Four Applications Of Mindfulness Retreat 2013 with B. Alan Wallace (part 18)

0:05 So in this particular technique, as you're focusing on certain regions within the body, for example maybe the left shoulder blade or that area there, you may come up with just not much data, kind of like empty screen. And that would suggest from this first-person physiology, which is very central to Chinese medicine, Indian medicine, traditional Tibetan medicine, that would suggest that the prāṇa is not much flowing there. Report an error in the passage at 0:05 Highlight the passage at 0:05

0:28 Because where the prāṇa is, you'll get sensation. And so, just as a simple technique, it's more of a physiological kind of subtle body health technique, rather than an insight technique per se. But when you come to an area and you're just not picking up much, then you can mentally kind of massage it a little bit. Report an error in the passage at 0:28 Highlight the passage at 0:28

0:47 And that is, let's say this is the area here, and you're just getting like no data. You know, like one of the television screens, no signal. On cable television, no signal. You're getting no signal. You can come in and say, well, where do you get a signal? Where are you picking up any sensations at all? Well, out here. But nothing here? Okay. Good. Well, circle around. Circle around it. Report an error in the passage at 0:47 Highlight the passage at 0:47

1:06 Kind of isolate, identify the area where you're just getting no sensation at all. And then start encroaching. Starting to attend more. Coming in. And so, collapsing it down. And the more your awareness coming in, you're almost like dragging the sensations in. It is kind of like dragging prāṇa in. And then you may find very well, That area where you were getting no signal, now you're getting signal. Because the prāṇa is flowing there and the pranas are related to your awareness. So this actually can be healthy. Report an error in the passage at 1:06 Highlight the passage at 1:06

1:35 It's good for having the prāṇa circulating freely, fully, throughout the entire body. I think there's an area here where some very interesting research, more research than done thus far, could occur. When people have chronic problems, cold shoulder and that kind of thing, it could be helpful. So, but there it is, this is, but this, Goenka himself, his teacher, Upakin, his teacher, are teaching this as the passana practices, in other words, beyond shamatha. Report an error in the passage at 1:35 Highlight the passage at 1:35

2:04 So he'll teach in a ten-day course. I took his course about 40 years ago. Start with, as I recall, four days of shamatha, mindfulness of breathing, and then the rest of the time is spent with his body scanning. And I found, and many people have found, that that ten-day course is quite cathartic. It really brings about some very rapid transformation, especially if you're, well, the standard format is you're meditating 11 hours a day, starting at 4 o 'clock in the morning or so. So that tends to be rather dramatic. Report an error in the passage at 2:04 Highlight the passage at 2:04

2:31 And in many cases it's very helpful, in some cases a bit more cathartic and it can lead a bit of disruption, which means call in a repair team. But it's a good technique. And so there it is simply as a mindfulness technique, very good, and then it becomes a Vipassanā technique. By bringing in the element of inquiry, bringing in the scrutiny, the careful examination of the body. And what is really central to Vipassanā practice within this whole context of the Pāli Canon, these foundational teachings of the Buddha which are accepted really by all schools of Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 2:31 Highlight the passage at 2:31

3:04 At least I don't think any of them reject these teachings. And I would like to spend a bit of time focusing on these three marks of existence, of conditioned existence. Report an error in the passage at 3:04 Highlight the passage at 3:04

3:16 Because it's simply dealing with reality. I would not approach it as Buddhist doctrine, like this is what Buddhists believe. This is either true or it's not. And then we can test it with experience. So blind faith, religious belief really doesn't have any role here. But I mentioned before that in Buddhist understanding we are born with conate mental afflictions. Report an error in the passage at 3:16 Highlight the passage at 3:16

3:36 We don't need to learn anger, craving, greed, envy, jealousy and so forth. Well, if you are an ordinary sentient being, we come in with a full deck. Report an error in the passage at 3:36 Highlight the passage at 3:36

3:45 And in terms of delusion, as I mentioned, the kind of conate delusions or misapprehensions of reality invariably entail a projection of something that isn't there, excuse me, a projection, an overlay of something that wasn't there that we imagined it to be there. So we're obscuring, we're superimposing, we're projecting something on reality which isn't there. That's all conate delusion in the Buddhist understanding. Report an error in the passage at 3:45 Highlight the passage at 3:45

4:14 is of that sort. We are not connected We learn to deny certain aspects of reality, block out evidence. You know that can't be, it doesn't accord with my belief system, but you acquire your belief system. But when it comes to projecting, there's elements of projection that we can't blame anybody for. It didn't come from outside. Report an error in the passage at 4:14 Highlight the passage at 4:14

4:53 And here's one of the big ones. There's just three. They're easy to understand and see whether they resonate with your own experience. Very simple, actually. And the first of these is first acknowledging a truth. And that is when we are tending closely, as nakedly as we can. Filtering out, sifting out all of the projections, as much as we can. The conceptual overlays, the projections, the assumptions, the preconceptions, the language, the conceptual constructs. Report an error in the passage at 4:53 Highlight the passage at 4:53

5:23 I mean, we really pile it on in many cases. Especially when we deal with generalities. I think it's pretty obvious, so let's just move right on. But among the overlays that we naturally project is the overlay of stability. Report an error in the passage at 5:23 Highlight the passage at 5:23

5:42 As we attend closely, as we've just done, in this close application of mindfulness to the body, but also each of the five senses. Here's a hypothesis. You test whether it's true. The Buddhist hypothesis here is that everything that's flowing in, by way of our five sensory modalities, and we're going to stay there for the time being. Report an error in the passage at 5:42 Highlight the passage at 5:42

