Special Insight 1: Wisdom of Emptiness (19 April 2011)

0:02 Thank you. Honey. Oh, really? Apparently, there's this one. Honey, what's it? There's this one from these. These live in a tea tree log and they harvest honey from a tea tree flower, but it really has a lot of tea tree organs. Report an error in the passage at 0:02 Highlight the passage at 0:02

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1:21 Good. How are you? Good. How's it going? darling? How are you? Hi, pumpkin dude. How are you? Report an error in the passage at 1:21 Highlight the passage at 1:21

1:29 Good. Are you staying out of trouble? Yes. Today? Today? Just today? No, you're good. My best behavior. You and me both. Report an error in the passage at 1:29 Highlight the passage at 1:29

1:49 While you're in class, the first one you can't remember. This is my first in my class, yeah. Oh, wow. I hear it. You may have come in on the most difficult thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:49 Highlight the passage at 1:49

2:01 Start the bank. Report an error in the passage at 2:01 Highlight the passage at 2:01

2:06 yeah, here it's reality. That's a very... Thank you. Thank you. That's where you get there. Yeah, beginning of May. The last conference. Yeah. It was on Sunday, so it's like May. Good, but old. It's nice. You know, I like it. Have you ever seen his home? It helps. It's amazing. It really feels like you're in the time. Report an error in the passage at 2:06 Highlight the passage at 2:06

3:11 Thank you. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 3:11 Highlight the passage at 3:11

3:41 It's good, it's getting better. Report an error in the passage at 3:41 Highlight the passage at 3:41

3:47 Kind of. Boy, you and Effie, man. Report an error in the passage at 3:47 Highlight the passage at 3:47

3:54 when one starts to move on, the other one falls apart. Aww. It'll get better. Yeah, I know. It's been a bad year. It was seven years ago. Do you do your Medicine Buddha and Waktara mantras? Report an error in the passage at 3:54 Highlight the passage at 3:54

4:11 Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 4:11 Highlight the passage at 4:11

4:30 Hi, how are you? Good, how are you? Good. Report an error in the passage at 4:30 Highlight the passage at 4:30

4:42 you going to Long Beach? going to try. Actually, yes, I'm going. Cool. I'm not going to try. I'm going. We're going. We're doing it. We're just going to try. It's not. Report an error in the passage at 4:42 Highlight the passage at 4:42

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5:55 Let's start by spending a minute... Setting our motivation for tonight. Report an error in the passage at 5:55 Highlight the passage at 5:55

6:03 Now we're optimally trying to develop a bodhicitta motivation. Report an error in the passage at 6:03 Highlight the passage at 6:03

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7:14 So remembering the kindness of others. Report an error in the passage at 7:14 Highlight the passage at 7:14

7:40 Also remembering that all these beings are stuck in saṃsāra, Report an error in the passage at 7:40 Highlight the passage at 7:40

7:53 controlled by karma and mental afflictions. Report an error in the passage at 7:53 Highlight the passage at 7:53

8:19 Wanted problems, difficulties occurring again and again, Report an error in the passage at 8:19 Highlight the passage at 8:19

8:32 inevitably, because Report an error in the passage at 8:32 Highlight the passage at 8:32

8:50 they're still in saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 8:50 Highlight the passage at 8:50

9:10 So developing the wish to free them from the suffering and Report an error in the passage at 9:10 Highlight the passage at 9:10

9:22 liberate them by attaining complete enlightenment for Report an error in the passage at 9:22 Highlight the passage at 9:22

9:47 the welfare of all sentient beings. I Report an error in the passage at 9:47 Highlight the passage at 9:47

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10:20 want to start with the Praise to Manjushri, which is in the white book on the first page, which helps dispel our ignorance, which can be helpful in a class like Emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 10:20 Highlight the passage at 10:20

10:45 Obeisance to my guru and protector Manjushri, who holds to his heart a scriptural text symbolic of his seeing all things as they are, whose intelligence shines forth as the sun, unclouded by delusions or traces of ignorance, who teaches in sixty ways with the love and compassion of a father for his only son. Report an error in the passage at 10:45 Highlight the passage at 10:45

11:04 All creatures caught in the prison of saṃsāra, confused in the darkness of their ignorance, overwhelmed by their suffering. You, whose dragon thunder-like proclamation of the Dharma arouses us from the stupor of our delusions and frees us from the iron chains of our karma, who wields the sword of wisdom hewing down suffering wherever its sprouts appear, clearing away the darkness of ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 11:04 Highlight the passage at 11:04

11:28 You, whose princely body is adorned with 112 marks of a Buddha, who has completed the stages achieving the highest perfection of a bodhisattva. Who has been pure from the beginning, I bow down to you, O Manjushri. Report an error in the passage at 11:28 Highlight the passage at 11:28

11:59 With the brilliance of your wisdom, O compassionate one, illuminate the darkness in closing my mind, enlighten my intelligence and wisdom so that I may gain into Buddha's words and the texts and explain them. Report an error in the passage at 11:59 Highlight the passage at 11:59

12:15 And then let's recite the Heart Sūtra, Report an error in the passage at 12:15 Highlight the passage at 12:15

12:23 which is on page 76. Report an error in the passage at 12:23 Highlight the passage at 12:23

12:33 A few words are different. I Report an error in the passage at 12:33 Highlight the passage at 12:33

12:44 prostrate to the Arya Triple Gem. Thus did I hear at one time. The Bhagavan was dwelling on Mass Vultures Mountain and Rajgriya, together with a great community of monks and a great community of bodhisattvas. At that time, the Bhagavan was absorbed in the concentration on the categories of phenomena called profound perception. Report an error in the passage at 12:44 Highlight the passage at 12:44

13:05 Also at that time, the Bodhisattva, Mahasattva, Arya Avalokiteshvara, looked upon the very practice of the profound perfection of wisdom and beheld those five aggregates also as empty of inherent nature. Then through the power of Buddha, the Venerable Shariputra said this to the Bodhisattva, Mahasattva, Arya Avalokiteshvara, How should any son of the lineage train who wishes to practice the activity of the profound perfection of wisdom? Report an error in the passage at 13:05 Highlight the passage at 13:05

13:32 He said that, and the Bodhisattva Mahasattva Arya Avalokiteshvara said this to the venerable Shariputra, any son of the lineage or daughter of the lineage who wishes to practice the activity of the profound perfection of wisdom should look upon it like this, correctly and repeatedly beholding those five aggregates also as empty of inherent nature. Report an error in the passage at 13:32 Highlight the passage at 13:32

13:55 Form is empty, emptiness is form. Emptiness is not other than form, form is also not other than emptiness. In the same way, feeling, discrimination, compositional factors and consciousness are empty. Shariputra, likewise all phenomena are emptiness, without characteristic, unproduced, unsteased, stainless, not without stain, not deficient, not fulfilled. Report an error in the passage at 13:55 Highlight the passage at 13:55

14:21 Shariputra, therefore in emptiness there is no form, no feeling, no discrimination, no compositional factors, no consciousness, no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no visual form, no sound, no odor, no taste, no object of touch and no phenomenon. There is no eye element and so on up to and including no mind element and no mental consciousness element. Report an error in the passage at 14:21 Highlight the passage at 14:21

