Special Insight 4: Wisdom of Emptiness (14 February 2012)

0:02 Well, Report an error in the passage at 0:02 Highlight the passage at 0:02

0:12 I thought there weren't going to be many people here tonight. Report an error in the passage at 0:12 Highlight the passage at 0:12

0:19 Exactly. I'm touched. Report an error in the passage at 0:19 Highlight the passage at 0:19

0:29 Peter's Report an error in the passage at 0:29 Highlight the passage at 0:29

0:33 not coming. Report an error in the passage at 0:33 Highlight the passage at 0:33

0:39 I could have. Report an error in the passage at 0:39 Highlight the passage at 0:39

0:51 Today's Peter's birthday. He's not going to be here. Tomorrow is Lynn's birthday. Report an error in the passage at 0:51 Highlight the passage at 0:51

1:04 So she's supposed to, she's supposed to be here tonight. Report an error in the passage at 1:04 Highlight the passage at 1:04

1:15 Who, what? Oh, yeah. Right, right, right, right. Yeah. And your birthday, too. Happy birthday. birthday. How many years? I miss that one. Report an error in the passage at 1:15 Highlight the passage at 1:15

1:31 I think of you as so much younger than me. Report an error in the passage at 1:31 Highlight the passage at 1:31

1:49 it's Report an error in the passage at 1:49 Highlight the passage at 1:49

2:13 Actually, we're going to use that one tonight. Yeah. All right. So happy Valentine's Day. Report an error in the passage at 2:13 Highlight the passage at 2:13

2:26 Is that too bright? I'm so used to it not being on. Do we want to turn it off? Okay. The middle one. The middle one. All Report an error in the passage at 2:26 Highlight the passage at 2:26

2:43 right. So let's start by meditating on the breath, calming our mind, and Report an error in the passage at 2:43 Highlight the passage at 2:43

· · · silence, 1 minute

3:45 just letting ourselves really relax Report an error in the passage at 3:45 Highlight the passage at 3:45

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4:28 so we can set our motivation. Report an error in the passage at 4:28 Highlight the passage at 4:28

4:37 Thinking that all these samsaric pleasures, the Report an error in the passage at 4:37 Highlight the passage at 4:37

4:47 successes, the Report an error in the passage at 4:47 Highlight the passage at 4:47

4:54 entertainment, our Report an error in the passage at 4:54 Highlight the passage at 4:54

5:02 relationships, our possessions, are fleeting and Report an error in the passage at 5:02 Highlight the passage at 5:02

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5:45 can never bring us lasting happiness. Report an error in the passage at 5:45 Highlight the passage at 5:45

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6:35 The stronger we grasp, the Report an error in the passage at 6:35 Highlight the passage at 6:35

6:44 more discomfort we feel in the mind for Report an error in the passage at 6:44 Highlight the passage at 6:44

7:05 ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 7:05 Highlight the passage at 7:05

· · · silence, 1 minute

7:48 The key to lasting peace and happiness is changing our minds, Report an error in the passage at 7:48 Highlight the passage at 7:48

8:05 letting go of grasping. Report an error in the passage at 8:05 Highlight the passage at 8:05

8:13 Detachment, Report an error in the passage at 8:13 Highlight the passage at 8:13

8:19 anger and irritation, Report an error in the passage at 8:19 Highlight the passage at 8:19

8:28 letting go of pride, Report an error in the passage at 8:28 Highlight the passage at 8:28

8:36 jealousy, Report an error in the passage at 8:36 Highlight the passage at 8:36

8:48 letting go of all of these mental afflictions, Report an error in the passage at 8:48 Highlight the passage at 8:48

8:58 true, peaceful, beautiful, pure nature. Report an error in the passage at 8:58 Highlight the passage at 8:58

· · · silence, 1 minute

10:19 So all of these mental afflictions are based on a hallucinated way of existing, Report an error in the passage at 10:19 Highlight the passage at 10:19

10:32 believing things exist in a concrete, solid way. So Report an error in the passage at 10:32 Highlight the passage at 10:32

10:57 to remove the mental afflictions forever. We need to realize emptiness, realize Report an error in the passage at 10:57 Highlight the passage at 10:57

11:12 that things are merely imputed by the mind and Report an error in the passage at 11:12 Highlight the passage at 11:12

11:38 have no existence from their own side. Report an error in the passage at 11:38 Highlight the passage at 11:38

· · · silence, 1 minute

12:17 So we can develop the motivation to try to understand emptiness as best as we can, apply Report an error in the passage at 12:17 Highlight the passage at 12:17

12:30 that to our lives, Report an error in the passage at 12:30 Highlight the passage at 12:30

12:50 realize emptiness directly, Report an error in the passage at 12:50 Highlight the passage at 12:50

13:03 afflictions, all of our imperfections, Report an error in the passage at 13:03 Highlight the passage at 13:03

13:16 goodness in helping others, Report an error in the passage at 13:16 Highlight the passage at 13:16

13:35 Buddhahood, benefit of ourselves and all other beings. Report an error in the passage at 13:35 Highlight the passage at 13:35

· · · silence, 1 minute

14:20 Okay, we'll start with the Manjushri prayer in the white book on the first page. Report an error in the passage at 14:20 Highlight the passage at 14:20

14:47 Obey sense 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 loving compassion of a father for his only son, all creatures caught in the prison of saṃsāra, confused in the darkness of their ignorance, overwhelmed by their suffering. Report an error in the passage at 14:47 Highlight the passage at 14:47

15:12 You, whose dragon thunder-like proclamation of Dharma arouses us from the stupor of our delusions and frees us from the iron chains of our karma, who wields a sword of wisdom, hewing down suffering wherever its sprouts appear, clearing away the darkness of ignorance. You, whose princely body is adorned with the 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 15:12 Highlight the passage at 15:12

15:53 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 insight into Buddha's words and the texts that explain them. Report an error in the passage at 15:53 Highlight the passage at 15:53

16:06 And then on page 76 of the Gold Book, Heart Sūtra. You Report an error in the passage at 16:06 Highlight the passage at 16:06

16:19 want a real chair? Report an error in the passage at 16:19 Highlight the passage at 16:19

16:29 76? 76. Report an error in the passage at 16:29 Highlight the passage at 16:29

16:35 I prostrate to the Arya Triple Gem. Thus did I hear at one time, the Bhagavan was dwelling on Mass Vulture's mountain in 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. 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. Report an error in the passage at 16:35 Highlight the passage at 16:35

17:07 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? He said that and the Bodhisattva Mahasattva Arya Avalokiteshvara said this to the Venerable Sharivadiputra. Report an error in the passage at 17:07 Highlight the passage at 17:07

17:28 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. 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. Report an error in the passage at 17:28 Highlight the passage at 17:28