6:02 We'll have plenty of time for the mind over the coming days. But today we're going to really come to our senses, the five physical senses, and try to get grounded there. And see more clearly than we have in the past. That here's the Buddhist hypothesis, and that is everything that reality is presenting to us in the visual field, the auditory, olfactory, gustatory and the tactile. Report an error in the passage at 6:02 Highlight the passage at 6:02

6:22 That what we get, everything that's coming in, is a constant state of flux. That's the principle. Not that we have to believe, but is it true or not? When we really look nakedly and we scale off like dead skin, peel back all the projections that we have. See whether it's true or not that what's being presented from moment to moment always a rising, passing, rising, passing, constant state of flux. This is the very definition of impermanence in the Buddhist understanding. Report an error in the passage at 6:22 Highlight the passage at 6:22

6:50 Impermanence doesn't necessarily mean that the impermanent phenomenon will someday terminate. In most cases it does. But what the real core meaning of impermanence in Buddhism is, is that for as long as the phenomenon in question is present, the way it's present, is in a momentary rising and passing staccato flow of almost like strobe light of happening, effervescent, in flux, always changing, fizzing. Report an error in the passage at 6:50 Highlight the passage at 6:50

7:19 So visual, and we should know this from modern physics, the photons are coming in at an intensely rapid rate, call them photons, call them electromagnetic fields, striking the retina. But they don't come there and park. It's an ongoing flow. And so this means the retina. The optic nerve and right back to the visual cortex. They're just receiving an ongoing flow of stimulation. Now that's just a physiological fact. No big surprise there. Report an error in the passage at 7:19 Highlight the passage at 7:19

7:42 And likewise sounds. These sound waves are traveling in and they're just coming in just like a machine gun of vibration coming in. And these are catalyzing then the auditory cortices. And likewise for the molecules are coming in but we're getting bombarded by molecules coming to the nose. When we're tasting again the tingling, its ongoing flow, and now we've been checking out the body internally as the body. And if your experience is like mine, you're getting just a fizzing, three-dimensional fizz machine of all kinds of sensations arising, of all the four elements. Report an error in the passage at 7:42 Highlight the passage at 7:42

8:20 There's a space, we may attend to that later, but primarily the contents arising within the space, the four elements. But the point here being that, setting the mind aside, we'll get to that over the next few days, Among these five sensory fields which are these five sensory modes by which we are aware of the environment. And our senses of course are augmented and extended by means of technology. Report an error in the passage at 8:20 Highlight the passage at 8:20

8:42 Binoculars, particle accelerators, x-rays, telephone and so forth and so on. But the point there again being that what reality is dishing up from moment to moment. Constant state of flux, always changing. Nothing static. So that's the hypothesis. If you find something static then you should... Call up a Buddhist and say, hey, I beg to differ. But for the time being, let's imagine that's a working hypothesis. Report an error in the passage at 8:42 Highlight the passage at 8:42

9:10 And that's every aspect of our experience of our own bodies, constantly in a state of change. And of course, when it comes to our bodies, constantly aging. Constantly. Whether you're five years old, okay, you're aging right into six years old. So constantly changing, but aging, maturing, and then gradually decomposing. Report an error in the passage at 9:10 Highlight the passage at 9:10

9:29 And so there's a reality of it. There's what reality is actually dishing up from moment to moment, focusing again on the sensory for the time being. And then how often does it happen that in our relationships with other corporeal beings, embodied beings, our relationship with objects, possessions, the environment, places where we live, the environment and so on, how often does it happen that while reality is dishing up something, Constantly in a state of flux, often unpredictable. The conceptual mind comes in and it superposes a grid, a conceptual framework, and relative to what's coming in, the framework is relatively static. Report an error in the passage at 9:29 Highlight the passage at 9:29

10:17 And we're now seeing what's coming in through the screen, the filter of something that's relatively static. And we may actually attend to, glom onto, grasp onto the grid. Report an error in the passage at 10:17 Highlight the passage at 10:17

10:31 More so than actually what's coming through the grid. It happens a lot. And so in this way we superimpose a greater stability, immutability, durability on phenomena than in fact is warranted by the facts, by the facts of perceptual experience. So we have perceptual experience and the conceptual overlay. The conceptual overlay is relatively static. The perceptual influx is constantly just that. Report an error in the passage at 10:31 Highlight the passage at 10:31

11:03 Flexing in. Report an error in the passage at 11:03 Highlight the passage at 11:03

11:07 This manifests all over the place. Where we get surprised when there's change. We engage in a relationship and some assume that it's going to be stable. We look at another person and assume that they will be stable, that they're unchanging. We attend to other people when we go into more of the psychology of people, their behavior. Report an error in the passage at 11:07 Highlight the passage at 11:07

11:28 We assume that it's the same person if a person we know leaves and then comes back six months later. They've been through how many thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of fluctuations in a six-month period? How many shifts, how many little micro-rebirths have they experienced in the six-month absence? Report an error in the passage at 11:28 Highlight the passage at 11:28

11:47 They come back, they've been reborn countless times, so to speak, as they're coming back. And then we see them, and we bring out the same grid. Oh, it's good to see you again. And we slap the same grid on. And it's pretty much the same grid that we had six months ago. I've experienced this vividly once in a... Report an error in the passage at 11:47 Highlight the passage at 11:47