14:49 There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance and so on up to and including no aging and death and no extinction of aging and death. Similarly, there is no suffering, origination, cessation and path. There is no exalted wisdom, no attainment and also no non-attainment. Shariputra, therefore, because there is no attainment, bodhisattvas rely on and dwell in the perfection of wisdom, the mind without obscuration and without fear. Report an error in the passage at 14:49 Highlight the passage at 14:49

15:18 Having completely passed beyond error, they reach the end point of nirvāṇa. All the Buddhas who dwell in the three times also manifestly, completely awaken to unsurpassable, perfect, complete enlightenment in reliance on the perfection of wisdom. Therefore, the mantra of the perfection of wisdom. The mantra of great knowledge, the unsurpassed mantra, the mantra equal to the unequaled, the mantra that thoroughly pacifies self-suffering, should be known as truth since it is not false. Report an error in the passage at 15:18 Highlight the passage at 15:18

15:48 The mantra of the perfection of wisdom is declared, tayata om gate gate paragate parasam gate bodhisuha. Shariputra, the bodhisattva, mahasattva, should train in the profound perfection of wisdom like that. Then the Bhagavan arose from that concentration and commended the Bodhisattva, Mahasattva, Arya, Avalokiteshvara, saying, Well said, well said, son of the lineage, it is like that. Report an error in the passage at 15:48 Highlight the passage at 15:48

16:16 It is like that. One should practice the profound perfection of wisdom just as you have indicated. Even the Tathagatas rejoice. The Bhagavan having thus spoken, the Venerable Sharivadiputra, the Bodhisattva, Mahasattva, Arya, Avalokiteshvara, And those surrounding in their entirety, along with the world of gods, humans, asuras and Gandharvas, were overjoyed and highly praised that spoken by the Bhagavan. Report an error in the passage at 16:16 Highlight the passage at 16:16

16:44 All right, and then we'll do refuge in bodhicitta on page 98. Report an error in the passage at 16:44 Highlight the passage at 16:44

17:01 I go for refuge until I'm enlightened. To the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly. By the merits I create through listening to the Dharma, may I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I am enlightened. To the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly, by the merits I create through listening to the Dharma, may I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 17:01 Highlight the passage at 17:01

17:27 I go for refuge until I am enlightened. To the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly, by the merits I create through listening to the Dharma. May I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 17:27 Highlight the passage at 17:27

17:52 So last week we started getting into the text, the middle length lamrim, the special insight section, and then we detoured almost immediately into getting an overview of the four. Philosophical schools, the four tenet schools, which will be really helpful when we get to the parts when Lama Tsongkhapa starts to refute the lower schools. Report an error in the passage at 17:52 Highlight the passage at 17:52

18:24 So it's very useful to get at least a little bit of an idea of what the lower schools posit in order to really be able to understand the highest school, the Prasangika school. Report an error in the passage at 18:24 Highlight the passage at 18:24

18:43 So it was interesting, Chodron Rinpoche gave a brief teaching on the Diamond Cutter Sūtra on Sunday, and he was saying, oh yeah, well in order to understand the highest school, right, Prasangika, then it's useful to understand that of the autonomy middle way school, which is the Svatantraka Madhyamika school. Report an error in the passage at 18:43 Highlight the passage at 18:43

19:03 In order to understand that, it's useful to understand the Chitamatra school, the mind-only school, and et cetera, right? So that's why we're going through the lower schools. Then it'll be easier to understand the highest school. So we started talking about the Vibashica school, which is the lowest school. Report an error in the passage at 19:03 Highlight the passage at 19:03

19:24 Some of you weren't here last week and didn't get a chart, so it might be useful. Report an error in the passage at 19:24 Highlight the passage at 19:24

19:43 So we talked about the two truths according to the Vibashica School or the Great Exposition School. So I gave you kind of a brief summary of that. I'll Report an error in the passage at 19:43 Highlight the passage at 19:43

20:05 actually write the definition. If you want to, yeah. Sure. Report an error in the passage at 20:05 Highlight the passage at 20:05

20:20 So the Vibashica. Report an error in the passage at 20:20 Highlight the passage at 20:20

20:31 Excellent. Or Great Exposition School. Report an error in the passage at 20:31 Highlight the passage at 20:31

20:45 It's okay. According to one definition. So the ultimate truth, right? So there are the two truths, right? Ultimate truth and conventional truth. Ultimate truth is a phenomenon, sure, Report an error in the passage at 20:45 Highlight the passage at 20:45

21:04 a phenomenon, which is such that when Report an error in the passage at 21:04 Highlight the passage at 21:04

21:15 it is broken up or Report an error in the passage at 21:15 Highlight the passage at 21:15

21:23 mentally separated into Report an error in the passage at 21:23 Highlight the passage at 21:23

21:34 individual parts, the Report an error in the passage at 21:34 Highlight the passage at 21:34

21:43 consciousness apprehending that object is Report an error in the passage at 21:43 Highlight the passage at 21:43

21:56 not canceled. Report an error in the passage at 21:56 Highlight the passage at 21:56

22:09 So a phenomenon which is such that when it is broken up, we're mentally separated into individual parts. The consciousness apprehending that object is not canceled. So last week we talked about ultimate truth being things like these directionally partless particles, right? And these, you don't need to write all that. Report an error in the passage at 22:09 Highlight the passage at 22:09

22:29 And these... These temporally partless moments of consciousness, right? So the building blocks upon which everything else is composed, right? So all material things, Vaibhashika say, are composed of these directionally partless particles and all consciousnesses, right? Mind is composed of actually these temporally partless moments of consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 22:29 Highlight the passage at 22:29

22:58 So ultimate truths are those things that cannot be broken down further like these two things, right? Also, there are things like if you do break them, the consciousness of it or the awareness that apprehends it isn't canceled. So things like, the classic example is uncomposed space. Uncomposed space is something that's defined as that which is... Report an error in the passage at 22:58 Highlight the passage at 22:58

23:28 Just an absence of obstructive contact. It's the absence of obstructive contact. So objects can be placed in space because there's an absence of obstruction in that area. So space is an ultimate truth because if you break it up into pieces, it's still space. No matter how... Much you break up space, it's still space. So for the mind that breaks it down, it still doesn't cancel it being that object. Report an error in the passage at 23:28 Highlight the passage at 23:28

24:11 It doesn't cancel being space. Whereas we gave the example last time, if I hit this cup with a hammer and it becomes a pile of fragments, but it's no longer a cup. Report an error in the passage at 24:11 Highlight the passage at 24:11

24:27 So the I consciousness that perceives cup no longer perceives a cup once I break the cup with a hammer. When I break the cup with a hammer, it's no longer a cup. There's no longer an I consciousness that perceives a cup. Report an error in the passage at 24:27 Highlight the passage at 24:27

24:50 So cup is a conventional truth. It's just an aggregation of these partless particles. It's actually just something that's imputed to the aggregation of the parts. The cup is imputed to the aggregation of the parts. The table is imputed to an aggregation of its parts. The microphone is imputed to the aggregation of its parts. So these are... Report an error in the passage at 24:50 Highlight the passage at 24:50

25:19 These are objects that seem to be whole, solid objects, but actually they consist of a bunch of parts. And so those are conventional truths, those things that have parts. Report an error in the passage at 25:19 Highlight the passage at 25:19

