:21 Highlight the passage at 10:21

10:49 And people will say, oh, I'd love to meditate, but I just have no time. I just have no time. Report an error in the passage at 10:49 Highlight the passage at 10:49

10:56 This is completely taken up with other things. It's taken completely up with the pursuit of hedonic pleasure. And that's because that's where the priorities are. But if I say, well, okay, this is really unsatisfying, really unsatisfactory, this way of life. It's giving no satisfaction at all, in fact. And I'm just getting older. And I've had all these hedonic pleasures and they just vanish. They're gone. They're nowhere to be seen. And so maybe I'll cut down on that a little. Report an error in the passage at 10:56 Highlight the passage at 10:56

11:22 Maybe I'll take out 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes in the afternoon. Maybe I'll do something. Maybe I'll try to be... A bit quiet, a bit calmer throughout the course of the day, at least for little interludes. I'm not burning the coal of hedonic pursuits. And a little bit of sunlight shines through, and you gradually open the valve of another type of well-being that's coming from within, that's not stimulus-driven. Report an error in the passage at 11:22 Highlight the passage at 11:22

11:46 And if you pull, that's different. That's actually good. That actually is very serene. It's calming. It's soothing. It's pleasant. Report an error in the passage at 11:46 Highlight the passage at 11:46

11:57 I think I'd actually like to spend a bit more time doing this. Maybe I can spend a little bit less time with stuff that's meaningless, just killing time. Maybe I'll start being a bit more discerning and then I have more time with it. That's becoming more satisfying. And it's not to say that then you spend 16 hours a day practicing meditation, although that's, worse things could happen. Report an error in the passage at 11:57 Highlight the passage at 11:57

12:20 But it is to say that you open up another whole source of well-being that remains blocked off. Islamists were always fixated outwardly on this, that and the other things. And so the mindfulness of breathing is very interesting. It doesn't sound like it is. I mean, breathing in, breathing out, what's interesting about that? But the Buddha really eulogized, spoke with great praise of this practice. Report an error in the passage at 12:20 Highlight the passage at 12:20

12:46 And it is interesting. I've done many thousands of hours of it. There it is, what we're seeking to do, very simply, and we're about to begin, is we're attending to the sensations of the respiration. Report an error in the passage at 12:46 Highlight the passage at 12:46

13:01 Which, generally speaking, are not particularly pleasant. Many other things are. It doesn't provide as many hedonic pleasure. But it's not unpleasant either. It's not painful for most people unless they have serious pulmonary diseases and so on. So it's something that's neutral. It doesn't arouse discomfort or displeasure nor pleasure. Report an error in the passage at 13:01 Highlight the passage at 13:01

13:20 So it's just like a glass of water. It's good. Nothing great about it, but good water. It's what you expect of water. But if you can get through the boredom, and the boredom is cold turkey. Cold turkey, as in not a sandwich, but what people go through when they come off drugs. The boredom, and that is, I'm not getting anything done, I'm not being productive, and this is not entertaining. Report an error in the passage at 13:20 Highlight the passage at 13:20

13:45 This is not arousing any hedonic pleasure at all. This is breathing. But if one persists and gets through that phase, you'll find some interesting things. I've taught this for a long time, I've done it for a long time, since 1970 actually, that insofar as... You really do start to bring forth three qualities. You find that a little valve opens in terms of genuine happiness or well-being. Report an error in the passage at 13:45 Highlight the passage at 13:45

14:18 And the first of these is a degree of ease, of comfort, of looseness and relaxation in the body and the mind that many of us are not accustomed to. We don't learn it in school, we don't learn it in church or synagogue, probably not anywhere else either. And that is learning how to truly be at ease in the body. Report an error in the passage at 14:18 Highlight the passage at 14:18

14:36 Learning how to really let the breath flow unimpededly, effortlessly. We didn't learn that either. It's not part of our education. Too bad. But the sense of ease comes in and one finds, I like that. And then the mind becomes more calm, quieter, more composed. Report an error in the passage at 14:36 Highlight the passage at 14:36

14:58 There's a serenity and a stillness there. One finds that's really not bad at all. It's nice to be able to tap into that at will, the inner quiet, serenity, peacefulness. Report an error in the passage at 14:58 Highlight the passage at 14:58

15:13 So it's relaxation and then it's that. that stillness, that composure. then out of that comes, gradually, There arises just a greater clarity, luminosity, brightness, acuity of awareness. And when that happens, both in meditation as well as between meditation sessions, everything is more interesting. Everything is brighter. Report an error in the passage at 15:13 Highlight the passage at 15:13

15:42 Everything is sharper. Everything is clearer. Nature, other people, your own mind. Everything is more interesting. And then you see there's a synergy among these three qualities, relaxation, stillness and clarity. They start enhancing each other. And then one starts to get the real taste of eudaimonia, a genuine sense of well-being. Report an error in the passage at 15:42 Highlight the passage at 15:42

16:09 And yet what you're attending to, the actual focus of attention in all of this, is something that's neutral, just the sensations of the breath. So it says volumes about the nature of the mind. That if we give the mind a chance, you know, like a wound, if we just give it a chance of keeping it clean, putting the band-aid on, it actually heals itself. We get used to that, but it's quite miraculous, I think. Report an error in the passage at 16:09 Highlight the passage at 16:09

16:32 It actually heals itself. And likewise, the mind, when you give it a chance, the mind is wounded. The mind is injured, I think, for most, if not all of us, just by the way we are, mental afflictions and so on. But also, very specifically, this pace of life that we've all grown accustomed to. He's an old friend of mine. We were monks together more than 40 years ago. Remarkable man. He's become a research psychologist at UCLA in Los Angeles. And he made a comment years ago that I remembered. Report an error in the passage at 16:32 Highlight the passage at 16:32

17:02 Because he's Tibetan, but he's lived in the West a lot. He said, you know, you people living in the West, he was referring to the United States, living in the West, you all have nervous disorders. Your prāṇa system, really. But considering how ill you all are, you're coping remarkably well. Report an error in the passage at 17:02 Highlight the passage at 17:02

17:27 Mindful breathing is among the many techniques the Buddha taught for stabilizing the mind, for developing samādhi. He emphasized this one alone for people whose minds are heavily prone to rumination, compulsive, compulsive, delusional thinking, obsessive, compulsive, delusional thinking. This is the one, because it doesn't grab the mind and yank it and force it to focus on an object, but rather soothes the mind, calms the mind, gentles the mind. Report an error in the passage at 17:27 Highlight the passage at 17:27

17:58 So it gradually calms down. And then in that relaxation, that stillness and clarity, the mind becomes subdued and the mind starts to heal. Report an error in the passage at 17:58 Highlight the passage at 17:58

18:11 So that would be an act of loving kindness for ourselves. So as I mentioned at the outset, there are two ways of cultivating loving kindness. One by meditatively cultivating it and the other by acting in a loving and kind way. So what I'd like to do for this next session is the second. So we'll not be explicitly cultivating loving kindness. Report an error in the passage at 18:11 Highlight the passage at 18:11

18:29 But engaging in a 24-minute session, the aspiration to do something really good for the body and mind, to soothe, to calm, to heal, and do so in a sequential way. So please do find a very comfortable position when you start. May Report an error in the passage at 18:29 Highlight the passage at 18:29

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19:49 you venture into the practice in the spirit of relief, relief of getting out of the head, out of this whole mesh of obsessive and compulsive thinking, letting your awareness descend into the body, down to the soles of the feet, or if you're in the supine position, Right down to the earth element, where the body is in contact with the throne. Report an error in the passage at 19:49 Highlight the passage at 19:49

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20:46 Awareness rise up and fill the whole space of the body, this entire somatic field, right to the crown of the head. Again, there's no need to visualize the body, no mental image is needed, as Report an error in the passage at 20:46 Highlight the passage at 20:46

21:07 you're simply mindfully present throughout the somatic field. You'll feel the fluctuations, you can call it energy if you like, the fluctuations throughout the body corresponding to it in an opera. Report an error in the passage at 21:07 Highlight the passage at 21:07

21:27 With no conceptual commentary needed, no chit-chat needed, simply be aware of the duration of each in and out breath. Report an error in the passage at 21:27 Highlight the passage at 21:27

21:58 See if you can relax more and more deeply, letting go, loosening up the Report an error in the passage at 21:58 Highlight the passage at 21:58

22:24 tension in the body. The Report an error in the passage at 22:24 Highlight the passage at 22:24

22:33 in-breaths gently arouse, arouse your attention. Be very clearly present. There's Report an error in the passage at 22:33 Highlight the passage at 22:33

22:43 nothing to really think about here. Simply maintain a flow of discerning mindfulness, Report an error in the passage at 22:43 Highlight the passage at 22:43

22:52 discerning enough to recognize whether the breath is long or whether it's short. Report an error in the passage at 22:52 Highlight the passage at 22:52

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24:23 This Report an error in the passage at 24:23 Highlight the passage at 24:23

24:26 is the central Report an error in the passage at 24:26 Highlight the passage at 24:26

24:41 theme of this first phase of the practice, Report an error in the passage at 24:41 Highlight the passage at 24:41

24:49 is to relax more and more deeply without losing the clarity of mind with which you began the session. Not to become spaced out, dull or sleepy. Report an error in the passage at 24:49 Highlight the passage at 24:49

25:02 Maintain a mindful presence with a deepening sense of relaxation and ease. Report an error in the passage at 25:02 Highlight the passage at 25:02

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29:15 This obsessive compulsive flow of thinking has a lot of habit, a lot of momentum behind it. It's time to be very patient, but also very persistent. Every time you see that your attention has been carried away by one more wandering thought, try to recognize that as quickly as possible with your faculty of introspection, by which you can monitor the activities of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 29:15 Highlight the passage at 29:15

29:45 And as soon as you see that you've lost your mind, it's been carried away, rather than letting your initial response be frustration, disappointment, sense of failure, rather... Let your first response be to relax. Loosen up. Report an error in the passage at 29:45 Highlight the passage at 29:45

30:10 Release whatever captured your attention, whatever thought or memory it was. And Report an error in the passage at 30:10 Highlight the passage at 30:10

30:18 then with no fuss, return to the present moment, to the breathing here and now. And simply do this again and again, every time your attention is carried away. Report an error in the passage at 30:18 Highlight the passage at 30:18

30:35 Release. Report an error in the passage at 30:35 Highlight the passage at 30:35

· · · silence, 3 minutes

34:03 As soon as you recognize that retrospectively, then refresh your interest in the practice. There may be great value here, but you'll only know if you really focus. Report an error in the passage at 34:03 Highlight the passage at 34:03

