Special Insight 4: Wisdom of Emptiness (13 March 2012)

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1:42 A positive motivation. Sit still for a minute. Report an error in the passage at 1:42 Highlight the passage at 1:42

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2:29 It's so easy. It's Report an error in the passage at 2:29 Highlight the passage at 2:29

2:57 useful to remind ourselves that all these things are transitive. Report an error in the passage at 2:57 Highlight the passage at 2:57

3:04 The Report an error in the passage at 3:04 Highlight the passage at 3:04

3:12 security, Report an error in the passage at 3:12 Highlight the passage at 3:12

3:16 the accomplishments. Report an error in the passage at 3:16 Highlight the passage at 3:16

3:21 I'm going to go. Report an error in the passage at 3:21 Highlight the passage at 3:21

3:46 Lasting happiness is to transform our lives. Report an error in the passage at 3:46 Highlight the passage at 3:46

4:07 All the external things cannot last. Report an error in the passage at 4:07 Highlight the passage at 4:07

4:33 As long as we have mental afflictions, Report an error in the passage at 4:33 Highlight the passage at 4:33

4:42 cause problems for ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 4:42 Highlight the passage at 4:42

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5:33 I'm developing an aspiration to you. Reduce and eventually altogether. Report an error in the passage at 5:33 Highlight the passage at 5:33

5:43 of these mental afflictions are disturbing emotions. Report an error in the passage at 5:43 Highlight the passage at 5:43

6:12 for Future. Report an error in the passage at 6:12 Highlight the passage at 6:12

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6:48 just for our own vinegar. Report an error in the passage at 6:48 Highlight the passage at 6:48

7:00 ultimately all sentient people. The Report an error in the passage at 7:00 Highlight the passage at 7:00

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8:09 first page of the white book. Report an error in the passage at 8:09 Highlight the passage at 8:09

8:26 Thank you. protector Manjushri, who holds to his heart the scriptural text, symbolic of his saying 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 a 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 8:26 Highlight the passage at 8:26

8:50 You whose dragon thunder-like proclamation of Dharma arouses us from the stupor of our delusion and frees us from the iron chains of our karma, who wields the sword of wisdom queuing down suffering wherever it sprouts it will, clearing away the darkness of England. You whose crinkly body is adorned with the 112 marks of the Buddha, who has completed the stages of achieving the highest perfection of the bodhicitta, who has been pure from the beginning, I bow down to you, O Manjushri. Report an error in the passage at 8:50 Highlight the passage at 8:50

9:38 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 those words and the texts that explain me. Report an error in the passage at 9:38 Highlight the passage at 9:38

9:53 In theory, Report an error in the passage at 9:53 Highlight the passage at 9:53

10:06 I'm having a hard time. Report an error in the passage at 10:06 Highlight the passage at 10:06

10:21 Thus did I hear it one time. The Bhagavan was dwelling on Manas Vulture's mountain in Rajgree. I'm going to have to turn the gold book on page 76. Report an error in the passage at 10:21 Highlight the passage at 10:21

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10:28 Together with a great community of monks and a great community of bodhisattvas. At that time the Bhagavan observed in concentration on the categories of an amana called profound perception. Also at that time the bodhisattva mahasattva aria avalukiteshvara looked upon the very practice of profound perfection of wisdom and beheld those five aggregates also as empty of inherent nature. Report an error in the passage at 10:28 Highlight the passage at 10:28

10:52 Then through the power of Buddha, the Venable Shariya Putra 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? And the Bodhisattva, Mahasattva, Arya, Avalokiteshvara said this to the Venable Shariya Putra. Shariya Putra, any son of the lineage or daughter of the lineage who wishes to practice the activity of the profound perfection of wisdom? Report an error in the passage at 10:52 Highlight the passage at 10:52

11:21 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 11:21 Highlight the passage at 11:21

11:42 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 11:42 Highlight the passage at 11:42

12:12 There is no I element, 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. Report an error in the passage at 12:12 Highlight the passage at 12:12

12:37 Shariputra, therefore, because there is no attainment, bodhisattvas rely on and dwell in the perfection of wisdom, 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 and reliance on the perfection of wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 12:37 Highlight the passage at 12:37

13:02 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 13:02 Highlight the passage at 13:02

13:25 Shari Putra, the Bodhisattva, Mahasattva should train in profound perfection of wisdom like that. Thayat Ha Om Gathe Gathe Paragathe Parasam Gathe Bodhishoha Report an error in the passage at 13:25 Highlight the passage at 13:25

13:32 Then the Bhagavan arose from that concentration and Bodhisattva Mahasattva Arya Avalokiteshvara saying, Well said, well said, son of the lineage. It is like that. It is like that. One should practice the profound perfection of wisdom just as you have indicated. Even the Tathatagas rejoice. The Bhagavan having thus spoken, the Venerable Asharivadiputra, the Bodhisattva Mahasattva Arya Avalokiteshvara, and those surrounding in their entirety, Along with the world of gods, humans, asuras and gandharvas, we're overjoyed and highly praised that spoken by the Bhagavan. And then finally on page 98, Refuge of Bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 13:32 Highlight the passage at 13:32

14:12 I Report an error in the passage at 14:12 Highlight the passage at 14:12

14:21 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 things. 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 in telling enlightened, to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly. Report an error in the passage at 14:21 Highlight the passage at 14:21

14:51 By the merits I create through listening to the Dharma, may I become a Buddha in order to benefit all. Report an error in the passage at 14:51 Highlight the passage at 14:51

15:01 Last class! Sorry, I shouldn't look so happy. Report an error in the passage at 15:01 Highlight the passage at 15:01

15:11 It's a new beginning. Report an error in the passage at 15:11 Highlight the passage at 15:11

15:15 I have, you know, I had made this chart on an overview of the lamrim. So if people are interested in it, pass it out as we're reviewing the lamrim. Report an error in the passage at 15:15 Highlight the passage at 15:15

15:36 There's just enough copies. So for people, I had mentioned this before, but if you haven't heard it, so after I come back, I'm going to be back in August. Report an error in the passage at 15:36 Highlight the passage at 15:36

15:50 I know some people are interested in taking the final Lama exam, which we're going to have. I'm going to offer it in August, and I'll send out review questions before I leave so people can study. Report an error in the passage at 15:50 Highlight the passage at 15:50

16:08 Even if you don't want to take it for a grade or whatever, it's just such a useful way to go deeper into the material, because we spent so much time Oh my God. And if you... Report an error in the passage at 16:08 Highlight the passage at 16:08

16:19 Hearing about it, right? But then like really trying to integrate it, see how everything fits together and just go deeper. At least, you know, I'll give you the questions and if you feel like working through them, great. You may even feel like coming together and discussing them, you know, I think that would be useful if you want to do a study group on, what's tonight, Tuesday nights, you know, every once in a while or every week or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 16:19 Highlight the passage at 16:19

16:48 so you guys can decide. Report an error in the passage at 16:48 Highlight the passage at 16:48

16:54 So we are, for people who have the text, we're on page 323. Lama Tsongkhapa is giving the summary of the whole path, the whole lamrim, the whole graduated path to enlightenment. And we went through the small scope last time. We went through the intermediate scope. So the small scope helps us to let go of our attachment to... Report an error in the passage at 16:54 Highlight the passage at 16:54

17:22 Just focusing on the pleasure and accomplishment and comfort of this life by meditating on death and impermanence, low realms, etc. Report an error in the passage at 17:22 Highlight the passage at 17:22

17:33 Then we think, okay, even if we get a good rebirth next time, we're still in saṃsāra. We're still controlled by mental affliction and karma. Then we contemplate the disadvantages of saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 17:33 Highlight the passage at 17:33

17:54 It's just not, we're never going to achieve lasting satisfaction, lasting happiness. As long as we have these mental afflictions in our minds, as long as we have, we're controlled by karma, what's going to happen next week, next life, is going to be determined by our karma, right? We don't have control, right? I would like to be reborn in really good circumstances next life. Report an error in the passage at 17:54 Highlight the passage at 17:54

18:27 I don't know whether or not that's going to happen unless, of course, I get enlightened first, or get to the point where I can control my rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 18:27 Highlight the passage at 18:27

18:40 So contemplating the disadvantages of saṃsāra, which we have to do for a long time to really realize, okay, saṃsāra is a pit of blazing fire, as Lama Tsongkhapa calls it. Report an error in the passage at 18:40 Highlight the passage at 18:40

19:02 Guy Newman called it. This train wreck of saṃsāra. So, I'll read Lama Tsongkhapa's introduction to the great scope. I'm going to try. Through meditating in this manner upon the disadvantages of cyclic existence from different perspectives over a long time, so it gives us a clue that it's not going to happen. Report an error in the passage at 19:02 Highlight the passage at 19:02

19:28 You will see all existence is a pit of blazing fire. When your mind will be thoroughly overcome by the wish to attain the liberation that completely pacifies suffering. So this is another thing that's hard to get our minds around, right? That it's possible to reach a state where there's no more problems, right? Report an error in the passage at 19:28 Highlight the passage at 19:28

19:52 No more mental discomfort, no more irritation, no more insecurities, no more fear, no more anxiety, no more... Mental, any sort of mental distress, and then no more illness, no more than Report an error in the passage at 19:52 Highlight the passage at 19:52

20:14 just being this blissful, spacious, loving state all the time. Hard to imagine, but it's possible. It's possible. Because we've seen, well, we've met people who've done it, right? Whether or not we recognize it, right? But we know that Chodron Rinpoche is in a realm that we ever watch. That's my sense, at least. He's definitely looking at the world. Report an error in the passage at 20:14 Highlight the passage at 20:14

