BP: Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds (18 May 2015)

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0:35 It says, Report an error in the passage at 0:35 Highlight the passage at 0:35

0:39 I never allow myself to be distracted and do not look around meaniously. Rather, with a firm mind, I always look with my eyes cast down. So I was out bushwalking, and I was trying to follow Jampa Jaffe's instructions to the letter. But I forgot later on, he says, in 37AB, to check whether there are dangers on the road, look repeatedly in the four directions. Report an error in the passage at 0:39 Highlight the passage at 0:39

1:07 So there was a catch there. I missed that one. I missed his limb that was sticking out over the path. And I ran in. Anyway, to make a long story short, I was out bushwalking. I was watching my feet because the path was quite rough. And then I hit my head on an overhanging branch. Report an error in the passage at 1:07 Highlight the passage at 1:07

1:30 No, no, no. I'm just getting sympathy. It's really not that bad. It's just superficial. I mean, I just carry on. Report an error in the passage at 1:30 Highlight the passage at 1:30

1:47 I'm just joking. It's nothing. It's not much of anything. How is everybody? Anybody have any more exciting story than mine over the week? Report an error in the passage at 1:47 Highlight the passage at 1:47

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

2:11 Yeah, yeah. It's Report an error in the passage at 2:11 Highlight the passage at 2:11

2:24 in jail. No, that's right. Report an error in the passage at 2:24 Highlight the passage at 2:24

2:31 It's a profound insight, isn't it? Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:31 Highlight the passage at 2:31

2:45 So we could be in jail and not know it. Report an error in the passage at 2:45 Highlight the passage at 2:45

3:00 That's good. Report an error in the passage at 3:00 Highlight the passage at 3:00

3:06 Oh, yeah. that's... Report an error in the passage at 3:06 Highlight the passage at 3:06

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4:02 I'm glad I don't read Twitters. So how were you able to restrain yourself? What came to mind? Report an error in the passage at 4:02 Highlight the passage at 4:02

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5:06 You did well. Report an error in the passage at 5:06 Highlight the passage at 5:06

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5:39 I don't say Report an error in the passage at 5:39 Highlight the passage at 5:39

5:51 anything. Report an error in the passage at 5:51 Highlight the passage at 5:51

6:01 Probably a good piece of advice. Report an error in the passage at 6:01 Highlight the passage at 6:01

6:11 Anybody else? Report an error in the passage at 6:11 Highlight the passage at 6:11

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8:15 That's a good point. Report an error in the passage at 8:15 Highlight the passage at 8:15

8:41 Yeah, sure. Report an error in the passage at 8:41 Highlight the passage at 8:41

8:49 So they're probably, I mean, for the majority of Chinese, there would be no other reason for them to believe otherwise because that's all the history books and the news, that's all that they hear and read. Report an error in the passage at 8:49 Highlight the passage at 8:49

9:01 And so they see one side of the story. Report an error in the passage at 9:01 Highlight the passage at 9:01

9:33 So Report an error in the passage at 9:33 Highlight the passage at 9:33

9:50 there's lots of different perspectives. Report an error in the passage at 9:50 Highlight the passage at 9:50

9:55 So you did well. Anybody else? I'll go to the years of people talking about it. Report an error in the passage at 9:55 Highlight the passage at 9:55

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10:27 Which text do you have? 35, page 21. Chapter 5. Report an error in the passage at 10:27 Highlight the passage at 10:27

10:44 Yeah, I do. Oh, the reckless harm themselves in thorns and so forth. No. I like you too. What was that? Chapter 5. Some harm themselves in thorns. Page 17. Page 21? Report an error in the passage at 10:44 Highlight the passage at 10:44

11:10 Maybe Report an error in the passage at 11:10 Highlight the passage at 11:10

11:17 you have a different edition. I have the censored version. Report an error in the passage at 11:17 Highlight the passage at 11:17

11:36 Always look with my eyes downcast. Report an error in the passage at 11:36 Highlight the passage at 11:36

11:58 I Report an error in the passage at 11:58 Highlight the passage at 11:58

12:13 go for refuge. chapter. Report an error in the passage at 12:13 Highlight the passage at 12:13

11:20 you very much. Report an error in the passage at 11:20 Highlight the passage at 11:20

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12:13 refuge until I am awakened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha the collections of merit and wisdom created out of generosity and any other practices. 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 12:13 Highlight the passage at 12:13

12:42 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 all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. Report an error in the passage at 12:42 Highlight the passage at 12:42

13:04 May all sentient beings be inseparable from the joy that is without sorrow. May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free from attachment for some and aversion toward other. If Report an error in the passage at 13:04 Highlight the passage at 13:04

13:23 you'd like to stand up and stretch and sit. Report an error in the passage at 13:23 Highlight the passage at 13:23

13:46 How did you feel when your colleague was going on like that? Report an error in the passage at 13:46 Highlight the passage at 13:46

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16:54 I mean, the Lama is within... Our community, I guess you'd say, is so highly regarded. It must come, as you said, a shock when someone disparates you. There's some dissonance. Report an error in the passage at 16:54 Highlight the passage at 16:54

17:26 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 17:26 Highlight the passage at 17:26

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18:31 A firm Report an error in the passage at 18:31 Highlight the passage at 18:31

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19:23 but comfortable posture. Bring your awareness to the crown of your head. that point, I felt it was very strong news to God. Let's just have a tour Report an error in the passage at 19:23 Highlight the passage at 19:23

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19:28 and scalp. We'll begin by imagining or actually feeling the wrinkles between your brow and your forehead smoothing out, Report an error in the passage at 19:28 Highlight the passage at 19:28

19:42 the pressure in and around your eyes diminishing, the Report an error in the passage at 19:42 Highlight the passage at 19:42

19:53 muscles of the face softening, relaxing. Your Report an error in the passage at 19:53 Highlight the passage at 19:53

20:10 tongue is soft and jaw relaxed, bringing your awareness to the back of your neck and turning your head to each side a few times, very gently loosening, stretching. Report an error in the passage at 20:10 Highlight the passage at 20:10

20:29 The muscles of the back of the neck. Report an error in the passage at 20:29 Highlight the passage at 20:29

20:37 And bringing your awareness to your upper back and shoulders, drawing your shoulders up toward your ears, circling them to the back and down, Report an error in the passage at 20:37 Highlight the passage at 20:37

20:53 rotating your shoulders a few times. Report an error in the passage at 20:53 Highlight the passage at 20:53

21:07 Eventually, returning your shoulders back up toward your ears and then just allowing them to drop comfortably to the sides. And with that, a feeling of some kind of burden or weight that you may have unknowingly been carrying around on your head. You're back over the course of the day, moving down through your body into the ground, a feeling of relief, a burden that's been lifted from your shoulders. Report an error in the passage at 21:07 Highlight the passage at 21:07

21:44 Bringing your awareness all the way down to your hands, your hands are soft and loose, Report an error in the passage at 21:44 Highlight the passage at 21:44

21:53 relaxing your lower arm, Report an error in the passage at 21:53 Highlight the passage at 21:53

22:08 your chest is at ease, Report an error in the passage at 22:08 Highlight the passage at 22:08

22:20 relaxing throughout the heart area, the central space of the chest, Report an error in the passage at 22:20 Highlight the passage at 22:20

