← B. Alan Wallace

Four Immeasurables Retreat with B. Alan Wallace - Sydney 2014 (part 4)

B. Alan Wallace · 2014 · 2 h 47 min · Vajrayana Institute via Internet Archive

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  • 7:26

    And so, what would you love to receive from the world? Well, hedonic is important. But then beyond that, nobody came here for hedonic. So then what? For those you envision, you'd like to go into retreat sometime.

  • 12:35

    And then desiring it. And that desiring our own well-being with a clear awareness of what are the causes leading to that. It's not pie in the sky, just some fanciful thought. Something actually that could be cultivated. That you could have a series of breadcrumbs between where you are right now and then your vision here. And then see all these little links in between. And that's how you do it. A strategy. It's very important. But it's not just some silly wish. Here I am now and there's a vision and there would be the connecting links.

  • 1:03:57

    Satsuka in Sanskrit. Buddhism. There's really an extraordinary hypothesis here that, to my mind, it's overwhelmingly now a working hypothesis in my own life to such an extent that I would say I have found this to be true. Not because of deepening faith in the Buddha or Dhammakaya or confidence

  • 1:19:57

    The pursuit of happiness is seen in a different way. And our vision of reality as a whole is neither somebody run by somebody who's omnipotent and benevolent or just run mindlessly by nobody at all. Something different, third option. But in a way there's kind of a sense of intelligibility in this. And that is something very simple. And that is eudaimonia has to be reality-based. It can't be based on fiction.

  • 2:08:05

    So may all beings be happy and secure. May their minds be contented. Whatever living beings there may be, feeble or strong, tall, stout or medium, short, small or large, seen or unseen, those dwelling far or near, those who are born and those who are yet to be born, may all beings without exception be of good cheer. No one deceive another nor despise any person anywhere. In anger or ill will, let no one wish any harm to another. Just as a mother would protect her only child even at the risk of her own life, even so, let one cultivate a boundless heart toward all beings.

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0:43 As we turn to this method of practice that I taught once before, but perhaps bring a little bit more nuance to it, a bit more detail, and that is this whole issue of vision, of being willing to boldly, even courageously, venture into the realm of possibility to imagine what directions one would love to direct one's life to. Report an error

1:09 So with the initial one that Chris mentioned, it can be very challenging, it can be quite a struggle. But to envision one's own well-being, for the time being, how high, how rich, how full does the imagination stretch or expand? Report an error

1:27 What seems to be within the realm of possibility? No one, at least as far as I'm concerned, I don't want to strive for something that I believe is impossible. Why waste time with that? Report an error

1:39 But the Buddhist vision of our potentials really does defy the imagination. There's really kind of no upper limit. So it encourages us to be very bold in terms of envisioning just this capacity for wisdom, for creative power of the mind, for compassion and so forth. And so as we envision the first one, I'm not going to give you a script, but simply suggest to explore. For all of us, I'm sure, archedonic well-being is important. Report an error

2:10 Having enough. If you're in a business, you'd like your business to succeed. But then the question that can be raised here, and I think should be, especially in our modern world, Report an error

2:24 is as we envision, can you envision your well-being? It's the best word, your well-being. you're going to have fulfillment, meaning, satisfaction, contentment. would really fill your heart, give deepest sense of satisfaction? Well, you'll look at it in different angles. For example, the hedonic. Certainly you don't want to be starving, you don't want to be ill and not have medical care, and so forth. Report an error

2:47 And so, What would be sufficient? Where would you, how far would you say, at that level I'd be content, in terms of my own well-being. Now, if you have more wealth, it's always nice to give it away. So then the sky's the limit. A billion, ten billion, twenty billion, just more to give away, that's great. But for your own sake, because this is self-directed, self-directed loving kindness. Report an error

3:08 We'll move quite quickly, expanding that outwards in all directions. But to establish your base camp, you know, your nucleus. Report an error

3:18 The deeper that is, the more meaningful that is, I would say, then the deeper and more meaningful the extension of that loving kindness is bound to be, right? If you're a little kid and you're wishing everybody well, maybe you're wishing everybody had bicycles, everybody had, you know, a good cowboy suit or whatever, you know, big kids. But we're not children. Report an error

3:37 And so as you envision your own hedonic well-being, you might consider, all right, that would be good, that would be good for my own well-being. And then beyond that, I think it becomes irrelevant. And there's studies of this, really good studies. There's a book called The High Price of Materialism, written years ago, but it's still good research. Report an error

3:56 And pointing out that when you're in a financially depraved or very difficult situation, a lot of anxiety, debt, just paying bills, taking care of children, then as you gradually emerge from that, financial straits, economic anxiety and so forth, then as you do so, then your happiness increases. That would make sense. And then that gets to a point where, You really have enough and your anxiety is dissipating, it's gone. And then, for people who follow the trajectory, that's where you really mellow out, you really feel, oh, I can start to breathe easy now. Report an error

4:32 I'm pretty well, I and the people I'm responsible for, I'm taken care of, we are taken care of, so now you have twice as much. Report an error

4:45 And you see, right about that juncture, that's where, up to that point, your increase of happiness and your increase of prosperity, really parallel. And then you get two times, ten times, twenty times more than you need, and then that's where your affluence is going up and up and up in your contentment level. Report an error

5:02 The relationship could go down. Now you have more to be anxious about, all your assets, protecting all your assets. But there's no, how do you say, regularity. That is, now you have ten times, twenty, thirty times, a thousand, a million times more than you need. Report an error

5:24 That tracking, it just falls apart. And so at what point in your own vision would you say, I think it's about there that the tracking would part, the increase of my sense of well-being, satisfaction and so forth, enjoyment of life. It's probably about there. In which case, then you'd want to click over and say, okay, well, just to double, triple, et cetera, et cetera, that's not going to give me the happiness I see. Report an error

5:48 I mean, the evidence is everywhere. You don't really have to do a scientific study. And so at that point, that's where the eudaimonia, which is always important, even from the baseline it's important, but now that's the only one that's actually going to have some dividends that you can count on that are predictable, that you really have some hope for. Report an error

6:04 Because to think that you're just going to be twice as happy if you have twice as much money is kind of uninformed. Not true for anybody else. Why should it be true for you? And so then you might then start really envisioning, okay, what is this eudaimonia? What is it to me? What is my vision of truly flourishing, of a deepening and deepening sense of well-being? Report an error

6:23 What would that entail? And is there some upper limit? And then we go on again as we go to the second question, envisioning what would you love to receive from the world? Well, clearly, if you're ill, you're injured, you'd really like to receive from the world some good medical attention. That's hedonic. Very important. Probably number one priority when you're really ill, right? Report an error

6:46 Or if you don't have enough to eat and so forth. And so include the hedonic. It's not trivial. It never has been. But then at some point you say, well... People just keep on giving me more and more and more stuff. I'm just going to find a place to put it. It's just going to be more of a burden. I hit that with chocolate. Report an error

7:04 People give me two kilos and five kilos and so forth of chocolate because they heard I like chocolate. In fact, there's a point here where this isn't giving me no more pleasure at all, except for now I have more chocolate to give away. So chocolate is chocolate. Sex is chocolate. I've never had that problem with sex. Just chocolate. Report an error

7:26 And so, what would you love to receive from the world? Well, hedonic is important. But then beyond that, nobody came here for hedonic. So then what? For those you envision, you'd like to go into retreat sometime. Maybe, you know, be able to retire, spend much more time in spiritual practice. It's the classic Hindu approach, you know. You fulfill all your karma, which means your responsibilities, for life, taking care of your children, maybe even your grandchildren, relatives, parents. Report an error

7:52 You've been a productive, meaningful member of society. Everybody's taken care of. You have some surplus wealth. Good. I've now become sannyasi. That was a term, right? Sanyasi. And now children, you can look after me. I don't want to die here. But before I die, I'm going to make it just as meaningful a life. Report an error

8:11 It's a nice model. So what would you love to receive from the world? To see that enrichment, the things Report an error

8:23 are getting better. I have this silly idea. I've had it for quite some time. That the best is yet to come. Prison. I actually have that for a long time now. And it's actually been true. I'm 64 years old. So a lot of things I can't do as well as I used to be able to do. But I really do have that sense. The best is yet to come. Not hedonically. I don't need anything more hedonically. I don't need it to be better. But a very, very clear sense. Report an error

8:47 I still got my health. The best is yet to come. That's a nice feeling. Right after the deathbed. Because there are really magnificent ways to die. Really good ways to die. Where it's the final celebration, the final triumph, your final best meditation. That's true. It happens rather frequently. Where you slip into death and you go lucidly. Report an error

9:14 Lucidly, knowingly, right through the dying process, and right into what's called the clear light of death. It's quite interesting. It's been demonstrated many times. Where people, it just happened recently to one Geshe I know, don't know him well, but I know a lot of his students, Geshe Zopa, out of Wisconsin. Report an error

9:31 A little long. So interesting that his mind went towards, well, no, no, no, I'll leave that. But he did die just recently, the last few weeks. And then he, the body stopped, everything stopped, heart, respiration, everything. For almost one week, no decomposition of the body, called the clear light of death, where his mind, his coarse mind, dissolved into subtle mind, subtle mind dissolved into the clear light of death, which is the ground, primordial awareness, transcendent awareness. Report an error

10:01 And it's said, because Tibetans know how to do this and modern Western scientists and so forth don't, that your mind dissolves into that luminous, pristine, primordially pure, blissful state of consciousness. And as long as you sustain that, That awareness, even though everything in the body is shut down, this has been medically ascertained many times now, everything is shut down, brain, everything, but no decomposition, and sometimes a lingering warmth of the heart, that's really weird, warmth of the heart, complexion quite clear, quite bright, not luminous or anything, but just like a healthy living person, and it goes on for day after day after day, and no decomposition, no putrefaction of the flesh at all, until finally when the meditation is finished, then the body, you know. Report an error

10:47 It starts to decompose. So that's going out with a blaze, a blaze of clear light. So the best can be yet to come, all the way up to your deathbed. So what's that? What would you love to receive in the world? Would you like to know how to do that? That takes some actual instruction. You won't just read in a book someplace. Helpful to have some instruction. Report an error

11:08 And then there's how, in terms of inner transformation. Hedonically, maybe you'd like to have improved health. Maybe that's possible. But eudaimonically, then you go to the core. And then finally, this can be really fun. Report an error

11:23 From your goods, maybe it's material goods, maybe it's knowledge, maybe it's just other qualities you have that can be beneficial to other people. And uniquely, make sure it's very unique. It's drawing on your own unique background. What would you love to offer? This shouldn't be a struggle. I'd rather not be a struggle, but really play. Report an error

11:46 Playing in the fields of possibility. Explore possibilities. Imagine them. Report an error

11:53 So we do this with mundane things. A person who would like to buy a new car. They test drive it and they check it out. They think about it, think about the good qualities of the car, and they compare it to other ones, and so they reflect on it, and then they develop desire for it. And if they have the financial means, then the desire gives rise to intention, and it gives rise to purchase, and then they get it. That's mundane stuff that happens all the time. So here we're going something that's not so mundane, but envisioning our flourishing, genuine well-being, envisioning it, seeing the quality of it, why it would be worthwhile. Report an error

12:35 And then desiring it. And that desiring our own well-being with a clear awareness of what are the causes leading to that. It's not pie in the sky, just some fanciful thought. Something actually that could be cultivated. That you could have a series of breadcrumbs between where you are right now and then your vision here. And then see all these little links in between. Report an error

12:55 And that's how you do it. A strategy. It's very important. But it's not just some silly wish. Here I am now and there's a vision and there would be the connecting links. actually bring that about. That's loving kindness and attraction. See how something Report an error

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14:18 soothing, something that is for our own good, and that is settling body, speech and mind in a natural state. So let's do so once again, as you've done before. Report an error

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19:10 Then you can meaningly and realistically arouse the yearning. May I experience such well-being and realize its causes. With every outbreath you may arouse this yearning, breathing life into the vision, inviting it from the realm of possibility to the realm of actuality. Report an error

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20:55 Playfully. Report an error

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22:00 First, you don't have Report an error

22:15 to receive from the world. Report an error

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23:24 In breath, arouse the yearning. Imagine Report an error

23:42 receiving all that you need from moment to moment, from day to day. What Report an error

