BP: Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds (29 June 2015)

0:04 How is everybody? Report an error in the passage at 0:04 Highlight the passage at 0:04

0:09 Okay. Would anybody like to share anything that came up over the week? It doesn't have to be particularly dramatic. Report an error in the passage at 0:09 Highlight the passage at 0:09

0:28 You berated someone. Your Report an error in the passage at 0:28 Highlight the passage at 0:28

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2:23 takeaway from that is, Report an error in the passage at 2:23 Highlight the passage at 2:23

2:34 sometimes that's difficult, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 2:34 Highlight the passage at 2:34

2:41 You had Report an error in the passage at 2:41 Highlight the passage at 2:41

2:49 subsequently. Report an error in the passage at 2:49 Highlight the passage at 2:49

3:09 Yeah, Report an error in the passage at 3:09 Highlight the passage at 3:09

3:33 please. Report an error in the passage at 3:33 Highlight the passage at 3:33

3:53 Gume is the name of the upper cantric college? So is that his name? Report an error in the passage at 3:53 Highlight the passage at 3:53

4:06 Okay. Report an error in the passage at 4:06 Highlight the passage at 4:06

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5:13 Amazon? I Report an error in the passage at 5:13 Highlight the passage at 5:13

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5:50 have a... I've been thinking about something before we begin. I'd like to not share it with you, but to ask for your ideas. It seems like it's very basic, and sometimes maybe it's so basic or taken for granted it's overlooked, having a discussion with a group on last Thursday night. Report an error in the passage at 5:50 Highlight the passage at 5:50

6:15 It's around what we mean by practice. We're always talking about practicing the Dharma, practicing Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 6:15 Highlight the passage at 6:15

6:28 What, and I'd like to hear your ideas around this, what does it mean for you to practice? What does it mean to practice Buddhism, to practice the spiritual path? What does it mean to practice? So, you know, we don't have to have it clearly defined, but what kind of ideas come up for you when you think about that? Report an error in the passage at 6:28 Highlight the passage at 6:28

6:53 Yeah, please. Report an error in the passage at 6:53 Highlight the passage at 6:53

7:03 So 20 % of practice is on the cushion, 80 % is off the cushion. Report an error in the passage at 7:03 Highlight the passage at 7:03

7:11 That 80 % when you're off the cushion, how does that look? What does that look like? Report an error in the passage at 7:11 Highlight the passage at 7:11

7:20 Okay. Report an error in the passage at 7:20 Highlight the passage at 7:20

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8:29 That very much constitutes the off-the-cush Report an error in the passage at 8:29 Highlight the passage at 8:29

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9:38 emphasis. Does Report an error in the passage at 9:38 Highlight the passage at 9:38

9:47 that have some, you know, yeah, please? Report an error in the passage at 9:47 Highlight the passage at 9:47

9:54 No, no, no. His practice may be completely different from your practice. Report an error in the passage at 9:54 Highlight the passage at 9:54

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11:11 You have emptiness, or philosophically, but also in Report an error in the passage at 11:11 Highlight the passage at 11:11

11:20 terms of those Report an error in the passage at 11:20 Highlight the passage at 11:20

11:26 areas. Expressing those would be much be central to your Report an error in the passage at 11:26 Highlight the passage at 11:26

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12:07 tribute. Please. Report an error in the passage at 12:07 Highlight the passage at 12:07

12:21 In acting as you can, the steel and so forth. So that would be a... Report an error in the passage at 12:21 Highlight the passage at 12:21

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13:26 Anybody else? Report an error in the passage at 13:26 Highlight the passage at 13:26

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18:12 else have any if we can go a little bit further than that. do we know if our practice is going well? Report an error in the passage at 18:12 Highlight the passage at 18:12

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20:08 for you is, a sign. Report an error in the passage at 20:08 Highlight the passage at 20:08

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23:32 I can't quite remember the line, but it's from Rene Maria Rilke. An Austrian poet, he said, we live our way into the end. Our life becomes an expression, a resolution of this question. Report an error in the passage at 23:32 Highlight the passage at 23:32

23:55 Rather than maybe coming up with some theoretic answer, we live the answer. Report an error in the passage at 23:55 Highlight the passage at 23:55

24:11 Anyway, any other thoughts on that? I was, it's kind of a, you know, I sometimes, Report an error in the passage at 24:11 Highlight the passage at 24:11

24:23 you know, I think it's Suzuki Roshi, American, Japanese, but spent a great deal of time in America, used to talk about... Zen mind, beginner's mind, beginner's mind. In the beginner's mind, all things are possible. In the expert's mind, nothing is possible. Report an error in the passage at 24:23 Highlight the passage at 24:23

24:44 So sometimes I find myself, you know, I fall into this kind of expert disposition. I lose my, you Report an error in the passage at 24:44 Highlight the passage at 24:44

24:59 know, what are we all about? Kind of begin to take things for granted. Report an error in the passage at 24:59 Highlight the passage at 24:59

25:17 And so I was thinking about this. Someone was asking me, well, what does it mean to practice things? I used to have some, you know, like... I think very glib answers. Now that I look back on it, I remember having been asked that many years ago. And as best I can remember, I answered something to the sort of actively opposing negative states. Report an error in the passage at 25:17 Highlight the passage at 25:17

25:52 But now I'm trying to, I think, sharing with you my own personal journey. Report an error in the passage at 25:52 Highlight the passage at 25:52