22:50 and releasing the tension that we often hold in our stomach muscles, just allowing the belly to go soft. Report an error in the passage at 22:50 Highlight the passage at 22:50

23:19 Erect, relax your lower back muscles throughout Report an error in the passage at 23:19 Highlight the passage at 23:19

23:40 the pelvic region. Leave Report an error in the passage at 23:40 Highlight the passage at 23:40

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24:26 your feet soft and loose. Report an error in the passage at 24:26 Highlight the passage at 24:26

24:38 So scanning through the body once again from the crown down through the central portion of the body and paying particular attention to any tightnesses or tensions which remain in the body. Breathing into those areas, Report an error in the passage at 24:38 Highlight the passage at 24:38

24:55 breathing out from those areas with that out-breath. Feeling, imagining, Report an error in the passage at 24:55 Highlight the passage at 24:55

25:06 diminish the tightness, loosen again and again. Report an error in the passage at 25:06 Highlight the passage at 25:06

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26:29 Stay with your body for a little while. Now Report an error in the passage at 26:29 Highlight the passage at 26:29

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27:13 I invite you to bring your awareness to the breath. Report an error in the passage at 27:13 Highlight the passage at 27:13

27:28 And you can accompany this focusing of your awareness on the breath with a counting of the breaths. Breathing in, breathing out, counting one and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 27:28 Highlight the passage at 27:28

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36:54 Now we're going to shift our awareness to a sensation of the body other than that of the breath. Whatever is predominant. The pressure of your buttocks and the chair, the cushion, hands in your lap. Report an error in the passage at 36:54 Highlight the passage at 36:54

37:11 How does that feel? Just focusing your awareness on the sensation other than the breath. Report an error in the passage at 37:11 Highlight the passage at 37:11

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38:51 Shifting our attention this time to the sounds around us. We're going to listen to sound without naming it or judging it. Report an error in the passage at 38:51 Highlight the passage at 38:51

39:05 The simple act of listening to sound. Report an error in the passage at 39:05 Highlight the passage at 39:05

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40:39 And again, we'll shift our attention this time to turning our attention inward to the objects and states of mind. The thoughts and words. Pictures, images passing through our mind, but also the state of our mind. Maybe your mind is restless, maybe it's sleepy, experiencing pleasure, displeasure and emotion, objects and states of mind, watching the mind itself. Report an error in the passage at 40:39 Highlight the passage at 40:39

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42:36 And then finally, just going to allow the mind to become involved in any object that it naturally tends toward, whether it's the breath or sensation of the body or sound or thought. Report an error in the passage at 42:36 Highlight the passage at 42:36

42:52 And then relax. And easy-going manner to simply observe, maintain a degree of awareness, watching, Report an error in the passage at 42:52 Highlight the passage at 42:52

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43:59 remaining aware, watching, observing. Report an error in the passage at 43:59 Highlight the passage at 43:59

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44:39 And then we'll bring the mind back to the breath, easy, gentle, in an outflow of the natural breath. So Report an error in the passage at 44:39 Highlight the passage at 44:39

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47:53 we're going to continue with the fifth chapter, which is on, it's called introspection. Report an error in the passage at 47:53 Highlight the passage at 47:53

48:08 other words for, you know, the... Possible other words for introspection were awareness or discriminated awareness or watchfulness. Report an error in the passage at 48:08 Highlight the passage at 48:08

48:26 So previously we made some kinds of commitments to a particular way of life, a bodhisattva's way of life. We're trying to, as best we can, live up to such a lofty commitment as best we can, in spite of ourselves sometimes. And we try to be as conscientious as possible about that. Report an error in the passage at 48:26 Highlight the passage at 48:26

48:53 Bringing a degree of integrity and sincerity to what we're involved in. And in order to guard against acting in ways which are contrary to what it is that we're trying, you know, the direction that we'd like our life to go, we have to guard our introspection. We use the two factors, develop and cultivate to make use of the two factors of... Report an error in the passage at 48:53 Highlight the passage at 48:53

49:25 Mindfulness and introspection. So that's where we have begun. Report an error in the passage at 49:25 Highlight the passage at 49:25

49:38 Last time we talked about, you know, we're going to talk more about the negative emotions and why we call them negative as opposed to other types of emotions and what are the criteria we can make use of for determining, well, this emotion I think is valuable. Report an error in the passage at 49:38 Highlight the passage at 49:38

50:03 And other types of emotions are maybe dysfunctional, taking us in a direction that we'd probably rather not take, leading us to more problems. Report an error in the passage at 50:03 Highlight the passage at 50:03

50:18 So certain types of emotions. Emotions are fairly stable patterns of reactivity of our minds, ways of compensating or restoring or maintaining. the side. Report an error in the passage at 50:18 Highlight the passage at 50:18

50:33 In terms of our relationship to the world about us and so forth. So some emotions serve to, you know, the way that we can begin, the criteria we can begin to make use of in determining what emotions we're going to invite into our life, we're going to reinforce, and those types of emotions which we're going to maybe try our best not to indulge or perhaps even offer some resistance, some kind of restraint, is whether or not the... Report an error in the passage at 50:33 Highlight the passage at 50:33

51:02 The emotion serves, you know, it's a very pragmatic basis. Whether or not the emotion serves to perpetuate our suffering, or we could say the continual reoccurrence of our problems, or whether the emotion serves to liberate us from them. So whether the emotion binds us or frees us from suffering. That's right. Kind of the... The... Report an error in the passage at 51:02 Highlight the passage at 51:02

51:34 Basic criteria, not whether the emotion feels good or not and whether it's sung on the radio or not. Report an error in the passage at 51:34 Highlight the passage at 51:34

51:49 We got up to, we're going to begin looking at verse 23, which is on page 15. Okay, are we all together? Chapter 5, page 15. Report an error in the passage at 51:49 Highlight the passage at 51:49

52:07 Guardian Mindfulness and Introspection. Introspection, introspection, introspection. Yeah. Anyway. Report an error in the passage at 52:07 Highlight the passage at 52:07

52:26 We'll talk about exactly what mindfulness and introspection are, trying to get some kind of sense about what these words mean. Report an error in the passage at 52:26 Highlight the passage at 52:26

52:50 So in order to, you know, we need to, this chapter can also be entitled Guarding or Protecting Our Minds. And Shantideva is advising us, in the course of guarding and protecting our minds, we are to make use of these two mental factors of mindfulness and introspection. So in verse 23, we begin to ask, well, what is mindfulness? And I think mindfulness has become something of a buzzword. Report an error in the passage at 52:50 Highlight the passage at 52:50

53:26 It's in vogue. There's mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. There's mindfulness-based stress reduction. There's ACT, action and commitment therapy. So it's been a great deal of use being made of it in psychotherapy, but also in education, introducing it in various ways into schools. There's lots of possible ways that we could define it in popular definitions and more. Report an error in the passage at 53:26 Highlight the passage at 53:26

53:59 Traditional definitions. Report an error in the passage at 53:59 Highlight the passage at 53:59

54:03 Maybe we can talk about each of those different possibilities. There's at least 20 that I know of, meanings or definitions. Report an error in the passage at 54:03 Highlight the passage at 54:03

54:15 In the more traditional, what we might call Abhidharma, the category of Buddhism, which concerns itself with psychology and cosmology. the more Report an error in the passage at 54:15 Highlight the passage at 54:15

54:13 let's pick. Report an error in the passage at 54:13 Highlight the passage at 54:13

