Dzogchen Retreat 2015 - Realising our true nature (part 4)

· · · silence, 1 minute

0:44 So I emphasized very much yesterday enormous significance, establishing continuity in practice. It's that which gives coherence to whole life and the glorious possibility of coherence from lifetime to lifetime, that you actually see something, some real movement, like the growth of a tree, you know, decade after decade, in case of large trees like the Sequoias in California, century after century. Report an error in the passage at 0:44 Highlight the passage at 0:44

1:12 But you see something, it's not just a sprout here and a sprout there and a few weeds here and a few weeds there. It's something that's growing monumentally, right? These great trees that grow to, what, 50 meters or what have you. And so in a similar fashion, one's life can be like that. Not just a bunch of weeds growing in a field, but a few flowers and more weeds and more flowers and more weeds. Report an error in the passage at 1:12 Highlight the passage at 1:12

1:32 I mean, life can easily be that way. But the notion of a whole life coalescing around a very meaningful, unfolding... A growth, a transformation, an evolution. A key factor of that, of course, is continuity. Report an error in the passage at 1:32 Highlight the passage at 1:32

1:51 There are many paths, that's for sure, many very fine paths. And among them, there is the Buddhadharma, the path of the Buddha. And so those who are very committed to following this path, they're called in Tibetans, nangba, they're called insiders, insiders, because they're looking within. They're looking within for fulfillment, for happiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:51 Highlight the passage at 1:51

2:14 The realization of their innermost desires are looking within instead of looking outwards to things like the three jewels of the mundane world, wealth, power and prestige. Report an error in the passage at 2:14 Highlight the passage at 2:14

2:25 So we're all practicing Dharma. Those are called the mundane dharmas. Everybody's practicing Dharma. There's mundane dharmas where we're still placing our hopes and things outside to really provide us with the satisfaction that we seek. And then when we kind of grow up, really it's kind of like that. Report an error in the passage at 2:25 Highlight the passage at 2:25

2:44 Like, you know, get real. Get real. That all one has to do is look really carefully in one's own life, the life outside, and one sees, but actually no one's ever found satisfaction. Ever. Even the most successful people have never found that true, genuine, lasting satisfaction, that unfolding, just by getting stuff from outside. Report an error in the passage at 2:44 Highlight the passage at 2:44

3:04 So then one turns inwards. So doing, you become a nangba, which is then an insider. And then there are different types of insiders who are following the path of the Buddha. And so what establishes, what facilitates or enables this kind of continuity? Because after all, we have a lot of desires. If you're anything like me, a desire of this, and then on Tuesday a desire of this comes up, and a year later this kind of desire comes up. Report an error in the passage at 3:04 Highlight the passage at 3:04

3:33 Sometimes they're like weeds, they come up all over the place, right? And so we could be just scattered every which way. It's probably true, a lot of people are. There's no real continuity. They tried this for a while, and then they got disillusioned with that, and they tried that, and that marriage broke up, and then they tried this job, and that didn't turn out very well, pretty good, but then they tried this, and then they died. Report an error in the passage at 3:33 Highlight the passage at 3:33

3:52 And so it was just kind of a little bit of this, a little bit of that. So to really, to facilitate, to do all that we can to nurture that continuity, which is like, again, having a little seed and just making sure that you don't flood it every six months or so. And then let it be parched for the next six months. Keep on attending to it. It's not an awful lot of work, but keep attending to it. Report an error in the passage at 3:52 Highlight the passage at 3:52

4:18 Mulch it, fertilize it, make sure it's getting the right amount of sun, the right amount of water, but just keep at it. And then lo and behold, you have a pretty nice fruit-bearing tree perhaps after some time. But you have to keep at it. And so it's the same thing here. The very term meditation from the Sanskrit is bhavana, which means to cultivate. So it's so much like planting a tree. Report an error in the passage at 4:18 Highlight the passage at 4:18

4:38 Planting a garden, sowing a field. And it takes that continuity. It takes that continuity. And so what facilitates the continuity, I'll say in a word, it's refuge. It's taking refuge. It sounds like a very religious term that everybody takes refuge. Everybody takes refuge. And that is we entrust ourselves to someone because nobody is so skilled that we don't need to rely on anybody at all. Report an error in the passage at 4:38 Highlight the passage at 4:38

5:04 I mean, I had a root canal in Italy. Several months back, I don't know how to do a root canal and I'd hate to try it on myself. You have to take refuge in somebody and hopefully you find a good dentist. And that's for everything else. I don't grow my own food, so when food is bought I'm taking refuge that the people who are selling it are not selling me contaminated goods and so on and so on. Report an error in the passage at 5:04 Highlight the passage at 5:04

5:26 So we take refuge in a myriad of things for our hedonic well-being, which we trust and trust ourselves in many, many ways, which is appropriate and it's also simply necessary. And then there is the pursuit of genuine happiness, of liberation, of awakening, of an ever increasingly meaningful life. I would say that's all in one bundle. Report an error in the passage at 5:26 Highlight the passage at 5:26

5:46 And then for that, to whom shall we entrust ourselves? What can we count on? What can we trust? Well, of course, in the Buddhadhamma, then we say, well, you entrust yourself to the Buddhadhamma and Saṅgha. And I'm sure many of you receive teachings on that. But now let's stick really close to Dzogchen. Report an error in the passage at 5:46 Highlight the passage at 5:46

6:07 This great perfection. And here it's so explicit, it's really, really clear, it's emphatic and repeated, that your ultimate refuge to which entrust yourself all the way to Buddhahood itself is nothing other than your own pristine awareness. Your own pristine awareness. If you look at the classic teachings, the classic teachings in terms of taking refuge in the Buddha, you say, well, Report an error in the passage at 6:07 Highlight the passage at 6:07

6:36 There's the Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, Nimanakaya. What are you really taking refuge in when you take refuge in the Buddha? What's the core? What's the essence? What are you really entrusting yourself to? Which is Sambhogakaya, Nimanakaya, Dharmakaya? What do you think? Dharmakaya, yeah, Dharmakaya. That's the Buddha's mind. Report an error in the passage at 6:36 Highlight the passage at 6:36

6:58 That's the Buddha's mind. That's what you're really taking refuge in. Well, guess what? Your pristine awareness is Dharmakaya. It's not other than Dharmakaya. So in taking refuge in, in trusting yourself, in a very practical way, this is not theoretical, abstract kind of belief system, this is actually something you actually do, and trust yourself to Dharmakaya, which is nothing other than pristine awareness, which is nothing other than your own pristine awareness, and you trust that. Report an error in the passage at 6:58 Highlight the passage at 6:58

7:27 So this is really inner, inner, inner, inner, right? And so here in this context, this is the way to start the practice every day. By taking refuge, and if you are following this path of Dzogchen, the great perfection, then your core refuge, that which you most essentially entrust yourself to, is your own pristine awareness, which is the very fountainhead, the wellspring of all your virtue, of all wisdom, all compassion and genuine happiness. Report an error in the passage at 7:27 Highlight the passage at 7:27

7:57 None of those do you get from outside. I can't give you any wisdom. I have words to share, but I can't possibly give you any wisdom. I can't give you compassion. I can't give you virtue. I can't give you genuine happiness. I can't give you any of that stuff and that's what's really important. And I don't actually know any teacher who can. There are monumental teachers that infinitely transcend my abilities. Report an error in the passage at 7:57 Highlight the passage at 7:57

8:18 But even they, even the Buddha himself says, I can't give you this. I can't simply take away your mental afflictions and I can't simply give you some of my leftover compassion. I got more than I need so have a dose, you know, I wish. I wish I'd be waiting with my mouth open. Report an error in the passage at 8:18 Highlight the passage at 8:18

8:35 So there it is, the very source of your wisdom. And if we put this into ordinary vernacular English, You're taking refuge in your own intuitive wisdom, your own intuitive wisdom, the wellsprings of which are nowhere other than your own pristine awareness. Report an error in the passage at 8:35 Highlight the passage at 8:35

8:50 Of course, there's a problem. There's a problem. And that is our own pristine awareness, the wisdom, the spontaneous, profound, luminous wisdom and guidance that springs from this pristine awareness is like a well, like an artesian well that goes very, very deep. Report an error in the passage at 8:50 Highlight the passage at 8:50

9:14 But as the water comes up, it gets filtered, filtered through layers and layers and layers until it finally manifests on the surface. But what's down below and what's manifesting on the surface are not necessarily the same thing. There's filtration that takes place. Contaminations could come in. And some of these contaminations, as we really, I'm speaking very practically here. I'm not giving just a Dharma talk. Report an error in the passage at 9:14 Highlight the passage at 9:14

