Special Insight 1: Wisdom of Emptiness (12 April 2011)

0:00 She signed up to do that. Oh, cool. So she's motivated. That's her goal. Her goal. So, and then she signed up to jail. So, but today, she was supposed to go today and see a personal trainer, and then she got sick over the weekend. Oh. I wonder, you know. Well. But anyway, she's, yeah, she's hanging in there. She's hanging. But I think the motivation is there. Oh, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:23 But I'll tell you Paul. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. We were going to get together at some point. You should come over to the house. Report an error in the passage at 0:23 Highlight the passage at 0:23

0:35 Start. Report an error in the passage at 0:35 Highlight the passage at 0:35

0:39 Thank Report an error in the passage at 0:39 Highlight the passage at 0:39

0:53 you. I would say... Report an error in the passage at 0:53 Highlight the passage at 0:53

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1:20 find it. Report an error in the passage at 1:20 Highlight the passage at 1:20

1:25 Jen. How are you? Report an error in the passage at 1:25 Highlight the passage at 1:25

1:29 Oh, no worries. I was trying to get some work done anyway. That's why I heard you. I didn't come over either. Report an error in the passage at 1:29 Highlight the passage at 1:29

1:43 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:43 Highlight the passage at 1:43

2:06 Such familiar faces. going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. You So everyone, the class is about to start, so if people want to come in. Hi, Peter. How are you? Are you sick, too? No. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 2:06 Highlight the passage at 2:06

2:23 Hi. Good to see you, too. Report an error in the passage at 2:23 Highlight the passage at 2:23

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3:39 Oh, thank you. What is your name again? Report an error in the passage at 3:39 Highlight the passage at 3:39

3:57 I like that now. Why don't you do that? That would be like a motto for the whole class. I know. Good to see you. Done. Report an error in the passage at 3:57 Highlight the passage at 3:57

4:26 Janet, do you want the store for us? Oh, yeah. With me? Report an error in the passage at 4:26 Highlight the passage at 4:26

4:54 To Report an error in the passage at 4:54 Highlight the passage at 4:54

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6:32 the class on special insight. Report an error in the passage at 6:32 Highlight the passage at 6:32

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7:04 I'm really excited to explore this topic of special insight with all of you and particularly to delve deeply into Lama Tsongkhapa's text on special insight. Report an error in the passage at 7:04 Highlight the passage at 7:04

7:21 The more I study Lama Tsongkhapa, the greater... Respect and admiration I have for him as a practitioner and as a scholar, but then for the clarity of his writing and the profundity of his writing, I feel incredibly fortunate to be exposed to his writings. Report an error in the passage at 7:21 Highlight the passage at 7:21

7:49 He's one of the great saints and scholars and yogis of Tibet. right. And he, um... Report an error in the passage at 7:49 Highlight the passage at 7:49

7:54 He was born in the 1300s in Tibet and he came about at a time when Tibetan Buddhism was kind of degenerating and there were a lot of misunderstandings about the Dharma when he came along and particularly a lot of misunderstandings about emptiness. So he was a great clarifier of the view of emptiness. So you might have noticed that this class is called Special Insight 1. Report an error in the passage at 7:54 Highlight the passage at 7:54

8:24 Because actually we're not going to cover the entire section of his middle length lamrim special insight in just this one module. I'm thinking that it will probably take four or five modules to cover the entire special insight section. And I think Gishula, somebody told me that Gishudagpa, when he covered special insight, it took him two years. Report an error in the passage at 8:24 Highlight the passage at 8:24

8:51 So I'm targeting a year. So we'll do a few, four or five modules of two to three months each to kind of break it up. So that shows you how deep and profound this subject is. It's not something that we can cover in just a few weeks or six weeks or eight weeks or three months or something like this. So I think it's a great honor to be studying Lama Tsongkhapa's texts. Report an error in the passage at 8:51 Highlight the passage at 8:51

9:28 So maybe we'll just go around, because there are a few new faces, if we could just go around and just introduce yourself and just say a little bit about your background in the Dharma. That would be helpful. So I'm Emily. I don't think we need to record it. So I'm Emily, and I've been teaching here at Such a Ling since 2000. Report an error in the passage at 9:28 Highlight the passage at 9:28

9:56 The early 2006, and before that I studied for many years under my teacher Gishijumpagyatso for seven years in a full-time program where we really got into a lot of detail on this stuff. Report an error in the passage at 9:56 Highlight the passage at 9:56

10:36 Brief, to the point. I'm Charles. Report an error in the passage at 10:36 Highlight the passage at 10:36

10:45 And she is the family. Report an error in the passage at 10:45 Highlight the passage at 10:45

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11:18 Peter. Report an error in the passage at 11:18 Highlight the passage at 11:18

11:31 impaired for those of you who don't know, so if I ever walk by without saying hi, I don't mean to be Say your name. Report an error in the passage at 11:31 Highlight the passage at 11:31

11:46 I'm Liza. Report an error in the passage at 11:46 Highlight the passage at 11:46

12:08 I've been studying Dharma kind of informally for, I don't know, four or five years. And I've been coming to stage Chen Ling off and on for two and back. Report an error in the passage at 12:08 Highlight the passage at 12:08

12:22 My name's David. I've been studying Dharma most of my life too. And actually I'm very excited because to be doing Special Insight here on Tuesdays. And then with Geshe-la doing Shantideva. on Wednesdays, it's really cool, and as I was ready to come here tonight, I was going through some old stuff, and I found a bunch of my own notes from when Keshela covered chapter 9 of Ashanti Diva, and I really looked at the date, it was 2004, so I had to like shake my head for a while. Report an error in the passage at 12:22 Highlight the passage at 12:22

12:54 A few years have passed. Yeah, I have to go back and read my notes again. My name is Jeremy. been a practitioner for about five years. I moved to San Francisco about eight months ago, and I've been coming to Sage and Lama for about six months to get some formal training. It's been a wonderful experience. My Report an error in the passage at 12:54 Highlight the passage at 12:54

13:20 name's Shane. I've been practicing Dharma for 25 years. I've only been practicing at Sage and Lama for the past two years. And I work nights, so I try to come and talk to them as I can. Report an error in the passage at 13:20 Highlight the passage at 13:20

13:33 Now, Margaret, I started a little bit Report an error in the passage at 13:33 Highlight the passage at 13:33

13:50 of class. I Report an error in the passage at 13:50 Highlight the passage at 13:50

14:09 figured it out. Report an error in the passage at 14:09 Highlight the passage at 14:09

14:26 beginner and have plenty of work to do. there you go. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 14:26 Highlight the passage at 14:26

14:40 Jessica. I've been coming to Station Link for two years, two and a half years. Report an error in the passage at 14:40 Highlight the passage at 14:40

14:50 Were you going Report an error in the passage at 14:50 Highlight the passage at 14:50

15:06 to the center up in Portland before? All Report an error in the passage at 15:06 Highlight the passage at 15:06

15:24 right. Well, welcome, everyone. actually your Tuesday night volunteer, so if you need Report an error in the passage at 15:24 Highlight the passage at 15:24

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15:28 So maybe just a bit of background into the subject. I mean, most of you already know, but it's always good to review, right, the Four Noble Truths right after the Buddha became enlightened. He didn't teach actually initially because he thought that it was too profound and people wouldn't understand. And finally, after a lot of urging, he decided to teach and then he taught the Four Noble Truths. Report an error in the passage at 15:28 Highlight the passage at 15:28

15:59 The first truth being the truth of suffering or the truth of dukkha really, which is more subtle I think than really suffering. It's the dissatisfactory nature of cyclic existence. So that as long as we're in cyclic existence, as long as we're in saṃsāra, we won't be completely happy. We can't find complete security. We can't find ultimate happiness as long as we're in saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 15:59 Highlight the passage at 15:59

16:37 There's always something else that we want or some sense of dissatisfaction. And there's always some lack of control. There are times when things go really well and life is great and we think, well, there's nothing wrong with saṃsāra. But unfortunately it doesn't last. It doesn't last. We'll get sick or we might lose our job or we might lose our loved ones. There's so many different things that can happen and will definitely happen. Report an error in the passage at 16:37 Highlight the passage at 16:37

17:20 We have to age and we have to die. Report an error in the passage at 17:20 Highlight the passage at 17:20

17:26 The Buddha didn't say this in order to depress us, but to present another option. There is another way we can end this cycle of suffering and dissatisfaction. Report an error in the passage at 17:26 Highlight the passage at 17:26

17:40 Then he taught the second noble truth, which is the truth of the cause of suffering or true origins. This suffering and this dissatisfaction isn't causeless. It's not random. But all of our problems, all of our difficulties, all of our dissatisfaction are due to two things. Two things being karma and mental afflictions. Report an error in the passage at 17:40 Highlight the passage at 17:40

18:09 Karma and mental afflictions. We may think that our difficulties are a result of other people not doing what we want. Doing stupid things and all of that. And others are certainly conditions, right? But the true cause of our problems and difficulties are these two things, karma and mental afflictions. Report an error in the passage at 18:09 Highlight the passage at 18:09

18:40 So when we get sick or if we're in an accident or somebody treats us badly, those things all happen because we created the cause for that. Because we've created the karma for that. But even more so underneath that karma, the cause of or what propels us to create the actions that bring about suffering are the mental afflictions. Report an error in the passage at 18:40 Highlight the passage at 18:40

