Glen Svensson: Cultivating the wisdom of selflessness (part 4)

0:06 I thought we could start with a short meditation, do a short emptiness meditation and then discuss a little bit about that meditation and some more finer details afterwards. Report an error in the passage at 0:06 Highlight the passage at 0:06

0:20 Make yourselves nice and comfortable and Report an error in the passage at 0:20 Highlight the passage at 0:20

0:53 as always we can begin by preparing the body. Report an error in the passage at 0:53 Highlight the passage at 0:53

0:59 We can begin by allowing our awareness to descend into our body. Filling the entire space of our body. Becoming aware of sensations throughout the body. Report an error in the passage at 0:59 Highlight the passage at 0:59

1:29 Relaxing any part of the body where we notice any tightness or tension. Report an error in the passage at 1:29 Highlight the passage at 1:29

1:43 And thus settling our body into its natural state of relaxation, stillness and vigilance. Report an error in the passage at 1:43 Highlight the passage at 1:43

2:14 And allowing our breathing to settle into its natural rhythm. And Report an error in the passage at 2:14 Highlight the passage at 2:14

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:56 finally preparing the mind. By letting go of any hopes or fears, worries or expectations about the past or the future. In particular, letting go of any expectations with regard to this meditation. Letting go of all of these things and very gently bringing our mind into the stillness of the present moment by focusing on the sensations of the breath. Report an error in the passage at 2:56 Highlight the passage at 2:56

3:38 We can focus on the sensations of the breath. Do Report an error in the passage at 3:38 Highlight the passage at 3:38

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5:22 you have a sense that there is a me here who is trying to focus on the breath? A sense of me the meditator? Report an error in the passage at 5:22 Highlight the passage at 5:22

5:36 A me that doesn't seem to depend upon anything else for its existence? Report an error in the passage at 5:36 Highlight the passage at 5:36

5:44 Do you have this experience? Report an error in the passage at 5:44 Highlight the passage at 5:44

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6:39 But where is this me, the meditator, who is trying to focus on the breath? Can the meditator be found anywhere? Report an error in the passage at 6:39 Highlight the passage at 6:39

6:55 Can me, the meditator, be found anywhere within the body? So check thoroughly your own body to see if you can find this me, the meditator. Report an error in the passage at 6:55 Highlight the passage at 6:55

7:14 Check every part of the body. Report an error in the passage at 7:14 Highlight the passage at 7:14

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8:05 Is the meditator somewhere in the head? Report an error in the passage at 8:05 Highlight the passage at 8:05

8:17 Is the meditator the brain? Report an error in the passage at 8:17 Highlight the passage at 8:17

8:27 Or is the brain something which me, the meditator, possesses? Or is the brain a possession? Of me, the meditator. Something which I have. Report an error in the passage at 8:27 Highlight the passage at 8:27

9:10 What about the body as a whole? Is the body as a whole the meditator? Report an error in the passage at 9:10 Highlight the passage at 9:10

9:40 Or is the body something which the meditator possesses? Something which I have? Can Report an error in the passage at 9:40 Highlight the passage at 9:40

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10:18 the meditator be found anywhere within the mind? Report an error in the passage at 10:18 Highlight the passage at 10:18

10:24 So again, search thoroughly your own mind. See if you can find me, the meditator. Report an error in the passage at 10:24 Highlight the passage at 10:24

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11:05 If you think you've found the meditator. Then how big are you and where are you located? Report an error in the passage at 11:05 Highlight the passage at 11:05

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11:46 Are any of the thoughts, emotions or concepts in the mind? Are any of these things the meditator? Or Report an error in the passage at 11:46 Highlight the passage at 11:46

12:12 are thoughts, emotions and concepts something which the meditator possesses, something which I have? Is Report an error in the passage at 12:12 Highlight the passage at 12:12

12:44 the mind itself the meditator? Report an error in the passage at 12:44 Highlight the passage at 12:44

13:04 Or is the mind something which the meditator possesses, something which I have? Report an error in the passage at 13:04 Highlight the passage at 13:04

13:32 Is the collection of the body and the mind together the meditator? Or Report an error in the passage at 13:32 Highlight the passage at 13:32

