BP: Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds (11 May 2015)

0:04 Okay. Report an error in the passage at 0:04 Highlight the passage at 0:04

0:11 How is that? Yeah? Report an error in the passage at 0:11 Highlight the passage at 0:11

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1:47 What Report an error in the passage at 1:47 Highlight the passage at 1:47

1:58 is the stone? What is the stone? Report an error in the passage at 1:58 Highlight the passage at 1:58

2:06 Okay. Report an error in the passage at 2:06 Highlight the passage at 2:06

2:33 Is that a, could be a practice in itself, but is it a metaphor for a spiritual journey? Yeah. That's Report an error in the passage at 2:33 Highlight the passage at 2:33

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5:07 very good. Report an error in the passage at 5:07 Highlight the passage at 5:07

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5:58 What comes to mind when you think of, when you ask that question, what can I do about it? Report an error in the passage at 5:58 Highlight the passage at 5:58

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6:53 Do you feel some kind of resistance come up? You Report an error in the passage at 6:53 Highlight the passage at 6:53

7:06 just want to give up. Report an error in the passage at 7:06 Highlight the passage at 7:06

7:28 It's not easy, is it? Report an error in the passage at 7:28 Highlight the passage at 7:28

7:34 I mean, positive reinforcement does trump negative. I agree. And maybe there's a lot of cultural overlay. Report an error in the passage at 7:34 Highlight the passage at 7:34

7:52 But I think just to take Report an error in the passage at 7:52 Highlight the passage at 7:52

8:03 some kind of encouragement Report an error in the passage at 8:03 Highlight the passage at 8:03

8:10 from what we... Our doing and rejoice in that. Report an error in the passage at 8:10 Highlight the passage at 8:10

8:19 And I think that, I don't know, I'm probably not a very good person to talk on this kind of an issue, but to appreciate all that we are doing and what we would like to do and just kind of keep a focus on that. Report an error in the passage at 8:19 Highlight the passage at 8:19

8:43 And we fall down. That's the nature of our predicament. But that's okay. We can begin again. Maybe that's all we can ever do in a way is just keep beginning again. From moment to moment just keeping putting one foot in front of the next in the direction of the kind of person that we'd like to be. No matter how many times we lose our way or we feel discouraged, lost. Report an error in the passage at 8:43 Highlight the passage at 8:43

9:31 For myself and my own journey, I imagine all of you share it in some form or another, in each and our various ways, but sometimes I think we have to become a bit lost to find our way. Report an error in the passage at 9:31 Highlight the passage at 9:31

9:51 I don't know if that's politically correct to say such a thing, but then it begins to become our way. And I think a great part of the path, which probably is not our Articulated or talked about is a process of individuation, becoming your own person, working through simply Report an error in the passage at 9:51 Highlight the passage at 9:51

10:18 growing up, becoming an adult and finding out what actually works for you and what makes you feel alive and makes you feel a sense of meaning, brings purpose in your life. Report an error in the passage at 10:18 Highlight the passage at 10:18

10:38 Not so much obeying rules and regulations or conforming to some kind of authority or something. So I think I really admire you, Sue, when you offer some kind of – there's a certain – remind me of my partner, actually. She's quite rebellious, you know. And I have to admit, it can be tough to live with sometimes, but I admire it. He just doesn't go along with things Report an error in the passage at 10:38 Highlight the passage at 10:38

11:24 as they're set out and try to be a good boy or a good girl and try to please mommy and daddy in the various ways that we can. I don't think that works very well. I don't know. Again, these are areas that I probably, I tend to some degree, I guess, I tend to keep certain things to myself. I'm here to present Buddhism as it's been more or less been presented to me. Report an error in the passage at 11:24 Highlight the passage at 11:24

11:53 I have to do it with a sense of integrity. But nonetheless, what I do say, I'm quite aware, is my interpretation. So I have to be very careful about how I do interpret it. But I don't think we have to maybe spend so much time on the negative. Try to see what's right about ourselves and what we're doing and rejoice in that and feel good about that. And sure we thought, as I just said, we feel lost sometimes, discouraged when we let ourselves down or we let the people around us down. Report an error in the passage at 11:53 Highlight the passage at 11:53

12:34 What are we going to do? There aren't that many choices open to us. We just have to begin again if Report an error in the passage at 12:34 Highlight the passage at 12:34

12:44 necessary. We're all on this journey and you can't get off. can Some people didn't come prepared for the journey, perhaps. They don't have enough time. They're too busy. And some get halfway through the, and Report an error in the passage at 12:44 Highlight the passage at 12:44

13:12 they say, well, this isn't for me. They walk off. But I have a feeling that most of us here, maybe all of us, are going to have to come to the end, however long it takes us. Report an error in the passage at 13:12 Highlight the passage at 13:12

13:27 So I think in the process we have to be kind to ourselves. I think when the Dalai Lama says my religion is kindness, I don't think he's trying to be politically correct or glib. Report an error in the passage at 13:27 Highlight the passage at 13:27

13:40 I think he's trying to give us a clue to how to lead a much more meaningful and productive way of life. So we have to be kind to ourselves as well. Report an error in the passage at 13:40 Highlight the passage at 13:40

13:58 If we don't do anything else but learn how to be kind, I think we would have accomplished a lot. Report an error in the passage at 13:58 Highlight the passage at 13:58

14:08 So, you know, we can focus on what's right about ourselves. Maybe we can meditate on that. We're going to meditate on that. You know, there's a notion about internalizing the positive, sometimes in the speed of our everyday life, the practical necessities of having to do this and that. Always planning, scheming, figuring out, we lose the ability to really take in all the beauty about us, but also the beauty within us, what's right about the world and right about ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 14:08 Highlight the passage at 14:08

14:52 There's a notion in evolutionary biology that we are biased toward the negative. The human species is biased toward the negative. Report an error in the passage at 14:52 Highlight the passage at 14:52

15:07 you know The thinking behind that is that if we were on the savannas in the jungle and we were walking down this path and there was this noise in a bush just around the corner and it could be a rabbit, your next meal. I don't know if they had rabbits back then, 5,000, 6,000 years ago probably. Or it could be a saber-toothed tiger. So if you make a mistake in the sense that we think, In terms of the negative, if you make a mistake in terms of the poverty, you think, it's a saber-toothed tiger. It's not a meal. I better get out of here. Report an error in the passage at 15:07 Highlight the passage at 15:07

15:51 But maybe it turns out to be a rabbit. You miss a few rabbits. Okay, no big deal. But if you make one mistake about the negative, and you think, oh, there's a rabbit around the corner, and it turns out to be a saber-toothed tiger, you only get one mistake, and you're finished. So those who thought more in terms of the negative were more prone to survive and to reproduce. So this is the thinking behind this notion that in terms of evolutionary biology that we are negatively biased. Report an error in the passage at 15:51 Highlight the passage at 15:51

16:25 And so we have to, let it say, we are probably Velcro for the negative and Teflon for the positive. All these wonderful things keep slipping away. They don't stick very well. Those negatives hang around. They keep reoccurring. We ruminate on them. We meditate on them. They become deeply ingrained. I appreciate your honesty and your tenacity and your rebelliousness. Report an error in the passage at 16:25 Highlight the passage at 16:25