19:12 Our attachment, our greed, our irritation, our anger, jealousy, arrogance. Mine that's looking out for number one, right? Me, you know, me first. And then as a result of being so focused on what we want, you know, voluntarily or not, then we create negative karma. We create karma that will bring about suffering for ourselves in the future and oftentimes brings about suffering for others now, right? Report an error in the passage at 19:12 Highlight the passage at 19:12

19:52 Like if I decide to... Kill the mosquito that just landed on my arm. Why do we kill the mosquito? Because we're attached to, right, our own comfort. Report an error in the passage at 19:52 Highlight the passage at 19:52

20:07 And then we kill the mosquito, and we may have relieved that tiny little bit of suffering, but we create the cause for a lot more suffering in the future. As soon as we kill that mosquito, we create the cause for ourselves to be sick in the future or being killed in the future. Report an error in the passage at 20:07 Highlight the passage at 20:07

20:27 So all of the negative karma that we create is a result of some level of mental affliction that we have, some attachment. Report an error in the passage at 20:27 Highlight the passage at 20:27

20:42 So every single one of our problems is due to an action that we created in the past that was motivated by a mental affliction. So all of our problems can be traced back to mental afflictions. All of our problems can be traced back to our minds. However tempting it may be to blame somebody else or think somebody else is responsible for the difficulties that we experience, ultimately none of those things would happen if we hadn't created the cause for them. Report an error in the passage at 20:42 Highlight the passage at 20:42

21:28 Even subtle things like the weather is caused by our karma. If we're unhappy about the weather, we've created negative karma in order to be unhappy. If we're happy about the beautiful sunny day, that's also a result of good karma, positive karma that we've created. Report an error in the passage at 21:28 Highlight the passage at 21:28

21:54 So our future is in our hands, right? It's dependent on the karma that we create. So as part of Dharma practice and really the... Primarily the first of the three scopes in the Lamrim, there's a lot of focus on creating positive karma, creating causes for future happiness, being generous to others, being kind to others, Report an error in the passage at 21:54 Highlight the passage at 21:54

22:28 basically creating a lot of causes for future happiness and purifying the causes for suffering. Trying to stop the harsh speech and stop the killing of the insects and stop harming of others. So we stop creating the causes for future suffering. Report an error in the passage at 22:28 Highlight the passage at 22:28

22:50 And then purifying the negative karma that we've already created so that we don't have to experience the result in the future. Or at least we can experience a much smaller suffering result in the future if we purify. So in the Lamrim there's the three scopes, the initial scope, the intermediate scope and the great scope. Report an error in the passage at 22:50 Highlight the passage at 22:50

23:14 And the initial scope is really focused on creating causes for happiness. But these are creating causes for happiness in saṃsāra, in cyclic existence. Report an error in the passage at 23:14 Highlight the passage at 23:14

23:30 But without realizing emptiness, we won't be creating causes to get... Out of cyclic existence. Being kind to others, being compassionate, being loving, being giving. All very good and very necessary on the path. But none of those things without the wisdom realizing emptiness will bring us out of this prison of saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 23:30 Highlight the passage at 23:30

24:00 Saṃsāra being this... This insecure, uncontrolled existence where we never know what tomorrow will bring. We don't know if tomorrow will bring happiness. We don't know if tomorrow will bring suffering. We don't know if tomorrow will bring sickness. We don't know if it will be the greatest day of our lives. Report an error in the passage at 24:00 Highlight the passage at 24:00

24:22 We don't know if we're still going to be in the same body tomorrow. That's part of the uncertainty of saṃsāra. So if we're tired of saṃsāra, if we want to make sure that we have lasting happiness, that we don't have to get sick, that we don't have to be a teenager again, we don't have to have all those insecurities, right? Report an error in the passage at 24:22 Highlight the passage at 24:22

24:52 We have to get out of saṃsāra to ensure that we don't have to experience all of these. These difficulties again. And the key really is to realize emptiness. That's why this is such an important class. All of the, well I mean I shouldn't say this is such an important class, but this topic of emptiness is such an important. Report an error in the passage at 24:52 Highlight the passage at 24:52

25:28 And what happens is that right. Report an error in the passage at 25:28 Highlight the passage at 25:28

25:31 The reason why realizing emptiness is so important is because the basis of all of our mental afflictions, all of our annoyance, all of our attachment, all of our jealousy is a belief in something that doesn't actually exist. Report an error in the passage at 25:31 Highlight the passage at 25:31

25:53 So the basis of all of our mental difficulties, all of our emotional difficulties, all of our... Annoyance, all of our anger, all of our obsessions is a belief in something that doesn't actually exist. Report an error in the passage at 25:53 Highlight the passage at 25:53

26:18 Ignorance, a specific type of ignorance, the ignorance grasping at inherent existence. So when we realize that things don't actually exist the way we think they do, Report an error in the passage at 26:18 Highlight the passage at 26:18

26:34 And we familiarize ourselves with that realization again and again, especially with a strong level of concentration, like calm abiding that we were talking about in the last class. Then we can actually uproot ignorance. And by uprooting ignorance, we uproot all of the mental afflictions, such Report an error in the passage at 26:34 Highlight the passage at 26:34

26:58 that anger and irritation and attachment and greed and jealousy and arrogance can never happen again, can never arise for us again. And thus we purify our karma and we stop creating what's called contaminated karma. Contaminated karma being karma that propels us to take rebirth in cyclic existence again and again. Report an error in the passage at 26:58 Highlight the passage at 26:58

27:26 So those of us who have studied the 12 links of dependent origination, the first link being ignorance. From ignorance we are constantly creating... The second link, which is contaminated karma, to be reborn in cyclic existence again and again. So throughout every single day, we are creating many, many, many causes to be reborn in cyclic existence. Report an error in the passage at 27:26 Highlight the passage at 27:26

27:57 Every single day. As long as we still have ignorance, then we create causes to be reborn in cyclic existence. So many times every day. Report an error in the passage at 27:57 Highlight the passage at 27:57

28:15 So then it becomes, when we really understand that, it really becomes imperative that we realize emptiness if we don't want to continue in this uncontrolled existence. Report an error in the passage at 28:15 Highlight the passage at 28:15

28:35 So all of us sitting here are so fortunate because we've been exposed to these teachings and we have some... Well, at least a little bit of time, right, to think about them and reflect on them. And it's not easy, right? It's certainly not easy. But slowly, slowly, as we listen to teachings and reflect on them and meditate on them, then the understanding comes, right, gradually. Report an error in the passage at 28:35 Highlight the passage at 28:35

29:06 So that brings us to the third noble truth, right? The first noble truth, the truth of suffering or dissatisfaction. The second one. The truth of the cause of suffering or true origins, right? The cause of suffering being karma and mental afflictions. And the root of all of that is ignorance, right? Report an error in the passage at 29:06 Highlight the passage at 29:06

29:27 Misconceiving the nature of reality. The third noble truth is there is a way out. We can cease this uncontrolling. Controlled existence. We can cease every bit of suffering and difficulty that we experience. And the fourth normal truth is the truth of the path, which is presenting the path to get us out of cyclic existence. Report an error in the passage at 29:27 Highlight the passage at 29:27

30:00 Which includes love and compassion and giving, six perfections. And the key... The ticket out of cyclic existence, the ticket out of saṃsāra is realizing emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 30:00 Highlight the passage at 30:00

30:21 So those are the four normal truths, starting with the reality of the suffering to the way out. Report an error in the passage at 30:21 Highlight the passage at 30:21

30:35 So Lama Tsongkhapa was known as a great clarifier of the subject of emptiness. And he was also known to not shy away from the difficult points regarding emptiness. He wasn't someone who would write, you know, summarize what everybody else said or write what everybody else said but in a slightly different way. Report an error in the passage at 30:35 Highlight the passage at 30:35

31:02 He was clarifying the misunderstandings that people had about emptiness. And so he wrote a... A number of different texts on the stages of the path. The one that we're studying is the middle length one. He also, his most famous work is actually the great lamrim, the great exposition on the stages of the path. And in that one he wrote this incredibly profound and difficult section on special insight and the view of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 31:02 Highlight the passage at 31:02

31:43 And then later on in his life, he wrote this middle-length lamrim that's a little bit more accessible. The great lamrim contains a lot of debates and a lot of, you know, reasonings why this person was wrong and why that person was wrong, why Buddha Palita was right and Baba Viveka was wrong and, you know, all sorts of intricate kind of logic in there that's... Report an error in the passage at 31:43 Highlight the passage at 31:43

32:11 Very difficult to understand. But then in his middle length lamrim, he made it more accessible for people, more geared toward meditation, you know, meditation on emptiness. Less focused on showing how these other positions were incorrect, but more focused on how do you realize emptiness. So, you know. Report an error in the passage at 32:11 Highlight the passage at 32:11

32:41 How great we get to study this. Report an error in the passage at 32:41 Highlight the passage at 32:41

32:48 So is that clear about the Four Noble Truths and why realizing emptiness is so important? So, you know, we kind of tend to want to find the, well, I don't know about you guys, but me, you know, trying to find the easiest way to go about the path. And, you know, no matter how we look at the path, there's just no avoiding. Report an error in the passage at 32:48 Highlight the passage at 32:48

33:18 Needing to realize emptiness. We just need to do it. Sooner or later, we need to do it. And we can do it. I think in this culture, we're so accustomed to going to a class and understanding whatever's being said right away. And then if we don't, then obviously the teacher wasn't very good or something like that. Report an error in the passage at 33:18 Highlight the passage at 33:18