26:05 The less I, more questions I have. And is that... Perhaps go through a moment. Dark nights of the soul and periods where you have confusion and uncertainty. But the uncertainty is maybe of a different order than it was before. It's not quite the same confusion. It's a different level of confusion maybe. Hopefully it is. You're confused about other things than you were before. Some of you have been put behind you. Report an error in the passage at 26:05 Highlight the passage at 26:05

26:34 And trying to come to an understanding for myself. I still, hopefully, I don't want to fall into a sort of mechanical. Report an error in the passage at 26:34 Highlight the passage at 26:34

26:52 practice, Buddhism, and going through certain, without, know, really questioning myself. I do, I think, a lot of self-question in that way. Report an error in the passage at 26:52 Highlight the passage at 26:52

27:14 The way that I'm beginning to see Buddhism more and more is in terms of our everyday life. doing, and is this working, and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 27:14 Highlight the passage at 27:14

27:22 that Buddhism is very much education in values. the values are what is important to ourselves, what we care about. There are certain central principles. And Report an error in the passage at 27:22 Highlight the passage at 27:22

27:46 then Buddhism becomes a medium where it offers us some... And some skills and some methods whereby we can facilitate the expressions of those. And what are some of the impediments? What's stopping me? What am I afraid of? Where's some of my attachments to praise and fear of criticism and so forth? What stops me from being the person that I want to be? And you begin to notice those in your daily life. And the methods in your methods both off your cushion and on your cushion as well. Report an error in the passage at 27:46 Highlight the passage at 27:46

28:45 The ways of working with the impediments. So, I guess, I'm not being perhaps all that specific, Report an error in the passage at 28:45 Highlight the passage at 28:45

29:00 but I did want to just, Report an error in the passage at 29:00 Highlight the passage at 29:00

29:25 in our text, at the very end of the fifth chapter, which we're studying presently, Shantideva's text of the Buddhismist Dees, he talks about the fact that we simply cannot, our Dharma can't be something from the mouth. Report an error in the passage at 29:25 Highlight the passage at 29:25

29:47 However much we study medicine, If it doesn't cure the disease, we actually have to take it. Report an error in the passage at 29:47 Highlight the passage at 29:47

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30:34 Our life becomes our practice. We don't have to formalize it all that much perhaps. There's not so much distinction between secular and spiritual. Report an error in the passage at 30:34 Highlight the passage at 30:34

30:54 Okay, I'm just sharing some of my own. Report an error in the passage at 30:54 Highlight the passage at 30:54

31:10 This way of life becomes like a refuge. Report an error in the passage at 31:10 Highlight the passage at 31:10

31:21 I go for refuge until I'm 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. 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 31:21 Highlight the passage at 31:21

31:51 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 31:51 Highlight the passage at 31:51

32:16 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. Report an error in the passage at 32:16 Highlight the passage at 32:16

32:34 stand up and stretch for a moment, then we're going to sit. Report an error in the passage at 32:34 Highlight the passage at 32:34

33:02 we're looking at, our text, the fifth chapter is mainly concerned with second of the six transcendent practices. The ethics of restraint, Report an error in the passage at 33:02 Highlight the passage at 33:02

33:29 that's ethics of cultivating what is positive, cultivating compassion. Report an error in the passage at 33:29 Highlight the passage at 33:29

33:47 Restraint and negative states and cultivation of positive states. For example, we've gone through and looked at the two of the three fundamental distorted emotions or negative emotions. There's a hatred and attachment. And with regard to hatred, the various types of countermeasures or correctives, antidotes. Amongst them is forgiveness. Report an error in the passage at 33:47 Highlight the passage at 33:47

34:11 It Report an error in the passage at 34:11 Highlight the passage at 34:11

34:29 compared Report an error in the passage at 34:29 Highlight the passage at 34:29

34:35 retaliating and carrying a grievance in your heart is comparable to holding a hot... waiting for that opportunity throw it. Report an error in the passage at 34:35 Highlight the passage at 34:35

34:50 you do succeed in throwing at your It Report an error in the passage at 34:50 Highlight the passage at 34:50

35:21 doesn't Report an error in the passage at 35:21 Highlight the passage at 35:21

35:31 have to be the heavy-duty grievances and feelings of vengeance and even slightly harboring some resentment in Report an error in the passage at 35:31 Highlight the passage at 35:31

36:00 itself is painful. It doesn't have Report an error in the passage at 36:00 Highlight the passage at 36:00

36:03 And as we talked about in terms of bringing this in some kind of context, I thought we could meditate on forgiveness. Report an error in the passage at 36:03 Highlight the passage at 36:03

36:15 It's in this family of Report an error in the passage at 36:15 Highlight the passage at 36:15

36:20 anger and hostility and so forth. And what we don't mean by forgiveness is that everything's okay now or it's Report an error in the passage at 36:20 Highlight the passage at 36:20

36:35 business as usual. Sometimes people, they have a sense that if I forgive, then it's as if I'm condoning. Report an error in the passage at 36:35 Highlight the passage at 36:35

36:48 in a wheel They carry this grievance in their heart as a means of protecting themselves from falling back into the same dynamics that they're trying to protect themselves as a matter of defense, defending themselves. So our forgiveness is not a misguided attempt to suppress our pain or trying to overlook what actually happened. Report an error in the passage at 36:48 Highlight the passage at 36:48

37:19 A good Dharma practice. Report an error in the passage at 37:19 Highlight the passage at 37:19

37:28 Things may still have to be set right. You might not want to associate with this person in the same ways that you did before. You might have to create firmer and more clear boundaries. You might have to create independence of that person. You might have to assert yourself in ways that you didn't in the past. Report an error in the passage at 37:28 Highlight the passage at 37:28