9:37 This is absolutely practical. Report an error in the passage at 9:37 Highlight the passage at 9:37

9:45 Problems in totally entrusting ourselves to our own intuitive wisdom, pristine awareness. And that is we were born with this. We were born with this pristine awareness. It came with us. But there's something else came with it. It came with a crowd. It came with a gang. It came with conate mental afflictions. Report an error in the passage at 9:45 Highlight the passage at 9:45

10:05 Conate. You're born with them, right? Can't blame your parents. Can't blame materialism. Can't blame modernity. Can't blame anybody else because they didn't give it. They didn't do it to us. Outside influences can exacerbate, that's for sure. Strengthen, make worse, that's for sure. But the basic predispositions, the potentialities, the momentum for conate ignorance and delusion, craving and greed and hostility and aggression, we're born with those. Report an error in the passage at 10:05 Highlight the passage at 10:05

10:36 And so the pure spring water of pristine awareness has to flow through those. By the time it gets to our consciousness, it has to get through that. And then there's all our acquired illusions. And these are the ones that we do get from our environment, from our education, from growing up, from reading books and listening to politicians and so forth and so on. Report an error in the passage at 10:36 Highlight the passage at 10:36

11:00 And so then we have another layer that has to get through. And so by the time that pure water of pristine awareness is flowing up, we need to be able to recognize What's coming from the source, what's coming from that interim level, these mental afflictions that we're born with, and what's coming from really just garbage, you know, garbage that we pick up in this lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 11:00 Highlight the passage at 11:00

11:25 Prejudices, biases, preconceptions and so on. So it sounds like it's a bit dicey, a bit dicey, right, to rely on this when there's so much in between our conscious awareness and this deep wellspring. Report an error in the passage at 11:25 Highlight the passage at 11:25

11:42 But then it turns out that's unavoidable anyway. And that is for those who among the myriad paths that one could follow, many of them have been great depth and wisdom, the Christian path, the Greek Orthodox, the Roman Catholic, the Jewish and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 11:42 Highlight the passage at 11:42

12:02 Some of us, many of us have found our way to the Buddha Dharma and find this is the one that really speaks to the heart. This is for myself. I encountered it. I read the first book. I'm home. The first book on Tibetan Buddhism I read on Dzogchen. I'm home. That's it. Whatever that, I don't really understand it, but that's it, that's it, you know. And so, but then, you know, I'm thinking of myself as 20 years old, picking up this Tibetan book of the Great Liberation on Dzogchen. Report an error in the passage at 12:02 Highlight the passage at 12:02

12:28 Why on earth should I trust that intuition? I didn't even really understand it. I just knew that it spoke to me in a very deep way. But I knew I didn't understand it. And yet I really trusted it. So what am I trusting? The book, Evans Wentz, the editor, the translator, am I trusting them? I don't know how good they are. I'm 20. What do you know when you're 20? Kind of like you're not 19 anymore. Not a whole lot more. And so you're trusting your intuition. Report an error in the passage at 12:28 Highlight the passage at 12:28

12:59 And all of us did. For me, it was reading one book and that's it. And then it turned out to be really it. This is my home. But it's intuition. And whether it's following this or whether it's following Christianity or any other path, it's intuition that guides us. It's not just sheer logic. Report an error in the passage at 12:59 Highlight the passage at 12:59

13:17 It's intuition that guides us to follow this path, that path, right? And then within the path to this Lama, is it Lama Zopa, is it Zonsa Kinze Rinpoche, is it Buddhadasa, is it Sansunim, which teacher do you follow? And again, is there a calculator? Which is the one? Click, click, click, click, I got the answer, boom, boom. It never works that way, right? It's always something more than just sheer logic, or I just like. Report an error in the passage at 13:17 Highlight the passage at 13:17

13:41 I like this, I like that. There's something more going on. It's intuition. Filtered through logic and I like this and I don't like that and that one's handsome and that one's ugly and so forth and so on and that one's articulate and that one not so much. It's filtered through all that but still it's intuition. I mean back to Dzogchen, your ultimate refuge is pristine awareness but you're taking refuge also in the teachings of Dzogchen. Report an error in the passage at 13:41 Highlight the passage at 13:41

14:06 Well this is a marvelous example because these teachings are actually from a person whose teaching has come The teachings are coming directly from his pristine awareness. This is not something he figured out. He didn't give a lot of thought to this and figure it out with a lot and taking from this text and that text and they thinking more, I'll write this and now what do I write? Report an error in the passage at 14:06 Highlight the passage at 14:06

14:24 No, this was just kind of, this is spontaneous flow. This is Dujum Lingma. It's a spontaneous flow right from his own pristine awareness. The whole text is one just ongoing flow, right? Report an error in the passage at 14:24 Highlight the passage at 14:24

14:37 And then, so there it is. You take refuge in these teachings, you're taking refuge in The pristine awareness of Dujum Lingba, but of course his pristine awareness is non-dual from your own. But then we say, but there's a text, but are you getting what he said? Report an error in the passage at 14:37 Highlight the passage at 14:37

14:55 What he said was what he said, right? A hundred and some years ago. But are you getting what he said? Are you receiving what he shared? And then that of course is the role of the teacher you actually meet, like this one right here, to try to make it as clear as possible, accessible as possible, so you really get. Report an error in the passage at 14:55 Highlight the passage at 14:55

15:14 Not clouded with California views or modern views and so forth, not distorted, not malformed, not a bunch of junk from modernity and not taking away. Just try to get it through. Let his words from more than a hundred years ago flow right on through without contamination, without pollution, right on through to your mind streams in 2015. Report an error in the passage at 15:14 Highlight the passage at 15:14

15:35 That's the Lama's job. Can you trust me or not? I'm of California, be careful. California, you have a lot of cuckoos in California. So can you trust this person or not? Report an error in the passage at 15:35 Highlight the passage at 15:35

15:50 And what shall I say? No, yes, whatever I say, are you going to trust me? And so it comes right back to your intuition, doesn't it? You trust this teacher or that teacher? It comes back to your intuition, not how articulate, some of the biggest liars in the world are fantastically articulate and charismatic and much more handsome than I am. Report an error in the passage at 15:50 Highlight the passage at 15:50

16:10 And so it always comes back to your intuition. But then I do my best. I have been doing and I shall do over the next five days. Do my best to elucidate, to clarify, to bring this into the modern world, but without junking it up. Report an error in the passage at 16:10 Highlight the passage at 16:10

16:28 And so I have a pretty good sense of what I'm sharing, what I'm saying, what I'm transmitting. But are you getting what I'm saying? And I've been amazed, because I've been teaching a long time now, that people often get what I didn't say. And didn't get what I did say. And misunderstand what I did say. And so we hear what we want to hear, we don't hear what we don't want to hear, and then we interpret whatever we do hear. And that gets filtered through. Report an error in the passage at 16:28 Highlight the passage at 16:28

16:56 So no matter what it's coming from, whether it's from your own pristine awareness, it gets filtered, right? Whether you're reading the Buddhist teachings right from the Pāli Canon or the Mahāyāna, it's filtered through. You read Dujjum Lingva, right there, pure nectar, right from its own pristine awareness, but it's filtered through your understanding. How could it not be? Report an error in the passage at 16:56 Highlight the passage at 16:56

17:13 And here I am speaking a language that I think is probably native for all of you, at least most, and you're clearly all fluent, otherwise you wouldn't be here. And even I'm saying in a shared language and a shared culture, even that gets filtered. So in the midst of all of this, we're always coming back to the same thing. We always have been taking refuge and trusting ourselves to our own intuition. Report an error in the passage at 17:13 Highlight the passage at 17:13

17:38 It would be nice if we could just stop and say, no, just give me an omniscient teacher. Give me an omniscient text. Just give me an infallible source. I just want to rely on that. And as soon as you bump into it, it's already filtered. It doesn't matter what it is. It's always filtered. It's always configured. It's always interpreted. And so we're stuck with that. So then the question comes, whether you're following Theravāda, you're following Mahāyāna, whatever you may be following, how can we make sure that what we receive, that we are making ourselves able to receive what's actually being given? Report an error in the passage at 17:38 Highlight the passage at 17:38

18:11 There is the Buddha, the Samyaksambuddha, the perfectly awakened Buddha giving teachings, so clear, so lucid, so profound, drawing exactly from his own experience. How can we see that we can actually receive what he was giving? Our great teachers nowadays, like his Holiness the Dalai Lama, Yang Dhanumbuche, and others and others, how can we best prepare ourselves so that we can actually receive what they're giving? Report an error in the passage at 18:11 Highlight the passage at 18:11

