Sunday Service - February, 2011

0:17 I hear you were here yesterday. Yeah, just for a little bit. just I live in that place. There's no need to anymore. Report an error in the passage at 0:17 Highlight the passage at 0:17

0:28 That's Report an error in the passage at 0:28 Highlight the passage at 0:28

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

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1:16 actually turn this off for me. It's more distracting right now. Although, maybe it would be more enjoyable than looking at me. Report an error in the passage at 1:16 Highlight the passage at 1:16

1:44 I was telling Marcella, I was really nervous. It's not a Thursday night. It feels kind of weird for me. I only teach Thursday nights. It's like daytime and yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:44 Highlight the passage at 1:44

1:57 Anyway, welcome everybody. My name is Chokyi and I have been with the center about 11 years, but I don't normally teach on Sunday mornings. Report an error in the passage at 1:57 Highlight the passage at 1:57

2:10 And I've been a nun about the same amount of time. I'm going to start with waiting for the fire engine to go by. I'm going to start with just a quiet little meditation on the breath and bear with me. It's mostly for me. I just make the rest of you do it with me, but it just allows us to sort of let go of whatever else we were doing and come into the room. Report an error in the passage at 2:10 Highlight the passage at 2:10

2:40 So just take some nice deep belly breaths. Let go of your morning. Let go of your commute over here, whether it was on foot or muni or driving. I started to say parking, but that's usually what's the worst part about the driving over here. Report an error in the passage at 2:40 Highlight the passage at 2:40

2:58 Just take some nice deep breaths and let them wash away everything. Report an error in the passage at 2:58 Highlight the passage at 2:58

3:12 And if it helps, you can imagine breathing in white light and breathing out black smoke and breathing in everything you need today. so if you need some Clarity and alertness and curiosity, breathe that in and breathe out sluggishness and distraction, agitated mind. Mind Report an error in the passage at 3:12 Highlight the passage at 3:12

3:57 calms down, you can just focus on your breath for a couple rounds of 10. Report an error in the passage at 3:57 Highlight the passage at 3:57

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5:01 And then we usually like to start with a little motivation, trying to get our hearts and minds in the right direction. Just to motivate that whatever we learn today or whatever new questions form. Report an error in the passage at 5:01 Highlight the passage at 5:01

5:20 Whatever positive energy we create, we can place that in the bank, so to speak. Use it for our future enlightenment so that we can perfectly benefit all living beings. Then Report an error in the passage at 5:20 Highlight the passage at 5:20

5:47 as you're ready, we're going to start with reading and opening prayer. I always start with the same one. Although most teachers use more traditional ones, I really like this one. It's on page 8. There should be a picture of the Dalai Lama on that page. I Report an error in the passage at 5:47 Highlight the passage at 5:47

6:11 think it sort of says it all. With Report an error in the passage at 6:11 Highlight the passage at 6:11

6:19 the wish to free all beings, I shall always go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha until I reach full enlightenment. Inspired by wisdom and compassion, today in the Buddha's presence, I generate the mind of full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. As long as space remains. As long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world. Report an error in the passage at 6:19 Highlight the passage at 6:19

6:54 So we're also going to read the three principal paths because that's what Rinpoche is going to teach on and that's what I'm going to give you a little sneak preview. Of course I didn't bother to find out where it is. I think it's in maybe preliminary? No. Prayers for Teaching Occasions? Where is it? Do you know? Report an error in the passage at 6:54 Highlight the passage at 6:54

7:16 You just... 141, good man. Thanks, David. Lovely assistant. Oh, lovely assistant in the front row. Wait, this is... No, this is like some sort of... No, I guess it is. I just have it all in this really interesting way. Report an error in the passage at 7:16 Highlight the passage at 7:16

7:37 Yeah. Okay. There we go. Don't read the titles. Yeah, but I guess it is the right prayer. It just looks a little different. Report an error in the passage at 7:37 Highlight the passage at 7:37