25:35 So the definition of a conventional truth is a phenomenon which is when Report an error in the passage at 25:35 Highlight the passage at 25:35

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26:12 it is broken up or Report an error in the passage at 26:12 Highlight the passage at 26:12

26:21 mentally separated into individual parts, Report an error in the passage at 26:21 Highlight the passage at 26:21

26:34 the consciousness. Yeah, comma. The consciousness apprehending that object Report an error in the passage at 26:34 Highlight the passage at 26:34

26:59 is cancelled. Report an error in the passage at 26:59 Highlight the passage at 26:59

27:09 So the definition kind of sounds a bit more complicated than it actually is. A phenomenon which is such that when it is broken up or mentally separated into individual parts, the consciousness apprehending that object is cancelled. So these conventional truths are aggregations of parts. They aren't wholes. Report an error in the passage at 27:09 Highlight the passage at 27:09

27:32 They don't substantially exist. You need to aggregate these partless particles into objects. And so these conventional truths imputedly exist. They don't substantially exist. Report an error in the passage at 27:32 Highlight the passage at 27:32

27:52 So what is the significance of this? So we were talking last time about how when we have a mental affliction, if we have attachment or if we have anger or jealousy or something, we have attachment or a mental affliction toward a solid object, a solid singular object, like a person or... Report an error in the passage at 27:52 Highlight the passage at 27:52

28:23 An object, right? An item that we want to buy, right? Maybe it's a house or maybe it's a car or maybe it's an iPad or I don't know what people get, you know, excited about buying, you know, an item of clothing or whatever. Or maybe we were attached to, you know, our body, you know, being fat or thinner. Well, usually we're not attached to being fat, right? Report an error in the passage at 28:23 Highlight the passage at 28:23

28:47 In this culture, right? But, you know, we're attached to... A solid singular object. And so our exercise for this week was to break down these objects and afflictions into parts. Did people try to do that? Did anybody try to do that? And did anybody notice anything happening when they tried to do that? Report an error in the passage at 28:47 Highlight the passage at 28:47

29:22 I want to do a meditation on that right now. So bring an Report an error in the passage at 29:22 Highlight the passage at 29:22

29:45 object to mind. Report an error in the passage at 29:45 Highlight the passage at 29:45

29:55 Maybe a person or an inanimate object that Report an error in the passage at 29:55 Highlight the passage at 29:55

30:03 we're attached to, either attached to or Report an error in the passage at 30:03 Highlight the passage at 30:03

30:10 irritated at. Report an error in the passage at 30:10 Highlight the passage at 30:10

30:37 So notice it's a solid object, right? A singular object. And Report an error in the passage at 30:37 Highlight the passage at 30:37

30:49 mentally break that down to Report an error in the passage at 30:49 Highlight the passage at 30:49

30:56 many, many, many atoms. Or Report an error in the passage at 30:56 Highlight the passage at 30:56

31:10 if it's a person, many atoms and many moments of consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 31:10 Highlight the passage at 31:10

31:25 So focusing on these many, many parts, not on the whole. Report an error in the passage at 31:25 Highlight the passage at 31:25

31:53 that image as much as we can. Report an error in the passage at 31:53 Highlight the passage at 31:53

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34:26 So one key thing when we apply these antidotes, when we do something like trying to break down the object, is to try to have power behind it. If we just think about it for two seconds, it doesn't have enough power to overcome the mental affliction. This is why the calm abiding meditation really becomes important. The ability to really focus on that object strongly without distraction as much as we can. Report an error in the passage at 34:26 Highlight the passage at 34:26

35:00 The more we are able to focus on it, the more power we'll have with the antidote and the more we'll be able to overcome that mental affliction. Because as soon as we get distracted, the mental affliction comes right back. Right? Did you notice that? But if we're able to concentrate without distraction, then the mental affliction, did you notice the mental affliction subsiding somewhat? Report an error in the passage at 35:00 Highlight the passage at 35:00

35:27 Right? When you're able to concentrate, right? And then as soon as you rise, right, or as soon as you get distracted, boom, it's right there, right? Because we have, you know. Long habits, right, of the mental afflictions, right? Long-term habits of looking at things in the solid way. So this can be a very, very helpful exercise in our daily life, even before we realize emptiness, right? Report an error in the passage at 35:27 Highlight the passage at 35:27

35:56 But just to do this kind of exercise when a mental affliction arises. Any questions or comments on that, Peter? Oh, wait. Yeah. It's right by you, I Report an error in the passage at 35:56 Highlight the passage at 35:56

36:22 chose a physical object and as I broke it down into atoms and then subatomic particles and into smaller and smaller particles, what happened for me is that space arose. Everything just became vast, vast space with huge distances between each particle. And you realize that if you take anything and break it down, it turns into space. Report an error in the passage at 36:22 Highlight the passage at 36:22

36:45 And that's physics. I mean, besides the Dharma, that's just physics. And everything exists that way. And I think that if you were able to do this and keep this view, it could help, you know, eventually have the direct perception of emptiness from this viewpoint. Because you realize there's nothing really there, you know, on a deep, deep level. Yeah, excellent. It was good. Mine was kind of an object too, but mine was a... Report an error in the passage at 36:45 Highlight the passage at 36:45

37:14 Hunk of chocolate that my mom would send me for Easter. Yeah. And when I broke that down, it was, you know, it was sort of like, like you just said, it was, you know, a bunch of parts and stuff. But I was still hungry for the chocolate. Do you know what I mean? But the more I thought about that, the more my appetite became empty too. Report an error in the passage at 37:14 Highlight the passage at 37:14

37:34 Do you know what I mean? It was like emptiness to emptiness. Like I wasn't, I wasn't drawn to the chocolate itself. It was just my appetite that was drawn, you know, which I wasn't attached to either. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 37:34 Highlight the passage at 37:34

37:44 But when I stop thinking about it that way, then I'm still like, oh, chocolate. It's kind of weird that way. There's that duality. I mean, it's interesting, right? Because if we break down the object, then, I mean, sometimes you realize that you're not really attached to the object as much as the feeling, right? Report an error in the passage at 37:44 Highlight the passage at 37:44

38:07 Attached to the feeling of pleasure that that object gives you, right? And then we can... Then we can switch to analyzing that feeling, right, and, you know, breaking that down because it's not a solid feeling either, you know. And then, right, yeah, yeah, it's just a series of sensations, right, moments of sensation. So it does mean the compositional factors? Report an error in the passage at 38:07 Highlight the passage at 38:07

38:31 The feeling? Well, that's the feeling. That's the feeling aggregate, right? Because when, how mental afflictions arise, right, that we have... Contact with the object. And then a feeling of pleasant, unpleasant or neutral arises. And based on a feeling of pleasure, then the attachment arises. So usually the attachment arises in relation to the object. But even deeper than that, it's an attachment to that pleasant feeling, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 38:31 Highlight the passage at 38:31

39:02 So are we really having a love affair with our feelings more than we are about the object itself? One might say that. In some traditions they talk about that, about being really attached to the feelings as opposed to the objects. Like chocolate's a good example. There's the whole sensual experience of eating a piece of chocolate and the flavors and the emotion that arises and induces feelings of love and all the things I talk about with chocolate. Report an error in the passage at 39:02 Highlight the passage at 39:02