33:47 But with the Dharma in general, and I think in particular with emptiness, it's very much, I think, like unpeeling an onion. It's like layer by layer. Like the first time we get the teachings, we understand it on a certain level. And then the next time we get the teachings, maybe we understand it on another level and then on another level and on another level, you know, and slowly, slowly we penetrate the meaning. Report an error in the passage at 33:47 Highlight the passage at 33:47

34:19 So I wouldn't expect that you get everything like the first time, you know, but just, you know, try to be patient and see what you can get. And particularly to see how it applies. To your life and your perceptions, right? It's not just an intellectual exercise, right? It's very, well, I shouldn't say it's very easy, but it's, you know, we can just focus on the words and say, okay, well, nothing inherently exists. Report an error in the passage at 34:19 Highlight the passage at 34:19

34:54 Things are merely imputed by the mind. We could get all of the words right in the right order and not have it affect our perceptions at all, right? Have it not change our lives at all. Or as Lama Zopa Rinpoche would say, at all. Report an error in the passage at 34:54 Highlight the passage at 34:54

35:22 So a good sign, right, that it's penetrating our minds is that our mental afflictions are decreasing. Report an error in the passage at 35:22 Highlight the passage at 35:22

35:32 We don't get so upset anymore. We don't get so obsessed about things. We don't have to have things a particular way. Or we're not so strongly opinionated about things. We kind of let things go more. That's a good sign that it's working. But if our mental afflictions are increasing, then it's a sign that maybe we're going wrong a little bit. Report an error in the passage at 35:32 Highlight the passage at 35:32

36:05 Because we can become even more attached to opinions. Like, hey! I'm studying emptiness. We have the best school and your religion, you guys don't really know the answers. We can have more pride as a result of studying or we can have more arrogance or we can have more attachment. And that's a sign that we haven't really gotten it. Report an error in the passage at 36:05 Highlight the passage at 36:05

36:40 Emptiness is basically saying that things don't exist from their own side. They're a matter of perception. They're a matter of how we look at things. Report an error in the passage at 36:40 Highlight the passage at 36:40

36:58 As we understand emptiness more and more, we see there's nothing so solid to hang on to, to have an opinion about, to have to have. or have to get away from. There is no solid basis to have a mental affliction. In order to have a mental affliction, there needs to be something tangible, something solid that we're hanging on to, that we can have pride about, or that we can be attached to, or that we can be annoyed at. Report an error in the passage at 36:58 Highlight the passage at 36:58

37:40 There needs to be something that we're annoyed at, right? Something like this, right? Something like a rainbow or mist in the air, you know, something that you can't grab onto, right? With emptiness, things become more and more spacious, less. The more we understand emptiness, the less there's something solid to hang onto. Report an error in the passage at 37:40 Highlight the passage at 37:40

38:07 The less we believe that that outside thing is the cause of our... Happiness are the cause of our suffering. Report an error in the passage at 38:07 Highlight the passage at 38:07

38:23 It's like trying to grab a rainbow. Trying to grab mist. There's nothing to grab onto. Report an error in the passage at 38:23 Highlight the passage at 38:23

38:44 Not to say that nothing exists. Things do exist, but they just don't exist the way we think that they do. They don't exist solidly. there's... Report an error in the passage at 38:44 Highlight the passage at 38:44

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38:55 They don't exist independently. Report an error in the passage at 38:55 Highlight the passage at 38:55

39:01 Okay, so we're going to get into these things in this class. And I'll try to present it in as accessible a way as possible. The way I studied it, it was very technical and it took me a long time to bridge the gap between the words and... Actually applying it in my life. And so I'm going to attempt to present it in a way that we get the philosophy behind it, but also how it applies to our life. Report an error in the passage at 39:01 Highlight the passage at 39:01

39:46 How we can use it in our life. I mean, this is my goal, right? How successful I'll be, I don't know. But how we can meditate on it and how that can affect the way we live. The way we perceive things. So I'll encourage you guys to think about this topic between classes and to do exercises and to meditate. Report an error in the passage at 39:46 Highlight the passage at 39:46

40:14 Even if we meditate on emptiness every single day, let's say an hour every day, it's so easy to get up from that meditation session. And still see everything exactly the same as we always did. It's very hard to bring emptiness into our life throughout the day. But that's what we need to do. If we just think about emptiness for the two hours every Tuesday night and then the rest of our lives we go around completely forgetting about it, then we won't see much change. Report an error in the passage at 40:14 Highlight the passage at 40:14

41:01 We won't see much progress in our understanding. So we need to, as one teacher I heard recently say, we need to log the hours because we have a lot of hours of believing that things exist solidly. Report an error in the passage at 41:01 Highlight the passage at 41:01

41:24 Countless hours, right? Two hours of thinking about emptiness once a week. It doesn't do much to counteract those countless hours of thinking that things exist solidly and independent. Report an error in the passage at 41:24 Highlight the passage at 41:24

41:43 So Report an error in the passage at 41:43 Highlight the passage at 41:43

41:46 the more you do between classes, the more you read between classes and think about it, the more you'll get out of it. Report an error in the passage at 41:46 Highlight the passage at 41:46

41:58 I'll also give homework that will be good if people do. I mean, I won't correct them or give grades or anything like that. I think particularly in this class, it's very good to try to articulate what we mean. Report an error in the passage at 41:58 Highlight the passage at 41:58

42:22 As I notice, in the years that I studied, what was most beneficial for me was, well, it were two things. Taking exams where I had to, or exams were essay, so we'd write like for four hours, write what we knew. And it's a huge difference between Hearing the Lama and nodding your head and then being able to reproduce it yourself, especially in your own words. Report an error in the passage at 42:22 Highlight the passage at 42:22

42:52 So the homework can help do that. And the other thing that was really helpful was discussing it with others. So we'll try to have some discussions in the class. Feel free to bring up your questions and we'll kind of see how that goes. you know right Report an error in the passage at 42:52 Highlight the passage at 42:52

43:20 This is a good time to talk about the reading list. Report an error in the passage at 43:20 Highlight the passage at 43:20

43:51 Maybe I should make some more. There's only 11, right? No, but I brought some as well. There should be enough. Two, four, six, eight. Report an error in the passage at 43:51 Highlight the passage at 43:51

44:11 One extra. All right. So the basis of this class will be the middle length lamrim by Lama Tsongkhapa. And that's, well, actually, I was going to say that's not published, that translation, but that's not true. There's the second under the A, well anyway, the middle length lamrim, the translation we've been using is this translation by Philip Corco, who's not, and this one's not published yet. Report an error in the passage at 44:11 Highlight the passage at 44:11

44:42 We have a couple of copies in the bookstore of the entire text, not just the special insight section. So if people want to purchase that, it's $23. Or if people just want the Calm and Biding and Special Insights sections, we can make, you know, have some more copies made of those. So this translation, Philip Corco's translation. Report an error in the passage at 44:42 Highlight the passage at 44:42

45:10 It's just, yeah, because this is still in draft form. It hasn't been edited. Right, this is just a copy of the text that we have. Report an error in the passage at 45:10 Highlight the passage at 45:10

45:30 But Jeffrey Hopkins, who's perhaps the foremost Western scholar on Buddhism, he did translate this, and it's published in his book called The Final Exposition of Wisdom. So if people want to purchase this, he doesn't have a commentary of this text in his book, but he has a very good translation of the text in here, as well as translations of other. Report an error in the passage at 45:30 Highlight the passage at 45:30

46:01 that's the Report an error in the passage at 46:01 Highlight the passage at 46:01

46:15 Yeah, they've been ordered, and it would have been nice to have them for tonight, but we're supposed to get them tomorrow, as Charles was just saying. So next week, or if you come to... Soak tomorrow or Chokie's class on Thursday. You might. Okay. So that's good. Report an error in the passage at 46:15 Highlight the passage at 46:15

46:44 Or we can have some copies of the Corco translation made. And I will also send out the electronic copy of this. The people who've been coming to the Middle Link Film Room already have it, but I'll send it out to you as well. I just need... Yes. Um. Report an error in the passage at 46:44 Highlight the passage at 46:44

47:01 A few of your email addresses. I have most of them, but others. Maybe we can also get a show of hands. Does anybody want a printed copy of this? Report an error in the passage at 47:01 Highlight the passage at 47:01

47:26 So Lama Tsongkhapa in his text will see pretty quickly. He'll get into who are the valid scholars to follow in the view of emptiness. And then he talks about... Bhava Viveka and Buddha Palita and Chandrakirti and all this stuff, kind of assuming that we already know the views of the four philosophical schools. Report an error in the passage at 47:26 Highlight the passage at 47:26

47:58 Tsongkhapa wasn't writing to the beginner. He was, you know, anyway, writing to people who have been studying for a while. So I thought before we get into the meat of the text is I'll give an introduction or a brief overview of the four philosophical schools of Buddhism. And those will be very helpful for us to understand the most profound view. Report an error in the passage at 47:58 Highlight the passage at 47:58

48:32 The most profound view is what Lama Tsongkhapa presents. And oftentimes we think we can just jump to the most profound view. But actually, it's very, very helpful to get some understanding of the lower schools' views. Because actually, the more I study the lower schools' views, I see that they're more profound than what I have. Report an error in the passage at 48:32 Highlight the passage at 48:32

48:57 They're all more profound than what we start with. And they can be very good building blocks in order to really be able to understand the most profound view. So the next few, at least the next two, maybe three classes, we'll cover some of the background on the lower philosophical schools. And we'll get terminology down and we'll try to get, I won't go into all of the nitty-gritty details, but the most important elements for us to understand. Report an error in the passage at 48:57 Highlight the passage at 48:57