7:51 I bow down to my perfect gurus. The essential meaning of the victorious ones teaching, the path praised by all the holy victors and their children, the gateway of the fortunate ones desiring liberation, this I shall try to explain as much as I can. Those who are not attached to the pleasures of circling saṃsāra, who strive to make freedom and endowments meaningful, Report an error in the passage at 7:51 Highlight the passage at 7:51

8:21 the victorious ones, you fortunate ones, listen with a calm mind. Without the complete intention definitely to be free from circling, there is no way to pacify attachment, seeking pleasurable effects in the ocean of circling. Also, by craving for cyclic existence, embodied beings are continuously bound. Therefore, at the beginning... Report an error in the passage at 8:21 Highlight the passage at 8:21

8:46 At the very beginning, Secret Annunciation, freedom and endowments are difficult to find and life has no time to spare. By gaining familiarity with this, attachment to the pieces of this life is reversed. By thinking over and over again that actions and their effects are unbetraying and repeatedly contemplating the miseries of cyclic existence. Report an error in the passage at 8:46 Highlight the passage at 8:46

9:13 Lama Tsongkhapa said, It does not become the cause of the perfect bliss of unsurpassed enlightenment. Therefore, the wise generate the supreme mind of enlightenment, swept away by the current of the four powerful rivers. Shantideva, His Holiness the Dalai Lama Ceaselessly tormented by the three sufferings, thinking of all mothers who are in such a condition, generate the supreme mind of enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 9:13 Highlight the passage at 9:13

10:22 In short, if like the mother whose cherished son has fallen into a pit of fire and who experiences even one second of his suffering as an unbearable eternity, your reflection on the suffering of all mother sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 10:22 Highlight the passage at 10:22

10:55 realizing ultimate reality. Even though you have generated renunciation in the mind of enlightenment, you cannot cut the root cause of circling. Therefore, attempt a method to realize dependent arising. One who sees the cause and effect of all phenomena of both psychic existence and the state beyond sorrow as forever unbetraying and for whom any object trusted in by the grasping mind has completely disappeared has at that time entered the path pleasing the Buddhas. Report an error in the passage at 10:55 Highlight the passage at 10:55

11:30 If the appearance of dependent relation As long as they are seen as separate, then one has still not realized the Buddha's intent. If these two realizations are happening simultaneously without alternation, and from merely seeing dependent relation as completely unbetraying, the definite ascertainment comes that completely destroys the way all objects are apprehended as truly existent. Report an error in the passage at 11:30 Highlight the passage at 11:30

12:03 At that time, the analysis of the ultimate view is complete. Furthermore, appearance eliminates the extreme of existence, emptiness eliminates the extreme of non-existence. If you realize how emptiness manifests in the manner of cause and effect, then you are not captivated by wrong notions holding extreme views. Report an error in the passage at 12:03 Highlight the passage at 12:03

12:26 this way, you realize exactly the vital points of the three principal aspects of the path, to to seeking seeking solid solitude, generate the power of effort, and quickly accomplish your final goal, my child. I love how they changed the translation every time you turn around. It's like, oh, okay, they've made some more changes. Report an error in the passage at 12:26 Highlight the passage at 12:26

12:52 I like this one, though. I think this one is... you used to how it's laid out I think it really is good for analysis and for meditating and that's I think why Thank you for indulging me. Report an error in the passage at 12:52 Highlight the passage at 12:52

13:11 should just stop there that's enough to the rest of the day oh well now I'm gonna lighten it up all right so my role as I see it today is is to introduce the topics that are going to be in this text, that are in this text, that Rinpoche is going to be teaching on, Lama Zopa Rinpoche is going to be teaching on next weekend, very, very briefly, so like very introductory, and then I'm going to introduce the teacher himself, because I think a lot of you probably haven't met him in person, or haven't received teachings from him, and he has a quite unique way of teaching. Report an error in the passage at 13:11 Highlight the passage at 13:11