34:16 Refresh your interest. Restore your attention in the present moment to the sensations of the breath. Retain that flow of mindfulness. So refresh, restore and retain. In this way you balance your attention. I'll Report an error in the passage at 34:16 Highlight the passage at 34:16

· · · silence, 11 minutes

45:09 read a bit more from the notes, but not for another hour and 15 minutes. So I'll read for a while. We'll see if there's something to discuss. Questions, observations coming up. If not, then we can have an early night of it. Okay, we'll see. Report an error in the passage at 45:09 Highlight the passage at 45:09

45:28 Just returning briefly to this really core theme of hedonic pleasure, genuine happiness. I've had many, many conversations with good friends of mine, very fine scientists, evolutionary biologists, and people who know a lot about it. And in that framework, I mean, really for many people it is kind of like the defining way to view sentient existence. Report an error in the passage at 45:28 Highlight the passage at 45:28

45:56 Darwin pretty much told it all, that that's it. And there's certainly an enormous truth in it, I have no doubt about that at all. But there is a question that is from the co-discoverer of this theory of evolution, Alfred Russell Wallace, who came up with it quite independently. It's an interesting story, but I won't go into it. But he was not nearly as sanguine, as satisfied as Darwin was, that this would really pretty much explain or provide a framework of explanation for every aspect of our existence as Homo sapiens sapiens. Report an error in the passage at 45:56 Highlight the passage at 45:56

46:29 Because for Alfred Russell Wallace, there seemed to be some loose ends for which the jargon's theory, his theory, just didn't provide a satisfactory explanation. And one is he was interested in paranormal activity. And there were people like William James and so forth, also very interested, very open-minded. Report an error in the passage at 46:29 Highlight the passage at 46:29

46:50 And if any of that is true, then evolutionary theory has a lot of truth, but not the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That was one area that he was interested in, but purely as a scientist. He was also very intrigued by the fact that we human beings are so ridiculously intelligent. And that is the, in terms of natural selection, a theme of natural selection is it's parsimonious. Report an error in the passage at 46:50 Highlight the passage at 46:50

47:14 And that is if you can run down your prey by being able to run 20 miles an hour, you will not mutate so that you can run 40 miles an hour. You'll get what you need, but you'll not get excessive amount. And that's for swimming or the size of your, the muscles of your jaws and so forth and so on. You get what you need to survive in a changing environment. Report an error in the passage at 47:14 Highlight the passage at 47:14

47:36 But here we are, we human beings, with this great big frontal cortex and some of us having the ability to come up with general relativity theory and Mozart's symphonies and Rembrandt's and Michelangelo's statues and so on and so on. Skyscrapers, buildings, weapons of massive destruction. Report an error in the passage at 47:36 Highlight the passage at 47:36

48:00 So where is the explanation for that? And I've actually never heard one. I've spoken with some world experts and they said, well, let me kind of change the subject. I Report an error in the passage at 48:00 Highlight the passage at 48:00

48:12 don't really think there's one to be found. I mean, we would have found it by now. And that's why Russell, that is Alfred Russell Wallace, just felt that this is a brilliant theory. I mean, he co-discovered it. He should be happy with it. But there's more to it than that. We're not simply animals here to survive and procreate. Report an error in the passage at 48:12 Highlight the passage at 48:12

48:28 There's something else going on. So he left that with a big question mark. Nature of the mind. And why do we have such extraordinary intelligence? But then if we're so intelligent, and we clearly are, far more intelligent than we possibly need, by a hundred times, a thousand times more intelligent than we possibly need to be to survive and procreate, right? Report an error in the passage at 48:28 Highlight the passage at 48:28

48:48 Cockroaches do better than we do. Alligators are a great success story. Rats are doing extremely well. None of them seem to be remotely as intelligent as we are. So what do we need this intelligence for? And then when we have such intelligence, such massive intelligence, How could the 20th century be such a disaster? With that fantastic growth of knowledge and technology. Now granted, of course, it was not a 100 % disaster. Report an error in the passage at 48:48 Highlight the passage at 48:48

49:15 But two world wars? That's pretty disastrous. The impact on the environment? Catastrophic. Depletion of natural resources? Catastrophic. Wiping out of other species? Catastrophic. A lot of catastrophes. Worst inhumanity of man against man in the whole history of the species. Report an error in the passage at 49:15 Highlight the passage at 49:15

49:34 So something's amiss, something's out of balance there, and it seems to be the same current, the same trend, momentum that we're carrying through into this century. So how can we be so intelligent and so self-destructive? Report an error in the passage at 49:34 Highlight the passage at 49:34

49:48 It's a mystery. But there's another one I find equally interesting, and perhaps even more interesting, just for me personally. And I've never heard anybody else mention it. And it's this. Report an error in the passage at 49:48 Highlight the passage at 49:48

50:00 We seem to have an insatiable appetite for happiness. I had dogs when I was growing up. Many of us do. You know your dogs. You give the dog some food, and then it stops eating when it's no longer hungry, and you play with the dog for a while, and then there's nothing to do, the dog lies down and takes a nap. Report an error in the passage at 50:00 Highlight the passage at 50:00

50:20 It waits to get hungry again, or if it has a chance to mate, that would be fun, but pretty much eating and playing and sleeping, eating, playing, sleeping, and as far as I can tell, our dogs were pretty happy. I saw no existential crises, never saw the dog speaking a little bit in jest, but human beings. Report an error in the passage at 50:20 Highlight the passage at 50:20

50:43 I think what is distinctive about human beings, and I won't speak for other species because I don't know what goes on in their minds, but I have a human mind, and I really know my mind pretty well, I think. It's insatiable. It's not only what we want to be happy, we want to be happier. Now, is that really valuable? Report an error in the passage at 50:43 Highlight the passage at 50:43

51:03 Is that conducive from an evolutionary perspective? Wouldn't it be better when you've mated, you've eaten, to lie down and conserve your energy? Report an error in the passage at 51:03 Highlight the passage at 51:03

51:13 Maybe you're Report an error in the passage at 51:13 Highlight the passage at 51:13

51:19 50 years old, 55. mate again. You may need to run out and get some more food. Maybe there won't be much food. You want all of the energy you have. Report an error in the passage at 51:19 Highlight the passage at 51:19

51:47 Ready to throttle back now and just enjoy your life? Not many. This is good. More is better. And so I find this so interesting. I think it's actually very profound. I think it's true for many people. I suspect it's true for every person here. Report an error in the passage at 51:47 Highlight the passage at 51:47

52:07 If you're already content, if you're already as happy as you wanted to be, what did you come here for? Report an error in the passage at 52:07 Highlight the passage at 52:07

52:18 Wanted to be happier in pursuit. Maybe not even a very clear vision of what that would entail, but something more. Something more. Now when we have 7 billion people, I'm not taking long on this point, but I think this is suggestive of something very deep about human nature. That's what I believe. And that is if our imagination runs only to the hedonic, you've made your first million by the time you're 30, now you're only 30 years old and you've got a million bucks. Report an error in the passage at 52:18 Highlight the passage at 52:18

52:49 It's not that much these days, but you know, it's not peanuts. You're probably happier than you were when you were still struggling, having a hard time paying bills and so forth. Now you've got a million, okay, that's pretty reasonably secure. Report an error in the passage at 52:49 Highlight the passage at 52:49

53:03 But you want to be happier. Two million would be better. And you get two million. This is good, but it's not that rich in these days. Two million. Five million gets it kind of significant. Ten million would be better. By the time you're ten million, you can say, I'm a pretty rich guy. A hundred million, then you can really relax. Report an error in the passage at 53:03 Highlight the passage at 53:03

53:22 Because then you know, boy, I'm set for life. With luxuries. But two hundred million will make it even cushier. And a billion, then you're one of the billionaire club. There's a nice round figure that's a thousand million. Report an error in the passage at 53:22 Highlight the passage at 53:22

53:38 But then, of course, there's the Steve Jobs and the Carlos Slims and so forth. They're up in the stratosphere. It'd be nice to be in that elite group. That'd be even better. And so when the imagination is limited by quantities, then it's just more. Report an error in the passage at 53:38 Highlight the passage at 53:38

53:58 I bet those 85 are not satisfied. They'd like to have more. Report an error in the passage at 53:58 Highlight the passage at 53:58

54:07 But so easily satisfied when it comes to Eudaimonia. I have many Mexican friends. Many, many, because I go there regularly. Report an error in the passage at 54:07 Highlight the passage at 54:07

54:18 The richest man in the world is Carlos Slim, the Mexican. Something like 60 billion. He's more wealthy than the Microsoft guy, Bill Gates. Report an error in the passage at 54:18 Highlight the passage at 54:18

54:31 I've seen him on television. He seems very glamour, very heavy, kind of heavy, just in appearance. But I asked, well, here's this guy. Why is he wealthier than Bill Gates? Because Bill Gates gives away a lot of his money. Carlos Slim doesn't. He doesn't give away his money. Report an error in the passage at 54:31 Highlight the passage at 54:31

54:50 In a country where 60 % of the people live below the poverty line. But he wants more. And so such an individual, if what I've said is true, That's what I've been told. Report an error in the passage at 54:50 Highlight the passage at 54:50

55:05 satiated when it comes to eudaimonia, he feels very little impulse, very little satisfaction of giving away, because I just, now I have less, I spent my whole life getting more, so why would I want to walk backwards? My life is about walking forwards, not backwards, and if I give away some money, if it's not an investment, then I just took a step backwards. Why would I do that? There's no satisfaction in that at all. Report an error in the passage at 55:05 Highlight the passage at 55:05

55:27 So kind of like a thimble full of eudaimonia. the truckload of hedonism. And yet, where's the actual happiness? So the point I'm getting at is, there's a phrase from Tsongkhapa, one of the great Tibetan masters, and he says when it comes to listening to the Dharma, reflecting upon the Dharma, practicing Dharma, he says, be insatiable, be insatiable, right? Report an error in the passage at 55:27 Highlight the passage at 55:27

55:55 Be insatiable. Never enough. Never enough. And especially for the monastic ideal, this phrase, Be satisfied with that which is merely crying. Just, you know, okay, okay, be satisfied there. For the hedonic, be satisfied with something quite simple. It's clean, it's neat, but nothing special. Nothing special. Be satisfied there. And so you can turn all of your attention to the yodamaniya, to practicing dharma, to going deeper and deeper and never be satiated until you're fully awakened, until you become a Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 55:55 Highlight the passage at 55:55