14:02 is the collection of the body and the mind together simply two things which the meditator possesses? Two things which I have and am trying to train. Report an error in the passage at 14:02 Highlight the passage at 14:02

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14:49 Yet other than the body and the mind, what else is there here? Report an error in the passage at 14:49 Highlight the passage at 14:49

15:15 Where is the meditator who has a body and a mind and is trying to train the body and the mind? Where is the meditator? Report an error in the passage at 15:15 Highlight the passage at 15:15

15:54 You can't find the meditator. Simply rest in the experience of not finding. And Report an error in the passage at 15:54 Highlight the passage at 15:54

· · · silence, 2 minutes

17:36 even if you didn't find the meditator, isn't there someone who's having the experience of not finding? So Report an error in the passage at 17:36 Highlight the passage at 17:36

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18:15 there is a meditator. But just because the meditator can't be found, doesn't mean that there's no meditator. It just means that there's no... Independently existing meditator. The meditator is empty of existing in that way. Report an error in the passage at 18:15 Highlight the passage at 18:15

18:44 That doesn't mean that there's no meditator at all. Rather, the meditator exists independently. Report an error in the passage at 18:44 Highlight the passage at 18:44

18:56 The meditator is something which is merely labeled depending on the body that is sitting here and the mind that is focused on the breath. Report an error in the passage at 18:56 Highlight the passage at 18:56

19:09 The merely labeled meditator He's sitting here meditating. Report an error in the passage at 19:09 Highlight the passage at 19:09

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20:01 And then release all appearances and allow the mind to come to rest in its own place. So without trying to do anything at all, without even trying to meditate, simply rest in the present. Report an error in the passage at 20:01 Highlight the passage at 20:01

20:22 Just be. Report an error in the passage at 20:22 Highlight the passage at 20:22

20:35 Just be aware. Report an error in the passage at 20:35 Highlight the passage at 20:35

20:39 Just be aware of being aware. Report an error in the passage at 20:39 Highlight the passage at 20:39

· · · silence, 1 minute

21:46 So maintaining that awareness, we can slowly open our eyes. And we can continue our discussions together. Report an error in the passage at 21:46 Highlight the passage at 21:46

22:19 Did anyone find the meditator? No? Report an error in the passage at 22:19 Highlight the passage at 22:19

22:27 I'm still looking. Report an error in the passage at 22:27 Highlight the passage at 22:27

22:32 With this meditation, I think we need to do it in a very honest way and not just follow. You know, if we've heard some teachings on this, we go, oh yeah, it's not in the body, it's not in the mind. We need to sort of really search in a very clear way. And if we really think we've found something which is a meditator, we need to really look at that and investigate that. Is that really the meditator? Report an error in the passage at 22:32 Highlight the passage at 22:32

23:03 Otherwise it won't really have so much impact on us. So if we really think we've found the meditator, we really need to look at that and investigate that. That's very important. Report an error in the passage at 23:03 Highlight the passage at 23:03

23:16 Also, maybe what you've found is that when we do this sort of investigation, As with any other meditation where we investigate, actually as with anything we do in our life when we investigate something, if our mind is not focused, if it's not calm and clear and really focused when we do any sort of investigation, often we can't really come to any decisive conclusion. Report an error in the passage at 23:16 Highlight the passage at 23:16

23:52 It's a little bit like, you know, at work or at home. If we're trying to solve the problem, And our mind, we're not really focused on trying to work it out, where it's sort of distracted or dull or something. It's very hard to penetrate, it's very hard to really come to some clear conclusion. So likewise here, but I think we can say in general with any sort of analytical type of meditation, whether it's emptiness or bodhicitta or tonglen or anything, If we don't have that focused mind, it's hard to get some sort of impact from the meditation. And this goes back a little bit, ties in a lot with this idea we looked at this morning, the idea of mindfulness, Report an error in the passage at 23:52 Highlight the passage at 23:52

24:43 and not getting caught up with the cognitive fusion and so forth, is also here with all these sorts of meditations. If we don't really have developed our mindfulness, if we don't have the ability to... Have a calm, clear, focused mind when we investigate. Then it's quite difficult often to really come to some sort of decisive conclusion on it. Report an error in the passage at 24:43 Highlight the passage at 24:43