18:36 Best prepare ourselves so that we can actually receive the wisdom that's flowing up from our own pristine awareness. When we read a text, and by the time we depart next Wednesday, this is what you'll take home. I'm hopping in an airplane to go elsewhere, but this is what you'll take home, and this is your refuge. These are the words of Dutram Lingma. That's your refuge. Report an error in the passage at 18:36 Highlight the passage at 18:36

18:55 And what you've understood, that will be a refuge. And you can keep on coming back to this. And with the transmission, explanation, with blessings, this text will not be dead. It will not be inert. It will not just be a bunch of ink on paper. It will continue to teach you. You keep on coming back to it, and you're going to be in dialogue with it. Report an error in the passage at 18:55 Highlight the passage at 18:55

19:14 You'll hear things. You'll understand things. You'll see things you haven't seen when you go back to it a tenth time and a twentieth time. Especially as long as you're going in and out of practice, in and out of practice, and coming back, and then back to practice, and coming back, it will be a new text again and again and again. Report an error in the passage at 19:14 Highlight the passage at 19:14

19:31 That's how it works. If you don't practice, read it once, you're pretty much finished. Because you read it twice, you basically get a ditto if you got the first time, because you weren't practicing. Report an error in the passage at 19:31 Highlight the passage at 19:31

19:41 And I'm sure you're here because you'd like to practice. But this is the thing. This is that aspect of the transmission of getting it. And I know. Because I'd been studying for 20 years, quite intensely, with no Dzogchen. I got to read one book and that was it. And then 20 years, drought of Dzogchen. Report an error in the passage at 19:41 Highlight the passage at 19:41

19:59 And then 20 years later, then that faucet turned on. But just before then, just before I encountered Gatron Rinpoche and started receiving teachings from him, I was at Stanford. I was fluent in Tibetan, already translated a number of texts. And I sat down with a senior scholar at Stanford, because we were both interested in Dzogchen. Report an error in the passage at 19:59 Highlight the passage at 19:59

20:19 It's quite an interesting experience for me. And so, and we're both fluent, really fluent. You know, I've been studying for 20 years by now. Translated for the Dalai Lama and so forth and so on. I was, you know, competent. This excellent scholar, I'll leave her name anonymous, we sat down and we just got curious and we started reading themselves in text. Report an error in the passage at 20:19 Highlight the passage at 20:19

20:39 It was like my mind was wax paper. And I was pouring these teachings onto my mind and they were just flowing right off. I could get the words and I was making no impression. It was a very weird experience. They were making no impression at all. Even though I could understand the words, they just weren't coming in. Report an error in the passage at 20:39 Highlight the passage at 20:39

21:02 It was very weird. Other teachings really came in. Teachings from Tsongkhapa and so forth and so on, those really came in. And here, they weren't coming in at all. And then just months later, then I received the first teaching from Gyatru Rinpoche, first transmission, and then more and more and more and more. He left the tap on for like seven years, and I lived with him for almost two. Report an error in the passage at 21:02 Highlight the passage at 21:02

21:23 And then it went in. That was quite interesting to me. Because I'm kind of a clever chap and I could read Tibetan and all of that, and that didn't matter. It didn't go in. Report an error in the passage at 21:23 Highlight the passage at 21:23

21:33 So, come back to this initial core question, which is the big question. And that is, how do we so prepare ourselves that we can actually receive and recognize the wisdom in which we can deeply entrust ourselves that stems from within, from our own pristine awareness? And likewise, when you go for teaching by great teachers such as the Soliness and so on, we can actually receive what they're giving. We sit down and read a Buddhist sūtra, we sit down and read a sublime text like this, and we actually get what they're giving us. Report an error in the passage at 21:33 Highlight the passage at 21:33

22:07 How can we prepare ourselves to take refuge and have a lot of confidence that what we're receiving is actually from that authentic source and not just caught up in all the filtration and contamination in between? Report an error in the passage at 22:07 Highlight the passage at 22:07

22:20 How can we do that? It's a good question, isn't it? How can we do that? Well, we'll meditate, and that's what we'll do right now. Report an error in the passage at 22:20 Highlight the passage at 22:20

· · · silence, 1 minute

23:30 In the Buddhist tradition, before we take refuge, we often ask of ourselves, why? What do I need to take refuge for? And Report an error in the passage at 23:30 Highlight the passage at 23:30

23:44 the answer that may come back is because I don't see the way. I don't see the path to my own fulfillment, to my own freedom and awakening. It's not clear. So I need to rely to entrust myself to an authentic source of wisdom, of compassion that can guide me on that way. Report an error in the passage at 23:44 Highlight the passage at 23:44

24:09 Something outside the context of my mind, which is such a complex and disturbed phenomenon. Report an error in the passage at 24:09 Highlight the passage at 24:09

24:21 So in this path we take refuge in our own pristine awareness, the ultimate ground state of our consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 24:21 Highlight the passage at 24:21

24:33 We take refuge in the Dharma that flows from that source. We Report an error in the passage at 24:33 Highlight the passage at 24:33

24:44 take refuge in the Saṅgha, including our own lamas, our own gurus, to help us see that source, to recognize it, to hear it. Report an error in the passage at 24:44 Highlight the passage at 24:44

25:01 And in this way we become insiders. Report an error in the passage at 25:01 Highlight the passage at 25:01

25:06 We know where to look and Report an error in the passage at 25:06 Highlight the passage at 25:06

25:16 that we let our awareness expand outside of our bodies and minds to the world of sentient beings all around us with the recognition that every single sentient being fundamentally has the same aspirations as ourselves. Each one wishes to find happiness, enduring, utterly satisfying happiness. Each one wishes to be utterly free from suffering. Report an error in the passage at 25:16 Highlight the passage at 25:16

25:45 So Report an error in the passage at 25:45 Highlight the passage at 25:45

25:50 with this awareness, with the aspiration to serve the needs of all beings, Effectively, to rescue them from suffering and its causes, and to be a bright and shining light, to lead them on the path to their own fulfillment, we arouse bodhicitta as the one and only suitable motivation for listening to and practicing the teachings of Dzogchen. Report an error in the passage at 25:50 Highlight the passage at 25:50

· · · silence, 1 minute

27:04 With this sense of trust and this motivation of bodhicitta, we suffer the body in its natural state, Report an error in the passage at 27:04 Highlight the passage at 27:04

27:21 making a special point of softening all the muscles of the face, Especially those around the eyes, Report an error in the passage at 27:21 Highlight the passage at 27:21

27:33 relaxing the muscles of the shoulders. Report an error in the passage at 27:33 Highlight the passage at 27:33

27:40 And in a posture of comfort and ease, let your body be still. Let your posture be one of vigilance. When Report an error in the passage at 27:40 Highlight the passage at 27:40

28:01 it comes to settling the respiration in its natural rhythm, you know you're making progress. When you see the kind of deeply ingrained habituation of overriding the natural rhythm of the breath, applying effort where no effort is needed, Report an error in the passage at 28:01 Highlight the passage at 28:01

28:25 Constriction, where constriction only inhibits, Report an error in the passage at 28:25 Highlight the passage at 28:25

28:33 where there's still an element of control, recognizing that, release it, as if you're having an out-of-body experience and simply witnessing the body breathe, but not your body, not my body, just the body breathing as effortlessly, Report an error in the passage at 28:33 Highlight the passage at 28:33

28:58 as if the body were sound asleep in dreamless sleep. Report an error in the passage at 28:58 Highlight the passage at 28:58

29:24 And then it's as if we put the mind to bed. Report an error in the passage at 29:24 Highlight the passage at 29:24

29:29 Release it. All those thoughts and concerns about the future and the past, Report an error in the passage at 29:29 Highlight the passage at 29:29

29:39 give it a rest. Release your mind and rest in awareness. Report an error in the passage at 29:39 Highlight the passage at 29:39

29:50 Clear, relaxed, loose, non-conceptual. Report an error in the passage at 29:50 Highlight the passage at 29:50

30:18 You stop identifying with and grasping to the activities of the mind, the movements of the mind, what remains of the stillness of awareness. Rest there. Report an error in the passage at 30:18 Highlight the passage at 30:18

30:38 Awareness resting in its own place, holding its own ground, Report an error in the passage at 30:38 Highlight the passage at 30:38

30:46 going out or in without targeting any object, either sensory or mental. Just be present. Report an error in the passage at 30:46 Highlight the passage at 30:46