56:32 So in modernity we often turn that around. Total satiation, to the point that almost don't care at all. I may watch it, I don't know. But the trailer is, we've completely sucked this earth dry. There's just nothing there, it's just a dust bowl. But the rich people get in rockets and they go to fly to the nearest planet to do it all over again. Leaving all the poor people behind, eating dust. Report an error in the passage at 56:32 Highlight the passage at 56:32

57:17 I'm sure it's a very entertaining movie. Report an error in the passage at 57:17 Highlight the passage at 57:17

57:22 So where does our satisfaction lie? But isn't this interesting though? We're all equally human beings. I have a special insight here. But the insatiability that we're not satisfied. We want more. Something more. And so for me, I was already totally dissatisfied when I was 20. I had everything I wanted. I mean, I had a car, a beautiful girlfriend, good education, loving parents, really wonderful upbringing. I mean, it was really a really good life. Report an error in the passage at 57:22 Highlight the passage at 57:22

57:50 And I didn't want it. Report an error in the passage at 57:50 Highlight the passage at 57:50

57:55 It just provided no satisfaction. And the notion that I would have more money and that would make me happier, or two girlfriends, or a bigger car. Well, I had more imagination than that. So for me, leaving, heading off to India with a one-way ticket was easy. Because it was hopeless. I saw no chance. Zero chance. Report an error in the passage at 57:55 Highlight the passage at 57:55

58:14 I couldn't even imagine it. I find a dissatisfaction I was seeking within the matrix that I had been brought up in the first 20 years of my life. It was dissatisfaction. It was wanting to be happier. And if anybody looked at my life and said, what on earth do you have to be unhappy about? You're healthy, you're kind of okay looking, you're kind of good looking, beautiful girlfriend, nice car, loving parents, excellent education. Report an error in the passage at 58:14 Highlight the passage at 58:14

58:38 And I was planning to devote my whole life to a career in ecology, wildlife biology. Report an error in the passage at 58:38 Highlight the passage at 58:38

58:45 Break. What more do you want, guy? You got everything. It's on a silver spoon. And you're turning your nose up and walking away? The answer is yeah. Wanted something more. Report an error in the passage at 58:45 Highlight the passage at 58:45

58:59 So I found a culture to say, well, you want something more? Stick around. But don't look out there for it. So maybe this is telling something very deep about our nature. I mean, that's my working hypothesis. This is not a bad thing. It's not a bad thing to want more, to want to be happier, and always to want to be one. Report an error in the passage at 58:59 Highlight the passage at 58:59

59:22 If it gets misdirected, then that will lead to our demise. Tremendous tragedy for the planet, other species included. But if we turn it to the one place where there's actually some hope that we can be satisfied, there's no downside. And when that happens, you tend to be very content with just a modest amount on the outside of hedonic, because that's enough, but insatiable going inside and looking for the true sources of happiness. Report an error in the passage at 59:22 Highlight the passage at 59:22

59:51 So is this true? Is it true? Why do we have such intelligence? And why do we have such a desire, such an appetite for finding greater happiness, greater sense of fulfillment, of meaning? And I think it has to do with our own nature, our deepest nature. In Buddhism we call it Buddha nature. That at our core, there's something calling out to us, calling all the way through up to the conscious mind. Report an error in the passage at 59:51 Highlight the passage at 59:51

1:00:20 There's more. And I'm not going to let you off the hook. I'm not going to let you off the hook until you come to your own source, come to your own core, identify who you are. You realize your full potential. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:20 Highlight the passage at 1:00:20

1:00:38 And you can get blocked, you can get stagnated, you can fall into a swamp of thinking it's sex, it's money, it's prestige, it's acquisition, it's power, it's influence, it's status and so forth. You can get stuck for a while. But sooner or later, who was it? Gwyneth Paltrow. She's one of those ones that got it all, isn't she? Very beautiful, very talented, very good family, very rich, very much loved. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:38 Highlight the passage at 1:00:38

1:01:04 Like everything, right? Gwyneth Paltrow, everybody knows who she is. A-list actress. She made a comment. She's still quite young. She's made a comment. She said, if all you have is wealth, beauty and celebrity status, you don't have much. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:04 Highlight the passage at 1:01:04

1:01:22 So interesting enigmas about our human existence worth to investigate and not be satisfied with easy answers. So just wrapping up on this theme, eudaimonia, this ancient and perennial wisdom that we find cropping up in multiple philosophies. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:22 Highlight the passage at 1:01:22

1:01:43 We're finding, cropping up in science as well. There's something quite wonderful about that. Just as kindness cuts through all the borders, so does the ideal of eudaimonia, pursuit of eudaimonia. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:43 Highlight the passage at 1:01:43

1:01:55 It's not just ancient or just modern. It's not East or West. It's not just religion or just science. It's cutting across all these borders, suggesting there's something very deep, very perennial here, something that can unify us, unify people with... For example, people with different religious beliefs, and they can be very, very different as we know, and let alone atheists to religious people. Many, many differences, a lot of bloodshed, a lot of antagonism and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:55 Highlight the passage at 1:01:55

1:02:20 But if we keep on coming back to eudaimonia, cultivating our own and helping others find eudaimonia, that can unify. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:20 Highlight the passage at 1:02:20

1:02:31 Now we can ask what's relationship, because we have these two modes of happiness or pleasure. The hedonic, which includes basic things, enormously important things like food, clothing, shelter. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:31 Highlight the passage at 1:02:31

1:02:45 Medical care. So food, clothing, shelter, medical care when we need it, when we're injured or sick. And then in this 21st century, there's a fifth one. It wasn't always necessary, but nowadays it pretty much is, and that's education. Education. 17th century, 18th century, you could get by without it. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:45 Highlight the passage at 1:02:45

1:03:03 You just do what your parents did. Take over the farm, take over the bakery, take over, you know. You don't need an education. Your dad's going to teach you how to bake bread. Your mom's going to teach you, you know, whatever. But now, by the time 20, 21st century, well, education, it's really hard to flourish without it. So those five things, well, they're all hedonic. They're all hedonic. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:03 Highlight the passage at 1:03:03

1:03:22 But then none of us here doubts how important they are. But also, we also don't doubt that simply getting more and more and more, more and more food, so you can, what, eat six meals a day? More and more clothing. What, are you going to be, like, wearing six suits at the same time? The Dalai Lama heard about somebody who owns a $100 million, 100-room mansion in Montana. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:22 Highlight the passage at 1:03:22

1:03:44 And he responded, you know, that's unethical. How many rooms can you be in at one time? So, very important, at the same time, if one hits an imagination blockage and you think, well, I'm really happy now that I have a three-room house, then thinking I'll be twice as happy if I have a six-room house and a twelve-room house and so forth, then of course you've gone into a loop, just like a computer that's gone crazy, just looping around. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:44 Highlight the passage at 1:03:44

1:04:10 But what is a relationship? And we see this, we see that this wisdom crops up everywhere. Thomas Aquinas, the great, brilliant Christian theologian, kicked off the latter part of the medieval era, just prior to the Renaissance. He made a comment, I quote him almost verbatim, he said, the whole point of the political life is the contemplative life. The whole point of the political life is the contemplative life. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:10 Highlight the passage at 1:04:10

1:04:32 By political life, he didn't mean simply politics, as in being in government. He means things like education, health. I think that should be asked much more commonly in modern education. Once you get an education, what was that really for? Is it simply so you can get a job, get old and die? Maybe have some kids so they can do the same thing and their kids can do the same thing and the same thing? Report an error in the passage at 1:04:32 Highlight the passage at 1:04:32

1:05:09 Is that really what it's all about? That we're just eating a lot of food and creating a lot of feces? Report an error in the passage at 1:05:09 Highlight the passage at 1:05:09

1:05:17 What's it all for? And Thomas Aquinas, brilliant as he was, he said, well, the whole point of that is the contemplative life and that is you have the hedonic. You get yourself set, so you're not filled with anxiety, you're not worrying, you're not in debt and so forth. You get that taken care of, you get some leisure, and then you don't piss it away with just entertainment or more work or trying to get more and more of the same. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:17 Highlight the passage at 1:05:17

1:05:39 You say, ah, good, especially when you get a little bit older, your kids are somewhat taken care of. You say, ah, good, now I can really go for the contemplative life. And that's the cultivation of eudaimonia. So what's the point of hedonia? Eudaimonia. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:39 Highlight the passage at 1:05:39

1:05:53 To take care of your material needs, your mundane needs, ever so important, but in order to devote yourself to the contemplative life, the dharmic life, the cultivation of ethics, samādhi and wisdom. So there's a real sequence there. But one is in the service of the other. And what happens in the modern world ever so often is yoga and meditation are put in the service of hedonia, more productivity in the marketplace. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:53 Highlight the passage at 1:05:53

1:06:21 One friend of mine quoted a woman who's apparently very high in the positive psychology. psychology movement she has, she's very very popular but I think probably quite charismatic it's all about being happy Report an error in the passage at 1:06:21 Highlight the passage at 1:06:21

1:06:34 raised a question. why do you want to be happy? She asked the audience, why do you want to be happy? then she answered a question. Happy people make more Report an error in the passage at 1:06:34 Highlight the passage at 1:06:34

1:06:46 So what? Report an error in the passage at 1:06:46 Highlight the passage at 1:06:46

1:06:58 I find that very meaningful. So we're not dismissing, we're not kind of looking down our noses at people who are trying to make a living, trying to take care of their children. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:58 Highlight the passage at 1:06:58

1:07:08 Absolutely not. Maybe feel compassion for people who just kind of never know when enough is enough. Not condescension, but compassion. You're following something that will never give you that satisfaction you see. So I hope you wake up soon. So, implications of this I think are enormous, but I won't elaborate on that anymore. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:08 Highlight the passage at 1:07:08

1:07:33 I'll simply quote a statement that's very, very commonly stated or cited in the Mahāyāna tradition of Buddhism. I'm paraphrasing it here, but it's very, very close. Wisdom without compassion is bondage and compassion without wisdom is bondage. Wisdom, the word wisdom also means intelligence. It's prajna. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:33 Highlight the passage at 1:07:33

1:07:54 So it's a mental factor, it's simply intelligence. It's a good translation, it means exactly intelligence. But when it reaches to a sublime level, like the perfection of prajna, prajna paramita, well then we call it wisdom. But we're still just cultivating it. It's a mental factor, it's intelligence. I've spent a lot of time in academia and I know a lot of really smart people. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:54 Highlight the passage at 1:07:54

1:08:15 In academia, I went to really good schools, so a lot of smart people there. It's really obvious that there are people out there who are extremely erudite, knowledgeable, sharp, really bright bondage. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:15 Highlight the passage at 1:08:15