12:05 In a benign way, there's nothing harmful about it, but it really kind of jolted me. I hadn't seen my parents, my father in particular, I hadn't seen him for five years. Because I went off when I was 20 and it was rather uncomfortable because he didn't really want me to do what I was doing. And so we had a long distance relationship, rather spotty, sometimes a bit difficult. And then after five years, I went off to Germany, I went off to India. Report an error in the passage at 12:05 Highlight the passage at 12:05

12:30 Four years immersion in a totally different culture, became a monk, meditating a lot, studying a whole lot, shifting my whole world view, my priorities, my way of life was radically shifted, traveled around the world, literally around the world, and showed up on his doorstep five years later. And I had a sense that he was perceiving me in the same way that I was five years earlier. Maybe that's my projection. But I certainly had a sense that he felt his son had come home, although he's now wearing a red dress. Report an error in the passage at 12:30 Highlight the passage at 12:30

13:02 And it was a bit uncomfortable. Because I was there for those five years that I was away. Now did I do the same thing to him? Most likely. I hadn't seen him for five years either. Right? There's dad. There's dad. Yeah, I've seen him before. A little bit changed, but no, he's pretty much the same. A little bit more weight around the tummy maybe, but you know, that's dad. I know him. Was I aware of what went on? Report an error in the passage at 13:02 Highlight the passage at 13:02

13:22 Let's make sure there's some symmetry here. Was I aware of all the multiple rebirths that he'd been through over the last five years? The myriad of experiences, even though it was more similar to what had gone on before, nevertheless it's always unprecedented. So was I really aware of all the changes? Report an error in the passage at 13:22 Highlight the passage at 13:22

13:38 Was I sensitive, open to that? I'm afraid not. Certainly not as much as I could have been. Was he aware? I didn't sense that. And how could he be? Because I immersed myself in such a world that was so far outside of his world that I really think he literally could not imagine what I've been through. But there it is, we're coming together, feeling we know each other, but not. You know? Semblance and yet not. And that happens an awful lot, you know? Report an error in the passage at 13:38 Highlight the passage at 13:38

14:06 Whether it's parent-child relationships, friendships, romances and so forth. The locking onto, the freeze-drying of other people, environments, places, and the giveaway that we're actually doing something delusional or unrealistic, that we're conflating our projection with the reality. The projection being relatively static, the reality in constant flux, the giveaway to that. What's the indication that maybe we're getting things a bit wrong? It's when we get shocked. Report an error in the passage at 14:06 Highlight the passage at 14:06

14:36 When we get shocked at some change we didn't see coming. But you were so healthy the last time I saw you. Or you were alive the last time I saw you. Report an error in the passage at 14:36 Highlight the passage at 14:36

14:49 Or you were so much skinnier. Or your hair is grayer. What happened? What happened to you? I think your hair is a bit grayer. What's wrong with you? Something happened there. know and In contrast to my own, of course. When we get shocked by change, we should never be shocked by change. We should be shocked if anything remains static. That would be a show-stopper. But if everything is in flux, and in flux in often unpredictable ways, that's normal. Report an error in the passage at 14:49 Highlight the passage at 14:49

15:19 That's what we should assume is going to be the case. And we should assume that most of the world is beyond our control and is indifferent to our preferences. And we should get used to that. We should get used that we don't have all that much control even over our own bodies, as much as we might be conscientious about health, diet, exercise and all of that. Report an error in the passage at 15:19 Highlight the passage at 15:19

15:38 Very good. And when all is said and done, there's no guarantee that we're not going to have an accident or that we're not going to come down with an unexpected illness. And we should never be shocked. It happens. It happens all over the place. And so, but the question can be really raised. And that is if we really are willing to be open to that reality, the reality of ubiquitous, Ever-changing nature of reality, much of it unpredictable and almost all of it uncontrollable. And we just kind of gaze at that without flinching. Report an error in the passage at 15:38 Highlight the passage at 15:38

16:10 Take it in and really start viewing reality in that way. Not simply believing it, but actually bringing that belief, that view, that understanding into our actual way of viewing reality. And view reality as such, which then is being realistic. Is that going to shake things up at all? Is that going to shift? Report an error in the passage at 16:10 Highlight the passage at 16:10

16:29 Priorities, shift our way of viewing reality at large, our priorities and shift our world view, our way of life at all. Report an error in the passage at 16:29 Highlight the passage at 16:29

16:39 And I would suggest, well, what the Buddha said is that this awareness, this discerning awareness of impermanence and not only that mountains erode and that weather changes and people get older and you get jobs and you lose jobs and you acquire things and you lose them. Not only that, but kind of the really core impermanence here. Report an error in the passage at 16:39 Highlight the passage at 16:39

17:00 And that is that each of us is already aging. Whatever our age may be, we are aging. And it's irreversible. Entropy strikes and it doesn't go backwards. And that we're going to die. That our mortality is one of the few certainties in life. That where there is birth, there is death. And actually fully, like the existentialists, really incorporating that awareness into our way of viewing ourselves and others. Report an error in the passage at 17:00 Highlight the passage at 17:00

17:27 That everybody we encounter is going to be dead. We ourselves will be dead. The certainty of that is 100%. What is utterly uncertain is exactly when it's going to take place. If you have a parent who's, like my own parents, are very elderly now, well, they're clearly anticipating not living very long. Report an error in the passage at 17:27 Highlight the passage at 17:27

17:46 They're making no long-term plans. That's very realistic. And if they should die soon, no one will be shocked because they've been fortunate enough to have long, quite healthy lives. Report an error in the passage at 17:46 Highlight the passage at 17:46