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26:52 person would you love to become? Would you love to be free and with what qualities? Would you love to be more and more richly endowed? In short, how would you love to evolve? Consciously, deliberately and wisely, you're the person you'd love to become. And Report an error

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31:45 it's really all about the same theme that is leading the most meaningful life we possibly can. But since none of us exist in isolation, we are flourishing. Finding the deepest sense of well-being in isolation really makes no sense. We live in interconnectedness, our lives intertwined with all those about us. Report an error

32:07 So now in that theme and with that awareness, for the sake of the greatest possible meaning in your own life, envision now what would you love to offer to the world around you, to those who are near and far, the short term and the long term, hedonically and eudaimonically. What might you have to offer that could enrich the world around you, alleviate suffering, help others find the happiness they are seeking? Report an error

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33:26 Relation arouse the yearning, may it be so. All Report an error

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36:43 aspirations. Let your awareness be still, resting in its own place, right where it is, without directing your awareness to anything else. Report an error

36:54 Simply rest in the awareness of being aware. Our Report an error

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39:30 own flourishing, really trying to imagine the optimal. It's going to be inextricably bound up with our worldview, what we think is so. What we think is possible, what we think is real. And Report an error

39:45 in terms of, how do you say, modern science, going right back to its origins of modern science, I'm thinking especially of Francis Bacon. He was a jurist, he was a legal expert, philosopher. And he was actually one of the architects that kind of launched this new natural philosophy. Philosophy had been around for a long time, but the experimental philosophy. It's also called mechanical philosophy, on the Descartes and so on. Report an error

40:13 He had a vision there. It was not science, the pursuit of understanding of the natural world, simply out of curiosity. Like, we have nothing else to do. We have a free afternoon. Let's do a bit of science. In fact, he had mentioned some bigger fish to fry. And that is, as I recall, I've not read him for some time, but I think I remember the gist. Report an error

40:32 And that was, at that time, this is the 16th century, nature was considered to be quite frightening. I don't even have the word nature lover. Nature was a place where there are wild beasts, there's danger, there's natural calamities and so forth. And so taming nature, subduing nature, getting mastery of it, so we don't need to be frightened so much, that was one of the agendas. Report an error

41:00 But besides that, really a hedonic vision that science with the knowledge that it would give us could actually enrich our lives hedonically. Better health, better prosperity. greater freedom from adversity and so forth, that science should at its core be altruistically motivated for the benefit of humanity. So it was really not a bad vision. Report an error

41:23 And then as it really got kick-started by Galileo, of course he was looking absolutely externally. Now it's interesting, just as a little side note, as a youth he was trained as a contemplative. He was in a monastery as a contemplative and he really loved it and he wanted to stay. He wanted this kind of life, the rest of his life as a contemplative, Christian contemplative of course. But somebody had to pay for it. Report an error

41:42 It was all directed outwards. the telescope, used it in a refined way for making explorations, the first time anybody had done that, and also developed other types of technologies for making precise measurements. It was all directed outwards. All directed outwards to the stars, planets, sun and moon, to rolling balls down a ramp. He actually did rob a big thing, a little thing off the Tower of Pisa. That actually turns out to be a true story. Report an error

42:18 But it's all directed outwardly and for a very good reason. And that is all of these pioneers of modern science were very devout Christians, every single one of them. They weren't Jews. Jews were having a hard enough time avoiding the Inquisition without getting into thin ice of studying natural science. Report an error

42:46 scientists. And what drove him was something very clear. It was deeply theological. And that is he wanted to understand the mind of the creator by way of the creation. Report an error

42:56 makes me want to understand the mind of a clockmaker look at the clock So that was it. And the ideal was apotheosis. I'm a religious studies scholar. Apotheosis. And this is where the mind of man, and they were all men back then, the mind of man ascends to, approximates the mind of God, the perspective of God, a God's eye view, a God's eye perspective. Report an error

43:15 So they introduced that early on. It was a theological quest. So instead of turning inwards contemptatively, they turned outwards contemptatively, but they called that science. And instead of developing samādhi, they developed telescopes and other wonderful tools of... technology for making precise measurements and observations. Report an error

43:32 And so in this regard, I would say that the last 400 years of science, the kind of science, because it's not been balanced, there was no comparable progress from the time of Galileo until now. On the one hand, we have this terrific progress of understanding the objective, physical and quantifiable world. Objective, physical and quantifiable. Report an error

43:53 Because Galileo was persuaded from the beginning that God spoke the language of mathematics. That was God's language. Nowadays they just say it's nature's language. So that's the way you'd really unravel it. That's the way you'd leaf beyond appearances to understand, to have some idea inferentially and conceptually, what would God be seeing? Report an error

44:11 And I'm saying this because it actually is relevant to this meditation we just finished. And I'll try to connect the dots here. But it was a theological quest, an ascent of the mind of man to the mind of God, and looking outwardly. But during those 400 years, if we ask, well, was there comparable progress from the time of Galileo, even going back to Copernicus, was there comparable progress in developing suitable technologies for exploring the nature of the mind, states of consciousness, the inner causes of suffering, the inner causes of eudaimonia, the nature of eudaimonia, what are the potentials of consciousness, does it have multiple dimensions, does it continue on after death or not, does it precede this life or not, what's the nature of the phenomenon? Report an error

44:55 Was there any comparable progress? And the answer is, no, they didn't even start until the late 19th century. So it was almost like 300 years before the science, the empirical, experimental science of mind even began. So that was like, whoops, like 300 years went by. And by that time, materialism was already quite dominant. So it got shloped up, that is, the science of mind. Report an error

45:16 After William James died, they pretty much buried him twice. Behaviorism took over, and then the rest is history. So there was no comparable progress. This was one of the greatest asymmetries in the history of the human race, to see how much progress externally for the objective, physical and quantifiable, and then nothing comparable. Report an error

45:33 I mean, actually nothing at all comparable in terms of the development of consensual knowledge, technology and practical benefits inside. So in light of all of that, I would say something I think would be not controversial. For the last 400 years of science, including the last 135 years of the mind sciences, has been hedonic science. Report an error

46:11 many bounties from these advances in science and technology but I'd say all of more hedonic of more hedonic And then we can wonder, well, did anybody else come up with something outside that? And the answer is, well, yeah, Buddhism for starters. I mean, it's not the only one, but it's the one I know best. Report an error

46:29 Buddhism is not a faith. It's not a faith. Like, what faith do you belong to? Are you Jew, Christian, Muslim? Well, of course, many people approach Buddhism as a faith. I mean, they're not very knowledgeable. Basically, they're as religious as any Christian in pretty much the same way. But there's a professional grade, right? People are really trained professionally. Report an error

46:48 In Buddhist philosophy, Buddhist science, Buddhist meditation, techniques that are extremely demanding, as demanding as anything you'll find in science, if not more so. So I would say Buddhism on the whole, even though it's misused and becomes dogmatic in many cases because of dogmatic people, Buddhism is eudaimonic science. Report an error

47:06 If it's not that, then it's just nothing at all. It's superstition. It just falls apart. If it's not that, then what's it good for? But it is about knowledge, not simply belief, creed. allegiance to a certain ideology and so forth. It's really looking above all, principally, foremost, first foremost, and always looking into the nature of mind empirically and rationally, developing the appropriate technology, namely samādhi, highly focused attention, and really exploring the nature of the mind. Report an error

47:33 What are the true causes of suffering and the true causes of happiness? So there's a complementarity there, a very profound complementarity. And they can really challenge each other too, and that's good. Where am I going, though, with that? Report an error

47:50 of, let's say, modernity, especially Western modernity, appeared to me, relevant to the meditation we just finished, that there are two large-scale worldviews that are adhered to. Report an error

48:02 are embraced by many, many people, many, many millions of people. One is the Christian. It's still, I'm sure, very prevalent here in Australia. I don't know what the percentages are, but I'm sure you have churches all over the place. We all demand dominations. We all make Catholic and so forth. And so, you know, the thumbnail sketch, there is a divine creator. He is omnipotent. Report an error

48:20 He is male and he's omnibenevolent. He loves his creatures. He's compassionate, wise, loving, really the ideal father, God cosmic. And he looks over the world. He judges, rewards the righteous, punishes the wicked. And pretty much everything that happens, no, actually everything that happens is God's will. God let it happen after all these omnipotent. Report an error

48:50 So if he didn't want it to happen, he would stop it. And so I know many devout Christians. I was raised in a devout Christian family and my grandparents were very, very devout, especially I remember my grandmother. And so when calamity strikes, when, for example, and it's the problem with theodicy, when terrible things happen to good people, when God lets something happen or actually just creates the universe in such a way that one might think, couldn't you have done a better job than that? Report an error

49:16 I mean, my first, if you wanted my advice, I would have said, I think you could have done a better job with the animals. What was wrong with making them all herbivores? I mean, really. Carnivores, it's a rugged way to die. And they have them all eating each other all the time. Why not just herbivores? Eat grass, lots of grass, fruits, nuts, you know. Report an error

49:36 And then just die, keel over of old age. I mean, was that so horrible? There'd be so much less suffering if they just wouldn't eat each other. I mean, for starters, I have an idea. Report an error

49:49 So it didn't strike me as being the best solution. But then, of course, what has plagued theists for... As long as there have been theists, for example, the AIDS worker in Syria was captured by ISIS and beheaded. He's an AIDS worker. He went there only to help. So exactly how did he deserve that? Why would God allow that? At least let it be a terrible person. Somebody has to be beheaded. Let it be a terrible person, not an AIDS worker, for heaven's sakes. Report an error

50:15 How could that happen? And I know a lot of Christians and the answer is mysterious are the ways of the Lord. Mysterious are the ways of the Lord. We can't fathom God's plan. Report an error

50:31 so much, just so much mind-boggling injustice in the world brought about by humans, but also then disease and natural calamities, tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, and so forth and so on that human beings didn't cause on many occasions, then how would God, the omnipotent Report an error

50:55 It's a worldview that many people embrace, they find meaningful, but it certainly is problematic. I never embrace it myself. Report an error

51:05 And the other big dominant one, very prevalent here in Australia, United States, and it's pretty much the state religion in China, the communist countries, is, hey, we're living in a great big mindless machine here. Everything boils down to matter and the emergent properties of matter. If you want to be a little bit fancy about it, space-time, matter, energy, that's pretty much it. That's all there is to it. Space-time, matter, energy, and the emergent properties of them. Report an error

51:27 And so organic life emerged out of inorganic. Consciousness, mind states, emerged out of complex configurations of biological processes. And there's this whole evolution, and here we are. And when you're dead, you're dead, you're totally annihilated. And everything happens in the world according to the laws of physics, chemistry and biology, including your brain. Report an error

51:49 And your mind is simply a process of the brain. The brain operates according to the laws of physics, chemistry, biology, therefore you do too. The laws of physics, chemistry and biology are amoral. Let's make no mistake about that. There's no morality built into Newton's laws, Einstein's laws or any morality built into the laws of chemistry and biology. Report an error

52:08 There's no morality in evolution. It's who survives, who procreates. So we're being really hard-nosed here, right? We're not pretending anything. There's no morality there at all. The word morality doesn't mean anything. Ethics doesn't mean anything. Surviving and procreating, that means something. Any way you can do it. Report an error

52:40 follow the breadcrumbs, if you follow the implications, you have to say, well, you you are a robot. because your brain is the agent. We get it everywhere in the press. Now it's everywhere. I hardly see any exceptions anyway. Your brain is the agent. The brain is doing everything. Everything you thought you were doing, everything you thought your mind was doing, got that one wrong. It's the brain doing it. And they'll tell you how to train your brain so the brain does something different on occasion, like meditation for brain, brain training. Report an error

53:06 That's very popular nowadays. If you want to teach meditation and really get a lot of followers, say, I've got some brain training for you. Now watch your breath. As you're training your brain, by the way, watch your breath. Brain training. Now it's scientific. It's a slate at hand, of course. Report an error

53:22 So there's a worldview, if you can live with it, that you're a robot and you're going to die and be annihilated, surrounded by robots who are going to die and be annihilated. And as Stephen Jay Gould, a very prominent evolutionary biologist, said, you know, the whole process is meaningless. Evolution is not going anywhere. Report an error