49:33 So in the next section on the reading list, in the section B, are some... Good books on the topic of the four philosophical schools. And the first one is one I really highly recommend. It's called Appearance and Reality by Guy Newland. So many of you maybe came to Guy Newland's class when he was here a couple of years ago, whatever. He's so clear. Report an error in the passage at 49:33 Highlight the passage at 49:33

50:01 He's incredibly knowledgeable and so clear. And he makes... The four philosophical schools relatively accessible in his appearance in reality. Report an error in the passage at 50:01 Highlight the passage at 50:01

50:14 I also put the book Buddhist Philosophy on that list. I hesitated because that one's really a translation of a text on tenets which is very pithy and short and difficult to understand on its own. But the reason I put... That there is because they have a really great introduction where Report an error in the passage at 50:14 Highlight the passage at 50:14

50:44 they talk about these various terms like what does inherent existence mean, what does true existence mean, what does self-sufficient substantially existent mean. There's a lot of terms that are bandied about that oftentimes people aren't very clear on what they mean. So they have a very, very nice introduction that describes what those different terms mean. Report an error in the passage at 50:44 Highlight the passage at 50:44

51:08 But we'll talk about that in the next few classes. Okay. And then in section three, the books on the topic of emptiness or special insight, it'll be really good to read between classes. And just reading the middle length lamrim is maybe not sufficient. Because this is considered what's called a root text, which is in root texts. Report an error in the passage at 51:08 Highlight the passage at 51:08

51:37 Traditionally, tend to be very short and to the point. They don't really elaborate much. So it's very useful to read a commentary. So I list a number of different books on this. Report an error in the passage at 51:37 Highlight the passage at 51:37

51:55 Introduction to Emptiness, also by Guy Newland, who explains the special insight section of the great lamrim. Report an error in the passage at 51:55 Highlight the passage at 51:55

52:11 Then two books that I just have to say are like the Emptiness Bibles. Meditation on Emptiness by Jeffrey Hopkins. It's just a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant book. Not just on emptiness, but on the Four Noble Truths. Report an error in the passage at 52:11 Highlight the passage at 52:11

52:34 During my seven years of intensive study, this is the published book that we used. More often than anything as our reference. So this was Jeffrey Hopkins' Ph.D. dissertation in a published format, which is quite amazing. And then he also wrote Emptiness Yoga, which is really how to meditate on emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 52:34 Highlight the passage at 52:34

53:06 I once did a retreat on this book, and this book... Totally blew my mind. So meditation on emptiness really gives you the philosophical understanding and emptiness yoga is bringing it down to, okay, now how do I meditate on emptiness? What does it mean to meditate, you know, with the Chandrakirti sevenfold reasoning? And Jeffrey Hopkins has an extremely rigorous mind and you can really see the process that he went through in order to meditate on emptiness and try to share that with us in this book. Report an error in the passage at 53:06 Highlight the passage at 53:06

53:45 All right. And then there's other really good books on this list, but you probably don't want to hear about every single one of them. Okay. All right. And then on the back side are some excellent books on the lamrim, on the stages of the path. Report an error in the passage at 53:45 Highlight the passage at 53:45

54:05 So Special Insight is the last section in the lamrim. It's the last topic that Lama Tsongkhapa covers in the lamrim and the stages of the path. Report an error in the passage at 54:05 Highlight the passage at 54:05

54:22 And so what is special insight? We just finished a class on calm abiding. So calm abiding and special insight, those two together, are needed to get realizations on the path. Report an error in the passage at 54:22 Highlight the passage at 54:22

54:38 Calm abiding being an extremely concentrated mind, a single pointed mind, a mind that's focused on a single object without analysis. And when we have calm abiding, we're able to stay on that object. For as long as you want, without any distraction, without any sleepiness, without a dull mind. Report an error in the passage at 54:38 Highlight the passage at 54:38

55:05 And then also, with calm abiding, you have what's called pliancy, physical and mental pliancy, and the bliss of physical and mental pliancy, which removes any heaviness of your body and resistance in your mind. Report an error in the passage at 55:05 Highlight the passage at 55:05

55:23 Then once you have calm abiding, then we're recommended to meditate on emptiness. I mean, we can meditate on emptiness without calm abiding, of course. Report an error in the passage at 55:23 Highlight the passage at 55:23

55:35 But in order to cut through the root of all of our mental afflictions, we need to have this extremely concentrated mind. Before that, when we meditate on emptiness, it has some impact on our minds, but it's not... Powerful enough to uproot our mental afflictions. Because as we were talking about before, we have mental afflictions, we have ignorance since beginningless time. Report an error in the passage at 55:35 Highlight the passage at 55:35

56:07 So we've had ignorance forever, basically. So meditating on emptiness without a very concentrated mind doesn't have a lot of impact on that ignorance. Right. So we need to. So ultimately we need to develop this concentrated mind, this calm abiding. And then on the basis of that we meditate on emptiness and then we'll attain special insight. Report an error in the passage at 56:07 Highlight the passage at 56:07

56:38 So special insight is a type of analytical meditation that we do. In this case we're talking about special insight realizing emptiness. But in general you can use special... We can analyze any different topic and we can get special insight on the Four Noble Truths or on, you know, we talked about the coarseness of upper realms and the peacefulness of upper realms and the coarseness of lower realms. Report an error in the passage at 56:38 Highlight the passage at 56:38

57:08 But in this case, analyzing emptiness, realizing emptiness with this mind of calm abiding and special insight, that's how we uproot our mental afflictions. So special insight is a term used in general for a type of analytical meditation that's based on the mind of calm abiding. Report an error in the passage at 57:08 Highlight the passage at 57:08

57:33 I'll say that again. Special insight is a type of analytical meditation that we engage in on the basis of having calm abiding. Report an error in the passage at 57:33 Highlight the passage at 57:33

57:49 So in order to get special insight, understanding emptiness, first of all, we need to have a correct view of emptiness. So Lama Tsongkhapa then gets into establishing a correct view of emptiness first, and then at the end he talks about how you actually gain special insight on the basis of having a correct view of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 57:49 Highlight the passage at 57:49

58:17 I'm seeing some sleepy faces, so why don't we take a break? Oh, Charles just made some cookies? Yeah. Oh, great. Are they sugar cookies? Yeah. All right. And then there's tea and things. Report an error in the passage at 58:17 Highlight the passage at 58:17

58:36 Yes, yes. Report an error in the passage at 58:36 Highlight the passage at 58:36

58:42 Yeah, well everybody just put your name and your email and your phone number on that list, so I just have a complete list of everybody in this class. Okay. And Report an error in the passage at 58:42 Highlight the passage at 58:42

58:57 Tim actually made brownies this morning, I forgot. Oh, so we have brownies and sugar cookies. Lots of sugar. The Report an error in the passage at 58:57 Highlight the passage at 58:57

59:36 whole penultimate edition. This pony's for better, Report an error in the passage at 59:36 Highlight the passage at 59:36

· · · silence, 1 minute

59:48 Yeah, not much. Oh, actually, I've tried to find the differences. I haven't been able to find any differences. I think the main difference is the penultimate edition includes the calm, abiding, and special insight sections. The edition before didn't. Report an error in the passage at 59:48 Highlight the passage at 59:48

1:00:20 Oh. before I went the street, I got it, and I was like, you're actually happy. I wasn't sure why, because it's not the kind of thing you know what's in it, you know what I'm supposed to. I know, but it's a good title, Final Exposition of Wisdom. Yeah, I bought it too before I knew that it was a middle-length poem. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:20 Highlight the passage at 1:00:20

1:00:43 Well, let's see. I mean, I've only looked at the... I started to read it because it comes to me like there was all this commentary and discussion. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:43 Highlight the passage at 1:00:43

1:00:50 The special insight section. The background and all of that is his own commentary. Then there's this part that's just the translation and then the object of negation, the two truths. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:50 Highlight the passage at 1:00:50

1:01:15 I haven't gone into detail on the other parts. I think most of it is translation. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:15 Highlight the passage at 1:01:15

1:01:26 I've read very little of it. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:26 Highlight the passage at 1:01:26

1:01:34 Exactly. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:34 Highlight the passage at 1:01:34

1:01:38 Yeah, you see how you can spend, you know, a whole class on one sentence. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:38 Highlight the passage at 1:01:38

1:01:51 I know. Yeah. So hard to get off of that saṃsāra trip thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:51 Highlight the passage at 1:01:51

1:02:03 Trying. Well, it's kind of an ambitious undertaking, but I'm very excited about it, you know, excited. Exactly. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:03 Highlight the passage at 1:02:03

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:02:12 In a positive sense. Well, Report an error in the passage at 1:02:12 Highlight the passage at 1:02:12

1:02:21 I wouldn't go that far, but every once in a while I think about it. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:21 Highlight the passage at 1:02:21

1:02:35 And most people couldn't even dream of doing it, you know? Well, most people haven't heard of it. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:35 Highlight the passage at 1:02:35

1:02:50 It's not just, you saw it on the flyer on the table, we have access to all of this information. Thank you. I mean, that's like, for me, it's just totally mind-blowing that I had teachings for seven years from Geshe Jumpa Gyatso. Like, how did that happen? And so, right, so I better not waste it because when is that ever going to happen again? Report an error in the passage at 1:02:50 Highlight the passage at 1:02:50

1:03:30 was reading one of the Islamists who went on a retreat for he said that he had a dream at the end retreat after doing a million money put me home, right? He had a dream of this fish, he remembered when he was, he killed one fish, you know, and at the end of this whole retreat, he had a vision of this fish that was just human system. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:30 Highlight the passage at 1:03:30