20:48 So you have the same potential as they do. Report an error in the passage at 20:48 Highlight the passage at 20:48

20:54 They're just on a fast track. Report an error in the passage at 20:54 Highlight the passage at 20:54

20:59 So we developed the wish to attain the liberation that completely pacifies. If due to that... Oh, okay. So anyway. Then we practice the three trainings, right? Ethics, concentration and wisdom to get liberated from psychic existence. Report an error in the passage at 20:59 Highlight the passage at 20:59

21:18 But then... Report an error in the passage at 21:18 Highlight the passage at 21:18

21:23 Lama Tsongkhapa says, nonetheless, since extinguishing one's own faults and achieving good qualities is limited, one's own welfare is not complete. So if we just gain liberation from saṃsāra, we haven't completely removed all of our obstacles. Our job isn't finished yet. For that very reason, others' welfare is also temporarily neglected. And in that end... Report an error in the passage at 21:23 Highlight the passage at 21:23

21:53 Having been urged to do so by the Buddhas, you will have to enter the Mahāyāna. Therefore, it is appropriate for the intelligent to enter the Mahāyāna from the start. Report an error in the passage at 21:53 Highlight the passage at 21:53

22:06 So once we've contemplated the disadvantages of psychic existence and seen it as a pit of grace and fire, then we think, oh, well, all of our sentient beings are in the same boat. Report an error in the passage at 22:06 Highlight the passage at 22:06

22:22 So then we try to develop bodhicitta. We wish to forego just our own liberation, but to work for the welfare of all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 22:22 Highlight the passage at 22:22

22:37 In order to do that, we need to remove our own mental afflictions. We need to develop all the qualities of the Buddha to develop an omniscient mind so we know how to help others and develop the power to manifest bodies, unlimited bodies, so that we can help others. Report an error in the passage at 22:37 Highlight the passage at 22:37

22:56 So the desire to attain complete enlightenment. Buddhahood for the welfare of So the basis of bodhicitta is first equanimity, developing equanimity, leveling the field, plowing the field, eliminating attachment and aversion for beings, at least developing a neutral ground. Report an error in the passage at 22:56 Highlight the passage at 22:56

23:29 Otherwise, if we start by... By contemplating the suffering of others. So for those that we're attached to, we want to free them. For those that we don't like, we want to be happy that they're suffering. So we need to level the playing ground first. And then there are the two different methods for developing bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 23:29 Highlight the passage at 23:29

24:00 The sevenfold cause and effect. And then the equalizing and exchanging. Report an error in the passage at 24:00 Highlight the passage at 24:00

24:07 So with the seven-fold cause and effect, first of all we need to see all sentient beings as appealing and attractive. Report an error in the passage at 24:07 Highlight the passage at 24:07

24:37 We don't need that on the recording. Report an error in the passage at 24:37 Highlight the passage at 24:37

24:43 Anyways, so right, so with, with equanimity. We level out. And then the first points of the sevenfold cause and effect, remembering all sentient beings have been their mother, remembering their kindness, wishing to repay their kindness, and then attractive love. So those four are to develop a sense that all beings are so kind, they're attractive, they're... Report an error in the passage at 24:43 Highlight the passage at 24:43

25:16 Appealing, so developing the sense of affection for all beings. Before, then we contemplate their suffering. If we develop a sense of affection for somebody and then we contemplate how they're in a pit of blazing fire, then we'll wish to free them from that. Report an error in the passage at 25:16 Highlight the passage at 25:16

25:36 So then we develop compassion by meditating on yourself. And then we increase that, increase that, increase that until... We have such great love for all beings that it's even greater than the love of a mother for her only child. Report an error in the passage at 25:36 Highlight the passage at 25:36

25:57 So then we're willing to take responsibility upon ourselves to free each and every sentient female because we find their suffering unbearable. Report an error in the passage at 25:57 Highlight the passage at 25:57

26:09 So it's time. And then we develop. Based on that sense of responsibility, we develop what we teach to be better. Report an error in the passage at 26:09 Highlight the passage at 26:09

26:24 So that's the seven-fold cause and effect method, which is useful, I think, to use that method as well as the equalizing and exchanging self for others. Report an error in the passage at 26:24 Highlight the passage at 26:24

26:35 Then we contemplate the disadvantages of the self-centered mind, often called the self-cherishing mind, but that can be misunderstood. But the mind that's focused more on my happiness than on Report an error in the passage at 26:35 Highlight the passage at 26:35

26:53 what I want. Report an error in the passage at 26:53 Highlight the passage at 26:53

26:58 So habitually, we think that that's a cause of happiness, right? Focusing on what I want. Focusing on number one, right? But then if we really think about it, really, really watch our minds and notice whenever we're unhappy, whenever I notice that I'm unhappy, I look deeply enough, I see that there's a sense of me in there somewhere, wanting something for me. Report an error in the passage at 26:58 Highlight the passage at 26:58

27:29 Or it could be more subtle than that. Report an error in the passage at 27:29 Highlight the passage at 27:29

27:34 Like we did that meditation of deleting the me. So coming up with a distressing situation. It seems, it could be a situation that seems to have nothing to do with me. Report an error in the passage at 27:34 Highlight the passage at 27:34

27:49 At least on the surface, right? Someone else is suffering. But then when we delete the me, we say that a lot of our suffering has to do with my sense of helplessness. My sense of I should be able to... do something, or I feel bad about myself because I'm not able Report an error in the passage at 27:49 Highlight the passage at 27:49

28:17 is a subtle sense of self-care, it's still me, even though it doesn't seem to be. Report an error in the passage at 28:17 Highlight the passage at 28:17

28:32 So it's interesting just investigating, right? Is it really true that the self-centered mind or the self-churching is the source? Report an error in the passage at 28:32 Highlight the passage at 28:32

28:50 I mean, it's such, I find it's such a hassle have a self-cherishing mind. in this wonderful, peaceful, giving state of mind, and then the about me mind comes up. Report an error in the passage at 28:50 Highlight the passage at 28:50

29:08 hope that they think well of me or I hope that they appreciate me. And then that just, spoils this beautiful state of mind that Report an error in the passage at 29:08 Highlight the passage at 29:08

29:24 So we contemplate the disadvantages of the self-centered mind. Report an error in the passage at 29:24 Highlight the passage at 29:24

29:37 And the advantages of cherishing others. Because it's so much more fulfilling, right? Deeply fulfilling. And then Report an error in the passage at 29:37 Highlight the passage at 29:37

29:53 we try to exchange, try to cherish others. Report an error in the passage at 29:53 Highlight the passage at 29:53

30:00 But as Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, that we can't... When we realize emptiness, then the gross self-cherishing mind will completely eliminate our self-cherishing mind. Report an error in the passage at 30:00 Highlight the passage at 30:00

30:21 So the self-cherishing and the self-grasping ignorance are, they reinforce each other, right? So when we realize emptiness, our self-cherishing can vastly decrease. Because who is this I to cherish anyway? Report an error in the passage at 30:21 Highlight the passage at 30:21

30:48 This label? This creation of our mind? Referring to in the constantly changing of our mind? It's just this hallucination. Report an error in the passage at 30:48 Highlight the passage at 30:48

31:08 Nowhere to be found. It's nothing that's substantial. It's nothing that's solid. It's just a label on constantly changing processes. It's just a thought referring to constantly changing, insubstantial love. Report an error in the passage at 31:08 Highlight the passage at 31:08

31:33 Who is there to cherish? Who is there to be the center of the universe? Report an error in the passage at 31:33 Highlight the passage at 31:33

31:45 I mean, it's amazing, right, that when we look at things, we're always looking at it from our perspective, the perspective of this person. It's not some kind of broad perspective, it's through the eyes of me. So it's like we're the center of the universe, observing everything from here. Report an error in the passage at 31:45 Highlight the passage at 31:45

32:18 you know, slowly, slowly we'll be able to see things broader perspective. Report an error in the passage at 32:18 Highlight the passage at 32:18

32:27 So does eliminating self-cherishing mean that we shouldn't love ourselves? Everybody is clear about that, right? It does not mean that we should be a doormat and neglect our own welfare and just work for the welfare of others. Report an error in the passage at 32:27 Highlight the passage at 32:27

32:50 We need to love ourselves, take care of ourselves, but just not more. As more important than anybody else. Report an error in the passage at 32:50 Highlight the passage at 32:50

33:09 So then based on, okay, so I'll read Lama Tsongkhapa. He says, once you have thus internalized the cycles of training of intermediate beings, contemplate that just like you yourself have fallen into the ocean of existence, many others have. Train in bodhicitta, which has its root in love and compassion. Report an error in the passage at 33:09 Highlight the passage at 33:09

32:59 It's just another . Report an error in the passage at 32:59 Highlight the passage at 32:59

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33:33 You need to try as hard as you can for it to arise. So that just takes a lot of effort. And then without bodhicitta, the six perfections, Report an error in the passage at 33:33 Highlight the passage at 33:33

33:48 generosity, ethics, patience, joyous effort, patience, wisdom, right, as well as the two stages, right, of high suva tantra, generation, completion stage, and so forth, are like upper stories without foundations. Report an error in the passage at 33:48 Highlight the passage at 33:48

34:09 So bodhicitta is the foundation, right, for practicing this as perfection in this generational and completion stage. And then once you've had some little experience of it, you should assume it through a ritual and apply yourself to its trainings so that you make the aspirational mind as stable as you can. Report an error in the passage at 34:09 Highlight the passage at 34:09