17:57 But as we all know, it's not only the very elderly who pass away, but people like Steve Jobs. He was middle-aged. Other people young, other people children, other people in the womb. As soon as you're born, you're already ripe, you're already ready to die. And so to filter into one's way of viewing reality, this mortality of ourselves and others and the sheer raw blatant fact of the utter uncertainty of the time of our own mortality, how will that shift things, how will that shake things up if we start not blocking that out and say, I don't want to think about that, that's morbid. Report an error in the passage at 17:57 Highlight the passage at 17:57

18:32 What would it be like to actually say, call it morbid, call it not morbid, but it's just kind of what's happening, so why don't you get over it? And factor that into the way we view reality, the way we engage with reality, the way we lead our lives. And the Buddha said of this, that just as the footprint of an elephant is the largest footprint of any terrestrial animal, I think any animal at all, whales don't leave footprints, as the footprint of an elephant is the largest footprint of any beast. Report an error in the passage at 18:32 Highlight the passage at 18:32

19:01 So is the footprint of the impact of a discerning recognition of impermanence the most impactful of anything we can recognize, discern, have realization or keen insight into pertaining to this phenomenal world in which we dwell, this loka, this lived world. The one facet of reality of which if you really grok it, you really fathom it and you totally assimilate it, it will most radically shake up. Report an error in the passage at 19:01 Highlight the passage at 19:01

19:30 The way you view reality as a whole, shift your priorities, shift your way of life, this is going to be the one that has the biggest sonic boom, the biggest tsunami, the biggest impact, is that one simple reality, which on the one hand is so obvious, on the other hand we are enormously adept at blocking it out, often ridiculously so. Report an error in the passage at 19:30 Highlight the passage at 19:30

19:51 But don't block it out, be totally open to it, and then watch the waves flow from that, is that this is the biggest impact. There's a deeper impact in terms of realizing nirvāṇa, but that's not so easy to fathom. But this is kind of in our face. Impermanent is not something you have to have some mystical, esoteric insight into, some transcendent wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 19:51 Highlight the passage at 19:51

20:12 It's in our face. What's reality is dishing up every single moment. There it is, kind of shouting at us from all sides. Everything here is in a state of flux. Almost everything is beyond control. Most things are unpredictable. And now, what will you do? Report an error in the passage at 20:12 Highlight the passage at 20:12

20:29 If you're really going to say, really? Okay. And we totally assimilate that? Okay. Well, here we are. We're viewing reality from that perspective, highlighting that aspect of reality. And then it kind of dawns on us pretty quickly, but I want to be happy and I don't want to suffer. Report an error in the passage at 20:29 Highlight the passage at 20:29

20:49 And exactly what strategy shall I take? What shall I do? I mean, I don't want to fail all the time and be miserable and fretful and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 20:49 Highlight the passage at 20:49

20:59 So how shall I be happy and how shall I avoid suffering? Now that I've been immersed like a guppy in a vast ocean, again, out of control, constant state of flux and largely unpredictable, how can I respond to this reality in any way that is authentic and realistic other than general anxiety disorder, which is a clinically diagnosed disease which I know very little about, but I know the word. Report an error in the passage at 20:59 Highlight the passage at 20:59

21:24 It sounds like a very transparent term. I'm just generally anxious about everything. Because everything that I'm putting my hook onto, I think you'll make me happy and I think I need to avoid you and if I get that, well that will make me happy and this will give me security. It's like just grasping in handfuls of water that everything I'm grasping onto, here's a person, this will be a stable relationship, this person I can count on, this person will be there for me, this one I'll lock onto. Report an error in the passage at 21:24 Highlight the passage at 21:24

21:52 I knew a woman when I was a monk back in Switzerland many years ago, very attractive woman, well educated, very bright. But I think she'd had some unpleasant experiences romantically. I'm kind of surmising or inferring that. And she was looking for a really stable relationship. Beautiful woman, attractive, educated, all of that business. So, good catch, one would say. She was looking for a really stable partner. And she found somebody who was a university professor. Report an error in the passage at 21:52 Highlight the passage at 21:52

22:18 He was short, he was bald, a bit fat. Report an error in the passage at 22:18 Highlight the passage at 22:18

22:23 And I think she thought, there's a good candidate. I'm a babe, he's a dork. You know, physically speaking. So he'll want to keep on to me and he's going to be my stable, he's going to be my rock. Stable, university professor, got tenure. I think this is looking good. Report an error in the passage at 22:23 Highlight the passage at 22:23

22:42 So she married him. It didn't quite work out like she thought. He found a mistress and asked his wife whether his mistress could move in with him. Report an error in the passage at 22:42 Highlight the passage at 22:42

22:53 Didn't see that coming. Report an error in the passage at 22:53 Highlight the passage at 22:53

22:57 Go figure. And so the best laid plans of beautiful women don't always work out that way. And in so many other cases, how many people do I know who are really, really keen on fitness? You know, that's really keen on fitness. Bicycles, that's the trick. Let's go for bicycling. Most of the people I know who are really keen on bicycling, they've had serious accidents. Some of them, one of them, a good friend of mine, he's got back pain for the rest of his life. Report an error in the passage at 22:57 Highlight the passage at 22:57

23:25 And he went on the bicycle for good health. Now he's got back pain for life. Even morphine doesn't touch the pain. That's unusual, but... Most of the people I know who ride bicycles a lot have had serious accidents because those roads are made for automobiles and not bicycles. And the cars are bigger and heavier. Report an error in the passage at 23:25 Highlight the passage at 23:25