17:55 Shariputra, likewise all phenomena are emptiness, without characteristic, unproduced, unceased, stainless, not without stain, not deficient, not fulfilled. 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. Report an error in the passage at 17:55 Highlight the passage at 17:55

18:24 There is no, and so on, up to and including no mind element and no mental consciousness element. 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. Report an error in the passage at 18:24 Highlight the passage at 18:24

18:53 The mind without obscuration and without fear. 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 all suffering should be known as truth since it is not false. The mantra of the perfection of wisdom is declared. Report an error in the passage at 18:53 Highlight the passage at 18:53

19:32 Shari Putra, 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. Laird, tayata om gate gate paragate parasangate bodhishoha. Report an error in the passage at 19:32 Highlight the passage at 19:32

19:48 It is like that. Practice the profound perfection of wisdom just as you have indicated. Even the Tatatagas rejoice. The Bhagavan having thus spoken, the venerable Sharivadiputra, the Bodhisattva Mahasattva Arya Avalukiteshvara, 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 19:48 Highlight the passage at 19:48

20:12 And then in page 98, this is Refuge and Bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 20:12 Highlight the passage at 20:12

20:23 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. 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 20:23 Highlight the passage at 20:23

20:46 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 20:46 Highlight the passage at 20:46

21:05 So I wanted to start by reading something from Lama Zopa Rinpoche's book again. So he says, in our life, there are two things, truth and falsity. In relation to every object, this is the case. Fundamental to our suffering is our inability to distinguish between the two. Report an error in the passage at 21:05 Highlight the passage at 21:05

21:30 All the false views are believed to be reality, truth. On this basis, we then exaggerate the object. Whether a human or a flower, in accordance with the social belief or interpretation of the culture in which we live, we interpret it as good or bad, ugly or beautiful. We think this one has big, muscly arms, big pieces around the body. Report an error in the passage at 21:30 Highlight the passage at 21:30

22:02 Not on the face or the nose, we leave those alone, nor on the ear, but big muscles elsewhere are beautiful, or slim and beautiful. On the nose and ears and the hair we put all these interpretations, these labels, these exaggerations. Report an error in the passage at 22:02 Highlight the passage at 22:02

22:26 Following from that, attachment arises. First one puts what is just an interpretation or label. This is bad or ugly. Then anger or hatred arise like that. So again it is very clear that in terms of one's life, everything comes from one's own mind. Totally it comes from one's own mind. In reality there is no such thing there. For example, no such object of anger exists. Report an error in the passage at 22:26 Highlight the passage at 22:26

23:02 This is because we must first put the view of anger or the view of attachment. But even before that we must apply the discriminating label to this and that, which in its turn causes anger or attachment to arise. All this is done on the basis of erroneously believing in the false view as the reality or truth. One believes without question in the phenomena appearing to you as truly existent, not merely labeled by the mind. Report an error in the passage at 23:02 Highlight the passage at 23:02

23:36 One believes in it as existing from its own side. Whereas in reality, they exist in mere name. They exist as merely imputed by the mind. Report an error in the passage at 23:36 Highlight the passage at 23:36

24:01 So all of our mental afflictions are based on conceptual labeling. First something appears, then we label it as good or bad or beautiful, ugly, annoying, whatever. And then our mental affliction comes from the thought. Right? Our thought. Report an error in the passage at 24:01 Highlight the passage at 24:01

24:26 We think it comes from the object, but it comes from our expectations, our beliefs and right and wrong. It comes from our mind. It's hard to remember that though, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 24:26 Highlight the passage at 24:26

24:45 You're not Report an error in the passage at 24:45 Highlight the passage at 24:45

24:55 cute from your own side. But we don't really believe that, do we? Report an error in the passage at 24:55 Highlight the passage at 24:55

25:24 Yeah. So, I mean, one of our things, I don't know if I mentioned this last time, but, you know, one of our things is sometimes we think in the moment we can get rid of our mental affliction by just talking ourselves out of it, right? Like, you're empty, you're empty, you're empty, you're empty, you're not cute from your own side. But, right, I know you're just labeled cute by me, right? Report an error in the passage at 25:24 Highlight the passage at 25:24

25:49 We talk ourselves into that, right? But we don't really believe it. Most of the time we don't really believe it, right? We're just trying to, you know, we're just trying. So I think that's where meditation, like the meditation, you know, having done the meditation enough of trying to find cute from its own side or trying to find inherent existence from its own side, right, or existence from its own side, enough until we become completely convinced that there's nothing from the side of the object. Report an error in the passage at 25:49 Highlight the passage at 25:49

26:25 Right? That makes it cute. Right? Or that makes it annoying. Utterly convinced. Right? And then we stabilize on that. And then we can bring that into the situation. Right? And then when the situation arises, then we can counteract that mental affliction because we've done enough meditation on it. Right? Report an error in the passage at 26:25 Highlight the passage at 26:25

26:50 We've eliminated all of the resistance in our mind. Right? All of the doubt in our mind. So slowly, slowly, that's the process. Report an error in the passage at 26:50 Highlight the passage at 26:50

27:09 Lama Tsongkhapa has been talking about, with regard to special insight, first we need to get the correct view, because we won't be able to develop special insight without first getting the correct view. Then we meditate on that, we develop calm abiding on emptiness, while we develop calm abiding on some object. Report an error in the passage at 27:09 Highlight the passage at 27:09

27:31 And then if it's not emptiness, then we need to switch to emptiness. So we need to develop calm abiding on emptiness. And then we analyze with special insight. Well, we analyze with analytical meditation and then we develop special insight. So we talked last time about the need to alternate analytical and stabilizing meditation. Report an error in the passage at 27:31 Highlight the passage at 27:31

27:59 Because just one is not enough. If we just analyze, Without having the calm abiding, then the mind is not stable enough. And then if we just do calm abiding, then the wisdom doesn't arise. And there's a lack of clarity as well with just the calm abiding. So remember, we talked about how we start with calm abiding on emptiness, then we analyze, and we also use introspection to notice. Report an error in the passage at 27:59 Highlight the passage at 27:59

28:36 If laxity and excitement have arisen. And if laxity arises, laxity... So laxity has, in general, two different levels. The gross laxity where the mind is unclear. Report an error in the passage at 28:36 Highlight the passage at 28:36

28:59 It's not really about the object, but the mind is unclear. It's not totally sharp and vivid. And the subtle laxity is, okay, the mind is clear, but it's not sharp. Not intensely clear. So we notice if laxity has arisen or excitement. Excitement on a gross level is losing your object altogether due to an object of attachment. The subtle level of excitement is where your mind is partly on the object but partly thinking about something else. Report an error in the passage at 28:59 Highlight the passage at 28:59

