Discovering Buddhism - Samsara and Nirvana (8 April 2010)

0:02 if you give me your email address, I will send you the slides that we're going to go through tonight and the ones from the previous classes. And the format we usually do is we'll go through the PowerPoint presentation, we'll start with a little bit of meditation to set our motivation. If you have questions at any time, please feel free to ask. ask. And. Report an error in the passage at 0:02 Highlight the passage at 0:02

0:47 position and I know it's different when you're sitting in a chair but you can actually be very comfortable you really want to do is make sure that your your spine is straight so just imagine it's like a stack of coins Report an error in the passage at 0:47 Highlight the passage at 0:47

1:07 Let go of all the day's tensions and concerns and all the issues that are going around and around up there. And Report an error in the passage at 1:07 Highlight the passage at 1:07

1:36 now just mentally relax your body as you bring your attention from the top of your head down to your toes. And as you sort of mentally visit portions of each area of your body, just let it relax. So relaxing your eyes, the corners of your mouth, your jaw. You hold a lot of tension there. Relax your neck and your arms. Report an error in the passage at 1:36 Highlight the passage at 1:36

2:12 Relax your hips, your knees, your ankles and your toes. Report an error in the passage at 2:12 Highlight the passage at 2:12

2:25 And as your body relaxes, just let your mind begin to focus. Report an error in the passage at 2:25 Highlight the passage at 2:25

2:38 Let your mind feel light. Report an error in the passage at 2:38 Highlight the passage at 2:38

2:45 Turn your focus, your concentration to your breath. Report an error in the passage at 2:45 Highlight the passage at 2:45

2:51 Just gently watching your breath as you breathe. And Report an error in the passage at 2:51 Highlight the passage at 2:51

· · · silence, 1 minute

3:51 now just think of all the positive merit you've generated by coming here tonight and putting aside all the samsaric things, all the things Report an error in the passage at 3:51 Highlight the passage at 3:51

4:05 you could be doing maybe with friends, TV you could be watching, books you could be reading. And think about how wonderful and beneficial it is to be here because we're really focusing on getting out of this samsaric existence. And what we do here is the one thing that we can take with us no matter what. Report an error in the passage at 4:05 Highlight the passage at 4:05

4:34 When this life ends, it's the imprints on our conscious mind that we will take and that will carry us into our next life. So Report an error in the passage at 4:34 Highlight the passage at 4:34

5:03 rejoice in just getting here and then take a few moments to contemplate your motivation for being here. Report an error in the passage at 5:03 Highlight the passage at 5:03

5:19 Remembering that just as we wish to be happy, so do all beings. Report an error in the passage at 5:19 Highlight the passage at 5:19

5:27 Just as we wish to be free of suffering, so do all beings. And Report an error in the passage at 5:27 Highlight the passage at 5:27

5:48 just knowing that the best way to benefit others is to transform our own minds, to Report an error in the passage at 5:48 Highlight the passage at 5:48

6:02 bring ourselves into an enlightened state. And so generate that altruistic motivation, that wish to attain enlightenment to benefit others. So Report an error in the passage at 6:02 Highlight the passage at 6:02

· · · silence, 1 minute

7:20 I don't know if I was mentioning before the class started that PBS had that... Special on last night, the Buddha, and I forgot to mention it ahead of time, but I did tape it, and I'm sure other people have taped it, so I have to tell you it's really well done, and I would like to see it again, so I do recommend it. Report an error in the passage at 7:20 Highlight the passage at 7:20

7:41 Maybe we'll even have something here at the center, or maybe on our practice day that could be, if you want to stay a while and watch that. By the way, right now, how many of you... to the practice day. It's going to be the Saturday after our last class, I believe. guess I should get the date down first before we talk about if anybody can come. Report an error in the passage at 7:41 Highlight the passage at 7:41

8:11 that May 1st? This is the last class It is the 29th. Report an error in the passage at 8:11 Highlight the passage at 8:11

