Four Immeasurables Retreat with B. Alan Wallace - Sydney 2014 (part 13)

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0:47 The practice of settling the mind in its natural state. I said I would explain what's meant by that. It's rather straightforward. Report an error in the passage at 0:47 Highlight the passage at 0:47

0:56 But it also raises a very, very provocative hypothesis that for the Buddhists it's already a done deal, but for people, actually not only for Buddhists, but for people who have not done the practice themselves, have not realized themselves, then it remains a hypothesis that can be tested and can get very clear results with respect to the hypothesis. Report an error in the passage at 0:56 Highlight the passage at 0:56

1:14 And so settling the mind in the natural state means Dissolving this very strongly configured mind, and I think I've mentioned that before, the mind that is a man's mind, a woman, old or young, Australian or German, what have you, and with all of the configuration of consciousness that occurs during the process of gestation in the Buddhist field. Report an error in the passage at 1:14 Highlight the passage at 1:14

1:36 Just while you're in the womb, there is a stream of consciousness, but as the nervous system develops, as the fetus develops, then that stream of consciousness is getting configured as a human stream of consciousness, human mental consciousness. And as the very sense faculties emerge, and I don't know how many in the womb do, but definitely hearing does, during the last trimester, there's very clear evidence that the unborn baby can hear. Report an error in the passage at 1:36 Highlight the passage at 1:36

2:00 And so now the consciousness has been configured as human auditory consciousness. And then, of course, in the course of time, all five of the sensory modes of consciousness become configured, and then the mental consciousness becomes configured as a human mental consciousness. So, and then after we're born, then we get all the more configuration, education and so forth. Obviously there's influence from DNA, from genetics, from brain chemistry. Report an error in the passage at 2:00 Highlight the passage at 2:00

2:25 But in this practice, we're taking that heavily configured mind that gets further configured by our behavior, our habits, attitudes, thinking and so on. Just the whole course of personal history. Report an error in the passage at 2:25 Highlight the passage at 2:25

2:37 And here's a process of settling the mind in its natural state. It's basically unconfiguring the consciousness that you're bringing to the practice. So how you do that is as much as possible not getting entangled in or grasping onto anything that comes up. Images, memories, emotions, desires, whatever it is. Report an error in the passage at 2:37 Highlight the passage at 2:37

2:58 You try to just remain there in that stillness and that utter simplicity of a flow of consciousness that is unconfigured, that's simply luminous in the sense that it makes manifest appearances and cognizant. In the sense that it knows, but it's a type of knowing. It's more of a primal flow of consciousness. It's not divine, it's not Buddha nature, it's not anything transcendent. Report an error in the passage at 2:58 Highlight the passage at 2:58

3:24 It's considered to be the ground state of the ordinary mind, the ground state of the psyche. The new translation terminology is simply the subtle continuum of mental consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 3:24 Highlight the passage at 3:24

3:36 In the Theravāda tradition, it's called Bhavanka. In the Dzogchen tradition, they borrow a term from the Chittamatra or mind-only school, the Alai Vishnana. I translate it as substrate consciousness, but without any of the bells and whistles of the Chittimatra. So all of the things that the prasangakas refute, they don't adopt. Report an error in the passage at 3:36 Highlight the passage at 3:36

3:56 So it is simply nothing more than subtle continuum of mental consciousness, which is very widely accepted in virtually all Buddhist schools. But that subtle continuum of mental consciousness is not human. It certainly has no gender. It's like as there is a stem cell that can turn into one kind of cell or another, depending on... Report an error in the passage at 3:56 Highlight the passage at 3:56

4:16 Its environment and how it gets configured by its environment. Similarly, this stem consciousness or substrate consciousness is not human, male or female, anything like that. It's primal and it is not Buddha nature, not that either. It's just a subtle continuum of luminosity and cognizance and that's what you're reducing your mind to. Report an error in the passage at 4:16 Highlight the passage at 4:16

4:37 Now that happens every time you fall deep asleep. This is the Buddhist view. Every time you fall deep asleep, your five physical senses implode. In the Buddhist view, they're drawn back into mental consciousness. So the five physical centers go dormant. But kind of the juice of them withdraws into mental consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 4:37 Highlight the passage at 4:37

4:56 But as in the process of falling asleep, your mental consciousness also is losing its specifically human traits. And also your specific traits, your unique traits, your memories, your thoughts and so forth. And so it's dissolving, it's being reduced back to this primal substrate consciousness. And that's what you wind up with when you're deep asleep. Now you can access that lucidly. If you learn how to fall asleep lucidly, knowingly, then you can go directly into deep sleep. Report an error in the passage at 4:56 Highlight the passage at 4:56

5:24 And then once you're there, you can be awake while you're deep asleep. So it's like a lucid dream, except you're not dreaming. You're cognizant of being in stage four non-REM sleep. It's been done many, many times. Report an error in the passage at 5:24 Highlight the passage at 5:24

5:41 But that's not the same as achieving shamatha. You're accessing the same dimension of consciousness, but not with a brilliant clarity. And stability you have that comes only through training. So according to the Dzogchen literature, I'll just slip into that for the homogeneity of terminology. It's said when you fall deep asleep, you access that substrate consciousness. If you become comatose or you faint or you have general anesthesia, you fall into that same one, the same dimension of consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 5:41 Highlight the passage at 5:41

6:09 But also when you die, you get stripped as the brain is shutting down, no longer configuring. Your consciousness by way of sensory consciousness or mental consciousness, the brain shutting down. And so the modes of consciousness that arise independent upon brain function, well, they're shutting down. Report an error in the passage at 6:09 Highlight the passage at 6:09

6:26 But they don't just go evaporating into empty space. They're all withdrawing back into this subtle continuum of mental consciousness. Until in the dying process, for those of you who have studied Tibetan Buddhism, in the dying process, there's something called the dark near attainment. And that's after your physical senses have totally withdrawn. Report an error in the passage at 6:26 Highlight the passage at 6:26

6:44 Completely oblivious of your body, everything in the environment. All your cognitive functions of emotions, memories, desires, everything that's arising independent of the brain, all that's shut down. You have some images, some visions that arise, and then everything just goes dark for the ordinary person dying non-lucidly. Report an error in the passage at 6:44 Highlight the passage at 6:44

7:06 So you're just losing consciousness until you come to this blackout, basically. And for most people, That's just like falling deep asleep. And in that state, it's a transient state. You're not explicitly aware of anything. You're not absolutely unconscious. But you can't say, I know this. There's no explicit consciousness. So once again, very much like deep sleep. Now for a person who has developed shamatha to a very large degree, or maybe even achieved shamatha, then if you bring that quality, that experience, that momentum to your dying process, Then you have a very realistic chance of proceeding through the entire dying process lucidly. Just like it's possible, it's a strong analogy, it's possible to fall asleep lucidly and go into stage four non-REM sleep and still be lucid, still be awake. Report an error in the passage at 7:06 Highlight the passage at 7:06

7:58 Your body's asleep, your mind's asleep. Mind's gone beddy-buddy. But that single flow of just lucid, transparent consciousness, that continues and it still maintains its cognizance because it's not veiled by dullness. Report an error in the passage at 7:58 Highlight the passage at 7:58

8:14 When we fall asleep, when we die, veiled by dullness. So when we get there, when you finally wind up being deep asleep, you're not aware of it. And similarly, when you finally wind up being dead, you're not aware of it. You're just oblivious. You're not absolutely unconscious. You're just not explicitly aware of anything. So there's the theory. Now, for a person who is a chief shamatha, let's say, Then one may fall asleep lucidly, you may die lucidly, and when you get to that blackout, it's actually not a blackout. You've actually entered into the dead zone lucidly, and you're vividly wide awake, but you're aware of pretty much nothing. Report an error in the passage at 8:14 Highlight the passage at 8:14

8:53 You're aware of what's called simply the substrate, through the substrate and substrate consciousness, the alaya or alaya vichyana. The substrate is just a sheer vacuity, and it's not emptiness, it's not ultimate reality, shunyata or anything like that. It's a sheer vacuity. An empty space of awareness in which there are no appearances. But you're vividly aware. It's not really, how do you say, there's nothing logically inconsistent here. Report an error in the passage at 8:53 Highlight the passage at 8:53

9:20 You're vividly aware of Ashura Vacuity. But you are vividly aware. So again, comparable to being deep asleep and very, very lucid. So you get there in deep sleep, but also when you achieve Shantana. So achieving Shantana, just proceeding along. The main stages of attention development, and then finally achieving shamatha. And when you achieve shamatha, now, because all along that course of developing your abilities, you're becoming more and more relaxed, more and more stable, and just exceptionally vivid. Report an error in the passage at 9:20 Highlight the passage at 9:20

9:52 The mind becomes luminously, brilliantly clear. So that upon the culmination of achieving shamatha, you've gone to the same place that you've been to many times before, the substrate consciousness. Your mind has dissolved into. The mind is now settled in its natural state. Now you finish the process. The mind has settled in its natural state. Report an error in the passage at 9:52 Highlight the passage at 9:52

10:12 The natural state is an uncontrived state that is not configured as human, animal, male, female or anything else. It's a stem consciousness. You've arrived there, but you've arrived with radiant clarity. And then once you've achieved shamatha, you can remain there for hours. And when you do so, it's blissful, it's luminous and it's non-conceptual. Report an error in the passage at 10:12 Highlight the passage at 10:12

10:32 Non-conceptual, but the flow of cognizance is still there. Very clear knowing. So, that's the nature of settling the mind in its natural state. Now, once you've done so, you're resting in a field of enormous potential. Because, in a manner of speaking, just as an analogy, all the kinetic energy of the mind... Report an error in the passage at 10:32 Highlight the passage at 10:32

10:55 Just the dynamic creative energy of the mind that we're spewing out in all directions, out of the sense fields and random thoughts and memories and emotions and desires kind of just spraying all over the place. All the creative juice of the mind is being splayed out in all directions or in the dream state, manifesting the dream. All that potential is now just gone dormant, just like good old junior high school physics. Report an error in the passage at 10:55 Highlight the passage at 10:55

11:18 All the kinetic energy is turned into potential energy. So you're just resting there in this field of... Tremendous potential. But right now, nothing's happening. You're just aware of evacuity, but radiantly aware. And your experience is blissful, luminous. And now you're ready to get to work. You're ready to do something really mean. And you could apply it to more mundane things like art, poetry, music, what have you. Report an error in the passage at 11:18 Highlight the passage at 11:18

11:48 But on the Buddhist path, your optimal, the most useful thing you could do at that point is start practicing Vipassanā. Gaining some real insight in the nature of the mind, in the nature of awareness itself, and with the intention being to cut through this substrate consciousness, which is still conditioned, it's within time. Report an error in the passage at 11:48 Highlight the passage at 11:48

12:07 It's not a soul, it's simply a flow of consciousness. It's not a person, it's simply a flow of consciousness. But you may, if you're very skillful, good guidance and so forth, you may cut through that substrate consciousness, and then in so doing, you break through. To a dimension of consciousness that is not conditioned, not in space, not in time, and utterly transcends all conceptual frameworks, everything one can possibly say or think, every category of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 12:07 Highlight the passage at 12:07

12:36 You've shattered through all of that and enter into a domain that now is truly transcendent. One can now say, if the word divine means anything, that level is divine. It's sacred, it's transcendent, it's liberating, and it is Buddha-mind. It's not other than Buddha-mind. So that's kind of the meaning of settling the mind as natural state. Not penetrating all the way to this round awareness, pristine awareness, but you've achieved shamatha when you come to this primal flow of consciousness, which is really the ground of your saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 12:36 Highlight the passage at 12:36

13:08 Every person has our own saṃsāra, our own individual saṃsāra, from which we leap out into one rebirth after another after another, but we keep on coming back like a yo-yo coming back to the palm. We go out also from day to day. Every time we fall asleep, It withdraws to the palm. We wake up. It goes up. We fall asleep. We have a dream. It goes up. We fall back asleep and then another dream and it comes back. So every excursion is always coming back to the substrate consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 13:08 Highlight the passage at 13:08

13:34 That's your palm. That's the ground of your saṃsāra, the ground of the ordinary mind. And it can be known and it is the answer. It's the empirical discovery. Report an error in the passage at 13:34 Highlight the passage at 13:34

13:45 That is the answer to the question, where does mind come from? Because at the time, let's say, the sperm and the egg come together, at conception, the Buddhists would say, well, just before then, there was no consciousness in the womb. At some point, and I won't pretend to know where, there is a first moment of consciousness in this developing, let's say, human fetus. There's an awareness, not just a reactivity, like a computer chip, but an awareness. Report an error in the passage at 13:45 Highlight the passage at 13:45

14:12 We all know what that means. But where did it come from? And the Buddhist view is, our minds, our consciousness, Do not emerge from neurons. They're not equivalent to neurons. Those would be suddenly magical neurons. But nor do they emerge from neurons. Report an error in the passage at 14:12 Highlight the passage at 14:12

14:30 They're configured by the body, configured by neurons, configured by DNA, configured by many, many things, influenced by, but not emerging from. And so the minds that we have right now, they emerge from the substrate consciousness. And every time we fall asleep, they devolve right back into substrate consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 14:30 Highlight the passage at 14:30

14:49 Since the brain is still functioning, when we wake up, then all of the conditioning of the brain comes in, and there you go, you have another human mind. Every time you come out of a dream, every time you emerge into a dream, you have a consciousness. Every time you wake up, you have a human consciousness. And so that, in short, the substrate consciousness, this mind settled in its natural state, that's said to be what continues on from one lifetime to another. Report an error in the passage at 14:49 Highlight the passage at 14:49

15:14 And because of all the propensities, memories, karmic seeds that go along with that flow, then those are what propels this flow of consciousness into one re-embodiment after another after another. So that can very easily, and from one perspective that does sound like and is metaphysics, I can say, well, that's an interesting theory, it sounds kind of coherent, but of course it's just a religious belief. Report an error in the passage at 15:14 Highlight the passage at 15:14

15:39 And for most people it is. If they believe it, it's a religious belief. But it's one of those beliefs that you can take off the word religion and you can simply say, well, it's a hypothesis, but this is a hypothesis that can be tested. I think I'm pretty much aware of all of the varieties of hypotheses about the body-mind relationship that have been posited in the context of materialism. Report an error in the passage at 15:39 Highlight the passage at 15:39

16:00 I've studied it for 20 years, so I don't think there are any surprises out there. And what I found is there's a common denominator among all of them, every single one without exception. From the mind and brain are equivalent to panpsychism to emergentism. There's just all kinds of varieties. They all have one thing in common. None of them are testable. Report an error in the passage at 16:00 Highlight the passage at 16:00

16:18 Not within the parameters of science. There's not even one that can be tested. And they do differ. They're not the same. They differ from each other. But if they can't be, or nobody's come up with any way to scientifically test them, then you have to say they're not only not scientific facts, they're not even scientific theories. Report an error in the passage at 16:18 Highlight the passage at 16:18

16:36 If you can't test it, then call it a philosophical speculation, an opinion, a belief, whatever. But a scientific theory needs to be amenable to putting it to the test. Otherwise, it doesn't deserve a category of scientific theory, let alone scientific fact. So I think it's really a grave misfortune that a lot of these mere opinions, beliefs, speculations are ever so frequently presented in the popular press and scientific press as fact. Report an error in the passage at 16:36 Highlight the passage at 16:36

17:02 Everybody knows. Doesn't everybody know that the mind is simply a function of the brain? Never been demonstrated. So it just kind of slipped in there like somebody slipping LSD into your drink. Report an error in the passage at 17:02 Highlight the passage at 17:02

17:11 This hypothesis from Buddhism, whether it's true or false, it actually can be tested. And it has been tested many times, but in Mind and the Balance, there's still a few copies out there. They're selling very quickly, by the way. In the book Mind and the Balance, I have presented two... Report an error in the passage at 17:11 Highlight the passage at 17:11