34:30 Right, so bodhicitta has the two types, right, the aspirational bodhicitta and the engaging bodhicitta. The aspirational bodhicitta is the wish to attain enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 34:30 Highlight the passage at 34:30

34:45 And then there's engaging bodhicitta, which is getting on the train. It's not just the wish, but it's getting on the train to enlightenment. So then we take the bodhisattva vows. But there's this ritual of aspirational bodhicitta that we can take before we're actually ready for engaging bodhicitta or the bodhisattva vows. Report an error in the passage at 34:45 Highlight the passage at 34:45

35:07 So Lama Tsongkhapa is saying, so we can... Take that ritual of aspirational bodhicitta and His Holiness the Dalai Lama does that very often. Then we hear about the great waves of bodhisattva conduct and as you get to know the boundary between what should be counteracted and what should be engaged in, generate the desire to train it. Report an error in the passage at 35:07 Highlight the passage at 35:07

35:33 So generate the desire to train in the six perfections because that's how we actually get enlightened. right, which we practiced in 2006. Report an error in the passage at 35:33 Highlight the passage at 35:33

35:44 So then when that has arisen, then take the engaging vow through the ritual, which is the bodhisattva vows, and then train in the six perfections and the four means of gathering disciples. So I become bodhisattva and try to ripen our disciples. Sorry. Report an error in the passage at 35:44 Highlight the passage at 35:44

36:11 Right, so that's right, like giving. Material things to your disciples, because that's a way to open their minds, to soften their hearts. Say pleasing words. Speak pleasantly. Report an error in the passage at 36:11 Highlight the passage at 36:11

36:36 Then teach others how to actually practice. It's not just the theory. right, but others how to practice. And then lastly, to not be a hypocrite, to actually have tension. So the four means of gathering disciples. Report an error in the passage at 36:36 Highlight the passage at 36:36

36:58 And then, Lama Tsongkhapa says, in particular, risk your life to avoid a root downfall. Alright, so once we take vows, important to at least not a root downfall, a break. In this case, he's talking about the Bodhisattva vows. So there's the 18 root downfalls and the 46 second root. So there's 18, right? Most of them, what, 16 of them require four binding factors to break or commit the downfall completely. Report an error in the passage at 36:58 Highlight the passage at 36:58

37:37 So don't do that. Report an error in the passage at 37:37 Highlight the passage at 37:37

37:46 And then try hard not to be tainted by small and medium contaminations or infractions either. And if you are, then try hard to restore your valve. Report an error in the passage at 37:46 Highlight the passage at 37:46

38:00 So the four binding factors, right? Not regarding it as detrimental. Not, I haven't looked at this for a while. This is going to be my exam, right? Not forsaking the wish to repeat such an action. Anybody else? Report an error in the passage at 38:00 Highlight the passage at 38:00

38:20 Taking delight. I think that was the first one. Report an error in the passage at 38:20 Highlight the passage at 38:20

38:32 You know those four. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 38:32 Highlight the passage at 38:32

38:38 I know, this is just a daily commitment. Anyway, you know those four. We all know those four. We just can't regurgitate them. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 38:38 Highlight the passage at 38:38

38:59 Okay. So even if we break it, if we regret breaking it, then we don't commit those four, right? We don't commit a root downfall, right? If we, like, ooh, shh, crazed myself again, right? I criticised somebody. Those are the easy ones to break through. Report an error in the passage at 38:59 Highlight the passage at 38:59

39:23 At least if we have regret, right, and wish to reduce our stuff. Report an error in the passage at 39:23 Highlight the passage at 39:23

39:36 So then, Lama Tsongkhapa says, okay, then you need to train in the last two perfections in particular. So we've talked a lot about those, right, concentration wisdom, calm abiding, and special insight. Report an error in the passage at 39:36 Highlight the passage at 39:36

39:50 So then become skilled in the method for sustaining concentration. And accomplish meditative stabilization and do everything you can for the pure view of the two selflessnesses to arise in the mind. And then having gained it, understand how to sustain it by placing the mind right on the view and sustain it. Report an error in the passage at 39:50 Highlight the passage at 39:50

40:14 So we've talked about this quite a bit. Concentration, development. Right view, then right alternate analytical meditation and stabilizing meditation. Report an error in the passage at 40:14 Highlight the passage at 40:14

40:35 Then, on page 324, then now we've gone through the whole path. Then Lama Tsongkhapa says, now cultivating the lower paths, you should grow more and more keen on attaining the higher ones. And when you hear about the higher ones, you should increasingly wish to accomplish the lower ones. Right, so we go through the entire path and then we start over again. Report an error in the passage at 40:35 Highlight the passage at 40:35

41:00 And, you know, and so... Contemplate the small skill, which should give you more enthusiasm to practice the later parts of the path. Also as you practice the later parts of the path, you should gain more enthusiasm for practicing the earlier parts of the path. You know, so we need to see how it's all integrated and how it all supports each other, right? Report an error in the passage at 41:00 Highlight the passage at 41:00

41:28 There's a very specific... It's interdependence of all of those different parts, right? And we can't generate bodhicitta without having done small and immediate scopes. Report an error in the passage at 41:28 Highlight the passage at 41:28

41:43 And then understanding the emptiness helps us understand the lower, small and immediate scopes. Report an error in the passage at 41:43 Highlight the passage at 41:43

41:54 So we need to develop an equalized mind training in both the lower part and the higher part. Then Lama Tsongkhapa says, thus, Report an error in the passage at 41:54 Highlight the passage at 41:54

42:13 Then he helps us understand, okay, well, what do we need to work on in particular? So he says, thus, if your respect for the spiritual teacher who guides you on the path appears to be low, then you put effort into your manner of relying on him, for the root of your collection of goodness would be otherwise severed. Report an error in the passage at 42:13 Highlight the passage at 42:13

42:36 So if we need to work on respect for our spiritual teacher, right, for our master, then we need to put particular effort in that. Which is most of us, right? I mean, that one takes a lot of effort. Then, likewise, if your enthusiasm for practice is small, you should make the topics of leisure and endowments your main thing. Report an error in the passage at 42:36 Highlight the passage at 42:36

43:01 If we don't have much enthusiasm for practicing and meditate on the precious human beings and gain and delight in practice. Report an error in the passage at 43:01 Highlight the passage at 43:01

43:10 Whereas if your adherence to this life increases, right, our attachment to this life. Then we should mainly work on the topics of impermanence, remembering death, how this life is not going to last, and the disadvantages of the bad migrations. Then if you seem to neglect the ethical boundaries you have accepted, you should mainly meditate on actions and their effects. Report an error in the passage at 43:10 Highlight the passage at 43:10

43:47 like karma, kind of causing effect. If your disenchantment with cyclic existence is small, your endeavor for liberation will be nothing but words. So reflect on the disadvantages of cyclic existence. Report an error in the passage at 43:47 Highlight the passage at 43:47

44:04 And if it appears that your mind is not strongly making everything you do into something for the benefit of sentient beings, the root of the Mahāyāna will be severed, so you should train in the aspirational mind of enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 44:04 Highlight the passage at 44:04

44:24 If we have strongly habituated ourselves to constantly working for the effort of others, then we work on bodhicitta. And then in the case, we take the vow of the Buddhist children, the bodhisattva vow, and train in their conduct. Report an error in the passage at 44:24 Highlight the passage at 44:24

44:45 If the bond, which is the apprehension of signs, appears to be very strong. So this means if we have a lot of attachment to appearances or attachment... To true existence, inherent existence, believing that things exist the way they appear, believing that things are substantial and solid and concrete and objectively existent, then we need to train in space-like and illusion-like emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 44:45 Highlight the passage at 44:45

45:19 So we need to change, train in emptiness. And then if your mind does not stay on its object of observation and appears to be subservient to distractions, You should mainly train in the stability factor of your single point of meditation. Right? So if we have a lot of distraction, then we need to work on that. Report an error in the passage at 45:19 Highlight the passage at 45:19

45:42 So maybe we have a lot to work on. So this is what the earlier masters taught. So here, he says, from all of this, we should understand that we should not become one-sided. Report an error in the passage at 45:42 Highlight the passage at 45:42

46:01 Because your mind should be serviceable in all virtuous directions. Right? So we need to train in the entire path, not just... One aspect of the path, thinking, okay, well, my practice is calm abiding, right, and just work on that. A lot of people do that, I think, and are attracted to just doing the meditation on the breath to calm the mind. And that's fine, right, but you're not going to get enlightened that way. Report an error in the passage at 46:01 Highlight the passage at 46:01

46:28 So Lama Tsongkhapa is the same thing, you know, or people just want to practice bodhicitta, compassion. Lama Tsongkhapa is the same way to practice the whole thing, right, recognize what you need to. What you particularly need to work on and then do that. In the context of the entire path. Report an error in the passage at 46:28 Highlight the passage at 46:28

46:50 So then if we need to work on all of it, then we start from the beginning. Which is actually why I wanted to go through, we have time, a little bit before we jump into the next section. Report an error in the passage at 46:50 Highlight the passage at 46:50

47:06 I sent out this text, the Pabongka Rinpoche text, on how to meditate on the stages of the path to enlightenment. Which is just brilliant. How do you get lamrim realizations? Report an error in the passage at 47:06 Highlight the passage at 47:06

47:21 So I'm not going to go through it line by line, but just to highlight some of the important points, but certain points. Report an error in the passage at 47:21 Highlight the passage at 47:21