1:03:51 I think I've just terrified the karma for killing one fish. After a million of money from here. After a million of money from here. We better not waste. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:51 Highlight the passage at 1:03:51

1:04:13 And they're so patient and they teaching us. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:13 Highlight the passage at 1:04:13

1:04:23 Thank you, we got so yeah, yeah try and to do it that way Report an error in the passage at 1:04:23 Highlight the passage at 1:04:23

1:04:35 that's really good because it gets a lot of people able to take them up. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I find it's really hard to teach two different subjects, like very different subjects at the same time because my mom likes to be in this subject all week long. It just makes it much richer. But if I have to switch to January, February 5th. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:35 Highlight the passage at 1:04:35

1:05:10 because it's a book you is not just memorizing it's uh-huh yeah you so wonderful Anyway, it's the best job in the world. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:10 Highlight the passage at 1:05:10

1:05:29 Thank you. Hopefully it will be somewhat clear, useful. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:29 Highlight the passage at 1:05:29

1:05:46 Healthy looking. Oh, yeah. We have bases for the orchids, so I thought we'd put them in the bases. Oh, nice. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:46 Highlight the passage at 1:05:46

1:05:58 So how are things going? So far, so good. if I haven't made any major faux pas. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:58 Highlight the passage at 1:05:58

1:06:08 You know, I'm going to get a refill of water, yeah. Thank you. Do you want anything, Tim? Do you want anything, Tim? Report an error in the passage at 1:06:08 Highlight the passage at 1:06:08

1:06:23 I just started my prostrations. Did you? Rinpoche gave me 600,000 of them to do. So I'll be doing prostrations for the rest of my life. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:23 Highlight the passage at 1:06:23

1:06:37 you just doing a sessions a day at home? I'm just, well, right now I'm doing one to two sessions a day and I don't have to work up to it. Oh, I have the hardest time with my wrists, too. Oh, meditation? What am I doing? No, you have to, otherwise you will be visual. what elbows? Frustration. Oh. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:37 Highlight the passage at 1:06:37

1:07:27 There's something going around. I've singled downstairs. It sounds like she's dying. Oh, really? I mean, she's really all congested. Oh, there is. Yeah. Thank you. We'll give her all the gifts. Oh, I will. She actually signed up to, have you, like, you know, Maria Shriver and her family have done, like, the Special Olympics, and then there's this vet's buddy thing that they're, they have, like, a bicycle ride. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:27 Highlight the passage at 1:07:27

1:08:00 Anyway, she signed up to do that. Now Report an error in the passage at 1:08:00 Highlight the passage at 1:08:00

1:08:10 that we're all sugared up. to where she comes in habit. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:10 Highlight the passage at 1:08:10

1:08:12 So as long as we don't crash before 8.30, we'll be fine. So if people have their middle length lamrim text, we'll start going into that. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:12 Highlight the passage at 1:08:12

1:08:42 On page 249. And then there's a couple of, if you don't have copies, how many people don't have a copy of the Middle Light Thumb Room? You know, quite a few. So maybe people could share. There's a couple of copies here. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:42 Highlight the passage at 1:08:42

1:09:03 Yeah, so I'm not going to do, I'm not planning to do the projector and slides for this class. So it's good if people can bring their own copy of the text. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:03 Highlight the passage at 1:09:03

1:09:21 Of course. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:21 Highlight the passage at 1:09:21

1:09:36 So page 249, explanation of how to train in special insight, the essence of wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:36 Highlight the passage at 1:09:36

1:09:50 So the special insight section, Lama Tsongkhapa, talks about in four parts. First of all, attending to the prerequisites of special insight. The second, then he'll get into the subdivisions of special insight. Yes, it's a very technical Report an error in the passage at 1:09:50 Highlight the passage at 1:09:50

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:10:08 The third, how to cultivate special insight. And the fourth, the measure of having achieved special insight through cultivation. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:08 Highlight the passage at 1:10:08

1:10:19 So the prerequisites of special insight is what we'll start getting into tonight. So there's this general presentation of how to attend to the prerequisites of special insight. So there's three prerequisites for special insight. We're page 249. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:19 Highlight the passage at 1:10:19

1:10:51 Yeah, it's a good idea. actually... Report an error in the passage at 1:10:51 Highlight the passage at 1:10:51

1:11:13 So there's three prerequisites for special insight. So in order to generate special insight, we need to have these three things. First of all, relying on holy beings or relying on an excellent being is how Jeffrey Hopkins translates it. Second is seeking to hear the Dharma from them. And third is reflecting on it properly. So first of all, we need to rely on beings, not holy beings in the sense of necessarily highly realized, but someone who really knows what they're talking about, who has the correct view of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:13 Highlight the passage at 1:11:13

1:12:01 And then we need to read the Dharma, hear the Dharma from people who have the correct view. If we hear it from somebody who's... Who's presenting an incorrect view, then we'll get an incorrect understanding, right? So we need to rely on beings who understand, you know, have the correct meaning, and then hear the Dharma, listen to the Dharma from them, and then thirdly, reflect on it properly. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:01 Highlight the passage at 1:12:01

1:12:36 So we need to do our own contemplation on this, right? Just hearing the Dharma. Itself without doing our own reflection isn't going to bring us to a definite conclusion about the view of emptiness. It will be in the realm of, oh yeah, I heard that, oh yeah, that makes sense, yeah. But in order to get a realization of emptiness, we need to reach our own definite conclusion about the view. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:36 Highlight the passage at 1:12:36

1:13:13 And we only reach a definite conclusion by reflecting on it ourselves. Not just by hearing what others say, but to do the work ourselves, right? To eliminate any doubts that we have in our minds, right? We need to reflect on it ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:13 Highlight the passage at 1:13:13

1:13:41 So Lama Tsongkhapa says, It is an indispensable causal prerequisite of special insight to develop the view realizing suchness by means of the wisdom of hearing and reflecting. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:41 Highlight the passage at 1:13:41

1:13:57 Having heard the stainless texts, independence on experts who unmistakably know the essential points of the scriptures. So there's three levels of wisdom that's talked about in the Dharma. The wisdom of hearing, the wisdom of reflecting. And the wisdom of meditation. So we get the wisdom of hearing by listening to teachings and trying to understand the teachings. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:57 Highlight the passage at 1:13:57

1:14:25 The wisdom of reflecting by really thinking about these teachings and meditating on these teachings actually. And forming our own doubts and questions and asking the questions when we have doubts. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:25 Highlight the passage at 1:14:25

1:14:44 Because what we need to do is... Eliminate our belief in the opposite. Eliminate our belief in appearances. Because the way that things appear is not the way they exist. The way that things appear is not the way they exist. The way that we've always believed things existed is not the way they actually do exist. So how do we... Report an error in the passage at 1:14:44 Highlight the passage at 1:14:44

1:15:21 Eliminate our habitual beginningless time belief in the way that things appear by reflecting on it, really thinking about it. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:21 Highlight the passage at 1:15:21

1:15:42 So we need to do that to get the second kind of wisdom, the wisdom from reflecting. We need to eliminate our doubts about it. We need to eliminate. Our belief in the wrong way that things exist. And we all have it, right? We all have this wrong consciousness. We all have this consciousness that believes that things exist in a way they don't actually exist. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:42 Highlight the passage at 1:15:42

1:16:15 That's why we have mental afflictions. That's why we have suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:15 Highlight the passage at 1:16:15

1:16:23 And then thirdly is the wisdom arisen from meditation. And that's not just any old meditation, but that's Special insight, realizing emptiness. So on the basis of calm abiding and special insight, realizing emptiness is the third type of wisdom. The wisdom arisen from meditation. So wisdom arisen from meditation only arises on independence on the first two wisdoms. First we need the wisdom from hearing, then the wisdom from reflecting. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:23 Highlight the passage at 1:16:23

1:16:52 And then on the basis of that, then we can develop the wisdom from meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:52 Highlight the passage at 1:16:52

1:17:00 And then he says, Lama Tsongkhapa continues by saying, this is because if you lack the view that has come to a decisive conclusion about the meaning of the mode of being, it will be impossible for the realization of special insight that realizes things as they are to arise. So first of all, we have to get a correct view of emptiness, then come to a decisive conclusion about that, and then meditate on it on the basis of special. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:00 Highlight the passage at 1:17:00

1:17:30 A calm abiding and special insight. Then we can get a realization of calm abiding and special insight, realizing emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:30 Highlight the passage at 1:17:30

1:17:40 Then Lama Tsongkhapa continues by saying, for such a view to arise again, it is necessary to seek relying not only on the interpretable meaning, but relying on the definitive meaning. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:40 Highlight the passage at 1:17:40

1:17:56 Okay. So the Buddha, when he became enlightened, he became enlightened at the age of 35 or something and then lived till his 80s. So he taught for about 50 years. And he taught, it said, 84,000 different teachings to different people depending on their mental dispositions. So he taught certain things to certain people and something slightly different to other people and something slightly different to other people depending on what their minds were ready and able to hear. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:56 Highlight the passage at 1:17:56

1:18:36 So there's this whole school of thought behind, okay, well, which sutras are definitive and which sutras are interpretable? Because some of them, right, the sutras being the words of the Buddha, right, the teachings of the Buddha. So if you look at these sutras on face value, sometimes it seems that they're contradictory, right? Because sometimes maybe the Buddha said the self really exists, and other times they'll say the self doesn't exist. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:36 Highlight the passage at 1:18:36