17:30 They are really truly scientific measurements or experiments that can be done. One would be very cheap, really, really cheap. $50,000 should do it. And a very high probability it will come out with negative results. But a good scientific test comes out with negative or positive. And both of these tests do. Report an error in the passage at 17:30 Highlight the passage at 17:30

17:49 I'll explain them just because I think they are interesting. We'll be getting to compassion soon. Back to compassion. There's not a lot more to say, actually. But one is just based on a very intriguing fact that I've learned. And that is that every human brain has a unique EEG signature. It's called a signature or a thumbprint. And it's not obvious, but I think it's, what is it, a Lagrangian analysis. Report an error in the passage at 17:49 Highlight the passage at 17:49

18:11 Lagrangian, with rather sophisticated mathematics, you read the EEG printout for a person, and you may take multiple prints out at different states, like when they're deep asleep, when they're dreaming, when they're awake, when they're happy, sad and angry, just to get a nice spread, because the EEG for all of those will be different. Report an error in the passage at 18:11 Highlight the passage at 18:11

18:26 And then you do the mathematical analysis and you tease out what is the signature, or it's called the thumbprint. It is an EEG signature that is unique to you as an individual. And they would say to your brain, of course. And it is. So that's kind of interesting that I haven't, and I have the data, I have the studies of it, so it's very clearly documented. Report an error in the passage at 18:26 Highlight the passage at 18:26

18:48 It's known, but not a whole lot to do with it. Because a thumbprint's much easier when you go for a passport rather than having an EEG check. Report an error in the passage at 18:48 Highlight the passage at 18:48

18:56 But there it is, each brain has its own unique signature of the EEG, the electromagnetic field generated by the brain. So that's interesting. But then it occurred to me some years ago that Tibetan yogis are just dying on a regular basis. And in the Tibetan tradition, they're waiting a couple of years. Report an error in the passage at 18:56 Highlight the passage at 18:56

19:16 And then Tibetans believe they're identifying the tukus on a regular basis. It's happening every single year if they're finding one more tuku. Report an error in the passage at 19:16 Highlight the passage at 19:16

19:26 Well, you see where this is going. Virtually any neuroscientist would say, well, the EEG signature is generated by the brain. Every brain is unique, and that's why the signature is unique. It's the brain. And when you die, your brain turns into fertilizer, and that's the end of it. And it's very, very possible, utterly possible. They're exactly right. Report an error in the passage at 19:26 Highlight the passage at 19:26

19:50 But in the Buddhist view, what carries on from lifetime to lifetime is not only a stream of consciousness, which is non-physical and immaterial. Report an error in the passage at 19:50 Highlight the passage at 19:50

20:00 But something else carries along together with this subtle continuum of mental consciousness, and that's a subtle continuum of prāṇa, which is a type of energy. It's not material, it's not made of atoms, but it is physical. It occupies physical space and it directly, causally interacts with other physical phenomena. Report an error in the passage at 20:00 Highlight the passage at 20:00

20:17 So to give an analogy of that, an electromagnetic field, an electromagnetic field, is not material. It's not composed of atoms. There's no materiality in it. Report an error in the passage at 20:17 Highlight the passage at 20:17

20:29 But it does travel through space, it's located someplace, and it is physical, it directly impinges upon, causally interacts with other fields, that's where you get the wave interactions, but also materiality. So matter generates fields, fields influence matter in a non-mechanical way. So you have matter which is physical and material, of course, the electromagnetic field is physical but not material, because it's just not composed of any matter at all, there's not an atom in it. Report an error in the passage at 20:29 Highlight the passage at 20:29

20:58 Just as an analogy, this continuum of prāṇa, a vital energy, which is nowhere identified in modern science, but is identified from a first-person perspective, this continuum of prāṇa, this field of prāṇa, carries on from lifetime to lifetime, and that's actually what is configured uniquely. Your karma, memories, and all of that. It's embedded, it's like a configured field. Not so different, just as an analogy, from the field when you sent an email. Report an error in the passage at 20:58 Highlight the passage at 20:58

21:26 It's an electromagnetic field or sequence of fields you're sending, but they're configured so that another device reads it and then picks up the photo, the text, the music, whatever you've sent. And so it's simply a what-if question. It's a really cheap question that can be answered very, very straightforwardly. What if the uniqueness of the signatures of the brain is fundamentally at its core due to the uniqueness of the continuum of prāṇa with which the whole gestation process starts? Report an error in the passage at 21:26 Highlight the passage at 21:26

21:57 And that prāṇa being that which carries on into the next life. What if? It's just a simple question. And a lot of people say it's a really dumb question. But I say it's simply a simple question. And so what if the old yogi's brain that has been configured by the prāṇa and therefore by the influence of this prāṇa becomes uniquely configured and is generating this unique signature. Report an error in the passage at 21:57 Highlight the passage at 21:57

22:22 What if that which is carrying the uniqueness is actually the prāṇa? It goes from lifetime to lifetime, such that when you find the tuku, that uniqueness will still be there and will be influencing the formation of the brain of the yam tuku, the Tibetan incarnate Lama. If that's the case, if the uniqueness is really in the prāṇa and not in the neurons themselves, manifesting by way of the neurons, but not originating in the neurons, then, of course, if you've got the E.G. Report an error in the passage at 22:22 Highlight the passage at 22:22

22:51 signature of the yogi before he died, and you found his tuku. Then the tuku might have the same signature. And if that happened, that would be very interesting. It would be inexpensive and it would be physical evidence of some clear continuity because these seem to be really truly unique. So that's really easy to test. You just have to get the EG caps, get somebody, some mathematician and neuroscientist to eke out the EG before the yogi dies. Report an error in the passage at 22:51 Highlight the passage at 22:51

23:19 Wait a few years, wait until the tuku ostensibly has been identified. And this is all passive, so a little baby won't be hurt, or a little child. See whether it's the same or not. The chances are very high it's not. The uniqueness may be coming simply from the brain, which every materialist would say for sure, and they may be right. Report an error in the passage at 23:19 Highlight the passage at 23:19

23:35 But I think it's a nice, fair, clean experiment. Positive or negative is negative. That doesn't disprove reincarnation or the continuity of consciousness. It's just that that's not where the uniqueness comes from. So that one's easy, because they're very accomplished yogis dying on a regular basis, and then their tukus being identified. Report an error in the passage at 23:35 Highlight the passage at 23:35

23:54 But there's a much more, to my mind, interesting experiment that can be done. I call it the Jiva experiment. No, the Alaya experiment. The Alaya experiment. Call the other one the Jiva experiment. And the Alaya experiment would be, okay, get that center up going in Tuscany and fill all of the 20 cabins and get people to really achieve shamatha. Report an error in the passage at 23:54 Highlight the passage at 23:54

24:20 Get it, nail it. Just however long it takes. Get all the conducive circumstances. So we have 5, 10, 15 people. It's really better to have as many as possible. Fully achieving shamatha. So now once you've achieved shamatha and you're resting there, it's not like you have duct tape over your mental mouth and you just have to sit there blissed out, luminous and non-conceptual. Report an error in the passage at 24:20 Highlight the passage at 24:20

24:39 That's your rest state. But if you wish, you may kind of like taking a really corny here, like the lightsaber, you know, from Star Wars. You take the lightsaber of your attention out. You don't just sit there. You take your attention and you start directing it. Because you can't. The mind is extremely supple. Report an error in the passage at 24:39 Highlight the passage at 24:39

24:59 Clear, radiant, luminous, bright, knowing. You say, okay, I'd like to run some experiments here. And you're in a space that's purely mental space because you're oblivious of your body when you're resting in that state of samādhi. Just luminously clear and you're in a vacuum. And then you just take the laser pointer of your attention and you give yourself a question. Report an error in the passage at 24:59 Highlight the passage at 24:59

25:21 Today is Thursday. What did I have for breakfast a week ago? And it'd be good to ask a question that's not so trivial that you can remember it in a waiting state. Why bother? No, this is a state where you're in this domain where there's no static, no noise between the awareness of the present moment and your target. Report an error in the passage at 25:21 Highlight the passage at 25:21

25:45 In the ordinary conscious state, there's so much noise, just so much going on. Try to remember what you had for breakfast a week ago. Like, I don't know, I've had six days since then. Why would I remember that? Who really cares? And so you might not be able to get to it. Just too much junk in between. But here there's no junk in between. Report an error in the passage at 25:45 Highlight the passage at 25:45

26:02 And so you just take that and you direct it to the past and you target, like what did you have for breakfast, let's say a month ago, let's make it harder. And then the hypothesis here, and you can see this in the Vusudhimaga, it's not quite the same, but it's exactly the same principle from this 5th century text. Report an error in the passage at 26:02 Highlight the passage at 26:02

26:19 You direct that and say, okay, what did you have for breakfast one month ago? And in samādhi, you direct your attention to it. And just like a laser point or a very bright beam of light, you target that morning and then, The luminosity of awareness displays itself, and you get a clear image. You're recalling a memory. And since there's nothing in between, it's not that difficult. Report an error in the passage at 26:19 Highlight the passage at 26:19

26:42 And so then you come out and say, okay, I have this and this and this. Well, of course, what you are so-called remembering could be sheer fantasy. People mistake fantasies from memories all the time. Report an error in the passage at 26:42 Highlight the passage at 26:42

26:55 And so if this were done in a controlled fashion, with open-minded, very critical and very rigorous scientists, then the scientists would choose a question. They would choose a question. And they would choose questions for which they know the answer. But it would be like Jeopardy, one of those quiz shows where they know what the questions are and the contestants don't know what the questions are until you're there. Report an error in the passage at 26:55 Highlight the passage at 26:55

27:16 But the MC knows all the answers, just like that. So the scientists would know all the answers. And they would then choose questions. So it could be something trivial like what you had for breakfast a month ago. But what they would do in this controlled experiment is they would give you targets. Once you're in samādhi, okay, now you're ready to go into samādhi again? Okay, here's your question this time. And by the way, can you remember it? Oh, you can't? Okay, good. I was hoping so. Now, go in. Report an error in the passage at 27:16 Highlight the passage at 27:16

27:42 And then you go into samādhi, you target, and then you come out. The scientist knows the right answer. Because they've chosen the questions unbeknownst to you. They've done background checks, they've done research, and they come up with things in your own life that they know occurred, they know the right answer. Report an error in the passage at 27:42 Highlight the passage at 27:42

27:58 And you don't know before you go into samādhi what the questions will be. So it's like a question. So they say, okay, here it is. Okay, ready to go in, Pam? Okay, here's the question. How much did you pay for groceries on this day when you went to such and such a store? How much did you pay? Report an error in the passage at 27:58 Highlight the passage at 27:58

28:18 It was September 3rd. I said, well, how much did you pay? I said, okay, now go for it. And then you come out. And you come out and give an answer. And if you give the wrong answer, that's kind of like, well, okay, that was cool. Sorry, have a nice day. The experience is pretty much finished. But if you come out and you give a correct answer, and it's something like six weeks ago, and you're remembering how much you paid for groceries, and that's something they check, they have to be ced. Report an error in the passage at 28:18 Highlight the passage at 28:18

28:44 And say, okay, well that was good, that was six weeks ago. Okay, here's your next question, am I going to Samādhi again? Okay, here, Pam. Here's something six months ago. And then they give another, for which they know the answer, go for it. And if you come out and they give another accurate answer, you're going to definitely arouse their interest. Report an error in the passage at 28:44 Highlight the passage at 28:44

29:00 Because now they say, this is prosaic, it's a controlled experiment, you have no idea what the questions are. But you remember anything, you just wouldn't remember. Nobody would remember, why would you? So then, let's imagine you're 40 years old, so we track it back. We say, okay, now where were you on this date, three years ago on this date, where were you exactly? Report an error in the passage at 29:00 Highlight the passage at 29:00

29:20 And what were you doing at 10 o 'clock in the morning? If it's still accurate, now they're getting really interested. So okay, we go back 10 years, well you see what we do. Let's go back 10, 15, 20. Okay, she's 40 years old, let's say. And you go back, okay, 38 years ago. Pam, where were you? What were you doing on this day? And there she comes out and said, well, I was two years old. Report an error in the passage at 29:20 Highlight the passage at 29:20

29:40 If it's still accurate, okay, we're on a roll here. Well, you see where we're going here. She's 40 years old. We got down to early childhood. And we say, okay, Pam, 42 years ago. 42 years ago, this date. Where were you and who were you and what were you doing? Report an error in the passage at 29:40 Highlight the passage at 29:40

30:00 And of course they don't know the answer to this one. And so she goes in. And if she's been, it's a great big if, but if she's been accurate all the way through, then one would expect there's a variety of possibilities. She goes in and she comes right back out and says, I got nothing. You just asked me a question before I was conceived and I got nothing. I got a blank screen here. So what do you do? Report an error in the passage at 30:00 Highlight the passage at 30:00

30:25 So that would be interesting. Okay. Blank screen, no data. She could go in there and... She could then come out and say, okay, let's imagine she says this. She comes out and says, oh, it's very interesting. I went back on that 42 years ago, and I was an old man called Juan Martinez, and he lived in Buenos Aires. Report an error in the passage at 30:25 Highlight the passage at 30:25

30:46 And my wife just died two years ago, and my daughter's taking care of me. And her name is this, and I live on this address. And I left my wife's ring in this drawer in the cabinet right over there. And then you check. The scientist checks. Let's imagine it's true. Then the scientist checks further. Is there any way you could have known that? Any possible way you could have known, within reasonable doubt? Report an error in the passage at 30:46 Highlight the passage at 30:46

31:16 And then they may, if they're really interested, they may go then and check, okay, is anybody still there? Any relatives? And then they can ask. Then they can do the jeopardy all over again. We found somebody. We found your sister, and she's still alive. The sister from that previous incarnation. We just found her, and now she told us some stuff about you from the past life. Report an error in the passage at 31:16 Highlight the passage at 31:16

31:36 What vacation did you and your sister take when you were 62 and she was 60? Where did you go on your vacation? Now they've got you. If you can answer that one, I think you've just made history. Report an error in the passage at 31:36 Highlight the passage at 31:36

31:49 So, Burugosa said this has been done many times, but not with a controlled scientific experiment. It could be done, but you do need to create the conducive environment and all of that, just like a laboratory, so you can continue through with continuity. That would be one way, if this is true. Of course, I see, to my mind, the evidence is overwhelmingly present that there is this continuity of consciousness from life to life. If that's true, but thus far it remains for New Agers, Buddhists, Hindus and some other people, but it's not public to me. Report an error in the passage at 31:49 Highlight the passage at 31:49

32:19 It's just regarded as a religious belief. But if that study were done in a controlled experiment with open-minded, critical scientists, with other peer review on all of that, and this came out, that would initiate the first revolution in the mind sciences. Report an error in the passage at 32:19 Highlight the passage at 32:19

32:37 That could be very useful, because it would change everything. Everything would be different. Everything would have to be reassessed. And it would not be, you throw out science, any more than when Einstein and Max Planck and so forth came along and developed relativity during quantum mechanics. They didn't throw out all the physics before then. They just saw that some of the underlying assumptions were false. And they're still true for macro objects traveling at non-relativistic speeds. Report an error in the passage at 32:37 Highlight the passage at 32:37

33:06 Still true, still as good as ever, but the underlying assumptions are completely false. And now these new theories account for everything that was there previously, but now they also account for relativistic or quantum effects, which the classical physics doesn't. So this would be relativistic psychology. It would account for everything there and acknowledge, respect all the knowledge about the psyche that's been unveiled through science, through neuroscience and so forth, embracing all of that. Report an error in the passage at 33:06 Highlight the passage at 33:06

33:32 But saying, you know, there's a dimension of consciousness that you just never knew about, because you're only studying ordinary people with their brains and their ordinary psyche, and you're looking at everything objectively, which means you could do that for a thousand years and never discover substrate consciousness, because they're not physical, and ordinary people can't remember. Report an error in the passage at 33:32 Highlight the passage at 33:32