29:39 Partly thinking about dinner. Right? So... So the analogy is like water moving under ice. So part of your mind is stable, but part of it is still moving. So laxity and excitement. So you use introspection to check if laxity or excitement has arisen. And in analytical meditation, the antidote to excitement is stabilizing meditation. Report an error in the passage at 29:39 Highlight the passage at 29:39

30:10 So if your mind is moving, going off. Getting distracted. Then you focus more on your stabilizing meditation. Report an error in the passage at 30:10 Highlight the passage at 30:10

30:25 When the mind is getting lax, unclear, then you do analytical meditation to increase the clarity. So analytical meditation to counteract laxity, stabilizing meditation to counteract excitement. So we need that strong introspection to notice. Report an error in the passage at 30:25 Highlight the passage at 30:25

30:52 Keep alternating. Stabilizing and analytical meditation. And you kind of do 50-50, right? You're equalizing those two. Report an error in the passage at 30:52 Highlight the passage at 30:52

31:04 So we can do that now as well, right? We don't have to wait until we have calm abiding. So Lama Report an error in the passage at 31:04 Highlight the passage at 31:04

31:19 Tsongkhapa says, so therefore you should mount the horse of calm abiding, developing that stable mind and then sustain analysis and then occasionally alternate it with stabilizing meditation. Report an error in the passage at 31:19 Highlight the passage at 31:19

31:39 So that's what we covered last time. Report an error in the passage at 31:39 Highlight the passage at 31:39

31:59 So practically, practically I think. Report an error in the passage at 31:59 Highlight the passage at 31:59

32:06 So let's Report an error in the passage at 32:06 Highlight the passage at 32:06

32:23 say we have a meditation session, let's say 20 minutes or something like that. I think it's good to start with doing some stabilizing meditation, right? So stabilizing your mind on the breath or whatever, the image of a Buddha, right? Report an error in the passage at 32:23 Highlight the passage at 32:23

32:39 And then move to analyzing emptiness. So, you know, identifying the object of reputation, then searching for it, and then coming with that conclusion, right, of it's not findable, right? So that absence of that object of reputation, that absence of the concrete eye. Report an error in the passage at 32:39 Highlight the passage at 32:39

33:02 Then we stabilize on that. And then at the same time, right, part of your mind, just part of your mind is noticing the quality of that experience, right? And then, you know, and then practically for me, I notice when my mind is starting to get distracted, right? When the power of that has diminished or it's turned into space, right? Report an error in the passage at 33:02 Highlight the passage at 33:02

33:30 And then it's good to analyze again. So when you notice the power of it diminishing, then you can start analyzing again and then stabilize again. Yeah, yeah. That's my understanding. I'm just going back and forth. Report an error in the passage at 33:30 Highlight the passage at 33:30

33:53 I think for most, well, anyway. It takes a while, right, to get that strength of the stabilizing meditation. So I think in the beginning we're doing more analytical meditation, right? We analyze, get it more clear, and then we stabilize for the... 30 seconds or whatever we can hold on to it and then we start analyzing So I think we need to focus a lot on the stabilizing meditation. Report an error in the passage at 33:53 Highlight the passage at 33:53

34:27 Anyway, that's just my thought. All right. Okay. So if you have your text, go Report an error in the passage at 34:27 Highlight the passage at 34:27

34:45 to the page 319. Report an error in the passage at 34:45 Highlight the passage at 34:45

34:51 In the middle of the page, the measure for having accomplished special insight through cultivation. Report an error in the passage at 34:51 Highlight the passage at 34:51

35:01 I skipped over most of this section, the last few pages, where Lama Tsongkhapa is once again refuting this Chinese master, Ha Xiong, who says that you can realize emptiness just by stopping your conceptual thought. Lama Tsongkhapa says, no, you know how, all that's going to do is temporarily stop your thoughts. It doesn't under... Report an error in the passage at 35:01 Highlight the passage at 35:01

35:23 cut your belief in true existence, In order to undercut your belief in true existence, you need to realize the emptiness, the lack of the object of reputation. We've talked about that quite a number of times. We can move on to the measure of having accomplished special insight. Report an error in the passage at 35:23 Highlight the passage at 35:23

35:47 We have calm abiding, and then we analyze based on calm abiding. And then we go through the nine mental abidings, right? Again, right? So at the beginning, you're not able to stay on your object more than a few seconds and then gradually you get more and more stable. So Lama Tsongkhapa says, as long as you investigate with the wisdom of individual investigation and the pliancy explained above does not arise in your meditation. Report an error in the passage at 35:47 Highlight the passage at 35:47

36:19 It's a similitude of special insight. Report an error in the passage at 36:19 Highlight the passage at 36:19

36:25 As we progress through the nine mental abidings, our special insight is going to get strong. Well, it's not really special insight. The analytical meditation will get more and more sharp and focused without distraction, without laxity and excitement. By the time you reach the ninth mental abiding, there's no more effort. Report an error in the passage at 36:25 Highlight the passage at 36:25

36:53 The eighth mental abiding, there's no more laxity and excitement, but there's still effort. And then the ninth, no more effort. But you still haven't attained special insight until pliancy arises. The physical and mental pliancy and the bliss of physical and mental pliancy. Report an error in the passage at 36:53 Highlight the passage at 36:53

37:18 So, to remind you about pliancy. Report an error in the passage at 37:18 Highlight the passage at 37:18

37:39 So from Alan Wallace's book, Attention Revolution, this is from the Shimata section, but the pliancy is similar, it's just, it's induced, for calm abiding, it's induced by the stabilizing meditation, right? The pliancy and the bliss is induced by stabilizing meditation. In the case of special insight, it's induced by the analytical meditation. Report an error in the passage at 37:39 Highlight the passage at 37:39

38:16 So the first sign of achievement of shamatha is the experience of a sense of heaviness and numbness on the top of your head. Report an error in the passage at 38:16 Highlight the passage at 38:16

38:27 It is said to feel as if a palm is placed on the top of your shaved head. It's not unpleasant or harmful, just unusual. This physical sensation on the top of the head is symptomatic of a shift in your nervous system. That is correlated with gaining freedom from mental dysfunction, a general state of mental imbalance characterized by stiffness, rigidity and unwieldiness. Report an error in the passage at 38:27 Highlight the passage at 38:27

38:55 Consequently, you achieve a state of mental pliancy in which your mind is fit and supple like never before. So first, mental pliancy arises, which removes all of the dysfunction or unserviceability of your, that resistance to practicing. Resistance to practicing virtue. So from a contemplative perspective, when the mind is dysfunctional or prone to laxity and excitation, it is hard to generate enthusiasm for healing the afflictions of your mind or for devoting yourself to virtuous mental activity. Report an error in the passage at 38:55 Highlight the passage at 38:55