39:31 It sounds like you're really in love with just all the feelings that arise from the chocolate. It's not the chocolate. Yeah. So we have to overcome the attachment to the... Object as well as to the feeling, Report an error in the passage at 39:31 Highlight the passage at 39:31

39:49 right? So we just switch our analysis to whatever we are attached to at that moment. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, we have to do this meditation again and again and again with a very strong level of concentration to overcome that mental affliction altogether. But anyway, but... Slowly, slowly, right? We need to habituate ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 39:49 Highlight the passage at 39:49

40:21 Any other? David? Report an error in the passage at 40:21 Highlight the passage at 40:21

40:31 This weekend, at one point when I sat down and I was doing this, I actually worked on a dog that we used to have that died a couple years ago. And I kind of bridged from the first day that we brought her home, then all the years that we had her, and then up to the moment when I was holding her dead in my arms. Report an error in the passage at 40:31 Highlight the passage at 40:31

40:54 And then going from not only then physiologically kind of like breaking down the changes that happens in terms of just, you know, the blood and cells and bone, you know, and what constitutes that, but also since the, you know, the animal is, you know, our dog Althea was also a being that, you know, we could interact with, who had her own behaviors and whatnot that were a result of her own interactions with the environment or aggregates and whatnot, as well as... Report an error in the passage at 40:54 Highlight the passage at 40:54

41:24 My own, because kind of like what I was doing with that, for me it's actually not that hard to take physical objects and kind of just take them down into, you know, kind of quantum potentialities. But so then when I would do it with an animal, you know, or human, but it was easier with an animal that I'd known for its entire lifespan that I watched come up from a small clump of cells to a lot of them to now nothing again. Report an error in the passage at 41:24 Highlight the passage at 41:24

41:51 And then look at what was created in terms of like the emotions that were there at the time she was alive and we'd interact and now no longer existent except there now as a conceptuality, this memory that also then has very strong emotions that attach to that. And so then you can start to take those feelings that are very present with a memory of something that's not existent. Report an error in the passage at 41:51 Highlight the passage at 41:51

42:20 But there is a concept and start to take them apart then. So it was kind of a very strong bridge from something you can do with a physically takedown and then you get into something that has so much attachment and so many feelings, so incredibly vivid. And then to start peeling those apart, it was really quite a ride. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 42:20 Highlight the passage at 42:20

42:46 Yeah, it's interesting because usually we just accept the superficial appearance of objects, but when you break that down, it's very interesting. And then we'll talk later today about the self-sufficient, substantially existent self, and doing that meditation on people and beings can be very effective. Report an error in the passage at 42:46 Highlight the passage at 42:46

43:06 So the parts, you know, that's breaking down into parts, you know, can be very useful for certain types of objects. Jackson, the self-sufficiency. Sufficient, substantial existence self. That one I find is extremely useful for beings, you know, being attached to beings or having aversion to beings. So we'll talk about that. Betty. Report an error in the passage at 43:06 Highlight the passage at 43:06

43:36 The thing I keep coming back to is that are we trying to eliminate our feelings in the senses that, you know, like, obviously... To have a feeling about chocolate, I had to have had a past experience with chocolate. So if I'm dealing just in the moment without any past, then I wouldn't necessarily have a feeling about chocolate. Report an error in the passage at 43:36 Highlight the passage at 43:36

43:54 There's no attachment to it. So if I could bring myself just to this moment without any past, Louis is shaking his head. Yeah, we still have feelings. I mean, the feelings are constantly arising. Regardless of any kind of past experience whatsoever. Now, would this get to the place of where I actually... Report an error in the passage at 43:54 Highlight the passage at 43:54

44:12 Am I looking to turn off my feelings? No. No. Because there's really... No. No. You know, the process of the mental affliction, right, we have contact with an object, then a feeling arises, right, of pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. Then we try to catch it at the next step of the grasping at it. That's the problem, is the grasping or the aversion. Report an error in the passage at 44:12 Highlight the passage at 44:12

44:40 But that doesn't associate it with a feeling. Well, the feeling is what triggers the attachment. Like if we have a feeling of unpleasant, we're probably not going to get attached, right? It's only in relation to a pleasant feeling that we grasp or we get attached, right? And it's in relation to an unpleasant feeling that we have irritation or anger or annoyance, right? Report an error in the passage at 44:40 Highlight the passage at 44:40

45:08 So we try to catch it. Between the feeling and the mental affliction, the aversion or the attachment. I mean, it happens so quickly, right? But we can notice, you know, we can notice the feeling and then we may notice the attachment, but then work with the attachment part or work with the aversion part. Report an error in the passage at 45:08 Highlight the passage at 45:08

45:34 We don't work with the feeling part because a feeling is actually just... A result of karma. The pleasant feeling arises because of a virtuous karma ripening. The unpleasant feeling arises because of a non-virtuous karma ripening. And we can't change that, right? We can't change that. I mean, we can work with our karma, right? And create more and more positive karma and eliminate, like not create negative karma and purify our previous negative karma. Report an error in the passage at 45:34 Highlight the passage at 45:34

46:06 But we can't prevent, you know, whatever Feeling is arising. We can't prevent that from arising in the moment because that's just the karma ripening. But we can change whether or not, you know, how we react to that feeling, right? We can change our mental affliction about it. Slowly, slowly, right? Not saying it's easy, but slowly, slowly. Report an error in the passage at 46:06 Highlight the passage at 46:06

46:29 Would our feelings lessen or something? I mean, I can't imagine, you know, I feel like intense feeling like if I saw my granddaughter, for example, if she got injured. I mean, I can't imagine that, you know, Lama Zopa would go through that same kind of feeling. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, our mental afflictions also affect our feelings as well. Report an error in the passage at 46:29 Highlight the passage at 46:29

46:48 Right. If we have strong attachment, then our feelings get stronger. And like the more we go through in our mind how annoying a person is and all their annoying qualities. Right. The feeling of negativity will increase. Right. The feeling of unpleasantness. So so we can. Try to stop those stories from arising. Also with an object of attachment, someone we're attracted to, for example, we go through again and again and again and again how wonderful they are and all their qualities and that increases the attachment. Report an error in the passage at 46:48 Highlight the passage at 46:48

47:23 So we can work with those stories. So I can't imagine Lama Zopa having the same... Like intensity of feeling, you know, related to attachment and aversion. Well, I'm looking at this also in relationship to time, you know, because this moment is different than the previous moment. If I could focus on this moment rather than the previous moment, then I'd be less inclined to be attached to what I was attached to previously. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? Report an error in the passage at 47:23 Highlight the passage at 47:23

47:51 Well, I mean, yeah, let's talk about that actually in the context of the Sochantaka school because that will come up, you know, the being in the present moment versus... Because that's related to stories and things. Anyway, I don't want to get too far off of the Vaibashiko school right now, but that will definitely come up either later today or next time. Report an error in the passage at 47:51 Highlight the passage at 47:51

48:21 So the Vaibashiko school, just that school in and of itself, can be useful for helping to break down our mental afflictions. Report an error in the passage at 48:21 Highlight the passage at 48:21