8:17 Thank you Gina for keeping my calendar challenged mind straight. Report an error in the passage at 8:17 Highlight the passage at 8:17

8:29 I mean, I think. It depends on if anything's planned at the center because if May works better for people, we could do that as well that Saturday. Or, you know, just basically look at the last Saturday in April and the first Saturday in May and figure out for next class which sounds better. And I'll also check on the center schedule. Report an error in the passage at 8:29 Highlight the passage at 8:29

9:00 So tonight we've talked about suffering a lot. We've talked about renunciation because we have to talk about suffering to generate renunciation. If we don't recognize the suffering of saṃsāra, then there's no way to generate renunciation or the wish to get out of it. Gina, do you want to sit up? Are you okay there? Can everybody see? This is empty. Report an error in the passage at 9:00 Highlight the passage at 9:00

9:30 Can everybody hear me okay? Because I know we have the puja going on, so it's going to be competing a little bit. Report an error in the passage at 9:30 Highlight the passage at 9:30

9:42 So this is something that was mentioned in that program last night. And I just thought it was a really powerful statement. And I don't know if it was actually attributed to the Buddha or just a saying from the Vedic tradition of India. But it made me think about saṃsāra and delusions and how... To gain anything, you must first lose everything. And at first, it's kind of a scary idea. Report an error in the passage at 9:42 Highlight the passage at 9:42

10:22 And I thought about the reason why the delusions are tricky. Report an error in the passage at 10:22 Highlight the passage at 10:22

10:34 They kind of seduce us. They sort of pull us in. And so we think we are losing things. say? They're Report an error in the passage at 10:34 Highlight the passage at 10:34

10:45 That we're losing things of value. When we talk about delusions, we're going to go into this, we'll enumerate them, but we're talking about things like anger and attachment and ignorance. Those are like the three main delusions. And oftentimes the things that those delusions kind of encourage us to seek seem to be the kinds of things that we wouldn't want to lose. Report an error in the passage at 10:45 Highlight the passage at 10:45

11:14 But as we go through this and really examine them tonight we'll find ways to kind of cut through that appearance and get at the heart of the delusions. One of the portions in the program yesterday they revisited the Buddha's life and when he was attaining enlightenment, basically meditating. Report an error in the passage at 11:14 Highlight the passage at 11:14

11:42 They called it Māra. I don't know if you've heard that term. But Māra basically means, you know, it's like a personification of all the delusions. And things arose to kind of frighten him, you know, to tempt him from scaring to tempting. It's like what way the mind is very crafty, this eye, this deluded view that wants to hold on to saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 11:42 Highlight the passage at 11:42

12:11 The outline Report an error in the passage at 12:11 Highlight the passage at 12:11

12:18 that we're following basically talks about the way delusions are generated, how one accumulates karma through the delusions, and the way one dies and goes to a future life. And if you recall, the first class or two we were talking about the wheel of life, which we will revisit again, probably not the next class, but the class after that. Report an error in the passage at 12:18 Highlight the passage at 12:18

12:45 And that's going to give us a lot, it's going to pull things together as far as how the delusions create this, the causes for us to take essentially what's called like a contaminated rebirth and then how that gives rise to more suffering. So we'll see this wheel and it's... path, essentially, or its turning. Report an error in the passage at 12:45 Highlight the passage at 12:45

13:16 The way the delusions are generated here, we're going to talk about first identifying them because just like the sufferings of saṃsāra, if we can't identify them, we can't do anything about them. We have to recognize them as delusions. And then the sequence in which they're generated is a little more technical and we might not get into that tonight because we're going to focus more on the first part of this about really identifying the delusions and basically Report an error in the passage at 13:16 Highlight the passage at 13:16

14:02 how to deal with them. And then one of the other aspects of involving the way these delusions are generated. The truth Report an error in the passage at 14:02 Highlight the passage at 14:02