23:43 So you hardly ever hear of anybody behind the driving wheel who said, Oh, I had this terrible accident. A bicycle ran into me. It tends to be the opposite. And so we do all these things. A friend of mine, a bit older than I am now, he was very bright, intelligent and really very keen on it. He was so responsible. Report an error in the passage at 23:43 Highlight the passage at 23:43

24:02 With regard to his health, he ate well, he exercised well. He looked like just the image of fitness. And quite wealthy also. And he went out for his daily exercise, got on his bicycle, hopped on the bicycle and he dropped dead. You know, he got on the bicycle and by the time he hit the ground he was dead. Report an error in the passage at 24:02 Highlight the passage at 24:02

24:22 To his wife especially, she didn't see that coming. He's only 70 or so. Looked like brimming with good health. He had an anomaly in his heart. And he just stopped working. She was really upset with him. Report an error in the passage at 24:22 Highlight the passage at 24:22

24:33 Didn't see that coming. How dare you? She really felt that he was the locus of her happiness. She said so. Not my interpretation. She felt her happiness was located in him. He was a wonderful man. Very good man. Loving spouse. Just a really exemplary man. But suddenly where her happiness was, there was just a vacuum. There wasn't anything there. Report an error in the passage at 24:33 Highlight the passage at 24:33

24:52 She wanted to commit suicide. I don't think I've ever seen, because I've not spent time, a lot of time, in places of intense misery. I lived in refugee camps, but they were pretty happy. They're Tibetans. So maybe I've had a bit of a protected life. But among the people I've known personally, I don't think I've ever seen such anguish in my life. Report an error in the passage at 24:52 Highlight the passage at 24:52

25:13 And she was healthy, rather attractive woman, intelligent, educated, loving family, very affluent, very comfortable life. But she just lost her husband. She wanted to kill herself. The anguish that she displayed was just terribly moving. And she didn't kill herself because she didn't want to set a bad example for her grandchildren. Report an error in the passage at 25:13 Highlight the passage at 25:13

25:32 That was the only reason she said. And gradually, gradually, as the years went by, the pain eased and she's now living a more normal life again. But she was so shocked that the very source of her happiness had vanished. It was a great big vacuum where her husband should have been. It was empty. And how could he? How could he? So she was shocked at something that happens. Report an error in the passage at 25:32 Highlight the passage at 25:32

25:58 And so this superposition of permanence, of reliability, of stability, of continuity, something we can count on. A guppy in the middle of the ocean, don't count on much of anything at all except it's going to be wet. Don't count on anything at all except for everything will change. That you can count on, but you don't know how it's going to change. So I look at this really trying to gaze at it unflinchingly. And I just speak from my perspective. Report an error in the passage at 25:58 Highlight the passage at 25:58

26:28 If one is deeply invested in one's pursuit of happiness, and here we're happily living, Australia is a free country, something to rejoice in. The United States in many ways is a free country, most of Europe, maybe all of Europe. So we really do have a lot of freedom to pursue happiness as we wish without injuring other people. Report an error in the passage at 26:28 Highlight the passage at 26:28

26:45 It's a wonderful thing. But as we bring to mind a vision of the good life and we want to pursue it, and insofar as that vision of the good life is hedonic. That is, I want to find this type of partner and this type of place and this type of work and this type of body and this type of acquisitions, these type of vacations, these type of enjoyments, this type of reputation and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 26:45 Highlight the passage at 26:45

27:08 I'm getting a vision here, it's coming into focus. That's it. That's going to make me happy. Let's get going. Let's go towards that vision. Like a moth towards a candle. That works well if reality is relatively stable, static and controllable. And you can pursue it with confidence and without anxiety. I'm moving ahead in my job, my relationship is going well, my children are growing up. This is all looking good. Report an error in the passage at 27:08 Highlight the passage at 27:08

27:36 Yes, things are right on course. I don't feel any anxiety at all because things are really coming out as planned. I'm controlling things well. In other words, you're completely delusional. Report an error in the passage at 27:36 Highlight the passage at 27:36

27:47 So you can be either fully engaged with reality and really pursuing hedonic well-being as your prime directive. In which case, to my mind, if you're really attending reality and you're really deeply invested and in the vision that your well-being is all bound up in hedonic well-being, then I think you've got reality, you have your hedonic priorities and you can have general anxiety disorder as the only realistic way to emotionally respond to reality. Report an error in the passage at 27:47 Highlight the passage at 27:47

28:16 Because if you're not anxious, you're not paying attention. If you're not feeling anxiety, you don't get it. Because your desires are completely incompatible with reality. And something is going to give. It's either your desires or reality is going to fade out. But I think it's probably going to be your aspirations, your vision is going to crumble because the waves, the waves of flux, of impermanence, of unpredictability, of uncontrollability are going to shatter your vision and it's only a matter of time. Report an error in the passage at 28:16 Highlight the passage at 28:16

28:43 And so if you're not anxious, you're not paying attention. So you've got two choices. You can either pay attention and radically shift your priorities or you can decide very deliberately not to pay attention. And live in what you call the real world, which is a little bubble around your head made of fiction. Of everything being in its place. Report an error in the passage at 28:43 Highlight the passage at 28:43

29:02 Kind of the 1950s. Anybody remember the 1950s? Leave it to Beaver. Norman Rockwell. Everything in its place. Everything is orderly. So nice. Everything on the surface. No content at all. Everything predictable. The good life. The picket fence. The whole deal, right? Until the hippies came around and just wreaked havoc with that one. Report an error in the passage at 29:02 Highlight the passage at 29:02