53:41 It's just adapting to changing environments. It's not getting better. It's just surviving and procreating and doing it more as the environment changes. It gets colder, hotter, more people, fewer people, diseases come, and so forth. So it's one basically... As Steven Weinberg, the physicist, said, the more we understand the nature of the universe, the more meaningless it appears. And Steven J. Gould, as a biologist, said, well, if you understand evolution, it's just completely meaningless. Report an error

54:06 There's no purpose. There's no point. And by the way, you're a robot. And by the way, you're about to be annihilated. And at any moment, really. Because who can guarantee that you'll live tomorrow? So now, if you actually live that, a lot of people articulate it. But do they really believe it? I don't know. Report an error

54:22 Are they really willing to live in accordance with that? Because I don't think I exaggerated anything there. I have studied this a lot. I've listened a lot. is anybody really willing to live there? If you are, then your vision of the good life is going to be about the size of a peanut shell. Report an error

54:38 Really, I mean, what are your chances? you're a robot. Report an error

54:44 you're actually not making any choices at all because machines don't make choices. They're programmed. We're programmed to survive and procreate. That's our program. And so to my mind this is asphyxiating. I think it's actually quite grotesque. If it's true, I'll bite the bullet. I really would. If I could see that that was true, then I would say okay. But I will consider suicide. But I will accept it if it gives compelling evidence. Report an error

55:10 I have not seen that compelling evidence. So I'm seeing one I can't believe and another one I can't believe and could not bear to live according to it. So those are the big options. That's why I left. That's why I left. I couldn't stand it. Those two options, give me a break. And can you imagine trying to put those together? I'll be half scientist and half Christian. How's that going to work out? Insanity, that's what I think that would be. Report an error

55:33 And so people then don't think about it. It's called double think, where you have two tracks. People are Christian on Sunday and they're secular six days a week. And they just don't let those two wires touch because they know it's just going to burn them. It's going to fry them. Mine will go back into meltdown. So that's why I left. Report an error

55:53 Is there a third option? Is there anything outside of theism? We have this problem of theodicy, which has been around there forever. And pretty much apart from Mysterious are the Ways of the Lord, I mean, that's about it. That's what they finally say is now relax. God knows what's going on. We're not here to judge. How are we to know anyway? We don't know the big picture. Only God knows the big picture. Okay? Humility. Report an error

56:13 Humility is good. The other one, courage. The courage of Sartre, the Camus. Courage not to kill yourself, because you really want to. They don't. Try to sleep up a little bit. If you're a British, sleep up a little bit. So the Buddhist worldview is neither one nor the other. Never been theistic. The Buddha said, no, I don't see any evidence for it. Report an error

56:37 I don't see any evidence that some god created this, so I'm not going to accept something with no evidence. And materialism? Well, you must be brain dead if you can't recognize that your awareness is not just some function of matter. I mean, where do you come up with that crazy idea? The dreams come out of chemicals. You must have a magical notion of chemicals. Report an error

56:58 To think that actually thoughts, emotions, desires come out of chemicals. If we had not heard it so many times, I think we'd just start laughing. You've got to be kidding. Genies coming out of a lamp, that I can imagine, but dreams coming out of chemicals? Carbon, potassium, sodium, electricity? Dreams coming out of that? Report an error

57:17 Really? I have a very hard time taking that seriously. I know a lot of people do, but I have to chuckle. I don't want to refute it, I want to just say, I'm too busy. It's too silly. It's not silly only when you get really accustomed to it. Report an error

57:33 And everybody around you believes it. Then it doesn't seem silly. But just because of group thinking. So what about a third option? And this happens directly related to this meditation and this whole theme of love and kindness. Report an error

57:49 I'm not going to give a big exposition of reincarnation, the six realms, karma and all of that. Something simpler. Report an error

57:58 Within the context of this life, because that's what we really know about with total confidence this life, we know that there are many people, I know some, one springs to mind. He'll be anonymous, but I know him very well. He's extremely smart. Very smart. Very, very smart. Got a law degree, has a business degree from two of the finest universities in the United States. Report an error

58:17 He's very hardworking. He failed and won. Finally succeeded for a while, but his behavior was so awful, he was kicked out in a Report an error

58:36 pretty sad manner. But everything there, intelligent, well-educated, hardworking, is the worst problem. One could say, well, bad luck. Some people strive very hard. Just don't make success. Bad luck. Bad luck. What can you say? Bad luck. Things went against him. Other times his personality traits, this person actually has a number of personality traits that are very harmful to himself and other people. Report an error

59:00 But in terms of, to get to the point, in terms of our hedonic pursuits, succeeding in business, striving in a certain profession, hoping to get advancement, succeed, prosper, going to a university, hoping to do well, hoping to get into this university, that university if one is a young person, raising a family and hoping if the children will be well. Report an error

59:22 They'll be healthy, good people. Entering into a marriage, hoping that's going to turn out well. These are all hedonic. Hoping it will turn out well. And so often, even with very well-intentioned people, ethical people and so forth, it doesn't. It doesn't. And some people are really quite sleazy, tricky, selfish, dishonest and so forth. Report an error

59:50 Some of them really succeed in spirits. Heads of the drug cartels enjoying a good life. It happens a lot. Mafiosi. Maserati, the Lamborghini to the Maserati to the Ferrari, enjoying the women, the drink, really the good life, you know? So we know there's no justice there, and there's nothing to predict. That is, people striving very well, very diligently, and then they fall over with a stroke, get hit by a car. Report an error

1:00:19 They're right in the prime of life, knocked out by pancreatic cancer. Steve Jobs, how many hospitals could he have bought? Steve Jobs, right? He could have just said, and called in the... 100 best specialists on the planet. You could have paid for it for sure. Was he 59? Report an error

1:00:39 Pancreatic cancer. Life is finished. So all that wealth, all that notoriety didn't help him for that long. So when it comes to pursuit of hedonic pleasure, we're not living in a user-friendly universe. Put it really bluntly. This is not a user-friendly universe. There's just too many things unpredictable, uncontrollable and frankly unjust. This guy's so lucky. Report an error

1:01:01 What did he do to do that? Whatever it is, it's a fantastic success. Why? And this person here is so much better and you're not getting anywhere at all. Not user-friendly. So insofar as we align ourselves, we focus our efforts, our aspirations, our vision, what is the good life? What are you aspiring for? What kind of happiness do you want? Insofar as hedonic or gamblers, like going to Las Vegas. Report an error

1:01:32 You don't have Las Vegas or Reno here in Australia. You have places, little niches where you can be really, you know. Live the life of debauchery. Yeah. Yeah, you have that. What's that? Star City. Star City. Ah, you have your own Las Vegas. Like, no holds barred. You know, pretty right on the fringe of, well, let's call it legal. Well, we have two. It's right next to California. So lots of flights. Report an error

1:01:58 Lots of flights to Reno and Las Vegas. But everybody, you know, they go there to gamble and for other fun things. But there is a statement that is famous in the gambling business, and that is the house always wins. Play long enough, and no matter how much money you bring, you'll go out broke. Just play long enough, because that's why they are running a business and not a charity. They're not there to break even. They're not for profits, like this has all come out even here. No, they would like to make as much profit. Report an error

1:02:26 They would like to empty your pockets down to the last nickel, so you have to borrow money to get home. And the house always wins. Hedonia, hedonia. The house almost wins. However much you win, however much you win, you get old, you get sick and you die. And you wind up penniless. Everything you acquired is lost. You may lose it before then, but the question of whether you lose it or not, that's just not an open question at all. That's a closed question. Report an error

1:02:55 You'll lose everything you acquired. You'll be a dead rich guy, dead rich woman, but you will not carry one penny, you'll not carry one trace of your reputation, your status, your power, your prestige, you're just, you're just. Dead. So you may win for a while, but you may lose. But no matter what, the house wins finally. That's it. Report an error

1:03:16 Hedonia. That's how the game is played. Those are the odds you're facing. You're going to lose. It's only a matter of when and how, but not whether. Report an error

1:03:27 And the house is not user-friendly. Natural calamities, disease, cheating, dishonesty, graft corruption, betrayal. It's all over the place. And in the midst of that, some people do succeed until they don't. So it's a bit grim. It's a bit grim. But I don't think I'm exaggerating anything here. I've been around for a while. That's hedonia. What about eudaimonia? What about that one? Report an error

1:03:57 Satsuka in Sanskrit. Buddhism. Report an error

1:04:06 There's really an extraordinary hypothesis here that, to my mind, it's overwhelmingly now a working hypothesis in my own life to such an extent that I would say I have found this to be true. Not because of deepening faith in the Buddha or Dhammakaya or confidence Report an error

1:04:26 of faith, those two. Conviction is a good word. Conviction based upon experience, my own experience. And that is the pursuit of hedonic well-being, hedonic happiness and then eudaimonic well-being. They're actually quite distinct. They're not necessarily in conflict with each other, but they're really not the same at all. Because one, again, is the happiness you get from the world by going out. Report an error

1:04:49 I call it hunting and foraging. We go out, we hunt for the mate, we hunt for the money, for the prestige, the power, we forage, and then we bring it back home. And that's our hedonic, ever since humanity's been around. We go out, we forage, and then we have to protect. Report an error

1:05:11 That's hedonic. And the eudaimonia is what we bring to the world, the sense of well-being that we bring to the world. Therefore, how can anybody take that away? When you experience the eudaimonia, really an act of kindness, of service, of generosity, and you feel a great deal of satisfaction in that. Report an error

1:05:26 Now, how is somebody going to take that away? You didn't get it, so nobody can take it away. It's straight logic, it's semantics, or just the terminology itself. So, here's the question, and that is the universe we're living in. It's a big question, it's a really, really deep question, because it has to do with what's going on, what's the nature of reality. I think it's quite clear to all of us, I imagine, the universe, our planet, this society, this globe, this ecosphere, is not user-friendly for Hedonia. Report an error

1:06:01 You can't count on anything, you can't even count on being alive tomorrow. So there's no security there, that's for sure. It's imaginary security, you can enjoy that if you like, as you live in a fantasy realm. But if you're living where life happens, then there's no security here at all, not even living till tomorrow. That you'll have your savings, you'll have your reputation, you'll have your prestige, your power, your influence, your family. Report an error

1:06:22 Families get knocked out by one drunk driver, then you're not a family anymore. So where's the security in that? Kind of chilly, but eudaimonia. Report an error

1:06:34 Here's the question. Is the universe, is our world, our lebenswelt, our lived world, is this user-friendly for the pursuit of eudaimonia? Report an error

1:06:45 That's a question I don't hear much. Not in the West, anyway. Is it user-friendly? Insofar as, and it's not good people and bad people, it's an insofar as kind of question. Insofar as we align, we turn our aspirations, our yearnings, our efforts, our vision to the greater and greater realization of genuine happiness. Report an error

1:07:05 Is this world that we're living in user-friendly, or is it as indifferent to our eudaimonic desires as it obviously is to our hedonic desires? And that is, it doesn't care at all. You may as well be living in a materialistic universe. So I have an answer for that. Not for everybody else, I have an answer for me. Because in my life, it was very clear. There was a point where I was searching, but not very diligently, and I was just going to school and doing stuff that teenagers do. Report an error

1:07:37 Pretty ordinary. And then when I was 20, hitchhiking around Europe, really turning more towards disillusionment with everything I knew thus far, no hope, and then finding this little ray of light from this book on Tibetan Buddhism about the nature of awareness, nature of mind, inspired by that. And then aspirations started coming up, yearning, starting a vision, not like mystical visions, but just some vision. Maybe there's something more than anything I've known. Report an error

1:08:07 about thus far. Because all I knew thus far was science and Christianity. That was it. here's something that's not science as we understand it. It's not hedonic science at all. It's not objective science at all. And it's not Christianity. © BF-WATCH TV 2021 There's no creator, nobody punishing, rewarding, and so forth and so on. Nobody in control of typhoons and tsunamis and so forth. Nobody doing that to us. Report an error

1:08:31 my mind really started turning what I would now call, back then I didn't even know the term, eudaimonia, life of greater meaning, of awakening, freedom. Report an error

1:08:43 many of you know this story. I'll tell it very shortly. towards the end of a summer of hitchhiking around Europe. Report an error