54:30 It... It's defined as a mental factor. It has three characteristics. Report an error in the passage at 54:30 Highlight the passage at 54:30

54:39 First, in terms of its object, mindfulness focuses on an object with which the mind has been previously familiar with. Report an error in the passage at 54:39 Highlight the passage at 54:39

54:54 This is the strict or traditional definition. we cannot... Report an error in the passage at 54:54 Highlight the passage at 54:54

54:59 We have to be familiar with the object to be mindful of it. Just as a rule of thumb, a lot of this way of explaining mindfulness is in terms of the development of meditation practice, the development of concentration or shamatha, kama-bhadi. This is one way of defining mindfulness. And when we consider it in this kind of... Report an error in the passage at 54:59 Highlight the passage at 54:59

55:28 This narrow way. Mindfulness is that which holds objects. Like my hand holds the stick. Introspection, it's like a wisdom. It's an analytic consciousness which investigates or examines how am I holding the stick? How tightly am I holding the stick? Am I holding it too tightly? Am I holding it too loosely? Have I lost the stick? So mindfulness, in Tibetan, the word is dremba. Report an error in the passage at 55:28 Highlight the passage at 55:28

55:58 D-R-E-N-P-A. It simply means memory. So that's not a very exotic term, is it? Memory. It's a factor of mine which holds telephone numbers. I can remember my telephone number. I can remember my address. I can remember the faces of the people. But I have to be familiar with those objects in order to remember them. So nowadays people say, oh, if you break a dish, somebody says, oh, you should be more mindful. Report an error in the passage at 55:58 Highlight the passage at 55:58

56:29 They're not really using the term in its traditional usage. They're using it more like awareness or something like that. You should be more aware. So the object. So these three characteristics of the word mindfulness. And I'll go through another way of looking at mindfulness, which I think will also be useful, but in terms of what Shantideva is talking about here. Report an error in the passage at 56:29 Highlight the passage at 56:29

56:53 It's object. So with mindfulness. Focus upon an object we're familiar with. It's nature. The nature of mindfulness is not to forget the object that we're holding on to. So we don't forget. If you're doing a visualization, you can remember the image that you're trying to hold in mind. If you're remembering a telephone number, you can hold the number in your mind. Report an error in the passage at 56:53 Highlight the passage at 56:53

57:18 So its nature is its non-forgetfulness. It doesn't allow the mind to forget the object. And then its function is, is that mindfulness. Mindfulness holds the mind to the object and doesn't allow it to wander away. So it's an antidote to distraction, to mental wandering, and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 57:18 Highlight the passage at 57:18

57:41 So mindfulness as an object, which we're familiar with, it holds the object, doesn't allow us to forget it, and it also has the function of not allowing the mind to drift to another object. forth. So have Report an error in the passage at 57:41 Highlight the passage at 57:41

57:57 To be distracted, to wander, and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 57:57 Highlight the passage at 57:57

58:02 Introspection. As I said, there are other terms for introspection. I like the word awareness, to be honest with you, but here they use the word introspection. Report an error in the passage at 58:02 Highlight the passage at 58:02

58:17 Attention. Maybe even a very simple word is noticing. You notice. You notice the color of the paper. You notice that sound. You're aware of it. So introspection has a kind of more, in terms of meditation, introspection. You're more internal rather than noticing things around you. So it's more restricted. So what is introspection? Having placed the mind upon an object. Report an error in the passage at 58:17 Highlight the passage at 58:17

58:51 So we're holding the mind with mindfulness. Introspection, as I just mentioned, is a mental factor. And as we looked at when we studied awareness and knowledge, in Buddhist psychology there are 51 secondary mental factors. There's a list of mental factors among which is introspection. So it's a mental factor that it checks to see if our mind in this context has fallen under the control of dullness or excitement. Report an error in the passage at 58:51 Highlight the passage at 58:51

59:28 So it's really a quality of mind, an analytic consciousness, like a wisdom consciousness, which examines how our mind is functioning, Report an error in the passage at 59:28 Highlight the passage at 59:28

59:43 how the mind is holding the object. It's like a spy. Traditionally, it has this kind of image, a spy-like function, which discriminates the state of our mind. Report an error in the passage at 59:43 Highlight the passage at 59:43

59:57 So it's quite in the background. Report an error in the passage at 59:57 Highlight the passage at 59:57

1:00:03 In this context, so these two, mindfulness and introspection, are two of the most important tools in the development of calm abiding, or we could say simply most single-pointed concentration. They are the antidotes to, on the one hand, restlessness, and on the other, mental dullness, sleepiness, and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:03 Highlight the passage at 1:00:03

1:00:30 I'd like just to give you, but we can expand that even within this traditional understanding. I don't want to get overly technical. This is a book on mind and awareness by Geshe Rapton, who was a well-known teacher to Westerners. He lived in Switzerland for quite a number of years before he died. So in this book, this word that we're translating as mindfulness is being translated as recollection. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:30 Highlight the passage at 1:00:30

1:01:00 So there's lots of varieties of possible terms. So we shouldn't get too hung up on one word and try to fit our minds into it. Recollection operates within a wide variety of activities. So he's going to point out different areas, not just meditation, but he begins with meditation. During single-pointed meditation, it is the factor responsible for constantly bringing the object to mind and holding it there. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:00 Highlight the passage at 1:01:00

1:01:30 So when we're meditating on the breath, it is mindfulness which is holding the mind to the breath. But I don't know about you, but I know for myself my mindfulness isn't all that strong. So my mind wanders off. It doesn't function as well as it should be functioning. It distracts it. So it is the factor responsible for constantly bringing the object to mind and holding it there. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:30 Highlight the passage at 1:01:30

1:01:58 So it brings us back. It holds and brings us back. It doesn't allow the mind to forget what we're trying to remember. In the practice of moral discipline, so now he's extending this notion of mindfulness, or here he calls it recollection, to other areas. But this is also what Shantideva is intended here, because the main subject matter of the fifth chapter is ethics. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:58 Highlight the passage at 1:01:58

1:02:30 He uses the term moral discipline. In the practice of moral discipline, it is compared to a watchman at the doorway of the mind who has the task of being constantly mindful of various mental factors, in particular the disturbing conceptions that arise. What is examining the function of our mind? Is anger arising? Am I getting upset when you had these difficult... Report an error in the passage at 1:02:30 Highlight the passage at 1:02:30

1:02:59 Moments in the course of your week, you noticed that your mind was maybe getting upset. There was a little shaky. That factor which was doing that noticing is called introspection or mindfulness or recollection. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:59 Highlight the passage at 1:02:59

1:03:15 Through recollecting one's vows, it does not allow unwholesome mental factors to gain a foothold in the mind, thus causing turmoil and chaos. In the third chapter, it's the taking of the, making commitments to the bodhisattva's way of life and so forth, trying to hold ourselves to that commitment. So that factor of mind, which is trying to hold us to that commitment, is this factor of recollection or mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:15 Highlight the passage at 1:03:15

1:03:45 Through recollecting one's vows and commitment, it does not allow unwholesome mental states to gain a foothold in the mind, thus causing mental turmoil and chaos. While studying, it remembers what one has learned. Previously, and thus enables the store of knowledge to be built up, so it's just memory in everyday life. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:45 Highlight the passage at 1:03:45