29:25 So... If one wants to remain engaged with reality, this reality of impermanence, flux, mortality, how do you be happy? Really, how do you be happy? If you're just facing day to day, the sheer reality is not being morbid, it's just taking stock of reality that you're going to die, all of your attachments are going to be cut, everything you've acquired will be lost, you're aging and it's irreversible, you're prone to illness at any time, how exactly are you going to be happy? Report an error in the passage at 29:25 Highlight the passage at 29:25

29:54 And not just be depressed as hell. or anxious to the point of almost meltdown, unless you're taking Xanax, in which case Xanax, then you may, one of the side effects is you feel suicidal, so you don't feel anxious anymore, you just want to kill yourself. So you've got a number of options, but none of them really look all that good. How do you manage? And no wonder psychopharmaceutical drugs are so popular, because we'll need a lot of drugs to dope ourselves up, to be able to handle facsimile of reality, insofar as we totally invested in hedonic. Report an error in the passage at 29:54 Highlight the passage at 29:54

30:30 Drugs are going to be a major mainstay, whether it's marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine, the illegal ones, or whether it's the legal ones. But one way or another, we're going to have to dope ourselves up pretty heavily to try to engage with reality by holding that visionary bubble of the good life. They simply cannot withstand the onslaught of reality. So is there any alternative here? Or should we just keep the pharmaceutical industry up and running and get us all to be saying just yes to all the dope that they're peddling out and wishing to make us lifelong clients? Report an error in the passage at 30:30 Highlight the passage at 30:30

31:00 With a lot of support from the medical profession, is there any alternative? And you see where I'm going, of course. And that is all the hedonic pleasure is dependent upon pleasant stimuli coming in. But then most of the stimuli we can't control. Not really. We get the facsimile of it. We get the illusion of being in control. Dad's in control of the children and they're behaving well. Report an error in the passage at 31:00 Highlight the passage at 31:00

31:22 Get over it. That's not going to last. Trying to control one's spouse, that's a dead end. I wouldn't even try it. I don't. I learn better. Report an error in the passage at 31:22 Highlight the passage at 31:22

31:30 And it's of course not the nature of a healthy relationship anyway, to try to, you know, I'm happy because I got you fully in control. That's a servant and master and slave relationship. I control you, you don't control me. I say jump, you say how far. But there it is, then you're a slave or you're the master. So is there any alternative in terms of investing our life, our energy, our imagination, other than the hedonic pursuit of the good life? Report an error in the passage at 31:30 Highlight the passage at 31:30

31:59 Which is just fraught with anxiety, and if it's not, then you're not being realistic. And of course the answer is, how about Dharma? This is why the Buddha said this is the biggest footprint. If you really get this, you take it in, you assimilate it, you don't flinch, you don't go into shutdown mode, you don't go into protective, like a little sow bug rolling itself into a ball and pretending as if it's not so. Report an error in the passage at 31:59 Highlight the passage at 31:59

32:18 I'm really good health now, it must last. Of course I'm going to be healthy tomorrow and next year, because after all I'm healthy now, and I'm eating well. Right? Tremble, tremble, tremble. As I see friends of mine who are already dead by unexpected illnesses. They never saw coming, right? Well, of course, the alternative, how about Dharma? And Dharma, through thick and thin, through gain and loss, through good health and bad health, through aging, sickness and death, Dharma is there and it's not contingent upon things going your way. Report an error in the passage at 32:18 Highlight the passage at 32:18

32:47 It's contingent upon your bringing to reality. Authentic motivation, practice, mental stability, clarity, ethics, wisdom. And then we see these people. And I've known many, it's one of the greatest blessings of my life, to have met so many mature Dharma practitioners. And I have met some who really have been through hell and back. Report an error in the passage at 32:47 Highlight the passage at 32:47

33:07 The Tibetans I know. I translated for, oh, Banagyatsu. What was it, 32 years? Pretty much the whole of his adult life in concentration camp with regular starvation and torture and working almost to death. I got to know him. I translated for him multiple times. Report an error in the passage at 33:07 Highlight the passage at 33:07

33:27 Well, I wasn't being protected there. He told me in detail. And of course, I can only use my imagination. He was there. Nevertheless, he was very articulate. He told me what it was like. He actually gave me something of a mind-to-mind transmission of some semblance, some image of what he'd been through for something like 35 years in concentration camps. Report an error in the passage at 33:27 Highlight the passage at 33:27

33:48 And of course, he hadn't done anything wrong. One would think that should be for a mass murderer or somebody like that. No, nothing at all. He was just a monk. Maybe he said, long live the Dalai Lama. Maybe something really awful like that. But 35 years. And of course, in the 35 years, you never know when you're in it that you'll ever say 35 years. Report an error in the passage at 33:48 Highlight the passage at 33:48

34:07 You don't know whether you'll say 12 years or 35 years or you'll say nothing at all because you died in prison. That's one of the big things about being in a concentration camp. You have no idea whether you'll ever get out. Right? You only know afterwards. And so, here was a man that I got to know, translated for him. Report an error in the passage at 34:07 Highlight the passage at 34:07

34:25 I never saw him speak with hatred, ever, or resentment, or retaliation, or malice, never once. And we spoke a lot, I translated it for him, as I said. It was more compassion than standing up for human rights. And he spoke with strength, with passion, a lot. I never saw hatred, none at all, 35 years. Report an error in the passage at 34:25 Highlight the passage at 34:25

34:46 And he wasn't a tulkhu, he wasn't a great meditator, he wasn't a great scholar, very ordinary monk. He really was a simple Buddhist monk. But he practiced, he practiced as well as he could. Report an error in the passage at 34:46 Highlight the passage at 34:46