1:08:37 No heart, no real warmth, no real kindness, no virtues of the heart. I mean, I can't say no, but clearly lopsided. That happens a lot. And it also happens a lot, especially in the helping professions, social work, medicine, nursing. Taking care of children, taking care of the elderly and so forth, where there's really good heart. There's really good heart. But then burnout. Really common, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:08:37 Highlight the passage at 1:08:37

1:09:04 Best of intentions, good intentions, impeccable intentions. Just getting drained, drained, drained, encountering in many cases so much suffering that after a while you become inured to it. You just can't bear that amount and you have to put up some kind of a barrier. I just can't look this person quite in the eyes because I think my soul will collapse. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:04 Highlight the passage at 1:09:04

1:09:29 And so there's compassion there. And not a lack of intelligence. I'm not at all suggesting such that people who get burnt out are unintelligent. But maybe they could do with a bit more wisdom. And Report an error in the passage at 1:09:29 Highlight the passage at 1:09:29

1:09:43 so I think this is a very profound statement. The wisdom-intelligence without compassion, without the good heart, without skillful means, is what the text actually says. It's bondage. You're trapped. But if all you have is the skillful means, the techniques, the methods, the motivation and so forth, but you don't have the wisdom, that too can be bondage. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:43 Highlight the passage at 1:09:43

1:10:03 And so this theme for these six days is really cultivating more of the compassion, but we're not going to just go over entirely on the compassion side, but as we turn from one to the next of these four measurables, try to bring in as much wisdom, understanding, intelligence as we possibly can. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:03 Highlight the passage at 1:10:03

1:10:22 And that highlights a point that's right here in the notes, and that is in the modern world, and frankly, contemplatively speaking, we're in a very primitive era. Much of the richness of the Christian tradition, the dominant one, © BF-WATCH TV 2021 so forth. dominant religion, of course, is Christianity, and tremendous benefit, some limitations to be sure, but a lot of benefit. But unfortunately, the richness of the Christian contemplative tradition went down as science went up, really from the time of Galileo. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:22 Highlight the passage at 1:10:22

1:10:53 It really down, down, down, and up goes science. And so there's a certain trade-off there, but it's a shame, I think, because I've studied the Christian contemplative tradition a fair amount. I find it immensely rich, very meaningful, but it's hard to find anywhere these days. Very few people teaching and practicing and so forth. And Judaism also, I mean, it's again also a very rich tradition, the Kabbalah, very, very deep, but not many practitioners of it, not many people with deep realization. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:53 Highlight the passage at 1:10:53

1:11:24 So not a whole lot in our modern Western civilization in terms of contemplative. And when the term meditation comes up, often now it's equated with mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:24 Highlight the passage at 1:11:24

1:11:36 Again, it's often kind of simplified. I mean, I've seen in many, many cases in the media referring to meditation as one thing. When you enter the meditative state, you're like, there's one. And when you practice meditation, like there's one. I've seen this many, many times in, you know, not silly journals or types of media. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:36 Highlight the passage at 1:11:36

1:11:54 So it's very, very crude. It's very primitive, very uninformed. I mean, almost all of it is. That meditation... The term meditation in Buddhism is about as rich as the term scientific method is in science. Well, it's a nice generalization, but what are you referring to? Biology, geology, cosmology, cell biology, DNA? Which scientific method? The word meditation is equally diverse and rich. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:54 Highlight the passage at 1:11:54

1:12:20 And so simply to state the obvious, meditation in the Buddhist context is not simply a matter of stilling the mind or getting centered, quieting the mind. It's simply being mindful, being here and now. Oh, that's good. But that's like saying all of physics basically consists of rolling balls down a ramp to see whether they accelerate or go at constant velocity. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:20 Highlight the passage at 1:12:20

1:12:41 That's a good way to start. There's more. And so there is a role for that. We will be returning to the shamana practices again and again to make the mind serviceable, stable, clear. Very, very good. But then coupling this with the cultivation of these four measurables. But again, it's not simply cultivating aspirations, let alone simply emotions. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:41 Highlight the passage at 1:12:41

1:13:06 But these aspirations take on depth, they take on wisdom. Through the cultivation of these, it actually starts to alter our way of viewing reality. Not simply our belief system, but the way we actually view reality, attend to reality. Then it starts to take on some real depth. So that's where I find this teaching immensely rich. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:06 Highlight the passage at 1:13:06

1:13:29 Maybe I'll tackle just one more. Yeah. So right there in the middle of page three, the first page of the notes. In the notes, this is kind of notes to me, but I know what it means. development versus discovery of the more immeasurable. This also is very deep and also really raises profound issues about human nature. What is our nature? What is it to be a human being? What is that all about? Report an error in the passage at 1:13:29 Highlight the passage at 1:13:29

1:13:55 Especially as we try to cut through the various layers, layers, you know, so people, who are you? And some people say, well, I'm an architect or I'm a father or I'm this woman's husband or I'm this person's son or I'm an American. And so that question is right there in the background in the following point and that is... Report an error in the passage at 1:13:55 Highlight the passage at 1:13:55

1:14:40 Through the practices that we'll engage in for these six days, we've begun with that one meditation with the four questions. We're beginning. We're beginning. To raise the questions about, well, if you're seeking happiness, that's good. What does that mean, by the way? If you wish yourself well, and this is loving kindness for the self, explicitly endorsed in the Buddhist teachings and the Theravāda, cultivating loving kindness from the self and then extending outward, outward until all barriers are broken down. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:40 Highlight the passage at 1:14:40

1:15:07 So it's a Buddhist practice. It's not something new age or just something dreamed up recently. But when you wish yourself well, cultivating love and kindness for yourself, what do you have in mind when you say, may I be well and happy, may I flourish, may I find happiness? What comes to mind? And it's not like there's a right answer and a wrong answer, but it is a question, what comes to mind? What is your vision? And clearly that's where wisdom may come in, or it may not. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:07 Highlight the passage at 1:15:07

1:15:35 That's kind of a big deal. So with these four, we try to bring as much understanding, insight to bear, that we develop a more mature vision of what our flourishing is. If you ask a five-year-old, or if I ask my ten-year-old, nine-year-old, he's still nine years, grandson, what would make you really happy? Video games. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:35 Highlight the passage at 1:15:35

1:15:53 He loves video games. They all do, it seems. And then maybe some flippers, because he likes swimming, you know, swim fins. And what else? What else? Well, he'll tell you his Christmas list. What would make you really happy? Maybe he'd like to go on a vacation with his mom and dad. Maybe he hopes his mom and dad get together again because they're split up. What would make you really happy? And then we get a bit older. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:53 Highlight the passage at 1:15:53

1:16:15 You go, you know, multiply. Oh, so now you're 18. And now what would make you really happy? And undoubtedly it's not going to be swim pits. It'll be something. But when does that stop? When do we stop maturing our vision of what would really make you happy? And my suggestion is we should never stop. Keep on going back to the kitchen and revisit, revisit. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:15 Highlight the passage at 1:16:15

1:16:39 What's your vision today? What's the vision today? What's the vision six days from now? What's your vision? What would really make you happy? And to consider this is not a trivial question. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:39 Highlight the passage at 1:16:39

1:16:51 So these four measurables we are here, it's called, for example, when it comes to loving kindness, many of you know the Pāli term is mettā bhavana. Mettā is Pāli for loving kindness. And bhavana is the term, standardly translated, well translated, as meditation. Meditation. But bhavana means actually cultivation. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:51 Highlight the passage at 1:16:51

1:17:10 Cultivation, like the same word for cultivating a field, cultivating the field of your mind, cultivating your heart. It's cultivating qualities, aspirations, ways of attending that weren't there before. But you learn about them, you understand them, and then you cultivate them. That's meditation. So one can say the whole of education from preschool onwards is a type of meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:10 Highlight the passage at 1:17:10

1:17:35 You're cultivating knowledge, understanding, critical skills, creative skills. Social skills, hopefully some ethical skills, you're cultivating qualities, understanding abilities and so forth you didn't have before. So meditation, I mean, so often, you know, I engage with a lot of secular people, of course, and somebody was just telling me, you say the word meditation, somebody was telling me, I think it was a day yesterday, that such and such people are really interested in developing certain qualities, but not meditation and nothing religious. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:35 Highlight the passage at 1:17:35

1:18:08 I'm speaking at a conference next spring in London. to a whole bunch of high-level CEOs, really big wigs, big shots. And the organizer of the conference said, Alan, a lot of these people have a really negative attitude towards religion, so don't talk about religion, okay? Report an error in the passage at 1:18:08 Highlight the passage at 1:18:08

1:18:23 don't want to hear about religion. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:23 Highlight the passage at 1:18:23

1:18:27 Meditation sounds too much like religion. Slippery slope. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:27 Highlight the passage at 1:18:27

1:18:37 Don't have to use the word religion, don't have to use the word meditation. You can use the word cultivation. That's okay. It doesn't have a stigma around it yet. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:37 Highlight the passage at 1:18:37

1:18:48 And so these four cultivations, mettā bhavana, karuṇā bhavana, udita bhavana, upeksha bhavana, cultivation of these four, starting with loving-kindness, that's when one's looking at it. And it's a reason, let's say, a sound way of looking at it. That one may feel, one may, I'm not pointing any direction, finger to any direction, of course, but one may feel that when one first ventures into such practice, feeling, well, I think I'm kind of a bit of an introvert. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:48 Highlight the passage at 1:18:48

1:19:16 Not that much sense of connection, not a whole lot of warmth for the people. I'm kind of more of a cool cucumber. So I would like to cultivate these qualities that I feel I don't really have much. Some people might feel that way. Understandable, that's good. Cultivate. Just like cultivating better attention skills, cultivating mindfulness. Good, that's good. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:16 Highlight the passage at 1:19:16

1:19:36 So there's one way of viewing it, and that is you have the capacity of the potential. Just like you have the potential for learning German. If you really put your mind to it, you can learn German. It's not that hard. You may not know German now, but give it a sufficient time and you'll cultivate the ability. You'll increase your Wortschatz and your grammar and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:36 Highlight the passage at 1:19:36

1:19:57 You can learn it, right? And so likewise, you can learn it, you can develop this quality. That's one way of looking at it. But it's not the only way. There's a way in which these four are not like German. And that is if you go very deep in meditation and you just go deeper into a state of inner quiet. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:57 Highlight the passage at 1:19:57

1:20:18 Calm, serenity, clarity, luminosity. You just descend into the depths of your being. I've taught meditation for a long time now, so I've seen this, I've witnessed this many times in my own practice, but most importantly, other people. Many times, people would be doing something as simple, as neutral as following their breath, which is not a cultivation of loving kindness, it's just mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:18 Highlight the passage at 1:20:18