13:54 So we'll start with a teaching and then we'll end with a teacher. And the reason that we have the screen set up is I'm going to just play you some little excerpts of his teaching style. So for those of you that are planning to attend teachings with him, you'll have a little preview of what to expect, which is very different from a more traditional teacher. Report an error in the passage at 13:54 Highlight the passage at 13:54

14:15 So let's start with the three principal aspects of the path. Sometimes called the three principal paths, sometimes called the three principal aspects of the path. But no different from the entire graduated Path to Enlightenment. It's just a condensed version of it in a way. They're sort of the three main topics that we have to realize. Report an error in the passage at 14:15 Highlight the passage at 14:15

14:38 Sometimes when they call it the three principal paths, path is in this sense being used as the mind itself. So it's the three principal minds that we need on the Path to Enlightenment. So path is used that way. They use it that way in a couple of places and I think it gets confusing in English. Report an error in the passage at 14:38 Highlight the passage at 14:38

14:56 That's really what it's talking about. And it's not talking about any of the three. It's not talking about us just having an intellectual understanding of it. I always have to bring this up in all my classes. Because I think there is confusion. Sometimes we think, you know, why do they teach the three principle paths every time they come? Report an error in the passage at 14:56 Highlight the passage at 14:56

15:16 You know, the teachers always do. Whenever we have Chant of Rinpoche, sometimes I'll ask, you know. I guess you'll maybe teach on Sunday morning. He'll go, maybe three paths? And a lot of people are like, oh man, he taught that last time. It's like, have we realized it yet? Maybe once we realize it, then they'll move on. So there's a couple of reasons. One is it's a really great, well, there's this text that we just read, this text by... Report an error in the passage at 15:16 Highlight the passage at 15:16

15:48 Lama Tsongkhapa, who's the founder of our tradition, the Galupa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. This little text is short but very dense, as they are known to be, most texts are, but covers the whole path. So it's a very nice little short lamrim that a teacher can do in a weekend or sometimes even a day. Report an error in the passage at 15:48 Highlight the passage at 15:48

16:11 They'll just do it in one sitting. They'll go over the basics. basics, but also Lama Zopa Rinpoche is going to be giving a jnang, which is a tantric permission to practice. And before you do any tantric, anything, no matter what level of tantra, in this case it's called action tantra, kriya tantra, it's traditional to always do a lamrim teaching first. Report an error in the passage at 16:11 Highlight the passage at 16:11

16:40 The combination that we got at our center is very nice. The lamrim on one day and then the tantric empowerment on the next day. And I'm going to talk about why you have to really have some understanding, if not realization, of these three paths before you try to enter tantra, no matter what level of tantra it is, or you won't get anywhere. Report an error in the passage at 16:40 Highlight the passage at 16:40

17:02 You just never have any success in your practice. And by success, I don't mean being able to fly. I mean being able to get enlightened. Anyway, so. he's probably done both. He's like, anybody can fly, anybody can read minds. And I'm like, really, where are you from? Who are you? Report an error in the passage at 17:02 Highlight the passage at 17:02

17:26 Anyway, Three paths refer to three attitudes or three minds or three realizations. Renunciation, bodhicitta and the correct view of emptiness. So I'll talk about each one, what they are. Renunciation, I usually like to spend the most time on renunciation because it's like the one that... I think people want to skip over it really fast. It's like doing your scales before you get to play the concerto or warming up before you get to run the race. Report an error in the passage at 17:26 Highlight the passage at 17:26