34:57 I or somebody asked him, how did you, how did you stand it? How did you stand it? How did you bear it? And he said, you can't bear it. It was unbearable. But I was a Buddhist monk and it's against our precepts to kill anyone and that includes ourselves. So I wouldn't kill myself as much as I wanted to. Report an error in the passage at 34:57 Highlight the passage at 34:57

35:17 I wouldn't kill myself. It was unbearable. But somehow you bear it anyway. So I've known such people and not only one, Yang Tanabuche, 22 years. And he is a tuku. He is an adept. He's an extraordinary being. 22 years. And why was he incarcerated? Because he's a tuku. He's a high-level monk. 22 years. I don't think I've ever met a more serene, gentle, grounded, wise, benevolent man. Report an error in the passage at 35:17 Highlight the passage at 35:17

35:46 No one more so. And he doesn't even mention. You have to tease it out of him. He doesn't even mention the concentration camp. He doesn't even come out. He's just here sharing dharma. Sharing Dharma, serene. Eighty-four years old, give five-hour discourses. You thought I wore you out in two and a half hours. Double that by a man who's, what, 30 years older than I am. Report an error in the passage at 35:46 Highlight the passage at 35:46

36:09 So you meet such people, that really shakes you up in a really good way. You see what's possible is that the waves of flux of impermanence washed upon him in pretty much the worst imaginable way. It's hard for me to imagine much worse than, frankly, I can't imagine anything worse. and be tortured regularly in concentration camp. That pretty much hits the max for me, and I've known multiple people who've been there. And these monks, these yogis, coming out unscathed, no PTSD at all, no sign of it. Report an error in the passage at 36:09 Highlight the passage at 36:09

36:44 And you see, whoa, that speaks about the malleability of the human spirit. These people have brought about a revolution of the most important kind. If they can weather that and look back with compassion upon those who tortured them. That's more impressive than a thousand Nobel Prizes. Physics, chemistry, biology, and so forth. That's incredible. And it speaks to the resilience, the malleability, the potentials of our own minds. Report an error in the passage at 36:44 Highlight the passage at 36:44

37:09 So there it is. Therein lies freedom to be able to face unflinchingly the reality of impermanence and not quaver, not fall into any anxiety at all. Because you have a reality-based view and you're living a reality-based way of life where your sense of well-being is not contingent upon things remaining as they are, remaining in control or remaining pleasant. Report an error in the passage at 37:09 Highlight the passage at 37:09

37:33 But you just carry through like one of those great big icebreakers that cuts right through the Arctic ice and whatever it is, thick or thin, it just breaks through the ice and you just break right through and transform everything into your practice. I don't know if there's anything more worthwhile to do in life. Report an error in the passage at 37:33 Highlight the passage at 37:33

37:49 Than to, in a very concerted, conscious, deliberate and sustained fashion, bring about that kind of transformation. Because after all, we're all in the same soup, the same ocean, and that's the ocean where what we have to look forward to, if we're fortunate enough to live old, to an old age, is we can look forward to aging, look forward to getting sick, and then forward to dying. Report an error in the passage at 37:49 Highlight the passage at 37:49

38:12 That's when we're fortunate. If we're not fortunate, then we just get the aging, not much of it, and then, Death, through illness or injury. Those are called the unfortunate people. But the unfortunate people are like my parents, who now have many happy memories, except for my mother's memory is not so clear, so she doesn't have so many of those memories anymore. Report an error in the passage at 38:12 Highlight the passage at 38:12

38:33 And my father, who has a very clear mind, is very clearly aware that almost all of his friends are dead. And he had a lot of friendships, but he's outlived almost all of them. And there he is, he has his tablet, his Kindle, and he reads voraciously. Report an error in the passage at 38:33 Highlight the passage at 38:33

38:52 But there's almost nobody alive of his generation that he knows anymore, of his old friends. And that's the end of a good life. That's the happy ending. Now he has loving children. We attend to him. He's well taken care of. But at the same time, it's hard to think that's a sweet pill. And yet that was a sweet one because all his friends died earlier. Report an error in the passage at 38:52 Highlight the passage at 38:52

39:12 And he didn't. But now they're all gone. Report an error in the passage at 39:12 Highlight the passage at 39:12

39:19 From that perspective, it's very hard to look forward to anything good because you know that in terms of all the hedonic pleasures, nothing is going to get better. And everything will get worse. So if you don't have Dharma, this is at the end of happy life, right? He had a good life. At the end of happy life, it's like one of those Greek tragedies. Report an error in the passage at 39:19 Highlight the passage at 39:19

39:37 One thing you already know is it's not going to turn out well. That's why it's called a tragedy. And if this is the good one, where it ends with your health deteriorating, you're just getting older and older, and then you face death and the separation from your nearest loved one, his wife. And they were, it's just a tiny personal thing. They started dating when my mother was 13. Report an error in the passage at 39:37 Highlight the passage at 39:37

39:56 They never dated anybody else. They married, they've been married, I don't know, decades. And there they are. I mean, a bit unusual, not so unusual for their generation, but that's it. They never dated anybody else. And they married during the Second World War when my father was 20, I don't know, he was 18, something like that. He had 60 years or so. Report an error in the passage at 39:56 Highlight the passage at 39:56

40:17 That's the end of a good life. They had a good life. But the end, hedonically, where's the happy part? And if you have Dharma, it's flourishing all the way through. You transform it all. Report an error in the passage at 40:17 Highlight the passage at 40:17