47:37 So Poponka Rinpoche's first main point is how we need analytical meditation. It's not just about listening to the Dharma and understanding it intellectually, because the Dharma is so... Not about understanding it in touch, understand the ten of this and the four of that and understand what the initial scope is and what we need. Report an error in the passage at 47:37 Highlight the passage at 47:37

48:06 It's about transforming our minds, about making, developing experience and ultimately realizations in these topics. Report an error in the passage at 48:06 Highlight the passage at 48:06

48:21 So he's saying, you know, we may know the Dharma inside and out and be able to explain. A hundred scriptures, but if our minds haven't improved, it's because we lack the analytical meditation that combines understanding with experience. Report an error in the passage at 48:21 Highlight the passage at 48:21

48:42 So those two factors, understanding it intellectually, and then developing experience. And so the experience part is the Report an error in the passage at 48:42 Highlight the passage at 48:42

48:55 feeling associated. Well, I mean, just to put it loosely, right? So we can keep, if it's just up in our head, right, the intellectual understanding, it's just up in our head. It's like the difference between understanding that we're going to die and Report an error in the passage at 48:55 Highlight the passage at 48:55

49:15 having a near-death experience and knowing we're going to die, right, feeling that we're going to die and living from that place, right? Because we all know intellectually on some level, but, you know, if Report an error in the passage at 49:15 Highlight the passage at 49:15

49:38 we go to the doctor and get a A scary diagnosis and we're surprised? That means that we're not living it from here. It's just intellectual. Report an error in the passage at 49:38 Highlight the passage at 49:38

49:53 So the process of analytical meditation is to bring it down to experience. Knowing deeply, right? Knowing as opposed to intellectually. Does that make sense? Report an error in the passage at 49:53 Highlight the passage at 49:53

50:15 Or intellectually knowing I'm fortunate and feeling, feeling joyful. Report an error in the passage at 50:15 Highlight the passage at 50:15

50:27 So we need this analytical meditation. He says that a mere semblance of listening, study and understanding can generate both strong faith and listening wisdom about the topics of leisure and fortune, etc. But they have not arisen through analytical meditation. So if we listen and study and understand intellectually the Dharma, we can develop what's called right judgment or correct assumption. Report an error in the passage at 50:27 Highlight the passage at 50:27

51:08 But it's just correct assumption, it's not a realization. So he says, it eventually fades away. It's like listening to teachings and thinking, yeah, that makes sense, that makes sense, that makes sense, right? right. Report an error in the passage at 51:08 Highlight the passage at 51:08

51:23 Then it fades away because we haven't brought it to the level of realization yet. Then Hobonka says, you run a risk by failing to generate soon after this wisdom, this intellectual understanding, the genuine experience that comes from reflection. Many persons become insensitive to Dharma when they allow the former awareness to fade away before they can generate the latter. Report an error in the passage at 51:23 Highlight the passage at 51:23

51:53 Once you're overcome by insensitivity to Dharma, your mind stream becomes ruined and you're incapable of being tamed. So if we start getting bored by listening to the long run again and again, it's a sign that we're starting to become insensitive to it. It's like, yeah, yeah, I already know that. I've heard that before. Teach me something I haven't heard before. So if we've had some experience... Report an error in the passage at 51:53 Highlight the passage at 51:53

52:24 And when we hear it again, it should move our hearts. You know, meditation reminds us of, oh, yeah, I'm so fortunate. dying instead of, yeah, yeah, yeah, tell me something. Report an error in the passage at 52:24 Highlight the passage at 52:24

52:42 We have a microphone in front of you. David is taking care of it. How do you know if you've had a realization? We'll get to that. Okay. Well, hopefully we'll try to get to that. Report an error in the passage at 52:42 Highlight the passage at 52:42

53:02 So Lama Tsongkhapa says, right, so apply yourself to the profound method for avoiding insensitivity to Dharma. Report an error in the passage at 53:02 Highlight the passage at 53:02

53:11 So how do you generate the understanding that comes from the reflection? So he says, analytic meditation is the exercise of eliciting experiential realizations by contemplating a particular meditation topic from every standpoint and in every way. Using scriptural citations and sharp reasoning. So we look at a meditation topic from many different angles, and especially from the angle that touches you, touches your heart, your experience. Report an error in the passage at 53:11 Highlight the passage at 53:11

53:52 So, for example, with the precious human rebirth, there's eight freedoms and ten endowments, and there's the freedom from, did I already talk about this, the freedom from having... Defective senses, for example. That one really touches me. What would my life be like if I couldn't hear? If I couldn't hear any Dharma teachings, wow, that would be awful. Report an error in the passage at 53:52 Highlight the passage at 53:52

54:26 If I couldn't read, I couldn't read any Dharma books. Report an error in the passage at 54:26 Highlight the passage at 54:26

54:40 And then there are other ones, you know, other... Report an error in the passage at 54:40 Highlight the passage at 54:40

54:46 Freedom is like freedom from being born a hungry ghost. That one doesn't touch me, so maybe I don't even believe in the big ghosts, right? So that one maybe is not so important to reflect on. So take those points that really touch you and make you appreciate how fortunate we are and meditate on your own. Report an error in the passage at 54:46 Highlight the passage at 54:46

55:11 And from many different angles, what would it be like to be born? I've done this. What would it be really like to be born a pig, you know, and really got into it, you know, living outside in the mud and, you know, slopping around and not understanding any Dharma and being mistreated and then, you know, killed so somebody can eat bacon, right? Report an error in the passage at 55:11 Highlight the passage at 55:11

55:42 You know, I mean, you know, just getting into that, right? So we need to be a little creative, right? So contemplating from a different angle, right? Until we gain some sort of experience, right? It's not just an intellectual thing, but our hearts shift, right? Our hearts shift is a sign that we have. We're getting some experience. Report an error in the passage at 55:42 Highlight the passage at 55:42

56:16 So I'm Report an error in the passage at 56:16 Highlight the passage at 56:16

56:20 going to jump a little bit, maybe go back. So Pabongka Rinpoche talks about three different levels. Report an error in the passage at 56:20 Highlight the passage at 56:20

56:33 of quote-unquote experience, accomplishment, meaningness. So, first of all, proficiency in the topic, second of all, having a contrived experiential, well a contrived experience, and thirdly, an uncontrived experience. Report an error in the passage at 56:33 Highlight the passage at 56:33

56:58 So, becoming proficient, bodhicitta says, when you become familiar with these topics, To the point of feeling sure that you know how to meditate on them and that you're able to generate the realizations, we call this becoming proficient. So I'll read that again. So when you've become familiar with these topics to the point of feeling sure that you know how to meditate on them and that you're able to generate the realizations, then this is called becoming proficient. Report an error in the passage at 56:58 Highlight the passage at 56:58

57:39 You haven't developed a realization yet, you haven't developed an experience of it yet, but you know how to do it, it seems. Report an error in the passage at 57:39 Highlight the passage at 57:39

57:50 At least intellectually. Then the second level, the contrived experience, a spiritual awareness that arises after continuous reflection on many scriptural citations and reasonings, but fails to arise without such reflection is called... A contrived experiential realization. So if we need to reflect a lot, and then we develop this experience, then it's a contrived experience. Report an error in the passage at 57:50 Highlight the passage at 57:50

58:27 So with bodhicitta, if we think a lot about how kind sentient beings are, how they are mothers, and how much they are sick, then we can develop a lot of compassion after really thinking about it a lot, then that's a contrived experience. It doesn't arise unless I can really contemplate it and contrived. Report an error in the passage at 58:27 Highlight the passage at 58:27

58:54 Whereas an uncontrived experiential realization is one that arises distinctly as soon as you bring a subject to mind and irrespective of any prolonged reflection, such as the desire for sense objects that arises in your mind without any need of prolonged contemplation. So an uncontrived experience, we don't even need to think about it. Report an error in the passage at 58:54 Highlight the passage at 58:54

59:20 When compassion arises spontaneously, you see somebody suffering and compassion just arises, right? Report an error in the passage at 59:20 Highlight the passage at 59:20

59:32 The desire arises spontaneously when I see all of those sweets on the table, right? I don't need to think about, ooh, wouldn't it be nice to eat that? We have compassion for chocolate. Right, my desire for chocolate. Report an error in the passage at 59:32 Highlight the passage at 59:32

59:50 compassionately. So actually, you know, Pabongka Rinpoche, he likens it to our strong desire or a strong aversion to, right? Report an error in the passage at 59:50 Highlight the passage at 59:50

1:00:08 So for an attractive object, right, we've contemplated, okay, chocolate. We've contemplated how wonderful chocolate is again and again and again. We've familiarized ourselves with it to the point where when we see it, desire automatically arises, right? Meditated on the good qualities of chocolate or whatever your object of attachment. And similarly, with someone we have a lot of aversion to, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:00:08 Highlight the passage at 1:00:08

1:00:39 We've contemplated their negative qualities and how annoying they are enough, right? We've familiarized ourselves with that enough that when we see them or think about them, aversion automatically arises. We don't even have to think about it, right? So that's very similar to meditation, right? Meditation is just a word for familiarization, right? Familiarizing. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:39 Highlight the passage at 1:00:39

1:01:06 So with compassion we familiarize ourselves with, first of all, how Report an error in the passage at 1:01:06 Highlight the passage at 1:01:06

1:01:19 eventually compassion will spontaneously arise. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:19 Highlight the passage at 1:01:19

1:01:27 So very similar. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:27 Highlight the passage at 1:01:27