37:52 So you might have to implement some kind of corrective behavior. So it's not as if... We're trying to pretend that what happened happened. But what we are is trying to let go of the hot coal, the wish to return harm for perceived harm, whether in fact it was harm or not, whether it was intended. Report an error in the passage at 37:52 Highlight the passage at 37:52

38:22 I think sometimes people feel, well, if I forgive, if I really forgive everything, I'm going to feel okay. Report an error in the passage at 38:22 Highlight the passage at 38:22

38:56 We may still feel hurt. We may feel betrayed. We may feel that we've been disappointed. may, and it's not going to, you know. Report an error in the passage at 38:56 Highlight the passage at 38:56

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39:01 Okay, well, that's part of the human condition. But what we can let go of is the desire to retaliate that second arrow in the harm it causes ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 39:01 Highlight the passage at 39:01

39:16 So we're going to make use of, I think you've got a little slip of paper. It's just three ways in which we can practice forgiving. And, you know, by all means, don't necessarily have to begin. Report an error in the passage at 39:16 Highlight the passage at 39:16

39:39 The most heavy-duty forgiveness act of betrayal or whatever it might have been, the abuse that you've experienced or some trauma that you've experienced over the course of your life. Maybe begin with other areas which are more workable. Report an error in the passage at 39:39 Highlight the passage at 39:39

40:03 There are many feelings associated with the feelings of disappointment, the feelings of being misunderstood, the feelings of being treated unfairly, being betrayed. Report an error in the passage at 40:03 Highlight the passage at 40:03

40:15 So we have to, we might. forgive from many points of view, and some of those points of view not Report an error in the passage at 40:15 Highlight the passage at 40:15

40:26 we shouldn't feel pressured, that is an pressure to ourselves to say, oh, it's okay. If you notice the resistance, then explore the resistance. Report an error in the passage at 40:26 Highlight the passage at 40:26

40:45 So Report an error in the passage at 40:45 Highlight the passage at 40:45

40:54 forgiving what others have done to ourselves. But also, we can forgive ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 40:54 Highlight the passage at 40:54

41:07 In the sense that for the hurt that we have or presume to have caused others. Maybe we can forgive ourselves for making poor choices or letting ourselves down in some way. Report an error in the passage at 41:07 Highlight the passage at 41:07

41:29 Sometimes in our anger toward others, it's really ourselves. We may actually be angry with ourselves for not standing up for ourselves, for example, or for somebody else. Or that we handled a situation poorly. Or that we lacked the presence of mind to do what was necessary or to say what was necessary on a particular game. Report an error in the passage at 41:29 Highlight the passage at 41:29

41:52 We ruminate. We go back. We rerun the episode. Report an error in the passage at 41:52 Highlight the passage at 41:52

42:16 And then, though it's not a direct antidote to anger, also asking others to forgive us. Report an error in the passage at 42:16 Highlight the passage at 42:16

42:33 If you can. know Report an error in the passage at 42:33 Highlight the passage at 42:33

42:35 I was thinking about doing this meditation today. In the Jewish religion, the day before the New Year, it's Report an error in the passage at 42:35 Highlight the passage at 42:35

42:48 traditional to go around to those who have done you wrong or you felt you did them wrong over the course of the year and try to resolve. Report an error in the passage at 42:48 Highlight the passage at 42:48

43:06 Like trying to start with a clean slate, as it were. It's a nice idea. So even though, you know, if we can. I think it's useful to ask others for forgiveness. Report an error in the passage at 43:06 Highlight the passage at 43:06

43:26 We can, at least in imagination, if the other person was to understand our sincerity. Report an error in the passage at 43:26 Highlight the passage at 43:26

44:02 Okay? So we'll take a couple of... Report an error in the passage at 44:02 Highlight the passage at 44:02

44:17 So begin by getting in touch, relaxing our bodies. So I invite you to bring your awareness to the crown of your head, your scalp. Report an error in the passage at 44:17 Highlight the passage at 44:17

44:32 Begin by feeling or simply imagining the wrinkle between your brow and your forehead smoothing out. Report an error in the passage at 44:32 Highlight the passage at 44:32

44:54 The pressure in and around your eyes, to Report an error in the passage at 44:54 Highlight the passage at 44:54

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46:10 your upper back and shoulder, Report an error in the passage at 46:10 Highlight the passage at 46:10

46:15 drawing your shoulders up toward your ears, Report an error in the passage at 46:15 Highlight the passage at 46:15

46:21 circling them to the back, Report an error in the passage at 46:21 Highlight the passage at 46:21

46:47 and eventually returning your shoulders back up toward your ears, just allowing them to drop of Report an error in the passage at 46:47 Highlight the passage at 46:47

47:00 some kind of burden away, Report an error in the passage at 47:00 Highlight the passage at 47:00

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50:04 keeping your trunk erect, relaxed, your lower back. Report an error in the passage at 50:04 Highlight the passage at 50:04

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1:08:04 For all the ways I have caused myself suffering through emotions or inaction out of fear, pain, Report an error in the passage at 1:08:04 Highlight the passage at 1:08:04

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1:16:17 suffered deeds by the great 8th century yogi scholar Shantideva. And it sets out the means by which to get the state of awakening, Report an error in the passage at 1:16:17 Highlight the passage at 1:16:17

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1:17:09 transcend mundane practice. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:09 Highlight the passage at 1:17:09

