Sunday Service (8 November 2009)

0:02 You actually really think there's a lot of shape in your hands. Yeah, and I was kind Report an error in the passage at 0:02 Highlight the passage at 0:02

0:19 My name Report an error in the passage at 0:19 Highlight the passage at 0:19

· · · silence, 7 minutes

7:08 is Eman. Report an error in the passage at 7:08 Highlight the passage at 7:08

7:12 I'll be doing the second Paramita this morning. Report an error in the passage at 7:12 Highlight the passage at 7:12

7:25 Was anybody here for the last one, last week, was it? Report an error in the passage at 7:25 Highlight the passage at 7:25

7:32 They say that with each Paramita, so one day of discipline is equal to 100 days of generosity. then... One day of patience is equal to 100 days of discipline. So each of the paramitas gets a little harder. So if you weren't here last week, you'll just have a learning curve. Report an error in the passage at 7:32 Highlight the passage at 7:32

8:01 So let's just settle the mind. Just kind of bring the awareness to the moment and noticing the body and placing yourself in a place of a straight back. Report an error in the passage at 8:01 Highlight the passage at 8:01

8:21 Just bringing in the breath and getting a sense of your seat. Report an error in the passage at 8:21 Highlight the passage at 8:21

8:37 Just gently placing the awareness on the breath and Report an error in the passage at 8:37 Highlight the passage at 8:37

9:03 just remembering that in bringing the awareness to the present moment, the point is just to simply not follow the thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 9:03 Highlight the passage at 9:03

9:13 You're not trying to stop your thoughts or change your thoughts. You're just simply returning to the breath and not following your thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 9:13 Highlight the passage at 9:13

· · · silence, 1 minute

9:54 And then you might also now want to think about why you're here and develop. Or clarify your intention and perhaps develop an aspiration of why you're here this morning. Report an error in the passage at 9:54 Highlight the passage at 9:54

· · · silence, 1 minute

10:41 I can open your eyes and gently come back. Report an error in the passage at 10:41 Highlight the passage at 10:41

11:00 The topic is on ethics, the paramita of discipline, of morality and ethics. And so it's a little bit of a tricky subject because the topic is... It's important to first get a distinction of the difference between ethics and morality. There's a difference between them. And then the actual ethics, the discipline of ethics falls in the paramitas, so it's Mahāyāna. Report an error in the passage at 11:00 Highlight the passage at 11:00

11:36 So the Mahāyāna already is assuming a certain ethical view, a view of what to do and what not to do. So before we put the cart before the horse, I thought... First talk about the very word ethics. So in general when we talk about morality we're talking about behavior, actions of things to do and not to do. Report an error in the passage at 11:36 Highlight the passage at 11:36

12:09 So they're systems and codes of conduct. And then ethics is something more general and it has to do with studying. Those overall systems. So someone might be like a utilitarian and so their morals will be based on whatever creates the greatest good and it's based on an overall view of how one should live. Report an error in the passage at 12:09 Highlight the passage at 12:09

12:40 So I think in regards to everybody here, I think in terms of thinking about that question is really important. How should one live? Report an error in the passage at 12:40 Highlight the passage at 12:40

12:56 Because that question not only has to do with morality, but it has to do with ethics. It has to do with the overall manner of relating to life and yourself and others. It's a very broad question. Report an error in the passage at 12:56 Highlight the passage at 12:56

13:16 And then one of the interesting things about the question is, we don't obviously have an answer, and I don't have an answer of how one should live, but when we begin thinking about the question... We have to reflect. We have to reflect in order to even try to come up with an answer to the question, how should one live? Report an error in the passage at 13:16 Highlight the passage at 13:16

13:39 So we know that reflection has to be part of the answer to the question, how should one live? Just taking that activity of reflection. In the teachings, they talk about listening and hearing, reflection and contemplation and meditation as being key in regarding how to approach the teachings. So it's an interesting piece, this idea of reflection that it's regarded as a keystone in not only our own Western tradition of philosophy but also in the East. Report an error in the passage at 13:39 Highlight the passage at 13:39

14:17 And sort of thinking about that question for yourself, why should I be moral and how should one live? Getting a sense of your relationship with Report an error in the passage at 14:17 Highlight the passage at 14:17

14:35 your behavior, your actions. Report an error in the passage at 14:35 Highlight the passage at 14:35

14:45 In relating to the idea of thinking about what ethics means for you and what morality means for you, there's this kind of notion of worldview. And this is very much related with the notion of ethics, that your view of the world, your view of what this is all about, Report an error in the passage at 14:45 Highlight the passage at 14:45

15:20 Relates to what you decide to do. So if there are people who feel, you know, I have one life to live and I may as well, you know, go out with a bang, that's going to inform their behavior accordingly. Report an error in the passage at 15:20 Highlight the passage at 15:20