1:01:34 Actually that, how he referred to aversion and desire or attachment. That was what helped explain analytical in his context to me. Because up to then I was getting all scared, you know, about, oh God, analytical, oh Lord, you know, the logic and, you know, going da-da-da-da-da. But when, yeah, so if that's really what he's meaning about, like, just saturating yourself into all the good qualities of chocolate or flan. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:34 Highlight the passage at 1:01:34

1:02:09 Do you want flan? Oh, yeah. Okay, so in other words, whatever I've done about getting to that point about flan is analytical. Damn. Yeah. Okay, then I feel better about it. We all are very familiar with doing it. It's just, you know, maybe not the right analytical meditation to get out of cyclic existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:09 Highlight the passage at 1:02:09

1:02:35 The Report an error in the passage at 1:02:35 Highlight the passage at 1:02:35

1:02:39 more we contemplate the... The attractive qualities of our objects of attachment, the deeper our attachment is, right? The more we contemplate how wonderful that object is in store and how it will improve our life, the more our desire will increase for it until we get to the point where we have to buy it. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:39 Highlight the passage at 1:02:39

1:03:05 Like the iPad 3 or the next iPhone or whatever it is, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:03:05 Highlight the passage at 1:03:05

1:03:14 We never, like an iPad never existed until what? Two years ago or something like that. And now it is a must have. You can live without it. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:14 Highlight the passage at 1:03:14

1:03:34 His Holiness the Karmapa was saying how we're so centered on the I that even everyone's talking about the iPhone, iPod, iPad. It's I, I, I, I. It's just nonstop. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:34 Highlight the passage at 1:03:34

1:03:55 That wouldn't be the same, I want a U-pod. I want a U-pod. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:55 Highlight the passage at 1:03:55

1:04:04 They have some genius marketing people. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:04 Highlight the passage at 1:04:04

1:04:19 So I'm going to go back. So if the repeated contemplation of just a single argument evokes a sense of ever-growing anguish in your mind, like for example if you're meditating on death, such as you might feel on hearing your mother's death. This is a sign that you're succeeding, so continue striving. But if repeated contemplation of a single argument grows stale and your mind remains unmoved, this means your practice is not succeeding. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:19 Highlight the passage at 1:04:19

1:04:59 So what? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know. I'm going to die. So what? Right? It's also a forewarning against becoming insensitive to Dharma. Right, so there, here, Report an error in the passage at 1:04:59 Highlight the passage at 1:04:59

1:05:14 Pabongka Rinpoche is suggesting that we combine supplications to your guru, right, because a lot of these realizations are said to come from blessings from your guru, with fervent acts that accumulate merit, so we accumulate merit and remove obstacles, right, so purify, accumulation, purification, accumulation, purification, accumulation. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:14 Highlight the passage at 1:05:14

1:05:42 So then some persons at this point develop sudden and powerful feelings of faith, Impermanence, renunciation and so forth. Even without having practiced meditation, they become joyously enthusiastic, thinking these are true spiritual realizations. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:42 Highlight the passage at 1:05:42

1:06:01 But soon after, when the intensity of such feelings completely disappears, we see that they become saddened at the loss of these sentiments. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:01 Highlight the passage at 1:06:01

1:06:11 However, these are nothing but limited sensations that arise on the basis of transitory perceptions. They aren't true spiritual realizations. So true realizations are the experiential awarenesses of faith and permanence, etc., which come forth in succession after meditating continuously with wisdom's discerning power. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:11 Highlight the passage at 1:06:11

1:06:36 These represent inferential knowledge, and unlike the feelings mentioned earlier, they never fade away. Right, so it's not just like meditating on it for a couple of days and then getting... You know, feeling inspired or feeling sad that I'm going to die and then stopping meditating on that and thinking that we have the realizations, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:06:36 Highlight the passage at 1:06:36

1:06:56 We have to continually reflect and the realization, right? The sign of the realization is it's stable. It's not just something temporary. It's not just, you know, like what we feel after attending His Holiness the Dalai Lama's teachings and we feel so inspired, right? Two weeks later, you're back to normal. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:56 Highlight the passage at 1:06:56

1:07:23 Spiritual realizations are stable. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:23 Highlight the passage at 1:07:23

1:07:28 So we have to just continue, continue to work on it, get proficient and then contrived realization and then uncontrived. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:28 Highlight the passage at 1:07:28

1:07:40 So then, right, because like a sign of developing bodhicitta is that it's there all the time, all the time. It's not just something that arises once in a while. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:40 Highlight the passage at 1:07:40

1:07:59 It kind of gets back to the prior chart when you're talking about the realization being stable, because I was wondering, I saw under the grade scope, it said bodhicitta comes before these other aspects, and I was wondering, I could see aspirational bodhicitta coming before, but then engaging, I almost think like, intuitively, it's like, gosh, it makes, it seems to me that it would come almost, Report an error in the passage at 1:07:59 Highlight the passage at 1:07:59

1:08:27 Real bodhicitta, the realization of bodhicitta would come after the realization of emptiness. But I'm not sure, I'm trying to reconcile this two. Yeah, because this chart looks so linear, doesn't it? Yeah, so principles Report an error in the passage at 1:08:27 Highlight the passage at 1:08:27

1:08:50 of the path, renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness. Right? Renunciation needs to come before bodhicitta. Because you have to understand this. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:50 Highlight the passage at 1:08:50

1:09:03 A pit of blazing fire before you renounce it for others, right? But emptiness can come any time, right? The realization of emptiness can come before bodhicitta or after. And so they say for some people, you need to realize emptiness before developing bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:03 Highlight the passage at 1:09:03

1:09:25 For some people, you don't believe that enlightenment is possible until you realize emptiness. Some people, yeah, so for certain kinds of minds, you need emptiness first and then bodhicitta. And then for other minds, you develop bodhicitta and then realization of emptiness. But either way, your understanding of emptiness should deepen your bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:25 Highlight the passage at 1:09:25

1:09:48 So they kind of reinforce each other. So yeah, so bodhicitta, I mean, here in this chart, you develop aspirational bodhicitta, the determination to practice, engaging bodhicitta in the sense of... Now I want, I don't just aspire for enlightenment, I'm going to get on the train and get there, right? Which means I need to practice the six perfection, and so then the six perfection. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:48 Highlight the passage at 1:09:48

1:10:21 But that doesn't mean you don't work on them. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:21 Highlight the passage at 1:10:21

1:10:27 So I think we're ready for sugar. Sugar. Sugar break. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:27 Highlight the passage at 1:10:27

1:10:35 So let's take a break. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:35 Highlight the passage at 1:10:35

1:10:41 Let's do ten minutes. you a freak? Report an error in the passage at 1:10:41 Highlight the passage at 1:10:41

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:11:06 Does Jumpa Trinley do it? Report an error in the passage at 1:11:06 Highlight the passage at 1:11:06

1:11:11 Like Gyuto, they do it at Gyuto sometimes and they'll do it. I'll find a place. This is Report an error in the passage at 1:11:11 Highlight the passage at 1:11:11

1:11:34 a total surprise. I thought the sweets were great. That was great. Is that with the cotton balls? Report an error in the passage at 1:11:34 Highlight the passage at 1:11:34

1:12:04 I'm Report an error in the passage at 1:12:04 Highlight the passage at 1:12:04

1:12:23 so not good at it. Being the center of attention. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:23 Highlight the passage at 1:12:23

1:12:32 I'm still not going to. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:32 Highlight the passage at 1:12:32

1:12:38 I'll read this. Well, you guys have been a great class. I've gotten so much out of this class. More than you guys, for sure. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:38 Highlight the passage at 1:12:38

1:13:00 It's been, yeah, anyway. The sweat hog. Oh, I remember. I remember. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:00 Highlight the passage at 1:13:00

1:13:13 It's been such a pleasure and an honor. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:13 Highlight the passage at 1:13:13

1:13:25 and I don't know, it's just an incredible task, right, and just fortunate to share this. we got to learn and meditate on it, so an Emptiness, I have to say, emptiness was so much fun. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:25 Highlight the passage at 1:13:25

1:13:55 Deleting the me. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:55 Highlight the passage at 1:13:55

1:14:05 Yeah, that one's very useful. I like that one too. All right. Okay. So, Pabonko Rinpoche. I've covered most of it. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:05 Highlight the passage at 1:14:05

1:14:25 Right, so next he talks, Report an error in the passage at 1:14:25 Highlight the passage at 1:14:25

1:14:30 so he says, when understanding and experience, right, those two, combine thus in your mind, this marks the first dawning of spiritual realization. So the intellectual understanding and the feeling and experience. Moreover, for some meditation topics, the realizations arise easily. They can be generated even after practicing for only seven days or so, which is very encouraging. Some of them take a lot longer. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:30 Highlight the passage at 1:14:30

1:15:03 For other topics, the realizations arise after several days or weeks, and for still others, they are difficult to generate even after a year or more. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:03 Highlight the passage at 1:15:03

1:15:12 So for instance, it's easy to realize the certainty of death, but the uncertainty of the time of death is very hard to believe. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:12 Highlight the passage at 1:15:12

1:15:26 Death could actually happen tonight. It's extremely easy to realize how nothing except Dharma can help at the time of death. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:26 Highlight the passage at 1:15:26

1:15:37 Such differences hold true for other topics as well. So therefore, don't continue meditating obstinately on those topics for which realizations come easily. So we meditate on a specific topic. We start from the beginning, meditate on that topic until some experience arises, then move on to the next one. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:37 Highlight the passage at 1:15:37

1:16:01 Instead, move on to the next point. Likewise, don't think that topics that are difficult to realize are taking too long. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:01 Highlight the passage at 1:16:01