1:04:06 It gives us order to one's daily activities in recollecting what has to be done at a particular time and so forth. You know, I have to remember, oh, I've got an appointment at such and such a time. So that which is doing that function is recollection or mindfulness. In brief, recollection is compared to a treasure house that can store many wholesome... Report an error in the passage at 1:04:06 Highlight the passage at 1:04:06

1:04:28 qualities without letting them perish. So these are the two mental factors which Shantideva says are quite important. If at some point you've made some sort of real honest commitment to yourself and you want to hold to that commitment in all the ups and downs of your daily practical life, what is it that's going to see you through that? Report an error in the passage at 1:04:28 Highlight the passage at 1:04:28

1:04:55 What's going to keep bringing your values up? Back to you when you lose your way is this factor of mindfulness and introspection. So they're quite important in life in general, but here they're being emphasized in terms of the practice of ethics of bodhicitta's way of life. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:55 Highlight the passage at 1:04:55

1:05:16 And then, so, you who wish to protect your mind, guard with wholehearted effort, mindfulness and introspection, I request with hands folded. And then the next, I think, about eight, Verses 24 through 32 describe the various drawbacks, disadvantages and so forth if our mindfulness and introspection are lost. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:16 Highlight the passage at 1:05:16

1:05:44 I'm going to talk more about mindfulness in a more popular version of the explanation. Is it fairly clear what we mean by mindfulness and introspection? Yeah? Report an error in the passage at 1:05:44 Highlight the passage at 1:05:44

1:05:59 No. No, yeah. So in the Mahāyāna Abhidharma, there are two Abhidharmas. I mean, there are many Abhidharmas. These are commentarial texts which were written by past masters on the Buddhist discourses. But in general, there's what are called the Mahāyāna. There's one particular Abhidharma written by a Saṅgha. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:59 Highlight the passage at 1:05:59

1:06:34 Which is usually termed the Mahāyāna. Abhidharma is one by Vasabandhu, which is the Hinayana Abhidharma. And there's a different enumeration. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:34 Highlight the passage at 1:06:34

1:06:45 Asangas, Mahāyāna Abhidharma has 51 mental factors, as I just mentioned. And Vasabandhu says 46. And one of the differences is that, and this is following the Theravāda, is that they don't distinguish between introspection and mindfulness. Introspection is consumed under mindfulness. So when people talk in the Theravad tradition, they're covering both meanings when they use the word mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:45 Highlight the passage at 1:06:45

1:07:14 Both the meaning of memory or that function of mind which holds objects and that which examines introspection, which examines how it's being held, if it's being held, the way it's being held. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:14 Highlight the passage at 1:07:14

1:07:33 so, so... Mindfulness here, they're separated out as two distinct factors. Mindfulness is that which holds objects. It is very simply. Introspection examines, checks up, how am I holding it? Am I holding it really tightly? Am I holding it too tightly? Maybe too loosely? Is it just about to be lost? Report an error in the passage at 1:07:33 Highlight the passage at 1:07:33

1:08:04 In Theravāda, when you hear the word mindfulness, They don't make that distinction. So it makes sense when they say, you should be more mindful. If you knock over in a reading and you knock over the water glass, somebody says, oh, you should be more mindful. What they're saying is that you should be more alert. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:04 Highlight the passage at 1:08:04

1:08:26 And if you said that to a Tibetan teacher, he wouldn't know what you were talking about, being more mindful. Because to be mindful, you have to be familiar with the object. It doesn't make sense. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:26 Highlight the passage at 1:08:26

1:08:38 Yeah, I hope I'm not confusing you. Anyway, I'll talk more about it. So in the Theravan tradition, which is where it's talked about a great deal these days, when they use the word mindfulness, they're also including this meaning of introspection is included. When Tibetans discuss it, they separate out those two mental factors. They're two different mental factors. Verse 24, a person that is wracked by illness does not have energy for any work. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:38 Highlight the passage at 1:08:38

1:09:08 Similarly, a mind disturbed by ignorance. It does not have any energy for any work. Because our minds are continually wandering into these habitual patterns of afflictions without even being aware of it, it becomes difficult for us to engage in positive actions. So we're just going through some of the faults if we don't develop these two factors of mindfulness and introspection. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:08 Highlight the passage at 1:09:08

1:09:38 So one of the, it becomes... I probably, I don't know, I don't want to talk in a kind of a negative fashion, but a great deal of our mental thinking is dominated by, to maybe even only a slight degree, dominated by negative habitual thought patterns. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:38 Highlight the passage at 1:09:38

1:10:05 So unless we kind of alert to that, the default of our mind might be, Report an error in the passage at 1:10:05 Highlight the passage at 1:10:05

1:10:15 Afflictions. At least that's what it is. Especially when we're tired. We don't have much energy. It becomes difficult to act in a positive fashion. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:15 Highlight the passage at 1:10:15

1:10:31 Verse 25. So here it says, there are many different ideals about what wisdom is. Wisdom is more like an analytic consciousness which examines. It penetrates. That's kind of its nature. There is called what There are many different types. One area of wisdom or one way of categorizing wisdom is the wisdom arisen from listening, wisdom arisen from contemplation, and the wisdom arisen from meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:31 Highlight the passage at 1:10:31

1:11:06 So you study, you listen, you get some understanding, you begin to develop some structure, like maybe you attend a teaching, the meaning of the terms, the structure of the teaching itself. So you get things straight in your mind. Then you begin to reflect upon them. Does it accord with my experience? Report an error in the passage at 1:11:06 Highlight the passage at 1:11:06

1:11:29 Is it internally consistent? Is it logical? So you begin to examine it. So there develops some kind of wisdom from this process of reflection. And then finally, the wisdom arisen from... Meditation is like the doing as opposed to the thinking. And by doing, it doesn't mean you have to do it off your cushion. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:29 Highlight the passage at 1:11:29

1:12:01 It could be on your cushion. But it's like, you know, rather than thinking about love, we are being the love that we have been reflecting on. So it's the doing of, you know, the word, I was going to talk a little bit more about meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:01 Highlight the passage at 1:12:01

1:12:19 In Sanskrit, the word for meditation is bhavana, which means to cultivate. In the Tibetan, it's not all that exotic, in a way, as it's been developed in the notion, as it's being seen in the West. It means to cultivate. And in the Tibetan, the word for meditation, the Tibetan equivalent for meditation, is gom. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:19 Highlight the passage at 1:12:19

1:12:50 Which simply means to habituate, to familiarize. So if we take those two words and get a sense of what, at least traditionally, meditation has been about, you know, it's like we have a fallow field, an empty field, and we're bringing forth this new crop. We're cultivating something. And we're developing it. And we become more and more. We produce these various very productive, skillful states of mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:50 Highlight the passage at 1:12:50

1:13:18 And we familiarize. We habituate our mind to them such that it becomes second nature. So we are as if always meditating, but we're meditating on maybe not so useful subjects in our afflictions. We're cultivating and familiarizing ourselves with anger and pride and jealousy. At least I am. So that's this process. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:18 Highlight the passage at 1:13:18

1:13:48 Here it's a more directed process. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:48 Highlight the passage at 1:13:48

1:13:57 There are these three types of wisdom that are arisen through listening, contemplation and meditation. So if the loss of mindfulness and introspection is compared to, you probably may have heard this, they use these analogies of a leaky pot. Three pots, remember that? The old three pots? Report an error in the passage at 1:13:57 Highlight the passage at 1:13:57