· · · silence, 1 minute

32:12 Let your awareness be still and recognize the stillness. Report an error in the passage at 32:12 Highlight the passage at 32:12

32:21 Know when it is, that when your awareness is loose, it's relaxed, it's still, it's clear, it's cognizant. Know it well. Recognize it. Report an error in the passage at 32:21 Highlight the passage at 32:21

32:41 This is the place from which to take refuge, Report an error in the passage at 32:41 Highlight the passage at 32:41

32:47 from which you may, with increasing clarity, see without distortion, without filtration, without the overlay, Report an error in the passage at 32:47 Highlight the passage at 32:47

32:57 from which you may hear the wisdom of your own pristine awareness. It is this stillness, this clarity, this sense of ease. Report an error in the passage at 32:57 Highlight the passage at 32:57

33:08 Here's the place to rest from which to take refuge, Report an error in the passage at 33:08 Highlight the passage at 33:08

33:42 especially with the pace of life, the way of life, the scatteredness of modernity. We do a lot of damage to our bodies through stress and tension and pushing and pushing, getting tighter and tighter. Report an error in the passage at 33:42 Highlight the passage at 33:42

34:01 We need to allow the body to heal, to find its own balance, to restore its equilibrium. Report an error in the passage at 34:01 Highlight the passage at 34:01

34:13 One key to this is allowing your respiration to settle, breath by breath, in its own natural rhythm. In this cycle of respiration, the body receives just exactly what it needs and gives back just exactly what it doesn't need. So Report an error in the passage at 34:13 Highlight the passage at 34:13

34:44 very consciously, release all control over the breath. And Report an error in the passage at 34:44 Highlight the passage at 34:44

34:58 with your peripheral awareness, Report an error in the passage at 34:58 Highlight the passage at 34:58

35:03 you know it with each in and out breath, whether it is long or short. No thinking required. You know it just by being present. Report an error in the passage at 35:03 Highlight the passage at 35:03

35:18 Without even directing your attention to the body or to tactile sensations. Report an error in the passage at 35:18 Highlight the passage at 35:18

35:26 These fluctuations in the field of the body rise up to meet you. They come to you. You don't need to go to them. Report an error in the passage at 35:26 Highlight the passage at 35:26

36:00 There's movement in the field of the body. The breath comes and goes. In the midst of these fluctuations, let your awareness be still, unmoving, Report an error in the passage at 36:00 Highlight the passage at 36:00

36:18 not following after the breath, not anticipating the next breath, Report an error in the passage at 36:18 Highlight the passage at 36:18

36:27 resting in stillness in the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 36:27 Highlight the passage at 36:27

36:57 Out of sheer habit, thoughts, memories, images are bound to arise, of course. Don't be surprised. But when they arise, let your awareness be like wax paper and the flow of thoughts, just let them flow right over and disappear right back into the space of the mind from which they arose. Let the thoughts come and go without being dragged along by them, without letting them capture your attention like clouds that form in the sky and dissolve back into the sky. Report an error in the passage at 36:57 Highlight the passage at 36:57

37:34 Let them come and go and Report an error in the passage at 37:34 Highlight the passage at 37:34

37:40 all the while rest in the stillness, the clarity, Report an error in the passage at 37:40 Highlight the passage at 37:40

37:46 the cognizance of your own awareness. Report an error in the passage at 37:46 Highlight the passage at 37:46

· · · silence, 1 minute

38:52 Like thoughts and mental images, so do sounds come and go. Let them stay on the outside. Sounds arising in space, sooner or later dissolving back into space, but never obscuring the nature of your own awareness. You're resting in a place now that cannot be obscured as long as you're resting there. It's obscured only when you're drawn out. Report an error in the passage at 38:52 Highlight the passage at 38:52

39:23 You Report an error in the passage at 39:23 Highlight the passage at 39:23

39:27 lose your awareness, lost in a maze of appearances. Report an error in the passage at 39:27 Highlight the passage at 39:27

39:36 Whatever movements arise, let them arise, but let your awareness, free of grasping, remain still and clear. Report an error in the passage at 39:36 Highlight the passage at 39:36

· · · silence, 8 minutes

48:14 So just a final comment on the earlier theme, ever so important theme of taking refuge. One of the pleasant experiences I've had over the years was in the summer of 1981. Report an error in the passage at 48:14 Highlight the passage at 48:14

48:28 I went and visited Tenzin Pamu in her cave up at about 5,000 meters in Lahul over the Rotong Pass. A very wild country in northern India. And she was preparing. She was gathering big sacks of grain and lentils and so forth for her coming three-year retreat. So she was preparing for that. So she wasn't in retreat yet. So she very graciously greeted me and we had a lovely conversation. Magnificent cave, one of the nicest one I've ever seen. Report an error in the passage at 48:28 Highlight the passage at 48:28

48:59 But she was, just in a few months, she was heading off to her three-year retreat. And she would be, it was so high. And there was a good deal of precipitation in the winter that she knew she'd be snowed in from November to May. No chance of anybody getting in. She has appendicitis, breaks a leg, tough luck. Nobody's coming in, nobody's going out for all those months. So I asked her, well, come along February and you're snowed in now and you're in your cave and you have some crisis or some big issue that comes up in your practice, some big question, burning question, where you need some guidance. Report an error in the passage at 48:59 Highlight the passage at 48:59

49:36 What are you going to do then? What are you going to do? And she was totally with total relaxation. She said, Oh, I pray to my Lama. Report an error in the passage at 49:36 Highlight the passage at 49:36

49:46 That's it. I pray to my Lama. And of course she had a wonderfully successful retreat. And I imagine she did pray to her Lama. Because I spent time in retreat. I know stuff comes up. And so I'm just assuming, I think with very good grounds, that she prayed to her Lama and she received exactly the guidance she needed. Anybody who can see, who knows her, she's really turned out very well. Report an error in the passage at 49:46 Highlight the passage at 49:46

50:07 A wonderful practitioner. And so when she prayed to her Lama, did her Lama, who lives on the other side of the Rotong Pass, quite a few miles away, did he get a little beep, beep, beep, beep, Tenzin Palma calling, beep, beep, beep, better answer her quick, she may hang up, beep, beep, beep. Was he kind of like, oh, what, what, what, what, what, what, Tenzin Palma, what do you want? You know, is it really like a conversation between two different people separated by many miles and a lot of mountain? Report an error in the passage at 50:07 Highlight the passage at 50:07

50:41 And the answer is, I don't know. I don't know. I have no way of knowing what goes on in the mind of her great guru, Kamchura Rinpoche. Report an error in the passage at 50:41 Highlight the passage at 50:41

50:51 But when all is said and done, we've really just asked the deepest question. Does the preceding question even matter? Does it matter at all? Report an error in the passage at 50:51 Highlight the passage at 50:51

51:00 And my answer to that one is, no, actually it doesn't matter at all. All that really matters is that she got exactly the guidance she needed. That's all that matters. If he was getting beep, beep, beep signal and then gave her some advice that wasn't any good, then who cares what he got beep, beep, beep and he's really, you know, mind-to-mind transmission. Report an error in the passage at 51:00 Highlight the passage at 51:00

51:17 If it's not helpful, who cares? And if it is helpful, then who cares? And what she's really praying to and all is said and done, of course she's not praying to anything outside of her own pristine awareness, but she was a mature practitioner already. And since I've done this myself, I think I have some idea what went on. Not with her, but, you know, maybe there's some parallel. Report an error in the passage at 51:17 Highlight the passage at 51:17

51:38 A question comes up and you, the first thing as a student, Dharma student, I know as a teacher, if somebody asked me a question, what I'd really like for them to do is present it clearly, really clearly, exactly what is it you'd like to understand. Where is the lack of clarity? Please say that as clearly as you can. Report an error in the passage at 51:38 Highlight the passage at 51:38

51:57 Clearly articulate the question and if you can do it in a concise fashion, right? So you do that, that's your job. If you're the student, if a question, good, don't just wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, and talk all around it and go on for pages and pages. Just cut to the chase exactly what it is, precisely where is the point that you'd like clarification of. And you articulate it. Report an error in the passage at 51:57 Highlight the passage at 51:57

52:18 There it is, that's it. Good. Now stop asking the question. And now just go in to your practice. Go into silence, go into clarity. Go into cognizance. Without expectation, without hope, without fear, just go in and do your practice and see what comes up. Report an error in the passage at 52:18 Highlight the passage at 52:18

52:42 See what comes up. And I've done this many times and that's what people do. Nothing special here. And stuff comes up. Report an error in the passage at 52:42 Highlight the passage at 52:42