1:16:13 Like, seeing the guru as a Buddha. That one might take the entire life. And even longer, right? So then we're recommended, okay, you meditate on that one every day and go through the lamrim, right? Don't wait until you get that one before you move on to the next topic because you might be stuck on that one for the rest of your life. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:13 Highlight the passage at 1:16:13

1:16:40 So don't think that topics are taking too long, no matter how long they take, even months or years. Continue meditating until you generate the appropriate realizations. So then after we've mastered or attained the realization of a particular topic, then he says you need only practice reflective meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:40 Highlight the passage at 1:16:40

1:17:09 So I didn't go through that, right? The difference between analytical meditation and reflective meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:09 Highlight the passage at 1:17:09

1:17:20 here comes to the next, I think. So if we just review a series of topics in your mind, that's reflective meditation. Like if we read the foundation of all good qualities, or read the lamrim prayer in the Lama Tsopa, right? We read one of those lamrim prayers, recite it, that's just reflective meditation, right? Just superficially reviewing the topics. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:20 Highlight the passage at 1:17:20

1:17:55 Also, To memorize the words of teaching and then rehearse their meaning in your mind is also just reflective meditation. To memorize the essence of every one of the paths' stages as well as their order, number and so on, and then recall each essence, order and number individually is also just reflective meditation, not analytic meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:55 Highlight the passage at 1:17:55

1:18:22 So analytic meditation consists of setting forth a single topic. As the object to be established and then repeatedly analyzing it with scripture and profound reasoning as the means of generating a sure understanding. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:22 Highlight the passage at 1:18:22

1:18:39 Right? So, for example, there's the nine point death meditation, right? Death is certain. Time of death is uncertain. We can do an analytical meditation just on the first part, right? That death is certain. And, you know, really meditate on that and think about that, about how everybody that... Report an error in the passage at 1:18:39 Highlight the passage at 1:18:39

1:19:04 Everybody's going to definitely die. There's just no possibility that we're going to be free of death. So you think about that deeply until you become sure, okay, there's no way I'm going to, exactly, I'm not going to, exactly. So you do that until you become sure. That's analytical meditation. Not just reviewing the topic in your mind, the words of the topic and the nine points, but reflecting until you get a sure understanding and eventually an experience. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:04 Highlight the passage at 1:19:04

1:19:48 That's analytic meditation as a means for generating a sure understanding. So here then Lama Tsongkhapa says, so then after we've generated the experience, Report an error in the passage at 1:19:48 Highlight the passage at 1:19:48

1:20:03 Then, especially the uncontrived experience, we only need to practice reflective meditation toward those earlier topics that you have already mastered. So we've gained the realizations, okay, let's say we've gained the realization of precious human rebirth and death, and then we're working on the lower realms, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:20:03 Highlight the passage at 1:20:03

1:20:24 So then we still review the entire long realm every day, right? But we can do reflective meditation on the one with the subjects that we've already mastered. But then do analytical meditation on the next one, on the lower realms in this case, right? Until we master that one, right? And then once we master that one, then we move on to the next one. Refuge, right? And then we just do reflective meditation on this other one. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:24 Highlight the passage at 1:20:24

1:20:56 So like Lama Zopa Rinpoche advises that we go through the whole long room every day so we can read like foundational qualities or something like that. Which is like a reflective meditation and then dive deeply into one particular topic wherever you are. So you can read the whole foundation of all your qualities and then stop wherever you are right at the point where you're working on and meditate deeply. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:56 Highlight the passage at 1:20:56

1:21:25 we can just read how the guru is, right, of the foundation of equalities, and then precious and and then lower realms. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:25 Highlight the passage at 1:21:25

1:21:47 So you're always going through the entire path and you're always seeing how it all fits together. So we're not just working on something in isolation of how it fits into the picture. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:47 Highlight the passage at 1:21:47

1:22:06 So here we do reflective meditation toward those earlier topics we've already mastered. And for those later ones for which you have yet to gain realizations. So focus single-mindedly as you analyze and contemplate the one topic in your current Report an error in the passage at 1:22:06 Highlight the passage at 1:22:06

1:22:27 sense. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:27 Highlight the passage at 1:22:27

1:22:33 So then you'll meditate. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:33 Highlight the passage at 1:22:33

1:22:48 It certainly will. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:48 Highlight the passage at 1:22:48

1:22:58 So I encourage you to read this whole bodhicitta text. It's just wonderful. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:58 Highlight the passage at 1:22:58

1:23:09 Yeah, it's the same one that I sent out. I will. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:09 Highlight the passage at 1:23:09

1:23:13 There's this whole book called Heart Advice for Retreat that contains this text as well as another Pabongka Rinpoche text. You know, a bunch of advice for how to do retreat. I highly recommend it. You can get it from the FPMT Foundation store and maybe we'll get some more in to the bookstore here. It's called Heart Advice for Retreat. So there's advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, there's advice from Pabongka Rinpoche. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:13 Highlight the passage at 1:23:13

1:23:42 Palmo is willing to order it if people are interested in it. How many people? One, two, three, four, five. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:42 Highlight the passage at 1:23:42

1:23:58 So five people raised their hands. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:58 Highlight the passage at 1:23:58

1:24:08 So then Report an error in the passage at 1:24:08 Highlight the passage at 1:24:08

1:24:15 I'll move on to the rest of the text because we better finish the text. So there's the lamrim, which is all preliminary to tantra. So the lamrim will get you to the tenth bodhisattva brown. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:15 Highlight the passage at 1:24:15

1:24:35 Really good, right? But if we just practice, right, that's the sūtra path. If we just practice that, it's going to take a long time, right? Three great countless eons worth of time, right? Or if we want to get enlightened a little more quickly than that, we can practice tantra, right? So three great countless eons, the sūtra path, highest yoga tantra, possible, they say possible in one lifetime, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:24:35 Highlight the passage at 1:24:35

1:25:06 So... You can create three great countless eons worth of merit in one lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:06 Highlight the passage at 1:25:06

1:25:20 If we really have bodhicitta, we want to get enlightened as soon as possible in order to help sentient beings. So then, useful to enter the Bajraya. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:20 Highlight the passage at 1:25:20

1:25:34 Lama Tsongkhapa doesn't get into the tantric path in detail here, but just introduces it. So here, he says, having thus trained in what the two paths of sūtra and mantra have in common. So tantra, mantra, vajrayana, you know, are often used pretty interchangeably in certain contexts, right? So the lamrim is the path of sūtra as well as the path common to tantra, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:25:34 Highlight the passage at 1:25:34

1:26:08 Because without the lamrim, no tantra. The lamrim is an essential prerequisite to tantra. You need bodhicitta, bodhicitta is the motivation for practicing tantra. Emptiness is the view in which we can practice tantra. You can't avoid the lamrim. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:08 Highlight the passage at 1:26:08

1:26:31 So having thus trained in the lamrim, what the two paths of sūtra and tantra have in common, you should doubtlessly engage in mantra. Because that path is extremely rare compared to other Dharma teachings and lets you complete the two collections quickly. So actually Tantra teachings are extremely rare, a lot more rare than Sūtra teachings where they have to be in certain realms and certain times. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:31 Highlight the passage at 1:26:31

1:27:05 But we have the great fortune of meeting Tantra and qualified Tantric Masters. And when you engage in it, You should first make your teacher happy in excess of what has been explained above according to the statements in Lama Path. It should be someone who has at least all the characteristics explained there. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:05 Highlight the passage at 1:27:05

1:27:31 So we talked about relying on the spiritual teacher a long time ago. So the method for relying on the Guru is deeper in Tantra than in Sūtra. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:31 Highlight the passage at 1:27:31

1:27:51 We need to rely on the spiritual minister, rely on the guru, and see the guru, and try to see the guru as like a Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:51 Highlight the passage at 1:27:51

1:28:01 In practice Tantra, then we have to practice seeing the guru as a guru, not as like a Buddha, but inseparable from a Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:01 Highlight the passage at 1:28:01

1:28:14 But we need to check out the qualities of the teacher first, and the teacher needs to at least have the ten qualities that we talked about in relation to sūtra. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:14 Highlight the passage at 1:28:14

1:28:25 Higher trainings of ethics, concentration, wisdom, have great compassion, realization of addictiveness, and working for the welfare of others, etc. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:25 Highlight the passage at 1:28:25

1:28:38 In Tantra, they also need to be a qualified Tantra minister. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:38 Highlight the passage at 1:28:38

1:28:46 Then, to practice Tantra, you should first have your mental continuum ripened by means of an empowerment, as explained in the authentic Tantric source texts. So we don't just practice Tantra. It's not like sūtra where you can read something and practice it. We need an empowerment. We need to practice the gateway Report an error in the passage at 1:28:46 Highlight the passage at 1:28:46

1:29:16 into Tantra. Then you should hear and understand the vows and commitments taken on that occasion and guard them. So with an empowerment, there's always some vows and commitments. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:16 Highlight the passage at 1:29:16

1:29:34 With highest yoga Tantra rate, you have to take Tantra. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:34 Highlight the passage at 1:29:34

1:29:41 Action Tantra 9. We don't. But you have to take bodhisattva vows if you haven't taken them. So you need to understand the vows and commitments and then guard them. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:41 Highlight the passage at 1:29:41

1:29:58 If a root downfall occurs, even if the vow is taken again, the development of positive qualities of the path will be greatly delayed in one time. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:58 Highlight the passage at 1:29:58