17:00 I think that's really wonderful. I think that's going to serve you well. The Buddha wasn't a Buddhist. Report an error in the passage at 17:00 Highlight the passage at 17:00

17:10 was. He was just trying to find a way to end suffering, both for himself but others. That was his burning question. He found some answer, some methods for himself, and he tried to share those with others. So we don't have to rediscover the wheel. We're very fortunate in that, but we have to, in terms of our own individual selves, our own process of individuation, find out. Report an error in the passage at 17:10 Highlight the passage at 17:10

17:44 How that works for ourselves. How does that experiment and adapt and make use of and interpret? Report an error in the passage at 17:44 Highlight the passage at 17:44

17:57 I think Buddhism places a tremendous amount of responsibility on each of our own shoulders. Report an error in the passage at 17:57 Highlight the passage at 17:57

18:06 Just praying to God and whatnot isn't going to get you where Buddhists would like to take you. We have to actually use our minds intelligently. And our emotions as best we can. Report an error in the passage at 18:06 Highlight the passage at 18:06

18:26 And I don't think we're not used to that. Thinking for ourselves and coming to try to figure out where I'm at and what it is all about. And how do I take these, you know, what's being offered to me and make use of it in the most profitable ways for my individual self. We're all individuals in that way. We all have to... Report an error in the passage at 18:26 Highlight the passage at 18:26

18:54 Come to these understandings for ourselves. So I think questioning is terribly important. Report an error in the passage at 18:54 Highlight the passage at 18:54

19:10 The deeper the questioning, the deeper the answers. Actually, you know, one of my teachers said the answers are easy. It's the questions which are difficult. Report an error in the passage at 19:10 Highlight the passage at 19:10

19:21 Questioning what we're doing is not very pleasant, is it, in a way. But without living the question, what's... Then we never might live our way into the answer. We are the answer, our way of life, how we be in this world. Report an error in the passage at 19:21 Highlight the passage at 19:21

19:46 I don't know. Anyway, I applaud and admire your kind of rebelliousness. I think it will hold you in good stead. You might not treasure it, but I don't know. Report an error in the passage at 19:46 Highlight the passage at 19:46

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21:55 So I think it's the trying more than anything that is our going for refuge. How much we achieve, we really can't have all that much control over, but we can keep trying. Report an error in the passage at 21:55 Highlight the passage at 21:55

22:17 And in that trying, there's a certain self-respect and fulfillment. Report an error in the passage at 22:17 Highlight the passage at 22:17

22:29 That in itself can bring a degree of solace to ourselves. At least I'm trying. I might fail 99 times, but I'm trying. Report an error in the passage at 22:29 Highlight the passage at 22:29

22:43 That's a lot. Report an error in the passage at 22:43 Highlight the passage at 22:43

22:47 I go for refuge. I go for refuge until I am awakened to the Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha through the collections of merit and wisdom created out of generosity and the other practices. May I become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings. May I become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I am awakened to the Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha. Through the collections of merit and wisdom created out of generosity and the other practices, may I become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 22:47 Highlight the passage at 22:47

23:33 May all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. May all sentient beings abide. Report an error in the passage at 23:33 Highlight the passage at 23:33

23:47 May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free from attachment for some and aversion toward others. Report an error in the passage at 23:47 Highlight the passage at 23:47

24:18 If you'd like to stand and stretch, then we'll meditate. Report an error in the passage at 24:18 Highlight the passage at 24:18

24:42 So we're going to meditate on internalizing the positive, turning positive facts into positive experiences. Good things are happening all around us, but much of the time... We don't notice them. Or even when we do notice, we hardly feel them. You know, someone's nice to us or we see an admirable quality in ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 24:42 Highlight the passage at 24:42

25:22 Maybe it was a beautiful day. You saw a flower blooming. Or you finish a difficult project. You had to put a lot of work in. And it all just keeps rolling by. Report an error in the passage at 25:22 Highlight the passage at 25:22

25:39 So Report an error in the passage at 25:39 Highlight the passage at 25:39

25:45 all the little daily stuff of our lives, beginning to pay a greater degree of attention to what's right about ourselves and what we're doing in the world about us. Report an error in the passage at 25:45 Highlight the passage at 25:45

26:00 You know, the good news. We're inundated with the bad news. Maybe it's the face of a little child. Maybe the smell of an orange. The memory of a happy vacation. Report an error in the passage at 26:00 Highlight the passage at 26:00

26:20 The practices that you do do. So whatever positive facts you feel, bring them to mind. It's like setting out a banquet and then we dig in. We savor them as best we can. It's really delicious. We try to hold that sense of what's right and what's joyful, what's good, what's beautiful about ourselves and our experiences. Report an error in the passage at 26:20 Highlight the passage at 26:20

26:56 For 5 or 10 or 20 seconds, we can feel that much deeper. The physical sensations around that feeling and the emotions involved around that. Report an error in the passage at 26:56 Highlight the passage at 26:56

27:16 Let the feeling fill your body and make it as intense as possible. If somebody has done something nice to you, Report an error in the passage at 27:16 Highlight the passage at 27:16

27:33 About being cared for. How does that feel? Maybe you feel some warmth in your chest. Focus on that. Report an error in the passage at 27:33 Highlight the passage at 27:33

27:47 Focus on the rewarding aspect of the experience. Report an error in the passage at 27:47 Highlight the passage at 27:47

27:53 How nice it is to get a hug from somebody that you love. And then you can couple that, associate that with other feelings of feeling loved. Kind of a cumulative sense of feeling loved. Report an error in the passage at 27:53 Highlight the passage at 27:53

28:16 Imagine or feel that the experience is entering deeply into your body. It's like going out on a cold day outside and feeling the warmth of the sun kind of penetrating deep into your flesh, into your bones. It's like if you were wearing a shirt, a t-shirt or something, feeling the warmth. Report an error in the passage at 28:16 Highlight the passage at 28:16

28:47 So keep relaxing into the feeling, turning positive facts. Bringing to mind positive facts and turning positive facts into positive feelings. You know, the sense is, one of the reasons that we do this is, you know, we don't want to build up clinging. Report an error in the passage at 28:47 Highlight the passage at 28:47

29:09 That would only probably lead to more suffering. But if we feel that there's a positive nature of a world in which we live and our own experiences, our experience of it that we internalize, that we find within ourselves. We won't feel so needy about having to find those good things outside of ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 29:09 Highlight the passage at 29:09

29:40 So we're going to begin with the process as we normally do, and then we'll meditate on mindfulness, and then I'll just lead you through this process of internalizing the positive. So taking a comfortable, firm posture, bringing Report an error in the passage at 29:40 Highlight the passage at 29:40

30:02 your awareness to the crown of your head, and start by imagining or actually feeling the wrinkles between your brow and your foreheads moving out, the Report an error in the passage at 30:02 Highlight the passage at 30:02

30:23 pressure. In and around your eyes, diminishing, Report an error in the passage at 30:23 Highlight the passage at 30:23

30:37 muscles of the face, softening, relaxing. Report an error in the passage at 30:37 Highlight the passage at 30:37

30:55 Tongue is soft and jaw relaxed. Report an error in the passage at 30:55 Highlight the passage at 30:55

31:08 And bringing your awareness to the back of your neck and perhaps turning your head to each side a few times, loosening, stretching the back of our neck. Bringing Report an error in the passage at 31:08 Highlight the passage at 31:08