39:35 Once you are free of such mental dysfunction, you can focus your mind without resistance on any meaningful object or task. And such a mind is now said to be fit or serviceable. This is the key to achieving optimal mental performance. Report an error in the passage at 39:35 Highlight the passage at 39:35

39:54 Then following this sense of pressure on the top of your head, you experience the movement of vital energies moving in your body. And when they have coursed everywhere throughout your body, you feel as if you are filled with the power of this dynamic energy. You are now freed of physical dysfunction, so you develop physical pliancy. Report an error in the passage at 39:54 Highlight the passage at 39:54

40:15 So your body feels buoyant and light like never before. So both your body and mind are now imbued with an exceptional degree of pliancy which makes them remarkably fit for engaging in all kinds of mental training and other meaningful activities. Then when physical pliancy initially arises, the vital energies catalyze an extraordinary sense of physical bliss which then triggers an equally exceptional experience of mental bliss. Report an error in the passage at 40:15 Highlight the passage at 40:15

40:45 This rush of physical and mental rapture is transient, which is a good thing for it so captivates the attention that you can do little else except enjoy it. Report an error in the passage at 40:45 Highlight the passage at 40:45

40:57 So gradually it subsides and you're free from the turbulence caused by this intense joy. Report an error in the passage at 40:57 Highlight the passage at 40:57

41:07 So when we attain shamatha, the mental pliancy arises again and then the physical pliancy arises. And then the bliss of physical pliancy and then the bliss of mental pliancy. So Lama Tsongkhapa says, yet since the calm abiding that has already been attained is present without deteriorating, also inducing pliancy. Report an error in the passage at 41:07 Highlight the passage at 41:07

41:39 This is not the mere presence of pliancy. Well then, what is it? When the power of analytical meditation itself is able to induce pliancy, there is special insight. Report an error in the passage at 41:39 Highlight the passage at 41:39

41:53 So it's not just the pliancy. That arose from calm abiding that's arising now. It's the pliancy, it's new pliancy that's induced by analytical meditation from the special insight. Report an error in the passage at 41:53 Highlight the passage at 41:53

42:09 And so that's true for whatever object of special insight you're developing. It doesn't have to be emptiness. It could be also coarseness and peace of the upper realm and lower realms. It could be the Four Noble Truths. It could be anything. Report an error in the passage at 42:09 Highlight the passage at 42:09

42:27 So Lama Tsongkhapa. Quotes the sūtra unraveling the thought, which supports that, as well as the instructions on the perfection of wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 42:27 Highlight the passage at 42:27

42:50 So then Lama Tsongkhapa says, when it is able to induce pliancy by its own power, when special insight is able to induce pliancy through the power of analysis, it is also able to induce single-pointedness of mind. Report an error in the passage at 42:50 Highlight the passage at 42:50

43:10 So we have calm abiding. And then we analyze, right, and the analysis disturbs the stability of the mind, right, initially. But then gradually the analysis is able to induce an even greater calm and greater single poignessness of mind. Report an error in the passage at 43:10 Highlight the passage at 43:10

43:35 Therefore this inducement of calm abiding by the power of individually investigating analytical meditation is a positive quality of having accomplished calm abiding before. Report an error in the passage at 43:35 Highlight the passage at 43:35

43:46 So because we attained calm abiding before, we can develop a deeper calm abiding through analysis. If we didn't attain calm abiding before, and we analyze too much, Lama Tsongkhapa says, then you won't be able to even attain calm abiding. Report an error in the passage at 43:46 Highlight the passage at 43:46

44:07 If we do an analytical meditation, too much analytical meditation, we can't even attain calm abiding. So we have to attain calm abiding first. And then on that basis then analyze and that will deepen our calm abiding. Report an error in the passage at 44:07 Highlight the passage at 44:07

44:28 Or so they say. Report an error in the passage at 44:28 Highlight the passage at 44:28

44:32 Not speaking from experience. So through the analytical meditation practice of someone well accomplished in calm abiding, more excellent calm abiding is thus going to come about. That is why you should not hold that if you practice the analytical meditation of individual investigation, the stability factor of your meditation will lessen. Report an error in the passage at 44:32 Highlight the passage at 44:32

45:00 So then the next page, explanation of how calm abiding and special insight unite. So this first part, Lama Tsongkhapa is saying, well, you can only have the union of calm abiding and special insight if you've developed calm abiding and you've developed special insight. Report an error in the passage at 45:00 Highlight the passage at 45:00

45:25 They both have to be achieved in order to attain the union. Report an error in the passage at 45:25 Highlight the passage at 45:25

45:36 Right, according to, remember this is according to the Hinayana vehicle, the perfection vehicle in the three lower classes of tantra. Report an error in the passage at 45:36 Highlight the passage at 45:36

45:50 It's a little bit different from Raya Shoga tantra. Report an error in the passage at 45:50 Highlight the passage at 45:50

45:57 So here, Hopkins' translation of this first part is, if calm abiding and special insight are not attained as they were described above, at the point of discussing the measure of their establishment, there will be nothing to be unified. Therefore, those two must definitely be attained in order for them to be unified. So then, what is the point in which we have the union of calm abiding and special insight? Report an error in the passage at 45:57 Highlight the passage at 45:57

46:26 Do we attain calm abiding first and then special insight and then the union of calm abiding and special insight? No. Lama Tsongkhapa is saying from the point where special insight is first achieved, the union is also achieved. Report an error in the passage at 46:26 Highlight the passage at 46:26

46:44 So special insight and the union of special insight are attained at the same time. Report an error in the passage at 46:44 Highlight the passage at 46:44

47:00 We can't get it without calm abiding. Also, the union of calm abiding and special insight, well, we'll talk about this, but, you know, they're in equal measure, right, calm abiding and special insight, and they're reinforcing each other. So one might think you could develop special insight and then you balance calm abiding and special insight, but it's not like that. Report an error in the passage at 47:00 Highlight the passage at 47:00

47:22 That balance is already there when you're attaining special insight, right? Because you're doing the stabilizing and the analytical meditation already in balance. Report an error in the passage at 47:22 Highlight the passage at 47:22

47:32 So Lama Tsongkhapa says, when mental attention is achieved by the power of analytical meditation in dependence on the above calm abiding, that attention operating by itself without actual effort, as explained before, in the context of calm abiding, becomes the union. Report an error in the passage at 47:32 Highlight the passage at 47:32

47:54 So then Lama Tsongkhapa quotes this text by a Saṅgha called the Grounds of Heres or the Shravaka Levels. So he says, concerning this, at what point are calm abiding and special insight mixed and equalized? Calm abiding and special insight are mixed and equalized in the union of calm abiding and special insight. Report an error in the passage at 47:54 Highlight the passage at 47:54