1:08:51 getting inspired by it, really thinking, I think this is it. I think this is what I've been looking for. Hitchhiking all over Western Europe, finally going up through Sweden, from Denmark up to Sweden and Oslo and then out to Bergen. That was the end of the line. I was with my college roommate. So that's what he was heading off to Scotland for his third year of university, a university abroad program. He was heading off to Scotland. Report an error

1:09:21 So it was our last day. We said we're saying goodbye the next morning. I'm heading back to Germany for my third year. And I remember so distinctly, it's really one of the most memorable events in my life, writing in my journal that morning just before my buddy's taking off. Report an error

1:09:37 I need to read, I need to, I've been reading this book now and this is really good and there's something really, there's really something here. But I wrote my, I need to find a wise old man. I need somebody to give me some guidance here. It has to be a wise old man. That's my upper type. And I wrote it there. And I need a snappy. I'm really feeling some urgency here. So that morning my buddy took off, took the ferry off to Scotland, and I started hitchhiking back across to the heartland of southern Norway from Bergen to Oslo, heading back down to Göttingen, where I'm going to spend my third year of university, planning to study ecology and philosophy until I picked up this book. Report an error

1:10:09 And so I'm out there in the middle of nowhere. Somebody dropped me off about an hour east of Bergen, out in the middle of just wilderness, just open. Wooded wilderness. I'm hanging out there by the side of the road for five hours with my backpack, my guitar, classic American hippie, holding my thumb. Nobody's picking me up. Report an error

1:10:26 Apparently some hitchhiker robbed somebody, so they're kind of a bit skittery, a bit nervous about hitchhiking. So I waited, waited, waited. Nobody picked me up. Five hours. So I started walking against the grain of traffic, going backwards to the nearest town with this little railway station and get out of there to places more hitchhiker-friendly. Report an error

1:10:46 And so I'm walking against the grain of the traffic, holding my guitar here, backpack, great big backpack, and I just dangle my thumb out like that, rather mindlessly, because I'm walking against the grain, right? I mean, they're going this way, I'm going that way, so why would anybody look at my thumb? But why not, you know? And so I'm walking, and before, I don't know, five minutes, a little bike VW bug, a little Falvey, pulls over to the side, VW. Report an error

1:11:12 And this little guy, this little old man, I'm kind of wondering, why did he pull over? And then he looked at me like he saw my thumb. Like that. You want to write? I said, oh yeah, I was hitchhiking. So, sure. So I threw my backpacking guitar in the back seat, got in the front seat with him. He takes me about five minutes down the road. Because he lived there. He lived up in a little chalet up in the mountains. Report an error

1:11:38 The native artwork, painting bowls. In five minutes I learned that he was a Buddhist monk who lived in Nepal. And he was a wise old man. Report an error

1:11:48 And he learned that I was interested in Buddhism. And we got so interested in the conversation. We pulled over. He straightened me to an ice cream. We talked more and more and more until we talked about everything he needed. He gave me just the advice I needed. He drove up to a chalet. Somebody picked me up. I made my way down to Germany. I thought, aha, that's interesting. At that time, there were maybe, what, three or four Buddhist monks in all of Europe. Report an error

1:12:11 It's 1970. And I want to know about Tibetan Buddhism. He lived in Nepal, and he's a Buddhist monk. And now that's, if that's a coincidence, that's really a whopper. That's a real big one. One out of a million, one out of ten million. That's really a whopper. I got down to Germany, planning to study ecology and philosophy. There was no ecology, and the philosophy was barren. Report an error

1:12:37 But there was an indulge in Parliament, and there was a Tibetan Lama who had just been appointed there. And I became his only student. And I could just go on and on, because that was 44 years ago. Report an error

1:12:50 But it keeps on happening. It just kept on happening again and again and again. Now, when you listen to a celebrity, like a movie star, We hear this so often. All you have to do is believe in yourself. Remember, have you ever heard that one? Just believe in yourself, says, you know, Gwyneth Paltrow or, you know, one of these superstars. Report an error

1:13:11 Just believe in yourself. You can achieve anything you want to do. You know what my answer to that is? Bullshit. That's not true at all. How many aspiring actors and actresses totally believe in themselves? They believe they're just ripe for an Academy Award today. Totally believe. Really attractive. They might even be very talented. Report an error

1:13:31 And we never hear of them because they wind up serving, you know, as a waitress for the rest of their lives because it just never broke for them. They never met the right person. And those people at the end of their lives, when they become junior managers of a restaurant, they're not saying, just believe in yourself. You can accomplish anything you want like me. Report an error

1:13:51 I became junior manager of this restaurant. That's bullshit. I'm sorry. That's bullshit. Hedonia, it's not user-friendly. Some people are lucky. If you want to go into Buddhism, you can talk about karma. But within his lifetime, okay, lucky, which means go figure. But eudaimonia, when I look at all of the events that have taken place in my life over these years, it just doesn't make any sense to me. Report an error

1:14:22 You say, I was lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky. What a coincidence. What another coincidence. Wow, that was a coincidence. That was really a cool coincidence. When it happens 10 and 15 times, and I know that it's, I just see there's nothing about me there. So I'm just a super person. For super people like me this happens, but for ordinary people not. But no, I talk to people. It happens many times. Report an error

1:14:45 There are many sincere seekers, many people really devoted to a spiritual path, and not only Buddhists, of course. So I've looked at this, I've looked at this empirically, because a materialist worldview looks like an invitation to suicide, and the theistic looks to me like, I can't believe it. It just doesn't make any sense. Report an error

1:15:08 This one I'm looking at experience and it doesn't depend on belief in reincarnation, karma and so forth, the whole big Buddhist worldview. It's even this lifetime. Report an error

1:15:19 So I invite you on an adventure. Some of you are already deeply into that adventure. But to ask. But it's not one of those passive questions. Like when Galileo rolled the balls down a ramp and wanted to know whether they accelerate or go at constant velocity. They do something no matter what he does. That is, if he'd set up the experiment correctly. Report an error

1:15:40 It just happens. And it doesn't matter who runs the experiment. Good person, virtuous, non-virtuous, whatever. That's just what happens, right? This is not like that. Report an error

1:15:50 And that is there's an observer participancy here. You have to bring an authentic motivation. You can't just say, here's what I like. Let's see if reality rises up to meet me. Because insofar as hedonic, don't count on it. It might, but it might not. I just don't see anything in this lifetime that suggests anything about society, the planet or the galaxy is hedonic, user-friendly. But for the eudaimonia, I'm now persuaded and I keep on seeing it again and again. Report an error

1:16:19 Now I'm 64 and I'm seeing again and again reality rising up, doors closing so another door can open. This opens and that opens to this. And just feeling this like reality is rising up to meet me. Not for everything. I still get sick, I get old. Adversity strikes and so forth. It doesn't mean that you live on a silver cloud, that your life is just a bed of roses at all. Hedonically, hedonically, oh, you can get it in the teeth like anybody else. Report an error

1:16:47 You can die in a tsunami. It doesn't protect you from tsunamis. It doesn't protect you from cancer. It doesn't protect you from financial failure. But how will you experience it? Report an error

1:16:58 People dying of cancer, they die in many different ways. The cancer is the same, but their subjective experience of it can be very different. Gen Lam Rimba was one of my... Revered teachers, I lived with him for a year. Yogi, a real yogi. In his late 60s, he got cancer. He got treatment, saw that he would really need very invasive treatment. Report an error

1:17:21 Said, no thanks, don't need it. So he went out back to his meditation hut and he came. Continued meditating. He's meditating from 5 o 'clock in the morning till 1 o 'clock in the morning. That was right, not 1 to 5, but 5 to 1. Died very peacefully. A good friend of mine was with him. Serene, cheerful equilibrium is Report an error

1:17:47 in the clear light of death. Lived well, died well. He did not, how do you say, what's the phrase going? He did not lose the battle against cancer. He simply died of cancer. There was no battle. He took medical treatment as long as he thought might be helpful. When he saw it was going to be too invasive, probably won't succeed anyway, he said, I don't need it. Report an error

1:18:08 And then just lived out the rest of his life very meaningfully and died meaningfully. He didn't lose a battle. He won. So Report an error

1:18:18 turning one's life to the pursuit of eudaimonia. It does not mean that anything is going to be better or worse in terms of your hedonic well-being. You might want to check. Because if this is true, if it's true, I'm not saying it is, I'm just saying this has proven to be true for me and I keep on watching it and it just keeps on being true again and again and again. Report an error

1:18:42 In the midst of adversity, adversity, felicity, like anybody else, yes. But do even the adversities arise in a way that is conducive to practice? Yeah, actually they do. But it's participant. You have to be participating. You have to be practicing Dharma. You don't just put out your hands and expect rose petals to fall in. And it's also not just a psychological gimmick. Report an error

1:19:05 Make lemonade out of lemons. Around every cloud there's a silver lining. It's not a gimmick. It's more than that. It's more than putting a good face on. It's more than making the best of a bad situation. All that perfectly good common sense, what I've experienced is more than that, infinitely more than that. And if it were just me, I'd think, wow, then I must be really, really special. Report an error

1:19:28 Aren't I fortunate? But I have a lot of Dharma friends. I never thought I was special, but now I know it. Special in some ways is where everybody is. But special in the sense of reality rises up to meet me, but not other Dharma friends? No, not true. So if this is true, what I'm saying, if it's true, then the vision of our own happiness takes on another whole order of magnitude, doesn't it? Report an error

1:19:55 It's seen in a different way. The pursuit of happiness is seen in a different way. And our vision of reality as a whole is neither somebody run by somebody who's omnipotent and benevolent or just run mindlessly by nobody at all. Something different, third option. But in a way there's kind of a sense of intelligibility in this. Report an error

1:20:20 And that is something very simple. And that is eudaimonia has to be reality-based. It can't be based on fiction. It's a truth given joy. Truth given joy is living in accordance with reality. If I live as if my well-being is more important than yours, I'm living in accordance with something that's not true. Report an error

1:20:44 If I live a selfish life, self-centered life, and I act that way, that my well-being is more important than yours, well then that's hedonic and good luck, but it's not user-friendly. And why? Because that's not true. I can point to anybody here in the room and say, is my well-being more important than yours? And the answer is no. Why would you think that? That's a stupid idea. Report an error

1:21:04 And so likewise, if I'm banking on, oh, if I had this amount of money or this much sex or this much, this much, that'll make me happy. That's not reality-based. So why would reality rise up to meet us and something is unrealistic? That kind of doesn't make sense, does it? Whereas eudaimonia, ethics is reality-based. You're living as if you knew the nature of reality, even if you don't. Report an error

1:21:27 Cultivating mental balance is cultivating greater clarity so you can see reality as it is more and more clearly. That's reality-based. The wisdom, the insight of knowing who you are, knowing fundamental features of reality, reality-based. So these three dimensions of ethics, samādhi and wisdom, each of these brings with it a quality of eudaimonia. Report an error

1:21:45 But each one brings deeper eudaimonia because it's more and more in alignment with reality. So maybe this actually all makes sense. Insofar as our aspirations for the fulfillment of our deepest potential is in accordance with reality, reality rises up to meet us because we're rising up to meet reality. Report an error

1:22:03 There's a symmetry there. Or else we'd lose sight of that. We'd say, oh, no, no, no, no, no. That over there, that's going to make me happy. That's going to make me happy. Then, okay, good luck. But reality's not going to rise up to meet you because that's not a reality-based aspiration. That's a fantasy. If I had that much money, that car, that possession, that much sex or whatever, well then, you know, don't accept any help. Report an error

1:22:28 Maybe it'll happen, maybe it won't. So, thoughts on eudaimonia and worldview. Here Report an error

1:22:41 comes the science. So, Dan, you've given me a phrase that I'll remember. Sex and chocolate. About Report an error

1:22:51 as much as you can hope for within a materialist framework. What else is there? Sex and chocolate. Report an error

1:23:03 That's going to be pretty limiting when you try to envision a good life. What, a lot of sex and a lot of chocolate? Chocolaty sex? Sexy chocolate? I mean, how many variations are there on that theme, you know? It really stunts the imagination. Those are some thoughts. Report an error

1:23:25 But this is actually, I'm not teaching, like, metaphysics here. It can be viewed as you like. If you like to view it that way, you can. But I didn't come to this by metaphysical analysis or a leap of faith or a belief in Buddha, but just watching how life plays out and seeing myself align myself, I think actually more and more, to Dharma, to the cultivation of yidamanya, of understanding, of virtue, of genuine happiness, integrating those, and seeing point after time after time after time, oh, what good fortune. Report an error