33:52 That is a long commentary to settling the line. And the perspective here that we're seeking to adopt is, and from this session right now, we're going to go back to it, push the envelope a little bit in that practice. The perspective that you're seeking at least to emulate as you're observing thoughts, images, memories, desires and so forth, observing all these events of your mind, your configured mind arising, the perspective from which you're seeking to attend to them is your best approximation of viewing your mind from the perspective of your substrate consciousness and not viewing your mind from within the context of the mind, Report an error in the passage at 33:52 Highlight the passage at 33:52

34:32 primal perspective, which is knowing but is not talkative. Because all the concepts and language are up there. So this is an immediate knowing. Just like if I pop some chocolate in your mouth. You'll know the taste before you think about it. And then you think, well I think it's Dutch chocolate, it's milk chocolate, it's very creamy milk chocolate. All that will come later. But the first thing is you know it before any of that stuff comes up. So you're trying to dwell in and sustain a flow of knowing that is prior to all of the thick overlay of concepts, language and all of that. Report an error in the passage at 34:32 Highlight the passage at 34:32

35:04 Maintaining that flow of knowing, and that can be very useful in many ways. Ready for one session? Selling the Minds and Natural Stuff? Yeah, if you can. Oh, by the way, in that regard, one of my own students turned me on to something a year or two ago. And I'm going to give a brand name here. I rarely do it, but it's a good brand name. There's something called a Mindfold. Mindfold. And it is a blindfold, and it's really cheap. Report an error in the passage at 35:04 Highlight the passage at 35:04

35:33 It's like $15 US. But it's unusual. Most blindfolds, they press on your eyelids. But for these practices, you want to rise open, which means you don't want anything pressing on your eyelids. And so these, I have a pair right up in my room. It's a very comfortable fold that comes over the eyes with a thick black styrofoam cushion. And so it pockets your eyes. Report an error in the passage at 35:33 Highlight the passage at 35:33

35:57 And so you can have your eyes wide open and your eyelids are not fluttering against any surface. So it cups the eyes, but this black scythe from all the way around cuts out the light about 99%. It's really, really good for blocking all light. Got a nice easy band around the back so you can wear it for hours and you just don't feel it, no headache or anything like that. Report an error in the passage at 35:57 Highlight the passage at 35:57

36:16 But there you can be sitting or in the supine position with this mask on, which is extremely comfortable, and your eyes wide open, which you should have, but you're in pitch black. And that can be useful sometimes, not distracting. And so if that's interesting to you, you might want to. Check it out, it's cheap. Say again? Mindfold. Just like a blindfold, mindful. So I use mine a lot. Report an error in the passage at 36:16 Highlight the passage at 36:16

36:43 I travel with it everywhere. And on airplanes, mindful and noise-canceling headphones. Hear no evil, see no evil. And so you're in your own meditation hut, basically at 35,000 feet. And you can't really hear much. It doesn't block out all sound, but it really muffles the sound a lot if you have a good pair. Report an error in the passage at 36:43 Highlight the passage at 36:43

37:02 And these really muffle out basically all the light. Yes? Report an error in the passage at 37:02 Highlight the passage at 37:02

37:12 Free shipping, oh. Report an error in the passage at 37:12 Highlight the passage at 37:12

37:17 What's that? Well, I mean, it does this, right? Yeah, but your eyes are wide open, and that's actually the point, not that you're in the dark. The idea about the eyes open is the eyes open, not that you're seeing things. The eyes open, that it's not. The shutter has not gone down. So there's this one final quip, which is kind of my point of curiosity. Report an error in the passage at 37:17 Highlight the passage at 37:17

37:39 But actually, in Tuscany, I'd really love to see this happen. There's a tradition in various schools, probably all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. I know it's in Kala Chakra and I know it's in the Kagyut tradition, but it has to be in the others. It is in the others. And that is in the course of a Vajrayana retreat, like a three-year retreat. Report an error in the passage at 37:39 Highlight the passage at 37:39

37:57 In some traditions, when you're in a very intensive Vajrayana, which is to say a fairly advanced meditative retreat, you may go into a dark retreat for 49 days. And a dark retreat is when you go into a hut that is very specifically designed. It takes a bit of finesse to design it correctly. And you go into this hut and it is completely pitch black inside. And you don't come out for 49 days. And so food has slipped through, but without a crack of light. Report an error in the passage at 37:57 Highlight the passage at 37:57

38:26 You go to the bathroom, you eat, you sleep, you meditate, you never read anything. You can recite things you've memorized if you like. But for 49 days you're in pitch black every single moment. Report an error in the passage at 38:26 Highlight the passage at 38:26

38:39 It's one of those experiments, it's a maker or breaker. He either starts to go and start raving after a week or two. Let me out of here and somebody will let you out. Or you stick it out and stay the whole 49 days. I've spoken to people who've done it. Report an error in the passage at 38:39 Highlight the passage at 38:39

38:57 I've not had the opportunity yet. I haven't been able to find a dark hut. Well, I was in one, but it was a Lama's hut on the Holy Island in Scotland. So he let me into it. He showed me his meditation hut a couple of years back. And so it's a very, very nice cabin, a beautiful cabin. But in the inner sanctum of the cabin is the dark room. Report an error in the passage at 38:57 Highlight the passage at 38:57

39:15 And the big thing here is ventilation. You really want to make sure you're healthy. So ventilation, toilet, everything you need, but completely pitch black. Hold your hand up, you can't see a thing. And he had done it, I think, two or three times. And then when I was in Tibet once, I met a monk who had done it. Because everybody, all the monks in the monastery did it. Report an error in the passage at 39:15 Highlight the passage at 39:15

39:35 And he said, well, some people go crazy, but the ones who don't, they come out better. Report an error in the passage at 39:35 Highlight the passage at 39:35

39:41 So that would be, I definitely want to have some dark huts there in Tuscany. Report an error in the passage at 39:41 Highlight the passage at 39:41

39:53 Yeah. have cells that Yeah, yeah, They are there. But now, you know, we may as well use the technology of the 21st century. I mean, the ventilation, everything, we can make these really, really, you know, really healthy and safe. But they still did it in Tibet when they didn't have any high technology at all. But until that's up and running, until you have a dark hut you can go into, for $15 you put on a blindfold. Report an error in the passage at 39:53 Highlight the passage at 39:53

40:17 You probably won't wear them for 49 days. But you get a little sneak preview of what it's like. But I must say on airplanes, it's really restful. Really, really restful. Especially if you have the noise canceling. That's the time I meditate a lot. It's just so peaceful. And there's no internet. Report an error in the passage at 40:17 Highlight the passage at 40:17

40:36 Nobody can get to me. But please find a comfortable position. We'll go right in. Report an error in the passage at 40:36 Highlight the passage at 40:36

40:57 Who did this find? Yes. Who did this find? Yes. Thanks. Report an error in the passage at 40:57 Highlight the passage at 40:57

· · · silence, 1 minute

41:56 Natural states. And for a couple of minutes, gently soothe and calm the mind with mindfulness of breathing. Report an error in the passage at 41:56 Highlight the passage at 41:56

· · · silence, 3 minutes

45:19 Your visual awareness. Report an error in the passage at 45:19 Highlight the passage at 45:19

45:32 And before you direct your attention to the space of the mind, Report an error in the passage at 45:32 Highlight the passage at 45:32

45:38 rest for a little while. In the stillness of the awareness of awareness, not directing your attention to anything, not focusing on any object. Report an error in the passage at 45:38 Highlight the passage at 45:38

· · · silence, 2 minutes

47:34 Direct the light of your awareness to the space of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 47:34 Highlight the passage at 47:34

47:42 Realize this process by generating a thought or a mental image, or both. Report an error in the passage at 47:42 Highlight the passage at 47:42

47:50 But direct your attention first of all to these appearances that arise in the space of the mind that you can attend to, you can look aptly, listen to conversation, the chit-chat, you can see in the space of the mind. So first of all, observe these. So-called objective appearances, rising and falling, just hover motionlessly to whatever's arising freshly from one moment to the Report an error in the passage at 47:50 Highlight the passage at 47:50

· · · silence, 1 minute

49:44 station outside. There's not a problem here. Report an error in the passage at 49:44 Highlight the passage at 49:44

49:56 Even when there is noise from the environment and you're bound to encounter that when you're at home, keep your attention focused as much as you can right there in the domain of the mind and then observe what kind of responses are coming out. Whether it's images, whether there's a mental conceptual response, whether you find a version arising wishing they would stop and be quiet. Report an error in the passage at 49:56 Highlight the passage at 49:56

50:18 Be more sensitive, more prudeous. Just observe single point of view. Single point of view, whatever is coming up in your mind that's triggered by the outside conversation and so on, it can be very useful once you are in Report an error in the passage at 50:18 Highlight the passage at 50:18

· · · silence, 2 minutes

52:23 this practice. It gives rise to a deeper sense of ease. Report an error in the passage at 52:23 Highlight the passage at 52:23

52:30 That'll be good. The more relaxed you are in this practice, the easier you will find it to sustain the stillness of your awareness in the midst of the comings and goings of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 52:30 Highlight the passage at 52:30

· · · silence, 2 minutes

55:08 appearances such discursive thoughts and images that space of your mind. It's somewhat more challenging to observe without grasping, without identification, the subjective impulses such as desires, emotions and intentions. Report an error in the passage at 55:08 Highlight the passage at 55:08

55:37 But this too is very integral to the practice that you are sustaining the flow of mindfulness with respect to everything that arises in that space. So to initiate that type of observation, you may deliberately generate an emotion. It can be done. It may as well be a happy one. Why not generate a sense of enjoyment? Easy to do. Just bring to mind some very pleasant memory of a person, event that you really enjoyed. Report an error in the passage at 55:37 Highlight the passage at 55:37

56:15 So now relive it. And do focus, not just on the images, but to kickstart your practice in this regard. Really go back and reflect upon the person, the event, the activity that you enjoyed. Report an error in the passage at 56:15 Highlight the passage at 56:15

56:29 Do so until a sense of enjoyment and relive pleasure. Report an error in the passage at 56:29 Highlight the passage at 56:29

56:36 When that pleasure arises with respect to the events you've brought to mind, Report an error in the passage at 56:36 Highlight the passage at 56:36

56:44 then observe the pleasure, Report an error in the passage at 56:44 Highlight the passage at 56:44

· · · silence, 1 minute

58:06 simply by thinking of something very desirable, reflecting upon it, thinking about its attractive qualities. And you may find desire arising, good, then observe it. And when the desire fades out, keep your attention right where it was, then be very attentive in the present moment, not to whatever arises, to objective appearances and to subjective impulses and cons. Report an error in the passage at 58:06 Highlight the passage at 58:06

58:41 And simply be present with, aware of whatever arises in the space of the mind and whatever it is. Just let it be. Don't try to snuff it out or prolong it. Don't try to alter it or control it. Observe it without preference, without hope or fear. Report an error in the passage at 58:41 Highlight the passage at 58:41

59:01 Observe it as if from the perspective. This primal flow of awareness known as the substrate consciousness. And let's continue practicing now in silence. Report an error in the passage at 59:01 Highlight the passage at 59:01

· · · silence, 8 minutes

1:07:09 So this practice of settling the mind in this natural state. It can be very helpful for honing, refining the aspect of clarity, the acuity of awareness. It's like a really fine whetstone, so you can take your mindfulness and just rub it and get it sharper and sharper. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:09 Highlight the passage at 1:07:09

1:07:30 And in so doing, one can find that there are two different types of vividness, which can be studied scientifically, which has already begun to some extent. But it's very interesting and it can be very, how do you say, both aspects play quite an important role in really fathoming the nature of the mind and how mental events arise from this purely phenomenological perspective. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:30 Highlight the passage at 1:07:30

1:07:55 Because we're not looking at things associated with the mind, we're looking at the mind, which is a good idea if you want to understand the mind. And so the two types of vividness, I've just coined the terms but they've been around a long time, are qualitative vividness and temporal vividness. And the qualitative vividness... Report an error in the passage at 1:07:55 Highlight the passage at 1:07:55

1:08:13 Very simple idea. And that is, insofar as we develop greater qualitative vividness of attention, then as we're attending, we're able to detect subtler and subtler, subtler events that may linger for seconds at a time. But normally they would be beneath the threshold of consciousness. So we'd have to say then they're in the subconscious, because it's beneath the consciousness. So in this practice, as you develop it, if you refine it, maybe spend some time in retreat, do it more. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:13 Highlight the passage at 1:08:13

1:08:42 In a more rigorous and sustained fashion, then you're bound to experience. As you're attending to the mind, you'll start to detect thoughts, images, even fleeting desires and emotions that are subtle, so subtle you would not have recognized them earlier. But now you're so clear, there's such luminosity to such high definition, so to speak, of your awareness of the space of the mind, that even a subtle continuum that you would have just overlooked before. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:42 Highlight the passage at 1:08:42

1:09:12 Now you see it. Or it could be images that are just right there on the cusp of your awareness, and now you see them clearly. So again, they may linger five or ten seconds, but normally it's just too subtle, you wouldn't see them. So it's qualitative. We've had this earlier in the mindfulness of breathing practice when you're attending, especially here with the apertures of the nostrils. When you really start going deeply into the meditation, you may find first of all, that is, not first of all, but after some time, that your... Report an error in the passage at 1:09:12 Highlight the passage at 1:09:12

1:09:41 The rhythm of your breath goes into that relatively fast rhythm, but then the amplitude decreases. The amount of air you're taking in with each in and out decreases, decreases. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:41 Highlight the passage at 1:09:41

1:09:54 And of course, the sensations of the passage of the breath at the opposite of the nostrils get subtler and subtler. You're still breathing, of course, but again, from outside, you might not even be able to tell the person's breathing. It's just so subtle. Maybe only if you, you know, like a man just take off their shirt and say, okay, now can we see your skin, can we see? But otherwise, you might not. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:54 Highlight the passage at 1:09:54

1:10:14 But internally, picking up these just very, very subtle fluctuations of sensation, of a very tiny amount of air passing in and out. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:14 Highlight the passage at 1:10:14

1:10:26 As they say, it's subtle and subtler. If you continue to rise to the challenge, as they get subtle and subtler, what that indicates is that the qualitative vividness of your attention is being enhanced, because you're able to detect subtle and subtle events. That's for mindfulness of breathing, and it gets extremely subtle. So much so that there are stories from, like, Buddhagosa. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:26 Highlight the passage at 1:10:26

1:10:45 He tells a story probably from some centuries before him of one novice monk who was practicing, doing his practice, mindfulness of breathing. And then after some time he got off his cushion and he asked his teacher, I'm supposed to be practicing mindfulness of breathing and I'm not picking up anything. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:45 Highlight the passage at 1:10:45

1:11:16 So he said, I'm not picking up anything. I'm trying to attend to sensations of the breath, but my breathing has just gotten so subtle. I mean, it just seems like I'm not breathing anymore. And then the teacher rather ironically said, well, are you dead? Report an error in the passage at 1:11:16 Highlight the passage at 1:11:16

1:11:35 Are you in? A formless realm, or in the fourth jhāna, because it said breathing completely stops there, a very, very high state of samādhi. Okay, then if you're not dead, you're not an embryo, and you're not in the fourth jhāna or above, then you're still breathing, so go back to the cushion and pay close to attention. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:35 Highlight the passage at 1:11:35

1:11:54 And that is because even my students who are not, you know, extremely exalted meditators, but on occasion the breath comes so subtle that you're really wondering, is there anything there at all? Well, there is, but you have to refine, fine-tune your attention, so you're picking a very, very subtle sensation. That's qualitative business. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:54 Highlight the passage at 1:11:54

1:12:11 But now in this practice, you can pick up that. You pick up subtle thoughts and so forth and so on. But there's something else, another type of vividness, that manifests very clearly in this practice, more so than any other shaman practice I know, or at least that I practice a lot. And that is this temporal vividness. You can probably guess what that is. Normally, can an untrained mind, according to Paul Ekman's work, we get conversations about it, an untrained mind may be able to pick up some stimulus that lasts for 100 milliseconds and mask. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:11 Highlight the passage at 1:12:11