52:54 Guidance comes up. And then the very, very good question, because we need to be critical, we need to be, in a very healthy way, skeptical. Can I count on that? Can I count on that? Was that my Buddha nature talking or was it my conate mental afflictions talking or was it garbage from this lifetime talking, filtered through all kinds of hopes, fears, expectations, preconceptions and so forth? Report an error in the passage at 52:54 Highlight the passage at 52:54

53:18 Exactly what was that that actually came to mind, that I heard in my mind, that came clearly? There is a response. Can I trust that or not? That's a very good question because we must be critical. I mean, I remember some guy in San Jose a long time ago, some California guy, he thought he was in constant communication with God. It was just him and God, you know. Report an error in the passage at 53:18 Highlight the passage at 53:18

53:42 And he heard God speak all the time. God told him to go out and murder people. So he did. I mean, God said he had to do it. So he had to murder people. Well, he's a psychopath. But he thought he was following God's will because he took everything literally. God told me to go out and kill. Okay, I will do. What can I do? God said. And so can people make profound errors in this regard? Report an error in the passage at 53:42 Highlight the passage at 53:42

54:03 Of course there are. Are there people who call themselves spiritual teachers of any faith who profoundly misguide people? Sure, I would make a wild guess that the fellow who's running ISIS right now, I strongly suspect he thinks he's just passing on the word of Allah. This is what people should do. And I've got a lot of followers agree with him. Well, I have to say, I don't. Report an error in the passage at 54:03 Highlight the passage at 54:03

54:27 So whether it's listening to your guru or somebody sitting in the same room with you, or whether it's having something come up from within, The response needs to be the same, right? You listen, and you apply your critical intelligence, and if the words resonate, if they are not, they don't violate, they don't insult your intelligence, they don't come out with statements that you know not to be true, they resonate and intuitively feel that may be spot on. Report an error in the passage at 54:27 Highlight the passage at 54:27

54:57 You don't know that for sure, but it's green lights, you see, like, that really actually sounds very good. Do you know with certainty that that was just the pure straight scoop from your pristine awareness? No, you don't. Any more than when I explain the next passage of the text, you know that every word that I'm saying is spot on, absolutely authentic Buddhadana. Report an error in the passage at 54:57 Highlight the passage at 54:57

55:23 You don't know that. I'm going to try, but we don't know that. So what do you do though when you have that intuitive sense? That sounds like really sound guidance to me. And whether it's coming from a text, from a teacher, Whoever, or what came from within, if it really resonates with you intuitively, that really strikes me as being sound, then go ahead and try it out. Report an error in the passage at 55:23 Highlight the passage at 55:23

55:50 Put on the shoes and walk in them and see where it takes you. And if it turns out not so well, then you'll learn from your experience. And if it turns out well, good. It's the same inside-outside, isn't it? So, we return to the text here. Report an error in the passage at 55:50 Highlight the passage at 55:50

56:12 And he's going through right now what are often called the three outer preliminaries. He just condenses the four thoughts that turn the mind. Many of you know what those are. He's just condensing these to three, same material. Report an error in the passage at 56:12 Highlight the passage at 56:12

56:26 And so the three so-called outer preliminaries, he just covered one of them, and then there are three inner preliminaries, and we'll get to those as the time passes. Report an error in the passage at 56:26 Highlight the passage at 56:26

56:37 But it's so often emphasized, I mean uniformly and massively, with tremendous emphasis pointed out. How utterly indispensable these preliminary practices are. Because they really are the determining factors. Really, one cannot overstate this. This one starting for the first one. Really recognizing what is your current situation. Do you really know what you've got here? Report an error in the passage at 56:37 Highlight the passage at 56:37

57:03 Have you really gotten it? That you're a human being and you can't take that for granted. Just ask any of the animals around you. There are a lot more of them than there are of us. Report an error in the passage at 57:03 Highlight the passage at 57:03

57:14 And then within human existence to have this precious human rebirth with leisure and opportunity. Check around. We have lots of media now. Is this actually rare or is it commonplace? Is it precious or is it not? One needs to come to some real certainty there because this is not a brainwashing or just learning a catechism or adopting a Buddhist worldview. Report an error in the passage at 57:14 Highlight the passage at 57:14

57:35 It's either true or false. And we really can test it. This is an empirical statement, right? And if we do test it and we see it for ourselves, With a kind of a sense of wonder and amazement. I think Shantideva said, like a person who goes out in a garbage dump and just comes across a wish-filling jewel. It's like, wow, how did that come into my hand? Report an error in the passage at 57:35 Highlight the passage at 57:35

57:54 I mean, how can I be so fortunate? Like that. To recognize that, and not only recognize it, but let that recognition go right into your bone marrow. That every time you wake up in the morning, that sense. This is an inexpressibly precious opportunity I have every single day. And if I squander it, there's just very unlikely I'll get it again for the foreseeable future. Report an error in the passage at 57:54 Highlight the passage at 57:54

58:21 And if I don't squander it, there's every reason to believe I can establish continuity here. And the rest of the life and all future lives can just be an ongoing bountiful harvest. The stakes are high. This is a juncture. This is the time for decisiveness. This is the time. To recognize what you've got. And what I've witnessed, because I'm an old guy by now, is that I've seen many people, I'm thinking of one, but I'll keep it rather vague, because I don't mean to point out any particular person, but I'm thinking of one person who was going through a very rough patch, happened to be a woman, a rough patch in her life. Report an error in the passage at 58:21 Highlight the passage at 58:21

58:59 There just seemed to be nothing good there. Marriage, really, really rocky, really contentious, really unhealthy, and not really having any Dharma. And not having any real skills and not having any real hope. And then this woman turned to Dharma. She found Dharma. And I saw the commitment. I saw the sincerity. Getting up early in the morning, meditating and doing this regularly and flowering. Report an error in the passage at 58:59 Highlight the passage at 58:59

59:28 It wasn't just going through a routine. I saw this person really flowering. I was like, wow, it's really working. You're practicing Dharma. Wow, you're seeing the benefits. I'm seeing the benefits. This is marvelous. This is truly. You are drinking of the nectar of Dharma and you're really getting the benefit. And then a bump here and a bump there. Report an error in the passage at 59:28 Highlight the passage at 59:28

59:54 Stopped meditating and then disengaged from the marriage, found a new boyfriend. And then a bump here and found a career and a bump there. And now Dharma is mostly just in the mouth. Totally busy, maxed out busy all the time. Now this boyfriend is going to make her happy. And this job, that's going to make her happy. And Dharma, oh, the words are still there, but there's hardly any content behind it at all. No time for practice, no time for meditation, no time for much of anything. Report an error in the passage at 59:54 Highlight the passage at 59:54

1:00:25 Lots of time for the boyfriend and for the career. I thought, oh, it's kind of like, wow, so clear. And then just the clouds came over, as far as I can tell, just totally gone. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:25 Highlight the passage at 1:00:25

1:00:40 Blip on the screen. If there had been no benefit, that would be not a surprise. But when the benefit was there, and then still just moves right on, and still has a sense, I'm practicing Dharma, I'm practicing Dharma. But it's just like my Dharma in the mouth. Why? Because I never got this point. I know this person received incredibly fine, amazing teachings, because I know some of the Lamas this person received teaching from, amazing, astonishing, profound, including a lot of Dzogchen. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:40 Highlight the passage at 1:00:40

1:01:08 No dearth of incredibly authentic teachings by very profound masters. I know that. And now just, oh, I'm busy. Well, because at this point, didn't really get it. Didn't get that. So then moving on. So there's the first point. This is truly a revolution of the way you view your own life. It's a radically different way of viewing one's own life than people who have no Dharma have. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:08 Highlight the passage at 1:01:08

1:01:38 They're bound to take almost everything for granted or just be focusing on the mundane, the hedonic and so forth. And so then we move on to page 10, top of page 10. On this occasion, he's now moving to the second point. You old timers know what's coming. Let's see how deeply this hammer, this nail goes into the wood. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:38 Highlight the passage at 1:01:38

1:01:55 On this occasion, when you have such a bounty of opportunities in terms of your body, your body is still healthy enough, young enough, vitality enough, is there to serve you. Your environment, there are so many environments that are extremely unconducive to practice in Dharma, can just tear you apart. Friends, the friends that will lead you every which way away from Dharma, they're by the billions out there, give you no support for your Dharma practice, but every support for just pissing away your time. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:55 Highlight the passage at 1:01:55