1:20:44 I've heard this many times. The mind becomes calm, lucid, still, bright. And then, kind of like a wave, an effulgence, an upsurge of kindness, loving kindness comes up. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:44 Highlight the passage at 1:20:44

1:21:06 If it only happened once, I think, oh, it's an anomaly, whatever. No, it's many times. Many, many times. Simply by going deep into our own nature, into a deep, quiet serenity, but with clarity. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:06 Highlight the passage at 1:21:06

1:21:18 Going down beneath all the layers of sedimentation. I'm a man, I'm American, I'm educated, I'm this, I'm that, I'm blah, blah, blah. Just cutting right down through. And then something rising up to meet us from the depths beyond our ken and finding, oh, I just discovered something. I remember one woman in particular was leading an eight-week retreat in Phuket. I've done it eight times now. And this woman, quite interesting, very intelligent, highly intelligent, about 55. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:18 Highlight the passage at 1:21:18

1:21:48 She regarded herself as an alpha, alpha female, a leader, a take-charge kind of person. She was very capable. I think she ran a business. She told me, because I meet with everybody once a week when I'm leading these retreats, she told me of herself, I don't regard myself as a very warm-hearted person. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:48 Highlight the passage at 1:21:48

1:22:11 I'm very capable, I can take charge, I'm competent, I'm honest, I'm hardworking, I'm productive, I'm a cuddly type. That was her self-image based upon her perception of herself. Fair enough, isn't it? Very straight, very honest. And she was practicing like everybody else, six, seven, eight hours a day. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:11 Highlight the passage at 1:22:11

1:22:35 Mindfulness of breathing, as I recall. She came in for one of our weekly meetings and her face was kind of like shining. I don't want to exaggerate anything, but there was something, definitely a sparkle there. An Report an error in the passage at 1:22:35 Highlight the passage at 1:22:35

1:22:50 experience this week, this past week, that's changed my sense of who I am. Practicing mindfulness of breathing. It could be other techniques. There's nothing magical about this one. I practiced mindfulness of breathing. My mind became very still, very quiet. And then just out of nowhere, this loving kindness flowed. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:50 Highlight the passage at 1:22:50

1:23:11 And it was unconditional. It was just like one of those sprinklers that just sprays them all directly, like watering the lawn all the way around. It was just going to everyone around. It's just a sense of kindness, of warmth, of affection. And it was not abstract. It was something very heartfelt. She said, she looked at me with this happy smile. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:11 Highlight the passage at 1:23:11

1:23:33 She said, I never knew I had it in me. I never knew that was there. And I don't know how long it will take before that comes back again, because it didn't come by, you know, by being very clever. It just came up. But she says, now I don't view myself in the same way. That didn't come from outside. That came from inside. And that means it was already there. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:33 Highlight the passage at 1:23:33

1:23:56 And all I need to do is unveil it. So from one perspective, we can say, I'd like to cultivate a greater sense of warmth, of kindness, of affection, greater sympathy, greater compassion, greater empathy. I'd like to cultivate that. That's good. There's no downside to that. That's one side of the coin. But the other side of the coin is... Report an error in the passage at 1:23:56 Highlight the passage at 1:23:56

1:24:18 These qualities are already there. We're not conjuring them up with a certain discursive flow like we did in that four questions. So concepts, right? Well, loving kindness doesn't come out of concepts. It doesn't come out of mental imagery. It doesn't come out of the breadth. It doesn't come out of any of the constituents, the parts, the instructions for the meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:18 Highlight the passage at 1:24:18

1:24:43 They're just instructions. They're just doing something. It doesn't come out of that level. But rather that level is more... A way of aligning your mind so that something from a much deeper space can flow up. And when you're up here, it looks like you're cultivating it. But when you're down here, it looks like it's simply being unveiled. So we can have two questions. I love these two questions. Right after I finish this, and then it will be yours. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:43 Highlight the passage at 1:24:43

1:25:10 Oh, questions. Very good. I see you're an eager beaver, and I'm delighted with that. So I'm going to wrap up to make sure we have time for questions, because I wasn't sure there would be any. So I'm about to wrap up. But there are two questions that are really juicy. I think you'll like them. Here's one question. And these are both good questions, I think. Totally good questions. Here's the first question. I know of these four immeasurables. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:10 Highlight the passage at 1:25:10

1:25:32 They're really sublime. They really are truly sublime virtues of the heart, regardless of your world system. I would say if there are human beings under galaxies, it'll be good for them too. Really, this is universal. I can't imagine a galaxy where loving kindness would be a really bad idea. And so, given that, the universality of the sheer obvious goodness, of cultivating these four qualities and virtues of What can I do to experience these more deeply, more broadly, more richly? Report an error in the passage at 1:25:32 Highlight the passage at 1:25:32

1:26:05 What can I do? It's a good question. And the answer is, cultivate them. But that's not the only question. Here's another question. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:05 Highlight the passage at 1:26:05

1:26:16 These are sublime virtues of the heart. I'd love to realize them more fully. What can I stop doing that I'm already doing that's impeding? The spontaneous outflow of these qualities that already are part of my identity, deeply within my own awareness. What can I stop doing so that I stop blocking them? Now, there are many things that block them, and it's not a big mystery. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:16 Highlight the passage at 1:26:16

1:26:45 If, just in terms of the operations of my mind, what's going on in my mind throughout the course of the day, just thoughts, desires, hopes, fears and so forth, we can wait, we can watch, we can see what's going on. And insofar as... Insofar as the thoughts, the hopes, fears, aspirations and so forth are basically, that's going to block it. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:45 Highlight the passage at 1:26:45

1:27:10 That's going to block it. Right? Because I won't be thinking about Rondo or about anybody else here. That is, the loving kind is not going to flow. Because I'm just thinking about I, me, mine. And I, me, mine, what? Well, my job and my career and my reputation and my, you know, me and mine and I want. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:10 Highlight the passage at 1:27:10

1:27:33 That's going to put a cork in it. It won't even necessarily open up loving kindness for myself because I'm so fixated on all the stuff I want, the hedonic. So it's going to be whatever kind of loving kindness there is on a very superficial level. But also then when I attend to other people, I'll be thinking, there's Rhonda over there. What can she do for me? Report an error in the passage at 1:27:33 Highlight the passage at 1:27:33

1:27:52 Because I want this and this and this. I bet I can get her to do this. And that person over there. I'll be looking around at all these people that I could be using to satisfy my memory. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:52 Highlight the passage at 1:27:52

1:28:08 I'm the biggest loser. never find any happiness that way. And so it's Report an error in the passage at 1:28:08 Highlight the passage at 1:28:08

1:28:37 a matter of temperament. I will end here. But as I said earlier, there are ways... The cultivation through action may be more effective. They don't have to visualize people. They're actually encountering people. They don't have to imagine their hopes, their fears, their challenges and so forth. They're seeing them. They're seeing them in the school. They're seeing them in the refugee camp. They're seeing them in the hospital, the home for the elderly. They're seeing it. It's in their face. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:37 Highlight the passage at 1:28:37

1:29:13 For some people, that may be the most effective way for cultivating these four. And for others, by temperament, it may be like some yogis I know have gone off to the mountains for 10, 20, 30 years. Truly cultivating, really deeply, deeply cultivating, different ways. And likewise for modality, which question will be the one that really stirs your heartstrings? Report an error in the passage at 1:29:13 Highlight the passage at 1:29:13

1:29:38 And that is, what can I do? For some people, that's the question. And then they leap at the answer. Great, I want to do that. I want to do that. In other ones, it's what can I stop doing? And they don't leap anywhere. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:38 Highlight the passage at 1:29:38

1:29:59 Neither of these is better. Matter of temperament, face, you know, all good. So that's all I have to share. We have a half an hour. And please now, since I did hear about 50 names all in a row, if you could tell me your name again, and after one or two repetitions, I might actually remember it. I remember you as a person, but you're not your name. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:59 Highlight the passage at 1:29:59

1:30:20 Done yet? Yes, thank you. Please, and we'll have the mic and we'll stay here until 9 o'clock for questions or observations. I'm so glad that you brought up, I'm very glad you brought up these evolutionary perspectives. Because I have a few questions, and I'm hoping that you can me out of this that I'm stuck in. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:20 Highlight the passage at 1:30:20

1:30:41 Before I ask you a question, you mentioned about the importance of artists. A recent hypothesis that I heard from Kelly Romano, who also knows this matter, I don't know if you can see She was mentioning how it evolved to help regulate emotions, and maybe it wasn't different, but as a religious system, honestly, it's more to satisfy very elementary necessities of life. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:41 Highlight the passage at 1:30:41

1:31:08 And then the prefrontal cortex evolved to help regulate these urges to help live in society. That is maybe something that I agree you might comment on later. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:08 Highlight the passage at 1:31:08

1:31:22 if we just go after our urges to live society. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:22 Highlight the passage at 1:31:22

1:31:28 prefrontal cortex was selected for increased fitness by being able to socialize with people. But my question, you can comment on that, I'll answer that one next, but my question was, Report an error in the passage at 1:31:28 Highlight the passage at 1:31:28

1:31:40 idea of positive emotions, I don't get why we do this, and this is the reason why I don't understand why, and because I don't understand why, I am resistant to doing so. So all the emotions, Report an error in the passage at 1:31:40 Highlight the passage at 1:31:40

1:31:56 have the evolved, increased fitness, People are able to do that. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:56 Highlight the passage at 1:31:56

1:32:07 And there's no function in the qualia, right? It's the literal basis of any conscious experience that is a function of fact and aid, etc. So there's no consciousness that is phenomenal according to this framework. that be love, kindness, or anger, They have no causative power? Report an error in the passage at 1:32:07 Highlight the passage at 1:32:07

1:32:32 have no causative power? Yeah, it's a neural basis that has a... The neural basis was left for, rather than a conscious experience, which consciously can be phenomenal, as you are very excited to explain it, right? So now I'm mentioning this because I feel that you cannot stop me from this. So because I was trained in this way of thinking, whenever you say, right away a study comes up. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:32 Highlight the passage at 1:32:32

1:32:59 So the purpose of, the only reason I see so far cultivated post-emotion is that, okay, accelerating post-emotion, so aging is those that, you know. Cultivating positive emotion and loving-kindness meditation in the plenum or in the glass, the immune system, and it helps very well in the prefrontal cortex when it's better in the studies, you know, they're able to perform better tasks. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:59 Highlight the passage at 1:32:59