31:31 your awareness to your upper back and shoulders. Report an error in the passage at 31:31 Highlight the passage at 31:31

31:37 Drawing your shoulders up towards your ears and to the back. And down to the front, just rotating your shoulders a few times. And Report an error in the passage at 31:37 Highlight the passage at 31:37

32:08 eventually returning your shoulders back up toward your ears and just allowing them to drop comfortably to the sides. And with that, the feeling of some kind of weight or burden that you may have unknowingly been carrying around on your back over the course of the day, moving down and through your body into the ground and Report an error in the passage at 32:08 Highlight the passage at 32:08

32:37 your shoulders. Report an error in the passage at 32:37 Highlight the passage at 32:37

32:52 And bringing your awareness all the way down to your hands. Your hands are soft and loose. Report an error in the passage at 32:52 Highlight the passage at 32:52

33:10 Relaxing your lower arms, Report an error in the passage at 33:10 Highlight the passage at 33:10

33:20 your upper arms, your Report an error in the passage at 33:20 Highlight the passage at 33:20

33:32 chest as it ease. Report an error in the passage at 33:32 Highlight the passage at 33:32

33:43 Relaxing throughout the heart area, the central space of the chest. Move Report an error in the passage at 33:43 Highlight the passage at 33:43

34:02 your back, Report an error in the passage at 34:02 Highlight the passage at 34:02

34:29 releasing the tension that we often hold in our stomach muscles, allowing your belly to go soft, the Report an error in the passage at 34:29 Highlight the passage at 34:29

34:53 abdominal cavity. Report an error in the passage at 34:53 Highlight the passage at 34:53

35:08 Keeping your trunk erect, relax your lower back muscles throughout Report an error in the passage at 35:08 Highlight the passage at 35:08

35:34 the pelvic region, Report an error in the passage at 35:34 Highlight the passage at 35:34

35:52 your buttocks, Report an error in the passage at 35:52 Highlight the passage at 35:52

36:10 upper legs. Report an error in the passage at 36:10 Highlight the passage at 36:10

36:34 Finally, your feet are loose, Report an error in the passage at 36:34 Highlight the passage at 36:34

36:50 getting through your body once again from the crown down through the central portion of the body, paying Report an error in the passage at 36:50 Highlight the passage at 36:50

36:59 particular attention to tensions and tightnesses, breathing into those areas, breathing out from those areas again and again. Report an error in the passage at 36:59 Highlight the passage at 36:59

37:12 And with each out breath, Report an error in the passage at 37:12 Highlight the passage at 37:12

37:16 feeling, imagining the tension diminishing, the tightness loosening. Report an error in the passage at 37:16 Highlight the passage at 37:16

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38:37 Just stay with your body for a few minutes, comfortable, at ease, Report an error in the passage at 38:37 Highlight the passage at 38:37

38:45 good to go, there's nothing to be done. Please bring Report an error in the passage at 38:45 Highlight the passage at 38:45

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40:19 your mind to the breath. Report an error in the passage at 40:19 Highlight the passage at 40:19

40:28 And you can accompany the focus of your awareness on the breath with counting the breaths. Breathing in, breathing out, counting one, in, out, two and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 40:28 Highlight the passage at 40:28

40:41 But don't struggle with it. Report an error in the passage at 40:41 Highlight the passage at 40:41

40:46 Just do it easy and relaxed. If you make a mistake, it's okay. So Report an error in the passage at 40:46 Highlight the passage at 40:46

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49:04 now we're going to meditate on internalizing the positive. So I invite you to recall, to go back. Through a time more than one month ago, a period of time, something that happened, something you did, you saw, some facts, something that was positive about yourself, Report an error in the passage at 49:04 Highlight the passage at 49:04

49:36 relive it, revitalize it and experience it fully, whatever the positive nature of it was. Really dig in as best you can to fully experience it, Report an error in the passage at 49:36 Highlight the passage at 49:36

49:55 something more than one month ago. Report an error in the passage at 49:55 Highlight the passage at 49:55

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50:43 Keep going back into it again, enliven it again and again, the experience. Report an error in the passage at 50:43 Highlight the passage at 50:43

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51:25 And we're going to do the same, but we're simply going to change the time period, the time frame. So something more than one week ago, but less than a month ago. So just reviewing that time period, more than one week ago, but less than a month ago. It doesn't have to be dramatic. You don't have to win the lotto or win the Nobel Prize. Report an error in the passage at 51:25 Highlight the passage at 51:25

51:46 It's unpleasant to experience. Some fact that maybe just kind of moved by without you really taking notice of it. Take the opportunity to really feel it deeply, to relive it, experience it. Report an error in the passage at 51:46 Highlight the passage at 51:46

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53:32 And again, we're going to do the same. But again, we're going to do something from yesterday up to one week ago. From yesterday up to one week ago. So reviewing this last week, something positive that you did. Report an error in the passage at 53:32 Highlight the passage at 53:32

54:02 opportunity to revitalize the experience around that. Maybe it Report an error in the passage at 54:02 Highlight the passage at 54:02

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55:33 was Report an error in the passage at 55:33 Highlight the passage at 55:33

55:43 a small incident, something that somebody said, something nice, maybe it was a delicious piece of cake. Report an error in the passage at 55:43 Highlight the passage at 55:43

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57:14 And then finally, something about yourself and your practice, however broadly you want to define your spiritual practice. A way that you feel good about it, that you maybe are a little kinder, a little softer, more understanding, have some insight, more patience, little incidents here and there, that shows that things have changed. Report an error in the passage at 57:14 Highlight the passage at 57:14

57:43 Bring those to mind and rejoice. Feel good about it. Report an error in the passage at 57:43 Highlight the passage at 57:43

57:54 Something minor doesn't have to be major, but feel good about it. Report an error in the passage at 57:54 Highlight the passage at 57:54

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59:10 Bring your mind back to the breath. Easy, gentle, in and outflow, the natural. To Report an error in the passage at 59:10 Highlight the passage at 59:10

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1:01:25 share, if anything that came up with it. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:25 Highlight the passage at 1:01:25

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1:02:03 That's a good point. Yeah, that's right. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:03 Highlight the passage at 1:02:03

1:02:11 Anybody else? Report an error in the passage at 1:02:11 Highlight the passage at 1:02:11

1:02:17 So we're going to, Report an error in the passage at 1:02:17 Highlight the passage at 1:02:17

1:02:22 looking at Shantideva's bodhisattva's deeds, engaging in the bodhisattva's way of life. So chapter one, we looked at the benefits of the awakened heart, which helps us to naturally incline the mind, open. hearts to its development. In Chapter 2, we began to look at some of the methods for removing obstacles and for bringing about the conducive conditions for actually developing an awakened heart. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:22 Highlight the passage at 1:02:22

1:03:01 In Chapter 3, we looked at the means of committing ourselves to its actual development. In Chapter 4, we looked at and emphasized the Report an error in the passage at 1:03:01 Highlight the passage at 1:03:01

1:03:15 This necessity of conscientiousness. Think about what that word means. Some people are conscientious about their work. They just want to do it right. They want to do it skillfully. They have a sense of integrity about it. Bring that conscientiousness with regards to how we're living out this commitment. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:15 Highlight the passage at 1:03:15