1:17:17 Probably a high degree of self-interest. Maybe in our generosity there might be a tit-for-tat Report an error in the passage at 1:17:17 Highlight the passage at 1:17:17

1:17:44 place of greater importance upon us. But understanding that, it's not an Report an error in the passage at 1:17:44 Highlight the passage at 1:17:44

1:17:55 otherworldly kind of attitude in terms of, it's not a matter of self-sacrifice. The bodhisattva understands that in a bigger picture, in the long term. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:55 Highlight the passage at 1:17:55

1:18:09 As Mother Teresa once said, we get back much more than we ever give. So even our generosity, we Report an error in the passage at 1:18:09 Highlight the passage at 1:18:09

1:18:22 may not expect, but we can be assured, as Report an error in the passage at 1:18:22 Highlight the passage at 1:18:22

1:18:30 a byproduct, we ourselves will be better. So we're looking, as I mentioned previously, the chapter centers on the practice of ethics, and within that it's divided into three types of ethics. Ethics of restraint, restraining from negativities. Cultivation of what is positive. And then how do we go about skillfully working in order to benefit others? Report an error in the passage at 1:18:30 Highlight the passage at 1:18:30

1:19:05 We said looking at the second type in terms of cultivating what is positive or accustomed to familiarizing ourselves, the meaning of the word gom, which means meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:05 Highlight the passage at 1:19:05

1:19:18 We can look at that in terms of ethics, in terms of conduct. Meditation and view and conduct in terms of ethics as best we can, restraining most especially from the first seven of the ten non-virtuous actions, Report an error in the passage at 1:19:18 Highlight the passage at 1:19:18

1:20:11 a greater degree of control over what we say and do. The three non-virtues of killing, stealing, sexual misconduct in the form of speech. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:11 Highlight the passage at 1:20:11

1:20:44 So that's in terms of... Conduct, in terms of meditation, as we mentioned, meditation simply means to cultivate, to accustom, to familiarize, to habituate, to bring something new into existence, and these are developing and customing our mind to positive states, productive states of mind. As an antidote to the Report an error in the passage at 1:20:44 Highlight the passage at 1:20:44

1:21:12 three fundamentals, Report an error in the passage at 1:21:12 Highlight the passage at 1:21:12

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1:21:47 cultivating the family of attitudes or emotions which are corrected to hatred, non-hatred, Report an error in the passage at 1:21:47 Highlight the passage at 1:21:47

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1:22:27 these families of attitudes. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:27 Highlight the passage at 1:22:27

1:22:39 We cultivate or we acquaint ourselves with those states of mind. Then finally, there's the view. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:39 Highlight the passage at 1:22:39

1:22:55 View simply means how we see things. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:55 Highlight the passage at 1:22:55

1:23:02 We're probably not aware of many of them. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:02 Highlight the passage at 1:23:02

1:23:07 So here, particularly, in terms of Report an error in the passage at 1:23:07 Highlight the passage at 1:23:07

1:23:26 these afflictive emotions, these negative emotions, it can be applied in various fashions. We can look at the emotion itself. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:26 Highlight the passage at 1:23:26

1:23:37 Substantially exist. It's not a solid, concrete thing in our head somewhere. It's more like a fever. That is, say, it is symptomatic of various causes and conditions, like a fever in our body. We can't particularly point to it. We can measure it. It expresses itself. But there's no particular place where a thing which we can point to is, oh, that's the fever. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:37 Highlight the passage at 1:23:37

1:24:04 But it's an expression of symptoms. It's not substantial. It's more like a rain. It's like a rainbow. It's something which appears, but if you try to take hold of it, it's empty, a concrete solid. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:04 Highlight the passage at 1:24:04

1:24:33 There's always a degree of exaggeration. We're Report an error in the passage at 1:24:33 Highlight the passage at 1:24:33

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1:25:07 not seeing the object in its reality. We're not viewing it as it really is. But another way, which is helpful, which we're going to go into a great deal. Generally, when we experience emotion, especially true of strong emotion, we get caught up in the object. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:07 Highlight the passage at 1:25:07

1:25:42 Here, what we can do, we can investigate that you, but we can also investigate the subject of that emotion. And the I, I can't get away from me. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:42 Highlight the passage at 1:25:42

1:26:10 Yeah, so we can, we have a sense, all, you know, it's really fascinating to deconstruct these experiences. And we see that they, There's a very... Report an error in the passage at 1:26:10 Highlight the passage at 1:26:10

1:26:24 They evolve. There's a chain reaction that's working. Anger just doesn't come full-blown, preexistent, as it were, that it develops out of. And one of the conditions that it arises out of is ignorance. It is a misconception with regard to, for example, the eye, a very solid, concrete eye who's under threat, who's being hurt, who can't stand. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:24 Highlight the passage at 1:26:24

1:26:49 I'm not going to allow this to continue. I can't stand this. You are hurting me. It's all dependent upon. So we can investigate. So we can look at the subject of the experience. Spitting this story around the object. You did this to me. You so and so. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:49 Highlight the passage at 1:26:49

1:27:12 And we go on to universalize it. You always do this. It's never going to change. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:12 Highlight the passage at 1:27:12

1:27:25 Anyway, underneath at the kernel, so Report an error in the passage at 1:27:25 Highlight the passage at 1:27:25

1:27:35 we can begin to investigate. Look for that eye. We can pull the carpet out from underneath it of this entire construction that we've created by investigating that eye. Who is this eye who is experiencing the affliction? Who is it that's so angry? Who is it that feels they're being treated so unfairly? Report an error in the passage at 1:27:35 Highlight the passage at 1:27:35