14:27 of the origin or the cause of suffering, if you remember the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha taught the truth of suffering, the origin of suffering or the cause of suffering. and then the fact that there's because we have a cause we can there's a cessation to and then the the path to that cessation so Shantideva, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Report an error in the passage at 14:27 Highlight the passage at 14:27

15:21 critical to eliminate because it's the mental afflictions or the delusions that create the causes for this karma to ripen. If we had a very tamed and quiet mind, then the negative karma that we might have created before would not really have the causes and conditions to ripen. Report an error in the passage at 15:21 Highlight the passage at 15:21

15:47 If we eliminated all of our karma, if we were able to sort of magically purify it, but we still had an untamed kind of crazy mind, the first thing we're going to do is create more negative karma. So it gives us an idea of why it's so important to recognize these afflictions and get rid of them. Report an error in the passage at 15:47 Highlight the passage at 15:47

16:11 Basically, the main cause of suffering is these delusions, these mental afflictions. And it's important to look at it this way because one of the things we tend to do when we're in the midst of saṃsāra and being tossed about by all sorts of demands on us and our time, we tend to feel when things happen that upset us, we tend to look outside for the cause. Report an error in the passage at 16:11 Highlight the passage at 16:11

16:40 It's very easy to blame. To blame, you know, this person didn't do their job, so now I have a problem. So anger arises, you know. Report an error in the passage at 16:40 Highlight the passage at 16:40

16:55 What's really happening here, you know, is as long as we look outside for the cause of our suffering, we can never stop it. Because the real cause is inside, it is our own mental delusions, our mental afflictions. Report an error in the passage at 16:55 Highlight the passage at 16:55

17:18 So the definition of a mental affliction is just a mental state that makes the mind unpeaceful, makes it agitated, disturbed. Report an error in the passage at 17:18 Highlight the passage at 17:18

17:29 And we can see this when we think about emotions or things like anger and jealousy, pride. Those sorts of feelings bring us an uneasiness. I mean, you can even have a physical uneasiness. With attachment and desire, it's often a little more difficult. Why do you think that is? Any Report an error in the passage at 17:29 Highlight the passage at 17:29

17:58 thoughts? Report an error in the passage at 17:58 Highlight the passage at 17:58

18:08 Right. Report an error in the passage at 18:08 Highlight the passage at 18:08

18:13 Well, that's very true. The other thing I think that happens is that a lot of times with attachment, you know, we don't really think of it as being unpeaceful. afraid of losing the boat. Report an error in the passage at 18:13 Highlight the passage at 18:13

18:08 you're attached to a design, if open, it's going to go away. Right. Report an error in the passage at 18:08 Highlight the passage at 18:08

18:27 We think of it as being, we get caught up, like I said, we're going to go into this more as we go on. But sometimes we just think it's happiness. You know, we think this is pretty good, pretty, you know, things are coming my way, this is great and I'm okay with this. It's short-term thinking because, you know, you have something, this is really awesome now, you're not thinking about, and when it goes away, you'll be sad when it's gone. Exactly. Report an error in the passage at 18:27 Highlight the passage at 18:27

18:55 Or if you really want something. Report an error in the passage at 18:55 Highlight the passage at 18:55

18:59 when you get it, you it's like, well, what else do I want? away, so there's no... The illusion of that is that it's short term and non-substantial. -hmm, Report an error in the passage at 18:59 Highlight the passage at 18:59

19:23 Yeah, I mean, that's part of this too, because one of our mental afflictions is missing impermanence. You know, we kind of live our lives and treat things around us as well as ourselves as though permanent, phenomenal, nothing is. So, you know, we talk about realizing that kind of impermanence and we do meditations, analytical meditations to try to bring that realization home more strongly. Report an error in the passage at 19:23 Highlight the passage at 19:23

19:54 But it's very, you know, I mean, if you think about people who really haven't had any connection with Buddhism, who thinks about impermanence? I mean, you know, it's just like... Report an error in the passage at 19:54 Highlight the passage at 19:54