1:02:31 Your opportunity to turn to spiritual mentors, there's an awful lot of them, not many are actually teaching a path that will lead you to your fulfillment, especially in this lifetime. That's very rare. Time. Well, that's what many people think they don't have much of. And then the practical instructions, what you actually put into practice from day to day. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:31 Highlight the passage at 1:02:31

1:02:52 That's a lot. And each of those is an independent variable. Speaking scientifically, you can have the body but have none of the other. You can have the fantastic environment and none of the other. You can have really great spiritual friends and none of the other. A great teacher, none of the other. Great time and practice. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:52 Highlight the passage at 1:02:52

1:03:10 You can have any one of those and not have any of the others. To have all of those at the same time, do the math, you know, probability theory, I mean, statistics, and you put each of those on top of the other. If the first one's rare, then having the second one, that's like, you know, much more rare. And then the third element, now much more, and each time it gets rarer and rarer and rarer. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:10 Highlight the passage at 1:03:10

1:03:33 That's just true. You can do that mathematically to figure out, you know, how does that compound? Report an error in the passage at 1:03:33 Highlight the passage at 1:03:33

1:03:40 So once you have such a bounty, without procrastinating until tomorrow, tomorrow is when you're not going to be busy. That's tomorrow, right? My father has reached tomorrow now because he's going to be 91 in a month. He's reached tomorrow. He has lots of time. His beloved wife of 69 years is gone. Almost all of his friends are gone, dead. He has a lot of time on his hands, but of course not many years on his hands. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:40 Highlight the passage at 1:03:40

1:04:11 And he knows that and he has no problem with that. But he has a lot of time on his hands. But he doesn't have much energy. He's 91 years old. Not much energy. Mind is happily still clear, but not much energy. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:11 Highlight the passage at 1:04:11

1:04:26 So he has time. But almost everybody else I know doesn't have time because they're too busy. So don't procrastinate without procrastinating until tomorrow. Well, not tomorrow because tomorrow I've got all these engagements. But the next day looks good. I think, Dharma, I can pencil you in from 8 till 10 in the morning. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:26 Highlight the passage at 1:04:26

1:04:44 Check, that's Dharma time. Don't do that. But arouse a sense of urgency that you have something extremely precious, unspeakably precious, that the wealthiest people on the planet by and large don't have because you can't buy it and you have it. So you're richer than they are in the most meaningful way. Arouse a sense of urgency as if a spark landed on your body. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:44 Highlight the passage at 1:04:44

1:05:12 So imagine you're just sitting by a fire and a spark just, you know, like glowing ember drops right in your lamp. You would not think, well, I'll get around that tomorrow. I hopefully will not have burned up by then. Nobody procrastinates. There's one analogy. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:12 Highlight the passage at 1:05:12

1:05:31 As if a spark landed on your body, like on your skin, let's say, not on your lap, but actually a spark landed right on your skin and burning a hole through your skin. Most people, that captures the attention. They don't think about procrastinating. After the tea, or after my television program's over. No, probably this will be first. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:31 Highlight the passage at 1:05:31

1:05:48 Or a grain of sand, this was so vivid, a grain of sand fell in your eye. We all know what that's like. And that just totally captures your attention. You don't think of, just stop, everything. The business meeting, everything. Pull over to the side. Stop, everything. I've got to get this out of my eye. It's really captured my attention. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:48 Highlight the passage at 1:05:48

1:06:07 If you have not swiftly applied yourself to practice, if you don't have that sense of urgency, examine the births and deaths of other beings. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:07 Highlight the passage at 1:06:07

1:06:18 Learn from other people's experience. Don't confine yourself just to your own. And we have so much access now, unprecedented degree of access. Not only to our friends, loved ones, relatives and so forth, but access to people all over the planet from those who are in the most dire straits, most tragic straits right now, like these poor refugees from Syria and so on. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:18 Highlight the passage at 1:06:18

1:06:40 To the people who are in the lap of luxury, they get reported on an article in the news a couple of days ago, the toys, exotic toys for billionaires. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:40 Highlight the passage at 1:06:40

1:06:53 What do they do when you have billions? What's your next toy? Or the most ridiculous things, they'll sell for $75,000 a year or a painting sold for $175 million a while back. Because they've got money to burn. Literally, money to burn. And so they just piss it away. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:53 Highlight the passage at 1:06:53

1:07:17 And that's how they're trying to find happiness, by spending $175 million on a painting. And all they can really do is look at it once in a while and then tell their friends, you know how much I spent for that? $175 million. It's the most expensive painting in the world. I did that. I must be worth something, right? Or I'm just plain stupid. Not quite sure which. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:17 Highlight the passage at 1:07:17

1:07:39 So examine the births and deaths of other beings. We can learn so much from other people's experience. Both in a positive way of learning how other people have magnificently brought tremendous meaning and joy and fulfillment to their lives and so many other dead ends. And it's so easy to learn with the internet, with the media and so forth. You can develop renunciation, powerful renunciation, just by reading the news and watching the lives. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:39 Highlight the passage at 1:07:39

1:08:09 I mean, we're like clairvoyant in a massive way with the internet. The scope of our knowledge and awareness is staggering. So much we can learn. Examine the births and deaths of other beings and reflect again and again on the unpredictability of your lifespan and the time of your death and on the uncertainty of your own situation. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:09 Highlight the passage at 1:08:09

1:08:32 So this is very familiar and there's no real news here, no new news, nothing we didn't know already. But we do tend to overlook inconvenient truths. Politicians do it all the time. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:32 Highlight the passage at 1:08:32

1:08:47 Truths that if they really supported them, they would lose their office, they would lose their position of power. So they find it very convenient. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:47 Highlight the passage at 1:08:47

1:08:57 I just read that some legislation has been passed in California. I read it this morning. The governor is a relatively good governor. He's passed some dramatic legislation now in California to deal with global warming and so forth, to try to modify the way California uses energy. And it will be fully implemented by 2030. Well, of course, he'll probably be dead by then. And how many governors will have between now and then? Report an error in the passage at 1:08:57 Highlight the passage at 1:08:57

1:09:24 Who knows? And governors are very good at negating legislature by previous governors. So that's common. It's either do nothing at all or do too little too late. And that's the standard of politics, I think, nowadays. Either do nothing, because it would harm the economy, or do too little too late. And then we at least give some lip service to it. We're trying. We're trying. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:24 Highlight the passage at 1:09:24

1:09:48 Amazing. We're so smart and so deluded. It's amazing, truly astonishing. And so when it comes to lifespan, the fact that it's from the very moment that one is conceived until you're actually dying, maybe at ripe old age, at any time on any day of the life, no matter how healthy you are, how strong your vitality, death really can come at any time. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:48 Highlight the passage at 1:09:48

1:10:14 And we know that on one level and absolutely don't believe it. On another level. No way. Other people die, you know, unpredicted deaths, unusual, you know. Other people die that way. That's the other people. Other people get cancer when they're right in the prime of life. Other people have accidents. Other people. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:14 Highlight the passage at 1:10:14

1:10:36 And so we tend to just, and naturally, it's a conate tendency to grasp onto that which is unstable as being stable. That which is fleeting as being durable. That which is absolutely impermanent as being Permanent, deeply ingrained. It gives us a sense of security, and we want to feel secure. We want to feel safe. We want to feel not anxious. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:36 Highlight the passage at 1:10:36

1:10:58 And how can we feel not anxious in a world where everything is topsy-turvy, everything in a state of flux, and we control almost nothing? How can we feel? How can we realistically feel not anxious when the world around us is changing, our bodies are changing, everything is changing, and it's a rough world? Report an error in the passage at 1:10:58 Highlight the passage at 1:10:58

1:11:18 And whatever situation we're in, he says, recognize the uncertainty of your own situation. You've got a secure job until you don't. Your children are happy and healthy until they're not. You're in really good health until you're not. Your marriage seems really good until it's not. You're healthy until not. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:18 Highlight the passage at 1:11:18

1:11:39 And so often it's everywhere. People then get surprised. Like, I never saw that coming. It's amazing that we would be surprised. Because that's what reality dishes up every single day. And so I think it's a wonderful question, a very deep question. How can we possibly be content, at ease, free of anxiety, enmeshed in this world where everything is in a process of change, unpredictable, our own lifespan predictable, our economic outlook, our health, our relationships, our environment, our work and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:39 Highlight the passage at 1:11:39

1:12:12 Everything in a state of change, constantly changing, unpredictable and uncertainty. How can we not just be all suffering from intense general anxiety disorder and living on drugs to try to make it tolerable? Report an error in the passage at 1:12:12 Highlight the passage at 1:12:12