1:03:48 That we want to make in terms of awakening our heart. Are we doing the right thing in that light? What's most skillful in the light of what we're trying to do? That's sort of the conscientiousness around that. And tonight we're going to begin to look at Chapter 5. And in our text it's entitled Introspection. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:48 Highlight the passage at 1:03:48

1:04:22 Other words for it are discriminative awareness or vigilance or attentiveness, Report an error in the passage at 1:04:22 Highlight the passage at 1:04:22

1:04:39 guarding our introspection or guarding our attentiveness. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:39 Highlight the passage at 1:04:39

1:04:51 In Chapter 5, we begin the actual method of achieving awakening. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:51 Highlight the passage at 1:04:51

1:05:01 We talked about the main... sort of Report an error in the passage at 1:05:01 Highlight the passage at 1:05:01

1:04:59 And this, you know, in this. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:59 Highlight the passage at 1:04:59

1:05:04 Practices of a bodhisattva, someone who has actually awakened their heart, are the six perfections or the six transcendent practices of generosity and so forth, and the four means of cultivating the minds of your students. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:04 Highlight the passage at 1:05:04

1:05:25 Here we're looking at whether in terms of what it means by introspection, whether or not we are tracking. Whether our practice is going right, whether we are in the state of our mind and the state of our practice, particularly in terms of two mental factors, mindfulness and introspection, mindfulness and introspection. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:25 Highlight the passage at 1:05:25

1:06:00 So we have this intention of where we'd like to go, and we're trying to be very conscientious about it. But we have to also track to see whether the way we're going about it, the very state of our mind and our activities are in keeping with what we're trying to achieve. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:00 Highlight the passage at 1:06:00

1:06:21 So there's attention being paid to our minds and our activities, a vigilance, a noticing and looking into, a watchfulness, these kinds of words and notions, this kind of attitude. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:21 Highlight the passage at 1:06:21

1:06:43 In order to assure you that we're going in the direction that we've set out for ourselves, that we don't unknowingly get off track. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:43 Highlight the passage at 1:06:43

1:06:56 Each of these chapters has their own page number. So on page one of chapter five, Report an error in the passage at 1:06:56 Highlight the passage at 1:06:56

1:07:10 in Gaussabjai, Gaussabjai haven't actually started the text. Shantideva's text, but he's talking about the necessity of developing what are essentially the two collections, or we could say the two wings. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:10 Highlight the passage at 1:07:10

1:07:30 For a bird to fly, it needs two wings, and these are generally termed method and wisdom, method and wisdom. Method are various activities, such as the sixth transcendent practice, generosity and ethics and so forth. Motivated by great compassion and the awakened heart. And then wisdom is understanding the nature of things, how things operate, cause and effect, even more deeply than that. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:30 Highlight the passage at 1:07:30

1:08:07 It would go all the way to how does the nature of reality, emptiness and so forth. So these are the two areas that we need to develop, that we're working with, trying to develop both our affective, our feeling and emotions, but also cognitive, the way that we understand how we feel and how we feel about the world and how we understand the world. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:07 Highlight the passage at 1:08:07

1:08:39 So, you know, from the point of view of Buddhism, a spiritual journey, It involves traveling a path. A path is more or less what gets us from where we're at now to where we want to get to. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:39 Highlight the passage at 1:08:39

1:09:02 And the means of progress, how we're going to get to it, it empowers us. It endows us with all the skills necessary of achieving, realizing what it is that we're looking for in our life. And the word for path in Pāli is patipata. And it literally means putting one foot in front of the next. So here we're talking about method and wisdom, method and wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:02 Highlight the passage at 1:09:02

1:09:29 These are the steps that we're taking to come to the center of this labyrinth, this journey that we're all on, trying to come to the center of various practices. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:29 Highlight the passage at 1:09:29

1:09:46 So first you need some kind of inner strength, positive potential, what we call Maybe a store of merit. And you collect this by means of generosity and ethics and patience and joyous effort. But you also need the other collection, the other wing, which is the collection termed the collection of wisdom. And this developed through the fifth and the sixth of the six transcendent practices, perfections, that of meditative concentration in wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:46 Highlight the passage at 1:09:46

1:10:25 The way that the bodhisattva is, you know, it's like one way of looking at it is wisdom is actually what takes us there. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:25 Highlight the passage at 1:10:25

1:10:41 It's like a rocket. But the rocket needs some kind of fuel. It has to be empowered. And this is method. This is what empowers our practice, empowers our wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:41 Highlight the passage at 1:10:41

1:10:59 It's interesting because we need to develop both in these areas. We said that I'm using this kind of strange term, the six transcendent practice. I realize that's kind of odd in a way. Usually it's just referred to as the six perfections. In Sanskrit it's paramita. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:59 Highlight the passage at 1:10:59

1:11:34 And there are two etymologies, there are two ways to look at this word. The reason that I'll explain. According to one etymology of the word, paramita means the highest or most excellent. And therefore, this is where we get the idea of perfection, the highest excellent, most excellent. But according to another etymology... Report an error in the passage at 1:11:34 Highlight the passage at 1:11:34

1:11:59 Which I think is more meaningful is that which has gone beyond. We talk about the Heart Sūtra or something like that. The wisdom gone beyond. Because I don't know what perfection means, to be honest with you. What does that mean? Report an error in the passage at 1:11:59 Highlight the passage at 1:11:59

1:12:24 We talk about perfection of generosity or the perfection of ethics. for something. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:24 Highlight the passage at 1:12:24

1:12:30 It's like a 10 out of 10 on the Spiritual Olympics, something like that. I'm not sure what it means. So it doesn't have much meaning for myself. But in terms of transcendent, these practices, the bodhisattva practices of generosity and ethics and so forth, they transcend ordinary or mundane practices of generosity and ethics. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:30 Highlight the passage at 1:12:30

1:13:03 By means of the great compassion and the wisdom to which they're conjoined. So it's not just ordinary ethics or ordinary generosity. There's a great compassion and there's a wisdom understanding, emptiness, which is being conjoined with these practices. So it's said that in this way we say that these practices transcend ordinary generosity or transcend ordinary ethics and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:03 Highlight the passage at 1:13:03

1:13:31 So that has more meaning for me. And we would talk about that. In a way, Shantideva talks about that later on when we go through the various perfections, for example, generosity. We said, well, you know, the Buddha is said to have brought to consummation, fulfillment, the perfection, the paramita of generosity. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:31 Highlight the passage at 1:13:31

1:13:56 But still there's poor people in the world. So how, you know, okay. If He's perfected generosity, there shouldn't be any more poverty. So anyway, we'll talk about what that might mean. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:56 Highlight the passage at 1:13:56

1:14:17 In the verses that are going to follow, in verses 1 through 17, Shantideva is going to try to get across the notion. That the practices are mainly a matter of the mind and not so much the activities of our body and speech. In Vinaya, Vinaya is the ethical, the area of the category of teachings of the Buddha in which he sets out rules of discipline, ethical discipline, moral discipline. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:17 Highlight the passage at 1:14:17

1:15:04 Within the Vinaya, they are rules governing the way that we speak and the way that we act. Here, we're talking about the means in terms of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:04 Highlight the passage at 1:15:04