1:27:59 Underneath, the anger is hurt. Together with that anger and hurt, there's a strong sense of self, a solid... Concrete eye who is hurt and infuriated. So we sit quietly. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:59 Highlight the passage at 1:27:59

1:28:20 Anyway, Report an error in the passage at 1:28:20 Highlight the passage at 1:28:20

1:28:25 sometimes Lama Tsongkhapa refers to this as the emotional eye. Anyway, we're going to talk a great deal about this, but you try to purposely evoke a very strong sense of eye. Sometimes the yogis used to sit at the edge of a cliff or a well and they'd look over. I Report an error in the passage at 1:28:25 Highlight the passage at 1:28:25

1:28:52 think the Dalai Lama's brother nodding him to say, Strangely enough, he was in the Indian paratroopers. And he said jumping out of airplanes is a great place to examine the eye as you jump out. So the eye arises very strongly in some kind of fearful situations or eye-provoking situations. And then sitting quietly, ask yourself, who is this eye who is so much hurt? Report an error in the passage at 1:28:52 Highlight the passage at 1:28:52

1:29:24 Who is this eye that should be respected, that should be treated better? We try to find the I, the person that is feeling this strong emotion, Report an error in the passage at 1:29:24 Highlight the passage at 1:29:24

1:29:57 get a sense of it. And then we undertake an investigation. Is this I the body? Is it the mind? Is it something other than the body or the mind? When we analyze deeply, we cannot find this some concrete I. We don't find nothing. We find the absence of that I. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:57 Highlight the passage at 1:29:57

1:30:25 Non-existence. There Report an error in the passage at 1:30:25 Highlight the passage at 1:30:25

1:30:38 is no independent person or I. It needs to be defended. So Report an error in the passage at 1:30:38 Highlight the passage at 1:30:38

1:30:55 that's the view. So that's the way we can really begin to work with this third, which is the basis of all of that, the third of the three. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:55 Highlight the passage at 1:30:55

1:31:15 So in verses Report an error in the passage at 1:31:15 Highlight the passage at 1:31:15

1:31:20 59 through 83, anyway, the three types of ethics. The third of the three types that cultivating wasn't positive are Shantideva presents them. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:20 Highlight the passage at 1:31:20

1:31:50 Each of the various types of negative emotions has a corrective, a counter-measure that we can begin to cultivate, familiarize ourselves with. It's like hot and cold water. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:50 Highlight the passage at 1:31:50

1:32:10 As you increase the temperature of one and the other. necessarily decreases. they're antagonistic to one another. You cannot have love. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:10 Highlight the passage at 1:32:10

1:32:25 hatred in the same mind at the same time. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:25 Highlight the passage at 1:32:25

1:32:30 As we cultivate kindness and so forth, our hostility is diminished. As we cultivate humility, our pride. As we cultivate rejoicing, our jealousy is diminished. as we Report an error in the passage at 1:32:30 Highlight the passage at 1:32:30

1:32:52 Generosity, miserliness. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:52 Highlight the passage at 1:32:52

1:32:59 So the situation is always workable. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:59 Highlight the passage at 1:32:59

1:33:04 On Report an error in the passage at 1:33:04 Highlight the passage at 1:33:04

1:33:11 page 39, verse 81. So here, Shantideva, using the example of generosity, which is the, as I just mentioned, the antidote to miserliness. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:11 Highlight the passage at 1:33:11

1:33:34 He mentions the three objects toward whom actions are particularly powerful. And these are referred to as fields. So he says in verse 81, whether arising continually through a clear wish or through the entrance itself, independence upon the field of qualities benefits itself. So I'm just pointing this out. Great virtue is generated. So the only reason I'm pointing out that there is three... Report an error in the passage at 1:33:34 Highlight the passage at 1:33:34

1:34:04 What he calls fields here. Three objects toward whom our actions or our inactions are particularly potent. The field of qualities refers to those people and so forth who have excellent qualities. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:04 Highlight the passage at 1:34:04

1:34:30 This would be exemplified as it says here, Gelser J. says, The triple gem, let's say the Buddha Dharma and the Saṅgha are spiritual teachers. So both our positive and our negative actions are a high degree of potency done toward these fields of qualities, toward these individuals. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:30 Highlight the passage at 1:34:30

1:34:57 The field of benefit, those Report an error in the passage at 1:34:57 Highlight the passage at 1:34:57

1:35:04 who have been kind to us. So again, both our negative and also our positive actions toward them are particular. And then the field of mystery, those who are down and out. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:04 Highlight the passage at 1:35:04

1:35:35 So he's just using the example of generosity there, just pointing out these three areas. Then beginning with verse 84, which is on page 41. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:35 Highlight the passage at 1:35:35

1:35:54 Sometimes Report an error in the passage at 1:35:54 Highlight the passage at 1:35:54

1:35:59 they talk about the field in which we sow seeds. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:59 Highlight the passage at 1:35:59

1:36:08 Sowing those seeds, some kind of crop arises. A field which is cultivated, something grows out of it. So in the various actions, we're creating karma, and we're planting seeds in the, this is very metaphorical, planting seeds in these fields, and something's going to produce an effect, something's going to grow out of it. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:08 Highlight the passage at 1:36:08

1:37:02 So beginning Report an error in the passage at 1:37:02 Highlight the passage at 1:37:02