1:33:27 So, okay, that's a benefit. It helps meditation, apparently. It helps meditation. But other than that, I don't... It's a lot of words, so I'd rather not cultivate this. But obviously, the reason why I'm asking is because I do. So, could you explain to me what your understanding and framework is about this nature of consciousness or feelings? Report an error in the passage at 1:33:27 Highlight the passage at 1:33:27

1:34:01 Because for me, they're just an adaptive, self-adapting purpose to the survival of species. And I'm fine with letting go. So I have this belief that it can all be liberated. So if cultivating positive emotion now can help us to un-move and extinguish the lie, I have that okay. So I'm fine with this fact of letting go, but I still don't get where this cultivation of cultivating positive emotion fits in. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:01 Highlight the passage at 1:34:01

1:34:36 Oh, and also in terms of following the pleasure of Michelle Kavanagh, I think I understand. They really got to you. They really pulled a number on you. It's too bad that in getting training as a neuroscientist they don't distinguish fact from fiction. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:36 Highlight the passage at 1:34:36

1:35:15 In fact, from metaphysical belief, they give it to you all in the same drink. I find that, I mean, I so enjoy that you can say that with a smile. increase my pleasure, I was Report an error in the passage at 1:35:15 Highlight the passage at 1:35:15

1:35:46 Because I find it, you know, I'm also smiling, but I find it terribly sad. Terribly sad. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:46 Highlight the passage at 1:35:46

1:35:54 So, the phrasing, this is, you've articulated it very clearly and I appreciate that. I have no interest in cultivating positive emotions. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:54 Highlight the passage at 1:35:54

1:36:04 I don't even think about it. If I wanted to get positive emotions, I think I'd just take some drugs. Really. If that's what it's about, I would just start taking, I've heard ecstasy is a lot of fun. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:04 Highlight the passage at 1:36:04

1:36:22 Psilocybin, they're doing studies, it's John Hopkins. I know the person, Roland, he's doing the research on psilocybin. It sounds like a really interesting... Heroin sounds like a real kick. Cocaine, I've heard it's really... If I wanted to cultivate positive emotion, I should take drugs. Because even love, right? Well, ecstasy... Do you love? Sure. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:22 Highlight the passage at 1:36:22

1:36:45 I was at a conference earlier this year just outside of London, south of England, actually, and this lovely man, Roland Griffiths, I'm very impressed by him as a human being. I've met him a couple of times now. He came to a meditation retreat that I held for scientists years ago in Santa Barbara and then we showed up at this conference. I found him to be very sensitive, very ethical, good-hearted. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:45 Highlight the passage at 1:36:45

1:37:06 He's also a behaviorist and he's been doing some very sensitive, very ethical and very thoughtful scientific research on psilocybin under controlled circumstances and doing everything he can to really take care of the people in the study. And he reported the findings. Quite interesting. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:06 Highlight the passage at 1:37:06

1:37:28 He asked me, because we have mutual respect, he respects me for what I do and I respect him for what he does, but he asked me, because he knows I teach meditation a lot, he said, Alan, would you like to work with us? And I said, no, absolutely not. I have no interest in whatsoever. And it's not because I feel it shouldn't be done, but life is short and that's not how I'm going to spend money, because I'm just not interested. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:28 Highlight the passage at 1:37:28

1:37:52 I'm interested in Yudha Muni. I'm interested in meaning. I think that's really why I left Western civilization, because I wasn't finding meaning. I couldn't believe the Christian doctrine I was raised in. It didn't make any sense to me. God would punish people eternally for finite crimes? Not any God I don't want to have anything to do with, etc. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:52 Highlight the passage at 1:37:52

1:38:09 But science provided no meaning. Nothing for the heart, nothing for... no meaning. Just a lot of information. And that just wasn't... it was like thin rule. Couldn't accept this, that wasn't enough, and there was no third option. So I said, OK, I'm finished. I'm getting out of Western civilization because there's no hope here. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:09 Highlight the passage at 1:38:09

1:38:28 I didn't even want to go into a library. Nothing I wanted to read. So I took off. Happily I found something. But it's really about meaning. And if we ask this question, meaningful life, and you and I, we don't have the same idea, but I think we're talking the same language. And I bet if you, we don't have time right now, but if I asked you, Adanya, tell me, what constitutes a meaningful life? Report an error in the passage at 1:38:28 Highlight the passage at 1:38:28

1:38:50 What would that entail? I think you would probably say something I could really resonate with. Not that I just find, well, you're cuckoo. I don't think so. And if I should tell you about what I feel to be meaningful you may not agree with all of it, but I think you resonate with a lot of it. So I think we're talking a common language here, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:38:50 Highlight the passage at 1:38:50

1:39:07 So meaning, well, the word meaning has no meaning neuroscience. has no meaning in evolutionary biology to say that this kangaroo is living a very meaningful life this chimpanzee or this human being. just has no content. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:07 Highlight the passage at 1:39:07

1:39:22 straight evolution of biology, it has no content at all. No, get back to it. Did it help you survive, procreate? Let's get back to real. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:22 Highlight the passage at 1:39:22

1:39:30 I've lived, you know, I was a monk for 14 years. I've lived with monks, yogis, contemplatives. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:30 Highlight the passage at 1:39:30

1:39:38 They're very happy to sacrifice even their own lives for the sake of meaning. So meaning is a good word. It's a passion of mine and has been ever since I was a late teen to live a meaningful life. It's actually the highest passion. Poverty, being celibate, living in an alien land and so forth and so on. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:38 Highlight the passage at 1:39:38

1:39:58 That's okay. I've had sickness up to the, you know, lots and lots of sickness living in India. That was okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:58 Highlight the passage at 1:39:58

1:40:17 I tell you, I'm ready. My guns are loaded. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:17 Highlight the passage at 1:40:17

1:40:24 know, I've got to have something that actually really works for me, it's such an important question, I was not satisfied to have some kind of vague, know, kind of hand-waving things. I'll tell you exactly. Because it's simply three, just three points. And they are the ways by which I check in now and again on my own life to see is this a meaningful life or not. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:24 Highlight the passage at 1:40:24

1:40:47 And so it's just three factors. Am I cultivating them or not? Are they a priority or not? And they're very simple. The first is the word virtue means something to all of us. And we could get a long list, whatever our backgrounds are. Compassion, kindness, patience and so forth and so on. We'll come up with a long list where we're in agreement. Cultivation of virtue. If I let a day, a year slip by and I've not given any attention to cultivating virtue, greater wisdom, greater kindness, compassion, love, generosity and so forth, then I've missed something really important. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:47 Highlight the passage at 1:40:47

1:41:26 Cultivation of, and we can cultivate it. There are some people just naturally virtuous, that's for sure. And some people not so naturally virtuous. That's true. Little children, they're different. Some are very generous, some are not, and so forth. Some are very kind, some are not so much. But we human beings, we can actually cultivate virtue. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:26 Highlight the passage at 1:41:26

1:41:44 We can learn skillful means. We can actually do that. And so that, to my mind, is one essential ingredient of a meaningful life. But we're also very intelligent, we human beings. I'm a pretty bright guy myself. I want to use that, not just to make money or power or prestige. I want to understand what's going on. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:44 Highlight the passage at 1:41:44

1:42:03 As Thoreau, he's one of my... I think it's in his opening section on why I went into the solitude. And to paraphrase poorly, I'm sorry I can't do a better job, but he said, I went into solitude, I went into utter simplicity of life. So that whether our existence, whether my own life, whether the nature of human existence is bitter or whether it's sweet, that when I come to die, when it's my time to die, know what has happened. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:03 Highlight the passage at 1:42:03

1:42:50 I will know the nature of my existence, whether it's bitter or sweet, and not die still unknowing of what happened. So understanding. If I let a day go by, a week, a month go by, without pursuing understanding, greater understanding, greater insight, greater wisdom. That's wasted. That's a second ingredient. Not only virtues of the heart, kindness and so forth, very important, but also virtues of the mind, of understanding, of insight and understanding. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:50 Highlight the passage at 1:42:50

1:43:18 Just that. Insight, understanding, realization, wisdom. Crucial. We have the capacity for it. Not using it. Tragedy. And then genuine happiness. Genuine happiness. And that is that sense of well-being, that sense of well-being by living an ethical way of life. I get enormous satisfaction by doing what I'm doing right now. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:18 Highlight the passage at 1:43:18

1:43:39 I'm sharing the best I have. I always do. Whatever I'm teaching, I share the best that I have. And there's a lot of satisfaction in that. Some people resonate a lot, get a lot of benefit. Some don't. But at the end of the day, I can go back and say, I offered my very best. And I offered it as well as I could. When I'm here, when I'm in Phuket, I'm meditating 9 to 11 hours every day. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:39 Highlight the passage at 1:43:39

1:43:58 So every time I'm speaking, I'm coming right out of meditation. Here, I'm meditating maybe 7 hours a day for the 6 days. Every time I come out, I want to be coming right out of meditation. So when you pose a question, I'm offering you my best. And at the end of the day, whether it was helpful or not, I can't control. But what I can say is I gave you my best, and I get a lot of satisfaction out of that. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:58 Highlight the passage at 1:43:58

1:44:20 And that satisfaction is genuine happiness. So those three, cultivation of virtue, wide range of understanding, who am I, what's going on, what's the nature of this reality, and then genuine happiness. And then finding this marvelous synergy among these three, that the wisdom feeds into the genuine happiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:20 Highlight the passage at 1:44:20

1:44:40 The genuine happiness makes it a lot easier to cultivate virtue. But the virtue of what we've cultivated, this gives rise to genuine happiness. And genuine happiness gives the inspiration to want to understand more deeply, go into deeper really. So they all are three fountains flowing into the same pool. And to my mind, that's enough said. That's a meaningful life for me. Virtue, wisdom and genuine happiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:40 Highlight the passage at 1:44:40

1:45:05 And I don't think there are neural correlates for any of the three. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:05 Highlight the passage at 1:45:05

1:45:10 Maybe they'll find it one day. But I think right now they haven't. But I'll give you this one because this is an interesting topic. It's one I've reflected on a lot because I have enormous respect for neuroscience and a lot of the research I've done is in collaboration with really good ones. You know some of the names. Francisco Rallo is a very dear friend. Richard Davidson I've worked with and Cliff Saron and the list goes on. I have a lot of respect for their science. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:10 Highlight the passage at 1:45:10

1:45:37 But let's imagine that one of my buddies They're mostly men. Tanya Singer, she's a woman. Most of them are men. Let's imagine that I'm sitting in meditation and feeling a great sense of meaning, like just reflecting, this life has been really meaningful. These last ten years have been really good ten years. Really meaningful, really very content. If I die tomorrow, I say, oh, that was a good life. Really, I would. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:37 Highlight the passage at 1:45:37