20:08 This is part of life and we're sort of reacting all the time. So having this ability to actually look at and examine the mind is very powerful. Report an error in the passage at 20:08 Highlight the passage at 20:08

20:26 In fact, when you start looking through this and really reading it and becoming aware of it, you realize how much of a change we can make. Sometimes it feels like, what can I do? Everything is just so overwhelming. But this method is presented in such a way that we can kind of take things apart. We can look at them and we can address what's happening and recognize what's happening in our own minds. So these six root delusions, anger, desire, ignorance, pride. Report an error in the passage at 20:26 Highlight the passage at 20:26

21:04 Then afflicted doubt and wrong views. And those two probably are not too familiar, but I will go through those in a bit more detail. And I think the others are probably all too familiar. So anger is a harmful attempt that wants to harm or destroy its object. So the object can be another person. It can be just something inanimate. The motivation, the desire is to really harm or destroy. Report an error in the passage at 21:04 Highlight the passage at 21:04

21:33 And you want to destroy what, you know, What you identify as being the source of your problem. And sometimes anger is directed at ourselves. Sometimes it's outside. But no matter what, anger is a highly disturbed frame of mind. When we're angry, we're not able to really, sometimes we're not even able to take a breath. Report an error in the passage at 21:33 Highlight the passage at 21:33

22:05 In situations where this anger arises, it sort of just envelops your body. It's important to remember too that having a strong or forceful character is not anger. It doesn't mean that if you're a Buddhist or you're trying to watch your anger that you have to walk around in some sort of Pollyanna mode or something. Report an error in the passage at 22:05 Highlight the passage at 22:05

22:32 It just means... recognizing when anger just kind of appears in the mind and takes over. said that anger is the weapon to destroy or murder your higher rebirths. Report an error in the passage at 22:32 Highlight the passage at 22:32

22:50 And anger is dangerous because it can be so destructive. I mean, we see this. I don't know what the statistics are, but... Report an error in the passage at 22:50 Highlight the passage at 22:50

23:07 It's not that they're planning to really to harm or kill others, but the anger just kind of takes on a life of its own. anger has got the greatest strength to destroy our virtues and throw us into the lower realms. And I think it's because Report an error in the passage at 23:07 Highlight the passage at 23:07

23:32 Well, we can see it, as I was saying, you know, anger kind of takes off and someone is angry at a person, they feel wronged, they want to right that wrong, but it gets out of hand, you know. And, I mean, if you think about it, the idea of taking a life seems, you know, just unthinkable. Yet when anger takes over, people are driven sometimes to do things that, you know, they're out of control. Report an error in the passage at 23:32 Highlight the passage at 23:32

24:03 And you can see that that's so much for our karma. And those kinds of actions carry the heaviest result. Taking life, you know, really harming beings. It's just a very heavy result. I think there's something about anger too. I mean, we all experience anger as a transient moment. Sometimes it lasts a longer night. Report an error in the passage at 24:03 Highlight the passage at 24:03

24:34 But, you know, in my 30 years of emergency services, I mean, I've met people that, like, really angry and violent people, and they were like that. Report an error in the passage at 24:34 Highlight the passage at 24:34

24:48 I mean, they were like, they were really scared people. So you can think, you know, wheelchair can last an hour for you, but it might last a lifetime for someone else. That's true. You know, it's just, I mean, they're, it's out there. I mean, when you kind of, like I said, we all experience times of just, like, rage or just anger with them. Report an error in the passage at 24:48 Highlight the passage at 24:48

25:05 When you meet folks that are just enveloped in that and they never get out of it, it's very powerful. It's pretty scary, but it's also very powerful because thinking of what went on to bring that over so far. Report an error in the passage at 25:05 Highlight the passage at 25:05