15:36 And if there are people who feel that, you know, they need to, this life is about abdicating and sacrifice and it's all about the next life. And so that informs a certain set of behaviors. For most people, there's not a clarity on worldview. Most people have a kind of a 50-50, like it's 50 % karma, 50 % hard work. Report an error in the passage at 15:36 Highlight the passage at 15:36

16:03 Things happen for a reason. It's always going to happen for the best. There's always a kind of going back and forth of, you know, it's all chance and it's all kind of mixed in together. And that's, I think, the majority. And I think most of us, we don't have a totally a consistent view. You know, our view goes back and forth. Report an error in the passage at 16:03 Highlight the passage at 16:03

16:38 So then one of the things I'd like to then begin with is the notion of this thing called the Archimedean point. And Archimedes was a Greek philosopher who said that if... You give me a place to stand on that's firm enough, and if you give me a lever that's long enough, I can move the world. The notion being, you know, if you have a lever and if you stand far enough, something really heavy can be lifted. Report an error in the passage at 16:38 Highlight the passage at 16:38

17:15 So in the idea of, in regards to ethics, the Archimedean point has to do with your worldview, a place. That's the basis for, it's the foundation for the rest of your ideas and your beliefs. Report an error in the passage at 17:15 Highlight the passage at 17:15

17:38 Also, as I'm going talking today, please just raise your hand if there's a question or anything like that. So Report an error in the passage at 17:38 Highlight the passage at 17:38

17:51 this notion of, and our committee and point has to do with view of reality, which is the basis for your ideas around. And in Buddhism, there were, you can say, six Archimidian points. There were six times that there were six schools that believed in certain things, and then it changed and it evolved. Report an error in the passage at 17:51 Highlight the passage at 17:51

18:24 So the first school, as an example, the earliest school, South Tantricas, they believed in... Things being impermanent and the fundamental nature of reality was that it is impermanent. That impermanence is the defining feature of existence. And that was the basis for the idea of not developing attachment. Report an error in the passage at 18:24 Highlight the passage at 18:24

19:07 And it was a basic worldview. That worldview then got sort of, I don't want to say defeated, but moved to another place. So that Archimedean point moved. And it moved to another school. And then the next school was the Vaibashikas. And they held that there's no self, that beyond just... Just there being the emptiness of permanence, that there's the emptiness of self. And so then their view of reality was the idea of no self, no ownership. Report an error in the passage at 19:07 Highlight the passage at 19:07

19:48 You don't own the shirt on your back, you don't own your car. It's causes and conditions that are coming together. So it included the idea of impermanence, but it moved also one step, one level deeper in regarding ownership. And the sense of no self. Report an error in the passage at 19:48 Highlight the passage at 19:48

20:20 So that Archimedean point moved as well. And that moved to, we call it the mind only school. And that has to do with the notion of that there's no such thing as accidents. That everything happens based on karma. Report an error in the passage at 20:20 Highlight the passage at 20:20

20:45 And their Report an error in the passage at 20:45 Highlight the passage at 20:45

20:51 basic idea was that the fundamental view of reality is that there's a mind stream. Based on this mind stream, whatever we say, whatever we think and whatever we do creates a seed. It's like planting a seed. That seed grows and then forces us to experience what we're experiencing. There's a quality of a mind stream that continues from life to life. Report an error in the passage at 20:51 Highlight the passage at 20:51

21:28 That there are no accidents. Everything that's in your experience is due to a previous cause. Report an error in the passage at 21:28 Highlight the passage at 21:28

21:40 That school, in terms of its effects, meant that any time you feel something's happened by accident, that's emptiness of accidents. There's no such thing as accidents. And also every time you have a judgment, you know, if you think, you know, this glass is beautiful or that this glass is ugly, it depends on your karma. Report an error in the passage at 21:40 Highlight the passage at 21:40

22:03 Which is why there's a famous example of a hell being, a human being and a hungry ghost all looking at this glass of water. The hell being sees it as molten lava. The hungry ghost sees it as pus. And the human being sees it as water. A being from a god realm sees it as nectar. So according to the mind-only school, there's no such thing as a judgment. Report an error in the passage at 22:03 Highlight the passage at 22:03

22:31 It's all depending on your karmic... Projection, your karmic situation. Report an error in the passage at 22:31 Highlight the passage at 22:31

22:48 And then that Report an error in the passage at 22:48 Highlight the passage at 22:48

22:58 Archimedean point moved as well. And then finally we reached a view of the nature of the world by the 6th century AD called the Middle Way School. That point hasn't moved. That view of reality of the Middle Way School, also known as Madhyamika. Basically took very much the foundation of the mind-only school around how we experience reality, but it further deconstructed their assumption or their position that there's a mind, there's a mind stream that's actually real. Report an error in the passage at 22:58 Highlight the passage at 22:58

23:39 From their perspective, the moment you try to localize something or grab something and say, this is it, this exists, then you have created the error. Report an error in the passage at 23:39 Highlight the passage at 23:39

23:54 existence, of eternalism, that you actually try to capture it, not going to stay around for your – a specimen of existence. But if you deny it, going to also be a false – Report an error in the passage at 23:54 Highlight the passage at 23:54