1:46:05 I'm ready to die any time. I'd like to live a long time. But any time, I think, oh, I've had to feel that way. So imagine that I'm sitting here. I'm feeling very content, very happy, so grateful for all the teachers I've had, help I've had, education I've received, time I've had for meditation. And I'm just sitting here and just experiencing these genuine happiness and very explicitly having in mind there's been a meaningful life, content, so grateful. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:05 Highlight the passage at 1:46:05

1:46:34 And they've got every contraction on my head imagined. I mean, they've just got a lock. And they find, okay, we've nailed it. We found, there it is. There's the signature. That's the signature. That's what happens in the brain. When you're experiencing meaning. Now imagine they capture them. This is a thought experiment, of course. I doubt this will ever happen. But they find exactly which parts of the brain were activated. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:34 Highlight the passage at 1:46:34

1:47:05 The oxygenation of the blood and so forth. But they find exactly what is the signature, the EG signature that's occurring at that time. And other aspects too. Just what's going on in terms of brain chemistry while I'm experiencing that. And they get a lock on that. Now in this thought experiment, this science fiction thought experiment, they say, aha. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:05 Highlight the passage at 1:47:05

1:47:25 We found the neurocorrelate of a person experiencing a great sense of meaning and genuine happiness. This is great. People really want this. So they take that. They know exactly what it is, exactly what was happening in the brain, in this thought experiment. And they go to another person who's been pissing away his life with sex and booze and just totally selfish, totally. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:25 Highlight the passage at 1:47:25

1:47:46 And they zap him with exactly the same brain activity that I was experiencing. And he goes, my life is so meaningless, full of shit. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:46 Highlight the passage at 1:47:46

1:48:02 The brain activity is exactly the same in this thought experiment and yet that's fraudulent because he's not lived a meaningful life. The brain activity is the same but he's not lived a meaningful life and I'm not exalting my life as something really special. It's been very satisfying but I'm taking this character, this guy is a boozer, a sexer and all of that kind of stuff. So it's possible he could have the same brain activity but it's fraudulent. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:02 Highlight the passage at 1:48:02

1:48:25 He's being misled by his own brain because the meaning doesn't come from the brain. The genuine happiness doesn't come from the brain. It comes from our interconnectedness, the quality of awareness, the way we engage with other people, the impact we've had on the environment. That's where it comes from, not from chemicals inside the brain. So you have the same brain state, the same feeling. In one case it's authentic, the other one is not authentic. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:25 Highlight the passage at 1:48:25

1:48:52 So coming back to your earlier point, I don't even give any thought about, oh, I want to cultivate some positive emotions. What I do want to do, and it's a great passion of mine, and I'll be talking about it in a few days at a conference, is cultivating what I call conative intelligence. It's a way of IQ, everybody knows that, and EQ, a lot of people know, emotional intelligence. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:52 Highlight the passage at 1:48:52

1:49:12 But conative intelligence, I coined that one, so look at me. But conative is simply desire and intention. Conation. And I feel very confident about what I'm saying here. And that is... We have all kinds of desires. If your mind is at all like mine, we have all kinds of desires coming up. They just pop up, you know, like popcorn out of a popcorn popper. And so desires come up, and some are really quite trivial. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:12 Highlight the passage at 1:49:12

1:49:38 And some, if we follow them, they're not going to turn out well. And some are very meaningful, but they kind of just like, they just come up. Desires come up, just come up, like all kinds of catalysts, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:38 Highlight the passage at 1:49:38

1:49:49 And cognitive intelligence is developing the introspective ability to recognize the desires as they're coming up. And so developing Report an error in the passage at 1:49:49 Highlight the passage at 1:49:49

1:50:19 wisdom in our desires and intentions. And wisdom means To follow those desires and intentions that actually are conducive to our own and others' genuine happiness. It's that simple. So we can do things that are conducive to our own and others' hedonic well-being, the short-term gain and so forth, but in the long term they may not turn out very well. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:19 Highlight the passage at 1:50:19

1:50:41 Whereas wisdom is recognizing that there is something called eudaimonia on multiple levels. And if I'm serving you, if I'm engaging with you, if I engage with you in such a way that that nurtures you, sustains you, helps you, greater meaning, eudaimonia in your life, and I've served you well, all I've done is given you opportunity to get more money. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:41 Highlight the passage at 1:50:41

1:51:05 That'd be nice. But whether it'll give you any happiness, I can't say. So that's where there's a point at which the terminology of neuroscience and the terminology of evolutionary biology, they run out. Because these words don't mean anything. So it occurred to me, because I reflect on this a lot, that there are certain modes of behavior. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:05 Highlight the passage at 1:51:05

1:51:30 Certain types of desires we may or may not follow that may indeed serve us very well in terms of survival and procreation, but very poorly in terms of eudaimonia. And the other desires and modes of activity that may be a real dead end, like becoming celibate for life. Boy, you're a dead end, you're a big failure, you're a big dead end, you're a nowhere man. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:30 Highlight the passage at 1:51:30

1:51:52 You didn't pass on your genes, you big stupid guy. And yet your mind may be so rich, so full, so full of blessing. So enriching for other people. You just don't happen to be passing on your genes. Or you may actually offer your life up. If it's really something really meaningful to do, you may offer your life for the sake of others. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:52 Highlight the passage at 1:51:52

1:52:15 Greater love hath no man from Jesus than he lay down his life for his friends. And there are times when that's really the best thing. You sacrifice yourself. Happens in warfare all the time. You don't sacrifice yourself for the other side, but you sacrifice yourself. You'll jump on the grenade and know you've done a good thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:15 Highlight the passage at 1:52:15

1:52:33 Very bad evolutionary speaking. Eudaimonia. Not bad. So it's interesting to see how these interrelate. Sometimes they're very much in accordance with each other. There's no conflict. Sometimes they're good for hedonia, for survival and procreation. Not good for eudaimonia. And sometimes the converse as well. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:33 Highlight the passage at 1:52:33

1:52:51 Your turn. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:51 Highlight the passage at 1:52:51

1:53:05 so that we're able to help the money and all that stuff. But we need to keep it. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:05 Highlight the passage at 1:53:05

1:53:17 By just watching the bread and allowing this activity and craving all that disease you have, a lot of love and kindness and softness, ease of mind, then why forcefully cultivate an aspiration and be happy when you don't feel like it? What benefit does doing that give you along this path of, let's say, spiritual path? Report an error in the passage at 1:53:17 Highlight the passage at 1:53:17

1:53:49 Or eudaimonia. It's a nice neutral term. Nobody hates eudaimonia. A lot of people hate religion, don't like Buddhism, don't like reincarnation. What's that? Report an error in the passage at 1:53:49 Highlight the passage at 1:53:49

1:53:59 Peace? Peace can be oversold. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:59 Highlight the passage at 1:53:59

1:54:06 can be oversold. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:06 Highlight the passage at 1:54:06

1:54:16 how do you feel it? Sure. Just one more breath. Sure. I'd like Report an error in the passage at 1:54:16 Highlight the passage at 1:54:16

1:54:26 to start with, I often, when I'm leaving, if people ask me, Alan, we'd like a retreat, what would you like to talk about? I often say shamatha, training attention. And then I have different methods that I've identified. I didn't make up any of them, but I've selected them from a wide variety. The central theme, of course, is first of all, learning how to be at ease in our bodies and minds. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:26 Highlight the passage at 1:54:26

1:54:46 Because we're generally not. We're generally one of the nots. Many, many people in modernity, it's kind of normal. So learning how to loosen up. So I like to start out with simple questions, just like Galileo. I really admire Galileo. I've studied him a lot. And he didn't start out with the most sophisticated questions. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:46 Highlight the passage at 1:54:46

1:55:03 He started out with really easy questions that could be answered. And then it moved on from there until we had general relativity theory. Difficult questions, which took Einstein about eight years to work out. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:03 Highlight the passage at 1:55:03

1:55:16 2007 to 2000? No, no. 1907 to 1915. So a lot of hard work. Easy question. Which is better? From any perspective, just as a human being, let alone whether you're an evolution biologist, a devout Buddhist or whatever, which is better, to be uptight or to be loose and relaxed? Which is better, to be totally scattered, fragmented, agitated, or to have composure, collectedness of mind, inner stillness, ready to be active as soon as needed, but not compulsively or obsessively? Report an error in the passage at 1:55:16 Highlight the passage at 1:55:16

1:55:44 So which is better? Quite clear. Which is better, to be dull, lethargic, vague, spaced out, or to be crystal clear, sharp, luminous? So no debate. No debate. And we don't need any background justification. It's good because. No, it's already good. It's already better to be clear than to be dull. Already better to be composed rather than fragmented. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:44 Highlight the passage at 1:55:44

1:56:05 Already better to be loose and relaxed rather than uptight and strung out. And we don't need any more conversation. The conversation is finished. And that's whatever your belief system is. I like to start there. That's where I like my Dharma practice to be. I have a lot of faith and a lot of confidence now in many aspects of Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:05 Highlight the passage at 1:56:05

1:56:23 Other people think I'm ridiculous. I'm a fool. I don't mind. But it's grounded where I'm totally confident. Kind of the Cartesian ideal. Let's start at one place that's indubitable. Although those three there, I'm not going to argue them. And you and I are not going to argue mine either. So we start there. And then we say, all right, this sounds good to me. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:23 Highlight the passage at 1:56:23

1:56:45 And is there room for improvement? Would I like to be, would I give some effort to being a bit more ease and relaxed in body and mind? Yeah. To be more coherent, that is not only when I'm sitting in the cushion, but when I have a conversation, my mind is not agitated. When you're listening, I'm not tumbling over myself to say what I want to say to you, so I want to jump in and interrupt. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:45 Highlight the passage at 1:56:45

1:57:05 Because I'm really happy simply to listen when you're speaking, right? You or anybody else I'm engaging with. And that I'm also not nodding off because I find you so boring. If I find you boring, it's because my mind is dull, not because you're boring. That's true. And so, I think, okay, but this is a place to start. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:05 Highlight the passage at 1:57:05

1:57:23 This is a good one. And now, let's bring on those techniques. Let's see how they work. I want to see whether they work or not. And it's not a matter of faith here. I will know if in my body and mind there's a greater sense of ease, of composure, of clarity. I will know. And out of that, by whatever method, mindfulness breathing doesn't work for everybody. It's not the best for everybody. It works for a lot of people. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:23 Highlight the passage at 1:57:23