1:12:41 So it comes and then it's masked. So an ordinary person, if they're really paying attention, they may be able to detect it and report on it accurately. 100 milliseconds should be not too hard. 200 milliseconds should be definitely doable. But if you refine this ability, you enhance your temporal vividness, then you should be able to detect events that are even shorter than 100 milliseconds, maybe even 50 milliseconds, maybe even shorter. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:41 Highlight the passage at 1:12:41

1:13:08 They just flick and they're gone. And so this does happen in the mind. A little burst of an image and it's just gone. A little tweak of a thought, it's gone. Or just by the way, in terms of qualitative, this one's an interesting one. Tsongkhapa writes about this one, the great 14th, 15th century. Tsongkhapa writes that when you're really fine-tuning your mindfulness and you're doing this practice, that you'll be able to observe not only mental events coming up, like a thought that really breaks the surface into your consciousness, you'll be able to... Report an error in the passage at 1:13:08 Highlight the passage at 1:13:08

1:13:40 To detect a thought that is emerging before it's become formed, just kind of a surge. And that may not actually get formed, it may just be a surge of kind of like, and it just slips right back in. I've seen that, it's quite interesting. Whenever I talk about this, the same image almost comes to mind. And that is if you're looking at a very glassy pond, very, very smooth surface, and there are fish in it. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:40 Highlight the passage at 1:13:40

1:14:07 Sometimes the fish, of course, they break the surface, but sometimes the fish just comes up, and you see the water rise, and then the fish sometimes just goes back down again. So you see it's almost ready to break, and then it doesn't, and it just goes back down. It's very much like that, that you're watching the space of the mind, and you just see kind of a surge, like something's about to happen, and that Report an error in the passage at 1:14:07 Highlight the passage at 1:14:07

1:14:30 is a thought that doesn't quite get open. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:30 Highlight the passage at 1:14:30

1:14:36 Qualitative, qualitative vividness. But the temporal is being able to detect subtler and subtler, no, no, subtler and subtler, shorter and shorter. Shorter and shorter. And so it gets interesting. So this is a practice settling the mind among the different shamatha practices. For people who are interested in the mind, this tends to be a top choice. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:36 Highlight the passage at 1:14:36

1:14:55 Because it is interesting. And it's interesting. One of the reasons it's interesting is you never know what's coming up. Since you're not editing, controlling and so forth, you're just letting go free-flowing, opening the Pandora's box of your mind, you have no idea what's coming up. So it makes it interesting. Everything is always novel. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:55 Highlight the passage at 1:14:55

1:15:14 Those two types of vividness, you'll see those for yourself. I'll give you the little thumbnail sketch and then we'll get back and finish off with compassion. But how does this play out? A lot more can be said, but I'm going to wrap it up pretty quickly here. I'm referring to one 19th century text that I translated. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:14 Highlight the passage at 1:15:14

1:15:33 It was a commentary by Dujum Lingba, who studied and practiced his work a lot. He said, in the course of this practice, as I mentioned before, you've opened the door, you have a handful, you've begun. You've begun if you can experientially distinguish between the stillness of your awareness and the movements of your mind. If every time the mind goes in motion, your awareness is going in motion. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:33 Highlight the passage at 1:15:33

1:15:58 Every time there's a thought, you're thinking it. Every time there's a memory, you're remembering it. Every time there's an emotion, you're feeling it. Every time there's a desire, you want the thing that you're desiring. Then every time there's a movement, your awareness is movement too, so you can't distinguish between stillness and motion, because every time there's motion, you're moving with it, in which case you're not doing the wrong. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:58 Highlight the passage at 1:15:58

1:16:18 You're just thinking and emoting and desiring and remembering and so forth. In other words, there's just this ongoing flow of cognitive fusion of your awareness with whatever's coming up in the mind, which has some real limitations to it. Here we're cultivating something for which it seems that there's no biological imperative. It's not clear that this is going to help you mate or procreate more effectively, but it can have enormous value eidomonically in terms of just understanding that your mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:18 Highlight the passage at 1:16:18

1:16:46 And so the first thing is that, to be able to kind of establish your base camp, and that's how we started this last session. And again, let's just do it for five seconds without moving anything. Just pause and just see what it's like to be still without directing your attention to anything. Five seconds. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:46 Highlight the passage at 1:16:46

1:17:08 And that's it. To be able to make immediate access to that and come back to it so you just know, boy, do I know that's true. Nobody can persuade me to either one. It is possible for awareness just to be present, still, without looking here and there. Still. And then once it's still, you have your bearing, so to speak. Then you can direct it at will, and here we direct the space of mind. So the first is distinguishing between that stillness and then recognizing, ah, there's the mind in motion. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:08 Highlight the passage at 1:17:08

1:17:35 Or now my awareness is in motion because I just lost my mind. I just lost my awareness because it was dragged off by some wandering thought and so forth. But now to really get in gear, I think that's the word I used before. You've turned on the engine, so to speak, if you can distinguish between stillness and motion. But you're in first gear. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:35 Highlight the passage at 1:17:35

1:17:53 If you can simultaneously be aware, this is a big one. I mentioned before, single-pointed mindfulness. You're simultaneously aware of the stillness of your awareness and the movements of thoughts, images, whatever it may be. So you do that, so the unflickering candle flame here, but it's illuminating motion. And you're aware of both simultaneously. Because it is, after all, a system. It's not one thing over here with something independent over there. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:53 Highlight the passage at 1:17:53

1:18:19 So you're simultaneously aware of the stillness and the motion. Well, that's the course you follow. That's how you really proceed. Sustaining that stillness as the comings and goings, comings and goings of the mind occur. Very much like that kestrel facing into the wind. You're still, but the wind is flowing, flowing, flowing. And so it's always in motion. And then it's just a matter of familiarization. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:19 Highlight the passage at 1:18:19

1:18:41 The technique doesn't change. Same technique. You just get better and better at it until it becomes more and more effortless. So you remember the diagram of the elephant and all of that, the winding road of shamatha. And one of the many things symbolized in this pictorial representation of the path of shamatha is that the amount of effort you need to give is relatively large at the beginning and then just gradually, gradually tapers off along the whole path until when you're almost a shamatha, it's actually effortless. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:41 Highlight the passage at 1:18:41

1:19:11 And so doing this practice at the beginning, maintaining an ongoing flow of stillness while simultaneously being aware of the comings and noises of the mind, takes some effort. Very subtle effort, but it does take effort. But, just like so many other things, the more you become familiar with it, very well acquainted with it, the easier it gets, like riding a bicycle and so many other things. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:11 Highlight the passage at 1:19:11

1:19:33 And so the second type of mindfulness, therefore, going into second gear, so to speak, after these single-pointed mindfulness, then it's simply called manifest mindfulness. And this is where you're doing the same thing, maintaining the flow of awareness, coming and going. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:33 Highlight the passage at 1:19:33

1:19:49 But it's getting more effortless and more continuous. So psychologists have that nice term from Chiksenaya, and that is flow. Well, this is flow. When you're able to sustain relatively effortlessly, I mean not completely effortlessly, but really pretty smooth in that nice flow mode of just being present, present, present, present, going for 35, 40 minutes an hour, just maintaining that ongoing continuity of mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:49 Highlight the passage at 1:19:49

1:20:18 And it's illuminating whatever's coming up without being dragged away by it. So that's very useful. That's when you're really getting the hang of it. And you continue in that mode. So then you just continue. And again, there are not many signposts along the way. And you don't change the method. The method's changed just as it is. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:18 Highlight the passage at 1:20:18

1:20:37 And then when you progress along the stages 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, at the same continuum, but you've really now gotten very close to Shama. You're almost there. Then the third type of mindfulness is a real anomaly. You've almost achieved shamatha, which means your level of concentration is extremely good. You can probably sit for three or four hours at a stretch with no problem. But when you come to this stage, your attention has been so single-pointedly focused. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:37 Highlight the passage at 1:20:37

1:21:08 So, yeah, like... Like taking a delta, like where the water is just flowing out in all directions, and getting some civil engineer to come and then channel all the water into one stream so everything else dries up. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:08 Highlight the passage at 1:21:08

1:21:23 You're taking the river, the stream, the current of your awareness, and you're channeling it all into one domain only, just by sheer training. The main, of course, is the mental domain, which means the five physical senses dry up. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:23 Highlight the passage at 1:21:23

1:21:38 They just simply withdraw into all the juice, all the energy, all the awareness of the five physical senses. Well, it's just pulled back, and all that energy goes right into the central, right into focus on mental domain, which means you're sitting there wide awake with your eyes open. You can't see anything. Your ears are perfectly open. You can't hear anything. And you also don't have any sense of your body. Your awareness has just been withdrawn from the somatic field. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:38 Highlight the passage at 1:21:38

1:22:01 So there you are, sitting. You could be lying down or sitting on a comfortable chair. But you actually become oblivious of the environment, let alone smells and tastes, and all the floor of consciousness, a single point of the going into the mental domain. But in the whole process of this, you've been settling your mind in its natural state, which means as you've been attending to the thoughts, images, emotions, desires, and so forth, they're decreasing in volume. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:01 Highlight the passage at 1:22:01

1:22:28 They're just getting fewer and fewer, softer and softer, not homogenous, they're big spikes, upheavals that come up. They're interesting. But over the course of time, if you persist, you're practicing effectively, then the activities of the mind, the kinetic energy of the mind, all the surges, thoughts, emotions, it's called javana in Pāli, the activities of the mind, they're subsiding. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:28 Highlight the passage at 1:22:28

1:22:48 So it's rather like looking at a snow globe. When you begin, all the snow is throwing about all over the place, but you just settle the snow globe in its natural state. Of course, what happens, if you don't keep on shaking it, everything, all the so-called snow, Comes, descends in the bottom, and then you're just looking through crystal clear, sheer vacuity. And so that's what happens. The mind becomes emptied. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:48 Highlight the passage at 1:22:48

1:23:12 Everything just settles down. But all the flow of awareness has gone into this one domain, but now that one domain is empty. So you're oblivious of your body in the surrounding environment. You're tending single-pointedly to the space of the mind, but now that gets emptied. There's nothing there anymore. It's just a sheer vacuity. So when you get there, Where you're wide awake, you have not become oblivious or anything like that, vegetative, nothing like that. You've been maintaining a flow of cognizance all along. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:12 Highlight the passage at 1:23:12

1:23:40 And if you haven't, then you're doing it wrong. And that flow of cognizance is getting brighter and brighter, sharper and sharper all the way along, unlike falling asleep or dying. This is training. It takes probably hundreds of hours, maybe thousands. And you want to have a conducive environment, you have to have continuity. For the people I've been training for the last seven years, since the Shaman Department, Report an error in the passage at 1:23:40 Highlight the passage at 1:23:40

1:24:01 The biggest obstacle they've had, there's probably about 50 of them by now, 30 of them are in retreat right at this moment. The biggest obstacle they've had all along is environmental. Really, really hard to find a place that is truly conducive to the practice where you can stay for a long time until you finish a job. They keep on having to move here and here and one thing after another. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:01 Highlight the passage at 1:24:01

1:24:21 It's been really a pain. That's one reason I have such a passion for creating an environment. They can just stay until they finish a job. But in this phase of the practice, you've almost achieved shamatha. You're there, you're radiantly clear, very cognizant, luminous mind, and you're aware of virtually nothing at all. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:21 Highlight the passage at 1:24:21

1:24:38 So it's called the absence of mindfulness. And the term mindfulness, you might recall, has the primary connotation in Buddhism of bearing in mind, recollection. Well, now you're not bearing anything in mind, because everything you were bearing in mind is now vanished. All the contents and so forth, gone. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:38 Highlight the passage at 1:24:38

1:24:57 What Buddhists call the coarse mind, the human mind, what psychologists I think call the psyche, that's now just gone dormant. And so as a mental factor, mindfulness as a mental factor belonging to coarse mind, the whole coarse mind has gone dormant. So mindfulness as a mental factor that's part of that system, it's gone dormant as well. So now it's kind of like you're between third and fourth gear. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:57 Highlight the passage at 1:24:57

1:25:23 That is, you're not quite engaged with anything. Your coarse mind isn't operative anymore. It's gone flat. But you've not fully gone into the substrate consciousness either. You're right there on the cusp. So in a transient period, relatively short, you're just there luminously aware and kind of of nothing. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:23 Highlight the passage at 1:25:23

1:25:42 Just, that's it. An absence of mindfulness because you're not bearing in mind anything. And then you do something clever. And that is you invert your awareness right in upon itself quite strongly. As you can do right now, as we've done previously. You're not simply sitting there being present, but you direct awareness right in upon itself. So it's almost like, if I did a cartoon, it would be like that, kind of like in your face. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:42 Highlight the passage at 1:25:42

1:26:15 Really just very explicitly turning awareness in upon itself. And then the awareness, the luminosity of awareness illuminates itself. And then that's called self-illuminating mindfulness. That's the fourth one. And that's when you've achieved Shaman. It's radiant. You are the radiance. You're resting in the radiance. And that radiance permeates the vacuity of the substrate. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:15 Highlight the passage at 1:26:15

1:26:41 And now you've achieved shaman. So you've finished that job. You've taken the local train from here to there. You've come to the substrate consciousness. And the trap there, because many people have experienced this, including to this day. Some of my teachers have achieved it. The big trap there, as Dujum Limba says, He said, you're experiencing bliss like the warmth of a fire, luminosity like the breaking of a dawn, non-conceptuality like an ocean unmoved by waves. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:41 Highlight the passage at 1:26:41

1:27:14 You just, Report an error in the passage at 1:27:14 Highlight the passage at 1:27:14

1:27:20 it's so satisfying, so totally what you wanted, that you just feel, I think I can stay here forever. You're wrong, but you feel like it. Or then you recognize after some time you need to pee, and then you come out. I helped to lead this retreat back in 1988 with Gan Lam Rimba, a very senior yogi. And he was leading, and I was his apprentice, his interpreter, helping out leading it. And it was a one-year retreat for 12 people. And everybody at the end of the year, everybody stayed, and everybody at the end of the year said it was the most meaningful year of their life. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:20 Highlight the passage at 1:27:20

1:27:54 Which is interesting, because many of them were following their breath, or watching their minds, you know, like, most meaningful. And it was, they were telling the truth. They all did, they all had meaningful experiences. And there were a couple of people that did exceptionally well, and one in particular happened to be a woman. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:54 Highlight the passage at 1:27:54

1:28:10 And she was doing mindfulness of breathing the whole time. For one year, she was following her breath. And by the end of the year, everybody started out, according to Lama's instructions, with only 15-minute sessions, really short. But 24 of them a day. So a whole bunch of brief sessions. Now if you do the math, it's only four and a half hours, so it's not a lot. But the whole emphasis is, and you should remember this, always quality over quantity. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:10 Highlight the passage at 1:28:10

1:28:36 Always quality. Make sure you're emphasizing quality, not quantity. And so it became only four and a half hours. But in the course of the retreat, everybody, they just naturally, they found they wanted the duration to get longer, and then the number of sessions got shorter. That was just a general trend. It's a classic. So there's this one woman. She really excelled. She had really quite a splendid year. She started out like everybody else with 24 sessions per day. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:36 Highlight the passage at 1:28:36

1:29:01 By the end of the year, she was practicing only two sessions per day. The first one was 11 hours, and the second one was four hours. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:01 Highlight the passage at 1:29:01

1:29:12 Then she's asked, well, why did you say so alone? And why 11 hours? And she says, well, I was in bliss the whole time. I didn't want to come out. Then why did you come out? I needed to pee and get a bite to eat. And then she'd go in for another four hours. And she stood there on a regular basis, so 15 hours a day. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:12 Highlight the passage at 1:29:12

1:29:33 So that highlights some of the value of such a practice, but also the trap. And she had not achieved shamatha. She did very well. She hadn't achieved shamatha at that time. But when you achieve shamatha, then it's total immersion. Into this state of awareness that's primal, but because you've kind of come into it meditatively and not just fallen asleep, become comatose or what have you, because you've come there through refining clarity all the way through, then when you finally arrive, it's just radiantly clear. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:33 Highlight the passage at 1:29:33