1:30:11 So endeavor not to be tainted by that. You need to be really careful. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:11 Highlight the passage at 1:30:11

1:30:22 Yeah, our realizations will be greatly delayed. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:22 Highlight the passage at 1:30:22

1:30:29 Try not to be tainted by serious downfalls, and even apply the means of restoring the hundred lesser ones. If you get tainted by them, because they are the root for cultivating the paths, so that without them, it will be like an old house whose side walls are collapsing. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:29 Highlight the passage at 1:30:29

1:30:54 So, once again, right. We really don't commit a root downfall and try not to be tainted by the gross infraction. Any time we break the vow, we are delaying our progress. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:54 Highlight the passage at 1:30:54

1:31:16 We can purify it, we can retake the vow, but it's never the same as if we had never broken it. Like the whole broken leg analogy. You can break your leg and it will heal but will never be the same as if you had never broken it. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:16 Highlight the passage at 1:31:16

1:31:41 So in the Manjushri root tantra it says, Lord Buddha did not say that you would accomplish tantra with twisted ethical discipline. So ethics, sometimes people who are practicing tantra think that they don't need to practice ethics. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:41 Highlight the passage at 1:31:41

1:32:05 misguided, right? The accomplishments are based on our workers. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:05 Highlight the passage at 1:32:05

1:32:17 Statements such as this one are saying that there will be no great, medium or small accomplishments whatsoever. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:17 Highlight the passage at 1:32:17

1:32:29 In the highest yoga tantras, it also says that those who do not guard their commitments have an inferior empowerment or do not understand emptiness will not accomplish anything despite their practice. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:29 Highlight the passage at 1:32:29

1:32:44 So if you don't guard your commitments, have an inferior empowerment. So inferior empowerment, according to I guess Yusufa, means that the one where either the one giving the empowerment or the one receiving it does not need all the necessary equipment. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:44 Highlight the passage at 1:32:44

1:33:09 I can try. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:09 Highlight the passage at 1:33:09

1:33:16 The highest yoga tantra empowerments are incredibly complicated and obviously even sighted people make lots of mistakes of visualization and recitation and so forth. Well of course with me it's like a surrealist masterpiece. Do you have to worry about how well you took a particular empowerment if you're making, I mean I know there's the point at the end where we ask forgiveness for all of our mistakes of visualization and recitation but... Report an error in the passage at 1:33:16 Highlight the passage at 1:33:16

1:33:47 Can doubt arise in your mind that you even took the empowerment properly? Because, you know, this is a completely alien system. Like, did I even have it? Report an error in the passage at 1:33:47 Highlight the passage at 1:33:47

1:34:00 Realistic doubt. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:00 Highlight the passage at 1:34:00

1:34:05 And there's so many different levels in which you can take an empowerment, right? We just do the best that we can at the level we are. We try to do all the visualizations, right? Try to meditate on emptiness when they tell us to meditate on emptiness. But, you know, to really get the empowerment, like really, really, really, you're achieving meaning clear light. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:05 Highlight the passage at 1:34:05

1:34:33 You know how many people are doing that? I sure was. I mean, we do the best we can. And then you take it again later, and then you take it again later. It's a process, right? So I don't think there's any need to beat yourself up. It's just you try. Well, do the deities have forbearance with us poor, pitiful Westerners doing our best? Report an error in the passage at 1:34:33 Highlight the passage at 1:34:33

1:35:12 They have great compassion. Yeah, I Report an error in the passage at 1:35:12 Highlight the passage at 1:35:12

1:35:22 think so. I'm no tantric, you know, you can ask a tantric master. I'm not one of those. But that's my understanding. We just do the best we can. You know, oftentimes we get distracted. And then you're trying to visualize, right, 65 deities in there, you know. You can barely visualize one, you know. So as Lama Yusha says, you know, in the beginning you're just trying to get a general picture of the deity. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:22 Highlight the passage at 1:35:22

1:35:53 And then gradually you get the details, right. but we don't get all the details right away unless we have a strong influence from people, we just, the more important thing they say is right to them. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:53 Highlight the passage at 1:35:53

1:36:12 And Report an error in the passage at 1:36:12 Highlight the passage at 1:36:12

1:36:26 therefore, someone claiming to cultivate the path without keeping his commitments and vows is straying far from the principles of Tantra. That being so, those who are guarding vows and commitments should gradually train in the two yogas with and without signs. According to the three lower tantric classes. So the four, in this tradition, there's four classes of tantra, action, in English, action, performance, yoga tantras. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:26 Highlight the passage at 1:36:26

1:36:58 So those three are divided into two stages, yoga with signs and yoga without signs. Whereas in the highest yoga tantra, they're divided into generation and completion stage. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:58 Highlight the passage at 1:36:58

1:37:13 So with the low, we should gradually train the two yogas with and without signs according to three lower tantric classes and in the two stages of yoga according to the highest yoga tantra in order to cultivate the paths of mantra. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:13 Highlight the passage at 1:37:13

1:37:28 So the, right, getting enlightened in a single lifetime is possible with highest yoga tantra. Here only the sight of entering tantra is presented just nominally. So you must get to know these in more detail from the Stages of the Path of Mantra. All right, so, Lama Tsongkhapa wrote a great text called the Stages of the Path of Mantra. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:28 Highlight the passage at 1:37:28

1:37:58 And hopefully Gishudagpa will teach Grounds and Paths of Tantra again. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:58 Highlight the passage at 1:37:58

1:38:07 Then if you train in such a way, you will perfectly complete the entire body of the path. That summarizes all the essential points of Sūtra and Tantra and make the leisure you have achieved meaningful through your training. You will be able to make the jewel of the Buddha's teachings develop in your own mind, Report an error in the passage at 1:38:07 Highlight the passage at 1:38:07

1:38:55 in a nutshell, in only four years. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:55 Highlight the passage at 1:38:55

1:39:01 Now, yeah, now we have to do it. Now we have Pabongka Rinpoche's text, right? Helps us understand how to get the realizations. Lama Tsongkhapa's brilliant text. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:01 Highlight the passage at 1:39:01

1:39:14 Now we just have to do it. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:14 Highlight the passage at 1:39:14

1:39:19 And I loved the way Guy Newlin ended his weekend. I was hoping to get that quote that he read, but I don't have the quote, but something about, yeah. So, Report an error in the passage at 1:39:19 Highlight the passage at 1:39:19

1:39:39 yeah, his Holiness said about how it takes time, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:39:39 Highlight the passage at 1:39:39

1:39:48 So anyway, so this takes time, right? And his Holiness was saying how... He's been doing it, like he was 73 at the time, he'd been doing it since he was 16 years old, and he's still working on it, so I was encouraging people to just, right, take one step at a time, read one, learn one page at a time. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:48 Highlight the passage at 1:39:48

1:40:12 That was your question. You thought it was read one page at a time. Well, I'm still doing the reading. Read one page at a time. One page at a time, well, whatever we can do, right? Do, you know, one page a day, and then slowly, slowly, right? After 100 days, you know, 100 pages. After 1,000 days, 1,000 pages. And actually, in the middle length of the room, it's only 300 and something pages. So after 300 and something days, yeah, after a year, a whole middle length of the room. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:12 Highlight the passage at 1:40:12

1:40:44 two, Report an error in the passage at 1:40:44 Highlight the passage at 1:40:44

1:40:47 one, two, one. Excuse me. Someone new to your tradition, are they permitted to do the lamrim? Absolutely. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, that is what we start with. I don't know if that's what we start with, but yeah, absolutely. You don't need any prerequisite. Okay, and then where would I find the daily practice of the lamrim? Report an error in the passage at 1:40:47 Highlight the passage at 1:40:47

1:41:21 The daily meditation practice? The Shakyamuni Buddha, that one? Report an error in the passage at 1:41:21 Highlight the passage at 1:41:21

1:41:30 Oh, how to... Yeah, so there's the extended long-rim outlines. I highly recommend getting that, the long-rim, because now we know we need to meditate on the long-rim topics, right? And this that Palmo is holding up is, that is, I've used that in every long-rim retreat I've ever gotten. It has all the main points of the long-rim, like in bullet, bullet format. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:30 Highlight the passage at 1:41:30

1:42:06 It's just great. And so you can just look at one page and meditate on those points and you don't have to sift through some Pabongka Rinpoches to figure out what are the main points. Ani Karen did it for us. She must have spent tons of time doing it. And I highly recommend that one if people want that. I'm sure Palmo can order more too. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:06 Highlight the passage at 1:42:06

1:42:32 I think you get it from the FPMT Foundation store as well. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:32 Highlight the passage at 1:42:32

1:42:46 I have some. Yeah, I have it. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:46 Highlight the passage at 1:42:46

1:42:55 Yeah, so maybe we can order some of those. Yeah, I just spoke with Geshe Dagpa and although we made several requests for what will follow after the Bodhisattva Charya Avatara. It is, it goes down FEMP. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:55 Highlight the passage at 1:42:55

1:43:08 He settled on possibly lamrim, so we can offer several books, this one and several others, depending on what level people decide they want to read at. That'll be great every Wednesday, so beginners, middle and advanced, everybody welcome. Yeah, and we never get too much lamrim, right? Never. And if we're bored, what is that a sign of? Yeah, no, during my introduction. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:08 Highlight the passage at 1:43:08

1:43:40 To Tibetan Buddhism, I was quite touched by the sight of very, very old, old Lamas, Rinpoches, Tulkus, all showing up to receive the lamrim from Tara Tulku or from His Holiness Dalai Lama. You know, I was just beginning, so for me it was extremely touching because I was already complaining that I heard that yesterday, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:40 Highlight the passage at 1:43:40