48:33 So that's how they posit the two truths, the ultimate truth and the conventional truth. Then Vaibashika would say, okay, well, what do we need to realize in order to get out of cyclic existence? Report an error in the passage at 48:33 Highlight the passage at 48:33

48:50 What do we need to realize in order to cut through our mental afflictions and get out of cyclic existence? So the Vaibashika's, you know, I'm just going to go ahead and write. Report an error in the passage at 48:50 Highlight the passage at 48:50

· · · silence, 1 minute

50:18 So the Vaibashika's... And most of the schools, actually, except the Prasangika school, would talk about the selflessness of persons in terms of a coarse and a subtle. The coarse being the lack of a permanent, partless, independent self. A permanent, partless, independent self. Report an error in the passage at 50:18 Highlight the passage at 50:18

50:46 So this type of self does not exist. According to all of the Buddhist schools. And the subtle selfless, or the subtle self of persons that we need to negate is the self-sufficient, substantially existent self or person. Report an error in the passage at 50:46 Highlight the passage at 50:46

51:07 So what is the difference between these two? And these, all of the schools, except Prasanga Gase, all we have to do is realize the lack of the self-sufficient, substantially existent self to get out of cyclic existence. Report an error in the passage at 51:07 Highlight the passage at 51:07

51:22 They only talk about getting out of cyclic existence in terms of needing to realize something about the person or the self. When I say person, I don't mean just human beings. I mean animals and all beings. Beings with a consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 51:22 Highlight the passage at 51:22

51:43 This permanent, partless, independent self in general. This is a self that could exist Independently of the body and the mind. Something that's separate from the body and the mind. This is described as having this belief in a self that is different in character from the body and the mind, from the aggregates. Report an error in the passage at 51:43 Highlight the passage at 51:43

52:24 So this would be something like, well this is generally talked about as being like the Ātman according to Hinduism, right? Something that survives the body and mind, so something that will transmigrate to the next life, right? You take the body and the mind and the Ātman, the self that would transmigrate from this life to the next one. Report an error in the passage at 52:24 Highlight the passage at 52:24

52:51 Maybe it's similar to the soul. In Christianity, something that's not the body and mind, but will survive the body and mind when we let go of the body and the mind, that will go to the next life. Report an error in the passage at 52:51 Highlight the passage at 52:51

53:10 So all of the Buddhist schools would say that type of self does not exist. Report an error in the passage at 53:10 Highlight the passage at 53:10

53:20 And it's a self that we would only believe in if we were taught it. It's not something that instinctively, innately that we are born with is this belief in that kind of self that's totally independent from the body and mind, very different in character from the body and mind. Whereas the self-sufficient, substantially existent self, we believe in this instinctively, innately, from the time that we're born, and we always have. Report an error in the passage at 53:20 Highlight the passage at 53:20

54:01 This is also a self that we think is kind of in control of the body and the mind. So according to Prasangi, because the way the self actually exists is that it's something imputed independence on the body and the mind, like the self or the I. Report an error in the passage at 54:01 Highlight the passage at 54:01

54:32 Depends on the body and mind. But the self-sufficient, substantially existent self, we believe actually this I, the body and mind depends on this I. Like there's this I first that then possesses or is in control of the body and mind. Like when we say, I have a body and mind. Like we think that there's this I. Report an error in the passage at 54:32 Highlight the passage at 54:32

55:05 First, that then has a body and mind. Don't we think that? Don't we instinctively think that? Like I, you know, I have a body and mind. I have a headache. I have, you know, or my body, my, you know, my tired body or my dull mind. I have a dull mind tonight. Like there's this I on top of this body and mind. Report an error in the passage at 55:05 Highlight the passage at 55:05

55:37 That we very innately, instinctively feel exists. It's not just a body and mind that's labeled, but there's a real I, right? That's kind of separate from the body and the mind. That's kind of larger than the body and mind, right? That's more important than the body and mind. Report an error in the passage at 55:37 Highlight the passage at 55:37

56:03 Like if I'm attached to a person. I'm attached to that person, right? I'm attached to, you know, my friend Larry, right? I'm attached to my friend Larry. I'm not attached to an ever-changing body and mind, right? I'm attached to Larry, right? The person, right? The person, not some ever-changing... Atoms and moments of consciousness, right? But I think that there's a real person in there, right? Report an error in the passage at 56:03 Highlight the passage at 56:03

56:42 And that's who I'm attached to, right? Is the real person, right? And similarly, if I'm annoyed at someone, I'm annoyed at that person, right? Not at the collection of atoms and moments of consciousness, right? Not this stream of ever-changing moments of consciousness, like a river, right? I'm attached, or I have aversion or annoyance to the person, right? On top of the body and mind. Report an error in the passage at 56:42 Highlight the passage at 56:42

57:25 Does that make sense? So somehow it seems like the self-sufficient, substantial existence of self is more important, right? It's like... It's raised in importance above the body and mind. There's a body and mind and then there's this real I. And Report an error in the passage at 57:25 Highlight the passage at 57:25

57:49 we feel very instinctively that this exists. And this is generally, I mean, my theory is this is the basis of our strong mental afflictions, is this belief in this self-sufficient, substantially existent I. Report an error in the passage at 57:49 Highlight the passage at 57:49

58:10 I that's falsely accused, right? The one that's, you know, if somebody accuses me of, you know, stealing something, right? Report an error in the passage at 58:10 Highlight the passage at 58:10

58:23 I wouldn't do that, right? I didn't do that. It's not a feeling that, oh, there's an ever-changing body and mind that just got accused. Report an error in the passage at 58:23 Highlight the passage at 58:23

58:36 It's an I just got accused and I wouldn't do that. That I, when we have that kind of experience, it's a very good experience to try to see, try to catch that object of negation, that self-sufficient, substantially existent I. Report an error in the passage at 58:36 Highlight the passage at 58:36

59:01 That we know intellectually doesn't exist because the Buddha said so, right? But our actual experience is very different, right? Report an error in the passage at 59:01 Highlight the passage at 59:01

59:14 David, you had your hand up. Report an error in the passage at 59:14 Highlight the passage at 59:14

59:19 I was going to say that these, it's so deeply ingrained and part of the core of your consciousness that if you have either known anyone who's had or had like a near-death experience where you can actually be like a discorporate, you know, where your consciousness separates from your body and you literally can be observing from here and you can still have, even though completely separate from the Physical self and even sort of like the grosser functioning of personality and stuff like that and have a very distinct experience of observation. Report an error in the passage at 59:19 Highlight the passage at 59:19

1:00:02 It happens in near-death experiences, very common, or out-of-the-body experiences for everyone who leaves their body on occasion. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:02 Highlight the passage at 1:00:02

1:00:14 It's so subtle and so profound that it's almost like you'd have to... Be in a state of getting out of your body to be able to start to work on that one because you really are at that point of being separate from body so you can start to think, well, what the hell am I doing? Report an error in the passage at 1:00:14 Highlight the passage at 1:00:14

1:00:33 It's like those layers of the onion. You keep peeling it. You pull this stuff out here and you do have that sense here. It's very hard to keep peeling it back. It's deep. It's like trying to see your own eyeball. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:33 Highlight the passage at 1:00:33