48:23 And why is it called the path of unification? The answer, it is by way of the nine mental abidings. So it is thus, independence upon having thoroughly established the meditative stabilization of calm abiding induced by having attained the ninth mental abiding called equipoise. So we start with the ninth mental abiding. We're alternating analytical and stabilizing meditation. We've attained the ninth mental abiding. Report an error in the passage at 48:23 Highlight the passage at 48:23

48:53 Then one repeatedly performs. Analytical meditation by way of making intense effort at higher wisdom differentiating phenomena. At that time, the path of the differentiation of phenomena comes to continuously operate naturally and without exertion. Report an error in the passage at 48:53 Highlight the passage at 48:53

49:16 And similar to when the path of calm abiding that was attained, there is no activity of exertion or effort. Due to this special... Insight is conjoined with thorough purity from laxity and excitement, thorough refinement without any discomfort or unserviceability, subsequent to calm abiding, that is to say one-pointed stability like calm abiding, and blissful experience due to having generated pliancy induced by the power of analysis. Report an error in the passage at 49:16 Highlight the passage at 49:16

49:51 Thereby the two, calm abiding and special insight, become mixed and operate equally. And this is called the path of unification of calm abiding and special insight. So at this point, right, no effort, no laxity and excitement, no unserviceability. Report an error in the passage at 49:51 Highlight the passage at 49:51

50:15 We have one point in stability and bliss. Report an error in the passage at 50:15 Highlight the passage at 50:15

50:27 So he also quotes Kamala Shila, who says, you should know that when your mind is set in equipoise due to being devoid of laxity and excitement, And is naturally operating whereby a very clear mind arises with respect to emptiness and you abide in equanimity through loosening exertion or effort. Report an error in the passage at 50:27 Highlight the passage at 50:27

50:52 The path of the union of calm abiding and special insight has at that time been attained and established. Right, so we make strong effort and then we need to let go of the effort. Report an error in the passage at 50:52 Highlight the passage at 50:52

51:06 We get calm abiding and special insight, or the union of calm abiding and special insight. Report an error in the passage at 51:06 Highlight the passage at 51:06

51:30 So here the union, It says, calm abiding and special insight are the pair. Joining means possession. That is operating within mutual bonding. That is to say, depending on and influenced by each other, such that calm abiding operates like special insight, and special insight operates like calm abiding. Report an error in the passage at 51:30 Highlight the passage at 51:30

51:54 Interesting. Report an error in the passage at 51:54 Highlight the passage at 51:54

51:58 So then, are you okay so far? Report an error in the passage at 51:58 Highlight the passage at 51:58

52:09 Yeah. Yeah, this is... Maybe outside of the realm of our experience right now. All right. Then Lama Tsongkhapa quotes the instruction on the perfection of wisdom. It says, after that, after Report an error in the passage at 52:09 Highlight the passage at 52:09

52:39 doing the analysis within calm abiding, when observing just the image that is being analyzed, Then calm abiding is induced through the continuum of mental engagement of unsevered continuous attention to the object, an uninterrupted force of analytical meditation. Report an error in the passage at 52:39 Highlight the passage at 52:39

53:02 Then both calm abiding and special insight are experienced in equal strength in that very mind. And this is called a path of a union of calm abiding and special insight. Report an error in the passage at 53:02 Highlight the passage at 53:02

53:16 So here... Uninterrupted means that the power of analytical meditation itself at the point of attaining special insight induces the non-conceptuality of calm abiding without needing to set aside the run of that analytical meditation itself and to stabilize in non-conceptuality. Because we're alternating, right? And then this analysis induces Report an error in the passage at 53:16 Highlight the passage at 53:16

53:48 This non-conceptuality of calm abiding, we don't have to stop the analysis and go back to stabilizing meditation. Report an error in the passage at 53:48 Highlight the passage at 53:48

53:59 Both are experienced, means that both calm abiding observing the unanalyzed image and special insight observing the image along with analysis are experienced. Report an error in the passage at 53:59 Highlight the passage at 53:59

54:15 So with calm abiding we're not analyzing, we're not thinking, we have no discursive thought. So that along with the special insight with analysis are both experienced. Report an error in the passage at 54:15 Highlight the passage at 54:15

54:33 Then this other next sentence is interesting. And through the continuum is in reference to the fact that analytical special insight and the calm abiding that is a stabilizing at the end of analysis do not arise simultaneously. The analytical and then the calm abide, right? The analytical induces the... Report an error in the passage at 54:33 Highlight the passage at 54:33

54:56 Stabilizing the calm abiding. They don't arise simultaneously, but at the time of calm abiding, that is the actual one induced through the power of analysis, special insights and calm abiding operate in mutual association. At such a time, calm abiding and special insight are mixed. They operate equally. Report an error in the passage at 54:56 Highlight the passage at 54:56

55:30 So then, Report an error in the passage at 55:30 Highlight the passage at 55:30

55:36 interestingly, so sometimes... Calm Abiding and Special Insight are talked about in terms of this analogy like a little fish moving through water that remains unmoving. So the little fish moving through water without disturbing the stillness of the water. So Lama Tsongkhapa is saying that a combination of the two allowing one to individually investigate the meaning of selflessness From within a non-conceptual state of firm stability, like a little fish moving through water that remains unmoving, may be posited as something concordant with calm abiding and special insight. Report an error in the passage at 55:36 Highlight the passage at 55:36

56:23 But that's not the actual union of calm abiding and special insight. So the actual union of calm abiding and special insight isn't like that little fish moving through the water without disturbing the water. The analysis is actually inducing. Further stability. Report an error in the passage at 56:23 Highlight the passage at 56:23

56:45 Does that make sense? Report an error in the passage at 56:45 Highlight the passage at 56:45

56:50 It is. It's really hard to imagine, right? So it's not just, hmm. Well, anyway, my interpretation of this is that it's not just that the analysis is not disturbing the calm abiding. It's inducing a further, deeper calm abiding. That's my take on what this is saying. Does that make sense? Or has anybody heard something different? Report an error in the passage at 56:50 Highlight the passage at 56:50

57:28 So, Lama Tsongkhapa says, this, right, you should understand this manner in which calm abiding and special insight unite in accordance with what appears in these authentic texts, rather than trusting explanations that fabricate it in some way or another. Report an error in the passage at 57:28 Highlight the passage at 57:28

57:47 So then he says, if we want more information, Report an error in the passage at 57:47 Highlight the passage at 57:47

57:55 ta-da, in his great treatise, you can look in his great treatise, Islamra Machenma. Report an error in the passage at 57:55 Highlight the passage at 57:55

58:03 Okay. Any questions on that? Report an error in the passage at 58:03 Highlight the passage at 58:03