40:31 So that one insight into impermanence can change everything. Totally 180 degrees rotate the axis of your priorities. Hedonic well-being, yes, it has a place. But it's subservient to the cultivation of yudaimonic, of genuine happiness, true flourishing. Everything is subservient to Dharma. Everything is for the sake of Dharma. Your own Dharma practice, other people's Dharma, that's the greatest service, that's the greatest meaning. Report an error in the passage at 40:31 Highlight the passage at 40:31

40:58 And having good health, good. What's the big deal about having good health if you're living a really unwholesome way of life? I mean, as a Buddhist principle, if you're living a really evil way of life, better to have a short one than a long one. It's less negative karma. That just means you go out and kill evil people, but it's just like, if you're doing something really rotten in the world, then do less of it, rather than more, and if that entails having a shorter life, well then congratulations, at least you kept the damage control to a short life. Report an error in the passage at 40:58 Highlight the passage at 40:58

41:25 Right? So, awareness of impermanence, it really changes everything. And finding that even when you're in this ocean of flux, everything uncertain, mostly unpredictable and uncontrollable, you can truly flourish every single day. Report an error in the passage at 41:25 Highlight the passage at 41:25

41:42 It's coming from what you're bringing to reality rather than what you're getting from reality. And insofar as your core nuclear well-being is contingent upon being lucky, well, they say something in Las Vegas, the house always wins. Report an error in the passage at 41:42 Highlight the passage at 41:42

42:01 And if we consider Saṃsāra to be a great big casino, Where I hope I'll be lucky. I hope I'm going to get this job. I hope I'll be lucky. I'm going to go and get this. I'm going to move here. I hope it turns out well. I'm going to have a romantic relationship here. I hope it turns out well. It's kind of luck of the draw because what do you know? We're betting things will turn out well. I hope they will. I hope they will. Let's have children. Report an error in the passage at 42:01 Highlight the passage at 42:01

42:22 I think that will turn out well. I hope so. Let's see. How does that turn out? But whether it turns out happy, like my parents have four happy children. We're all successful in various ways. Healthy. It's really a very healthy family. Much to rejoice in. But the house always wins. And that is, at the end of the day, you get old, you get sick and you die. Report an error in the passage at 42:22 Highlight the passage at 42:22

42:45 Or you don't get old, you get sick and you die. Or you just die. You can have your choice though. Any of those three are possibilities. Old, sick and die. Or just sick and die. Or just die. Either way, that's kind of the answer. You're screwed. Report an error in the passage at 42:45 Highlight the passage at 42:45

43:06 And all of those can be transformed. That's what Dharma is all about. Anybody can enjoy felicity. Anybody, ants, turtles, cockroaches, they all enjoy a good meal. Anybody can enjoy felicity. And nobody likes adversity. But Dharma is to transform everything into spiritual practice. It is all grist for the mill. And every day is a good day. Actually can be. It's not dished up that way, but it can be transformed that way. Report an error in the passage at 43:06 Highlight the passage at 43:06

43:31 And that's what the insight into impermanence is all about. To kind of like existential shock therapy. Get real. This is the way it is. Stop pretending otherwise. And you have a real chance at finding genuine happiness. But as long as you're still supposing, imagining that the impermanent is permanent, you'll probably never get around to Dharma. Report an error in the passage at 43:31 Highlight the passage at 43:31

43:52 You'll have other priorities. Still tinkering with saṃsāra, trying to get to beat the house. I'm sure I can be a bit more skillful and get this person to behave and this and this and this and my body like this. I think this is going to work out. Massaging saṃsāra into shape. Well, for the short term it can work out well. Report an error in the passage at 43:52 Highlight the passage at 43:52

44:11 In the long term it never does. Never ever does. So this is a point of Vipassanā. Not just to believe it, not just to have a conviction about it, but to see it directly and let it seep in right down to your marrow. This is the way things are. And now how can I flourish? How can I be happy in the midst of this? And there really is only one answer and that's Dharma. Not Buddha Dharma. Report an error in the passage at 44:11 Highlight the passage at 44:11

44:37 Dharma is a magnificent answer. But there's Christian Dharma, there's Taoists, there's humanist Dharma. There's a lot of virtue outside of the context of religion. But frankly, by definition, Dharma is the only thing that is a response, a realistic and meaningful and transformative response to the question, how shall I find happiness now in the face of that reality, which takes all the fun out of saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 44:37 Highlight the passage at 44:37

45:01 As the Buddha said, whatever you acquire, you're going to lose it. Whatever is born, it's going to die. Whatever arises high in terms of status and so forth, whatever goes up is going to come down. And wherever there's meeting, oh, I've been looking for you all my life, okay, that means we're going to part. Report an error in the passage at 45:01 Highlight the passage at 45:01

45:20 You may as well say goodbye now because it's already going to happen. It's already a done deal. As soon as you meet somebody, the parting is inevitable. It's only a matter of time. So those are the four principles. Whatever is acquired will be lost. Whatever is born will die. Whatever elevates will descend. And wherever there's meeting, there will be parting. I think being aware of that. Report an error in the passage at 45:20 Highlight the passage at 45:20

45:39 Have a nice day. Really, Report an error in the passage at 45:39 Highlight the passage at 45:39

45:45 I don't think it's being fundamentalist or dogmatic, but I think the only way to have a nice day is to practice Dharma. Because that's the response, that's a realistic response to those realities. Report an error in the passage at 45:45 Highlight the passage at 45:45

45:58 And reality, that impermanence has just struck. It's five o 'clock. Enjoy two hours of flux. Report an error in the passage at 45:58 Highlight the passage at 45:58