1:00:48 Yeah, yeah. But, you know, but it's very possible, right? It's just a matter of doing the meditation again and again and again and again. And I find it very useful to just notice throughout the day, notice the eye that comes up. You know, because oftentimes when we're sitting in meditation, we're like, okay, now let's meditate on, you know, emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:48 Highlight the passage at 1:00:48

1:01:13 It's hard for the... You know, for you to bring up a really strong sense of I, right, when on command, right? But it's very useful, you know, if throughout the day you've noticed, you know, and then, you know, anytime a strong mental affliction arises, for sure a strong, you know, grasping at the inherent existence or the self-sufficient, you know, I is there. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:13 Highlight the passage at 1:01:13

1:01:43 So that's a very useful moment to sit down and meditate. Meditate and try to find that eye. Very useful. I find that so powerful for me. Those are the really juicy meditations for me. It's like, okay, I'm really believing in this self. Okay, now let's try to find it. It's Report an error in the passage at 1:01:43 Highlight the passage at 1:01:43

1:02:13 not there. So for you with your dog, The attachment is probably coming from this belief in the real dog there, right? Not the ever-changing mind and body of the dog, but you're attached to the dog, right? The dog inside the mind and the body? Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:13 Highlight the passage at 1:02:13

1:02:44 Right, so if this self-sufficient I or substantially existent I existed, we should be able to find it separate. From the body and the mind, right? Because we have this sense, right, that there's a real eye on top of the body and mind, right? A real eye. You know, maybe it's in the body and the mind. You know, I'm not sure where it is, but we have a strong sense of it. Sometimes it's a strong sense in the center of our chest, like when we're strongly accused. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:44 Highlight the passage at 1:02:44

1:03:18 Like, I wouldn't do that. We have a strong feeling right here. Or sometimes... I think the eyes like seems to be behind the eyeballs. It's like I'm looking down, right? I'm looking down at my feet, right? I'm, you know, it's like it's right there, right? So it kind of changes in location sometimes, right? But it definitely feels, and I notice that it arises all the time, like all the time throughout the day, and it's very interesting to just notice. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:18 Highlight the passage at 1:03:18

1:03:55 Notice it, like if you look at a picture, you know, and there's a bunch of people in there, it's like, and you're in the picture, right? It's like, there I am, right? It's like, there's just colors and shapes there, but there I am. Oh, and I know that person, right? It's like, it's like a picture in relief, right? Like the... Report an error in the passage at 1:03:55 Highlight the passage at 1:03:55

1:04:22 The people you know, you know, kind of pop out from this picture, like, and are big and important, right? And the other person, the people you don't know, you've never seen before, they're just colors and shapes, right? They're just, like, not interesting, right? But the people you know, boom, you know, oh, you know, there I am. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:22 Highlight the passage at 1:04:22

1:04:42 Oh, there's my friend, you know, Sally, and there's, you know, Birgit. And it's just so interesting that it's, like, almost... It's immediate. It's so ingrained in us, right? It's our, you know, it's our aggregate of discrimination, you know, telling things from each other and then, boom, this one's important, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:04:42 Highlight the passage at 1:04:42

1:05:07 So it's all the time. Another, I think, example of the self-sufficient I in experience is like the sense of I, oh, that's, that was me when I was five years old. That was, you know, that was me two years ago, right? Me, as if there's the same me, right? That's kind of threading through all of these years. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:07 Highlight the passage at 1:05:07

1:05:36 The body's different. The mind has changed a bazillion times, right? Between now and the time we were five. But still, somehow we think that there's an essential me, right? That's the same me. Another indication. That we're hanging on to an I that doesn't actually exist. So if we can actually realize that that doesn't exist, that would solve most of our emotional problems. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:36 Highlight the passage at 1:05:36

1:06:19 So do you kind of get a sense of what this substantially exist in an I is that I'm talking about? Hillary. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:19 Highlight the passage at 1:06:19

1:06:35 I just have one question because somewhere when you went from the first one to the second, I lost one thing. The one that you... I think called, and I've heard it sometimes referred to as sort of a controller, controlling eye. That's the second one. The first one you don't necessarily perceive that way is what they're saying. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:35 Highlight the passage at 1:06:35

1:06:55 Yeah, yeah, exactly. The first one, the first one is more like, you know, like, like the soul, you know, that, okay, well, when I die, you know, the soul will go on to the next life. It's not something that we perceive as being in control of the body and mind. The second one is what we perceive. The I, you know, the I is controlling what my mind is doing. The I is controlling what my body is doing. That's the second one, the self-sufficient. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:55 Highlight the passage at 1:06:55

1:07:39 So if this type of person, the self-sufficient substantial existent I existed, we should be able to find it, right? If something exists, The more we look for it, the clearer it should become. We should be able to find it. So I should be able to put my body over there on that chair. I should be able to put my mind over there on that chair. And there should be something left over here. If there was really an eye on top of the body and mind, I should be able to take the body, put it over there. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:39 Highlight the passage at 1:07:39

1:08:23 the mine, and put it over there. there should be an eye that's left. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:23 Highlight the passage at 1:08:23

1:08:32 like to use this example right like if my right usually if If my body is sitting on this cushion, then I can say I'm sitting on this cushion. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:32 Highlight the passage at 1:08:32

1:08:47 I can only say I'm sitting on this cushion if my body is sitting on this cushion. If my body is sitting on this cushion, I can't say, oh yeah, I'm standing over there in the bookstore. My body is on the cushion, but I'm over there in the bookstore. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:47 Highlight the passage at 1:08:47

1:09:08 I say I'm hungry because the body is hungry. But if the body is hungry, I wouldn't say, I'm really full. My body is hungry, but I'm really full. I couldn't eat anything. My body would like some food, but I couldn't eat anything. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:08 Highlight the passage at 1:09:08

1:09:30 The I is dependent on the body and mind. The I isn't something separate from the body and mind. And similarly with the mind. The mind, right? I say, okay, I'm feeling really dull tonight. My mind is, I mean, I'm really sharp. I'm feeling really sharp, but my mind's feeling kind of dull, right? It doesn't really make sense, right? Or, yeah, or I'm, you know, my mind and body are tired. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:30 Highlight the passage at 1:09:30

1:10:07 Well, my mind, I'm feeling really alert and perky, but my body, right? Not making sense, right? The I isn't separate from the body and mind. I can only say that I'm tired or say that I'm perky or say that I'm somewhere independent on where the mind and body are. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:07 Highlight the passage at 1:10:07

1:10:38 So if there was something separate, an I separate from the mind and body, you should be able to find it. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:38 Highlight the passage at 1:10:38

1:10:52 Yeah, me too. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:52 Highlight the passage at 1:10:52

1:11:04 So I was using this very, it was very useful for me this week because I had this strong mental affliction toward this person this week. And when I just, when I focused on, okay, there's a body and mind, but no person inside the body and mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:04 Highlight the passage at 1:11:04

1:11:26 I couldn't have a mental affliction toward this person, body and mind, never changing body and mind. I really saw how that mental affliction was dependent on this self -sufficient person, believing that there's a person in there, in charge or in control, a person that's separate from the body and the mind, on top of the body and mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:26 Highlight the passage at 1:11:26

1:11:56 Okay, now you're done thinking. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:56 Highlight the passage at 1:11:56