25:08 So I think also here, if we want to have our emptiness meditation working better for us, I think we really need to put some effort into this mindfulness practice, which is often called the shamatha practice. Report an error in the passage at 25:08 Highlight the passage at 25:08

25:27 And actually that's going to be one of the main areas of our discussion this weekend on the Guluk Mahamudra that I'm going to be teaching. Mahamudra is the sort of one approach to this emptiness practice. And in the Mahamudra approach, we're mainly focusing on the mind itself. Here in this meditation we were looking for the person, but we can also try and focus, look at the mind and see whether there's some real thing called a mind here. Report an error in the passage at 25:27 Highlight the passage at 25:27

25:59 So we're trying to realize the nature of our mind. So this is the sort of Mahamudra approach. And also, of course, in the Mahamudra approach, as with any other meditative approach, we need to develop this calm, clear, focused mind. We need to do what's called the Samatha practice. And so there, one thing that I really like about the Mahamudra approach to Samatha practice is that we're looking at our mind. Report an error in the passage at 25:59 Highlight the passage at 25:59

26:27 We're using our mind itself as the object. Because most often, in many traditions, when we talk about shamatha practice, trying to strengthen the mindfulness, trying to develop that single point of concentration, most often emphasized to use the breath. Of course, using the breath has a lot of advantages as well. But particularly in the Mahamudra approach, by looking at the mind, using the mind as the object, that's going to be also, again, very helpful. Report an error in the passage at 26:27 Highlight the passage at 26:27

26:56 To help us to overcome this attachment aversion, the cognitive fusion of identifying with the contents of our mind. So there's a big side benefit with that. But anyway, that's what we're going to be looking at a little bit on the weekend. Does anyone have any comments about that meditation? Any doubts or anything they'd like to ask about that particular meditation, the emptiness meditation? Anything at all? Report an error in the passage at 26:56 Highlight the passage at 26:56

27:29 One thing that often comes up for people as a beginner, apart from confusion, distraction and confusion, yeah. One common experience that people have as a beginner is quite often when they do this sort of meditation they have a lot of fear. And if that's our experience, actually it's a very good sign. Report an error in the passage at 27:29 Highlight the passage at 27:29

27:58 Because it's a little bit like what I was saying before this morning or earlier. Before the break was, for us now, there's two possibilities. Either there is a solid, substantial, functioning world, or there's no world. And equally, we can apply that for ourselves. Either there is this solid me here, or there's no me. And so when we investigate the me, and of course we believe there's this solid, independent me here somewhere there, and we investigate, we're trying to find this me somewhere here in the body and the mind. Report an error in the passage at 27:58 Highlight the passage at 27:58

28:33 And we don't seem to manage to be able to pinpoint it, locate it, to find it. Then it feels like, see, we're undermining the solid independent me. And again, for us, there's two possibilities. Either the solid independent me or there's no me. I don't exist. So by undermining it, by investigating and trying to find it, we can't find it. Report an error in the passage at 28:33 Highlight the passage at 28:33

28:52 It often feels like we're going out of existence. This is our experience. It's very good. It means we're doing the search very well. It's just that we're coming to the wrong conclusion. Report an error in the passage at 28:52 Highlight the passage at 28:52

29:05 In fact, the only thing going out of existence is a belief in a false sense of me. A false sense of me that's the root of all our problems and sufferings. So if we have that fear, then we don't need to pay any attention to that fear because it's completely irrational. We're fearing the solid independent me going out of existence when there was never a solid independent me here to begin with. Report an error in the passage at 29:05 Highlight the passage at 29:05

29:29 And so if we're having that fear, one way to help overcome it... is to ask yourself the question, who's having the fear? Because if there's fear being experienced, there's someone who's experiencing it. So there is me here, so we're not going out of existence. And really not to pay any attention to that fear. Sometimes the opposite experience is that when people understand the implications of the view of emptiness and then they have the experience of not finding, quite often they have a lot of joy because they... Report an error in the passage at 29:29 Highlight the passage at 29:29

30:04 Really then experientially come to realize that the thing that they've believed in in their entire life that's the root of all their problems and suffering simply doesn't exist. And then they have a lot of joy. So if we continue to do this emptiness meditation, then of course the fear will subside and we'll come to understand that we're not going out of existence. Report an error in the passage at 30:04 Highlight the passage at 30:04