1:15:25 The six transcendent practices of generosity and so forth are mainly trainings of the mind. They depend very much on the mind. They are not so much concerned with... So much about outward physical activities or what's outside of ourselves. The emphasis is on the mind. And therefore, there's a necessity to emphasize in their practice mindfulness and introspection in guarding our mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:25 Highlight the passage at 1:15:25

1:16:02 So sometimes this chapter is termed, is entitled, Guarding Introspection, Guarding the Mind. Why? Because these practices... are mainly concerned with the mind the way that we got Mindfulness is mainly in terms of these two, technically speaking, mental factors of mindfulness and introspection. We'll talk about what those actually are and how they apply. So this whole chapter is going to be concerned with the application of mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:02 Highlight the passage at 1:16:02

1:16:41 Mindfulness... You know, what are we up to? What are we trying to do? We have to be able to keep that in mind. That's mindfulness. The keeping of something in mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:41 Highlight the passage at 1:16:41

1:16:52 And we have to know whether we're doing it or not. That's introspection or a sense of alertness. Anyway, I want to talk more about this. In chapter, no, not chapter one, verse number one. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:52 Highlight the passage at 1:16:52

1:17:11 It's on page five. Okay. They who wish to protect the trainings. The trainings are these six transcendent practices of generosity and so forth. If you want to protect the trainings, if you want to be able to ensure that you are training well in trying to bring about what it is that your aim is, the awakening for the benefit of others. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:11 Highlight the passage at 1:17:11

1:17:39 Protect the mind after focusing it strongly. Without protecting the mind is impossible. To protect the trainings. So if we don't protect the mind, it's impossible to protect. If we don't protect the mind, it's impossible. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:39 Highlight the passage at 1:17:39

1:18:01 So we said that conscientiousness, which was the subject matter of the fourth chapter, is taking care in doing what's right. There's a certain integrity, trying to do what's right or what's skillful. It's by means of mindfulness that we keep in mind. Our mind is full. I don't want to over-exaggerate the term, but we keep in mind just what it is that we've determined is right and skillful. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:01 Highlight the passage at 1:18:01

1:18:35 We keep in mind what we're committed to. And by means of introspection, whether or not our minds are actually abiding in what is right, what is skillful. How our minds are actually aware. Another word for introspection that I think is a useful word but it's used differently in our translation is simply being sensitive or aware. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:35 Highlight the passage at 1:18:35

1:19:02 We're aware of what our minds are up to. Mindfulness, we're trying to keep in mind what we're trying to achieve in terms of our mental training and introspection or awareness or alertness. We are aware. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:02 Highlight the passage at 1:19:02

1:19:21 We know what our minds are up to. We're tracking how our minds are actually operating, how they're going in terms of what we're trying to keep in mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:21 Highlight the passage at 1:19:21

1:19:36 In verse 3, you've probably come across this notion that quite often they use Buddhism. Makes use of the metaphor, the analogy of the mind being a crazy elephant. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:36 Highlight the passage at 1:19:36

1:19:59 Here it says, if one tightly fastens the elephant of the mind comprehensively with the rope of mindfulness, all danger becomes completely non-existent and all virtues will come to one's hand. So in this verse, the metaphor of mindfulness is like... The mind is the elephant and mindfulness is the rope which ties the elephant. So it is mindfulness that holds our mind to what it is that we determine is right, what's skillful, and thereby it subdues our crazy minds. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:59 Highlight the passage at 1:19:59

1:20:45 It's a way that we can begin to control our neuroses, like tying our minds to a rope, the rope of mindfulness. And it goes on. It's interesting. I think the verses, I mean, superficially, I think they're quite interesting, where it says in verses 4 through 8, it talks about all these terrible things, tigers and lions and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:45 Highlight the passage at 1:20:45

1:21:14 And how we can subdue them. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:14 Highlight the passage at 1:21:14

1:21:23 In, I think, in verses 7 and 8, it's quite the weapons of the hell beings. Who made them with purpose? Who made the burning iron ground? You know, Sue, you were talking about hell. From whence did the burning inferno arise? All the likes of these arose from negativity, thought the able one. That's the Buddha. Thus, in all the three realms, there is nothing as dangerous as the mind. The guardians, sometimes you might have received teachings on the hell realms. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:23 Highlight the passage at 1:21:23

1:22:01 It's been covered up. But in the Wheel of Life, which is one of the paintings on the back, there's this wheel and it's divided into segments. There's six levels of the desire realm. And there's depicted a hell realm in it. You know, there's these guards, you know, poking spears and so forth. What was that? Report an error in the passage at 1:22:01 Highlight the passage at 1:22:01

1:22:31 Hieronymus Bosch? Have you ever seen his picture depicting hell? It's quite similar. Anyway, those hell beings, they're not actually sentient beings. They are projections of one's own mind. I don't know. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:31 Highlight the passage at 1:22:31

1:22:47 That they are creations of one's own mind. So the emphasis here in all of this, it says all three realms there is nothing dangerous as the mind. All phenomena depend upon the mind. What is being emphasized, we're trying to orientate toward that the mind is the creator of all things. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:47 Highlight the passage at 1:22:47

1:23:14 Sometimes the Dalai Lama is asking, Does Buddhism believe in God? Well, it depends on how you define God. But one type of God, one way of defining God which Buddhism does not believe in is a creator God. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:14 Highlight the passage at 1:23:14

1:23:30 It is our karma which is the creator of all things, the realms that we live in and so forth. The mind is the measure of all things, the determinant of all things. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:30 Highlight the passage at 1:23:30

1:23:45 John Milton wrote Paradise Lost. He says, the mind is in its own place and its way can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. And Buddhism would say, I agree with you, literally. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:45 Highlight the passage at 1:23:45

1:24:03 We can create a hell for ourselves. So it is a fundamental assertion of Buddhism that knowing is an organizing into the known, that things don't exist out there, independent of our own minds. That's the way it appears to us and that's the way we operate our lives, but that may in fact not be the way they actually exist. That everything is dependent upon our conceiving them as such. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:03 Highlight the passage at 1:24:03

1:24:36 What we come to know is inseparable from how we know it. It's inseparable from our views, our beliefs, our ideas, the conditioning factors within our own mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:36 Highlight the passage at 1:24:36

1:24:51 In the Dhammapata, which is a collection of sayings by the Buddha in the Pāli tradition, we are what we think. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:51 Highlight the passage at 1:24:51

1:25:04 All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. So this is the orientation of Buddhism. It's very non-materialistic in that sense. All that arises, are what we think. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:04 Highlight the passage at 1:25:04

1:25:17 that Report an error in the passage at 1:25:17 Highlight the passage at 1:25:17

1:25:22 It places primacy on the mind, our views, our attitudes, our beliefs in defining our experience. We aren't passive observers. In a materialistic world, we are simply like a mirror. Things are out there and we simply reflect them. They overwhelm us with what they are and we undergo these experiences. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:22 Highlight the passage at 1:25:22

1:25:48 Here we're saying that what we come to experience co-arises with the world as we know it, that we are co-creators of our world. There is an external reality, but that reality in turn depends upon our own mind, and our own mind depends upon that external reality as well. So this is why... There's this word epistemology. Epistemology simply means how we know. We looked at this a little bit when we studied minds and mental factors. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:48 Highlight the passage at 1:25:48