1:23:58 What good fortune. Report an error

1:24:02 So I'll end with another of my favorite stories. It's a very meaningful story for me, and I've told it many times. But I lived for a year in Germany, went down to Switzerland for the summer, learned more Tibetan, and then bought a one-way ticket to India. Just before I left, I finally went to Nepal to find a yogi up in a cave. But just before, when I was in the summer of 71 in Switzerland, living in a monastery, a Tibetan monastery, a bulletin came in. Report an error

1:24:30 It came from India, saying the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives is going to open very shortly, within a month or two. And classes will be held under the auspices of the Dalai Lama, Dalai Lama classes, like he's teaching them. Where's Kathy, by the way? Where's Kathy Graham? There you are. So, the summer of 71. And I'm in Switzerland planning to make a beeline for a yogi in a cave up in Nepal who's going to take one look at me and say, My chela, I've been waiting for you. Report an error

1:24:59 That's what I want. Report an error

1:25:04 That's what I want. Comes this bulletin about a library of Tibetan works and archives. I mean, that was the last thing I was interested in. A library? I wanted a yogi in a cave, not a library. And I had really no interest in Dalai Lama. I thought he was a king, you know, just a Lama king, King Lama, God king, whatever. Report an error

1:25:22 Not interesting. I wanted a yogi, not a God king. But the Lama that I was studying with, Sakyalama in Switzerland, he said, Alan, this is a real good opportunity. It's right under His Holiness. You go there. Report an error

1:25:39 So, instead of one-way ticket to Kathmandu, one-way ticket to Bombay, and then Delhi, and then first train up to Patankot. And then I was the first bus up to Dharamzala, McLeod Gunge. Report an error

1:25:55 So I moved right in. As soon as I got there, I was invited into the home of the Dalai Lama's personal physician. That was nice. And so the library opened, Geshe Nantegi, our mutual and revered Lama. Spectacular Lama. But I was told in the bulletin that the Dalai Lama would be teaching. And so after being there a couple of months, there's no Dalai Lama. Geshe Nantegi, fabulous Geshe, wonderful Lama. Report an error

1:26:18 But I was thinking the Dalai Lama would be teaching him. It kind of was at least implied in the bulletin. So I asked the director of the library, Gyatso Siti, Gyatso Siti, I asked him, when's the Dalai Lama coming? I thought this was kind of like the, what do you call it when there's a rock band and the first one that comes on, the little one? Report an error

1:26:41 What's that? Yeah, but you know what I'm talking about. You're like, okay, well, here comes the main act. Here's the Dalai Lama. I was waiting for the main act. So I spoke with the director of the library. When's the main act coming? When's the Dalai Lama coming? The wall. The wall, yeah. Report an error

1:26:54 He said, well, he'll come sometimes. He came once in four years or something. But he was supervising it all. That was all true. So I was studying, studying, really total immersion. A couple of months went by, and I was told by Yeshu Dundon, the doctor with whom I was living, if you'd like to have a personal audience with His Holiness, that can be arranged quite easily. Report an error

1:27:14 It was 1971, so he wasn't as busy as he is now. I didn't want to waste his time. I thought that he's a god-king. He's a very important man. I'm not. I don't want to waste his time with chit-chat. You know, hi, my name's Alan, how are you? So I waited until I felt I had something important to ask, something that wouldn't be a waste of his time and would be meaningful to me. Report an error

1:27:37 And then after a couple of months there, I got it. I got what the question was. I'd been there studying full-time for maybe two or three months, and we have the hippies coming through on their migratory route. You know, they come for a week, three or four days, and then head on. Some would learn that I was there with some interest in Buddhism, and so if they could catch me someplace, they'd sort of ask me questions about Buddhism. Report an error

1:27:59 And again, I'd been studying for two months or so. And the questions were so basic, pretty much I could answer all the questions. ABCs, you know. But I found when I was answering their questions, and they're all listening, I was already starting to feel a bit special. Like I know something. I'm knowledgeable. They're not. They're newcomers. Or people freshly coming to Dharamsala. I've been there for two or three months. And I felt this sense of superiority coming up. Report an error

1:28:32 And then I extrapolated. I tend to do that. I tend to follow consequences. How's this going to turn out? I've been here for two months and I'm already feeling a bit arrogant. And I do know that I don't really know anything. How is this going to turn out? Because I came here to cultivate virtue, wisdom, compassion, follow the path, become enlightened, becoming, yeah, really, that means becoming a better person. Report an error

1:28:55 But every step of the way, if I do in fact realize my aspiration to become a better person, that means I'll be better than some other people. And the further I progress along the path, then the more other people I'll have to look down on. And the further I proceed, the more arrogant I'll become, the more big-headed I'll become, egotistical I'll become, which means, what the hell am I doing? This is not going to turn out well. Report an error

1:29:17 But how do you avoid becoming a better person and not knowing you're a better person and therefore thinking other people are inferior? How do you get out of that one? And I did not have an answer. But I knew that's not where I wanted to go. I mean, really, who wants to become arrogant? Consciously. I said, okay, I'm ready. Report an error

1:29:35 May I please have an audience with us all? Report an error

1:29:40 And so that was granted very quickly. It was opportunity, one-on-one. He was only 36 years old, a young man. Report an error

1:29:55 So I posed the question. I become arrogant, egotistical, have a sense of superiority and all of that. And he gave me the answer. And it is indelibly printed on my memory, and I've told it many, many times. Some of you have already heard this many times. I said, OK, imagine that you're very poor, really hungry, and you come to a home where there... Report an error

1:30:19 Serving up dinner and it's just a great dinner. You can smell the... And you come to the door and you knock on the door and say, do you have any scraps to spare? I'm really hungry. Do you have any leftovers? Anything you can spare? A piece of bread? Anything? Report an error

1:30:35 It's hard for me to tell the story without a strong emotion coming out. But imagine they invite you in as if you're a family member. And they're just sitting down because the table is just filled with delicious food of all kinds of variety. And they sit you down like family members that enjoy us. Part of the family. Here, just chow down. Eat to your heart's content. As much as you want to eat. Just enjoy. And you do. You accept their invitation. Report an error

1:31:02 You just chow down. You're just eating until you hardly eat anymore. So imagine you've done that and when you finish the meal you're just kind of like, oh, that was a good meal. When you finish the meal, do you feel proud? Do you feel superior? Do you feel arrogant? Do you feel that you're better than other people now that you've had such a good meal? Report an error

1:31:23 I answer the obvious. No. That's right. That's right. What would you naturally feel? Of course, gratitude. You're the beggar. Report an error

1:31:38 You came here because you were hungry. Remember Report an error

1:31:48 we were charged $3 a month tuition. $3 a month. I remember. It was 30 rupees, I think. 30 rupees for a month's tuition. Six days a week instruction from this master scholar contemplative. He was superb. You couldn't ask for a better teacher. He was out. Report an error

1:32:11 $3 a month. I don't know where your salary was, because in our class, I was in the one-year class, there were only eight of us. So do the math, you know, what's your salary going to be? Okay, $24 a month, right, from eight students. So I was a beggar, and these Lamas, they just opened everything. Report an error

1:32:39 That pretty well did it, you know, that changes everything. Whatever good qualities come out, there's only one reality-based response, and that's gratitude. Anything else is silly. Any notion, I'm superior, I'm special, I'll give us a break. Silly. Now it's a non-problem. Everything. Years later, when I wanted to come back, got a full scholarship to Amherst College, best college in the country, United States. But I got a full scholarship. I was a monk, I had almost no money at all. Report an error

1:33:13 It's the most expensive college in the country. Gave me a full scholarship. What am I supposed to feel, pride when I graduate? And then I decided I wanted to go to graduate school. Stanford gave me a full scholarship. And I got a national fellowship. So that was all free. So I got a Ph.D. and I'm going to be proud of getting a Ph.D.? I'm not insane. Report an error

1:33:34 And so there it is. Report an error

1:33:42 Whether the world we're living in is user-friendly for those who are devoting themselves, it's not a matter of believing in Ganesha, believing in God, believing in many gods and so forth. It's not contingent to get all your beliefs right, because beliefs are different. But the meaning of the pursuit of an authentic life. Report an error

1:34:06 So did you know what he has? It's a good word. It really appears to me reality is user-friendly. And if it is, it changes everything. The whole nature of reality is now neither a machine nor a big company run by an anonymous CEO. Something different. Something where we're participants. We're co-creating the universe that we're experiencing. It's very different. Report an error

1:34:33 So I think all of this is actually very relevant to love and kindness and the depth of love and kindness that we are around. Report an error

1:34:42 Let's come back at 3.50. Report an error

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1:35:50 say in terms of a technique. Report an error

1:35:56 a very simple technique, observing the sensations of the breath. What's profound about that? And I don't think there is actually anything profound about it at all. technique's very simple. Report an error

1:36:05 profound things do happen, profound experiences, insights, transformations do take place. where's the profundity coming from? Not coming from me, that's clear. It's not coming from a technique, it's just watching your breath. Report an error

1:36:20 I've practiced this a long time, taught it, listened to other people report on their experiences, that this can be a very profound, transformative and even liberating practice to my mind is perfectly clear. But where does all that liberation, that profundity, that depth and meaning come from? Well, there's only one option left. It's not from outside, it's not from the technique, from your mind. Report an error

1:36:42 Your mind is profound. And the practice is unleashing the profundity of the mind. So I've done this. This is the first type of Buddhist meditation I ever practiced. Way back when I was living in Germany, I picked up a book called The Heart of Buddhist Meditation. A very fine German scholar and monk practitioner on the four foundations of mindfulness, the four applications of mindfulness. Report an error

1:37:06 It begins with mindfulness of breathing, and that's something I could actually understand. The book from Tibetan Buddhism I felt was incredibly profound, but I didn't understand it and didn't have a clue how to practice it. I had no idea. But this one, when I settled into my little apartment, my flat in Göttingen, pick up this book, that spoke to me. So I've been practicing it a long time. Report an error

1:37:27 And just one brief comment before we jump in. Whether it's perhaps some provocative or interesting ideas about the nature of the universe, about the nature of eudaimonia and so forth, whether it's that, or I can remember one vividly because I've thought of it many times, when I was studying advanced mechanics, classical mechanics at Amherst. Report an error

1:37:49 A really difficult problem. The professor gave us only three problems for the whole week. That means each one was a real stinker. I spent two or three, four hours on it. A difficult problem. It was an advanced mechanic. And I remember getting this set of problems and looking at the first one and just kind of chewing on it and trying to just... Report an error

1:38:08 I'm not very gifted for physics. I worked hard, but I'm not very gifted. But I couldn't get in. I just couldn't see the way into it. I know what the problem is. I don't know how to start. So I'm going to take a breather. Literally, take a breather. And I went into my room and I just lay on my back and I just practiced mindfulness of breathing. And I wasn't mindfulness of breathing contemplating this physics problem. Report an error

1:38:32 I was just practicing mindfulness of breathing. But I'd just come from grappling with this question, how do you solve this problem? I have to solve this, but in a week. And so then I remember it, because this kind of thing has happened many, many times. This is just when it kind of leapt out at me. I'm sitting there lying on my back, breathing in, breathing out. And then, oh. Report an error

1:38:52 Oh, yeah, that's how you get into the problem. And then you have to do the hard work. But I saw how to get into the problem and actually how to start solving it. But the point is I wasn't thinking about it. And I didn't go into the meditation in order to solve the physics problem. I wanted a breather. I wanted just to loosen up and not get so wrapped up in frustration and so forth. Report an error

1:39:12 And so I raised issues that I think are very deep in the last talk. If they're true, they're incredibly important. If they're not, wow, that's weird. If they're not true, that's really weird. And so what I would suggest now for this next session, mindfulness of breathing, when you do the same technique as last time, that you don't deliberately reflect upon, investigate, analyze anything that I said or anything that comes to mind. Report an error

1:39:39 Just do the practice. Do the practice and then see what comes up. And maybe nothing will come up. Maybe you'll just do the practice and that will be fine. But I found there is profundity there. And I will say this, that... Report an error