58:09 Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure it's out of pride, too. Report an error in the passage at 58:09 Highlight the passage at 58:09

58:19 So are we, any questions on special insight or union of common binding special insight? That is the end of the section on special insight. Report an error in the passage at 58:19 Highlight the passage at 58:19

58:34 Speak now. Okay. Joe and then Lynn. Report an error in the passage at 58:34 Highlight the passage at 58:34

58:46 In the great treatise, I have three volumes because the last two weren't published. I thought the last two were on concentration and wisdom or something. That's Geshe Soppa's commentary on the great treatise. Oh, okay. Right, that's five volumes. And then this one is just the root text without any commentary. There's the great treatise on the stages of the path to enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 58:46 Highlight the passage at 58:46

59:13 So this is Tsongkhapa's text alone. Oh, that's just one book. It's three volumes. Three volumes. And Geshe Sopa has a five volume series called Steps on the Path to Enlightenment where he gave explanation of this in like 20 something years. And the last two volumes are not out yet. I think I have all three of those, but I thought that there were going to be two more. Report an error in the passage at 59:13 Highlight the passage at 59:13

59:41 Oh, okay. So I misunderstood which ones were not complete. I think I do have that. So the third volume, yeah, the third volume is, yeah, exactly. And this is great. So the special insight, the great treatise, or the middle length lamrim that we've been studying is, for the most part, just the main points within the great treatise or what he saw as the main points, except the special insight section is very different. Report an error in the passage at 59:41 Highlight the passage at 59:41

1:00:12 And what I understand from it is... In the great treatise, Lama Tsongkhapa went into a lot more arguments, logical debates and refuting the incorrect positions at that time. Whereas in the middle length long room, it was much more focused on practice. How do you realize... I'm not sure what you refer to. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:12 Highlight the passage at 1:00:12

1:00:38 Mostly on practice is the middle length long room that we've been studying. Without all the extensive debates on refuting Svatantrika and all that Baba Viveka kind of things. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:38 Highlight the passage at 1:00:38

1:00:56 Yeah, so there's this extensive section on the two truths that we studied that's not in the Great Treatise. This four-point analysis and all that. I'm not sure if that's in the Great Treatise. I haven't. So anyway, but this last bit about calm abiding and special insight and how they unite is also in here. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:56 Highlight the passage at 1:00:56

1:01:25 Well, I was wondering if when you're at that advanced level, can you imagine if there's some Report an error in the passage at 1:01:25 Highlight the passage at 1:01:25

1:01:38 excitement or observation about the toggle effect going on or when it has become unique? I wonder what's really going on. I mean, if there's anything like, ooh, ooh. I just got, you know, it just happened. Or I'm feeling that thing on the top of my head and this is a good thing. Do you think any of that kind of little self-commentary or observation goes on? You want me to speculate? Report an error in the passage at 1:01:38 Highlight the passage at 1:01:38

1:02:08 Yeah. I Report an error in the passage at 1:02:08 Highlight the passage at 1:02:08

1:02:15 would think not because that would be a distraction. Right? So at that point you have no distraction because that's just a thought, a distracted thought. So I think you're just focused on it. And then you have the thought. I and then you lose it right I'm hungry or look at I got it I just achieved special insight, right? I don't think that would happen until after you arise from the meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:15 Highlight the passage at 1:02:15

1:03:03 Interesting. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:03 Highlight the passage at 1:03:03

1:03:09 Because with calm abiding itself, it said you... No, well, seriously, I mean, you're in a human body Report an error in the passage at 1:03:09 Highlight the passage at 1:03:09

1:03:15 Right. You determine, you know, once you've attained common abiding, you determine ahead of time how long you want to sit. And then you sit and then you'll automatically finish at that time because you can stay maybe indefinitely. Know that it's the same with common abiding, union of common abiding and special insight. Realizing empty. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:15 Highlight the passage at 1:03:15

1:03:50 This is going to be kind of a tough question in the sense of like it's kind of a little, it's kind of an amateur question. But, you know. These Lamas that we see, very high Lamas, have they achieved this? Clearly I would think that they could still function in the worldly world and have this stabilization of special insight, special insight, calm abiding. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:50 Highlight the passage at 1:03:50

1:04:22 What are your thoughts about that? Report an error in the passage at 1:04:22 Highlight the passage at 1:04:22

1:04:29 I don't know. I can read you something from Alan Walsh's book. Just once you've attained calm abiding, that I think is very, that you don't hear very often. So he was saying the most, Ellen Wallace, the most important effect of shamatha, right, calm abiding, that lingers on between meditation sessions is a temporary relative freedom from afflictive thoughts and emotions. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:29 Highlight the passage at 1:04:29

1:04:59 It's not that they don't arise at all anymore, but they occur less frequently. With less intensity and for shorter periods. So in particular, you're mostly free from these five hindrances, which I don't remember what they are. As long as you don't lose your attentional balance. So once you've attained calm abiding, that calm abiding can degenerate if you don't keep at it and if you start grasping a lot at things again. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:59 Highlight the passage at 1:04:59

1:05:36 But if you keep... You're calm abiding. You know, your mental afflictions, it seems, are very light. And then, between meditation sessions, you retain an exceptional degree of both kinds of cliancy and fitness, which causes you to be naturally inclined to acting virtuously. Shamata adepts report that due to bodily fitness, you have no feelings of physical heaviness or discomfort. Your spine becomes straight like a golden pillar. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:36 Highlight the passage at 1:05:36

1:06:09 And your body feels blissful, as if it were bathed with warm milk. Due to mental fitness, you are now fully in control of the mind, virtually free of sadness and grief, and continuously experiencing a state of well-being. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:09 Highlight the passage at 1:06:09

1:06:28 So that's just calm abiding, right? With calm abiding and special insight, I would assume it would be greater than that, right? Fewer mental afflictions, but I would be speculating. So as long as you keep that, right, because calm abiding itself, right, that can degenerate. The union of calm abiding and special insight, then you've developed wisdom, right? The calm abiding aspect is just the stabilizing part. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:28 Highlight the passage at 1:06:28

1:07:02 It's just concentration. No wisdom there, right? No deep understanding of reality necessary. So that is just a temporary state. But then with special insight, then the wisdom cutting through, starting to cut the root of your mental affliction. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:02 Highlight the passage at 1:07:02

1:07:28 Well, actually that doesn't happen until it's direct realization. But you're stopping your belief in that object of your mental affliction. The belief in that concrete I and the belief in that concrete person that's annoying. They were attached to and the belief in the right and wrong from its own side. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:28 Highlight the passage at 1:07:28