1:12:30 How is that possible? And I think there is only one answer. It's practicing Dharma. Because insofar as we're invested in really finding happiness in hedonic pleasure, just welcome to the world of anxiety. Because that's the only realistic response. And the drugs? Report an error in the passage at 1:12:30 Highlight the passage at 1:12:30

1:12:50 I think one of them is a drug that I knew somebody a long time ago, well, years ago, that had anxiety, kind of chronic anxiety. So she got some drug, I'll leave the name anonymous, but she took the drug. And the drug was designed to alleviate general anxiety disorder. That'd be really good to have a drug like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:50 Highlight the passage at 1:12:50

1:13:09 If you're anxious, at least you don't have to feel anxious anymore because you're put into a state induced by drug. I guess that would be good, maybe. Except for one of the downsides of that was you might have suicidal tendencies. That was one of the side effects. So you're no longer anxious, you just want to kill yourself. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:09 Highlight the passage at 1:13:09

1:13:28 That was the side effect. It's on the bottle. It's on the bottle. And another one is you might have a psychotic reaction. You might actually start having psychotic hallucinations. So you're not anxious, you're just crazy. And that's on the bottle as well. And this person that I knew took it and she did have a brief reactive psychotic response. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:28 Highlight the passage at 1:13:28

1:13:48 She went really quite... Psychotic for a while. So that doesn't seem to be a very good solution to me. There actually is, I think, only one solution here. I'll probably sound like a flaming fundamentalist here. But I think the only way to deal with that is practicing Dharma. Because practicing Dharma, whether you have a long time or short time, long life, short life, it's fine either way. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:48 Highlight the passage at 1:13:48

1:14:12 Because you're practicing Dharma. That means you can die and maintain your continuity. Your situation is uncertain. That's okay because you're practicing Dharma. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:12 Highlight the passage at 1:14:12

1:14:22 And that's certain. That's the one certainty. It's like being a lighthouse out on a rocky little tiny island out in the middle of the ocean where there's calm weather and hurricanes and typhoons and all kinds of stuff. And it just comes and goes and comes and goes and the lighthouse just is a rock and it's shedding its light in all directions. That's Dharma. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:22 Highlight the passage at 1:14:22

1:14:45 And the rest is the ocean of saṃsāra. Meditate on this until you have definitively integrated it with your mind. And that's the second revolution. This is the second point. And if you really drench your mind in that so it's wet all the way through, Report an error in the passage at 1:14:45 Highlight the passage at 1:14:45

1:15:02 where it's just facing this intense reality that everything you identify with, everything you regard as yours and mine and source of security and the world around you and your body, your relationships, your wealth, your family and everything else, all of that can be lost in a split second. One drunken driver. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:02 Highlight the passage at 1:15:02

1:15:24 Or it can be lost in a matter of months. Some really, what do you call it, aggressive cancer. Or an aneurysm that can take you out in a flash, just one bursted blood vessel in your brain. And then suddenly it's over. What a surprise! And living with that, living with that, facing that, and finding contentment in the face of that reality, that is absolutely revolutionary. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:24 Highlight the passage at 1:15:24

1:15:53 So many people, I live in a rather wealthy... My wife didn't move there because it was wealthy and beautiful. We were both academics a long time ago. She still is, I'm not. But that's where Job opened up, Santa Barbara. Gorgeous place, incredible. It's very wealthy. And so I met a number of wealthy people there. And quite a number of them are really enjoying their lives. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:53 Highlight the passage at 1:15:53

1:16:16 I remember one in particular. He was in a very high position in the music industry, the record industry, really lucrative. And then something shifted. He got fired. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:16 Highlight the passage at 1:16:16

1:16:27 But they gave him a golden parachute. Big chunk of money. Get lost, but take this bag of money with you. And it was enough for him to live the rest of his life on. He was only like maybe 50 or so. So golden parachute. And he had this beautiful house. And he took me down to his basement. And it's kind of like this state of the art, you know, big, big screen television and speakers all the way around. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:27 Highlight the passage at 1:16:27

1:16:48 And the walls were lined with CDs and records. And they had one vintage guitar after another. This was his little Deva realm, you know. And a lovely wife and he was healthy and he loved music and he loved his house and his wife and his home and his entertainment center. He really loved it all. He had a good life until Report an error in the passage at 1:16:48 Highlight the passage at 1:16:48

1:17:12 he doesn't. Because whatever you acquire, you're going to lose it. And so I'm happy for him. I certainly speak with no jealousy, but also no condescension at all. I mean, he's enjoying his life. It's good. I'm happy for him. I still hope he still is because I haven't visited him for years. I didn't know him well. But that's a little Deva realm. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:12 Highlight the passage at 1:17:12

1:17:32 And the thing about deva realms is they always pass. And they leave you with nothing, literally nothing, except for some pleasant memories. And then you lose the memories. That's rough. So that's the second point. That will radically change your whole life if you really integrate that, fuse that. This is the second point. And now we'll move on. Here's quite a statement. Let the imagery come to mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:32 Highlight the passage at 1:17:32

1:18:04 Now on the delusive, vast, illusory plane of emanations and transformations, reckless lunatics ride the blind, wild steed of spiritual sloth. And lacking the reins to control it, they lash it again and again with a whip of negligence. So I used to live in the Silicon Valley. I used to live right at Stanford. It was right in the heart. I mean, that's, you know, Google's next door, Apple's next door. That's the Silicon Valley. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:04 Highlight the passage at 1:18:04

1:18:33 Stanford had a lot to do with the Silicon Valley being the Silicon Valley. An enormous amount of wealth there and ambition and hard work and creativity. So it's famous for very good reason. And people, especially start-ups, start-ups, you get a grant, you get some entrepreneurial money, some venture capital comes in, and whoa, that's a place people work hard, really work hard. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:33 Highlight the passage at 1:18:33

1:18:58 It's a very nice environment, very cool. Very good coffee shops, beautiful weather and so forth. And it's right next to San Francisco. It's gorgeous. And so that is really a marvelous, vast, illusory plain, the Silicon Valley, where people are devoting 16 hour days, burning the midnight oil, burning, burning, burning, striving so hard. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:58 Highlight the passage at 1:18:58

1:19:23 And from a Dharma perspective, all that intense striving to succeed, to make it, to... Succeed more, to make it more and get more money coming in, more going out, more creativity, more productivity, more technology. All of this is riding the wild steed of spiritual sloth because in terms of Dharma it means nothing. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:23 Highlight the passage at 1:19:23

1:19:42 You may as well be lying on your back eating popcorn and watching a soap opera. It means nothing. And they whip it with negligence. Negligence of Dharma, while enormous enthusiasm for succeeding financially. Enormous, I mean mind-boggling. As lamas have often commented, those devoted to Dharma, if we could give even a fraction of the amount of effort, perseverance, enthusiasm to Dharma, as people like that give to saṃsāra, we'd be enlightened in no time. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:42 Highlight the passage at 1:19:42

1:20:17 So thus, although there was a time when they could have grown a perennial harvest for all lifetimes, They could have brought about such a revolution in the Hawaii way of life that that revolution would continue in a continuous stream until they became Buddhas. Actually had that opportunity. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:17 Highlight the passage at 1:20:17

1:20:37 But they've not taken advantage of it. From this life onward, they are relentlessly impaled on the sharp spokes of the wheel of saṃsāra and the miserable states of existence. So it was so close. Silicon Valley is just across the bay from Berkeley. And Berkeley is like one of the densest places on the planet. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:37 Highlight the passage at 1:20:37

1:20:56 For Dharma centers, Buddhists of all kinds, and Sufi, and Shamanic, and Christian, and Jewish, and Sufi, and everything there between San Francisco and Berkeley. It's like the whole universe is there, spiritually. And a lot of very good teachers, really good teachers. A lot of flakes, of course, too. But a lot of really good Dharma. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:56 Highlight the passage at 1:20:56

1:21:14 And it's right next to Silicon Valley. It's so interesting. It's right there. But, how do you say, it's so easy to be very close and then miss it by a mile. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:14 Highlight the passage at 1:21:14

1:21:28 And then you're just out in saṃsāra. You die and you're in a totally new life with virtually no connection with the last one, no memory of it, just the karmic energies pushing you forward. Fierce karmic energies bind them because we are certainly, we're not predetermined by our past, but we certainly are influenced by it. Fierce karmic energies bind them. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:28 Highlight the passage at 1:21:28