30:28 But again, for our emptiness meditation to be effective... As with any other analytical meditation, I think we really need to put some effort into the shamatha practice, into developing our mindfulness so that we can really maintain that focus. Otherwise, if we're distracted and dull and that, it's very difficult to really penetrate this idea. Report an error in the passage at 30:28 Highlight the passage at 30:28

30:58 Any questions about the meditation or anything about emptiness? Because what I'd like to do now is have a look at... A little bit the stages that we go through in the spiritual path with this practice of emptiness. But before I do that, if there's any questions about anything we've covered since lunchtime. Report an error in the passage at 30:58 Highlight the passage at 30:58

31:27 So now, as a beginner, and we try to do this meditation, particularly if we've done a little bit of, if our mindfulness is not too bad, maybe we've done a little bit of mindfulness practice, Shama to practice, and we can be a little bit focused. When we do this meditation well, and we come to that not finding, that not finding is an experience of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 31:27 Highlight the passage at 31:27

31:55 The understanding there is no solid independent me. So if we do that search, we don't seem to find, then we simply hold that experience of not finding as long as we can. Soak ourself in that experience. Because that is an understanding of realisation that there's no independent me. But again, usually what happens is, If we have that experience, after a very short time we become distracted or that experience simply becomes some sort of spaced out experience. Report an error in the passage at 31:55 Highlight the passage at 31:55

32:25 If that happens, then we can go back, do the investigation again. If we don't find, then hold that experience. And again, if we do this well with reasonable concentration, that experience of not finding can have quite a strong impact on us and it can... Report an error in the passage at 32:25 Highlight the passage at 32:25

32:46 Remain affecting our mind after the meditation. If that's the case, then what you'll notice is when you come out of that meditation, the sort of solid sense of the world gets a little bit more fuzzy. Report an error in the passage at 32:46 Highlight the passage at 32:46

33:03 And this solid sense of me is not so strong. Also what you'll find is your disturbing emotions will be a little bit less. And you'll feel a little bit more open to others. But only as long as that keeps affecting your mind. And that may only last a couple of minutes, a couple of hours, maybe even a couple of days or even a few weeks. Report an error in the passage at 33:03 Highlight the passage at 33:03

33:28 So during that time, that's sort of what you'll notice, that things don't seem to have such a sharp edge to them. Report an error in the passage at 33:28 Highlight the passage at 33:28

33:38 You'll feel sort of more open to others a little bit and your disturbing emotions will be a little bit less than normal. But as we progress along the path, there are certain stages that we go through. We Report an error in the passage at 33:38 Highlight the passage at 33:38

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34:28 can talk about sort of going through five stages in our spiritual path to enlightenment. Now, the path to enlightenment, Report an error in the passage at 34:28 Highlight the passage at 34:28

34:43 the entry point to that path, which is called the Mahāyāna path. So Mahāyāna, yana means vehicle, maha means great, great vehicle. So the Mahāyāna is the vehicle that can take us to enlightenment, the great goal of enlightenment. So in the Mahāyāna path, the entry point to the Mahāyāna path is when we really develop the aspiration to strive for enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 34:43 Highlight the passage at 34:43

35:11 When that aspiration, which is called bodhicitta, so body is enlightenment, citta is mind, bodhicitta literally is the mind of enlightenment, it's the mind aspiring to enlightenment. I mean now we can sort of artificially contrive it a little bit. But when we really fully develop it so that that aspiration is with us all the time and it's driving our behaviour all the time, then we really have entered this Mahāgāna path. Report an error in the passage at 35:11 Highlight the passage at 35:11

35:48 That marks the entry point to the first of these five stages. In the first stage of the path, Report an error in the passage at 35:48 Highlight the passage at 35:48

36:04 accumulation. Here accumulation means to gather. And in the spiritual path there's two aspects that we're trying to accumulate. What's called method and wisdom or sometimes merit and wisdom. So we're trying to develop this wisdom, particularly the wisdom of emptiness, but on the other side we're trying to simply gather method or virtue, trying to do good actions based on this bodhicitta motivation. Report an error in the passage at 36:04 Highlight the passage at 36:04