1:12:03 I was just thinking about when you were talking about the body and, you know, my body's here, but I'm over there. And there are many times when I think I've had that thought, like, yeah, I'm here, but my mind's definitely not here today. I'm somewhere else. And so I think it's easier, at least from when I think about this, it's easy to identify this I with the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:03 Highlight the passage at 1:12:03

1:12:29 What's really powerful then is realizing that the mind is just this series of moments of consciousness. So we're really putting an awful lot, you know, we're sort of dressing it up and making it into a person, into this I, when it really is just these moments of electrical activity, if you will, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:12:29 Highlight the passage at 1:12:29

1:12:55 I mean, essentially. They're just thoughts. There's just this progression. Yeah, yeah. And, yeah, I mean, when we talk about the various schools and how the various schools posit the person that exists, right? Like all of the schools, you know, posit. A self that exists and a self that doesn't exist, right? And a lot of the schools say, okay, it's the mental consciousness that's really the I, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:12:55 Highlight the passage at 1:12:55

1:13:29 Because, yeah, we're more likely to identify the mind with the I, yeah. I mean, that's more subtle. But then, yeah, it's really important to break down the mind, right? And so we can do it in terms of moments of consciousness. But then, you know, but then there are the... The meditation is also related to Mahamudra and meditating on the nature of the mind and that being just clarity and awareness, just like space and then looking for the mind within that. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:29 Highlight the passage at 1:13:29

1:14:03 And there's nothing substantial there. We're getting into Prasangika now. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:03 Highlight the passage at 1:14:03

1:14:11 With respect to Vabashika now, right, but, Report an error in the passage at 1:14:11 Highlight the passage at 1:14:11

1:14:16 So where are we with the mind? Are we going to get to that as far as what is existing with respect to this I? So the I, okay, so these are the two selves that don't exist, right? The permanent, partless, independent, and the self-sufficient, substantial, and good sense. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:16 Highlight the passage at 1:14:16

1:14:45 So what is the person that exists? Report an error in the passage at 1:14:45 Highlight the passage at 1:14:45

1:14:50 Okay, they talk about it in a couple of different ways. First of all, the person is that which is imputed on the body and the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:50 Highlight the passage at 1:14:50

1:15:04 Imputed on the body and the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:04 Highlight the passage at 1:15:04

1:15:14 They don't say the person is merely imputed on the body and mind. Now that would be Prasanghika. The person is imputed on the body and the mind. So the body and mind, the body and or mind need to appear. In order for the person to appear. So the person appears only in dependence on appearing, the body and mind appearing, body and or mind appearing. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:14 Highlight the passage at 1:15:14

1:15:41 So the person is imputed in dependence on the body and the mind, and the body and mind are the person. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:41 Highlight the passage at 1:15:41

1:15:58 The person is imputed in dependence on the body and mind, and the body and mind is the person. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:58 Highlight the passage at 1:15:58

1:16:19 So this is in contrast to, I'll jump to Prasanghika for a minute, where Prasanghikos say the person is merely imputed independence on the body and mind, and the body and mind are not the person. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:19 Highlight the passage at 1:16:19

1:16:35 But the Vaibhashikas would say, no, the person exists in independence, right? It's imputed independence on the body and mind. But the body and mind are the person. If you search for the person, you will find it. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:35 Highlight the passage at 1:16:35

1:16:49 You will find it. It will be, well, I mean, there are actually different sub-schools of Vibashica, and some would say it's the continuum of the five aggregates, the body and the mind. Some would say it's just the mental consciousness. Now I could just slip to my mind. All the different, Report an error in the passage at 1:16:49 Highlight the passage at 1:16:49

1:17:15 yeah, for sure. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:15 Highlight the passage at 1:17:15

1:17:24 Yeah, so some say it's the continuum of the five aggregates, the body and the mind. Others say that it's the mental consciousness, similar to what you were saying. And then others say the person is all five aggregates. It is the body and mind. So some would say it's the continuum, like the continuity of the body and mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:24 Highlight the passage at 1:17:24

1:17:46 Some would say... It is the body and mind, and some would say it's the mental consciousness. So all sorts of different assertions about what is the person. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:46 Highlight the passage at 1:17:46

1:18:11 Let's first start with something that we started talking about last week, which is substantially exist versus imputedly exist. Substantially exist versus imputedly exist. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:11 Highlight the passage at 1:18:11

1:18:33 So for something to substantially exist... Okay. So, so actually we'll get, Report an error in the passage at 1:18:33 Highlight the passage at 1:18:33

1:18:39 Nothing else has to appear to the mind for that phenomenon to appear. Like for Vaibachika's all of these partless particles substantially exist. Nothing else has to appear for a partless particle to appear. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:39 Highlight the passage at 1:18:39

1:19:07 Whereas for conventional truths, things that are aggregations of parts, the parts have to appear. In order for the phenomenon to appear. So the parts of this clock have to appear in order for clock to appear. Or for a person, the body and mind has to appear and or mind has to appear in order for the person to appear. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:07 Highlight the passage at 1:19:07

1:19:34 So imputed, being labeled, Report an error in the passage at 1:19:34 Highlight the passage at 1:19:34

1:19:45 the conceptual mind is labeling independence on the parts. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:45 Highlight the passage at 1:19:45

1:19:55 We'll get into this much more in Prasangikas. But then the difference between what Vaibashika is saying and what Prasangika is saying is the Vaibashika say it's imputed. Yeah, the cup is labeled on its parts. It's true. But the parts itself are the cup. The parts itself are the cup. I mean, the cup is labeled on the parts, but the parts are the cup. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:55 Highlight the passage at 1:19:55

1:20:23 Whereas Prasangikas would say, yeah, the cup is labeled on independence on the parts. And there is no cup here at all among the parts. The cup is labeled on the parts. And there is no cup amongst the parts at all. I love saying that. It reminds me of Lama Zopa. At all. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:23 Highlight the passage at 1:20:23

1:20:52 I was just reading the Diamond Cutter Sūtra over the weekend. It was so interesting, you know, because, you know, the Buddha says, you know. Well, actually, I'm not going to remember, you know, actually how he said it, but it's like, you know, is it a cup? No, it's not a cup. It's only a cup because there's no cup there at all. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:52 Highlight the passage at 1:20:52

1:21:15 It's my take on the Diamond Cutter Sūtra. It's like, there's no cup-ness, there's no cup there at all. In independence on that, we can label it a cup. So in Prasangicas... We label a cup on something that's not a cup. And vibashikas, we label a cup independence on something that is a cup, right? Because we can only label it if it is a cup, right? I mean, otherwise it's not valid to label it a cup if it's not a cup, right? And that's what we think, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:21:15 Highlight the passage at 1:21:15

1:21:52 This is what we very innately think is, I can only label this a cup because it is a cup, right? Not because it's not a cup, right? That wouldn't make sense. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:52 Highlight the passage at 1:21:52

1:22:03 So the Prasangika view is very, very subtle. Very useful to study the lower schools first. Prasangikas would say there's no cup here at all, and we label cup on top of it. It's merely labeled as a cup on something that's not a cup. It can be dangerous to jump straight to Prasangika because then you think, okay, there's nothing there at all. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:03 Highlight the passage at 1:22:03