1:21:50 They have nowhere to escape and they're cast from one life to another. So we can see. We can see. Just open up your computer. Start surfing on the internet and see whether that's true or not. The information is at a fingertip to see whether this is so or not. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:50 Highlight the passage at 1:21:50

1:22:13 The microcosm of this is so evident, and the microcosm is going through a night. If you sleep for eight hours, you'll probably have five to seven dream cycles. When you have your first dream, you've probably forgotten where you are in the waking state. And then you make your home there. You see, this is who I am, this is who I am. But those first dreams probably only last five minutes. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:13 Highlight the passage at 1:22:13

1:22:34 So you have a longevity of five minutes. But you could spend those five minutes buying life insurance or considering buying a new house and so forth, having no idea that in fact you're going to be dead in five minutes in terms of identity within that dream. And then suddenly it's over and it's blackout. You're going to deep sleep. And then after some time, oh, you're reborn into a next dream. But now you can't remember the past dream and you can't remember where you fell asleep. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:34 Highlight the passage at 1:22:34

1:23:01 And so you have a new identity, a totally new identity. Many of you may not be even the same person. And now once again, you're making yourself at home. This is where I live. Maybe this dream goes on for 10 minutes. And then it's finished. And back into the substrate, back into deep sleep. And then again, and you've now forgotten the first two dreams. You think this is who you are. And then, oh yeah, 20 minutes later, you're dead. And then you wake up. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:01 Highlight the passage at 1:23:01

1:23:26 And many people, when they wake up, they can't remember any of the dreams. They've just had five or seven dreams in which each time they will be born with a new sense of identity, family, friends, situations, challenges, and they wake up and they can't remember any of them. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:26 Highlight the passage at 1:23:26

1:23:42 And then they carry on until they're ready to be psychotic five to seven times the next night. So this whole theme of... Just being cast from one life to another. Well, look at the microcosm, just being cast from one dream to another. If you're lucid, it's a totally different situation. But if you're not lucid, you're not choosing your dreams, you just get thrown into them, and then you reify everything, thinking this is who you are, this is a real environment, these are real people. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:42 Highlight the passage at 1:23:42

1:24:10 You're completely delusional, and then you die suddenly, unexpectedly. That is, the dream comes to an end, and you're on to another. So, this isn't simply a matter of faith here. Check it out. When that time comes for you, when that time comes for you, you're at death's door and you're about to be propelled into the bardo and from the bardo being propelled someplace else on the great roulette wheel of saṃsāra, when that time comes for me you'll have no freedom any more than that little ball on the roulette wheel has actually some choice of what little slot it's going to fall into. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:10 Highlight the passage at 1:24:10

1:24:45 It's just bumping around, bumping around until it stops. That's kind of how it is. This is the real tragic aspect of saṃsāra. It has no coherence. It has no path. It has no real development. There are new age people who have a nice idea. I love the idea that every life we just learn life's lessons and then we come to the next life with greater wisdom and we're just naturally evolving towards perfection from lifetime to lifetime to lifetime and it's just inevitable because of course we learn from our mistakes and each time we wind up being wiser. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:45 Highlight the passage at 1:24:45

1:25:19 I would love to believe that's true, and I see no evidence for it whatsoever. It's just a nice thought. So you can have reincarnation and have it be happy, but it's a fool's paradise. There's no evidence for that at all. It's a nice thought, though. Nice try. Rather than wondering whether there is anyone who can protect you when you arrive in such a great fire pit of suffering, just saṃsāra, put off human pretense and the pursuit of this life's affairs. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:19 Highlight the passage at 1:25:19

1:25:50 And this is the third point. So in this one he combines the teachings on the reality of suffering and the reality of karma. He put it into one. And so there it is. And if one fathoms that, really drenches one mind in that, lets that go right into the core of one's way of viewing reality, and all affairs from day to day, if one lets that really inform the view of what is of value, what is not of value. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:50 Highlight the passage at 1:25:50

1:26:19 If you let that go in and stay, that can't help but radically alter your vision of reality and how you lead your life. So with those three points, he says that these three points are the field of sublime Dharma. So this is the field in which sublime Dharma grows. It's a field, like a plot of earth. So we have the seeds of Dharma, that's what he's offering here. These are seeds of Dharma that are coming from the text and the commentary. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:19 Highlight the passage at 1:26:19

1:26:48 Seeds are being sown, seeds are being sown. And where are they being sown? Well, do those seeds germinate or not? Do they really grow? Do they mature? Do they come to fruition or not? And there are a lot of outstanding teachers and a lot of outstanding teachings out there from different traditions, different paths and so forth. But do those seeds really, do they germinate? Report an error in the passage at 1:26:48 Highlight the passage at 1:26:48

1:27:11 Do they grow to maturity? It really depends on whether this field is fertile or not. And these three points. are that which makes your mind fertile for the seeds of Dharma to come in and not just be a spurt of Dharma for a year or two or for a retreat or for one phase of life when the going got rough and then you get through it and you don't need Dharma anymore. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:11 Highlight the passage at 1:27:11

1:27:34 This is what provides that continuity, these three points. These three points are the field of sublime Dharma, the exhortation to achieve liberation and the soul guide, guardian and spiritual mentor to turn you away from the paths That descend into the dungeon of suffering of saṃsāra and the miserable states of existence. Those three points, that's your guru, that's your dharma right there. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:34 Highlight the passage at 1:27:34

1:28:01 That's your guide. Those three points. The spirit of emergence, often translated as renunciation, the spirit of emergence entailing a profound existential disillusionment with looking to hedonyya for satisfaction, looking for mundane concerns to provide satisfaction, to provide meaning, To provide security, safety, joy, happiness. Becoming radically disillusioned with that and then utterly taking refuge in Dharma. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:01 Highlight the passage at 1:28:01

1:28:33 That's the spirit of emergence. The spirit of emergence and spiritual zeal, this is just the opposite of that negligence and spiritual sloth. And spiritual zeal is, it is that virya in Sanskrit. It's not just perseverance or effort. It's delight, it's enthusiasm. So when there arises the spirit of emergence, Which is really an authentic, authentic set of priorities, an authentic aspiration, entailing the identification of what are the true causes of happiness and what are not. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:33 Highlight the passage at 1:28:33

1:29:07 It's just being authentic. And then spiritual zeal to, with great enthusiasm and joy, devote oneself, devote yourself to the actual causes of happiness. That which really can pay off, really provide you with happiness you seek. The spirit of emergence and spiritual zeal of those who lack these three points. So any sense of renunciation, any sense of zeal or enthusiasm for Dharma, but without having these three points, that's like dew in the summertime. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:07 Highlight the passage at 1:29:07

1:29:39 And so I gave just one example of this anonymous woman, one of seven billion people on the planet, that people get really enthusiastic about teachers, about empowerment, about teachings, about meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:39 Highlight the passage at 1:29:39

1:29:53 And it just so often happens. It seems really so authentic and clear and full of enthusiasm and joy and, wow, now I get it, now I get it. And then six months later, it's gone. It's just history. And then they just keep doing lip service to it. It happens so frequently. There's no reason to point to one person or another. It's so common. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:53 Highlight the passage at 1:29:53

1:30:12 And so those three points, that's the maker, the maker and the breaker. If you don't have those, then you can meet the most fantastic teachings on the planet, the most fantastic teachers on the planet, have the best spiritual friends, excellent health, excellent environment, and so forth, and it still won't. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:12 Highlight the passage at 1:30:12

1:30:29 It won't germinate. It will not have that durability. It won't carry through. And he's speaking from centuries of experience here. And so this is why the teachers, I mean, Gyatradama just never ceased. He hardly teaches anymore now. But he still sends messages out to his students in messages on the internet. And it pretty much always comes down to this. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:29 Highlight the passage at 1:30:29

1:30:55 Keep on coming back to these preliminaries. If you find that your practice is not really coherent, not sustained, not persevering, not really bearing good fruit, don't look to another technique or another teacher necessarily, or another tradition. Just come back and say, Are you bringing to the practice what is needed to provide that continuity? And if you do not have an understanding and have not fully integrated these three points, then he says, well, practice can be like dew in the summertime. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:55 Highlight the passage at 1:30:55

1:31:29 It'll look so fresh and lovely there in the morning. By noon, there's just no trace of it. And then you're blown. You're blown. Then you'll be just like a dandelion seed, caught up in the wind, and off you go. And just no telling. No telling. So we'll pause there. It's 10.30. So let's come back at 10.40. Go right back to meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:29 Highlight the passage at 1:31:29

1:32:00 10.50. 10.30 to 10.50. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:00 Highlight the passage at 1:32:00