1:37:17 with verse 84. This begins the third of the three parts of ethics, and that is bringing about the welfare of others. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:17 Highlight the passage at 1:37:17

1:37:32 The previous two types of ethics, restraint and cultivation of positive states, are very much concerned with taming our mind, Report an error in the passage at 1:37:32 Highlight the passage at 1:37:32

1:37:43 kind of bringing our neurosis under control a little bit, taking the edges off to some degree. Then, on that basis, as that as a foundation, we can go on to help others. Otherwise... It might be, even with the best of intentions, our contribution to the world might be further chaos. It's hard to know from where we're coming at. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:43 Highlight the passage at 1:37:43

1:38:20 So this section points out the priority. Our priority is to benefit others. And to benefit others, we have to, to some extent, have to have done our homework, have to work with them. This is not to say that we wait until we become a Buddha before we do anything. If we did that, we're never going to be. But it does point out to the fact that we can be working with ourselves, and indirectly we are benefiting others. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:20 Highlight the passage at 1:38:20

1:39:02 It may not Report an error in the passage at 1:39:02 Highlight the passage at 1:39:02

1:39:06 appear that I've done anything for anyone else today, but that depends upon the quality of our motivation. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:06 Highlight the passage at 1:39:06

1:39:16 Even our working with ourselves can be indirectly a way of benefiting us. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:16 Highlight the passage at 1:39:16

1:39:30 Here in this verse 84, it's quite interesting, having understood this, they abide always striving for the welfare of others. Those with compassion have the long view and allow them the forbidden. This is why there's this kind of caveat. In working for the benefit of others, we have to have, to some degree, worked with ourselves. Why? Report an error in the passage at 1:39:30 Highlight the passage at 1:39:30

1:40:01 Because here he's saying that for the benefit of others, we can actually do what would normally be an unethical action. So we're getting into a dangerous area here, aren't we? Report an error in the passage at 1:40:01 Highlight the passage at 1:40:01

1:40:16 There are stories about the Buddha killing, not the Buddha himself, but when he was previously a bodhisattva. so forth, and specifically... Specifically, it's said here that we can let the bodhisattva engage in the three non-virtues of body and the form of speech, if it's done for the benefit of others. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:16 Highlight the passage at 1:40:16

1:40:40 But you have to be pretty clear in your own mind, well, I'm doing this for others. I'm killing for the benefit of others. So it brings up the question of euthanasia. What Report an error in the passage at 1:40:40 Highlight the passage at 1:40:40

1:41:03 was that? Report an error in the passage at 1:41:03 Highlight the passage at 1:41:03

1:41:09 Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:09 Highlight the passage at 1:41:09

1:41:14 Yeah, so this is a difficult area. Anyway, having done that, the bodhisattva is able to engage in certain actions, which normally would be considered negative due to the force of their compassion. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:14 Highlight the passage at 1:41:14

1:41:33 Yeah, Report an error in the passage at 1:41:33 Highlight the passage at 1:41:33

1:41:38 we don't have tablets handed down from the sky, do we? Yeah, Report an error in the passage at 1:41:38 Highlight the passage at 1:41:38

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1:42:33 that's why we need to develop wisdom. Yeah, there's no... We can't plug in a formula for every single incident that comes up in our lives. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:33 Highlight the passage at 1:42:33

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1:43:35 That relates exactly to the Buddha when he was a bodhisattva. He was a ship's captain. He killed that individual, but he did it out of compassion for the individual. He was willing to take on the negative karma. So, I mean, yeah, so it's, hopefully Report an error in the passage at 1:43:35 Highlight the passage at 1:43:35

1:44:12 we can, so at least we can try to make, you know, we can't make, our motivations are usually mixed to the degree of self-interest. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:12 Highlight the passage at 1:44:12

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1:44:58 Yeah, I think that's a good point. Yeah, I mean, not to kill, you know, you develop an attitude of respecting life. Life becomes very valuable, so you're not going to take it very easily. Yeah, Report an error in the passage at 1:44:58 Highlight the passage at 1:44:58

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1:46:10 I'm going to try to get through this. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:10 Highlight the passage at 1:46:10

1:46:18 Then beginning with verse 85, he goes on to give quite a number of advices on the conduct of a bodhisattva. How a bodhisattva can, for example, not overindulge in eating. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:18 Highlight the passage at 1:46:18

1:46:41 Kind of a detail in Report an error in the passage at 1:46:41 Highlight the passage at 1:46:41

1:46:52 verse 86, don't endanger your own body for trivial pursuits. When I hear the guy who was killed doing base jumping, Report an error in the passage at 1:46:52 Highlight the passage at 1:46:52

1:47:06 Another Report an error in the passage at 1:47:06 Highlight the passage at 1:47:06

1:47:20 one in verse 87, which I think can be adapted to ourselves, quite relevant to ourselves, and that is, don't attempt to practice which is beyond your present ability. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:20 Highlight the passage at 1:47:20

1:47:33 We might aspire to. There are stories around this where even highly Report an error in the passage at 1:47:33 Highlight the passage at 1:47:33

1:47:50 realized, Report an error in the passage at 1:47:50 Highlight the passage at 1:47:50

1:47:57 he was one of the principal disciples of Nargajuna, when the Dalai Lama sometimes referred to as the second Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:57 Highlight the passage at 1:47:57

1:48:07 There was an Indian, he was on his way to this debate and there was a beggar along the side of the road who said, you know, please give, please give. And when a bodhisattva hears, please give, it kind of, Report an error in the passage at 1:48:07 Highlight the passage at 1:48:07