1:14:27 Without mindfulness and introspection, our minds are compared by way of a metaphor or analogy to a leaky pot. A leaky pot, whatever it's put in it, it just runs out. You attend a teaching or you read a text or a book or whatever and you close the book and you walk out the door and say, what was that about? Report an error in the passage at 1:14:27 Highlight the passage at 1:14:27

1:14:51 Nothing is retained. There's nothing held, that factor of mindfulness. We don't keep it in mind. The word mindfulness, it's actually a nice ring to it in a way. Our mind is filled with that. We keep it in mind, to keep in mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:51 Highlight the passage at 1:14:51

1:15:14 26, a person listening, having faith and striving strongly in many ways because of having the fault of lacking introspection becomes solid by the dirt of downfalls. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:14 Highlight the passage at 1:15:14

1:15:26 So without mindfulness and introspection, Report an error in the passage at 1:15:26 Highlight the passage at 1:15:26

1:15:34 We'll not be able to keep in mind what is most important to ourselves. We keep losing our way. In this context, we really have tried to live up to a high idea. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:34 Highlight the passage at 1:15:34

1:15:52 We really want this way of a bodhisattva, this noble way of life. We'd really like to see it not just as a lofty idea, but... To see our life as a reflection of that bodhicitta idea. So how do we, in all the vagaries of our life, we're being shoved, pushed here and there. People are saying this about the Dalai Lama and that. And our minds are freaking out. How do we keep that idea, like a compass, keep coming back to true north, where we want to go? Report an error in the passage at 1:15:52 Highlight the passage at 1:15:52

1:16:36 The factor of mindfulness is holding us to true north. We keep in mind what is most important, what is of value, what are promises, our overall vision of how we would like to see our life go. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:36 Highlight the passage at 1:16:36

1:16:58 27. The thief of a lack of introspection follows degenerated mindfulness, although having accumulated merit, the thief steals. And one goes to lower realms. So, you know, without mindfulness and introspection, for example, we might not even be aware that we're getting angry. Or we might not even be aware that we are angry. You know, there's a varying degree of this word introspection. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:58 Highlight the passage at 1:16:58

1:17:36 We could say almost like a sensitivity to the state of our being. Some people, you know, It's not until they punch somebody in the face that they realize they're angry. They lose it. I lost it. Completely insensitive to the state of their mind, the state of their being. Other people, and this is cultivated, we can become, it's like you can become, an emotion is not just a thing, a solid object. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:36 Highlight the passage at 1:17:36

1:18:05 It is made up of lots of little bits. And moreover, it evolves. It's like all things. It's a dependent arising. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:05 Highlight the passage at 1:18:05

1:18:15 An emotion is a constellation of physical sensations, of feelings, thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:15 Highlight the passage at 1:18:15

1:18:25 One of them, one of the early warning systems, is your body. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:25 Highlight the passage at 1:18:25

1:18:37 An emotion is not just in your head, it's also in your body. For example, people can... If you educate yourself in terms of the evolution of what triggers your emotions, you can begin to catch that you're becoming angry. Maybe some people, they tighten between the eyebrows, or maybe their teeth clench, or there's a palpitation, maybe the constriction around the chest. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:37 Highlight the passage at 1:18:37

1:19:12 So this becomes like an early warning system, if you have the degree of introspection. That is, say, the sensitivity to it. You can catch it well before it begins to manifest in the mind. And therefore, you can avert it. There's a certain point when you can't, you know, all you can do is walk away. You can't stop the anger, as it were. You're probably lucky to walk away, you know, without saying anything. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:12 Highlight the passage at 1:19:12

1:19:38 But, you know, we only have so much ability to apply antidotes or to maintain a degree of balance and awareness. In these highly emotionally charged situations, when somebody says something, it really shakes us. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:38 Highlight the passage at 1:19:38

1:19:59 So you can become more sensitive. Let us say, cultivate, but I'm using another word, sensitive, maybe introspective. You can begin to know, oh, there's a little palpitation here. I'm getting upset. And then you can... You can shift your perspective, or you can use whatever tools that you have to work with, or you can say, got to go, catch you later, rather than allowing it simply to find full expression. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:59 Highlight the passage at 1:19:59

1:20:35 Some people don't know they're angry until they actually, maybe, I'm not angry. Anyway, so there's varying degrees of sensitivity to our emotional states. in the anger world. I'm not angry. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:35 Highlight the passage at 1:20:35

1:20:50 Introspection is one which will assist us in determining that. So what it's saying here is, if you lack this introspection, then you're probably going to easily become angry. And anger destroys your accumulated merit, this positive potential, destroyed through anger. So it's like a thief, if without mind. The lack of mindfulness steals away our merit. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:50 Highlight the passage at 1:20:50

1:21:23 28, this gang of afflicted robbers looks for an opportunity. If they get a chance, they steal virtue and kill off the life of happy realms. Okay, this is pretty much what was just repeated, just mentioned previously, without mindfulness and introspection. The various afflictions are like a gang of robbers, not only robbing us of past virtues, but preventing us from developing. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:23 Highlight the passage at 1:21:23

1:21:51 Of our minds and creating new virtues. Therefore, do not send mindfulness away from the doors of the mind. Should it happen, place it closely by recalling the sufferings of the lower realms. So sometimes mindfulness is compared to a guard standing at the doorways. You know, we have a protector. Yeah, good. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:51 Highlight the passage at 1:21:51

1:22:31 Determining what enters and what doesn't or what goes out and so forth. So what it's saying is mindfulness can help us determine is this truly helpful or not. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:31 Highlight the passage at 1:22:31

1:22:50 In some places it's not so useful to yourself to put your mind there in the long run. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:50 Highlight the passage at 1:22:50

1:23:04 In the next couple of verses, the next two verses, it just, it describes the outer, yeah, this isn't very technical, I didn't think, but anyway, the next two and a half verses describe the outer and inner circumstances for the cultivation of mindfulness and introspection. So in verse 30, Shantideva is describing what are the outer, Report an error in the passage at 1:23:04 Highlight the passage at 1:23:04

1:23:36 Circumstances for cultivating, for the development of mindfulness and introspection from following the Lama through to the advice by the Abbot. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:36 Highlight the passage at 1:23:36

1:23:47 So Abbot can simply mean one who has given you vows, for example, is termed one's Abbot. Out of fear, the fortunate ones are respectful and generate mindfulness easily. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:47 Highlight the passage at 1:23:47

1:24:02 So to the outer circumstances. The devotion and gratitude to our teachers and keeping their advice, listening to our Dharma friends, keeping them in a healthy anxiety about being seduced by these reoccurring negative patterns. What happens when you lose it, when you get angry and so forth? Being a bit anxious about that. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:02 Highlight the passage at 1:24:02

1:24:38 It will help us to firmly establish our mind in mindfulness and introspection. The inner condition. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:38 Highlight the passage at 1:24:38

1:24:52 I mentioned in the suggested reading list a book by Pema Chodron. Pema Chodron is an American Tibetan Buddhist nun. And I think she puts it... know, Report an error in the passage at 1:24:52 Highlight the passage at 1:24:52

1:25:07 He explains this verse very well. I'm going to read from Pema Chujan. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:07 Highlight the passage at 1:25:07