1:57:45 But there are other methods. So I commonly teach three or four everywhere. And frankly, I mean... There may be some people that just don't resonate with anything I teach, but on the whole they find something useful that they take home with them, at least one of the methods that I teach. And you start there. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:45 Highlight the passage at 1:57:45

1:58:01 And then by starting there, because none of these methods that I teach are really interesting in the sense of giving a lot of stimulation. Well, that was a lot of fun. Let's do more of that. In Tibetan Buddhism, if you know something about it, there are bells and whistles. There are bells and whistles. So many of them. Mantras and cool visualizations and rituals and a lot of cool stuff. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:01 Highlight the passage at 1:58:01

1:58:23 And so they want entertainment. Tibetan Buddhism has a lot to offer. And there's nothing wrong with that. Just like the Roman Catholic Church. Did you hear the choir? Very well trained. They were really professional. They do well. They do well. I'm sure I'd like to hear them in a recital. I think I'd enjoy it. So the Christian music, Christian cathedrals, they know how to have a good time. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:23 Highlight the passage at 1:58:23

1:58:47 They know how to really arouse. And the art of the music is so much Christian, incredibly rich. What I teach is not rich at all. It's rather stark. Not in terms of barren, but it doesn't give any entertainment value. Mindfulness of breathing, observing thoughts arising. The novelty wears off really quickly. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:47 Highlight the passage at 1:58:47

1:59:09 Thoughts, images, memories, but simply sticking in there. Or the one that is most delectable, just like mountain spring water, radiates close to the analogy of sitting quietly. Let's do it for 20 seconds, everybody. You don't have to shift positions. But just 20 seconds. And just for 20 seconds, simply let your awareness be still. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:09 Highlight the passage at 1:59:09

1:59:32 And be aware of the experience of being aware. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:32 Highlight the passage at 1:59:32

2:00:05 It's not entertaining. It's not stimulating. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:05 Highlight the passage at 2:00:05

2:00:12 But for seven years now, I've taught a group of students, friends, who have come to Lama retreats of mine, who then go off into solitude for months or years. I have about 30 students right now, full-time practice. And many of them are with mindfulness of breathing, because it's really doing to give them confidence. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:12 Highlight the passage at 2:00:12

2:00:32 And then, after some time, many of them start gravitating more to taking more of an interest in what's arising in this great 3D cinema of the mind. The images, the thoughts, memories, desires, emotions, like, oh, what a circus. So simply observing it, not getting caught up. It's not daydreaming. It's sitting quietly and being aware of all the movements of the mind, but from a perspective that is still. Your awareness is still, even while the thoughts, images, coming and going. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:32 Highlight the passage at 2:00:32

2:00:59 So someone will spend some months doing that, 8, 10 hours a day. And then the natural regression, I've been doing this now for seven years, teaching for 38, but teaching people in long-term retreat for seven years, and the natural regression I've seen time and again is after a while the novelty wears off, that thought and this image and that desire. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:59 Highlight the passage at 2:00:59

2:01:18 But what rises of being more interest is just that, and this is the symbol, this came out in the last eight-week retreat, just the index finger pointing straight up, and what this is symbolizing is a candle flame, an unflickering candle flame. Just an image, but a little simple. So in all of the eight weeks we just finished, everybody was into this at the end. We all know this meant. What this means is your awareness being still. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:18 Highlight the passage at 2:01:18

2:01:46 Still, unflickering, clear, luminous, cognizant, totally present. Stay Report an error in the passage at 2:01:46 Highlight the passage at 2:01:46

2:01:56 there and see what happens. The oddest thing is, it's Report an error in the passage at 2:01:56 Highlight the passage at 2:01:56

2:02:04 incredibly odd, but it's just like, I just never get tired of drinking pure water. I never get, oh, I had water yesterday, I don't want any water today. No, no. It's every single day. This is my favorite drink. Nice, clear, crystal, pure spring water. If I could only drink one drink for the rest of my life, it would be this one right here. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:04 Highlight the passage at 2:02:04

2:02:27 Nothing with additives. I get tired of that. This one, I never get tired. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:27 Highlight the passage at 2:02:27

2:02:38 There's really something to knowing thyself. And resting there in the simplicity of this awareness that is still, that's discerning, it's sharp, it's clear, it's intelligent, but it's just resting in its own nature. And it's like putting a glowing... Report an error in the passage at 2:02:38 Highlight the passage at 2:02:38

2:03:00 right on the top, then it just melts right down to the ground. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:00 Highlight the passage at 2:03:00

2:03:20 me right now a half an hour discourse on the nature of the brain and I'd learn a lot in a half an hour you just start talking and I'll learn I'll learn a lot But when I've heard you speak about dendrites and synapses and glial cells and frontal cortex, brainstem, so forth, all the hemispheres and so forth, once I've learned all of that, you know, you give me a nice, concise, here's the brain, and Report an error in the passage at 2:03:20 Highlight the passage at 2:03:20

2:03:45 then I'll go into my own practice. It doesn't compute it. I'm not seeing anything corresponding. And it's not refuting either the truthfulness or the value of what you're saying. It just doesn't translate. But I can say, oh, I'm experiencing, yes, oh, of those dendrites in the left prefrontal cortex. It's definitely kicking in. Not happening. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:45 Highlight the passage at 2:03:45

2:04:04 So this is where I'm really just such a profound non-reductionist. You can't reduce meditation to neuroscience and you can't reduce neuroscience to meditation. But then why would we want to? You can't reduce men to women. You can't reduce women to men. Why would anybody want to? So it's just putting on blinkers. Somebody telling you that it really boils down to chocolate and sex. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:04 Highlight the passage at 2:04:04

2:04:27 I say, boy, get a life. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:27 Highlight the passage at 2:04:27

2:04:53 Sure. to get that bridge a framework has truth in it, because it works, also this framework also. So I've been having this conflict, and it's been very uncomfortable having a clear coherent framework to guide your spiritual practice in. So I was just myself very vulnerable. I think I speak for all of us. I'm going to be really bold here, but I want to thank you. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:53 Highlight the passage at 2:04:53

2:05:30 For being so open, so candid and raising very important issues that any intelligent, educated person in the modern world should be grappling with. Because neuroscience has an enormous amount of information, knowledge and insight about a very important aspect of our being human beings. We have brains, quite exceptional ones. And to ignore that is to ignore something enormously important. To ignore subjective experience or disparage it, diminish it as epiphenomenal or lacking causal efficacy, that's also... Report an error in the passage at 2:05:30 Highlight the passage at 2:05:30

2:06:00 I don't know much about them, but I know it's not where I am. It's something else. And there was something drawing me there. Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan culture, but Buddhism above all. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:00 Highlight the passage at 2:06:00

2:06:30 But I didn't know what I was getting into. And I was the first generation. And I didn't know whether it would work out or not. I bought the one-way ticket to Dharamsala where the Dalai Lama was. But gosh, you could hardly know anything about Tibetan Buddhism back then. There were hardly any books. So I was basically going to someplace else that wasn't where I was with something promising because I'd read a couple of books. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:30 Highlight the passage at 2:06:30

2:06:51 And my story was, if it didn't work out, I'd just keep on moving east to New Zealand and become a shepherd. That was default mode. Become a shepherd, watch sheep. So I just basically bailed from the age of 21. That's when I bought my one-way ticket. And then finally, after total immersion for pretty much 13, 14 years, I was 80, 1984, so I was 34. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:51 Highlight the passage at 2:06:51

2:07:21 Then I thought, well, okay, the first 20 years was very Western. I lived in Europe and America back and forth, so very Eurocentric. 14 years total immersion. In Tibetan culture, Dharma became a monk, meditating for four years and so on, but pretty much turned my back on Western civilization, like whatever. I'd often say I was born when I was 20, because that's when life started to become meaningful. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:21 Highlight the passage at 2:07:21

2:07:45 Before it was just like wandering around in the dark with no meaning, literally. And then lots of meaning, but completely guillotine coming down at the age of 20, 21. That's where that ended and this is where this started. And then I got to age of 34. Having just spent four years in meditation retreats, when I left Western civilization I felt totally fragmented because I knew there were elements of Christianity that were really meaningful. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:45 Highlight the passage at 2:07:45

2:08:12 Even though I couldn't accept the doctrine, the things that are really meaningful, that's for sure. And I knew there were many elements of science that are really true, and that's for sure. But there's no integration. There's no integration at all. And I couldn't even see anybody who was trying. My father's a theologian. I had to go to church every single Sunday until I was 18. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:12 Highlight the passage at 2:08:12

2:08:31 I didn't see them ever try. To integrate their worldview, Christian theology and so forth with modern science. They didn't try. And then I took chemistry, biology, physics, calculus, the whole nine yards. For the first two years of university, I didn't find anybody even trying to take that scientific knowledge, which is so precious, and actually bring it into a meaningful context. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:31 Highlight the passage at 2:08:31

2:08:50 There was nobody even trying. I said, well, if you're not even trying, then I've lost interest. So I was fragmented. But then I fragmented myself further. Because then I went off to an alien culture that had almost nothing in common with Western civilization. The roots are entirely different. Really, almost no overlap for the whole history. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:50 Highlight the passage at 2:08:50

2:09:10 Tibetan culture, no overlap. They didn't even have a word for Christianity. They hardly even knew it existed. And Greek or Roman Empire, etc. Judaism, not on the horizon. It doesn't show up in their literature that there's such a thing as Western civilization. Literally. Look at traditional Tibetan literature and there's no reference to us at all. We may as well be on a different planet. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:10 Highlight the passage at 2:09:10

2:09:32 That's how different. Well, that was cool. That's what I wanted. I wanted to be someplace else. But then, after 14 years of complete severance of the first 20 years, I said, oh man, what have I done? Now I've fragmented myself further. I never sewed up the first two parts, the science and Christianity. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:32 Highlight the passage at 2:09:32

2:09:49 So from the age of 34, that's now almost a half lifetime ago for me, to Report an error in the passage at 2:09:49 Highlight the passage at 2:09:49

2:10:02 bring all the parts of my life together. into a coherent whole. And it doesn't mean I'm 25 % Christian and blah, blah, blah. It just means I have to make sense of it all with one mind that sees how this all fits together. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:02 Highlight the passage at 2:10:02

2:10:15 all parts of my mind, they all talk to all the other parts. Thank you for your question and the conversation continues. I bid you all a good night. See you tomorrow morning. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:15 Highlight the passage at 2:10:15

2:10:56 have more than one question tonight. Tonight, that was good. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:56 Highlight the passage at 2:10:56