25:21 That's a good point, too, because one of the things we have to be aware of, too, is that moments of anger create more moments of anger. you know when we when we um have um anger we habituate ourselves you know that's why there were to you know avoid non-virtues because when we do something Shantideva, His Holiness the Dalai Lama more um a i mean it it definitely it said that karma multiplies we're in a situation of this anger explode i can see where there are people for whom it just becomes a way of life Report an error in the passage at 25:21 Highlight the passage at 25:21

26:29 again, just more of the dangers of anger. Report an error in the passage at 26:29 Highlight the passage at 26:29

26:34 Attachment Attachment is the desire for an inner or outer object. It's not about the object, it's about this mental elaboration. We kind of project on the object great beauty, great desirability. Report an error in the passage at 26:34 Highlight the passage at 26:34

26:51 Desire and attachment are pretty much interchangeable. And the nature of desire is to crave an object. It could be a person, it could be an inanimate object, it could be a thought, it could be a quality. quality, know. Report an error in the passage at 26:51 Highlight the passage at 26:51

27:10 After we've created this mental picture, then we crave it even more. All this energy of desire kind of feeds on the object and creates almost, we'll talk about it further, but it creates something that kind of takes on a life of its own. Report an error in the passage at 27:10 Highlight the passage at 27:10

27:36 Anchor and attachment are both based on mistaken conceptions. With attachment we see something as very beautiful, we convince ourselves basically that we can't live without it. Anger is just the reverse of this. We see something or someone as so awful that we can't tolerate its existence, its presence. Report an error in the passage at 27:36 Highlight the passage at 27:36

28:05 And these mistaken conceptions, these elaborations, we kind of see an object and we create a story around it. We totally embellish and that's why we get caught up in it. Report an error in the passage at 28:05 Highlight the passage at 28:05

28:24 The Lama Yeshe said, because the mind is overcome by mistaken conceptions, we don't perceive reality at all. We think, you know, how many times have you had the experience where you see what you want to see? I mean, it's one of the things the mind tends to do anyway. We look at things and when you study, there's a... Report an error in the passage at 28:24 Highlight the passage at 28:24

28:19 it Report an error in the passage at 28:19 Highlight the passage at 28:19

28:49 A portion of the Buddhist philosophy that deals with mind and its perception. And then it said, you know, when you become enlightened, what you perceive is what's there. And I mean, part of why we don't perceive things the way they are right now is because, you know, we're grasping permanence. You know, we think, we kind of see things. Report an error in the passage at 28:49 Highlight the passage at 28:49

29:17 things as being permanent. We see the eye as existing on its own. We see objects as existing permanently and solidly. So already we're kind of creating our own reality, if you will. And then when you bring the delusions into it, you've kind of completed the picture. It's very hard for us to really... Keep the mind objective. When we have anger, it blinds us to positive qualities. All we see is negative. Report an error in the passage at 29:17 Highlight the passage at 29:17

29:57 It makes it very hard when you've got two parties and maybe you want to negotiate between these two people. If there's anger there, it's very hard to find common ground. It's hard to refocus that energy because there's just so much negative. Report an error in the passage at 29:57 Highlight the passage at 29:57

30:20 So much negativity around that mind of anger. And it's important to think, kind of step back from all of this too and remember that with anger and attachment and any of these emotions or experiences, you know, they're not really inherently good or bad. They simply are emotions, okay? So it's a lot of what we do. Like if we let anger arise. Report an error in the passage at 30:20 Highlight the passage at 30:20

30:49 arise, we can have a problem if we let ourselves go with this anger. Lama Tsongkhapa, Shantideva, His Holiness the Dalai Lama a positive thing. And sometimes you'll see in the meditation room the tankas. And you'll see what look like very wrathful deities, depictions. Shantideva, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Report an error in the passage at 30:49 Highlight the passage at 30:49