1:22:31 You know, that's not the case at all. So in the study of tenants, it's usually said that, you know, we should kind of stop at the school that makes sense to us, right, that refutes things, that negates enough that it makes that cause and effect still make sense. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:31 Highlight the passage at 1:22:31

1:22:53 For some people, if you jump all the way to prasanghiya, we think, okay, well that means nothing exists at all, and that means I can do whatever I want, and there are no consequences, right? Then, like His Holiness the Dalai Lama would say, back up, right? You've gone too far, you've negated too much, right? So back up to one of the lower schools until you're ready, because that's a misunderstanding, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:22:53 Highlight the passage at 1:22:53

1:23:17 So we need to somehow find that balance. Negate. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:17 Highlight the passage at 1:23:17

1:23:26 Enough without negating the cause and effect, law of cause and effect. I Report an error in the passage at 1:23:26 Highlight the passage at 1:23:26

1:23:37 didn't say that very well, but anyway. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:37 Highlight the passage at 1:23:37

1:23:43 All of the various schools are refuting a certain type of existence. And as we move along to the more and more subtle schools, the more and more profound schools, we're negating a little bit more. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:43 Highlight the passage at 1:23:43

1:23:59 Prasangika is a lot, a lot of the old... Indian masters, the great scholars, the great yogis thought that the Prasangikas went too far because they couldn't understand how nothing could exist from its own side and yet things can still function, that there's still low cause and effect, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:23:59 Highlight the passage at 1:23:59

1:24:24 So then, you know, even yogis that could fly in the sky and walk through walls, you know, didn't, you know, thought that Prasangika was negating too much. So, you know, so it's very subtle. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:24 Highlight the passage at 1:24:24

1:24:49 I think the other danger besides thinking that you could do whatever you want would be falling into nihilism. If nothing really exists, then what's the point? Report an error in the passage at 1:24:49 Highlight the passage at 1:24:49

1:24:59 So I think you would have to step back before you got to that point. And it's very challenging, the Prasanghika viewpoint. I mean, I've been studying this for years. I still have problems with it. I accept it, but I still emotionally have issues with it. It's difficult. Oh, it's extremely difficult. You know, it really takes reinforcing again and again and again. Yeah, and it takes, you know, a lot of work. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:59 Highlight the passage at 1:24:59

1:25:26 You know, I mean, a lot of thinking and a lot of reflecting. And frankly, a lot of merit. It takes a lot of merit and purifying obscurations. You know, it's just like we don't tend to think in those terms, but... Report an error in the passage at 1:25:26 Highlight the passage at 1:25:26

1:25:46 You know, they talk about that in teachings and I just see that in my own life. You know, I see that with people, you know, it's like it takes merit to even be sitting here and listening to a teaching on it. It takes merit to even be interested, you know, I mean, because some people would pick up a book on emptiness and think, what's that for? Report an error in the passage at 1:25:46 Highlight the passage at 1:25:46

1:26:08 Right. And then even if we really, really want to learn this. You know, we'd love to spend all of our time thinking about this and studying it. Obstacles arise, right? Like friends of mine, like during my studies, I mean I could just see, you know, how obstacles would arise. People wouldn't have money, right? They wouldn't have enough money and they couldn't stay in the program because they didn't have the merit, they didn't have enough money. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:08 Highlight the passage at 1:26:08

1:26:39 You know, they had to leave the program. Or a family member got sick and they had to leave. Or, you know, emotional issues arise, you know, and you can't focus. Falling asleep in teachings. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:39 Highlight the passage at 1:26:39

1:26:56 Big one. I mean, that was so interesting to me. Like, at certain times, you know, you'd be in a teaching and you got plenty of sleep, right? And then suddenly you just can't keep your eyes open, right? And they're talking about emptiness. And then as soon as they switch to, you know, bodhicitta, you're awake, right? No, like, physiological reason, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:26:56 Highlight the passage at 1:26:56

1:27:25 But suddenly, I mean, I've noticed that a number of times with myself and other people, you know, it's like suddenly you're awake. You know, you've got the merit to listen to this teaching and you've got some obscuration, you know, in this teaching. So really good, right, really good to do your purification and do your accumulation, right? Really, really important, you know, even, you know, do your Vandrasantras or do your prostrations and then help others and, you know, generate more and more compassion and things. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:25 Highlight the passage at 1:27:25

1:28:04 That will create the causes, right, to be able to keep going. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:04 Highlight the passage at 1:28:04

1:28:14 Okay. And then we'll take a break. Yeah. If the Vaiboshkas say that all of the parts of the cup are what you impute the cup to be, but the parts are the cup, if you don't impute anything, if you don't impute cup to those parts, is it still a cup? I would say yeah. I mean, what we study basically are Galupa interpretations of... Report an error in the passage at 1:28:14 Highlight the passage at 1:28:14

1:28:48 What certain masters said, you know. So Vaibachkas wouldn't say, oh yeah, this is, you know. It's not a cup unless you impute cup, you know. I mean, I haven't ever heard a teaching on that. But I would speculate that they would say it's still a cup. It's still a cup. Cup is imputed, but it's still a cup, I think. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:48 Highlight the passage at 1:28:48

1:29:09 But that's my own speculation, okay. So take that with a grain of salt. Okay. Merely. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:09 Highlight the passage at 1:29:09

1:29:22 Alright, so let's take a break. There's some delicious looking smelling cookies over there. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:22 Highlight the passage at 1:29:22

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:30:02 Oh, no, it's gray. It looks good. Autocorrect. Thank you. Can you get a typo? I'm so glad you have it. How are you? Yeah. Well, for food, it's like none of those terms are direct, so you'll end up getting some of the, like, it's an English word, but you don't know what you wanted to type. Yeah, you're like, my bash kind of turns into, ... like, ... no. ... ... ... Report an error in the passage at 1:30:02 Highlight the passage at 1:30:02

1:30:35 Thank you. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:35 Highlight the passage at 1:30:35

1:30:50 Oh, hey. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:50 Highlight the passage at 1:30:50

1:30:59 There's so much stuff going in my head the first time around that it's like, what? Then I'm thinking about something and they go to Shonda the next chat. Yeah, it's amazing what you can miss in like just a couple seconds. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:59 Highlight the passage at 1:30:59

1:31:12 Nice to meet you. I'm about to take a look at my pillow. Oh, that's good. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:12 Highlight the passage at 1:31:12

1:31:08 These are profound things. very much. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:08 Highlight the passage at 1:31:08

1:31:24 poetry is doing that. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:24 Highlight the passage at 1:31:24

1:31:31 Thank you. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:31 Highlight the passage at 1:31:31

1:32:00 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:00 Highlight the passage at 1:32:00

1:32:29 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:29 Highlight the passage at 1:32:29

1:33:14 Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:14 Highlight the passage at 1:33:14

1:33:44 Thank you. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:44 Highlight the passage at 1:33:44

1:34:14 Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:14 Highlight the passage at 1:34:14

1:34:46 in order to make sure you don't get into an argument right before that. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:46 Highlight the passage at 1:34:46

1:35:01 Thank you. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:01 Highlight the passage at 1:35:01

1:35:28 Thank you. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:28 Highlight the passage at 1:35:28

1:35:58 Thank you. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:58 Highlight the passage at 1:35:58