1:30:04 So you have this bliss, luminosity and non-conceptuality. And the big trap is you have to stay there. You just won't move. You won't do anything else. These are Vipassanā, Dzogchen, whatever, whatever. Have a nice day. I'm just so happy doing what I'm doing. And you just stay there. And it is everywhere, in all Buddhist schools, if that's all you do, Theravāda tradition, Galupa, Nyingma, doesn't matter. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:04 Highlight the passage at 1:30:04

1:30:29 They all say, if that's all you've done, you've just achieved Shantata and you just enjoy it for the rest of your life, you've actually not made any real progress at all. Nothing irreversible has taken place. You've just gone into a really nice sort of vacation land, like Tahiti of the mind, and hanging out there in a hammock and then pissing away your life. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:29 Highlight the passage at 1:30:29

1:30:48 Because you're going nowhere at all. You're treading water. So it's an interesting dilemma there. Enormously important to get there, because from that platform the mind is tremendously empowered to do very meaningful things. But if you get there and get stuck, then nothing really of any significance happens. You just enjoyed yourself there. But then you'll die. You'll probably lose it when you die. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:48 Highlight the passage at 1:30:48

1:31:10 But the Dalai Lama commented in one conference that if one achieves that, then the chances of losing it in his lifetime are very small. You should be able to keep it for your mind. Absence of mindfulness. And the fourth one is called self-illuminating mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:10 Highlight the passage at 1:31:10

1:31:31 So that's nice. It's just four signposts. So distinguishing stillness in motion, single-pointed mindfulness, manifest mindfulness, absence of mindfulness, and then self-illuminating mindfulness. And that's a keeper. That one you can keep for a long time. Okay, so let's go back. There's really not a whole lot more to say as you look down at the notes here. You can see a lot of it I've already covered. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:31 Highlight the passage at 1:31:31

1:31:24 Absence of mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:24 Highlight the passage at 1:31:24

1:31:50 We're not going to do it today. It's very obvious you can do it at your own leisure. But the classic stages of meditation, cultivation of compassion, are focusing on a person, one or more persons, who by attending to them, it just naturally arouses a sense of empathy and then compassion. When you see they're wretched, they're miserable, by focusing on them, letting them become real, then quite naturally for most people there just arises this thought. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:50 Highlight the passage at 1:31:50

1:32:18 Oh, if only he could be free from his suffering and its causes. So compassion easily arises. That's what you want to do. You focus on someone with whom compassion easily arises. And when you've gotten into the flow of that, then you shift to a dear person. Yeah, that's it. And then the rest is self-explanatory. A dear person, then a more neutral person, and finally a person who's hostile. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:18 Highlight the passage at 1:32:18

1:32:40 And you try to equally cultivate compassion for all of these. Just, yeah, this is all quite clear. Just that point on, F, apply the meditation daily life. One can do this not only when you're sitting quietly in a cushion, but if you watch the news or check it out on the internet or whatever, if you just become aware of what's happening in the world, there is so much adversity, so much tragedy, misery, evil taking place in the world. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:40 Highlight the passage at 1:32:40

1:33:08 And we're getting, of course, unprecedented exposure to that. Even from my childhood to now, we didn't have internet. And we didn't have 24-hour day news. You had to wait until 5.30 at night to get international news, remember? Don't last half an hour. That's all you've got. Now, all day, 24 hours a day, the Internet, of course. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:08 Highlight the passage at 1:33:08

1:33:28 And so we just have this free access, this abundant access to misery and evil in the world. And it is, as a member of you have noted, very easy to just become inured to it, kind of anesthetized to it. Or just to look and kind of space out and feel, well, there's nothing I can do, so why should I watch? So then the heart can actually become cold. Just because it's overexposure, overexposure. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:28 Highlight the passage at 1:33:28

1:33:53 And so in this regard, nobody wants to be cultivating a sense of helplessness. So one practice you can do if you watch television or you check on the news on the internet and so forth is when you become aware of some individuals, a community where there's a lot of suffering taking place. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:53 Highlight the passage at 1:33:53

1:34:10 Then right there, while you're watching, let's say it's a documentary, it's an evening news, and you're just watching the latest bad news. Then instead of simply watching it and feeling helpless, you can actually start practicing right there. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:10 Highlight the passage at 1:34:10

1:34:24 So I think the rest is pretty straightforward. It is. It's pretty clear. So we go to the analysis. That's the top of page seven. Say again? You want that? Sure. Blatant suffering is what we all experience as unpleasant. Physical pain, mental pain, physical pain, no explanation needed. Mental suffering, blatant suffering is just a whole spectrum from feeling, what's the word? Report an error in the passage at 1:34:24 Highlight the passage at 1:34:24

1:34:57 Well, melancholy, there's even a softer term, malaise. It's very soft, right? How are you feeling? Just kind of malaise. Not very good, not really bad, but kind of like that. That's still dukkha. That's blatant suffering. I don't like it. I don't like feeling this malaise, all the way up to anguish. So that's white, my white heart. And so anything, any feeling of body or mind that we experience is unpleasant. That's called blatant suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:57 Highlight the passage at 1:34:57

1:35:23 And then the second one, the suffering of change, it's not experienced as suffering at all. It's generally experienced as something pleasant. But a person with insight can see, yes, you're experiencing what you regard as a good life, you're enjoying it and all of that. But what you're experiencing is utterly fragile and it's only a matter of when, not if. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:23 Highlight the passage at 1:35:23

1:35:44 That all collapses. And when it does, it's going to be misery for you. Because your happiness is sustained with attachment and succeeding. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:44 Highlight the passage at 1:35:44

1:35:54 And that just always turns out badly. And we have these four inconvenient truths, straight from Buddhism. And that is, whatever is born dies. So you get a cute little puppy. Oh, I'm so happy to be a puppy. The puppy's going to die. You have kids, they're going to die. Spouse, they're going to die. Friends, loved ones, everybody, they're all going to die. So get used to that as soon as you meet them. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:54 Highlight the passage at 1:35:54

1:36:17 As soon as you see they're born, ah, you're going to be dead. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:17 Highlight the passage at 1:36:17

1:36:22 Get used to it. Don't be surprised. Because this is the thing. So often people, oh, I can't believe it. He was only 35 years old and he died. Can't believe it. Can't believe it. Yeah, I believe it. It's like he's going to die anyway. And people can die at any time. So why are you surprised? So anything that's born dies. Anything that's acquired will be lost. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:22 Highlight the passage at 1:36:22

1:36:41 Anything whatsoever. Tangible, intangible. If acquired it, you're going to lose it. Only when, not if. And then there's whatever is elevated to high status, prestige, power and so forth. Whatever goes up, it's going to come down. And finally, there's a meeting. Meeting friends, lovers, whatever it may be. They're going to be partying. Entropy rocks, entropy rules in human life as well as the universe at large. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:41 Highlight the passage at 1:36:41

1:37:07 And so when one becomes aware of that, then the attachment may decrease a little bit. But the suffering of change is not intrinsic in change itself. It's not simply because things change, therefore we suffer. We suffer because of attachment. That's it. And if there's no attachment, then the suffering that arises independent upon attachment doesn't happen. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:07 Highlight the passage at 1:37:07

1:37:32 Which means you can still enjoy innocent pleasures, hedonic pleasures of friendship, of marriage, of children, everything. And if you're not attached, you simply enjoy it and that's all there is to it. And then when it's gone, you just, oh, it's not happening anymore. Okay, and then you move right on. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:32 Highlight the passage at 1:37:32

1:37:50 Your light, light as a feather. And you don't go like that. You've already released it because you weren't attached in the first place. It comes up and then it's gone. And then you say, okay, but why not? Now what? It's always fresh. So that's the suffering of change. And then this, I call it ubiquitous suffering of conditioning, and I'm calling it the pervasive existential suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:50 Highlight the passage at 1:37:50

1:38:13 This is just our fundamental vulnerability to suffering, Report an error in the passage at 1:38:13 Highlight the passage at 1:38:13

1:38:19 from grasping onto I and mind that which is not I and mind. There is one point that I found interesting. Just through my own reflections and meditations. And that is, we're all familiar now with hedonic pleasure, stimulus driven, something nice happens to you, you feel pleasure, eudaimonic well-being, genuine well-being, no stimulus needed, you bring it to the world. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:19 Highlight the passage at 1:38:19

1:38:40 Well, it occurred to me, I've not heard anybody else say this, but it seems meaningful, at least to me, that there's also hedonic suffering. There's hedonic pleasure, hedonic, and that probably knocks it more than hedonic means pleasure. But let's just simply say stimulus driven. As hedonic pleasure is stimulus-driven pleasure, there's also stimulus-driven suffering. And something bad happens to us. And let's focus on the mind primarily. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:40 Highlight the passage at 1:38:40

1:39:04 So if something bad happens, somebody steals my money or they insult me or something I don't like happens, and then I feel bad. Why? Oh, because of this, and I have something to point to. This made me feel really welcome. So stimulus-driven suffering. So much of it is stimulus-driven. And since our senses are all pointed outwards and we're biologically... Report an error in the passage at 1:39:04 Highlight the passage at 1:39:04

1:39:24 Driven to look outwards for mates and for food, then when we're looking for the source of what makes us unhappy, we tend to target people and things out there. I'm unhappy because she said that, and I'm unhappy because we had to move there, and I'm unhappy because, and then we find. What was the catalyst? And so the common strategy then to overcome the suffering is to get rid of that and keep hearing of the same. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:24 Highlight the passage at 1:39:24

1:39:47 Because I'm okay, it's just that she's really a rotten person. And if she gets out of my life, I'm going to be much happier, then I won't suffer anymore. Until the next person like her comes in, I'll suffer all over again. So all of that is commonplace, hardly any comment. But something that we don't talk about, and I've never even seen a term for it when out there, is genuine suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:47 Highlight the passage at 1:39:47

1:40:14 And genuine suffering is when we're experiencing, and it's psychological, that's what I'm referring to, is a sense of being ill at ease, of suffering, unpleasant feeling in the mind. When you're looking around for what did it, what caused that, why am I unhappy, why am I bored, why am I depressed, why am I anxious? And you're looking around, who can I blame, who can I blame? Report an error in the passage at 1:40:14 Highlight the passage at 1:40:14

1:40:36 And you just can't find anything. It just doesn't seem to be, what's your problem? What's the referent? What's the referent? What are you unhappy about? Report an error in the passage at 1:40:36 Highlight the passage at 1:40:36

1:40:47 I don't know, actually my life is really good, everything's going fine, but people Report an error in the passage at 1:40:47 Highlight the passage at 1:40:47

1:40:55 in that study, 15 minutes. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:55 Highlight the passage at 1:40:55

1:41:02 Because I don't like just being here with no stimulation. I don't like it. And so better an unpleasant stimulation than no stimulation at all. So that I find interesting. That one's interesting. Because that's a symptom of an unbalanced mind. It's a symptom of a mind that is out of bounds. And so then if you see that, if you can recognize that level of suffering, then you know, okay, now there's only one place to go. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:02 Highlight the passage at 1:41:02

1:41:33 Because it's not somebody else or something in the environment to fix. Because I can't see anything to fix. Everything's fine. There's that. And when we look at celebrities, there's so many of them. Yeah, because they appear in the news all the time. Movie stars and all that kind of thing. I suspect this comes up a lot. That they have every reason to be happy. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:33 Highlight the passage at 1:41:33

1:41:53 When they were young actors or musicians, whatever, that which they're striving for, wishing, hoping against hope, that they actually might make it to the top. And then the very rare few actually do. And they get up there. And money's flowing in and adoration is flowing in and prestige is flowing in and influence is flowing in. Everything they ever wanted. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:53 Highlight the passage at 1:41:53

1:42:17 And they're at the peak, they're at the peak of career. And they're still not happy. That happens a lot. And then either they, like some actors, they turn their attention out to doing really philanthropic work. And I won't give names, you probably know the names, but actors who are using their celebrity status and then really doing very meaningful things in the world, using their status. The people adore them so much. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:17 Highlight the passage at 1:42:17

1:42:41 They say, good, adore me, thanks, come on. And now, look, this is what I'm doing. And they're going off to help people in Haiti. It's just a disaster zone. But using the celebrity status, look at Haiti. You love me? Good. Give here. I'm giving here. Why don't you give here too? Remember, I'm George Clooney. That's good. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:41 Highlight the passage at 1:42:41

1:42:59 That's really, really good. So sometimes it gets channeled that way, and then they find meaning in the midst of all of the empty glitter, fame, wealth, and all of that. And then others don't. They don't direct it out there. And then we find these incredibly handsome, accomplished male actors going out to get a prostitute when they could have women were free. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:59 Highlight the passage at 1:42:59

1:43:21 But they go to prostitutes instead. Or they snuffing coke, like some kid in a ghetto has had any money at all. They're doing things that other people with men of that can do, and they're doing that. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:21 Highlight the passage at 1:43:21

1:43:35 Or they just kill themselves. And we've had a number of cases of that just recently. Top of the top, top, top, top, right? Robin Williams, Philip Seymour Hoffman, the list goes on and on. I mean, they're just top, extremely gifted. And they just figure life's not worth it. And so that's that non-stimulus-driven suffering. They have nothing to be unhappy about, except for their own minds. And so either they move out into the world to do some good, leaving the mind more or less the same, or some of them, and there are some people like that, they actually, in the midst of all their success, they actually turn inwards and start fixing the real problem, really practicing compassion for themselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:35 Highlight the passage at 1:43:35

1:44:17 So before we take a break, we'll just take this final analysis on the top of page seven. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:17 Highlight the passage at 1:44:17

1:44:27 I think everything else there is really quite self-explanatory. So we'll just look at M. This is very important. And you can see for yourself whether you find this rich and wise. So the near enemy, remember the false facsimile of compassion, is despair, depression, sadness. It doesn't go anywhere. You just feel really bad. And it can also have a quality of hopelessness to it, where you're dwelling so long and so deeply on the suffering of the world that you see no light, no light at the end of the tunnel. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:27 Highlight the passage at 1:44:27

1:44:59 There's no possibility of freedom. It just seems all dark. And so you may be weeping for others, feeling incredibly sad for others, but it's just despair. And so from outside, a person might look at you and say, oh, you're so compassionate. I saw you weeping and weeping when you watched that news documentary. It's in fact not compassionate. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:59 Highlight the passage at 1:44:59

1:45:20 It looks like it. There's nothing malevolent about it. But the person is just feeling sorry for the people being depicted and shown in the news. But this is a big difference. Feeling sorry for is called sympathy, and compassion is an aspiration. So this is the near enemy. It looks like it, but it's not. And if you go into a tailspin of this kind of hopelessness and despair, that will likely move you away from compassion and not towards it. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:20 Highlight the passage at 1:45:20

1:45:49 Cruelty is its far enemy, its distant enemy, diametrically opposed. And so cruelty, as I'm defining it here, is just take the phrase of compassion and flip it on its head. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:49 Highlight the passage at 1:45:49

1:46:03 May you find freedom from suffering in its causes. And cruelty is, may you find suffering in its causes. And I took a course when I was a graduate student at Stanford a long time ago on the good life, virtue in the good life. And we looked at vices as well as virtues. And we had a very good professor. He was really a very, very thoughtful man. And we considered, you might consider, of all the vices you know, all the vices people greed and gluttony and there's the seven deadly sins. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:03 Highlight the passage at 1:46:03

1:46:32 A lot of lists are really nasty things, attitudes and so forth, that people adopt or succumb to. But we raise the question in the class, what do you think is the worst stuff and the most pernicious, the most destructive? Or if you had a neighbor, what quality would you like your neighbor, what quality would you most like your neighbor not to have? The Report an error in the passage at 1:46:32 Highlight the passage at 1:46:32

1:46:56 one we came up with is cruelty. If your neighbor is cruel, well, you can never rest. It's cruelty that's like, I'm just waiting for my chance. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:56 Highlight the passage at 1:46:56