1:19:05 So there's a provisional meaning sometimes in the sutras. And so the different philosophical schools have different ideas about what interpretable and definitive means. But according to Madhyamika Prasangika, which is the highest, considered the highest school, a definitive meaning sūtra is a sūtra that teaches emptiness, that explicitly teaches emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:05 Highlight the passage at 1:19:05

1:19:32 So we need to rely on the sutras that teach emptiness in order to obviously get a correct view of emptiness. We need to rely on the sutras that teach emptiness. Um. There's also, I mean, some schools say, well, some sutras you can accept literally and others you have to interpret, you know. But, you know, according to Prasangika, whether it's something you have to interpret or you can accept literally, it's considered a definitive meaning sūtra. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:32 Highlight the passage at 1:19:32

1:20:12 Some of them you have to interpret. Like, actually, the Heart Sūtra. It needs to be interpreted a bit, you know, it can't be accepted exactly literally. But anyway, but the Heart Sūtra is a definitive meaning sūtra. All of the perfection of wisdom sutras are definitive meaning sutras. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:12 Highlight the passage at 1:20:12

1:20:35 Then he says, Lama Tsongkhapa says, therefore you need to know the difference between interpretable and definitive meaning and internalize the definitive meaning of the scriptures. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:35 Highlight the passage at 1:20:35

1:20:47 Again, with this, if you do not rely on a treatise by one of the great, valid, trailblazing founders, which elucidates the Buddha's intentions, you will be like a blind person without a guide, going off into a dreadful direction. Therefore, you should rely on non-mistaken commentaries. So there are a lot of texts on emptiness, and Tsongkhapa is really encouraging us. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:47 Highlight the passage at 1:20:47

1:21:16 To rely on certain texts, right? And then he says, on whom should you rely? He says, on Arya Nagarjuna, or Nagarjuna, widely renowned on the three levels, whom the Bhagavan himself prophesied very clearly in numerous sutras and tantras as elucidating the essence of the teachings. The profound meaning free from all extremes of existence and non-existence. So I'm on the top of page 250. You should seek the view realizing emptiness, relying on his texts. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:16 Highlight the passage at 1:21:16

1:21:52 So Nagarjuna. So the Buddha taught emptiness, right? He taught all of the perfection of wisdom sutras, right, according to this tradition. The Buddha taught all of these things. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:52 Highlight the passage at 1:21:52

1:22:07 But then he prophesied that Nagarjuna would come 400 years later and elucidate the meaning. So Nagarjuna is really the Indian scholar that in this tradition we really rely on, for he's the one who really wrote what are considered the definitive clarifying books on. The meaning of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:07 Highlight the passage at 1:22:07

1:22:48 Just a little bit of explanation. When you say that the Buddha prophesied that Narajuna would come, where would that be? I mean, would that have been in another sūtra? Report an error in the passage at 1:22:48 Highlight the passage at 1:22:48

1:23:00 How would we know that? Where would that fall into those 84,000 teachings? To look that up. I'm not sure exactly which sūtra that's in or how we know that. Anyway, but I'll... I'll try to check. I'll find out. But it said that the Buddha said 400 years from now there will be someone named Naga who will bring forth and clarify this. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:00 Highlight the passage at 1:23:00

1:23:39 But I'll check and see if I can find a source for that, the sūtra or something. I'm not sure I've ever read where. That is. I'm just thinking in terms of in general when there are things that the Buddha said that perhaps weren't in sutras or maybe everything is in sutras. That's basically my question. I'm not even sure where to look for that. Yeah, okay. I'm not sure either. Yeah, because I mean it said at the time of the Buddha actually nothing was written down. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:39 Highlight the passage at 1:23:39

1:24:16 when he was alive but it was his disciple ananda who had a perfect right who later wrote down word for word whatever you know all of the teachings of the Buddha to imagine but so i don't know if that was actually in in the sutras i mean Report an error in the passage at 1:24:16 Highlight the passage at 1:24:16

1:24:44 tantras. Well, there you go. Maybe we can find the names of these sutras and tantras. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:44 Highlight the passage at 1:24:44

1:24:57 Maybe Hopkins will have one. Very good. I should have read ahead there. Okay. So Nagarjuna. So Lama Tsongkhapa is saying we need to rely on Nagarjuna's text. And so he wrote a text called The Treatise on the Middle Way, sometimes translated as Fundamental Wisdom, as those other texts. So we need to rely on Nagarjuna. And then next. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:57 Highlight the passage at 1:24:57

1:25:02 Okay, so, Report an error in the passage at 1:25:02 Highlight the passage at 1:25:02

1:25:28 He says, Since the great Madhyamikas, such as the masters Buddha Palita, Bhava Viveka, Chandrakirti, Shantarakshita, consider Aryadeva to be valid as his master, both the father and his spiritual son are sources for the other Madhyamikas. Therefore, earlier generations called these two Madhyamikas of the original texts and others partisan Madhyamikas. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:28 Highlight the passage at 1:25:28

1:25:56 So we'll get a little bit into history. I mean most of this text we're not going to be delving into history and who is who and all of that. But these are the main players in Tibetan Buddhism. So first of all Nagarjuna had a disciple named Aryadeva. So Lama Tsongkhapa is saying Nagarjuna and Aryadeva are the two that we need to rely on. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:56 Highlight the passage at 1:25:56

1:26:23 And those are the two scholar practitioners that are considered the founders of the Madhyamika school, the middle way school. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:23 Highlight the passage at 1:26:23

1:26:37 Then these others kind of came later and interpreted Nagarjuna and Aryadeva. And there were some divisions amongst them on, okay, what did Nagarjuna really mean? And so then there were some subschools that were created as a result of these interpretations of what Nagarjuna means. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:37 Highlight the passage at 1:26:37

1:27:06 So that brings us to the next handout. So I want to get into the different schools a little bit and then who some of these people are. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:06 Highlight the passage at 1:27:06

1:27:41 Yeah, so I made this chart. Some of the charts have a blank white in the middle because my... Printer cartridges running out of ink, so don't take one of these defective copies. Hopefully we have enough. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:41 Highlight the passage at 1:27:41

1:28:03 Oh, actually I have another one too. Do we have enough? Report an error in the passage at 1:28:03 Highlight the passage at 1:28:03

1:28:10 One more. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:10 Highlight the passage at 1:28:10

1:28:19 Everybody has one? Good. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:19 Highlight the passage at 1:28:19

1:28:33 In general. Yeah. All right. So there's four, kind of four main schools of Buddhist tenants that were... Well, they were kind of organized this way by Tibetan Buddhism. And they're not, they didn't evolve sequentially or anything, but they're like different schools of thought, varying from coarse to more subtle understandings of emptiness or selflessness. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:33 Highlight the passage at 1:28:33

1:29:19 And the first on the left is called Vibashika, or the Great Esk... Exposition School. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:19 Highlight the passage at 1:29:19

1:29:29 The second one is Sotrantika or the Sūtra School. The third one is Chitamatra or the Mind Only School. And then the quote-unquote highest, most profound, most subtle school is the Madhyamika or the Middle Way School. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:29 Highlight the passage at 1:29:29

1:29:52 So the Madhyamika School was founded by Nagarjuna and are considered to be founded by Nagarjuna and Aryadeva. So they really elucidated the meaning of emptiness according to the most profound way of interpreting it. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:52 Highlight the passage at 1:29:52

1:30:13 Then later, these scholars such as Buddha Palita and Bhava Viveka and Chandrakirti, etc., interpreted Nagarjuna. And then there were these two, as a result, there were these two sub-schools that evolved, which are the Svatantrika or the autonomy school. Versus the Prasangika, the consequence school. So Svatantrika as opposed to Sautrantika, which will get confusing. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:13 Highlight the passage at 1:30:13

1:30:45 So here Lama Tsongkhapa is talking about these various players. So toward the bottom on the right, just to introduce this and then we'll actually get into the views of these different schools. Baba Viveka belongs to the Svatantrika, the Sautrantika Svatantrika school. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:45 Highlight the passage at 1:30:45

1:31:20 Actually, you know, maybe it's just all words to you right now if I just read that. So then let's just, let's get into, let's get into the first school, really the basis, the Vaibashika school. So it's said that there's these various... Various levels of understanding that are kind of building blocks for being able to understand the more profound views. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:20 Highlight the passage at 1:31:20

1:31:49 So the Vaibashika view is really understanding that. It really gives us a building block in order to understand the Sotrantika school, which gives us a building block in order to understand the Chittamatra and the Madhyamika schools. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:49 Highlight the passage at 1:31:49

1:32:06 So it's very, very useful to understand. The views of these various schools. So let's talk a bit about the Vibashica School, the Great Exposition School. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:06 Highlight the passage at 1:32:06

1:32:24 So most of us, we tend to believe that things are solidly, singularly existing. Like this cup is a single unit. It's a single thing. It's an object. It's one object. This cup is an object. This microphone is an object, right? And certainly me, I'm a one thing, right? We don't think of me as being many things, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:32:24 Highlight the passage at 1:32:24

1:32:55 We think of me as being quite solidly one thing. So vibashica starts to break down. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:55 Highlight the passage at 1:32:55

1:33:07 Actually, things are composed of parts. This isn't actually one thing. It's not one substantially existent thing. It actually consists of, well they probably wouldn't use the word atom at that time, but it consists of many atoms. It can be broken down into parts. So the Vashikas believe that there's some smallest unit of what's called a directionally partless particle upon which everything is composed. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:07 Highlight the passage at 1:33:07