36:33 So here we're really putting a lot of effort into both of those. We're doing a lot of virtuous activities. We're also doing a lot of meditating on emptiness. Now here, when we reach the path of accumulation, our concentration is very good. We've really achieved this thing called shamatha, this single point of concentration, which means when we apply ourselves to emptiness meditation, because of that high level of focus, the emptiness experience has a very strong impact on our mind. Report an error in the passage at 36:33 Highlight the passage at 36:33

37:07 Meaning outside of meditation, then really disturbing emotions are much reduced, we're much more open to others in our daily life. Now, as we progress up, but here, of course, the experience of emptiness is still dualistic, meaning that in that meditation on emptiness, When we're experiencing emptiness, there's still a sense, there's a me here experiencing emptiness, the object. So there's still an appearance of this sort of subject-object duality. Report an error in the passage at 37:07 Highlight the passage at 37:07

37:49 Even though it is a valid experience of emptiness, it's still a conceptual experience of emptiness. Then, as our experience of emptiness deepens, we move to the second stage of the path. Report an error in the passage at 37:49 Highlight the passage at 37:49

38:08 This second stage is called preparation, the path of preparation. Here we're preparing for our first direct experience of emptiness. So over this stage of the path, this apparent gap between me, the meditator, and emptiness, the object, this apparent duality that we're still experiencing in meditation, starts to collapse. Report an error in the passage at 38:08 Highlight the passage at 38:08

38:33 And at the end of path preparation, this apparent gap or duality between me, the meditator, emptiness, the object, completely collapses. And then we enter the third stage of the path, or Report an error in the passage at 38:33 Highlight the passage at 38:33

38:52 path of seeing. Seeing meaning seeing emptiness directly for the very first time. So, I think I already mentioned that at this point, when we enter path of seeing, we directly realise emptiness, we become an Arya being. The Report an error in the passage at 38:52 Highlight the passage at 38:52

39:21 situation of emptiness now is strong enough to start to eliminate ignorance and disturbing emotions. Here, previously on path of accumulation and preparation, the power of the emptiness meditation meant that outside of meditation it was strong enough to keep the lid on the disturbing emotions. Very few disturbing emotions coming up, very weak, not lasting a long time. But here, path of seeing onwards, we start to wipe out the ignorance, eliminate the ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 39:21 Highlight the passage at 39:21

39:55 But we need... To realize this emptiness again and again and again and continue to wipe out more and more and more. So that's what happens over the fourth stage of Report an error in the passage at 39:55 Highlight the passage at 39:55

40:16 meditation. Report an error in the passage at 40:16 Highlight the passage at 40:16

40:28 This word meditation can be misleading. Meditation, the word meditation in Sanskrit is bhavana, which literally means to familiarize or habituate. So here we're familiarizing ourself with what we realized here before. So we continue to familiarise ourself with the direct realisation of emptiness again and again and again and again, wiping out more and more and more subtle levels of ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 40:28 Highlight the passage at 40:28

40:56 We do this over stages. So there's nine stages here, and together with the class we're seeing that makes ten stages, which are called normally the ten grounds or the ten boomings. At Report an error in the passage at 40:56 Highlight the passage at 40:56

41:19 the point we get to the seventh, end of the seventh ground, now here we have managed to wipe out all ignorance, all disturbing emotions. So we've gone beyond saṃsāra and we achieve the state of Nirvāṇa. Report an error in the passage at 41:19 Highlight the passage at 41:19

41:41 Since our goal is enlightenment, we have the bodhicitta motivation, this is sort of a little bit of a bi-product. So remember, we still have those subtle stains in the mind, which is causing things to appear independent, these cognitive obscurations. So on the 8th, 9th and 10th ground, we're wiping out these subtle stains in our mind. Report an error in the passage at 41:41 Highlight the passage at 41:41

42:10 At the end of the tenth ground we've wiped out the last bit of subtle stain in our mind and then we achieve the fifth stage of the path which is called known or learned. So Report an error in the passage at 42:10 Highlight the passage at 42:10

42:28 here when we get to this point we become Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 42:28 Highlight the passage at 42:28