18:02 It always kind of gets the bad rep. But renunciation is also, if you think of it in sort of more practical terms, it's like building a really strong... good foundation without which it's thoroughly impossible to ever generate bodhicitta much less have a direct perception of emptiness because and I think they phrased it really well in that and this translation of the text renunciation really means recognizing the faults of saṃsāra and If you don't do that, if we're unable to recognize that, And I'll talk about what saṃsāra is, so if you don't know and you're like, oh my God, everybody else understands. We'll talk about that in a second. But if you don't feel like your suffering in all of its many levels and grades and subtleties and grossness is suffering and want to get out of that suffering, there is no way on earth that you're going to want to help anybody else because their suffering won't be suffering to you. Report an error in the passage at 18:02 Highlight the passage at 18:02

19:07 You won't even be able to recognize it as suffering and you won't really want to help. them get out either, which is really what bodhicitta is all about. So we have to focus on ourselves first. usually we're pretty good at that. So this time we get to take advantage of an inborn trait and focus on ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 19:07 Highlight the passage at 19:07

19:28 So renunciation is... The way I've heard it, and I think it's actually really apt, is developing a disgust for this life. And I think a lot of Westerners are like, oh my God, my life's not that bad. But really, it's developing a disgust. And I can almost assure you that Rinpoche will spend some time with this. He often describes it, learning to see saṃsāra as used toilet paper. Report an error in the passage at 19:28 Highlight the passage at 19:28

19:58 So it's beyond getting fed up, which some of us can get fed up. paper Report an error in the passage at 19:58 Highlight the passage at 19:58

20:04 We can get fed up, right? We go through the death of a loved one. We go through a hard breakup. We have some big life transformation of some sort or we have a really good retreat, one or the other. And we come out of it and we're fed up with saṃsāra and it wears off and we go back to saṃsāra, wanting to make it work and wanting to make it... Report an error in the passage at 20:04 Highlight the passage at 20:04

20:28 Perfect. We want to make our own pure little realm here in saṃsāra. Saṃsāra simply means cycling, korwa. It's circling, cycling through in our lives, cycling through all the many experiences that we go through from birth to death, but also since, according to the Buddha, we have a mind that is endless and beginningless. Report an error in the passage at 20:28 Highlight the passage at 20:28

20:53 We've been doing this through lifetimes. Since beginningless time, being born, getting sick, breaking our arms, breaking up with somebody, losing our jobs, being forced out of our homes, suffering just in all these little ways of wanting stuff, not being able to get the stuff we want. When we get the stuff we want, we get bored with the stuff we wanted and we want something else. Report an error in the passage at 20:53 Highlight the passage at 20:53

21:22 That's also samsaric suffering too, dissatisfied mind, dukkha. That's the stuff we forget about as suffering or the suffering in its more subtle ways of the suffering of change. Report an error in the passage at 21:22 Highlight the passage at 21:22

21:37 Really, really wanting the sun and then we get too many days of sun and then we get tired of sun and then we want some rain and then we get too much rain and then we want the sun again. I watch Bodhi, my cat, and I watch her and I see she goes straight for the sun. The minute the sun's out, she's so happy. Then she starts getting really hot, you know, so then she gets out of the sun and moves into the shade, you know, and then she gets cold and then she moves back and I'm just like, you're just trying to show me my mind. Report an error in the passage at 21:37 Highlight the passage at 21:37

22:01 It's just the way my mind works, you know. or she eats and eats and eats and then she just can't you know and then she asks for more food and it's just it's i'm like that all day That's saṃsāra. So saṃsāra isn't necessarily just the big stuff. you know just the the um you know terminal illness and the old age and death The Buddha said that basically everything, all the good stuff, you know, because people are like, yeah, but there's good stuff in life too, right? Report an error in the passage at 22:01 Highlight the passage at 22:01

22:33 We have kids, we fall in love, we get a new house that we really, really love. But the Buddha said basically, yeah, but all of that you also lose. You know, in the end you also lose that too. You stop liking the house or it gets a hole in the roof or the person that you fell in love with falls in love with somebody else or the kids grow up. Report an error in the passage at 22:33 Highlight the passage at 22:33