1:07:56 So there are certain Lamas that seem to have attained that and it's hard to imagine them having a mental affliction. It's hard to imagine someone like Chodan Rinpoche or Lama Zopa Rinpoche or Geshe Dagpa being sad. Geshe Dagpa is so sad. Like a mountain, you can't even imagine him having the kinds of emotions that we have. It's not like he has a bad day where he feels depressed or stressed. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:56 Highlight the passage at 1:07:56

1:08:30 At least it hasn't manifested in my experience. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:30 Highlight the passage at 1:08:30

1:08:44 Alright, let's take a break. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:44 Highlight the passage at 1:08:44

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:09:21 I've done it for a long time. When I first started it was really bad. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:21 Highlight the passage at 1:09:21

1:09:31 I want to read something from the great treatise. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:31 Highlight the passage at 1:09:31

1:09:46 So describing from Geshe Gonbawa, how to generate the understanding of emptiness. He says, okay, first you meditate on the selflessness of person. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:46 Highlight the passage at 1:09:46

1:10:01 You then meditate on the meaning of the selflessness of objects, bringing mindfulness and vigilance or introspection to bear. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:01 Highlight the passage at 1:10:01

1:10:12 In a long session, failure to use mindfulness will cause you to fluctuate between laxity and excitement, and thus there will be little benefit. Therefore, doing four sessions in each of the four periods, morning, evening, dusk and dawn, you meditate in 16 sessions per day. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:12 Highlight the passage at 1:10:12

1:10:38 When you think that the object is becoming clear or that you have... You are having some experience you should stop. When you meditate in this way and then supposing that you have not been meditating long, check the time and see that the night or day have been foreshortened. This means that the mind has linked to its object. If you check the time supposing that you have been meditating for a long time and see that no time has passed, this means that your mind is not linked to its object. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:38 Highlight the passage at 1:10:38

1:11:12 happened to me. Sorry. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:12 Highlight the passage at 1:11:12

1:11:17 When the mind is linked to its object, afflictions diminish in your mind, and you wonder whether you will ever need to sleep again. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:17 Highlight the passage at 1:11:17

1:11:33 So when you are successful in each session of the day and night, your concentration will develop four characteristics. First, non-discursiveness. When you are in equipoise, you will not feel the movement of inhalation and exhalation, and your breath and thought will become very subtle. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:33 Highlight the passage at 1:11:33

1:11:58 Brightness. It will be just like the brightness of the sky at noontime in autumn. Third, limpidity. It will be like the clarity you see when you pour water into a clear metal cup and put it in the sun. Fourth, and lastly, subtlety. Watching from within the condition that has the former three characteristics, you see what happens to a fraction of a split hair tip. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:58 Highlight the passage at 1:11:58

1:12:35 This approximates the creation of non-conceptual wisdom. So those four characteristics are the non-discursiveness, the lack of the discursive thought, brightness, Report an error in the passage at 1:12:35 Highlight the passage at 1:12:35

1:12:52 limpidity, the clarity of the mind, and subtlety, seeing what happens to a fraction of a split hair tip. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:52 Highlight the passage at 1:12:52

1:13:08 And that's still conceptual. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:08 Highlight the passage at 1:13:08

1:13:15 But that's volume 3, page 356 and 357. Uniting Insight and Serenity, chapter 26. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:15 Highlight the passage at 1:13:15

1:13:30 All right. So remembering the union of calm, abiding, and special insight is the prerequisite for the realizations on the path. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:30 Highlight the passage at 1:13:30

1:13:43 And so once we've attained union of calm, abiding, and special insight on emptiness. We're on the second of the five paths, right? The path of preparation. But that's still conceptual, right? We're still realizing emptiness through a mental image. And then we familiarize ourselves with that. And then that becomes the non-conceptual direct realization of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:43 Highlight the passage at 1:13:43

1:14:10 And then you're on your way out the door. And Report an error in the passage at 1:14:10 Highlight the passage at 1:14:10

1:14:19 you're no longer an ordinary being and you will never be an ordinary being again. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:19 Highlight the passage at 1:14:19

1:14:32 You want to meditate? Report an error in the passage at 1:14:32 Highlight the passage at 1:14:32

1:14:43 A question? Report an error in the passage at 1:14:43 Highlight the passage at 1:14:43

1:14:50 So you're saying you're no longer an ordinary being after you have a direct experience of emptiness after you've completed the second path. Is that what you're saying? So that'll be the third path. So once you go into it, then... So you never need to go back and refresh at that point? Well, I'm not saying you don't have to refresh. Because then, at that point, you've directly realized emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:50 Highlight the passage at 1:14:50

1:15:24 And then you need to familiarize yourself with that until you become... See, that's where it gets kind of dicey to me. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:24 Highlight the passage at 1:15:24

1:15:42 It appears that some of the teachers I've either heard about or I've experienced myself, I think they've had a direct experience of emptiness. But then their behavior afterwards brings into mind, like, ooh, that looks mischievous. You know what I mean? So... That's what it's hard because I'm back here. And so I do a mental kind of thing that actually Rubina helped me do, which was this. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:42 Highlight the passage at 1:15:42

1:16:14 I do a little litany and that is, is he a Buddha? Do you know if he's a Buddha? No. Could he be a Buddha? Yes. So he says, she says that's all. Every day. You say that to your, ask yourself that. Say those two things. But that's what I'm getting at. It's like whenever you say, whenever you or any other teacher gets to this point of saying, and you're no longer an ordinary being, I'm just saying, they appear really ordinary to me. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:14 Highlight the passage at 1:16:14

1:16:44 But I'm also just saying, they've never said to me I've had a direct experience of emptiness. Although, I think Geshe Michael Roach wrote about it in Mandala, about his experience. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:44 Highlight the passage at 1:16:44

1:16:56 But he didn't say anything about, no, I'm extraordinary, didn't do any of that. In fact, he suggested that it has to be refreshed. So just to say, you know, I get stuck on that. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:56 Highlight the passage at 1:16:56

1:17:10 Well, once you've had a direct realization of emptiness, you still have mental afflictions, right? You're not a Buddha yet. But, you know, whatever mental afflictions you have must be very subtle compared to what we have. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:10 Highlight the passage at 1:17:10

1:17:26 But then it gets back to your point. We don't know why they're doing what they're doing. It could be from a completely pure motivation. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:26 Highlight the passage at 1:17:26

1:17:41 We have so many opinions about things, right? Yeah. By the way, that was one of Rabina's teachings on Thursday night. She was just talking about we have opinions about everything. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:41 Highlight the passage at 1:17:41

1:17:54 And man, in fact, what would we be talking about, seriously, in normal conversation if we weren't talking about opinions? Report an error in the passage at 1:17:54 Highlight the passage at 1:17:54

1:18:02 Unless we're sitting and dissecting the Dharma, what the hell would we be talking about? It's sort of sad. So anyway, but I was about to say that something beautiful that I read years and years ago by Pema Chodron about Chonyam Trungpa, who looked to be a real mischievous guy and yet extraordinary at the same time. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:02 Highlight the passage at 1:18:02