1:26:37 Our ideas, our beliefs, our views, Report an error in the passage at 1:26:37 Highlight the passage at 1:26:37

1:26:44 what we utilize in the process of world-making, creating ourselves and our world. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:44 Highlight the passage at 1:26:44

1:26:56 Our ideas, our beliefs are pathological. By pathological, I mean unhealthy, unskillful, mistaken. We can say it as simply as that. Then so will our experience of the world. You cannot have mental health. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:56 Highlight the passage at 1:26:56

1:27:23 A neurotic mind cannot experience mental health. It cannot experience a world... As we would like it to be experienced. In other words, the fundamental assertion of Buddhism is that the psychology of our suffering is the unhealthiness of the ways that we know our world. And how do we know our world? Through our beliefs, our ideas and our views about it. There's something wrong with the ways that we are relating to the world. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:23 Highlight the passage at 1:27:23

1:27:54 And that is the fundamental source of our problems. Our suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:54 Highlight the passage at 1:27:54

1:28:07 If we experience our world as problematic, last week I was talking about, and I've thought about this, maybe the first noble truth might be better worded as the truth of problems. If we experience our world as problematic, that it is because our beliefs about it are similarly problematic as well. A world of health. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:07 Highlight the passage at 1:28:07

1:28:35 And well-being is just not possible within a dysfunctional worldview. I don't know if that, if somehow we have a sense and we struggle, if I could just arrange all the goodies of the world about me in a fixed kind of configuration, then I would be there where I wanted. I mean, that's the materialistic project. Get it all. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:35 Highlight the passage at 1:28:35

1:29:06 While you can, then you'll be happy. It doesn't work because it's all dependent upon the mind. No matter how hard we struggle, it's doomed to failure. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:06 Highlight the passage at 1:29:06

1:29:22 It's all coming about based on a mistaken premise. So the orientation in Buddhism is on the mind itself. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:22 Highlight the passage at 1:29:22

1:29:40 This is primary. This comes out on page 8, Galsopje, about in the middle. He mentioned there's a traditional example. He says, an opponent without refined reasoning who wishes to deny karmic causes and effects. Karma simply means conditioning the way our minds are conditioned. That's all it means. Where a pure water stream appears. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:40 Highlight the passage at 1:29:40

1:30:11 To humans, his blood and pus appears to angry ghosts. So this touches upon a traditional example of the way in which perception, the way in which the conditioning of our mind alters our perception. And traditionally, this is presented in terms of a glass of liquid. And whether you believe in these things or not, literally it's not the point. It is maybe the meaning which is trying to be gotten at here. We have a glass of liquid. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:11 Highlight the passage at 1:30:11

1:30:50 A god would perceive that glass of liquid as nectar. And he or she would experience it as bliss if they drank it. A human would perceive that glass of liquid as water. And it might be quite refreshing. or if you had a... Report an error in the passage at 1:30:50 Highlight the passage at 1:30:50

1:31:13 An animal, for example, a mosquito would perceive that glass of water as a place to lay its eggs. A fish might see it as a complete habitat to live in. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:13 Highlight the passage at 1:31:13

1:31:24 A hungry ghost would perceive that glass of liquid as pus and blood, and they would experience it as revolting. And a hell being would perceive that same glass of liquid as molten lead. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:24 Highlight the passage at 1:31:24

1:31:41 If they were to drink it, it would be excruciatingly painful. So there is something there. But there are the conditioning factors, that is the karma. They are all perceiving something unique to their own minds. So it's not a matter of the world being out there. In a way, we can talk about this in something a little more mundane. And it touches on what we talked about at the very beginning about this negative bias. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:41 Highlight the passage at 1:31:41

1:32:12 You know, we have the old half glass of water. Is a glass half full or half empty? And we have a certain, we're predisposed to see, well, for some they see what's not there. For others they see what is there. It's the same glass of water. We have it. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:12 Highlight the passage at 1:32:12

1:32:37 But due to the dispositions of their mind, the tendency. This isn't a far-reaching example, but it's a meaningful example in a way. Some people see how blessed their life is. Some people can be living much the same life and see what's going wrong with their life. Just with the orientation, the predispositions of their own mind, the tendency of their own mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:37 Highlight the passage at 1:32:37

1:33:02 The point that's being gotten at here is the primacy of mind in our experience. It's not so much dependent upon... The material world. I mean, nobody wants to be hungry, starving, in a war zone and so forth. But even there, there are vastly different ways of experiencing that same situation. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:02 Highlight the passage at 1:33:02

1:33:25 Then he's just trying to get across this notion of mind as being primary. Verse 9. generosity goes beyond. eliminating the poverty of migrators, since migrators still have poverty, how could... The previous refuge had gone beyond. Okay. So in addition, verse 10, through the mind offering to all sentient beings, all possessions, including the results, generosity goes beyond. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:25 Highlight the passage at 1:33:25

1:34:01 It is taught. Therefore, it is only mine. So again, Shantideva is emphasizing that the training in these six transcendent practices, generosity and ethics and so forth, is primarily one of mine. Trying to train our minds. How can we say that, as I mentioned before, how can we say that the Buddha perfected generosity when there's still poverty in the world? Report an error in the passage at 1:34:01 Highlight the passage at 1:34:01

1:34:27 So the transcendent practice of generosity is not aimed at eliminating external poverty. Definitely, the way it would undoubtedly be helpful, no question about that, to alleviate the want of the world. But eradicating what it is being gotten at here in the training in the transcendent practice of generosity, for example, taking that as an example, is in the quality of the mind, the inner quality of overcoming miserliness. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:27 Highlight the passage at 1:34:27

1:35:05 The emphasis is on our willingness to give, willingness to give our bodies, our possessions, our virtues, to give up my, my. My possessions, my territory, my privacy, my knowledge, whatever we cling to as I and mine, we're willing to let go. In other words, the practice of generosity lies not so much in the outer act of giving, the physical gesture, as it does in the act of letting go associated with non-attachment. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:05 Highlight the passage at 1:35:05

1:35:50 So the orientation here is a change of mind as the fulfillment of generosity. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:50 Highlight the passage at 1:35:50

1:36:05 Again, Shantideva is just going to go through all these six transcendent practices and show how they are mainly an experience of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:05 Highlight the passage at 1:36:05

1:36:23 In verse 11, he takes up ethics, or here it's called morality. Fish and so forth. Where should they flee to so as not to be killed? Through the mind of abandoning, morality goes beyond. It is taught. So again, we simply cannot set all living beings, set them all out of harm's way. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:23 Highlight the passage at 1:36:23

1:36:55 Sentient beings are infinite. So if the perfection of ethics, non-harming, were a matter of eliminating the possible harm to all sentient beings, that would be an impossibility. So what is meant here in terms of the transcendent practice of ethics is the consummation of ethics is the ethics of nonviolence. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:55 Highlight the passage at 1:36:55

1:37:21 That is to say, not to harm. And in the Bodhisattva's path especially, the ethic of benefiting. This is why the Dalai Lama has said, ethics can be summed up in two sentences. If you can help, help. If you can't, at least don't harm. So it's a matter of foregoing the intention to harm. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:21 Highlight the passage at 1:37:21