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1:48:58 the left hand is considered dirty. You don't give people things with that. And don't you have any respect? How can you, you know, how can you insult me by offering me something with your left hand? And I would have just freaked out. So here I just cut off my right arm. And you're abusing me because I'm giving to you what's left hand. If there are people like you in the world, there's no sense in trying to become a Buddha. And he went on to become a Hinayana. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:58 Highlight the passage at 1:48:58

1:49:30 He didn't. So anyway, the moral of that story, if there is a moral, was not to try to – you may have the best of intentions, but not – I mean, we can push the envelope to some degree, but not to try to – it may – It may become a disincentive for yourself in the future. You may have built up negative associations. So it's like Mother Teresa says, give to it hurts just a little bit, not too much. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:30 Highlight the passage at 1:49:30

1:50:08 So you want to push the envelope, but not beyond the point where it's actually going to be harmful to yourself or your own practice. In verse, I'm just going to pick out some verses. In verse 88, it mentions those to whom were to... To teach that they should be, don't teach those who aren't respectful. We're not missionizing, trying to gain converts in any way. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:08 Highlight the passage at 1:50:08

1:50:45 There's a number of types of ways that are said to be disrespectful. They're wearing headbands or they have umbrellas and sticks. I remember sometimes a Dalai Lama. There's a huge gathering. You know, who I, you know, who. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:45 Highlight the passage at 1:50:45

1:50:59 If you have an umbrella, open your umbrella. If it's very sunny and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:59 Highlight the passage at 1:50:59

1:51:23 Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have to be a bit flexible. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:23 Highlight the passage at 1:51:23

1:51:29 No, right. It's very much. I think we have to keep it throughout our practice in general and reading some of these in particular. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:29 Highlight the passage at 1:51:29

1:51:42 These are coming from a particular time, a particular culture. And so we have to, in our culture, it would be. There are other ways which people might be showing disrespect. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:42 Highlight the passage at 1:51:42

1:52:09 Verses 89 and 90, teaching what is appropriate and what fits the student. This is one reason why we study so much. This is one reason why the Buddha was considered such a, I think, a genius, a pedagogic genius, skillful in his teaching method. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:09 Highlight the passage at 1:52:09

1:52:41 Most of his teachings were dialogical. He had a dialogue with people. Something was going on in the mind of his audience. Somebody would ask a question. He would ask a question. He was Socratic. He would develop his teachings out of that. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:41 Highlight the passage at 1:52:41

1:53:06 There's a difference between teaching the subject and teaching the student. was teaching, you know, so it's a teacher. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:06 Highlight the passage at 1:53:06

1:53:16 Teaching the student, you try to have a sense of where they're at, and you address that. Even though, you know, sometimes it's amazing what our teachers know. I mean, but they bring it down to some very simple-minded little Report an error in the passage at 1:53:16 Highlight the passage at 1:53:16

1:53:41 message to communicate in some way. It's like they have this vast reservoir, and we're just kind of touching. But that fits. That works. And that's skillful. If they just kind of dumped all this wisdom and so forth on us at once, it probably wouldn't have. It would just go over our heads. Inundated. So teaching what is appropriate in a manner which fits the students. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:41 Highlight the passage at 1:53:41

1:54:18 And then verses 91 through 96. Our advice is on paying attention to the details of our life. So lots of different devices. And one of these is conforming to the norms of our society. So there was a lot, especially when the Dharma was just being introduced to the West. And this could be especially true of Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism can have some very exotic, mysterious appearing, at least, aspects to itself. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:18 Highlight the passage at 1:54:18

1:54:53 So back in the early... Report an error in the passage at 1:54:53 Highlight the passage at 1:54:53

1:55:00 walking around reciting mantras all the time. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:00 Highlight the passage at 1:55:00

1:55:24 think this has gone by the wayside now. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:24 Highlight the passage at 1:55:24

1:55:30 consider that? How do we fit in? know, at least in terms of your appearance. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:30 Highlight the passage at 1:55:30

1:55:42 He also goes on to talk about, you know, not spitting. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:42 Highlight the passage at 1:55:42

1:55:53 Don't eat noisily, avoid doing what's considered offensive. I find it interesting. He also says don't point with your finger. I'm Report an error in the passage at 1:55:53 Highlight the passage at 1:55:53

1:56:14 not sure. That's in our culture as well. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:14 Highlight the passage at 1:56:14

1:56:19 Conducting yourself physically with modesty. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:19 Highlight the passage at 1:56:19

1:56:27 He advises to go to sleep in the lion posture, the posture in which the Buddha passed into Paranavano. He away. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:27 Highlight the passage at 1:56:27

1:56:45 Blocking your right nostril with your ring finger, your second finger. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:45 Highlight the passage at 1:56:45

1:56:58 Verse 98, he advises us to recite the Sūtra on the Three Heaps. So this is more generally known, popularly known as the Sūtra, the Disclosure or Confession of Downfall. figure. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:58 Highlight the passage at 1:56:58

1:57:20 Confession to the 35 Buddhas. So this is very popularly cited, especially as a means for purifying vast negativities, especially breaking a bodhisattva balance and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:20 Highlight the passage at 1:57:20

1:57:36 Confession to the 35 Buddhas. Here the three heaps refer to, the first is homage, so there's a great deal of paying homage to the 35 Buddhas. Then there's the second heap, there's a heap of... Confession, disclosing, acknowledging our negativity. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:36 Highlight the passage at 1:57:36