1:39:54 When the mind becomes porous, it is not rigid, not tight, not like that, not frozen. When it's loose, porous, open, relaxed and clear and very present, then impulses of creativity come up, intuition comes up. Report an error

1:40:15 They're not always great, but they're often not useless. And so to cultivate the mind in such a way that it becomes porous and from a deeper place, I'll just leave it at that, from a deeper place. Inspiration comes, intuition comes, creativity comes, connections are made. I've found this many, many times, where I know this and I know that. Report an error

1:40:41 And when I'm locked into a kind of a conceptual grid and rationality and reasoning and all of that, there's this and I know that. And then I release it and then settle. Then, metaphorically, the images in my mind right now is like having two poles and seeing an electric arc. We've all seen it, right? Report an error

1:40:59 electric arc jumped from one pole to another kind like oh those are related then another arc I don't know I haven't seen it it was right there in plain sight but I haven't seen that connections are made So let's just practice, keep it simple, but see what happens. Please find a comfortable position. Report an error

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1:44:11 Awareness illuminate the entire somatic field of your body and be aware of these fluctuations within this field associated with the in and out breath. Report an error

1:44:24 Relaxing deeply, letting go with every album, then Report an error

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1:45:10 direct the light of your awareness, which is simply to say focus your attention on the sensations of the rise and fall of the abdomen with each inhale of breath, letting the respiration continue the flow of its own accord without regulation, and Report an error

1:45:31 see if you can cultivate contentment in this ever so simple task for which you are radically overqualified in so many different ways. Report an error

1:45:42 See if you can be content simply to be resting in the present moment, as if you were sitting on a beach watching waves wash up on shore and flow back to the sea. Another wave, not getting bored, enjoying the soothing rhythm of it, not looking for entertainment or stimulation. Report an error

1:46:11 Flow, a continuum of awareness of the sensations of the whole course of the inbred, the sensations of the whole course of the outbred. Housing Report an error

1:46:32 your attention with the inbred means Report an error

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1:48:34 you seek to attend or remain mindfully engaged. Report an error

1:48:47 Continue to attend to the sensations during our breath. other words, you have something to do at all times. Attend to the flow of sensations, to the rising and falling of the abdomen. Report an error

1:48:59 a full-time job, no real time. empty time just to go on conceptual vacations, wandering thoughts, getting spaced out. Report an error

1:49:15 the best of your ability, attend to the full body of the in-breath, the full Enter into your best approximation of flow. You just slip into this stream of mind, continually engaged with this stream of tactile sensations associated with the in and out breath. Report an error

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1:53:24 When practicing mindfulness of breathing is to introduce the element of counting. It's not indispensable. You may find it helpful, you may not, but the only way to know is to experiment. Report an error

1:53:36 The whole idea is to gently, gradually attenuate the flow of obsessive-compulsive thinking to calm the mind. It's like putting speed bumps on a road. Report an error

1:53:55 There are different techniques. Here is one that you may find helpful. Allowing the breath to continue flowing in and out of its own core without effort, without impediment. Report an error

1:54:07 When Report an error

1:54:12 the in-breath comes to an end, the exhalation is just about to begin. Mentally, very succinctly, count. Keep Report an error

1:54:27 your attention focused on the sensations at the abdomen as the breath flows out, releasing it in whatever thoughts come to mind. To the best of your ability, maintain a continuity of mind-balance on the sensations of the breath. The breath begins to flow in. Report an error

1:54:51 come to the end of the next inhalation and you count two. Report an error

1:54:59 out, you arouse that the breath flows in. so in this way at the end, the very, very end of each count. One count. may count one through ten, one through ten, or you may simply continue counting. Report an error

1:55:15 See if you can remain as conceptually silent as possible, no chit-chat, these Report an error

1:55:29 non-conceptual sensations of the breath as you can. Begin the full-time job idea. So Report an error

1:55:39 experiment with counting. You may count just 10 breaths and then stop counting and see how that goes. Count 20 breaths, 30 breaths. Or you may find it just clutters your mind, in which case you don't need to do it. So take a purely pragmatic approach insofar as it's helpful. Calm the mind to maintain continuity of attention. And Report an error

1:56:10 let's continue practicing now in silence. Report an error

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2:07:13 Return to the main topic. We'll go to the very often chanted, recited discourse. Report an error

2:07:23 a discourse. A sermon, if you like, by the Buddha. It's called his Mettā Sutta. His discourse on loving-kindness, he really encapsulates in this one paragraph what is meant by loving-kindness in this Buddhist context. Bearing in mind, the same word can have different meanings in different contexts. The word love certainly has all kinds of meanings in an almost ridiculous array. But loving-kindness, that's why we translate mettā, the Pāli term mettā, as loving-kindness rather than the very lovely word love. Report an error

2:07:51 But love just covers too much territory. Love chocolate, motorcycles, beautiful weather, all kinds of stuff, but that's not loving kindness. So here's what loving kindness is in the Buddha's own words. Report an error

2:08:05 So may all beings be happy and secure. May their minds be contented. Whatever living beings there may be, feeble or strong, tall, stout or medium, short, small or large, seen or unseen, those dwelling far or near, those who are born and those who are yet to be born, may all beings without exception be of good cheer. Report an error

2:08:31 No one deceive another nor despise any person anywhere. In Report an error

2:08:39 anger or ill will, let no one wish any harm to another. Just as a mother would protect her only child even at the risk of her own life, even so, let one cultivate a boundless heart toward all beings. Report an error

2:08:54 Thoughts of boundless love pervade the whole world, below and across, without any obstruction, without any hatred, without any enmity. Whether one stands, walks, sits or lies down, as long as one is awake. One should maintain this mindfulness, this they say is the sublime state in this life, not falling into wrong views, virtues and endowed with insight. Report an error

2:09:20 One gives up attachment to sense desires. Verily such a person does not enter a womb again. There's the straight words, I thought I'd just read it. And then we'll go through it once again, just to bring as much clarity to this, because obviously the words are open to multiple interpretation. Report an error

2:09:43 So we see this is all may it be so, may it be so. It's everything here. You see, it's not cultivating positive emotion or feeling. There's no reference to feeling here. That is not one's own feeling. One's own one is arousing an aspiration that others may be well, they may be flourished, be free of suffering. Report an error

2:10:02 But it is interesting coming from my, by and large, many others, not all of us come from this Judeo-Christian background, Greco-Roman background. And what we're going to find in that context is may all people, right? May all people, may all human beings. Animals are food, but may all human beings are created equal. Report an error

2:10:24 So it's a big emphasis everywhere, everywhere in Western literature. Human beings, human beings. You never find that. I can't remember the last time I've seen. Report an error

2:10:34 May all human beings be something important. We're very important, but we're not the only species around. And so the big emphasis in Buddhism is all beings, all sentient beings, all living creatures. Every being that is endowed with awareness. May all beings be happy and secure. And again, there's a fundamental premise in Buddhism. This term sen-jen in Tibetan literally means a mind-haver, which we translate as a sentient being. Report an error

2:11:01 Sentient being is actually a pretty good translation. Because it's not simply, are you aware? It does mean that. But there's a fundamental premise in Buddhism. It's a very big one. It's open. The Buddhist premise here, it's a very, very deep underlying assumption, is that every being who is aware, has awareness, and that means you have some experience. Report an error

2:11:26 There's a reference to your awareness. You're not simply reacting blindly like iron filings to a magnet or a computer to a program or to the touch of keys, touch of fingers on the keys. Report an error

2:11:38 That any being that is knowing, That being also experiences, on whatever, however primitive a level it may be, experiences pleasure and pain. Report an error

2:11:52 So there's no such thing in the Buddhist view. There's no such thing as a being who's aware, who experiences, never experiences any pleasure or pain. Even small, tiny, tiny conscious organisms will withdraw from heat if it's too hot, withdraw from cold, and they'll go for food. If they're mating, they'll seek to mate. So that's kind of really fundamental. Report an error

2:12:14 And it's said, of course, in the Buddhist tradition that every sentient being has Buddha nature, capacity to achieve enlightenment. That's kind of a big deal. So may all beings be happy and secure. Now, it's interesting that when saying, may it be so, you're not addressing someone like Buddha. Buddha may... Report an error

2:12:32 Are you asking a question? Oh, Buddha, request. Oh, Buddha, please make this so. Or God or gods or ultimate reality, anything else. It is simply an aspiration. But it's not assuming anybody is listening. That somebody's hearing your prayer, because this could be easily seen as a prayer. Why not? But it's a prayer with no assumption that there's somebody out there listening who's going to fulfill your prayer. Report an error

2:12:54 It's an aspiration. Remember, Report an error

2:13:00 a quip I think actually is quite meaningful. Someone said, it's probably a joke, but I think it's still meaningful. And that is, it's narrating a person's turning point. A person was praying, offering prayers of supplication, and he said, I was praying and praying, and then finally it dawned on me that I was the only one listening. Report an error

2:13:23 Well, one can say that's kind of a dismissal of religion, dismissal of prayer, dismissal of devotion. But one puts a Buddhist spin on that. That's actually quite deep. Only one listening. But now what's the reference to the word I? Let's not be too quick to answer that one. So, may all beings. Now this is interesting. I mean, I'm lingering here because this is not a Western text. This is not a Judeo-Christian, Greco-Roman text. We really need to know this is coming from outside and there's a lot built into this that just is not part of our infrastructure. Report an error

2:13:54 In, let's say, Eurocentric thinking, religion, philosophy and science, the very notion that one brings forth this aspiration, might this be helpful to you to bring forth, not positive emotions, but benevolent aspirations, and that's what this is, benevolent aspirations. Might this be good for you, psychologically, emotionally, in terms of your overall sense of well-being? Might this be conducive to your realization or deepening experience of eudaimonia? Report an error

2:14:20 That's the answer as well. Probably could be. Why not? It looks like it's in the right direction. But then we can ask a further question, and it's certainly worth asking. If you know someone, or a region of the globe, Syria is a pretty good example. What is it, about 2 million refugees? I think it's about 2 million from one little country. I think about half a million children living in tents. That's pretty grim. Report an error

2:14:45 Jordan has been utterly heroic, amazing what they've done, taking in so many people. But it's a very difficult situation. We all know that. So if one directs, knowing that, and this whole issue of ice is this catastrophe of their bloodthirsty activities to themselves and everybody else, no benefit anywhere at all. Report an error

2:15:06 So, so much misery there. So if one directs, one reads the sutta like this, and one directs one's aspirations, one's thoughts of loving kindness to that very troubled region of the globe where there's so much unnecessary suffering, it's a human creed. It wasn't done to us, we're doing it to ourselves. Might it actually have any benefit? Or is it just a good exercise? Report an error

2:15:27 To calm, to purify, to find your own little eudaimonic niche, your own little place in the sun. Report an error

2:15:38 Bearing in mind that you're not bouncing, it's not like having a cell phone and sending it off to God and hoping God will, you know, lap somebody. Thank you God, I'm sending you a message, please. Direct your blessings there. That's not the view in Buddhism. If you're praying to somebody out there who's going to listen to your prayers, oh, if you ask, now that you've asked, of course, now I'll help. Report an error

2:15:57 You know, and then does something really nice in Syria. There's no such notion. Not to say it's false. I mean, what do I know? But I can say that's not what's going on in this type of supplication, this kind of aspiration. So what it's suggesting here, the answer is, might it be beneficial, might it be beneficial if an individual or group of individuals, especially with very pure motivation, really altruistic, benevolent motivation, if an individual or group of individuals go into meditation and they direct their loving thoughts, Aspirations, their prayers to an individual, to a community, to a troubled part of the globe, might it actually be beneficial to them? Or is it only beneficial to yourself? Report an error

2:16:40 And the Buddhist view, and it's in fact true for all schools, Theravāda, East Asian, Central, all of them, it can be beneficial. Po, can't be beneficial, right? Yeah. How's that possible? And you're sitting here, your brain's inside your skull, right? It's pretty airtight. None of the brain is leaking out of your ears or anything, so it's pretty airtight, hermetically sealed, right? And these thoughts are being generated, independence upon brain activity, that's for sure. Report an error

2:17:10 Could you find the neural correlates of a person engaging in this practice? Could you identify them? Why not? The Buddhist premise is, just by the way, every psychological state, every mental state, every state of consciousness you experience, this is a view I'm about to articulate, has been around for hundreds of years. Report an error