42:37 And so at this point then we've eliminated all these subtle stains in our mind. We've achieved enlightenment. enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 42:37 Highlight the passage at 42:37

42:45 Which means that when we look out on the world, the world no longer appears to be independent of us. What that really looks like, hard to imagine because we've never had that experience. And so these are the five stages that we go through on the spiritual path. So you can see that the thing that moves us along the spiritual path is our deepening and deepening experience of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 42:45 Highlight the passage at 42:45

43:13 But of course the thing we shouldn't forget... is that we need to have as the entry point and the support is this mind of bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 43:13 Highlight the passage at 43:13

43:26 And we should never forget that because, unfortunately, many people who, not just in Buddhism, but I think in general, who want to enter into a spiritual path, you know, we say that certainly in the Buddhist spiritual path, but I think in general in most spiritual paths, There are two aspects to spiritual path. There's the wisdom aspect and the compassion aspect, developing the mind and the heart. Report an error in the passage at 43:26 Highlight the passage at 43:26

43:56 So we need to develop both of these, I think not just in Buddhism, in any tradition. Even if we want to be a good person, we're not spiritual, I think we need to develop our heart and our wisdom. So here, of course, we're moving along the path by improving our wisdom, but it needs to be in the context or in the container of... Report an error in the passage at 43:56 Highlight the passage at 43:56

44:18 And unfortunately many people who enter some sort of spiritual path tend to gravitate towards either the compassion wing or the wisdom wing and neglect the other side of the equation. And usually it ends up not very pleasant, particularly if they completely neglect the other half. For example, many people, particularly men I think, They gravitate a lot to the wisdom wing and they forget about the compassion wing. And because the wisdom wing is really working on inward development, often people who neglect the compassion wing become very self-absorbed, become very disconnected, become very insensitive to the sufferings of others. Report an error in the passage at 44:18 Highlight the passage at 44:18

45:11 They become very completely disconnected from the world. And end up in not a very, very nice place. Equally as well, people who gravitate to the other wing, who naturally have a lot of compassion, want to go out and help people, fix the world, but neglect to develop the wisdom wing, often also come unstuck. Report an error in the passage at 45:11 Highlight the passage at 45:11

45:38 You know, there are many people, well, one thing that you can come unstuck, of course, with is if with compassion, without wisdom, You can be very selective and biased in your compassion. I'll help these people because they deserve it. I'm not going to help these people because they don't deserve it. Report an error in the passage at 45:38 Highlight the passage at 45:38

45:55 So we become very biased. Also, without developing wisdom, even with the best intention in the world, we can end up doing things that doesn't really help or maybe even creates more problems and sufferings than we begin with. Sometimes we're not very skillful in what we do. Even with the best intention in the world, we don't really know what we're doing. Even more than that is that you get some people who are extremely compassionate, who really want to go out and fix the world. Report an error in the passage at 45:55 Highlight the passage at 45:55

46:28 You get a lot of people doing aid work, social work, all this sort of thing, who want to really go out and heal the world, full of enthusiasm, and very often, within a very short time, They end up with what's called compassion burnout, completely burnt out. And generally that's because of lack of wisdom, because they haven't really understood what they can do to help, what the limits of their capacity is and when the time to rest is. Report an error in the passage at 46:28 Highlight the passage at 46:28

46:59 And so they overextend themselves and they have this illusion that they can fix everything and soon of course they can't, they don't look after themselves and they burn out. Report an error in the passage at 46:59 Highlight the passage at 46:59

47:11 And so that's quite tragic. And then usually they just give up because they think, oh, it doesn't work. And so again, generally it's compassion without wisdom. So on both sides, I think we really need to focus on whatever we do, whether we're Buddhist, non-Buddhist, following this path or not. We really need to focus on both the compassion wing and the wisdom wing in everything we do if we want to be balanced and make progress. Report an error in the passage at 47:11 Highlight the passage at 47:11

47:41 So that's about all I really wanted to say. Any last questions? Because we've just about run out of time. Report an error in the passage at 47:41 Highlight the passage at 47:41

47:59 Often you'll hear that in this presentation here we talk about these three countless great eons. What does that mean? Well, an eon means long, long time. What mean? Report an error in the passage at 47:59 Highlight the passage at 47:59