1:37:55 Again, it's not a matter of an external activity. It is an attitude of mind. It's the training involved in ethics. Then he goes on. Patience, the third of the six transcendent practices, verse number 12. Unsiddued sentient beings equal space. Destroying them is impossible. Merely destroys this mind of anger. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:55 Highlight the passage at 1:37:55

1:38:23 Equals destroying all enemies. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:23 Highlight the passage at 1:38:23

1:38:29 Again, we can't subdue all external enemies. Those who would give us a hard time. A lot of people try. The consummation of transcendent practice of patience lies in the ability to reframe the problems. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:29 Highlight the passage at 1:38:29

1:38:55 In such a way that even if the external facts remain the same, we have changed how we're going to relate with it, our attitude toward it. What was difficult to bear with finds a natural resolution. What was problematic solves of itself. In the absence of irritation or annoyance, anger and hostility simply don't arise. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:55 Highlight the passage at 1:38:55

1:39:24 we've, once we've. And with that, without the arising of anger, there's no longer any harmful intention or behavior arising from anger. And with that, there's no longer an external enemy. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:24 Highlight the passage at 1:39:24

1:39:43 Shantideva is suggesting this is equal to destroying all our enemies. If we destroy all of our own internal anger, it is if we destroyed all our enemies. Our enemies no longer appear. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:43 Highlight the passage at 1:39:43

1:40:00 We no longer wish to harm anyone. I Report an error in the passage at 1:40:00 Highlight the passage at 1:40:00

1:40:08 think there's a very profound meaning in the orientation. And then there's this next one, verse 13. Again, the orientation is turning toward the mind. Verses 13 to 14. To cover the whole earth with leather. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:08 Highlight the passage at 1:40:08

1:40:31 Where should the leather come from? To cover one's souls with... Leather equals covering the whole earth. This is Report an error in the passage at 1:40:31 Highlight the passage at 1:40:31

1:40:43 the source of a particular story about a king in ancient times who used to find great happiness in walking about his kingdom, the countryside in his kingdom. is... Report an error in the passage at 1:40:43 Highlight the passage at 1:40:43

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:41:11 And one day he was out walking about the countryside and he stepped on a thorn, which was quite painful. And he went back to his palace and he called together his ministers. And he put his royal foot up on the table and he said, look, look, you can't allow this to happen again. You've got to find some way I can walk about my kingdom without the threat of... Report an error in the passage at 1:41:11 Highlight the passage at 1:41:11

1:41:41 Harming myself without the threat of stepping on sharp objects, stones and thorns and so forth. So all of his ministers, they thought and they thought and thought. And one of the clever ones spoke up and he said, I have it. We'll cover all the rows in your kingdom with leather. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:41 Highlight the passage at 1:41:41

1:42:03 And that way you'll be able to walk about your kingdom perfectly safely, you know, without the threat of stepping on sharp objects and thorns and stones and so forth. And the king, Fantastic idea. Let's do it. But immediately, on any committee, there's always one person who destroys the best of ideas. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:03 Highlight the passage at 1:42:03

1:42:26 Usually it's the treasurer. The treasurer can't be done. First off, there aren't enough cattle in your kingdom to produce that much leather. And even if it were there were, it would bankrupt the treasury. It's not practically possible. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:26 Highlight the passage at 1:42:26

1:42:48 So the ministers, they went back to the deliberations, thinking and thinking. And as is often the case in these stories, there was a wise old minister present who spoke up and she said, I propose we take a small piece of leather and we trace the shape of the soles of the king's feet and we cut out these two pieces of leather. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:48 Highlight the passage at 1:42:48

1:43:17 And we bind him to the bottom of the feet of his majesty. And this would serve the same purpose as if having covered all the roads in your kingdom with leather, the king could safely walk about this kingdom without the threat of sharp objects, thorns and so forth. So this story is meant to illustrate more or less an obvious but often overlooked fact of life. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:17 Highlight the passage at 1:43:17

1:43:48 We cannot control the world. We cannot realistically order the world about us to conform to our wishes, demand that some kind of accommodate our agendas, our particular needs, whatever it is that we want from it. But nevertheless, we do. We try. We struggle. We make demands upon the world. And when we do, we experience either a sense of... Report an error in the passage at 1:43:48 Highlight the passage at 1:43:48

1:44:17 Rage because the world doesn't follow our orders. It doesn't somehow accommodate our particular needs, our particular agenda. Or we experience a sense of powerlessness and failure because we can't do the impossible. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:17 Highlight the passage at 1:44:17

1:44:34 But this story is meant to additionally illustrate a not so obvious fact. And this is the fact that Shantideva is trying to bring out in this verse here. If we can control one thing, our own minds. It is as if we control the world. All that we can realistically hope to rule in our lives is our own inner kingdom. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:34 Highlight the passage at 1:44:34

1:45:00 And that, as it turns out, is enough to be happy and fulfilled in the world. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:00 Highlight the passage at 1:45:00

1:45:13 Uh-huh. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:13 Highlight the passage at 1:45:13

1:45:25 When astronauts go into space? Okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:25 Highlight the passage at 1:45:25

1:45:32 Enlightened. I haven't heard that. I haven't heard that. Really? Report an error in the passage at 1:45:32 Highlight the passage at 1:45:32

1:45:44 Yeah, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:44 Highlight the passage at 1:45:44

1:46:07 Get spaced out. Yeah, I've heard that many of the astronauts, well not many, a few have had what you might call religious experiences. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:07 Highlight the passage at 1:46:07

1:46:19 I mean, it's true. When you see, you get that perspective. We're all on this, we get lost in our own little worlds and absorbed in ourselves. There you have this perspective on this one planet we're all existing on. And it must, I mean really, it must have some, make a strong impression on the mind. I don't know that you're right. I don't know about awaken, but lighten, but it would have some effect, I would think. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:19 Highlight the passage at 1:46:19

1:47:06 The enormity of it, seeing that little world down there. People each absorbed in their own worlds. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:06 Highlight the passage at 1:47:06

1:47:27 Maybe we can just try to finish this little bit, this section we've gone through. So what Shantideva is trying to show us the primacy of mind, that the practices of a bodhisattva are very much involved. You know that? Report an error in the passage at 1:47:27 Highlight the passage at 1:47:27

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:47:48 In training the mind, because then he's going to go on and show us the necessity of how to guard our minds through mindfulness and introspection. So first he's showing the primacy of mind, the need to guard our minds. So he's working through just in general, but also in terms of the six transcendent practices. And he's worked through generosity and ethics, patience. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:48 Highlight the passage at 1:47:48

1:48:12 And here in verse... Report an error in the passage at 1:48:12 Highlight the passage at 1:48:12

1:48:18 He's going to look at the fourth of the sixth. Here it's being translated as enthusiasm. We're generally talking about it as joyous effort. And the result of generating a clear mind is Brahma and so forth. Results of an inferior practice endowed with body and speech are not like that. So here Shantideva is pointing out that... Report an error in the passage at 1:48:18 Highlight the passage at 1:48:18

1:48:46 Sublime meditation states, such as absorptions. In Buddhist cosmology, they explain cyclic existence. Within cyclic existence, there are three realms of existence. There's the desire realm, for example, the gods and humans and animals and so forth. There's the form realm and the formless realm. And the form realm and the formless realm are achieved through meditative concentrations. And there is no gross suffering in these states. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:46 Highlight the passage at 1:48:46