2:17:27 long before there was any scientific study of the brain. Buddhistry, especially in Vajrayana Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, is very strong. Report an error

2:17:37 mental process, every mental state, every state of consciousness from that of psychosis all the As long as you're embodied, as long as you're embodied, body and mind integrated, every one of those, mental state, process, state of consciousness, always has a physiological correlate. Report an error

2:17:57 Always has. That's for you. Now, they don't know, Buddhist doesn't have any rich literature at all about the nature of brain, but physiological. So the notion that when you're arousing this aspiration, that something corresponding, something physical is taking place that is strongly correlated with this subjective experience of arousing this aspiration, that's very much part of Buddhism. Report an error

2:18:20 But of course your body has skin, right? It's not airtight, but nevertheless it's got skin. And so these physiological processes are taking place within your body. So how on earth then could a supplication, a prayer, an aspiration, how could that possibly be a benefit to people who are far away or even to a loved one in the next room or if you're sitting by the hospital bed of a loved one and offering your prayers of loving kindness, your aspiration, how could that possibly be helpful? Report an error

2:18:46 Not doing a skin graft, you're not having a mind melt, I mean, how could it be beneficial? And the first question is, well, is it or not? I mean, that's a big question. But the fundamental view in Buddhism, and again, it's true for all schools, is that although the... Physiological processes are generated within the body. In fact, the body is not airtight. And we know that, and it's just a physical fact. Report an error

2:19:09 The electromagnetic fields generated by the body, well, they don't stop at the skin, heat, thermal energy. It's not stopped by the skin. And so even the physical aspect, it goes off probably inverse square law. It goes off, but then that means it's going to cut off pretty quickly. Inverse square law drops quickly. But the mind, as to the mind, Buddhist view, and it's in every school, the mind is not... Report an error

2:19:32 The mind is not encased inside, trapped inside the skull. The mind has no boundaries. And people are interrelated. It's an interesting point, but I mean, it's just fact. People have strong interrelationship. In Buddhism, we might call it karmic connections. But strong, I mean, relationships of mother and child, father and child, spousal, familial, deep friendships, lingering, long-term friendships. Report an error

2:19:58 There are connections that are mysterious and they're not out there objective, physical and quantifiable, but that doesn't mean they're not real. And there's a lot of evidence for that, an awful lot of evidence. So because of our interconnectedness on a steep level, interconnectedness, that we are arising in interdependence, and because we do have strong connections with various types of people, other sentient beings throughout the world, this is possible in principle and it does happen, but not predictably. Report an error

2:20:28 You can't quantify it. Okay, let's get 100 people to pray for these people and we can definitely predict this much benefit is going to come. That doesn't happen. But is it mere happenstance? Well, I think this is a very interesting open area for research. But the Buddha's premise is, yeah, this can be beneficial not only to yourself, but for the people to whom you are directing your thoughts of loving kindness as you wish. Report an error

2:20:49 May their minds be contented. Whatever living beings there may be, and then runs his whole array, feeble and strong, tall, stout, medium, short, small, large, seen and unseen, those dwelling far and near, those who are born, and even those who are not yet born. Of course, in the Buddhist view, if they're not yet born, well, they're not yet born as that, but they're already present in some fashion, so they're not non-existent. They just haven't been born in that way yet. Report an error

2:21:12 But in short, may all beings without exception be of good cheer. May they be well and happy. So that's the gist of it right there. May we all be well and happy. It's sheer benevolence. But then we consider what are the obstacles to that. Why aren't we all getting along? Why aren't we all behaving in such ways that are conducive to our own and others' well-being? Report an error

2:21:34 What's in the way? What's the problem? Well, we have to wish also that the problems that which is obstructing well-being of sentient beings, that those also are dispelled. So, for example, let no one deceive another. That really throws us off. When we rely on a people, we trust people, and they deceive us, then we suffer. Report an error

2:21:55 Let no one despise any person anywhere. That's very subtle, but of course he means exactly what he said. But does this mean that there's no such thing as contemptible behavior? Report an error

2:22:05 So he's saying don't hold contempt or don't despise any person. But is there behavior that is contemptible? The answer is definitely yes. Of course. Absolutely yes. Murder, cheating, rape, child abuse, genocide. Oh, the list goes on and on and on. Of deplorable, despicable. Report an error

2:22:28 Contemptible, hateful, yes, to be despised, condemned, annihilated, but not the people. So Paul Ekman, who's not a religious man, he's a very good man, not a religious man at all, but he knows a lot about emotion. And he, coming from his own trajectory, a very firm, very strong advocate of Darwin, he just loves, he's ready, knowledgeable, and really his worldview is largely defined by Darwin. Report an error

2:22:53 I respect this man, Paul Ekman, very good friend. But he makes, from his purely scientific trajectory, And very concerned with emotional well-being, emotional balance. That's why he really took up the Dalai Lama's challenge back in the year 2000. Can you scientists, can you do something that will fuse Buddhists with him with psychological wisdom and deliver something that's really of practical benefit to people in a secular fashion? Report an error

2:23:15 So they don't have to be Buddhists or even interested in Buddhism. So Paul wasn't one that took up that challenge and he recruited me and we worked together. But Paul has made this point, this is purely from a scientific perspective, and that is don't conflate behavior with the person who's conducting the behavior. Report an error

2:23:33 behavior with contempt. You may despise it. But he, simply as a scientist, but a man with a good heart, says, don't despise the person. Behavior comes and goes. People engage in deplorable behavior, and then they stop. So you're going to still despise them? Report an error

2:23:47 People feel very uneasy about this, and I get it. But there are views that are absolutely despicable. Racism is an easy target. Where's the upside of racism? People have different shape of eyes. Report an error

2:24:08 Racism against people for holding a different ideology, this religion, that religion. Tremendous suffering generated by that. It's a contemptible view. And I find actually materialism is more harmful. I call it human racism. Report an error

2:24:25 Because if one looks down upon Aborigines or Native Americans or blacks, African Americans, what have you, at least you haven't looked down on all of society. You've just pinpointed this group. These people are inferior. These people are like animals. These people are inferior. Report an error

2:24:42 But materialism says we're all inferior. We're all animals. Or we're actually less. We're just machines. We're robots. If one group, like a bunch of anti-Semites started calling the Jews, you people are just robots. You're robots. You say, oh my God, this is horrendous. How degrading and deplorable. The Jews are robots. My goodness. They're not even human. That's worse than everything you said before. Report an error

2:25:05 Before you just said they were like vermin. But now you say they're robots. A robot is lower than vermin. Vermin are sentient beings. They have feelings. Robots have nothing. So if you tell everybody they're robots, I think that's the worst form of racism. But it's not picking out one group or another. It's all of us. Somehow they don't seem to get it. Report an error

2:25:21 They're included in this degradation of the human spirit down to a computer. That's why I'm very tough on materialism. It's not just wrong, but it's catastrophic. That's my opinion. But it actually is the Buddha's view. I didn't make it up. So let no one deceive another nor despise any person. anywhere. In anger or ill will, let no one wish any harm to another. Again, Again, Report an error

2:25:47 wish all the harm you like on despicable behavior, terrible policies and so forth, but not to a person. That's what he's getting at. It's always not to the person. Let one's thoughts, not just as a mother, just as a mother would protect her only child even at the risk of her own life. Even so, let one cultivate a boundless heart toward all beings. Report an error

2:26:05 Again, I'll invoke Paul Ekman. We've spent a lot of time together. And he said so rightly, I mean, I appreciate so much in the Darwinian view. It's a magnificent theory. And Hall highlights that there's a type of compassion, an extent, a scope of compassion that's biologically driven. You're born with it if you're a pretty decent person, especially as a mother, but also to a considerable extent for the fathers. That willingness to sacrifice, to make enormous sacrifices for one's own children and really be quite willing, if necessary, to sacrifice one's own life. Report an error

2:26:39 It's a marvelous thing. That's what's kept human species alive. Mothers taking care of children. Because they're so helpless. For a long time, quite helpless. So there's a biological imperative there to take care of our young. And then a biological imperative to take care of our tribe. The Buddhist tribe, our Australian tribe, Sydney tribe, etc. Report an error

2:27:00 That's good for your survival and procreation of your tribe. That's good. But Paul Ekman's interest, because he's had, what is it, something like, I think, 47 hours of one-on-one dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Dalai Lama said he was, Paul Ekman was his brother in Maslow. Report an error

2:27:18 But in any case, a real bond between these two, remarkable. And so he's been able to really have in-depth conversations with the Dalai Lama about emotion. And they both agree on this point. That in Buddhism, the paradigm for compassion, what do we just keep our eyes open? Do you see any compassion anywhere? And the one that just looms up is the mother for a child, more than anything else, more than soldiers, more than business people, more than anybody else. Report an error

2:27:45 It's the mother looking after a child. And it's a biological imperative. And that's a given. And then where dharma comes in, where spiritual practice comes in, where wise psychology comes in, is they say, okay, you've got something good here. Parents also, siblings also. Report an error

2:28:12 own child, but will she extend that same degree of caring to her child's best friend or the kids next door? Report an error

2:28:22 how far can we extend this? what point do the barriers come up? it when it's people of different skin color or they're across the street or they have a different ideology or a different country or political persuasion and so forth. So barriers come up. The loving kindness goes out and then it stops. Those are the other people. Those are the competitors. They're not us. They're not like us, children. They're not like us. Report an error

2:28:50 They're different. We're on the side. And that's where the barriers are. So the biological imperative comes with barriers. And the Dharma comes with no barriers. Report an error

2:29:01 Intensely. To break down all the barriers. And that's why it's called immeasurable, immeasurable bodhicitta. Because the barriers are broken down. So that's what he's getting at here. So let one's thoughts of boundless love pervade the whole world, above, below and across, without any obstruction, without any hatred, without any enmity. Report an error

2:29:19 And he's highlighting these, hatred and enmity. Because these, in terms of the toxic impulses in the human mind, these are the ones. There are many. There's jealousy, there's arrogance, there's craving. All kinds of things. Many, many talks and many afflictions of the mind. But among them, the mental affliction, or klesha it's called, the mental affliction which is most diametrically opposed to loving kindness, is hatred and enmity. Report an error

2:29:46 Enmity, ill will, animosity, malevolence. And enmity here being the intention, the aspiration that can easily turn into an intention. May you not be happy. May you not succeed. And if I can do something to prevent you from getting the happiness you seek, I'm going to do it. And that's enmity. Whereas loving kindness is just turn that around. Report an error

2:30:09 May you find the happiness you seek, as long as it's not harmful happiness. May you find it. And if I can be of assistance, I'm ready to go. So the question was raised, what's the point of all this? Sitting in a nice pleasant room, discussing and meditating on that loving kindness. What's the point? And I can tell you. It will come up repeatedly, but I can tell you. Report an error

2:30:27 And that is through cultivating love and kindness, whether in solitude, sitting in your cushion, what have you, cultivating this. So then actual aspiration comes up, again I'll emphasize, and aspiration comes up, and not just an emotion, because an emotion doesn't have to have any direction, it doesn't have to have any reference. Report an error

2:30:44 How are you feeling? Great. What are you feeling great about? I don't know, I just feel great. How do you feel? Really anxious. What are you anxious about? I don't know, I just feel really anxious. How do you feel? Depressed. Depressed as hell. What are you depressed about? I don't know, I just feel awful. Report an error

2:30:58 So emotions don't necessarily have a referent. An aspiration does. What do you aspire for? There's no object of aspiration. It's not an aspiration. So this is an aspiration. And so what's the point then? You generate. You generate an aspiration at least for your own well-being. That shouldn't be too hard. And then you extend it to your nearest loved ones, as we'll do tomorrow. Extending it outwards, but my spouse or my children or my dearest friend or my parents or my siblings. Report an error

2:31:30 They're like me. I mean, we're kin. And so as I wish for my own well-being, but of course it doesn't stop with me. I'm not the only person I care about. So you then broaden the field to embrace loved ones and say, well, may each of us here, may we find the happiness we seek, cultivate the causes of genuine happiness. Report an error

2:31:48 So you arouse this aspiration. But an aspiration is right next door to an intention, whatever the aspiration is, a glass of water or whatever it is. It's not quite there, but it's right next door to it. It could tip right over into an intention, and intention, unless it's blocked, that would be rise to action. So if you're cultivating an aspiration, heartfelt, sincere, genuine, and Report an error