31:49 It's not necessary to feel that, oh, desire is just bad. You can have the desire to be enlightened. That's what makes us, you have the desire to develop bodhicitta, to act with love and compassion. That drives us. And I think in some ways, when we talk about the various realms of existence, the human realm has such power for using these emotions. Report an error in the passage at 31:49 Highlight the passage at 31:49

32:20 In a positive way, and I think that is connected with why the perfect human rebirth can bring us to enlightenment quickly, more quickly than, say, some of the other realms that are like the pure lands, which are more of a formless realm. You don't have these... and that we have but power to transform them and that power really is it's the subject of Tantra the tantric really takes what is part of this this desire realm that we live in and it uses it We also Report an error in the passage at 32:20 Highlight the passage at 32:20

33:15 want to remember that... When we talk about these kinds of delusions and we're talking about anger and attachment, we don't want to fall into a view that, oh yeah, I have to be just kind of removed and kind of cold and robotic or something. Report an error in the passage at 33:15 Highlight the passage at 33:15

33:35 I think sometimes we have a view, and I think this came up in the program the other night too, you see these statues of... Shakyamuni Buddha is meditating and looking so serene, but he also looks very disconnected. Sometimes we can't really relate to that. We develop this view that enlightenment means you don't connect with anybody anymore. Maybe I don't really want to do that, but that's not it at all. Report an error in the passage at 33:35 Highlight the passage at 33:35

34:10 We have to remember the whole idea of enlightenment. is this omniscient mind that knows the needs of every being and the purpose there an enlightened being is devoted to helping other beings attain that same enlightenment so you know it's a Report an error in the passage at 34:10 Highlight the passage at 34:10

34:30 So then on Report an error in the passage at 34:30 Highlight the passage at 34:30

34:41 to pride. So pride is pretty obvious. And sometimes it's... We're not sure, I mean, it's just part of us or something, you know, or part of other people we've met. It can arise in all sorts of crazy ways, sometimes even from focusing on our faults, like, you know, I'm the worst at this or something. But basically it's an inflated opinion of ourselves. And it's said that the problem with pride is that it's difficult to develop any good qualities when one has pride. Report an error in the passage at 34:41 Highlight the passage at 34:41

35:19 it said that A guru may teach Dharma to a person who has pride, but it won't do any good. So it gives us an idea that pride kind of blinds us to the good qualities of others and it can make us feel envious or put us at odds instead of feeling kind Report an error in the passage at 35:19 Highlight the passage at 35:19

35:49 of an empathy with others. I also thought about how, you know, sometimes with someone's prideful, we say, oh, you know, they're really full of themselves. And I thought it's kind of interesting because if you're full of yourself, you're also, it's like you're empty of others. You know, it kind of sets you apart. And that in itself, you know, obstructs our ability to really develop this loving and compassionate mind. Report an error in the passage at 35:49 Highlight the passage at 35:49

36:22 We're again, we're turned inward and we're, you know, it's all about I again. Do you think sometimes pride is, somebody that has a lot of pride is really insecure and their ego is, they're not, they don't, Report an error in the passage at 36:22 Highlight the passage at 36:22

36:48 they're insecure. No, that's very true. So would you want to have compassion? Oh, absolutely, yeah. I mean, I think... What I'm saying here in terms of compassion is more about developing compassion, looking at our own, cutting through our own pride. It's very true. A lot of times people who have a lot of pride or who seem prideful are very insecure. Report an error in the passage at 36:48 Highlight the passage at 36:48

37:18 And so when you can see that, of course you reach out to that. But you can see where, again, Having that pride, it separates them, you know, and it takes a lot of energy to be thinking about, you know, with that kind of, say, the insecure pride, I think there's a lot of measuring going on and comparison. Report an error in the passage at 37:18 Highlight the passage at 37:18

37:40 So, you know, how can you really listen to what other people are saying or, you know, have an openness? It just can't be there because you're kind of, the walls are up. And you're only letting in what you can handle maybe or what you want to hear. Report an error in the passage at 37:40 Highlight the passage at 37:40