48:17 In fact, in the text I've never really seen anywhere where it says an eon is X number of years. But it basically means a long time. And I think three countless eons. I think it says it takes one eon to do the first two, and then up to the seventh ground. First to seventh is the second one, and then the third one is from eight to ten. Report an error in the passage at 48:17 Highlight the passage at 48:17

48:41 Usually it's mentioned like that. But what that really means is it doesn't really mean you need that amount of time, but it's more like that amount of effort, which means that if you have greater capacity, you can do it in shorter time. But if all things being equal, they're basically saying a long time. But of course, here what we're saying is that... Report an error in the passage at 48:41 Highlight the passage at 48:41

49:12 We can do this practice at a number of levels, particularly when we talk a little bit about Vajrayana or Tantra. We can dramatically accelerate this. Report an error in the passage at 49:12 Highlight the passage at 49:12

49:23 In fact, it's said that we can sort of do the whole lot in this very lifetime if we're at the right level, the right conditions and apply ourselves perfectly to Vajrayana practice. Because what's happening in Vajrayana or Tantra practice is we're... Tapping into a very deep level of our mind called this clear light mind, a very subtle mind. And the deeper that our mind is, that we gain access to, the more powerful, it means more quickly we can wipe out the ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 49:23 Highlight the passage at 49:23

49:55 So, yeah, so we can talk, it depends on the sort of level of practice that we're engaged in. But generally, that's sort of what they mention. Report an error in the passage at 49:55 Highlight the passage at 49:55

50:12 Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of discussion about that in the text. About this idea of irreversibility. But certainly what I've read in pretty well all the texts is that certainly when you reach this point, you're pretty well on a one-way ticket out of saṃsāra. But I think even before that, you can really get to a point where now you're not going to maybe go backwards. Report an error in the passage at 50:12 Highlight the passage at 50:12

50:40 But certainly from this point, yes, definitely. But even maybe earlier, there's various differences. Report an error in the passage at 50:40 Highlight the passage at 50:40

50:53 Loosely speaking. Loosely speaking, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 50:53 Highlight the passage at 50:53

51:00 Lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 51:00 Highlight the passage at 51:00

51:05 Yes, I mean, Report an error in the passage at 51:05 Highlight the passage at 51:05

51:11 but when they say lifetime, they do all of this. Report an error in the passage at 51:11 Highlight the passage at 51:11

51:17 What it means is that back here, we've already done a lot of work as a basis and then we have, certainly from a Tibetan Buddhist perspective, the only way we can really do that is to enter that into the Tantra Vajrayana level practice where we gain access to that very subtle, clear light mind. And also, like I said, this text I'm doing over the weekend, the Maha Mudrā, which is very similar to another practice in Tibetan Buddhism called Thogchen. Report an error in the passage at 51:17 Highlight the passage at 51:17

51:47 Both of those practices also have that level of practice in there, to be able to connect, to gain access to that very subtle, clear light mind. And if we can do that, and we have all the necessary conditions, and of course we have a qualified teacher, blah blah blah, all the other things, then yes, we can quite quickly achieve more. Report an error in the passage at 51:47 Highlight the passage at 51:47

52:08 But you need to have all those conditions come from Report an error in the passage at 52:08 Highlight the passage at 52:08

52:18 you. Report an error in the passage at 52:18 Highlight the passage at 52:18

52:22 Yeah, Report an error in the passage at 52:22 Highlight the passage at 52:22

52:28 depends who you talk to. Generally in the Theravāda, see, the Theravāda, who basically just talk about really Nirvāṇa, achieving the goal of Nirvāṇa, generally in Theravāda traditions, we're already a bodhisattva we're already actually back. We've had these discussions with Tento, so it's quite interesting. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 52:28 Highlight the passage at 52:28

52:42 They would say that Prince Siddhartha was sort of a normal person, he left the palace, he did all this work and then eventually achieved enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree. Report an error in the passage at 52:42 Highlight the passage at 52:42

52:57 From a Mahāyāna perspective generally, well I can only speak for Tibetan Buddhism but I think also maybe in other Mahāyāna schools, is that Prince Siddhartha was already enlightened being. And that he was displaying, he was manifesting that life to show people, to demonstrate people how to go along the path to enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 52:57 Highlight the passage at 52:57