1:47:08 And so we see that. I've spoken to a number of people who have been in concentration camps. That's diametrically posed. The next point is very important, and that is the proximate cause, the trigger of compassion, is to see the helplessness in those who are suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:08 Highlight the passage at 1:47:08

1:47:27 But again, that's not enough. This is straight from Buddhagosa. That's good. If they're not helpless, if they're suffering, but they're not helpless, they're right in the midst of getting out of the problem, then you kind of stand back and watch and say, bravo, I'm glad you got yourself out of it. Because you're doing fine, you didn't need any help, so good, carry on. But if they're helpless, then that may trigger compassion, but one should really add something here. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:27 Highlight the passage at 1:47:27

1:47:51 If they're helpless and you don't see any possibility of help, then it's just going to give rise to sadness, a sense of impotence, ineffectuality, hopelessness and so forth. So you need to see the helplessness of those who are overwhelmed by suffering, but you need to see the possibility that they could actually be freed. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:51 Highlight the passage at 1:47:51

1:48:11 If you don't have that passion, you're not going to run. It won't be sustained in any way. So that's really a crucial one. And then the success and failure of it is pretty transparent. It succeeds when any tendency towards cruelty, any tendency at all. I'm sure none of us are tortured, none of us are going out of our way to, I'm just assuming this, I think it's a pretty safe assumption. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:11 Highlight the passage at 1:48:11

1:48:34 I doubt that there's a cruel person in the room that just enjoys going out and inflicting harm. Suffering upon other creatures. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:34 Highlight the passage at 1:48:34

1:48:44 So not that. But for people who are pretty decent people, does ever an impulse arise where you really like to stick to them, retaliate, make somebody suffer from what they've done or for who they are and stick to them, wish them ill, hope that they get disgraced, that they suffer, they fail, that people ridicule them, that people lose all respect for them? Report an error in the passage at 1:48:44 Highlight the passage at 1:48:44

1:49:11 Does any impulse like that come up? Report an error in the passage at 1:49:11 Highlight the passage at 1:49:11

1:49:16 And if you're cultivating compassion, then less and less, less frequently, less strong. And the cultivation of compassion fails when it produces, instead of compassion, then your enemy of compassion, and that's simply sorrow. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:16 Highlight the passage at 1:49:16

1:49:35 As the Dalai Lama said, who has been striving to restore the human rights of people in Tibet for close to 60 years, Report an error in the passage at 1:49:35 Highlight the passage at 1:49:35

1:49:50 after six years of striving, and it is actually its highest priority, its greatest responsibility, is to try to help the people, because they're all looking to him. Not to Obama, not to the Germans, not to Australians, really not. They'd given up on us. There was a point when they thought America would come rushing to the rescue in the 1950s. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:50 Highlight the passage at 1:49:50

1:50:07 America, the white stallion and all that, knight in shining armor. They just thought we went around to save the countries. And then we didn't. Nobody else did either, so they got wiped out. And so they gave up on us, they gave up on Europe, and so forth. And now they have just one person. All of the Tibetan people have only one person. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:07 Highlight the passage at 1:50:07

1:50:30 Nobody in the Chinese government, nobody gives them any hope there, it's just more of the same. So they're all looking upon him, 79-year-old man, to you alone with hope. So that must be kind of difficult to bear. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:30 Highlight the passage at 1:50:30

1:50:49 And yet, he doesn't fall into sorrow. Not for any of the same period anyway. And he commented in this regard that once you've lost hope, then you're in a hopeless situation. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:49 Highlight the passage at 1:50:49

1:51:03 Once you've lost hope, there is no hope. Not because there was no hope objectively. But you lost hope and now there is no hope. So as long as there is hope, as long as he, as he comments so often, as long as you hold to the principle, truth shall prevail, that as long as you have that hope, then there is hope. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:03 Highlight the passage at 1:51:03

1:51:29 It really could happen. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:29 Highlight the passage at 1:51:29

1:51:35 So let's come back at ten minutes past the hour, go right back to meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:35 Highlight the passage at 1:51:35

· · · silence, 2 minutes

1:53:12 And spending a few minutes calming the mind in front of breathing. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:12 Highlight the passage at 1:53:12

· · · silence, 3 minutes

1:56:29 By tending to a person who's experiencing great, great difficulty, arousing compassion, moving to a dear person. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:29 Highlight the passage at 1:56:29

1:56:41 you may follow the method we've done before, most suitable, and that is let your eyes be at least a little bit open. vacant, your awareness in its own nature, still and clear. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:41 Highlight the passage at 1:56:41

1:57:08 attention to the space of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:08 Highlight the passage at 1:57:08

1:57:18 motivation to cultivate to deepen your Report an error in the passage at 1:57:18 Highlight the passage at 1:57:18

1:57:24 closely to this space and see simply who comes to mind. motivation of cultivating who comes to mind? Preferably someone who is alive or community, a group Report an error in the passage at 1:57:24 Highlight the passage at 1:57:24

1:57:42 could be subtle difficulty, it could be psychological. suffering because of an economic situation, illness. So you may, if you wish, just let your awareness go free, loose, and see who comes to mind. When Report an error in the passage at 1:57:42 Highlight the passage at 1:57:42

1:58:08 it clearly comes to mind, then by way of the appearances arising in the mind here and now, attend to the actual person or persons so Report an error in the passage at 1:58:08 Highlight the passage at 1:58:08

1:58:21 that their reality becomes your reality. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:21 Highlight the passage at 1:58:21

1:58:25 And their wishes for freedom become your wishes for their freedom. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:25 Highlight the passage at 1:58:25

1:58:35 And if you'd like to set the tempo with your respiration and with each inhalation, Report an error in the passage at 1:58:35 Highlight the passage at 1:58:35

1:58:42 arouse the aspiration, may you be free of suffering and the cause of the suffering. And Report an error in the passage at 1:58:42 Highlight the passage at 1:58:42

1:58:51 you may symbolically visualize or imagine the suffering and its causes as a dark shroud or cloud enveloping the person. And with each inhalation, imagine it dissipating, evaporating away. And with each in-breath, imagine the burden of suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:51 Highlight the passage at 1:58:51

1:59:20 Imagine the person being free and imagine the relief of this burden of suffering and its causes, Report an error in the passage at 1:59:20 Highlight the passage at 1:59:20

1:59:36 knowing for a while this is in the realm of possibility. So practice in this way. Settle your awareness again in stillness. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:36 Highlight the passage at 1:59:36

1:59:48 You may, if it's helpful, come back to mindfulness of breathing a bit. Settle your awareness in stillness and then look once again into the space of the mind and see who comes up. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:48 Highlight the passage at 1:59:48

1:59:59 Practice as you've done before. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:59 Highlight the passage at 1:59:59

· · · silence, 18 minutes

2:18:17 We're going to give other people a bit of a chance. Report an error in the passage at 2:18:17 Highlight the passage at 2:18:17

2:18:39 almost seems like compassion steroids in a Report an error in the passage at 2:18:39 Highlight the passage at 2:18:39

2:18:46 I think is wonderful. Report an error in the passage at 2:18:46 Highlight the passage at 2:18:46

2:18:51 just love to take that in send it back out so I wonder there must be relative use. The Report an error in the passage at 2:18:51 Highlight the passage at 2:18:51

2:19:03 camera is referring to a practice called in Tibetan Donglen, literally means to send and to receive. It's a very powerful practice. It's been one of my major practices for decades now. And what we're doing is we're kind of just building up piece by piece, you might have noticed. So when we're doing the love and kindness, we're sending out, breathing out and sending out aspirations, wishes and so forth of love and kindness, and here it was breathing in. Report an error in the passage at 2:19:03 Highlight the passage at 2:19:03

2:19:28 And so where we're going here, tomorrow morning we'll be attending to epithetic joy, very, very rich, easily overlooked. We shouldn't. And then when we come to equanimity, which can look anticlimactic, after we've had love, compassion, and then equanimity. Report an error in the passage at 2:19:28 Highlight the passage at 2:19:28

2:19:44 And in fact, it's not an afterthought at all, it's the grand finale. And so when we come to the cultivation of equanimity, that's where I'll fully introduce the practice of Dong Lin, which is just putting all the pieces together. So compassion on steroids. I haven't heard that one before, but it's good. And I'll also add another note, because you're obviously trained in it. These practices that we've done with loving kindness, compassion, they can be done just with the breath, just like we've been doing. Report an error in the passage at 2:19:44 Highlight the passage at 2:19:44

2:20:10 But many people, and very much myself, I include myself very much in this, like to do with visualization. just gives a kind of... There's kind of a richness to it. Report an error in the passage at 2:20:10 Highlight the passage at 2:20:10

2:20:25 And so I'll introduce that as well. It's not indispensable, so people don't like it. They find it new agey, which is, it's about a thousand years old, so I think new age doesn't quite fit. But for whatever reason, you don't have to like it. If you don't like it, then don't do it. But that's where we're going, exactly. So there's more to come. More to come, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:20:25 Highlight the passage at 2:20:25

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:21:14 A friend of mine died of post-cancer, and the morphine was just a godsend. He had it in ripping. He can control it himself. Yeah, but I do have some awareness of this. Continue. sorry, I'm just going to add to this piece of the most painful. Report an error in the passage at 2:21:14 Highlight the passage at 2:21:14

2:21:30 she's very physical and she has a chance to reach her life. Report an error in the passage at 2:21:30 Highlight the passage at 2:21:30

2:21:36 I'm thinking about myself. Report an error in the passage at 2:21:36 Highlight the passage at 2:21:36

2:21:59 Yes. Yes. Very true, very true. you, Euclid, impact. Report an error in the passage at 2:21:59 Highlight the passage at 2:21:59

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:22:38 believe that one can grow guns. Report an error in the passage at 2:22:38 Highlight the passage at 2:22:38

2:22:49 of the territory of just being human, being embodied. I think I Report an error in the passage at 2:22:49 Highlight the passage at 2:22:49

2:23:01 understand. I think I understand. It's a wonderful question. I'm so glad you asked it, because it's an enormously important element of this teaching that I didn't convey. So, a little mini Dharma talk. Report an error in the passage at 2:23:01 Highlight the passage at 2:23:01

2:23:12 As I said, a friend of mine, I was with him all the way through the end. I had a bone cancer, and it was just piece by piece. One broken leg, two broken legs. He broke on his leg by getting out of a car, like a matchstick. Report an error in the passage at 2:23:12 Highlight the passage at 2:23:12

2:23:33 So at the end, he was just in bed with both legs up in casts, just all of his bones. And so when it gets that advanced, the chances of actual recovery are so remote that you might even not want it, because then all your bones are going to be brittle anyway, so what do you want that body for? So in a case like that, for myself, just as a layperson, when I recall that, I was not aspiring, may you be free of this bone cancer in this body, in this lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 2:23:33 Highlight the passage at 2:23:33

2:24:06 It's not going to happen. This is not going to happen, and even if it did happen, would I really wish that on him? And so there we can look at two elements, and they're enormously important to recognize that there are in fact two. One is when you see a person who is suffering, then we can call that stimulus-driven suffering, right? And so bone cancer is stimulus-driven, your bones are falling apart. Report an error in the passage at 2:24:06 Highlight the passage at 2:24:06

2:24:30 And so who knows, maybe in very early stages, maybe there is some effective therapy. I had a friend, I have a friend in the Boston area. And he had stage 4 lung cancer. Young man, maybe late 30s, young daughter, married, very smart, very capable. And he came to me when I was with him in spring. I won't go on along, but he just told me, he came to me, I'm his teacher. He was very dismayed. I mean, he's going to be losing his daughter, his wife, and it's really quite soon. Report an error in the passage at 2:24:30 Highlight the passage at 2:24:30

2:25:01 So I taught him a simple meditation, pretty much this kind of thing, nothing special. But I also recommended a nutritionist and a friend of mine who's... He knows a lot about Tibetan medicine and about Chinese acupuncture. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:01 Highlight the passage at 2:25:01

2:25:20 So sometimes there are interventions, but advanced bone cancer. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:20 Highlight the passage at 2:25:20

2:25:27 I'm so happy. I mean, my heart was just filled with joy when he said, my doctor just did a scam. There's no sign of cancer anywhere in my life. I attribute that primarily to his nutritionist because I don't know whether I contributed anything at all. I don't think it hurt whatever I offered. But that's getting rid of the stimulus-driven suffering, and that's just wonderful. I mean, there he is. He can live a life, raise his child, and so on. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:27 Highlight the passage at 2:25:27

2:25:48 But sometimes that's just not going to happen. In which case... I was so glad when you said your mother has a very rich inner spiritual life. There's another type of freedom that is possible even if it's terminal bone cancer or other types of terminal diseases. As long as the mind is clear. Alzheimer's, then you just kind of wish them a safe passage because there's really not much they can do. You can't teach them anything in advance of Alzheimer's. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:48 Highlight the passage at 2:25:48

2:26:13 But when the mind is clear, the point I'm really getting at, maybe with too many words, is there's another way to be free of suffering apart from the disease simply going away. And that is your grasping going away. The grasping, the identification with the body, the grasping with the feelings in the body, the grasping and the identification with the disease and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 2:26:13 Highlight the passage at 2:26:13

2:26:34 It may all have to simply run its course. But with training, the more one can simply be present with, I mean doing exactly this practice with respect to the body, and the more one can simply be present with it and release the grasping, release, release, then whatever's taking place in the body, you're still perfectly aware of it. Report an error in the passage at 2:26:34 Highlight the passage at 2:26:34

2:26:53 You're not taking some kind of a psychological anesthesia. To kind of blot it out. You're not doing that. You're perfectly clear. You're perfectly present. But because of the lack of grasping, the suffering is arising, but it doesn't have so much of an owner. And you can be at rest. You can be loose. You can be relaxed. And be really quite free. Now, there's a very good friend of mine, a woman. She's a very, very rare. Report an error in the passage at 2:26:53 Highlight the passage at 2:26:53

2:27:17 I don't know. I've never heard of anybody having this. And she's had it for years now. But she has 25 to 28 migraines per month for hours and hours and hours. 25 to 28. So almost every day of her life, for now, years. Report an error in the passage at 2:27:17 Highlight the passage at 2:27:17

2:27:37 She came to a retreat of mine a couple of years ago, and she'd be listening. She's a very, very devout, very, very sincere, very dedicated practitioner. And she'd be listening, and then she'd just pass out. She would just pass out, and we'd have a friend behind her with a little harness. So when she was starting to fall forward, the friend would hold her back, and then she'd fall back onto her chest. This is a Dharma practitioner, practicing for 20, Report an error in the passage at 2:27:37 Highlight the passage at 2:27:37

2:28:11 but she's learned how to release the grasp. And so even when she's having the migraine, you look at her, You might see a bit of weariness around the eyes, because I know her rather well. A bit of weariness. Oh, I think you have a migraine right now, don't you? She'll smile and say, yeah. But she's learned how to release the identification with the grasping of it. Report an error in the passage at 2:28:11 Highlight the passage at 2:28:11

2:28:30 She's living a very productive life, a very meaningful life. And she can do very normal things, even while other people will be in bed. But she's just practiced and practiced and practiced. Because she wants to live a normal life and have a very fruitful Dharma practice. And so far, the migraines haven't really subsided much. But she's really floored. Report an error in the passage at 2:28:30 Highlight the passage at 2:28:30

2:28:50 So there's no suggestion that it's easy, but it can be done. When I was teaching at the University of California, Santa Barbara, there was a young man, another extremely rare disease, and both of his kidneys were not functioning. So he had to spend five hours of every day in the hospital on dialysis. He can go out for very short periods, but he has to be back quickly. And there was no cure for what he had. Report an error in the passage at 2:28:50 Highlight the passage at 2:28:50