1:33:51 All material things are composed of some smallest unit that can't be broken down further. So this is quite similar to what we think. So there's some smallest units upon which everything is built. Maybe subatomic particles. Everything consists of subatomic particles. And you conglomerate them together into Report an error in the passage at 1:33:51 Highlight the passage at 1:33:51

1:34:22 Bigger objects, right? Objects that you can see. So these directionally partless particles by Beskis are so small you can't see them and they don't even take up any space. But then you put them together to form objects that you can see and that you can experience. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:22 Highlight the passage at 1:34:22

1:34:46 Makes sense, right? Most of us believe that. So they say that there are basically two types of objects. Then they explain the two truths, right, conventional truth and ultimate truth, in terms of these partless particles and those things that are composed of the partless particle. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:46 Highlight the passage at 1:34:46

1:35:10 So then they say that an ultimate truth is something, you know, in general, is something that can't be broken down any further. They're the fundamental building blocks upon which everything else exists. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:10 Highlight the passage at 1:35:10

1:35:27 So those are ultimate truths, those things that can't be broken down further. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:27 Highlight the passage at 1:35:27

1:35:35 And whereas conventional truths are things that are made up of these partless particles, things that they say, like if I break this cup, Report an error in the passage at 1:35:35 Highlight the passage at 1:35:35

1:35:52 the awareness that perceives the cup no longer exists, right? So let's say we have an eye consciousness perceiving cup, right? So we have an awareness that perceives the cup. If I smash the cup with a hammer, we will no longer have an eye consciousness that perceives cup. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:52 Highlight the passage at 1:35:52

1:36:22 So that indicates that... So Report an error in the passage at 1:36:22 Highlight the passage at 1:36:22

1:36:33 the cup is what's considered a conventional truth for them. So when we talk about the two truths, conventional truth and ultimate truth, conventional truth is kind of a provisional truth or a truth that conceals something deeper. So a cup exists, right, conventionally, but it conceals the deeper truth, which is that actually there are It's really just made out of these partless particles. So the deeper truth are these partless particles. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:33 Highlight the passage at 1:36:33

1:37:23 So these partless particles don't really depend on the mind for their existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:23 Highlight the passage at 1:37:23

1:37:35 They exist substantially. According to Vaibashikas, the partless particles exist substantially, not dependent on the mind. Whereas things like cups, things that have parts, really these are things that are imputed by the mind. Imputed by the mind because the mind organizes all of these parts into a whole. The whole doesn't actually exist on its own substantially. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:35 Highlight the passage at 1:37:35

1:38:12 It needs to perceive the parts in order to perceive the whole. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:12 Highlight the passage at 1:38:12

1:38:22 So the cup doesn't exist substantially. You have to perceive the parts of the cup in order to perceive the cup. So the cup is considered an imputed existent. So the Vaibashkas talk about two different types of phenomena, those that are substantially existent, which are the partless particles, right, that exist substantially without needing to aggregate parts together. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:22 Highlight the passage at 1:38:22

1:38:56 Versus things that are imputedly existent where you need a mind that apprehends the parts in order to apprehend the whole. Am I making sense? Report an error in the passage at 1:38:56 Highlight the passage at 1:38:56

1:39:10 So things that have parts basically are conventionally existent, conventional truths. Yeah, let's say conventional truths. Things that have parts are conventional truths. The partless particles have our ultimate truths and are substantially existent. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:10 Highlight the passage at 1:39:10

1:39:36 So those partless particles are substantially existent and considered ultimate truths. They can't be broken down further. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:36 Highlight the passage at 1:39:36

1:39:51 Those things that have parts are imputedly existent and Report an error in the passage at 1:39:51 Highlight the passage at 1:39:51

1:40:03 they're conventional truths. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:03 Highlight the passage at 1:40:03

1:40:10 So we can see that even this view is quite profound in that by Beshka we see the thing that the mind is involved in. Establishing the existence of things, of cups, etc. They just believe that there is this fundamental building block that you can't break down any further. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:10 Highlight the passage at 1:40:10

1:40:38 But for most things, in order for us to experience things, the mind is involved in imputing phenomena. And this is the lowest school, right, the least profound school of these four. So it becomes very helpful because when we have a mental affliction about something, let's say I'm very attached to something. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:38 Highlight the passage at 1:40:38

1:41:12 Maybe I'm very attached to my house. Or maybe I'm very attached to a person. I'm very attached to... My body, right? We're attached to something that in our mind is a single thing, right? It's that house or that body or that person, right? It's a single thing. So this view becomes very interesting because then you say, okay, well, it's my mind that created body, house, person. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:12 Highlight the passage at 1:41:12

1:41:55 Those are just aggregations of partless particles. So if I imagine something that I'm attached to and then break that down into, let's say, atoms, it's a collection of atoms, Report an error in the passage at 1:41:55 Highlight the passage at 1:41:55

1:42:18 it starts undermining our attachment, doesn't it? Because in order for us to be attached to that thing, we're attached to a whole, right? A single. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:18 Highlight the passage at 1:42:18

1:42:35 So I find this very useful sometimes to break down the mental affliction. To just imagine the thing as a collection of atoms instead Report an error in the passage at 1:42:35 Highlight the passage at 1:42:35

1:42:51 of this single thing that I have to have. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:51 Highlight the passage at 1:42:51

1:42:59 So that's one way to start breaking down our mental afflictions is to break down the solidity of things. Break down instead of thinking of it as a whole. It has a collection of smaller particles. It's hard to be attached to a collection of atoms, isn't it? Oh yeah, I'd really like to eat that collection of atoms. Well, it kind of spoils it, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:42:59 Highlight the passage at 1:42:59

1:43:30 Or a collection of sugar particles and fat particles. That's not scientific. But anyway, you know, break it. Break it down, right? Sugar cookie, now that's something to get attached to, but collection of quirks, hard to get excited about, right? So this is one way in which the Vibashica school, the understanding of the Vibashica school can start undermining our mental afflictions. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:30 Highlight the passage at 1:43:30

1:44:08 So I was talking in terms of material things, right? Physical things, right? Partless particles and all that. But also, they talk about the mind, right? The mind being made up of heartless moments of consciousness. Because we think of the mind as being one thing, right? Whereas actually, it's many, many, many subsequent moments of awareness. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:08 Highlight the passage at 1:44:08

1:44:42 And so Vaibachkas say, okay, yeah, it's many... Moments of awareness. And then you break that down, you break that down, and you break that down until there's a, what they, a temporally partless moment of awareness. So they say also, so there's a smallest unit of time, right? A smallest moment of awareness upon which the mind is a conglomeration of, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:44:42 Highlight the passage at 1:44:42

1:45:12 So there's, the physical things are a conglomeration of Directionally partless particles, whereas awareness, the mind, is made up of temporally partless moments of awareness, they say. So with Vaibashikas, there's always some smallest unit upon which everything is created, is based on. Smallest unit of physical or physical. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:12 Highlight the passage at 1:45:12

1:45:49 Smallest moment of awareness. So either way, there's always a building block of something that they can hang on to upon which everything else is built. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:49 Highlight the passage at 1:45:49

1:46:07 And this is a very comfortable view, right? Yeah, yeah, but there's something. There's something we can hang on to. Things are imputed by the mind, but there's some particle, there's something. That really exists from its own side, right, substantially, upon which everything else is built. So that's very useful, right, to understand, because later on the Prasangikas will tear that down. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:07 Highlight the passage at 1:46:07

1:46:35 Actually, the Chitamachas will tear that down. But the Vibaskis say, yeah, things are imputed by the mind, but there's some smallest unit of time, there's some smallest moment of awareness, there's some smallest partless particle. Upon which everything else is built. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:35 Highlight the passage at 1:46:35

1:46:59 David. So when we're looking at the potentiality or partless particle in the Vibashica school, we have yet to get to the point where as we're looking at this partless particle that the existent phenomenon which are composites of these partless particles are... Is that composite phenomenon such as the cup identified also then as being inherently unsubstantial and reliable and subject to deterioration? Report an error in the passage at 1:46:59 Highlight the passage at 1:46:59

1:47:37 Or is it we're just at a point where we're looking at a conglomerate and just merely naming a phenomenon of partless particles but not dealing with... Report an error in the passage at 1:47:37 Highlight the passage at 1:47:37

1:47:51 The unreliability or substantiality of the thing which is being named. So we have a partless particle that we're saying is in and of itself substantial on some level. We're not going to be getting... And then anything that's built upon that is something which is merely labeled and conventional. Okay. So let's say... I just wanted to correct you. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:51 Highlight the passage at 1:47:51

1:48:21 It's imputed. Okay, according to Vibashikas, these conglomeration of particles are imputed by the mind. They're not merely imputed by the mind. Now that's a big difference. I mean, you're jumping to Prasangika when you talk about merely imputed. So the Vibashikas would say that, yeah, this is imputed by the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:21 Highlight the passage at 1:48:21

1:48:43 No problem. They don't talk about inherent existence, but... According to the higher schools, they would say that this, though, still inherently exists. That the conglomeration of particles, you know, upon the conglomeration of particles, you impute cup. But it is a cup. You know, it, the conglomeration of the particles, is a cup. Prasangikas wouldn't say that. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:43 Highlight the passage at 1:48:43

1:49:15 But Vaibaskus would say the conglomeration of the particles is a cup. It's imputed by the mind, but it is a cup. So the particles, the conglomeration of the parts are the thing itself. So the prosangigos would interpret that to say this inherently exists. It exists from its own side. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:15 Highlight the passage at 1:49:15