2:32:09 then you get off your cushion, you're walking about, you're going to the kitchen, you're going to work, whatever you're doing, if you can sustain that flow, that momentum of what you've been cultivating, this benevolent awareness, this benevolent attention given to the people around you, and it's a very good idea if you're meditating in the morning when we all leave here. Report an error

2:32:28 If you have some time for meditation in the morning and you're already anticipating that you'll meet one person, maybe have a meeting, or you're going to school, you're going to see the children in the school you're teaching, or you're a psychologist, you know, well, there's some people you have appointments with today. Report an error

2:32:42 You're going to a business meeting, whatever. What's really helpful, I'd like to see this be really practical, when you can already anticipate meeting certain people, because it's scheduled, it's planned, then there on your cushion, bring them to mind, bring them to mind, and direct your loving thoughts. Report an error

2:32:58 Like this, this prayer to them. And then, five, six, seven hours later, you meet them. But when you meet them, it's kind of like, but I was thinking, in the back of the mind at least, but I was thinking about you this morning. And I was really wishing you well, and here you are. So you're, here's the deal, and I'm going to say it in very short terms. Cultivating the aspiration of loving kindness makes you poised for benevolent, loving and kind activity. Report an error

2:33:28 You've primed the pump. You're ready, you're poised. You're ready to go. The aspiration is there. The intention is right there in the background. And then the person says, by the way, could you help me out on something? I'm really having a hard time. Report an error

2:33:46 Rather than approaching that encounter with I may mind, I may mind, I may mind. Oh, I'd really like to help you. I'm just awfully busy right now. I've got a deadline. I wish I could help. Report an error

2:33:56 You're poised to act in your own service but not anybody else's. So loving kindness is to be poised for really benevolent behavior which can save the world. Nothing else will really. Our cleverness hasn't served us all that well all by itself. Report an error

2:34:14 So whether one stands, walks, sits or lies down, as long as one is awake, one should maintain this mindfulness, this mindfulness. Well, again, mindfulness in the common parlance now, it's saturating psychology, it's saturating major media like Time magazine, just media all over the world, Australia being no exception. Report an error

2:34:35 Mindfulness, mindfulness, really now, it's everywhere, it's in Singapore, it's everywhere. Mindfulness, and it's virtually equated, in many cases, virtually equated with meditation. If you're meditating, oh, you're practicing mindfulness. If you're practicing mindfulness, oh, mindfulness meditation. The irony is in Buddhism there's no such thing as mindfulness meditation in any tradition. Report an error

2:34:54 Look for it. Look in any classic Buddhist text. Where's mindfulness meditation? Mindfulness is a mental factor. It's like introspection meditation. There's no such thing. So it's a little bit comic, especially when people say mindfulness meditation. This is the essence of all of Buddhist meditation. No, it's not even a meditation. It's a mental factor. It's kind of comic. Report an error

2:35:13 But of course these people don't study much. Thank you for listening. Mindfulness is a mental factor. it. a mental factor. And it's a mental factor that enables us to bear in mind we wish to attend to. So if you're attending, if you're practicing Ānāpānasati, mindfulness of the in and out breathing, you're bearing in mind, maintaining an ongoing flow of mindful attention to the sensations of the breath. Report an error

2:35:42 And that's called mindfulness of breathing. You're bearing in mind, which means you're holding in mind, bearing in mind, remaining cognitively engaged with, without distraction or forgetfulness. And that's mindfulness. Report an error

2:35:58 So the slimmed-down, secularized, denuded and erratically simplified and decontextualized definition of mindfulness is moment-to-moment non-judgmental awareness of whatever comes up has been found to be very, very useful. It's a modern definition. It's not a definition in any Buddhist school. Not Zen, Theravāda or anything else. It's a modern definition. It's very useful. Not a Buddhist definition, but it's still very useful. Report an error

2:36:24 But it's a tiny fraction of what is meant by mindfulness in the Buddhist tradition. And so when he's talking about loving kindness here, bearing in mind this way of viewing others, not forgetting, not being distracted from. Attending to others in this way. So whether you're walking, sitting, standing down, or lying, standing or lying down, whatever it is, as long as you're awake, he said maintain its mindfulness. Report an error

2:36:49 Well, he's certainly not talking about moment to moment, not judgmental awareness. That's not what he's talking about at all. He's talking about maintaining this stance, this way of viewing others, this way of attending to others, this benevolent attitude towards others, bearing that in mind, maintain this mindfulness. Report an error

2:37:07 This, they say, is the sublime state, a divine abiding Brahmavihara, a sublime state in this life. It's kind of like bringing heaven to earth. Really, that is exactly the implication, like the sublimity of the heaven, bringing that into this earthly realm where we're bringing in something one could say is virtually divine. Report an error

2:37:27 Christians often say God is love. Well, good, then you're bringing love into the world and that is a sublime state, a divine state. So... How to protect that, how to maintain this type of mindfulness. Not falling into wrong views. One could think, especially coming from, let's say, a Christian background, oh, wrong, you mean heresy. Report an error

2:37:49 You mean things that are contrary to the catechism. You know, like that. It's Report an error

2:37:57 not a matter of belief. He didn't say not falling into wrong beliefs. He said not falling into wrong views. A way of viewing is actually the way of attending to people. So when a man looks at a woman as he's seeing her as a sexual object that could provide sexual gratification, that's a way of viewing. That's not a belief system. A man who's kind of like a sexual predator or a sex maniac could just be kind of roving around like a sniper. Report an error

2:38:21 Where's an attractive one? Oh, beep, beep, beep. Yeah, let's go in. Let's go in. Found the target. Found the target. She could give me some gratification. Let's hit on her. You know, that's not a belief system. That's a way of viewing women, isn't it? Report an error

2:38:35 That's a wrong view of women. That's degrading. It's dehumanizing. It's manipulative, exploitative. There's nothing human about it. It's kind of disgusting. I'm not referring to romance. Report an error

2:38:45 Romance can be very lovely, you know, out of your mouth, but other people. But that one, that's degrading. Or a salesman who's selling, let's say, cigarettes gets on commission. Report an error

2:39:01 He's looking at prey, right? Let's target those teenagers. They're kind of... Report an error

2:39:10 Kind of naive. And they really care a whole lot about what their peers think. Let's send them the message if you want to be really cool. You want to be glamorous, suave, hip, adult. The cigarette's going to do it. That nonchalance, that cool like. You're going to be really cool if you do that. Sell it to them. Sell it to them. They die of emphysema when they're 50. Well, you know, so we lose the customer. We'll get more. Report an error

2:39:42 There's always more teenagers. So that's a way of viewing teenagers, right? Viewing the public. Let's get them. Let's stick it to them. That's not a belief system. The way of viewing views can be terribly different. So that's what he's talking about here. Not a belief system, but viewing sentient beings in a way that undermines diametrically opposed to loving kindness. That's what he's talking about. Report an error

2:40:09 Not some catechism. Do you believe in reincarnation? Do you believe this? Do you believe that? There are ways of viewing sentient beings that really nurture and deepen and encourage ever-increasing loving kindness. And the ways of viewing sentient beings that don't. That's why when the scientists back in 1989 said human beings are brains, that's why the Dalai Lama, he wasn't trying to trick them. Report an error

2:40:34 He was saying, do you really believe that? Are you willing to live by that? When you look at a brain, you feel loving kindness. He was serious. I think that view is not very helpful for loving kindness. I think it's deaconistic. Report an error

2:40:52 So not falling into wrong views, virtuous and endowed with insight. So virtuous, that's a whole way of life that's going to support. The cultivation of loving kindness endowed with insights. Report an error

2:41:05 The Dalai Lama was asked once by a person I think witnessed his ever so present sense of good cheer, of lightness, of buoyancy, of good humor. Good cheer is a good word that he embodies, that he brings with him wherever he goes. He laughed so easily. And anybody who's seen him laugh, you just know there's nothing contrived about it. Report an error

2:41:26 Paul Ekman, again, he was in this meeting with the Dalai Lama in 2000. And Paul Ekman, he was the end of her career. He was about 65 at the time. Report an error

2:41:34 Just wrapping things up, ready for a happy retirement. And he's sitting in a room with Dalai Lama, and this is a man who's been professionally studying faces and human behavior for decades, and he's a world expert. And he watched the Dalai Lama there in this five-day meeting, five hours a day, and he came out of it and he said, I've never in my life met somebody so transparent, so utterly without contrivance, absolutely genuine. Report an error

2:42:01 Everything was true. He was right. He's an expert, an amateur, but he was really right. And so he was asked, the Dalai Lama was asked, how is it? You're the sole hope. I don't know exactly what the question was, but it was something like the following. You're the sole hope for six million Tibetans who are really under the iron heel of communism that has perpetrated genocide, taken away their human rights. Report an error

2:42:30 There's so much suffering, so much immense suffering still in Tibet, let alone during the Cultural Revolution, and they're all looking to you. Not to America, not to Britain, not to Australia. They're looking to the Dalai Lama. Please help us, please help us, you know. Here's the father of six million children. And he can't do anything. Report an error

2:42:45 I mean, hardly anything of practical benefit for the people inside Tibet. How can you be so happy? That's just for Tibet, let alone how much misery else around the world. And this is a man who doesn't care just about Tibetans. He cares actually about Syrians and Nigerians and so forth and so on. How can you be so happy when there's so much misery in the world, so much evil in the world? Report an error

2:43:09 And you're very well aware of it. This man is cosmopolitan. Maybe more so than anybody else I know. How can you be so happy? He said, wisdom, wisdom. Report an error

2:43:22 Yeah, but that's wisdom. Protect your happiness. And that's what the Buddha is saying here. Virtuous and endowed with insight, what gives up attachment to hedonic pleasure. That's what he's really getting at. And the words are so careful. This is a Buddha speaking, so he's going to be careful with words. One gives up attachment to hedonic pleasures, which means not that you don't enjoy food or the beauties of nature or companionship and so forth. Report an error

2:43:52 It's not that you don't enjoy them. You're not attached to them. You're not clinging to them. You're not looking upon that relationship, that object, that status, that position, that place to live and so forth as a veritable source of your well-being. You're not clinging to it tenaciously. Grasping onto it is a source of happiness. You're experiencing it, you can enjoy it, but without attachment. Verily, such a person does not return to enter a womb again. Report an error

2:44:18 This is in the Pāli Canon, so what he's getting at here is this person then finds freedom, is not propelled. Now we're deep into Buddhism here. Very briefly, we'll call it a day. This person is not propelled by karma and his own mental afflictions to be propelled into the next rebirth. One is free. That's what he's really getting at. Report an error

2:44:37 So that's the Buddhist discourse. That sums up a lot. It gives you the ambience and I can say in conclusion that, for example, how many years ago was it that the tsunami hit? Was it 10? And it was right around Christmas. This big tsunami killed a quarter of a million people. When it hit Thailand, where I've spent a lot of time now, so many, tens of thousands of people died. Report an error

2:44:59 When the catastrophe struck, many monks from all over the country, they came running to help. They came running to help, volunteer. It was very noble. Very suitable, very appropriate, but it was also noble. The monks came to offer practical benefit to these people who'd just been, you know, the rubble of so much disaster everywhere. Report an error

2:45:20 But not every monk, you're not going to have millions of monks converging on the place, there would just be too many people there. So many monks stayed at home, it just wasn't for them to come at that time. But what happened all over the country, I heard, was monks in their monasteries all over the country just reciting this mettā sutta. Right now I can't go, perhaps this... Report an error

2:45:41 Not for me to go right now. It's taken care of. Maybe they don't need more volunteers. But this I can do. And this is not nothing. This is not nothing. To sit in my monastery and chant with the other monks this sutta and directing these thoughts of loving kindness. All those who suffer. That's not nothing. And it's good not to feel helpless. Especially if it's reality based. Report an error

2:46:06 So, no more talk tonight. No more dialogue. No more monologue from me. We'll come back at 7 o 'clock. We'll have two sessions back to back. And then we'll have just time for discussion if there's something to discuss. We'll see you at 7 o'clock. Report an error

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Talk by B. Alan Wallace. Original at Vajrayana Institute via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/BAWFourImmeasurables. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. Transcript generated automatically and may contain errors; the audio is the authoritative version.

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