1:44:05 And here they've been hearing it for decades. And probably lifetimes. And His Holiness the Dalai Lama when he came out, when he escaped from Tibet he had the great lamrim on his body. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:05 Highlight the passage at 1:44:05

1:44:23 That's the ground. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:23 Highlight the passage at 1:44:23

1:44:36 of them for sure Yeah, we have the three volume stages of the path also translated by Guy Newland. And, you know, people who are ready to start reading that can talk to Janet, I mean, to Palmo about maybe ordering the three volumes or one or whatever's missing. Yeah, those are just, those are just unbelievable. Precious. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:36 Highlight the passage at 1:44:36

1:45:11 But I've been certain, and that's why I'm reading it day to day. Had I heard it as learned, that might have just... I might have just said, well, I can't learn a page a day, no way. But I can read. I can read it. It was the good causes and conditions. But I actually, you know, every night, you know, doing quote-unquote Vajrasattva, when I promise to do something, that's one of the things I do. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:11 Highlight the passage at 1:45:11

1:45:43 And that drives me to do it the following day. you very much. And then, of course, as I say, sometimes they're a page turner and you don't stop at one page. Juicy. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:43 Highlight the passage at 1:45:43

1:46:00 Can I ask one final question? And I ask this instead of asking you privately because I'm thinking maybe we could help everyone or other people are thinking about the same thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:00 Highlight the passage at 1:46:00

1:46:11 So, you know in the meditation of trying to find this I and trying to negate it when it pops up? And it's like, okay, it's not the body, it's not the mind, it's just, it is, it's just kind of this thought that just kind of comes here and there. And so it's just this concept that comes up, but what if, you know, say if it just came out like a tiger, right, from the bushes. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:11 Highlight the passage at 1:46:11

1:46:38 As it does. As it does. Very fiercely. It's like, okay, let's look at it, find where it is, and oh, okay, it's really just a thought. There's no I, but it's just this concept. But then I think if someone has done something to intentionally try to harm me, I think, oh, okay, there's no I here, but there was that intention to harm this concept. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:38 Highlight the passage at 1:46:38

1:47:07 And so I think, okay, well, that's that. But then I... I don't feel the I anymore, but it's more like there's something that needs to be done to correct that. To what you were saying earlier, that there's something still there, but it's very hard to locate where that I is because it's still kind of this, I wrote this down, it's like, I don't even know it's a feeling. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:07 Highlight the passage at 1:47:07

1:47:36 I guess it's a very deep-seated thought to correct, to fix that. Not really so much emotion behind it, but there's still obviously something to propel me to want to, you know, take action rather than just letting it go, you know, because there is that. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:36 Highlight the passage at 1:47:36

1:47:59 What is that? It Report an error in the passage at 1:47:59 Highlight the passage at 1:47:59

1:48:04 could be different things, right? If there's emotion behind it, then there's definitely some grasp, right? If there's this, then there's definitely some grasping. If there's, you know, if there's just this wisdom, okay, that person is trying to harm. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:04 Highlight the passage at 1:48:04

1:48:24 To help them, right? Compassionately help them understand. You know, that can be wisdom and there's not necessarily a grasp in there, right? But most of the time for us, there's some grasping, right? So, first of all, I think, you know, usually we need to work on it in meditation first, going a lot before it's effective in the moment, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:48:24 Highlight the passage at 1:48:24

1:48:56 And I think we need to work on it from many different angles. So meditate on the, right, looking for the I who is harmed, right? Search, search, search, and that I is nowhere, right? And so the non-affirming negative, right? The lack of that I. Like there's that temptation to think, okay, it's just a concept, da, da, da. That's not, that you think about afterwards. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:56 Highlight the passage at 1:48:56

1:49:27 After your meditation on emptiness, your meditation on emptiness is not affirming anything, right? So oftentimes we switch to what is the conventionally adjacent eye, but that's not the meditation on emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:27 Highlight the passage at 1:49:27

1:49:41 It's the lack of focusing on the mouth, right? So there's no line there. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:41 Highlight the passage at 1:49:41

1:49:55 And also then meditate on that person who's harming. There's no one there who's harming. And then the action of harming. There is no... Report an error in the passage at 1:49:55 Highlight the passage at 1:49:55

1:50:16 And then we can melt, right? So the emptiness of the three spheres. Then we can melt. Eventually, when we have enough experience in that, right? Enough power behind that. Then we can melt all of the grasping. But that's slowly, slowly, right? So I find it very... It's very useful to meditate on all three of those aspects because sometimes just the me is not enough. Especially with the, like for me, that's wrong. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:16 Highlight the passage at 1:50:16

1:50:48 Right? That was wrong. Okay, it's not about me. But that's wrong. So then look for the wrong. Where's the wrong? And the wrong is also, Report an error in the passage at 1:50:48 Highlight the passage at 1:50:48

1:51:00 that one I find safe. Like what's bad, like for me, wrong and bad. Big. big, you know, mental inflection inducers, right? So search for wrong, search for bad. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:00 Highlight the passage at 1:51:00

1:51:25 It doesn't mean it doesn't function, of course it still functions. It's not, okay, anything is fine, but it's not wrong with bad, which eventually melts the emotional component to it. Then we can act with wisdom, right? Wisdom and compassion is fabulous. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:25 Highlight the passage at 1:51:25

1:51:49 Agitation. I'm about to cry. Seriously, thank you so much. It's still blown away right now. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:49 Highlight the passage at 1:51:49

1:51:58 Sorry, we're running a little late. No, that emptiness of the three spirits is one of my favorite ones. And what sometimes is good just to get an experience of how that works is to pick, like when somebody's giving you a gift that you've enjoyed or something that you like, because... Each one of those three, yourself, the gift and the giver, are empty of existing by themselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:58 Highlight the passage at 1:51:58

1:52:33 And it's like the three legs of a chair. If you take one away, the other two collapse. The chair doesn't stay up. So when you work on all three, then you get to that place of just this calm mind, I think. But sometimes it's easier to start with something that isn't traumatic or negative, just to get a feel for how the process works and then start using the process on the harder things. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:33 Highlight the passage at 1:52:33

1:53:12 Yeah, oftentimes we want to jump into the hardest things first, right? And somehow it doesn't work immediately. Yeah, but you know For me, I love, you know, what I started doing was, you know, because, you know, if you do Succession Guru Yoga, you're supposed to meditate on emptiness, right? But, you know, so sometimes, you know, like every day I meditate on the emptiness of the me, the emptiness of an irritating person or a person I'm attached to, and then the emptiness of a situation that bugs me. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:12 Highlight the passage at 1:53:12

1:53:49 And that's so helpful. I just love that, you know? So going from all of the three different angles. And then the mind, you know, if I have enough time, you know, the mind just becomes so much more calm, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:53:49 Highlight the passage at 1:53:49

1:54:10 So anyway, so, you know, I encourage, you know, because not one antidote works every time, right? So we got to take our toolkit out. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:10 Highlight the passage at 1:54:10

1:54:30 I will not blind copy you guys. Anybody have any, want to stay off that list? I don't have Russ's email. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:30 Highlight the passage at 1:54:30

1:54:49 If I forget. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:49 Highlight the passage at 1:54:49

1:54:53 That's it. Let's dedicate the review questions. Yeah, so I'll send it out without blind copying and I'll include Mark and then let us Report an error in the passage at 1:54:53 Highlight the passage at 1:54:53

1:55:11 dedicate. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:11 Highlight the passage at 1:55:11

1:55:27 Okay, well, maybe you just tell me which one you want on that. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:27 Highlight the passage at 1:55:27

1:55:37 Okay, we'll talk about it. if I just do the whole... Report an error in the passage at 1:55:37 Highlight the passage at 1:55:37

1:55:42 So Bodhicharya Avatar will do Shantideva. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:42 Highlight the passage at 1:55:42

1:55:48 Oh, you don't have it memorized yet? 246. Sorry. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:48 Highlight the passage at 1:55:48

1:56:02 246. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:02 Highlight the passage at 1:56:02

1:56:08 Oh, and when we come back, I'm coming back in August, so we'll do the exam in August. Probably do a review class or two for people who want to do the exam. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:08 Highlight the passage at 1:56:08

1:56:18 True, false, multiple. And then... And then my current thinking is to teach Uttara Tantra on Buddha nature starting in September. So that's my idea, unless that changes in my experience. Or as Mark says, that's the plan. Not just an idea, that's the plan. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:18 Highlight the passage at 1:56:18

1:56:48 So Report an error in the passage at 1:56:48 Highlight the passage at 1:56:48

1:56:54 page 246. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:54 Highlight the passage at 1:56:54

1:56:59 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 be little, with the mind weighed down by depression. May the blind see forms and the deaf hear sounds. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:59 Highlight the passage at 1:56:59

1:57:20 May those whose bodies are worn with toil be restored on finding their clothes. May the naked find clothing, the hungry find food. May the thirsty find water and delicious drinks. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:20 Highlight the passage at 1:57:20

1:57:33 poor find wealth, those weak with sorrow find joy. May the forlorn find hope, constant happiness and prosperity. May all medicines be effective and wholesome prayers bear fruit. May all who are sick and ill quickly be freed from their ailments, whatever diseases there are in the world. May they never occur again. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:33 Highlight the passage at 1:57:33

1:57:58 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 1:57:58 Highlight the passage at 1:57:58

1:58:25 choke is quick and complete recovery. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:25 Highlight the passage at 1:58:25