22:54 I mean, you know, time happens and the kids grow up and grow old and move out and you're left basically with yourself again. So according to the Buddha, we've been doing this for a long time. We've been in all different kinds of bodies and all different kinds of realms and all different kinds of universes even. We've been at it a long time. Report an error in the passage at 22:54 Highlight the passage at 22:54

23:17 And so we have to really contemplate this and think about it. And the second aspect of pronunciation is recognizing this but then also recognizing that there's something better. So it's not just... getting sick of all this cycling, it's also recognizing that there is something beyond this cycling, and that's liberation and enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 23:17 Highlight the passage at 23:17

23:40 That it is possible to exist without all of this dissatisfaction and without all of this loss and sadness and even sickness and dying and death. I mean, Buddhas are beyond death and dying, and it's pretty amazing. They're they're beyond Lama Tsongkhapa getting fed up isn't enough. Even developing disgust isn't enough. We don't want to just walk around being depressed. mean, if that were the case, then there would be absolutely nothing wrong with just going out and getting drunk all the time. Report an error in the passage at 23:40 Highlight the passage at 23:40

24:13 The Buddha said, don't stop there. Recognize So, Report an error in the passage at 24:13 Highlight the passage at 24:13

24:22 and again, possible, that it is totally possible for each one of us. Report an error in the passage at 24:22 Highlight the passage at 24:22

24:28 Understanding this intellectually isn't the same as having spent time contemplating it and meditating upon it and really studying it well with a qualified master. I'm just giving you a brief overview of these paths. The second of the three paths is called bodhicitta, or the awakening mind, or as it's referred to in that text, I kept calling it the enlightenment mind, right, which is the literal translation of bodhicitta, bodhi, enlightenment, and citta, or Saman's mind. Report an error in the passage at 24:28 Highlight the passage at 24:28

25:00 So this mind, which I think kind of gets sold a little short in the West as well, because we tend to think of it as just being a really loving, warm, fuzzy person. Report an error in the passage at 25:00 Highlight the passage at 25:00

25:12 Most bodhisattvas are beyond what we can even comprehend in terms of what they would do for others and what they are doing for others. Report an error in the passage at 25:12 Highlight the passage at 25:12

25:21 So it's really this vast and courageous mind that constantly is and spontaneously without any effort wanting to get enlightened for the benefit of all sentient beings. So that one also needs two parts. You want to get enlightened. Well, your main reason for... Report an error in the passage at 25:21 Highlight the passage at 25:21

26:00 tool, but your sole motivation for existence is that compassion. And we have to develop that. It's not like, I think in some traditions, it's sort of like if you aren't born with amazing compassion like Mother Teresa, then sucks to be you basically. Report an error in the passage at 26:00 Highlight the passage at 26:00

26:23 It's not like this in Buddhism. These are all simply minds that we can train ourselves to have. Just like we can untrain. you know. Report an error in the passage at 26:23 Highlight the passage at 26:23

26:34 the negative states of mind so it's we don't we aren't just stuck with what we got when we were born you know fortunately we can train ourselves to have this amazing mind in this mind so compassion is just defined in buddhism as wanting to remove the suffering of another and and love is wanting to give another happiness Report an error in the passage at 26:34 Highlight the passage at 26:34

27:00 A bodhisattva then goes a step further and develops great compassion which wants to remove the suffering of every living beings and actually wants to do something about that. Doesn't just sit there thinking about removing the suffering but actually wants to act on that. And what's called loving kindness sometimes, affectionate love, great love, wants to give happiness to all living beings without exception. Report an error in the passage at 27:00 Highlight the passage at 27:00

27:29 And wants to do something about that desire. Again, doesn't just think, you know, may you be happy and then I'm going to the kitchen and make some dinner. It's more like, you know, when we do the four immeasurables, the version I think that makes the most effect on my mind is not just, you know, may all living beings be happy, but it's then the one that goes at the different levels, you know, may they be happy. Report an error in the passage at 27:29 Highlight the passage at 27:29