1:49:30 And these are perfectly achieved through the mind, these sublime meditative states. And it's necessary that in order to achieve them. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:30 Highlight the passage at 1:49:30

1:49:49 One has to have, I think, joyous or enthusiasm or make joyous effort in order to incline the mind to the degree necessary to practice these concentrations in order to achieve them. So we need joyous effort, the quality of joyous effort, in order to develop these states, these sublime states of the absorptions of the mind, these concentrations. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:49 Highlight the passage at 1:49:49

1:50:20 So we cannot achieve them through any sort of speech, any sort of physical action, only the mind. These are referred to here as Brahma. Sometimes you refer to the Brahma of Biharas, the abodes of Brahma. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:20 Highlight the passage at 1:50:20

1:50:43 The name of these meditative concentrations are associated with Brahma. This is the... Report an error in the passage at 1:50:43 Highlight the passage at 1:50:43

1:50:50 So when it says Brahma, it simply means these meditative absorptions where there's no suffering. And the 16th, all recitations and austerities, and I hope this doesn't discourage you, all recitations and austerities, even if practiced for a long time, done with a wandering mind, they are meaningless. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:50 Highlight the passage at 1:50:50

1:51:08 The knowledge teaches. The knowledge here means the Abhidharma. So reciting mantras and doing prostrations, absentmindly, you know. That is, without a mind that is thinking about what it's doing, it's said to be of not all that much benefit. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:08 Highlight the passage at 1:51:08

1:51:29 In this way, the effectiveness of all our various physical and verbal practices, recitations and doing prostrations and so forth, is dependent upon the mind that we have to have a degree of consciousness. it. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:29 Highlight the passage at 1:51:29

1:51:48 The degree of concentrating on what we're doing. So our practice quite much depends upon not the perfection of concentration, but a degree of being able to focus our mind on what we're doing, our practice. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:48 Highlight the passage at 1:51:48

1:52:09 And then finally, those who do not know the main supreme dharma, the secret of mind, all the wishing. To attain happiness and destroy suffering, they will wander meaninglessly, I think he means aimlessly, in the hills without respite. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:09 Highlight the passage at 1:52:09

1:52:30 So in order to be awakened, to alleviate our own suffering and to realize our highest potential and to be of optimum benefit for others, we must remove ignorance from our mind. In order to remove ignorance from our mind, we have to develop wisdom. That's the antidote to ignorance. To gain, that is say, wisdom understanding emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:30 Highlight the passage at 1:52:30

1:53:02 Here, emptiness is referred to as the secret, the secret of the mind. Emptiness is sometimes referred to as a secret. It's quite often, you know, it's not... Report an error in the passage at 1:53:02 Highlight the passage at 1:53:02

1:53:16 It's not revealed to those who have a degree of grounding in the Dharma and so forth. So to gain this understanding of the mind is a matter of mind. It's not a matter of doing some physical act or something of speech. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:16 Highlight the passage at 1:53:16

1:53:50 So I guess essentially... Report an error in the passage at 1:53:50 Highlight the passage at 1:53:50

1:53:59 This 18, this mind of mine, therefore I shall hold it well, I shall guard it well, apart from discipline of guarding the mind, what shall one do with many disciplines? So there's no point engaging in many different practices of the Dharma if we do not guard our minds well. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:59 Highlight the passage at 1:53:59

1:54:20 And then if one is in the midst of a restless crowd, one will focus and be conscientious about one's wounds. I don't mind as well. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:20 Highlight the passage at 1:54:20

1:54:30 Similarly, in the midst of bad people, one guards continuously the wounds of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:30 Highlight the passage at 1:54:30

1:54:40 We can involve ourselves in all the practical necessities of our everyday life. We can enjoy all the beauty of the world, all the beauty that it has to offer if we guard our minds. That is to say, with mindfulness and introspection. you know Report an error in the passage at 1:54:40 Highlight the passage at 1:54:40

1:55:00 If we keep... What is our overall project in our life? Where are we trying to go? Guarding that quality of mind, the directionality that we want our life to take, essentially. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:00 Highlight the passage at 1:55:00

1:55:18 Just like you, if you were walking through a crowd and you had some wound, you'd protect it. You'd be that mindful of the fact that you were susceptible to harm. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:18 Highlight the passage at 1:55:18

1:55:36 So we have this project that we're trying to, a priority, guarding that priority. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:36 Highlight the passage at 1:55:36

1:55:48 Then finally, verse 22, it is all right to not gain, it is all right to not have gain or praise a body or livelihood. It is all right for others' virtues to generate, but do not let the mind. Don't degenerate at all. So it's okay not to have or to lose many things, including our various virtues and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:48 Highlight the passage at 1:55:48

1:56:26 But above all, don't allow your mind to degenerate. I guess degenerate from this priority, what you're trying to do with yourself and your mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:26 Highlight the passage at 1:56:26

1:56:40 And the method of guarding, not allowing our mind to degenerate. That is mindfulness and introspection, which we'll talk about more. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:40 Highlight the passage at 1:56:40

1:57:02 Pardon? Guard the mind. I don't think we have to be – I was trying to stay away from getting – we have to be paranoid and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:02 Highlight the passage at 1:57:02

1:57:18 I guess it's just a matter of keeping what's important in mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:18 Highlight the passage at 1:57:18

1:57:29 That's not always easy to do in the busyness of our everyday lives, is it? We can easily get off track. So it's mindfulness and introspection that keeps us on track and tells us when we've gotten off track. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:29 Highlight the passage at 1:57:29

1:57:51 So we can dedicate. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:51 Highlight the passage at 1:57:51

1:57:59 May all beings everywhere, plagued by sufferings of body and mind, attain an ocean of happiness and joy by virtue of my merits. May no living creature suffer, commit evil, or fall ill. May no one be afraid or belittled with a mind weighed down by depression. May the blind see forms and the deaf hear sounds. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:59 Highlight the passage at 1:57:59

1:58:20 May those whose bodies are worn with toil be restored on finding repose. May the naked find clothing, the hungry find food. May the thirsty find water and delicious drink. May the poor find wealth, those weak with sorrow find joy. May the forlorn find hope, constant happiness and prosperity. May there be timely rains and bountiful harvests. May all medicines be effective and wholesome prayers bear fruit. May all who are sick and ill quickly be freed from their ailments. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:20 Highlight the passage at 1:58:20

1:58:54 Whatever diseases there are in the world, may they never occur again. May the frightened cease to be afraid and those bound be freed. May the powerless find power and may people think of benefiting each other. as long as space remains, for as long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain to dispel the miseries of the world. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:54 Highlight the passage at 1:58:54

1:59:18 these skillful actions may I quickly become an awakened spiritual master. May the supreme jewel of the awakened heart that has not arisen arise and grow, and may that which has arisen never decline but increase more and more. In the land and surfer by snow mountains, you are the source of all happiness and well-being. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:18 Highlight the passage at 1:59:18

1:59:45 Please remain to the end of cyclic existence. Is Report an error in the passage at 1:59:45 Highlight the passage at 1:59:45

2:00:09 it tough? Is what we're discussing, is it difficult? Powerful chain with the Tenzin Gyatsu. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:09 Highlight the passage at 2:00:09

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:00:23 is there, is it, okay. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:23 Highlight the passage at 2:00:23