2:29:17 A young man, and he was one of my Dharma students in the university, so actually he picked up this morning, well, I'm more than the academic. He really took it to heart. And when he was with me, he could still come to class, but later it degenerated more. And so there he was, young man, very bright, capable, and basically he's going to spend the rest of his life, as far as we know, in hospital, with a little brief excursion, but then come back to both kidneys for dialysis. Report an error in the passage at 2:29:17 Highlight the passage at 2:29:17

2:29:44 And he made the comment to me, it sounds like your mother, perhaps. He said, this has been a great blessing. That's what he said, this has been a great blessing. I'm one of the richness of my life as I have the opportunity to teach meditation to other people in me. Report an error in the passage at 2:29:44 Highlight the passage at 2:29:44

2:30:00 So that's freedom in the midst of bondage. But it is freedom. And it's the most important freedom. The body's in bondage, the spirit is free. And that can be cultivated. I've known a number of Tibetan lamas who were incarcerated. One in particular, one of my very revered lamas named Yangtang Rinpoche. Report an error in the passage at 2:30:00 Highlight the passage at 2:30:00

2:30:18 He's a great adult. The two people I've just mentioned are very sincere. but they're regarded as great adepts. He was Report an error in the passage at 2:30:18 Highlight the passage at 2:30:18

2:30:32 their spiritual counselor inside the prison. I believe it was 19 years. He's just simply a llama. He got in prison because he was a llama. That was his crime. Report an error in the passage at 2:30:32 Highlight the passage at 2:30:32

2:30:58 So it shows the majesty of the human spirit. Report an error in the passage at 2:30:58 Highlight the passage at 2:30:58

2:31:09 It's very important, though, that freedom is not, that there's freedom even when the outside is hopeless. The advanced bone cancer, I think we pretty much say, apart from just divine intervention, is hopeless. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:09 Highlight the passage at 2:31:09

2:31:20 But now there's plenty of hope. But it's not there. So we'll need to know where are the parameters of freedom. When I identify that, they say, OK, the new world appears, now I have something to do. And it sounds like your mother has already done it. So in that I rejoice. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:20 Highlight the passage at 2:31:20

2:31:42 It will be short. And I believe you too. So very grateful. I'm very confused about compassion. So bear in mind you have a long history of values and then I'm coming from a different... Okay, so you can clarify. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:42 Highlight the passage at 2:31:42

2:32:07 So compassion was saying that it's not an emotion, it's an aspiration, yet... know, in number D, it says, heartfelt and caring as a primary emotion. And then when gave that story about the Report an error in the passage at 2:32:07 Highlight the passage at 2:32:07

2:32:27 Thank you. hills he was asked if he had any sadness said no more sadness there's an effective component to this call yeah and he's as though you're going to be just like different ways of liberation for the liberation for loving kindness you know that's a beautiful tough space So this is where I'm confused here. So if it's supposed to be meditation and the mind's letting go and releasing there that he eats and freedom and peace and sustaining the meditation, it's obviously very pleasant. Report an error in the passage at 2:32:27 Highlight the passage at 2:32:27

2:33:09 So I'm confused as to what we're supposed to be cultivating. once those words and intentions die out. That doesn't stand with the feelings and have confused. Okay, let's get rid of the confusion. This won't be hard. When we're simply practicing shamatha, the word shamatha is a Sanskrit term, and it means quiescence, serenity, peace, tranquility. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:09 Highlight the passage at 2:33:09

2:33:38 And that's what it feels like. When you're going well, everything is calmer, smooth, soothing, peaceful, and then gradually a sense of enjoyment, well-being can arise and even bliss can come up. That's the trajectory. Now, upheavals occur. You'll have emotions, spikes of emotions, sadness, grief and so forth, and then they smooth themselves out and you're back in the shamatha track. The meditative cultivation of compassion is not shamatha, because now it's not designed just to bring your mind to a state of relaxation, stability and vividness. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:38 Highlight the passage at 2:33:38

2:34:09 That's just shamatha. This is designed to bring forth a much stronger, more enduring... Wiser and deeper sense of caring and yearning that others may be free of suffering. That's what it's for. And then insofar as that's cultivated, then we're poised for action. So when we venture out into the world and we see someone who is suffering and we could help, then we're really almost like the trigger of the gun is pulled back or it's caught. Report an error in the passage at 2:34:09 Highlight the passage at 2:34:09

2:34:34 And so we're just ready to go. We're just ready to launch. And so it has very practical manifestations. And that can be studied scientifically. So now you have a behavioral measure. Are people inclined to do that or not? Well, then there's a measure, and that's perfectly good. But the role of feeling emotion is there's nothing really mysterious about it or contradictory. Report an error in the passage at 2:34:34 Highlight the passage at 2:34:34

2:34:53 What the old yogi was saying is when he's cultivating compassion, he will first be attending to someone, or all sentient beings for that matter. And attending to them, but attending to them with the awareness that they are suffering, that they're perpetuating their own suffering. And I'll just read this very briefly. Report an error in the passage at 2:34:53 Highlight the passage at 2:34:53

2:35:10 You'll be the first one this evening. But this quote, I find it one of the most moving verses in all of Shantideva's texts. This is the guide to the Bodhisattva way of life. The final note, didn't read it. I'm going to read it really quickly right now. It's very, I find it very poignant, very powerful. And it comes in, so there it is, 128, is that right? Report an error in the passage at 2:35:10 Highlight the passage at 2:35:10

2:35:31 Interesting. In any case, here's the quote. Those desiring to escape from suffering hasten right towards suffering. And we can reflect on that. Does that ever happen? People really want to be free of suffering. But not knowing what the causes of suffering are, in their aspiration to be free of suffering, they actually perpetuate their own suffering. You know, did that ever happen? And it happens out of delusion. Report an error in the passage at 2:35:31 Highlight the passage at 2:35:31

2:35:52 We get it wrong. We mistake what the actual causes of suffering are. And then while trying to be free of suffering, we're actually just sowing the seeds for more suffering. People that feel... My neighbor did something really bad to me because I feel really bad about that. So I'm going to get over that by whacking him in return. And then I'll feel much better. Report an error in the passage at 2:35:52 Highlight the passage at 2:35:52

2:36:12 Except for now we have a few going. And now you just have more suffering. That's one of innumerable cases of that. And so when we are aware of that, Father forgives them they know not what they do. That's how it comes up in Christianity. Then when we see people hastening right towards suffering, perpetuating the causes of their own and other suffering, that just gives rise to more compassion. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:12 Highlight the passage at 2:36:12

2:36:33 Because they don't know what they're doing. And then the second part is just the flip side of that. With a very desire for happiness out of delusion, they destroy their own happiness as if it were an enemy. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:33 Highlight the passage at 2:36:33

2:36:46 And again, I think just a little bit of reflection just gives a plethora of cases how many times that happens internationally, individually, in romance, in parenting. Just how many times did that happen? Best of intentions, but ill-conceived. Unwise, delusional, and you want to do something to make people happy, and they're just a big mess. Everything goes south. And so when we reflect upon that, it doesn't give rise to a happy-go-lucky kind of emotion. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:46 Highlight the passage at 2:36:46

2:37:14 It brings rise to kind of a sadness. But a sadness that simultaneously is a sadness in which one is vividly aware, you know, this doesn't have to go on. Education can be helpful. When sometimes, you know, it's just because they just don't know based on hygiene. Or they just don't know simple things that scientists, agriculturalists, medical doctors and so forth and so on could say, but this is a soluble problem. You just need to be educated. Report an error in the passage at 2:37:14 Highlight the passage at 2:37:14

2:37:41 This can be solved. And so when you see the, so first of all, the sadness. You see there's so much suffering, but then the light comes on. This is unnecessary suffering. So much unnecessary suffering. There's a way around this. And then when that comes on, Then the empathy is there, the suffering is there, the emotion is there. But what the old yogi was saying is when the light comes on, you see, there really is a possibility of freedom. Report an error in the passage at 2:37:41 Highlight the passage at 2:37:41

2:38:09 And now you're imagining that, you're venturing into that realm of possibility. This suffering could be gone. These people could be free. They could enjoy their lives. They could be relaxed. They could be experiencing the relief of all of this. It could happen. And you see the voice getting a bit stronger. This really could happen. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:09 Highlight the passage at 2:38:09

2:38:26 And then the courage is coming up. This really, really could happen. We could do this. Then as you're doing that, you see the darkness, the darkness of the sorrow is fading out. Not because you don't care anymore, because you're perfectly aware of that. But now as you have some strategy, and maybe you're getting, you find some allies. Anybody else with me on this? Report an error in the passage at 2:38:26 Highlight the passage at 2:38:26

2:38:45 We could do this, you know. Then the enthusiasm is starting to come up. And then the enthusiasm is kindled on other people. And then the confidence comes up. And then you get into gear. And then you start seeing you implement. And you see, it's working. It's working. The suffering is abating. We're succeeding here. So you're not going to be sad during that process. And that's compassion in action. But when it's kicked in action, the emotion of sadness is there. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:45 Highlight the passage at 2:38:45

2:39:09 That triggered everything. So it's a cause and effect. What the yogi was saying is, the empathy is important. It's not trivial. It's a sympathy, empathy. Feeling with, it's feeling and emotion, exactly. If that's not there, you probably won't get kicked into, you won't upgrade to compassion if you don't feel at all. Report an error in the passage at 2:39:09 Highlight the passage at 2:39:09

2:39:28 But it's a catalyst to move beyond that. And then when people are really energetically engaged, like I'm sure this is happening right now in the refugee camp just on the borders, like in Jordan and so forth, around Syria. I'm sure there are workers there, volunteering their time, taking care of their health, giving... Report an error in the passage at 2:39:28 Highlight the passage at 2:39:28

2:39:47 Providing education for the children and so forth. I'm sure this is the case. Not for all of them. What do I know? But I'm sure a lot of them are doing it with enthusiasm, with optimism, with joy. Helping the children. Enjoying helping the children. Seeing them smile. Seeing them laugh. Seeing them learn. And just loving it. Even though it's a refugee camp. Report an error in the passage at 2:39:47 Highlight the passage at 2:39:47

2:40:06 And why are they doing all of this? Out of compassion. But are they walking around glum, glum. Oh, it's too bad. 500,000 kids. No. That wouldn't really help. These kids don't need one more somber, sad adult hanging out, bringing them down. They need somebody with lightness, with brightness, with joy and enthusiasm that lifts everybody up, and that's compassion and action. Report an error in the passage at 2:40:06 Highlight the passage at 2:40:06

2:40:31 behavior for all through the state. universe, but someone was in their heart or cave for years and years at night and not getting out and being liberated through. Through compassion. So it sort of is a vehicle for liberation, isn't it? That's what my question is about. Actually, I didn't get that. Using compassion as a vehicle for liberation, for freedom, for awakening, you're not acting. Report an error in the passage at 2:40:31 Highlight the passage at 2:40:31

2:40:59 You're sitting in fire closed and something's happening. So don't we have to ride on the train of feeling as an object? That's what I'm thinking. I understand. I understand. Good. Well, then we have to really simply acknowledge the fact that there are different schools of Buddhism and the ideals are different. It's not a put-down, it's just a flat-out fact. So in Southeast Asia, Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Theravāda Buddhism is utterly dominant. Report an error in the passage at 2:40:59 Highlight the passage at 2:40:59

2:41:24 Mayan is hardly there at all. And in that school of Buddhism, the reason for cultivating the four immeasurables is to purify your own mind so you can get liberated, get out of saṃsāra and never come back. And if you can do some help along the way, these are not selfish, mean-spirited people. But fundamentally, for the very serious practitioners, like the monks and nuns, that is their prime directive. I'm going to cultivate these qualities, shamave for immeasurables, ethics and so forth, but all of this is to purify my mind to achieve liberation. Report an error in the passage at 2:41:24 Highlight the passage at 2:41:24

2:41:53 And when I'm liberated, I'm not coming back, but I do wish you well on the way out. And that's it. And so many people find that a satisfying, ultimate aspiration. Many people do. I don't. And just generally speaking, those who are following the Mahāyāna, it's a different school, which is also very much rooted in the Buddha's teachings, but not just in the Pāli Canon. The thing about the Pāli, this again could be a big conversation, a long one, and that's because it's really interesting. Report an error in the passage at 2:41:53 Highlight the passage at 2:41:53

2:42:20 But I've studied the Pāli Canon, and it's quite remarkable. Here's the Buddha, who had been a Bodhisattva, came to the culmination of the Bodhisattva path and became a Buddha. That's uncontested. What's kind of strange about the teachings, that's something like 35 volumes perhaps, Summarizing 45 years of teaching, so he taught a lot to many, many people. In all of these teachings for 45 years, to so many people, from kings to paupers to courtesans to farmers, every stratum of society, he didn't exclude anyone. Report an error in the passage at 2:42:20 Highlight the passage at 2:42:20

2:42:51 There's not a single reference to a single bodhisattva anywhere in the whole 45 years, except for who he had been. That would imply he didn't inspire anybody in 45 years of teaching. To follow the path that he followed. Because all the rest of them are becoming arhats and they're out like a light. Whereas he became a Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 2:42:51 Highlight the passage at 2:42:51

2:43:14 That's actually far, far, far surpassing simply an arhat. And so if one says that's all the Buddha taught, you say, wow, he didn't inspire a single person to become like him. Which I find just completely bizarre. I don't believe it. The Mahāyāna teachings, which many scholars think, no, no, it's not Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:14 Highlight the passage at 2:43:14

2:43:32 so forth, but, you know. It really unpacks what is this Bodhisattva ideal, which actually the Buddha did himself follow. So there's a Bodhisattva ideal. Now this is dominant for all the rest of Asia, way up to Korea, Mongolia, Tibet, all over. And it used to spread out as far as Afghanistan and even down to Southeast Asia, Indonesia and so forth. It used to be Mahāyāna Buddhist countries. And so in that context, the ideal is different and therefore the usage of these meditations, like for this old yogi, it's different. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:32 Highlight the passage at 2:43:32

2:44:03 You're not doing this for your own liberation. You're cultivating these because they are of intrinsic value. They don't have value because they're going to do something for you, for your own benefit. It's going to leave everybody else behind. You're cultivating these four immeasurables in order to cultivate great compassion, great loving kindness and develop bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 2:44:03 Highlight the passage at 2:44:03

2:44:24 All of this, all designed to propel you towards perfect awakening, the awakening of the Buddha, in order to be a greatest possible service. To all beings. And the Mahāyāna ideal of Buddha is not that you're just out like a light. Absolutely not. That'd be cosmically anticlimactic. But you become a Buddha, and once you're a Buddha, in the Mahāyāna view, but it's everywhere in the Mahāyāna, and it is my view. Once you become a Buddha, then you continue to manifest in the world. Report an error in the passage at 2:44:24 Highlight the passage at 2:44:24

2:44:51 You're not caught in the cycle of rebirth. You're not propelled from one to another. But the image is that of the moon, like a full moon. When it's all full, then the reflections of the moon will appear in every pool of water. There's another reflection. So the effortlessness with which the moon casts its reflections on a thousand, ten thousand or a million pools of water is said to be that's the nature of a Buddha's activity. Report an error in the passage at 2:44:51 Highlight the passage at 2:44:51

2:45:17 That the Buddha will manifest in innumerable ways, effortlessly manifesting wherever is needed throughout the world in order to be of service, to continue to guide Sajipini's enlightenment. And that continues. Continuous until all sensed beings are free. Now if we say, okay, well there's a nice ideal, and I think it's a magnificent ideal, that's my view, but the yogi, this really cannot be understood sympathetically. Report an error in the passage at 2:45:17 Highlight the passage at 2:45:17

2:45:42 One can't get it if one approaches this from a materialistic perspective. Even if the materialistic perspective is correct, maybe, who knows? I don't think so, obviously. But you won't get it from a materialistic perspective. Report an error in the passage at 2:45:42 Highlight the passage at 2:45:42

2:45:56 What he was doing, the rationale, what's in his mind, why would he spend that much time in solitude when he could be out teaching Dharma, helping the poor, opening a clinic, I mean, doing all kinds of practical things. And this can only be understood, to understood, one can judge it from any perspective, but you can only understand it from his perspective. And that's the perspective of Buddhism at large, and Mahāyāna in particular. Report an error in the passage at 2:45:56 Highlight the passage at 2:45:56