1:25:15 Shantideva here says, in terms of the inner condition, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are endowed with unobstructed sight of everything. Say, I am always in the field of vision of the five eyes. I contemplate in this shame and likewise respect the fear I attain. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:15 Highlight the passage at 1:25:15

1:25:37 So she interprets it quite differently. Not differently, but has it? The Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas embody awakened mind. To say that everything lies open to their gaze means that the clarity and warmth of that mind is always available. In that sense, we are always in the presence of awakened mind and can tune into it at any time. Realizing this brings both inspiration and the support of what is called fear and shame. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:37 Highlight the passage at 1:25:37

1:26:10 Traditionally, this would be... Report an error in the passage at 1:26:10 Highlight the passage at 1:26:10

1:26:20 A traditional interpretation of this verse is that the Buddhas are omniscient. They're all annoying. It's like, I hope I'm not being overly disrespectful, you know, that Christmas song, you know, about Santa Claus coming to town. They know if you've been wise or good or bad, so be good for goodness sake, you know. Wherever they're, so the Buddhas are always watching ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:20 Highlight the passage at 1:26:20

1:26:51 And in that context, we should exercise some degree of mindfulness around what we do out of respect and fear. So, you know, Report an error in the passage at 1:26:51 Highlight the passage at 1:26:51

1:27:08 here it says five eyes. It's said that the Buddhists have five eyes. The physical eye, what's called a heavenly eye, they're able to see remote places, far distant places and so forth. Able to see atoms, wisdom eye, Dharma eye, and Buddha eye. Anyway, wherever the omniscient mind is, there is a Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:08 Highlight the passage at 1:27:08

1:27:36 And they're always in the presence of Buddhas. So if you were mindful of that fact, you might change the way that you act. That's a traditional explanation of that verse. So fear here, by contemplating this, shame and likewise respect and fear are attained. Fear, this understanding of the consequences of our afflictive emotions. So it's not fear of external, but of continually creating the causes for our future suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:36 Highlight the passage at 1:27:36

1:28:11 That kind of fear. I like the word maybe anxiety. And we discussed shame when we went through awareness and knowledge. I mean, it's a loaded word, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:28:11 Highlight the passage at 1:28:11

1:28:25 But here it has a very positive connotation. Shame is a mental factor that avoids misconduct out of personal conscience. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:25 Highlight the passage at 1:28:25

1:28:38 You don't feel so good about yourself when you do things, if you harm somebody or you harm yourself. It doesn't feel right. That's shame. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:38 Highlight the passage at 1:28:38

1:28:48 So it has a positive connotation. Recognizing that we harm ourselves and others and we feel sorry. I wish I hadn't done that. We're having done so. We don't feel so good about ourselves. Shame. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:48 Highlight the passage at 1:28:48

1:29:05 In verse 32, it's 32 CD. They also repeatedly generate. So these are the internal conditions for cultivating mindfulness and introspection. They also repeatedly generate recollection of the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:05 Highlight the passage at 1:29:05

1:29:29 So, you know, this simply, you know, Gelsup Jay and his... Paragraph in which he explains that half verse. A person who thinks in this way will also recollect the qualities of the Buddha Dharma and Saṅgha. So this is one meaning of the word. They're also in the Pāli tradition. So the Pāli tradition is that there are various canons, collections of the Buddhist teachings. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:29 Highlight the passage at 1:29:29

1:29:57 And so generally we follow the Tibetan canon. As the teachings were translated from Sanskrit, well, a few different languages actually, but mainly from Sanskrit into Tibetan language. In the Pāli Canon, so the Pāli Canon is the discourse of the Buddha, the sutras, in the language of Pāli, which is probably something of a hybrid language. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:57 Highlight the passage at 1:29:57

1:30:26 The Buddha actually spoke in what's called Madhya, a dialect of Madhya. And so a mixture of Madhya with Sanskrit. And so they have what's called in the Pāli Canon in these teachings, there is a mention of a set of ten recollections, ten recollections. So I think in a way this might even fit better than what's being mentioned here. I'll just mention what is, this is from one Theravan monk explaining the ten. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:26 Highlight the passage at 1:30:26

1:31:05 I'll just mention them. I won't read the entire passage. The Ten Recollections are a set of meditation themes that highlight the positive role that memory and thought play in training the mind. So memory is the idea of mindfulness. They employ memory to sensitize the mind to the need for training, to induce feelings of confidence and well-being. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:05 Highlight the passage at 1:31:05

1:31:35 So amongst these... These ten recollections are recollections of the Buddha, recollections of the Dharma, recollections of the Saṅgha, recollections of virtue, generosity, and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:35 Highlight the passage at 1:31:35

1:31:54 And just by way of information, he goes on to say, in the Pāli, so that's, in the Pāli, can it sati. Sati is the Pāli for mindfulness. It does not simply mean awareness. It means the ability to keep something in mind. It is the function of active memory. This point... It is clear in the Buddha's definition of the faculty of mindfulness. So really the Buddha really meant this factor of memory. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:54 Highlight the passage at 1:31:54

1:32:22 It's later commentaries which have kind of conflated with this idea of introspection. Anyway, it's 33. When mindfulness remains at the door of the mind for the purpose of protection, at that time introspection is born in the one that left. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:22 Highlight the passage at 1:32:22

1:32:48 So again, introspection. This awareness is quite natural to the mind. The sensitivity, it is cultivated. It is not directly cultivated. It is a byproduct of the cultivation of mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:48 Highlight the passage at 1:32:48

1:33:09 So when we are practicing mindfulness meditation, we're holding the mind to the breath. We're remembering. There's no... Report an error in the passage at 1:33:09 Highlight the passage at 1:33:09

1:33:18 The breath. We're keeping our minds to the breath. We're also developing the factor of mindfulness, introspection, which is telling us, am I still on the breath? I mean, you might, am I still on the breath? You might wander off the breath because the mindfulness is weak for a couple of minutes. Then you remember, oh, what was I doing? Oh, yes, I was remembering the breath. In Tibetan, I don't know if you're interested in the language, but in Tibetan, I'm going to read you a quote. In Tibetan, drempa. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:18 Highlight the passage at 1:33:18

1:33:56 Drempa is the Tibetan word for mindfulness. And sheshin means awareness, or it translates as awareness, which I prefer, or what we're calling introspection. Drempa means mindfulness and memory. It means that one is mindful of what one is doing. And remembers what one has to do, whether one is meditating, whether one has lost the power of concentration and so on. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:56 Highlight the passage at 1:33:56

1:34:33 Mindfulness is like a causal condition. And awareness, let's say introspection, is like the result. So as you cultivate mindfulness, this ability to hold the mind to the object, this sensitivity, Report an error in the passage at 1:34:33 Highlight the passage at 1:34:33

1:34:51 This ability to notice will naturally increase. It's the result of mindfulness. If one has a very concentrated mindfulness, one immediately notices a thought arising and becomes aware of it, and one knows what is occurring. Normally, one does not know what is in one's mind or what one is thinking. Normally, there's not much introspection or awareness. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:51 Highlight the passage at 1:34:51

1:35:23 But if one has mindfulness, then it is said to the extent that mindfulness brings mental stability, one has awareness, introspection. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:23 Highlight the passage at 1:35:23