53:24 So from a Mahāyāna perspective, particularly from a Tibetan Buddhist perspective, generally they would say that he was already enlightened and he was just appearing in the world in that way to show people, to demonstrate to people how to... Strive to achieve the goal of enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 53:24 Highlight the passage at 53:24

53:45 Yes, according to the Mahāyāna, that's what they would say. So there's some differences there between the Theravāda Mahāyāna perspective. But I think regardless of whether each perspective you look at, I think at the end of the day, both mean that Buddha gave the teachings to help us. I think it doesn't really matter which of those two perspectives we believe in. I think still we have all the teachings there and we can follow those teachings. Report an error in the passage at 53:45 Highlight the passage at 53:45

54:27 And I think it's with that sort of thing, I think, of course, how to prove what was really the case, we don't know. But with those sorts of things, I think from my perspective, it's helpful to adopt whatever perspective... Inspires us and helps us to develop on the spiritual path. The same idea with past and future lives. Report an error in the passage at 54:27 Highlight the passage at 54:27

54:58 Some people claim to be able to remember past lives, so for them that's proof enough that they directly have some memory of past lives. Of course, I don't claim to have any memories of any past lives. And often people ask me about that. know... Report an error in the passage at 54:58 Highlight the passage at 54:58

55:16 They ask, do you have to believe in past and future lives to be a Buddhist? These sorts of questions. Generally, my advice that I give on that point is that I say, if believing in past and future lives is going to help you to be a better person or inspire you or whatever, then adopt that view. If it doesn't, then you can leave it out. Because if you... Report an error in the passage at 55:16 Highlight the passage at 55:16

55:48 If you say, okay, I'm not going to follow a Buddhist spiritual path until I can prove that there is passing visualized, I think we could be waiting a long time. We won't do anything. We'll just sit there. So I think with those sorts of things that we can't directly prove, I think if we adopt the idea that if by taking them on, it's going to help us to... Report an error in the passage at 55:48 Highlight the passage at 55:48

56:18 Become a better person, then I don't see any problem with that. If it doesn't seem to be of any benefit to us to believe in it, then for now I think we can just leave it out and focus on the things that do bring us benefit. Report an error in the passage at 56:18 Highlight the passage at 56:18

56:34 Otherwise we can get into the situation of, you know, oh, I'm not going to do it because I can't prove it. And so, you know, and then we often end up in the situation of, what's the analogy, throwing the baby out with the bath water, you know, sort of, so to speak. Report an error in the passage at 56:34 Highlight the passage at 56:34

56:53 I mean, well, atheists have a belief because they don't believe in... That is a belief, isn't it? A belief in not believing in anything after this life, you know, or not believing in God. That is a belief, isn't it? In fact, I often think that if you really didn't believe, if you really believe there's nothing after this life... Report an error in the passage at 56:53 Highlight the passage at 56:53

57:24 Shouldn't that inspire you more to make most use of this life? Because you can have this idea that as a Buddhist or believing in something after this life that I'll get a second chance next time around if I don't really do much this time. And so you can get a bit lazy. But if you really thought that at the end of this life that's it, finished, I think that should inspire you even more to make most use of your life because you only got one chance. Report an error in the passage at 57:24 Highlight the passage at 57:24

57:56 Well, but the I don't care, what difference does it make is that we have a miserable life. I don't think anyone really wants to have a miserable life. And so usually the I don't care approach can end up to having a miserable life because we don't take advantage of our life in any way. We just waste it. Report an error in the passage at 57:56 Highlight the passage at 57:56

58:22 Any last questions? Otherwise we'll finish up for the day. Thank you for coming along. Oh, one more question. Both days? are necessary. Report an error in the passage at 58:22 Highlight the passage at 58:22

58:40 Necessary? The first day I'll be mostly focusing on foundation practices and the shamatha and then the second day will be the sort of more the emptiness nature of the mind day. That's roughly how it's going to go. I'll say yes. Report an error in the passage at 58:40 Highlight the passage at 58:40

59:02 Thank you very much. Report an error in the passage at 59:02 Highlight the passage at 59:02