1:57:59 And then the third is dedication, or sometimes it's listed as rejoicing, rejoicing and dedication. So it's a psychological mechanism whereby to ameliorate the conditioning factors in our mind from the past negative actions. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:59 Highlight the passage at 1:57:59

1:58:22 So in other words, a method for purifying negative actions. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:22 Highlight the passage at 1:58:22

1:58:28 Especially those just in general, bodhisattva vows in particular. And then in verses 99 through 100 emphasizes that there are no activities which cannot be transformed into a practice of the bodhisattva through skillful means, a means of benefiting others. And this is kind of, you know, we talked to those previously when we had teachings on... Report an error in the passage at 1:58:28 Highlight the passage at 1:58:28

1:59:01 The seven-point mind training. This is a very central point to the teachings on mind training. How do we use adversities of our life? How do we transform them into a path? In other words, developing the skills, the methods whereby we turn shit into fertilizer. When a shit happens, how do we, rather than simply be an obstacle and interference? Report an error in the passage at 1:59:01 Highlight the passage at 1:59:01

1:59:43 And then, verse... Verse Report an error in the passage at 1:59:43 Highlight the passage at 1:59:43

1:59:49 And this is what we talked about just previously. By taming our minds, by reducing, restraining our negative actions of body and speech, and by cultivating the positive attitudes and emotions and reducing the negative ones, just that, just that, we're indirectly benefiting others, Report an error in the passage at 1:59:49 Highlight the passage at 1:59:49

2:00:21 simply in dedicating everything toward awakening. Which is another way of saying that caring for others is a priority in our life. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:21 Highlight the passage at 2:00:21

2:00:35 Benefiting others. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:35 Highlight the passage at 2:00:35

2:00:39 In verse 102 emphasizes that to never give up on our virtuous friends. And here in the Pāli, virtuous friend is kalamita. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:39 Highlight the passage at 2:00:39

2:00:53 And it's very much used amongst the saṅgha. I mean, even the lay saṅgha. The kalamita, how important they are to us. The importance of gathering around us and associating with those who are supportive of our spiritual goals, our kind of life, but also Report an error in the passage at 2:00:53 Highlight the passage at 2:00:53

2:01:28 the spiritual. The word geshe means, geshe is short for gewa, virtue. Geshe means friend, virtuous friend. So it can also mean our teachers, our spiritual teachers. So the role of the spiritual teacher. Some people, you come to a spiritual teacher and you have some preconceptions about what you're going to get from this. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:28 Highlight the passage at 2:01:28

2:02:05 But I think the role of our spiritual teacher is not to transmit happiness or peace of mind, maybe not even to transmit wisdom, but to help us to believe in ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:05 Highlight the passage at 2:02:05

2:02:21 That we can, in fact, we can attain these things. We can attain peace. We can attain happiness. We can attain wisdom. And inspire us to work to it and give us the tools, the methods necessary whereby to actually achieve them. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:21 Highlight the passage at 2:02:21

2:02:43 And I think it's important that our spiritual teacher, at least in part, Report an error in the passage at 2:02:43 Highlight the passage at 2:02:43

2:02:53 even if only, and then the rest Report an error in the passage at 2:02:53 Highlight the passage at 2:02:53

2:03:03 is up to us. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:03 Highlight the passage at 2:03:03

2:03:27 Finally. Not finally, but verses 103 through 106. I'm sorry I'm holding you a little bit late. Shantideva suggests a few texts that we could read along with the sūtra. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:27 Highlight the passage at 2:03:27

2:03:55 It reminds us that this particular chapter is entitled Guardian Introspection. It's what we suggested as self-montering. Self-montering, self-montering. Here, the monitoring or the self-introspection is defined as repeatedly investigating what am I up to in terms of my body. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:55 Highlight the passage at 2:03:55

2:04:30 And very finally, the last verse, verse 109, reminds us that our practice, and this is what I said almost at the very beginning, shouldn't be something from the mouth that be Report an error in the passage at 2:04:30 Highlight the passage at 2:04:30

2:04:47 reflected in our action. Simply studying medicine isn't going to cure us, though it's helpful. Okay. So I'm going to miss all of you over the next month. So we'll take up a little bit about where we left off. But also, beginning August, we'll take up the tenets. And as I mentioned, we're going to look at contemplating reality. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:47 Highlight the passage at 2:04:47

2:05:22 So I think this will be the most relevant, hopefully, way of going about it. Hopefully, we're going to take up verses 6 and 7, chapters 6 and 7 as well, mixed in with that so we don't float off into space and study emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:22 Highlight the passage at 2:05:22

2:05:49 Dedicate the positive energy we've created together. May Report an error in the passage at 2:05:49 Highlight the passage at 2:05:49

2:06:00 all beings everywhere, plagued by sufferings of body and mind, attain an ocean of happiness and joy by virtue of my merits. May knowing 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 worn with toil be restored on finding repose. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:00 Highlight the passage at 2:06:00

2:06:26 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 2:06:26 Highlight the passage at 2:06:26

2:06:54 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. 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. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:54 Highlight the passage at 2:06:54

2:07:18 these skillful actions may I quickly become an awakened spiritual master. May the supreme jewel of the naked 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 the snow mountains, you are the source of all happiness and well-being. Powerful Chenrizi Tenzin Gyatso, please remain until the end of cyclical existence. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:18 Highlight the passage at 2:07:18

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2:08:29 don't know. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:29 Highlight the passage at 2:08:29

2:08:35 So it would be the 3rd of August. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:35 Highlight the passage at 2:08:35