1:18:27 She said, I don't know what he was doing, but he showed me my mind. I thought that was the... The best description. The best description. And truthful. And if you think about it, what's the job of a Lama? Is to get us enlightened, right? Yeah, to wake us up. It's not to make us feel comfortable. It's not to act in accord with what we think they should be like. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:27 Highlight the passage at 1:18:27

1:19:01 Because we have these strong ideas about what an enlightened being should be like. And it wouldn't have been like Marpa who's beating his student, right? But he got his student enlightened, right? So maybe he was a Buddha. Yeah, so mischievous, I think, comes along with those qualities sometimes. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:01 Highlight the passage at 1:19:01

1:19:29 Yeah, I mean, letting go of our judgments, right? Or at least believing in our judgments. Because like Lama Zopa was saying in that passage that I read, right? It's just... It's completely our cultural conditioning, you know, where we say good and bad. They're not good and bad from their own side. They're just, they're completely just thoughts, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:19:29 Highlight the passage at 1:19:29

1:19:57 It's just thoughts about right and wrong. You know, there's some data, right? There's some colors and shapes and sounds. And then we make up all of these stories about that. Colors and shapes and sounds. Then, you know, we create a reality from that. It's amazing. Our conceptual mind, our thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:57 Highlight the passage at 1:19:57

1:20:29 I mean, create all of our problems. And we have this pure Buddha nature. This pure love and this pure, spacious, beautiful mind that we cover up with all of our opinions and judgments. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:29 Highlight the passage at 1:20:29

1:20:51 We have ideas about how things should be. It's crazy. Yeah, Report an error in the passage at 1:20:51 Highlight the passage at 1:20:51

1:21:00 we block that fundamental purity we have through our stories. So Report an error in the passage at 1:21:00 Highlight the passage at 1:21:00

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:21:42 starting with meditation on the breath. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:42 Highlight the passage at 1:21:42

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:23:02 So let's bring up the odd. It feels limited. It Report an error in the passage at 1:23:02 Highlight the passage at 1:23:02

1:23:11 feels like I could never do that. I could never attain calm abiding and special insight. I Report an error in the passage at 1:23:11 Highlight the passage at 1:23:11

1:23:28 could never become enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:28 Highlight the passage at 1:23:28

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:24:18 And then search for that I. That I that can't become enlightened. Is that in the body? Report an error in the passage at 1:24:18 Highlight the passage at 1:24:18

1:24:49 So searching wherever we can think of in the body. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:49 Highlight the passage at 1:24:49

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:25:48 Searching the mind. Is it the mind that's limited? The mind Report an error in the passage at 1:25:48 Highlight the passage at 1:25:48

1:26:24 is constantly changing. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:24 Highlight the passage at 1:26:24

1:26:51 Sometimes it's clear. Sometimes Report an error in the passage at 1:26:51 Highlight the passage at 1:26:51

1:27:17 it's negative. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:17 Highlight the passage at 1:27:17

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:27:55 The mind is not concretely Report an error in the passage at 1:27:55 Highlight the passage at 1:27:55

1:28:17 changing depending on causes and conditions. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:17 Highlight the passage at 1:28:17

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:29:17 So this eye is also not the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:17 Highlight the passage at 1:29:17

1:29:35 Seemingly concrete eye. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:35 Highlight the passage at 1:29:35

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:30:08 Is it separate from the body and the mind? Report an error in the passage at 1:30:08 Highlight the passage at 1:30:08

1:30:24 Is there an eye? Report an error in the passage at 1:30:24 Highlight the passage at 1:30:24

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:31:22 So there's no concrete eye that's limited. We can focus on the lack of Report an error in the passage at 1:31:22 Highlight the passage at 1:31:22

1:31:35 that concrete eye Report an error in the passage at 1:31:35 Highlight the passage at 1:31:35

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:32:31 so we can start to analyze again on Report an error in the passage at 1:32:31 Highlight the passage at 1:32:31

1:32:44 that conclusion. Stabilize on that conclusion. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:44 Highlight the passage at 1:32:44

1:32:51 Alternating analytical meditation and stabilizing meditation. Are Report an error in the passage at 1:32:51 Highlight the passage at 1:32:51

· · · silence, 2 minutes

1:35:08 we pretty comfortable with how to meditate on emptiness now? Report an error in the passage at 1:35:08 Highlight the passage at 1:35:08

1:35:24 We'll keep doing it every week. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:24 Highlight the passage at 1:35:24

1:35:35 Alternating the analytical and the stabilizing. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:35 Highlight the passage at 1:35:35

1:35:44 So there's this quote by Lama Yeshe. I'm not going to remember the quote exactly, but it's something about the mind that thinks impossible. She Report an error in the passage at 1:35:44 Highlight the passage at 1:35:44

1:36:01 says, nothing is impossible. The power of the mind is unlimited. Of all of our minds is unlimited. And Report an error in the passage at 1:36:01 Highlight the passage at 1:36:01

1:36:21 it's our thoughts that limit us. All we Report an error in the passage at 1:36:21 Highlight the passage at 1:36:21

1:36:28 can do is create the causes and conditions, right? And then we'll be there. I mean, not easy, of course, but it's just a matter of creating the causes and conditions. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:28 Highlight the passage at 1:36:28

1:36:44 There's nothing inherent in our minds that's holding us back. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:44 Highlight the passage at 1:36:44

1:36:57 No comments? All right, page 246. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:57 Highlight the passage at 1:36:57

1:37:19 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. May those whose bodies are worn with toil be restored on finding repose. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:19 Highlight the passage at 1:37:19

1:37:45 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. May all medicines be effective and wholesome prayers bear fruit. May all who are sick and ill quickly be freed from their ailments. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:45 Highlight the passage at 1:37:45

1:38:13 Whatever diseases there are in the world, may they never occur again. May the frightened cease to be afraid and those bound be freed. May the powerless find power and may people think of benefiting each other. For as long as space remains, for as long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain, to dispel the miseries of the world. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:13 Highlight the passage at 1:38:13

1:38:36 And Report an error in the passage at 1:38:36 Highlight the passage at 1:38:36

1:38:47 then also praying for Lama Zopa Rinpoche's quick and full recovery from his stroke and Report an error in the passage at 1:38:47 Highlight the passage at 1:38:47

1:39:10 his long life Report an error in the passage at 1:39:10 Highlight the passage at 1:39:10

1:39:14 of Geshe Dagpa, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Report an error in the passage at 1:39:14 Highlight the passage at 1:39:14

1:39:23 all of our spiritual masters. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:23 Highlight the passage at 1:39:23