1:35:33 When one has mindfulness, it is through one's awareness of what is happening. So the main subject, as I mentioned at the very beginning of Chapter 5, is the transcendent practice of ethics. You know, we're going through, know, what is, what are the main, what are the summarization the. The practices of a bodhisattva are the six transcendent practices, the six perfection. Here in his fifth chapter, the main subject matter is that of ethics. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:33 Highlight the passage at 1:35:33

1:36:07 In order to practice the discipline of ethics, mindfulness and introspection are being emphasized. We're guarding our ethics, what it is we're trying to live up to, and therefore we have to hold in mind. The course of how we want to move through our life. The ethics that we want our life to live by. So that's why Shantideva is emphasizing the importance of being able to hold your mind to that ethics and being aware, am I in fact doing just that? Report an error in the passage at 1:36:07 Highlight the passage at 1:36:07

1:36:44 So ethics is not just a matter of adhering to some sort of moral principles or observing some kind of religious... Conduct or some kind of social conduct. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:44 Highlight the passage at 1:36:44

1:37:05 The way that Shantideva is going to present ethics is in terms of three areas. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:05 Highlight the passage at 1:37:05

1:37:14 Refraining from what is negative, cultivating what is positive and benefiting sentient beings. Those are the three areas of our practice of ethics. Beginning to offer some resistance, restrain, lessen, diminish. The negative patterns of our mind and so forth. Beginning to cultivate, to familiarize, to develop the positive states, qualities of our mind and how to go about best benefiting sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:14 Highlight the passage at 1:37:14

1:37:51 These are the three main areas of our ethical conduct. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:51 Highlight the passage at 1:37:51

1:38:00 So, you know, ethics, I think I mentioned this. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:00 Highlight the passage at 1:38:00

1:38:09 It's translated the Sanskrit word shila in palisila, which literally means cooling. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:09 Highlight the passage at 1:38:09

1:38:20 It's like the reason we're cooling the heat of the afflictions, if you like. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:20 Highlight the passage at 1:38:20

1:38:33 The consuming fires of the afflictions, which normally dominate a lot of our thinking. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:33 Highlight the passage at 1:38:33

1:38:43 And we're trying to align ourselves with our basic sanity, our basic decency, our caring, our intelligence, in order that we can be of greater benefit to ourselves and to others. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:43 Highlight the passage at 1:38:43

1:39:00 That's ethics in a way. So the next, from verses 34 through almost to the end. They are describing these three types of ethics, restraint, ethical discipline, restraint of negativities, cultivation of positive states, and how to benefit others. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:00 Highlight the passage at 1:39:00

1:39:37 So basic to Buddhism in general is the ethic of nonviolence, not to harm others. And I put this in note eight that we passed out tonight. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:37 Highlight the passage at 1:39:37

1:40:00 In this, you know, just a way to summarize what Buddhism means, you know, quoting the Dalai Lama on the very top. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:00 Highlight the passage at 1:40:00

1:40:12 So, you know, basic to Buddhism in general is the ethics of nonviolence, not to harm, and in terms of the bodhicitta's path, the ethic of benefiting others. Therefore, the Dalai Lama goes on to say, in this way the whole of Buddhism can be included in two sentences. If you can, help others. If you cannot, at least do not harm them. So that kind of catches the essence of what Buddhism is on about in terms of ethics. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:12 Highlight the passage at 1:40:12

1:40:47 So it's not a matter of following rules or regulations or trying to conform to some abstract moral code of ethics. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:47 Highlight the passage at 1:40:47

1:41:01 Simply trying not to harm and over and above that, if possible, to help. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:01 Highlight the passage at 1:41:01

1:41:11 So beginning with verses 34 and through 58, Shantideva sets out the ethical discipline of restraint. A Report an error in the passage at 1:41:11 Highlight the passage at 1:41:11

1:41:32 simple and effective way of translating this ethic into practice is... Abandoning, which generally termed abandoning the ten unskillful or ten unwholesome actions. So, you know, I thought I'd just, this Report an error in the passage at 1:41:32 Highlight the passage at 1:41:32

1:42:02 is what more than not this handout is about. Just listing the ten unwholesome actions. So, as it says here, we abandon. The ten unwholesome actions by trying to cultivate the ten skillful actions. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:02 Highlight the passage at 1:42:02

1:42:28 So what does it come down to? Report an error in the passage at 1:42:28 Highlight the passage at 1:42:28

1:42:39 Simply by really Report an error in the passage at 1:42:39 Highlight the passage at 1:42:39

1:42:52 not performing the Renekin action is not a positive action. As it says here, I mentioned in this first paragraph on note eight. If that were the case, then we should all just go to sleep and then we'd be doing all kinds of positive action. We wouldn't be killing, we wouldn't be stealing, we wouldn't be lying. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:52 Highlight the passage at 1:42:52

1:43:12 But it's when the thought to kill comes up, if you oppose it, that's a positive action. When your thought to steal comes up and you oppose that, that's a positive action. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:12 Highlight the passage at 1:43:12

1:43:29 A Buddha doesn't need it. If you don't have these negative thoughts coming up, then you don't need these to abandon them. I remember I was one way of, what are we about? If we kind of simplify it as best as possible, to a large degree our practice is opposing negative states of mind. Being able to To discriminate what is negative, what is positive, being sensitive to their arising and oppose them with whatever tools that we have, as skillfully as possible, on the one hand, and cultivating the positive. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:29 Highlight the passage at 1:43:29

1:44:18 But it's just another side of the coin. By opposing, we're cultivating positive states of mind. By opposing miserness, we're becoming generous. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:18 Highlight the passage at 1:44:18

1:44:31 By opposing jealousy, we're rejoicing. These are antidotes. It's just the other side of the coin. I mean, this is really what we're about in a very simplistic way. So this can be sort of like a template for how we could work in the world and really practice in a real profound manner. But first, as it says here, first you have to know what the ten negative actions are. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:31 Highlight the passage at 1:44:31

1:45:02 We have to be able to know, well, this isn't so useful. This isn't so skillful. This is negative. And we have to maybe begin to see that for ourselves in terms of our own felt experience and using our understanding as best we can to see it for ourselves. So we're just not following some rigid catechism. We must know what the ten negative actions are, what the consequences are, and based upon that knowledge, Using your discriminated wisdom to oppose such negative attitudes and refrain from performing them. That's positive. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:02 Highlight the passage at 1:45:02

1:45:52 So I've listed on the reverse side on page two the ten unskillful actions. We talked about this in the Lamrim, the graduated path. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:52 Highlight the passage at 1:45:52

1:46:09 The number of actions that are possible are innumerable. the Buddha... This is a way of categorizing those which most easily arise in a very practical and workable way. So this in itself is a powerful practice to understand them, to see in what way they are negative, how they're self-defeating, they're causing harm both to ourselves and others, and beginning to oppose them in some fashion. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:09 Highlight the passage at 1:46:09

1:46:44 They develop the positive actions. So three of body, killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, three of speech, four of speech, lying, divisive speech, harsh speech, sense of speech, mental actions of covetousness, malice, and wrong view. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:44 Highlight the passage at 1:46:44

1:47:11 I want to talk, well, next week I'd like to talk a little bit about the fact of, and Shantideva goes into a great deal of... Report an error in the passage at 1:47:11 Highlight the passage at 1:47:11

1:47:22 He mentions the fact that an action is known by what is the motivating force behind it. We can't go by the action itself in a way. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:22 Highlight the passage at 1:47:22