1:49:47 Maybe I shouldn't say this because this might confuse you. They say it's substantially established. It's not substantially existent. But it's substantially established. Which, to be substantially existent for them means that it can't be broken down further, right? It's a partless particle or a moment of consciousness, right? But it is. The parts are the cup. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:47 Highlight the passage at 1:49:47

1:50:18 The parts are the cup. The parts are the thing itself. So it would be inherently existent or substantially established. The parts are the thing itself. The cup is imputed on the parts, but the parts are the cup. It's not merely imputed by the mind. It's imputed by the mind, but the parts are the thing itself. Yeah, Report an error in the passage at 1:50:18 Highlight the passage at 1:50:18

1:50:53 and this is easy to understand, right, in the context of physics. Yeah, things are made out of smaller particles. Right, just to put it in the microphone that according to physics this would be correct because it's made up of... All of these millions and millions of atoms. And it does substantially exist based on those atoms. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:53 Highlight the passage at 1:50:53

1:51:14 Right, the atomic. Right, right. That's the highest. Yeah. Okay, thank you. As Jessica, our scientist, says, it accords with the atomic theory of physics, not the quantum physics. Quantum physics is more profound. Not that. Right, it's a. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:14 Highlight the passage at 1:51:14

1:51:43 right. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:43 Highlight the passage at 1:51:43

1:51:47 so. So any questions on that? I'll finish up the Vibachico School next week. So the difference between an ultimate truth is the partless particle or moment of consciousness that can't be broken down further and those things substantially exist for them. And then those things that are made up of the... Report an error in the passage at 1:51:47 Highlight the passage at 1:51:47

1:52:13 Partless particles and the partless moments of consciousness imputedly exist. They provisionally exist. They conventionally exist. But they inherently exist also, right? They exist from their own side. The parts are the thing itself. The parts are imputed by the mind, but the parts are the thing themselves. So that's one of the differences between Vibashikas and Prasangikas. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:13 Highlight the passage at 1:52:13

1:52:42 The parts are the thing themselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:42 Highlight the passage at 1:52:42

1:52:50 Is that clear? Okay. Do you know what Lama Tsongkhapa meant when he said imputed? Did you guys ever get a textbook definition of what imputed means according to Buddhism? Report an error in the passage at 1:52:50 Highlight the passage at 1:52:50

1:53:10 Let me talk a bit about the difference between something being substantially existent and imputedly existent. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:10 Highlight the passage at 1:53:10

1:53:27 The classic example of something that's considered imputedly existent is... okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:27 Highlight the passage at 1:53:27

1:53:33 The person. A person is imputedly existent because in order for person to appear to your mind, the parts of the person need to appear. So in order for the person to appear to the mind, the body, I was going to say the body and the mind need to appear, but it's hard for the mind to appear. But in order for a person, a person is imputed on the body and the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:33 Highlight the passage at 1:53:33

1:54:04 We have a body and we have a mind, right? When we have a body and mind together, then we, that's validly called a person, right? If there's just a body and there's no mind, not a person, right? We need the body and the mind together in order to validly call it a person, right? So in order for it to be imputedly existent, it says something other than Report an error in the passage at 1:54:04 Highlight the passage at 1:54:04

1:54:35 Then the person needs to appear to the mind in, I shouldn't say, a substance different from the person needs to appear to the mind in order for the person to appear. So the body and the mind have to appear in order for a person to appear. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:35 Highlight the passage at 1:54:35

1:55:01 So imputed, Report an error in the passage at 1:55:01 Highlight the passage at 1:55:01

1:55:09 let me see, I don't think I'm being very clear. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:09 Highlight the passage at 1:55:09

1:55:17 No, I mean the lower schools wouldn't talk in terms of imputing on a valid base. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:17 Highlight the passage at 1:55:17

1:55:29 If something's imputedly existent, then what you're doing is a summation of aggregates, and so you're taking that summation of the parts for the imputed existence? Report an error in the passage at 1:55:29 Highlight the passage at 1:55:29

1:55:42 Yeah, sort of. I'm trying to give you kind of the technical first, like technically how it's defined first, and then we can explain. And I need to make sure I get the words correct. But let me give you another example first. A forest. A forest is considered imputedly existent by all the schools. Because in order for a forest to appear, trees need to appear. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:42 Highlight the passage at 1:55:42

1:56:17 Similarly, in order for a person to appear, the body and mind needs to appear. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:17 Highlight the passage at 1:56:17

1:56:30 So the thing doesn't exist substantially in and of itself. Something else needs to appear in order for the object to appear. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:30 Highlight the passage at 1:56:30

1:56:45 The trees need to appear in order for the forest to appear. The Vibachikas would say, right, so in order for the cup to appear, all of the particles need to appear, all of the parts. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:45 Highlight the passage at 1:56:45

1:57:05 Whereas to be substantially existent, nothing else has to appear for that thing to appear. Like the partless particle that doesn't have any parts, right? It doesn't... You don't need to rely on something else to appear in order for the partless particle to appear. It exists substantially in and of itself. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:05 Highlight the passage at 1:57:05

1:57:26 It doesn't require the mind aggregating things together. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:26 Highlight the passage at 1:57:26

1:57:38 In general, in general, let's put it that way. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:38 Highlight the passage at 1:57:38

1:57:50 So does the partless particle, the substantially existing partless particle exist outside of the mind? According to Vaibashika? Report an error in the passage at 1:57:50 Highlight the passage at 1:57:50

1:58:04 Would the cup, which is imputed by the mind, exist outside of the mind? According to Vibashica, yes. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:04 Highlight the passage at 1:58:04

1:58:18 It's dependent on the mind, but it still exists. It still exists together with the parts. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:18 Highlight the passage at 1:58:18

1:58:30 But the partless particle isn't dependent on the mind. I don't think so, for Vibashica. Well, Report an error in the passage at 1:58:30 Highlight the passage at 1:58:30

1:58:47 see, the cup... Report an error in the passage at 1:58:47 Highlight the passage at 1:58:47

1:58:53 I don't know about that specific question, but they say that the cup is only a conventional truth, a provisional truth, right? Because when it breaks, we no longer can perceive a cup. So it's not a cup anymore. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:53 Highlight the passage at 1:58:53

1:59:13 Particles? Report an error in the passage at 1:59:13 Highlight the passage at 1:59:13

1:59:17 Yeah. Yeah. Maybe. Something like that. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:17 Highlight the passage at 1:59:17

1:59:29 All right. So we're out of time. really got So some things to think about. So we'll continue with the Vaibashiko school next time. So your exercise for this week is to think about, you know, when we have a mental affliction, if we're annoyed at somebody or if we're attached to somebody, try to break them down into parts, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:59:29 Highlight the passage at 1:59:29

2:00:00 Mentally. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Try to let me put it another way. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:00 Highlight the passage at 2:00:00

2:00:12 So mentally try to think of them as a composite of atoms or quarks or whatever works for your mind, but as a composite of many things. Not one whole thing, but a composite of many things. And see... If that does anything to your mental affliction, see if it reduces it at all. Obviously, these things take practice, right? I mean, it's not like the first time we do it. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:12 Highlight the passage at 2:00:12

2:00:44 Aha, you know, everything is solved. I know, never have a mental affliction again. But anyway, but just notice the effect it has on the mind. We just start trying to deconstruct our objects of mental affliction. Okay. So actually, we never did our motivation and our prayers. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:44 Highlight the passage at 2:00:44

2:01:04 We will next time. So let's at least dedicate any positive energy we've created and let's do it with Shantideva on page 246 in the gold book. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:04 Highlight the passage at 2:01:04

2:01:19 And if you didn't sign the email list, please do and I'll send out the text and I'll send out a couple of commentaries too on this text. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:19 Highlight the passage at 2:01:19

2:01:37 May all beings everywhere. Plagued by sufferings of body and mind, obtain an ocean of happiness and joy by virtue of my merits. May no living creature suffer, commit evil or ever fall ill. May no one be afraid or belittled with a mind weighed down by depression. May the blind see forms and the deaf hear sounds. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:37 Highlight the passage at 2:01:37

2:01:59 May those whose bodies are worn with toil be restored on finding repose. May the naked find clothing, the hungry find food, may the thirsty find water and delicious drinks. May the poor find wealth, those weak with sorrow find joy. May the forlorn find hope, constant happiness and prosperity. May there be timely rains and bountiful harvests. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:59 Highlight the passage at 2:01:59

2:02:25 May all medicines be effective and wholesome prayers bear fruit. May all who are sick and ill quickly be freed from their ailments. whatever diseases there are in the world may they never occur again the frightened cease to be afraid and those bound be freed may the powerless find power may people think of benefiting each other as long as space remains for as long as sentient beings remain until then may I too remain to dispel the miseries of the world Thank Report an error in the passage at 2:02:25 Highlight the passage at 2:02:25

2:03:13 you and have a good week. So if you want to read more about Vaibashikas, Appearance in Reality has a nice section on Vaibachika's or Great Exposition School if you don't like the... How to See Yourself as You Really Are. We have a bunch of copies. Oh yeah, and How to See Yourself as You Really Are is such a wonderful book on emptiness by His Holiness the Dalai Lama with practical meditations we can do and all of that. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:13 Highlight the passage at 2:03:13

2:03:42 So if you want a copy of that, Sechen Lee has a copy. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:42 Highlight the passage at 2:03:42

2:03:52 So there are two... Kinds of books that I'm recommending. Certain books that are really technical and certain kinds of books that are much more accessible and practical. And this is one of the more accessible, practical books. And our teacher will be coming back for the first time since India tomorrow. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:52 Highlight the passage at 2:03:52