27:52 I myself will make them happy, will help them make them be happy, not make them be happy. That sounds like you're going to beat them. And then, you know, please Guru Buddha, bless me to be able to do this because I don't have the means right now. But I am beginning to recognize that that's what I want to accomplish. Report an error in the passage at 27:52 Highlight the passage at 27:52

28:09 I want to help all living beings be happy and I want to help all living beings be free of suffering. And I again mean the suffering that we were just talking about, not just the big... scary stuff of living in a war zone. Lobsang Chokyi, Shantideva That just eat us up from the inside out. So to develop a mind this big and this great that really takes it a step further and has this altruistic mind of I will take responsibility for it and I will do whatever it takes to get this mind and then to cultivate and generate and strengthen and enhance this mind all the time, that takes a long time. Report an error in the passage at 28:09 Highlight the passage at 28:09

29:17 it takes many many years if not lifetimes to develop this mind we just start with the you know there are methods within Buddhism where you meditate on these various steps of Shantideva, His Holiness the Dalai Lama Lama Tsongkhapa, Shantideva met and then you take it to a complete stranger and then you start working with the difficult people and that's how we train our minds that's the scales you know we Shantideva, Shantideva, His Holiness the Dalai Lama Ability to fully understand how anyone can have this mind from the moment they wake up in the morning to the moment they go to sleep and all through the night and then again the next day and again the next day, no matter what else is happening to them, even when they are in a war zone or a hell realm or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 29:17 Highlight the passage at 29:17

31:00 It's such a vast. They say it is the most powerful mind that we can have as an ordinary being. So this is huge. It's a huge, huge, courageous and outrageous mind. Often I like to use the term radical. It's so... Lama Tsongkhapa We're so addicted to taking care of only ourselves and we have to change that. We have to change that attitude and that's harder than just about anything else. Report an error in the passage at 31:00 Highlight the passage at 31:00

31:58 People always think that emptiness is the hardest, but really I think it's so ingrained for us to just care about ourselves, number one, and to even have little momentary blips where we... take the spotlight off ourself and and turn it to somebody else even for a minute before we put it put it back on ourselves again you know that was okay but I gotta have something to eat now that's so great because that's just training we just train and we just you know plod along and we just keep training the mind we'll never be able to develop This vast mind of wanting to care for others. Report an error in the passage at 31:58 Highlight the passage at 31:58

32:38 others indescribable. Indiscriminately, without bias, but also constantly and deeply, as much as we have always cared for ourselves, again, we'll never be able to develop that if we don't first develop this renunciation. So if we don't first see that we ourselves are suffering and that the way that we suffer is a myriad of ways, a billion ways that we suffer, and that there is something else. Report an error in the passage at 32:38 Highlight the passage at 32:38

33:07 Otherwise we will never be able to develop this mind of just giving ourselves selflessly to others in the way that great beings like His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche have developed it. The third of the three paths is the correct view of emptiness. emptiness. And this is the one I think that... Report an error in the passage at 33:07 Highlight the passage at 33:07

33:29 And rightfully so, people do think of this one as sort of the juicy one. And I think they're all juicy in their own way, but this is definitely a juicy one. But people get confused by this term emptiness. So I think it's worthwhile to just spend a moment on that because I think we forget what empty is referring to. Report an error in the passage at 33:29 Highlight the passage at 33:29

33:49 You know, it doesn't mean that things don't exist. So I want to talk about that because it just means that things don't exist the way we think that they exist. Report an error in the passage at 33:49 Highlight the passage at 33:49

34:00 And like the other two, we study this and especially in this case, we really study it in great detail. There are a lot of teachings out there. I've heard one of my teachers said, maybe about a thousand hours of class time. I like that because it kind of puts a little number on it. You're like, okay. I could probably do that, a thousand hours, you know. A thousand hours of class time, probably, I don't know how many thousands of hours of meditation time, and that doesn't count the contemplation time. Report an error in the passage at 34:00 Highlight the passage at 34:00