1:47:43 We're going to come to a verse where he says that a bodhisattva may have to set aside certain You know, if, um, there's a... Report an error in the passage at 1:47:43 Highlight the passage at 1:47:43

1:47:57 For the sake of benefiting. So we can't be fundamentalists. We can't be literalists. If you say, oh, I vow not to lie. There might be times when a bodhicitta would be a fault not to lie. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:57 Highlight the passage at 1:47:57

1:48:20 To save a life, for example, you should lie because of the greater benefit. But you're lying out of positive motivation. So the action is not determined by the external form, but by the motivation which is behind it. So the motivation is all important. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:20 Highlight the passage at 1:48:20

1:49:01 I think we can use another word. There's another word. Anyway. Wait, wait, wait. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:01 Highlight the passage at 1:49:01

1:49:11 There you go. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:11 Highlight the passage at 1:49:11

1:49:17 To practice ethics doesn't mean you're a doormat. To be a wimp isn't practicing ethics. Sometimes you have to cut through. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:17 Highlight the passage at 1:49:17

1:49:35 But hopefully coming from a good place. So trying to be skillful. You have to be, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:35 Highlight the passage at 1:49:35

1:49:43 Sometimes skill requires wrathful speech. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:43 Highlight the passage at 1:49:43

1:49:58 No, it's true, isn't it? We have to use our discrimination. What's the most skillful thing in each context? One size doesn't fit all. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:58 Highlight the passage at 1:49:58

1:50:24 What did you do? What did you do? We'll see you next time. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:24 Highlight the passage at 1:50:24

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:50:40 No, I think, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:40 Highlight the passage at 1:50:40

1:51:00 the future guys who never had the boundaries A Report an error in the passage at 1:51:00 Highlight the passage at 1:51:00

1:51:15 real bodhisattva. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:15 Highlight the passage at 1:51:15

1:51:25 Maybe that's skillful. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:25 Highlight the passage at 1:51:25

1:51:31 Sometimes I know a child, my mother, father. A child starts to run out in the street, don't you ever. And a child, I don't know. Well, my mother really cares about me. She's really upset. On your Report an error in the passage at 1:51:31 Highlight the passage at 1:51:31

1:52:03 age? Yeah, okay. Could be. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:03 Highlight the passage at 1:52:03

1:52:16 So any thoughts or comments about some of the things we've talked about tonight? Report an error in the passage at 1:52:16 Highlight the passage at 1:52:16

1:52:27 Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:27 Highlight the passage at 1:52:27

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:52:58 So, you Report an error in the passage at 1:52:58 Highlight the passage at 1:52:58

1:53:03 know, it's like if you were trying to remember a telephone number. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:03 Highlight the passage at 1:53:03

1:53:11 It's blurry. I'm getting it. I'm getting it. I'm getting it. I'm getting it. That's introspection. I'm getting it. Introspection is trying to get it. Mindfulness is trying to get it. Introspection, it's almost there. It's almost becoming clear. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:11 Highlight the passage at 1:53:11

1:53:31 It's examining whether I've gotten it or not or whether it's clear or not. It's like a little spy. Yeah, that's mindfulness. Like Report an error in the passage at 1:53:31 Highlight the passage at 1:53:31

1:53:53 the spy. You've lost it. Careful, you're going to lose that object. Yeah, so Report an error in the passage at 1:53:53 Highlight the passage at 1:53:53

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:54:44 you would recollect it at the end, so that would be memory or mindfulness, Report an error in the passage at 1:54:44 Highlight the passage at 1:54:44

1:54:55 whether you actually, it would be like the little spy, whether you're actually watching the thoughts or not, whether they were clear or not. So the quality of the mind during that process, The clarity of the object, whether the mind was sleepy, there wouldn't be much clarity. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:55 Highlight the passage at 1:54:55

1:55:36 So mindfulness is just the fact of memory holding, introspection, other words for introspection, this quality of awareness, the quality of noticing. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:36 Highlight the passage at 1:55:36

1:55:53 I'm holding it, but what is the quality of, what is the way it's being held? Report an error in the passage at 1:55:53 Highlight the passage at 1:55:53

1:56:02 Is it unclear? Is my mind uptight? Is it holding too tight? Am I pushing too hard? Am I too loose? Is it slipping away? Report an error in the passage at 1:56:02 Highlight the passage at 1:56:02

1:56:20 Yeah, it's like a spa. It's analytic, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:20 Highlight the passage at 1:56:20

1:56:46 three, five, whoops. One, two, three, five. I forgot the four. Yeah, yeah, how you're holding it. Yeah, no, it's, it's. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:46 Highlight the passage at 1:56:46

1:56:56 That sounds like a good example. Thank you for that. Yeah, because you aren't holding the object clearly. That's a good example. Good on you. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:56 Highlight the passage at 1:56:56

1:57:31 Yeah, that's a good point. What can happen in... And I emphasize that this factor of introspection arises naturally in the course of developing mindfulness. And some people, when they meditate, they try to impose a certain degree of introspection or overemphasize awareness. And it actually acts as an interruption. They're too heavy-handed. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:31 Highlight the passage at 1:57:31

1:58:05 Self-conscious about what they're doing. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:05 Highlight the passage at 1:58:05

1:58:16 That's a nice word. So that's why traditionally in the cultivation of kama body and these traditional concentrative meditation practices, it's like a little spy that you only use from time to time. so they're, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:16 Highlight the passage at 1:58:16

1:58:37 It would be a fault if you tried to be purposely aware all the time. It only checks up from time to time. So otherwise, it's like a bull in a china shop. It kind of interrupts the natural flow of the meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:37 Highlight the passage at 1:58:37

1:58:58 So many people are kind of too heavy-handed with this factor of awareness or introspection. That's right, that's right, yeah. Allowing the mind to operate as if there's nothing going wrong. If there's no problem, don't fix it. Something like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:58 Highlight the passage at 1:58:58

1:59:23 So many people, they are overly, Report an error in the passage at 1:59:23 Highlight the passage at 1:59:23

1:59:35 in traditional words, over-application. They're over-applying the antidotes. And it actually becomes a fault. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:35 Highlight the passage at 1:59:35

1:59:49 I have committed a fault. I was an introspective mindfulness of the time. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:49 Highlight the passage at 1:59:49

2:00:12 Yeah, very much so, for sure. That's where we're going to come, yeah, when I come to the more popular definition, where Shantideva, you brought up the word would, it can have the sense of non-reactivity, not allowing, not reacting to an equanimity about what is occurring. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:12 Highlight the passage at 2:00:12

2:00:41 I don't think would means suppress. Or deadhead or something like that. I think it's more of an equanimity. A non-reactivity, a non-judgment. So we can dedicate. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:41 Highlight the passage at 2:00:41

2:01:07 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 creatures 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 deaf hear sounds. May those whose bodies are warm with toil be restored on finding repose. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:07 Highlight the passage at 2:01:07

2:01:34 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 bound to the harvest. 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 2:01:34 Highlight the passage at 2:01:34

2:02:01 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. For 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. Through these skillful actions, may I quickly become an awakened spiritual master and lead each and every living being to that awakened realm. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:01 Highlight the passage at 2:02:01

2:02:32 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 encircled by snow mountains, you are the source of all happiness and well-being. Powerful Chenrizi Tenzin Gyatso, please remain until the end of cyclic existence. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:32 Highlight the passage at 2:02:32