2:46:17 And that is, we can take that yogi or the one that I lived with for a year, again, Lam Rimba. We lived in the same place for one year. I got to know him very well. And he spent something like 35 years in solitude. So most of his adult life in solitude. Not teaching, not writing, not of any explicit benefit. His aspiration was, his vocation was, I just feel utterly moved from my core for this lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 2:46:17 Highlight the passage at 2:46:17

2:46:42 This is the best thing I can possibly do for the sake of sentry beings. To simplify, to go into my core, meditate from 5 o 'clock in the morning to 1 o 'clock in the morning, full bore, and bring about the deepest, most... The most irreversible, most profound and beneficial transformation in my mind I possibly can. So this life is going to be for meditation. And so I won't be doing that much in the world. Report an error in the passage at 2:46:42 Highlight the passage at 2:46:42

2:47:08 But this is one life of inhaling the whole life. The whole of my adult life I'm going to inhale. I'm going to take a great big long deep inhalation for 35 years. Everything just coming in. Not because I'm selfish, but because I have a large lung capacity. And I'm going to breathe in and I'm going to transform, purify, transform, purify, compassion, wisdom as much as I possibly can. And then I'm going to die. I asked him when we were living together, what's your aspiration for your next life? Report an error in the passage at 2:47:08 Highlight the passage at 2:47:08

2:47:34 Where do you want to go? What's your prayer? And his response was, wherever I can be of greatest benefit. So in his view, that whole life, basically his whole adult life, this was a long inhalation to bring about as much transformation as possible. And then the next lifetime, look out, here I come. And then the next lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 2:47:34 Highlight the passage at 2:47:34

2:47:52 I'm already anticipating, really, like the Dalai Lama, full court press in basketball. The Dalai Lama is just like a whirlwind of activity. At 79, he has the energy of a 30-year-old. I mean, his itinerary just takes my breath away, and I have a pretty full one myself. And so that was his anticipating. This lifetime, I'm going to breathe in. Report an error in the passage at 2:47:52 Highlight the passage at 2:47:52

2:48:11 Next lifetime, watch me go, and I'll be as much explicit, manifest benefit as I possibly can. Now, of course, if he's wrong, then that was just a really nice life for him, but he didn't. And if he's terminated, well then the Buddha's basically got everything wrong. We're fundamentally delusional in terms of our view on reality. So from that perspective, well that was kind of nice for you, but he didn't do much. Report an error in the passage at 2:48:11 Highlight the passage at 2:48:11

2:48:35 But he was very competent that the materialist is not correct. So they're just taking a very long view that maybe this lifetime is for a lifetime of solitude and contemplation. Next lifetime maybe I'm going to have, maybe I won't even meditate. There's one great yogi, one of the greatest lamas of the 20th century named Dujum Rinpoche. He's said to be the incarnation of Dujum Lingma and he's the one I've studied extensively and really considered to be one of the greatest lamas of the 20th century. Report an error in the passage at 2:48:35 Highlight the passage at 2:48:35

2:49:02 He was born in Report an error in the passage at 2:49:02 Highlight the passage at 2:49:02

2:49:06 a consummate. He published 18 volumes. He taught extensively. It's all over the place. Just benevolent, spreading in all directions, tremendously active. He was married. He had six kids. He taught extensively. I never heard of him going into retreat, but he was widely regarded, including by the Dalai Lama, as this man, his profound realization. Report an error in the passage at 2:49:06 Highlight the passage at 2:49:06

2:49:27 But he never withdrew, I don't think, even for one year. He was always out there manifesting, manifesting, manifesting. And now I have not met his next incarnation. The next incarnation is a monk getting really intensive training, and he'll be coming out. So that's the bigger picture in Buddhism. That what looks, if you take a little frame here, that lifetime, it looks, oh, that was quite selfish, you spent all your time in solitude. But then from the Buddhist perspective, you open that up and say, oh, but that was within this whole bandwidth of lifetimes. Report an error in the passage at 2:49:27 Highlight the passage at 2:49:27

2:49:55 And they say, oh, I see, that was kind of like going to medical school for eight years. If you just saw that, well, you're so selfish. Eight years, you're doing nothing for anybody. You're just getting all those courses and lab work and specialization, but you kind of use it. Not even a good husband or wife. If you're a parent, you're probably not much of a parent either. You're so immersed in your work. Man, you're selfish. Eight years, you're just pissed it away because what did you do for anybody? Report an error in the passage at 2:49:55 Highlight the passage at 2:49:55

2:50:20 Almost nothing. Until you see, yeah, but what was the point of the eight years? Oh, I see. The next 40 years, you're in incredible benefit, which you could not have been if you hadn't spent the eight years. Total dedication. And being very selfish, in a way, because you're almost doing nothing for anybody else. So that happens all the time. And here's just a larger view. Report an error in the passage at 2:50:20 Highlight the passage at 2:50:20

2:50:41 So if the Buddhists are right that we do have a sequence of lives, then if you have one life that's all meditation, no sweat, that will play out in the next couple of lives. But the Mahāyāna is all of that. All of your coming in, all of your coming in, all of your spending time in solitude, cultivating your mind. It's all for the sake of coming out. Report an error in the passage at 2:50:41 Highlight the passage at 2:50:41

2:51:03 Thank you, and I hope that you think I've touched some points that affected you, just because I don't know anything about Mahāyāna. I heard about it. Did you get a three-month shamatha retreat a few years ago, measuring people's brain activity before that? That's how I came across here teaching that was so inspiring. Report an error in the passage at 2:51:03 Highlight the passage at 2:51:03

2:51:27 So I don't know anything about hands that I heard. you know, the word I don't know anything about that, but what if that isn't her name? Because, I mean, we're all serious of I go on and Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:51:27 Highlight the passage at 2:51:27

2:51:53 Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:51:53 Highlight the passage at 2:51:53

2:51:56 Yeah. mean, the whole point is, okay, we exist, we're awake, we suffer, there's existential suffering, and now what? We want to know this path that we practice is true. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:51:56 Highlight the passage at 2:51:56

2:51:57 said so, so maybe later on, maybe you can mention it to you're still going to questions, How do you know that's true? I don't know about bodhicitta, but you mentioned pristine. Pristine awareness, right. What if that's apparent? What if that's by labeling it, you're touching to it, you're creating it, and if you don't, then what if that's apparent? Report an error in the passage at 2:51:57 Highlight the passage at 2:51:57

2:52:25 So how do you know that to be true in order to have that courage? or has confidence to follow this, but I don't know, oh, this sounds Chinese to me. Well, probably, better than that. Report an error in the passage at 2:52:25 Highlight the passage at 2:52:25

2:52:41 I understand. I do understand. But one thing I say with total affection, when you say short, I'm not going to believe you anymore. Report an error in the passage at 2:52:41 Highlight the passage at 2:52:41

2:52:56 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've heard that one before. But listen to me. Anybody who's watched my Listen podcast, I'll say, and I'm almost finished. You've heard that one before. One final point before we end. So, you know, I kind of resonate with that. And also, I never wanted to raise kids in my life. I never, from the time I was a kid, I thought, I'm not going to be a father. Report an error in the passage at 2:52:56 Highlight the passage at 2:52:56

2:53:18 I'm not going to be a father. I wound up being an okay stepfather. But I never wanted a kid. What's that? Was it worth it? You've ever been. Oh, for me it was perfect. Yeah, I was really, it was really better to not be a father. Yeah, way better. I was right when I was a kid. Much better. Yeah, not for me. Report an error in the passage at 2:53:18 Highlight the passage at 2:53:18

2:53:44 Well, I've not really had kids. The stepdaughter came in much later. But being grandfather, I highly recommend. So you might want to just skip being a mother. you're right over here saying it's not good to be a father. Report an error in the passage at 2:53:44 Highlight the passage at 2:53:44

2:53:53 Go directly to grandma. It's fantastic. Don't you agree? I mean, grandparents, there must be some here. Isn't it a grade A job? It's fantastic. So just skip the parenting business and go directly to grandparents. Report an error in the passage at 2:53:53 Highlight the passage at 2:53:53

2:54:12 So short answer to a big question. That phrase that I'm sure I've cited, because I cite it so often, the phrase coming from very early Buddhism, and that is seekers coming, like yourself. Just wanting to know it's true. And being willing to put some time in, but being intelligent, not willing to shelve the intelligence to go to blind faith or anything like that. And we saw the Buddha never encouraged it. Report an error in the passage at 2:54:12 Highlight the passage at 2:54:12

2:54:36 The phrase that came up, it's easy to remember, ehipasi, Pāli phrase, ehipasi. Okay, you're really interested? Okay, come and see. Come and see. That doesn't mean you have to become a great scholar, but here are the practices. And so you'd like to know, is pristine awareness just one more transient experience? Or is it something so deep that it brings about irreversible change? Report an error in the passage at 2:54:36 Highlight the passage at 2:54:36

2:54:56 Is shamatha possible for people like us or is it only for yogis who spend 30 years in a cave? Bodhicitta, is that just a nice ideal or do people actually manifest that, embody that? Report an error in the passage at 2:54:56 Highlight the passage at 2:54:56

2:55:07 And for these others as well, the four immeasurables, are the people whose lives are so suffused by them, so permeated by them, they're radically and universally transformed. These are good questions. And then you can bring in the scientific questions, the plasticity of the mind, the brain and so forth. How plastic? How transformable? Report an error in the passage at 2:55:07 Highlight the passage at 2:55:07

2:55:25 If we're born with something, can it still be transformed? Or if it's born, does that mean it's hardwired? Big question. And so the answer is, the only way you can actually find out for sure and know something is if you practice. And then the practice is, all right, because we need a strategy here. And this is why I like to start with shamatha. Whenever I'm teaching, I just generally start with shamatha. Report an error in the passage at 2:55:25 Highlight the passage at 2:55:25

2:55:49 I say, look, it's transparent. We've already had that conversation. It's transparent. And the question is, Can you not, with training, become more relaxed? There's an empirical answer to that. Can you, with training, develop greater continuity, stability, coherence of attention? Yes or no? Good, got that one. Okay, how about clarity? And if you do that, is there a synergy that comes through the cultivation of these that they start enhancing each other? Report an error in the passage at 2:55:49 Highlight the passage at 2:55:49

2:56:13 How is that? What's the impact of doing that? If you do it a lot, because I said last year I did a six-month retreat, 12 hours a day. That's kind of a lot. Not as much again on a rimba, but it's still not trivial. So if you do it a lot, what's the impact? So they're doing that practice. What's the impact on your overall being, your mind state, your way of engaging with people? Report an error in the passage at 2:56:13 Highlight the passage at 2:56:13

2:56:32 Does it make you kind of a zombie? Like a weirdo? Like a tunnel vision robot? Does it make you kind of weird and dysfunctional? Or is that actually healthy? How would you know unless you do it? Or you watch other people do it. And so the time-tested way to answer that question is to go to Tuscany. Report an error in the passage at 2:56:32 Highlight the passage at 2:56:32

2:56:55 Or some other place like Tuscany, where there are qualified teachers and qualified has two aspects. One, they actually are qualified. They know what they're talking about. They're skillful teachers. They're wise. They're compassionate. And they're just teaching out of kindness. You have no other agenda going. That's a qualified teacher. Report an error in the passage at 2:56:55 Highlight the passage at 2:56:55

2:57:13 Number two, they have other fellow kindred souls who share the same vision, the same aspiration. We too would like to get things straight, to know it with integrity, with intelligence, know it for ourselves. And so you have some companions. They're called spiritual friends. And then you have a conducive environment. And it's really helpful to have some senior friends who've been doing this. So you're just starting out. Report an error in the passage at 2:57:13 Highlight the passage at 2:57:13

2:57:32 What you heard was the Samatha Project, which I initiated. I started it. And then recruited or invited Cliff Saron, outstanding neuroscientist. And it became the largest scientific study of meditation done thus far. And they're still coming out with one paper after another. And they're really extremely good papers. That thing turned out well. But having then location, a really conducive environment. Report an error in the passage at 2:57:32 Highlight the passage at 2:57:32

2:57:52 Just like having an observatory for astronomy. This is a really, like in the Chilean Alps, you know, that's a really good place. We're up in Mount Mauna Loa or Mauna Kea up in Hawaii. That's a really good place. You can do first-rate research there, right? Because it's this good observatory. I call these contemplative observatories. Find a good place that's open, spacious, clean, healthy, quiet, easy access to food. Report an error in the passage at 2:57:52 Highlight the passage at 2:57:52

2:58:16 And so there's your observatory. They need to qualify teachers, get qualified instruction, have some good spiritual friends, and have it low cost so you don't have to be rich in order to meditate. Because not many people who really dedicated the path have saved up $100,000, $200,000, $400,000 to finance them through it. Report an error in the passage at 2:58:16 Highlight the passage at 2:58:16

2:58:34 So this is why I've been brainstorming a long time here. If we get these cabins up, then I'm anticipating that for all of them they'll have organic gardens. And they'll be raising their own food. And so even if they don't have money, I have students who are basically flat broke, of my students, who are very, very sincere. So I want to be able to invite them to Tuscany and say, look, you don't have to have any money at all, but work two hours in the garden every day. Report an error in the passage at 2:58:34 Highlight the passage at 2:58:34

2:58:57 And then go for it, and I'll be here. And what I'm offering you is free. That's what I do for all my students. When they have total commitment, I give them everything for free. I've been doing it for years. And that's the way you really find out. But you see a lot of costly conditions there. And that hasn't quite gelled. Report an error in the passage at 2:58:57 Highlight the passage at 2:58:57

2:59:13 It's almost there. We're closer now than I've ever seen before. Each email, each morning, learning more how we can actually move choices. And moreover, like every day or so, literally, I'm finding more help coming from outside financially. I don't need financial help. But yeah, one woman I met with pledged $300,000. Report an error in the passage at 2:59:13 Highlight the passage at 2:59:13

2:59:32 That would be a big step towards creating a mind center where the training can go on, like eight-week retreats and so forth. Get people to boot camp so you really learn how to practice and get confidence in the practice. And then some people want to go from that to integrating right back to their families, which is perfectly good. So then your life at home, richer, meditative, seasoning the day, that's really good. Report an error in the passage at 2:59:32 Highlight the passage at 2:59:32

2:59:54 And then there's always a percentage of people who go through, let's say, an eight-week retreat, and they're so fired up, and the outer mandala and the inner mandala are all in sync. So they have the inner mandala, as I would really love to just go for it now. And the outer mandala is, well, here we have the land of Tuscany, and there's an empty hut. You want to walk over? Report an error in the passage at 2:59:54 Highlight the passage at 2:59:54

3:00:13 So that's what's needed. You bring all those together and you can really see. And you see the parallel of science. If you want to run really sophisticated experiments in neuroscience, you can't do it at home. You really need a lab, a well-provisioned lab. You need good companions. You need good mentors. You need funding. And then you can do cunning-edge, really important research. It's no different for the contemplative. Report an error in the passage at 3:00:13 Highlight the passage at 3:00:13

3:00:43 The one difference is it's a lot cheaper. Report an error in the passage at 3:00:43 Highlight the passage at 3:00:43

3:00:51 Not now. So it's now 5.20. So what I'd like to do is come back. The breaks are very important. It's not just free time. So it's now 5.20. Let's come back at 7.20. Okay? Breathing space. Never apologize for that. Because you're coming from a perspective that has integrity and sensitive points. My sensitive points was I really love responding to very sincere, honest, open questions. And it doesn't matter what it's about. If it's sincere, honest, then respectful. Report an error in the passage at 3:00:51 Highlight the passage at 3:00:51

3:01:20 I mean, enough. I don't expect much. That was perfectly good. So nothing to apologize for Report an error in the passage at 3:01:20 Highlight the passage at 3:01:20

3:01:48 two hours. Report an error in the passage at 3:01:48 Highlight the passage at 3:01:48