34:32 Contemplation time can be also discussion time with each other and debate, of course, is the way the Tibetans did it, debate. Trying to know the ins and outs of all of these teachings before you even put your butt on the cushion, you know, and then try to... Try to get past then all the conceptual terms. The correct view of emptiness is an interesting one because it is a completely non-conceptual event, but yet we have to get at it conceptually because that's the way our minds work. Report an error in the passage at 34:32 Highlight the passage at 34:32

35:05 So we work with these tools. It's sort of like you take this boat. What do they say? There's that one... Story of, it's like you have to, in Tantra I think it is, you ride a boat across the water, but once you get to the other side, once you're on the other side, you don't need the boat anymore. And it's very much like that with the teachings on emptiness. We study them, we think about them. It's thoroughly conceptual the way we study emptiness. And then we just... Report an error in the passage at 35:05 Highlight the passage at 35:05

35:35 leave all those conceptions behind and we have to pierce through those conceptions because ultimately even those conceptions will hold us back you know once we get we'll get too attached to those conceptions Report an error in the passage at 35:35 Highlight the passage at 35:35

35:49 Emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 35:49 Highlight the passage at 35:49

35:54 You can't discuss emptiness without thinking a little bit about karma too. So what are things empty of? Things are empty of existing the way that they appear out there separate from me, separate from my perception and separate from my karma. Because that's the way things feel, right? It feels like things are coming at me. I'm not even thinking about you guys, right? Because I'm back in this me, me, me. Things are happening to me usually without any... Report an error in the passage at 35:54 Highlight the passage at 35:54

36:26 up to without an understanding of karma and emptiness, then we have this view of self-pity mind, as Lama Yeshe used to call it, big self-pity mind. Report an error in the passage at 36:26 Highlight the passage at 36:26

36:37 Because that's the way it feels. Things are happening at me. I get up in the morning, and then they start, and they're like this all day long, and then I go to sleep at night. The Buddha was like, no, things don't happen that way. I know it feels that way. Yeah. But we each co-create our own reality. We co-create not just our experience of that reality but we co-create our reality itself. Report an error in the passage at 36:37 Highlight the passage at 36:37

37:00 And we co-create it through our actions, not just our physical actions but also our speech and our thinking patterns especially. Report an error in the passage at 37:00 Highlight the passage at 37:00

37:12 All of our motivations of those physical and speech patterns. All of that creates karma and then that karma ripens as our experience. So positive karma, what's so-called positive, means usually that it was motivated with a positive state or virtuous state of mind. And negative karma means that it was motivated with a negative state of mind, but also that it will result in a negative experience and the other will result in a positive experience. Report an error in the passage at 37:12 Highlight the passage at 37:12

38:07 not. Report an error in the passage at 38:07 Highlight the passage at 38:07

38:12 It could be every little tiny negative experience of our life, all the way up to all the really big stuff that I was talking about too, like suddenly being in a war zone, which has happened in our lifetimes. We've seen places like Bosnia and so forth that moments before were cafes and concerts and people going to college and work and suddenly. Report an error in the passage at 38:12 Highlight the passage at 38:12

38:37 like the most bizarre change shifting overnight into like complete war zone and snipers and neighbors killing neighbors and just the most heinous existence. And, you know, according to Lord Buddha. Lama Tsongkhapa Destiny, I always have to say that one about five times too. I think in the West we've gotten this idea about karma that karma is set almost as solid as we see the rest of the world, right? Report an error in the passage at 38:37 Highlight the passage at 38:37

39:31 Karma is not, karma is constantly changing and moving and shifting and can be shifted and can be, we can... can if we can change our actions and our reactions to what's happening around us then we shift our karma and then that karma can ripen as experiences that we want Shantideva, His Holiness the Dalai Lama Report an error in the passage at 39:31 Highlight the passage at 39:31