24:13 So according to the Madhyamika school, the nature of reality is ineffable. It's not subject to wrapping your mind around. And they even say that the moment you try to find it, you can't find it. But of course there's a mind. It's the basis for all our experience. It's a very profound position and it actually isn't so relevant for what we need to talk about today. Report an error in the passage at 24:13 Highlight the passage at 24:13

24:45 The Mind Only School is more of a... I mean it is relevant in terms of really kind of... Further fleshing out karma and emptiness, but in terms of understanding the world and why we're experiencing what we're experiencing, the Mind Only School did a really perfect job. It's just that that position of there really is a mind is what was deconstructed by the middle way. So it's actually a subtle point. Also, a lot of the things I'm talking about, it's important, I think, to distinguish between view and path. Report an error in the passage at 24:45 Highlight the passage at 24:45

25:18 When I'm talking about something... Thinking about it in terms of like an analysis and as I'm talking about these different schools of philosophy, these are very much within the category of view, understanding of the view of the philosophical view of the position of the different schools. Path has to do with the actual behavior and the action. So as practitioners, let's say if you practice meditation, And your understanding of meditation right now is really based on settling the mind. And not so much right now you're involved in, let's say, you're not doing too much analysis. Report an error in the passage at 25:18 Highlight the passage at 25:18

25:58 That's a very perfectly fine approach because that's path. And the path is very much informed by what makes sense to you. The path is very much informed by what's relevant to you. And so just because there might be all these teachings about all this other stuff, Report an error in the passage at 25:58 Highlight the passage at 25:58

26:16 It's important to think about and to put energy there, but it doesn't have to become translated into path immediately for you. A lot of things that may not make sense, they say to shelve it and get back to it later. It doesn't mean to stop the practice, it doesn't mean to stop the path. The path has to be very much related to what really feels real to you and what's up for you. Report an error in the passage at 26:16 Highlight the passage at 26:16

26:51 And so the other, I guess, another disqualifier for the talk was that when I talk about ethics and I'm going to go into the 10 actions to adopt and the 10 actions not to do and all that, it can be easy to relate to it as like a recipe, almost like a cookie cutter approach to nirvāṇa, like just do these things and don't do these things. Report an error in the passage at 26:51 Highlight the passage at 26:51

27:13 And I think it's important to be able to really relate these. These teachings around the ten virtuous actions to your life very personally. And so it can be helpful just to think about view and path. They're two different categories. Report an error in the passage at 27:13 Highlight the passage at 27:13

27:42 So our committee and point that we are at, the point that hasn't moved since the past 1,400 years, is the... It's the view of the relationship between karma and emptiness as being related completely. That when you see, you know, if I was to hold a pen, I always have to have a pen to give my example. If I have a pen and a dog comes in and sees a chewy toy, Report an error in the passage at 27:42 Highlight the passage at 27:42

28:34 who's right? You guys seeing a pen or a dog seeing a chewy toy? Report an error in the passage at 28:34 Highlight the passage at 28:34

28:45 How come both are right? Report an error in the passage at 28:45 Highlight the passage at 28:45

28:53 Depends on the view of the person. That's why also in that example there's no water. It's not that there's more of a water here that if a god comes in and sees nectar, that means that the part does not make the whole. If I take all the parts of the pen and put it together, the sum of the parts do not equal the whole. Report an error in the passage at 28:53 Highlight the passage at 28:53

29:22 The sum of the parts equals the whole when you add the perceiver, the subject perceiving it. So if I take the pen, the cap, the ink, put it all together, it's only a pen when there's finally a human being that can see it. And a baby can't see it. And someone who doesn't have the sight can't see it. You need these causes and conditions to come together. Report an error in the passage at 29:22 Highlight the passage at 29:22

29:51 To say pen. That's why the idea is that the pen is a label. They say that often, that it's a label. Because it's a lot of causes and conditions coming together and then a label is added, an identification is added. Report an error in the passage at 29:51 Highlight the passage at 29:51

30:10 And then it's a pen. Whereas if you thought you walked in and it looked like, I don't know, like if you walked in and my belt looked like a snake, you know. And you thought it was a snake. It's just enough for that perception to make that label mistake. And then the experience comes up of snake. Report an error in the passage at 30:10 Highlight the passage at 30:10

30:33 So the view of reality basically is that everything you're experiencing is based on the causes and conditions of the past. Things you've thought, things you've did and things you've said. The definition of karma is movement of the mind and what motivates it. Report an error in the passage at 30:33 Highlight the passage at 30:33

30:54 That's another way of saying anything you think or anything that your thoughts inspire by way of speech or action is the definition of karma. Report an error in the passage at 30:54 Highlight the passage at 30:54

31:07 Maybe I can ask. If I invest my money in the stock market and make a lot of money, then what's the cause of me making money? Is Report an error in the passage at 31:07 Highlight the passage at 31:07

31:30 it the stock market that caused my money? The good karma. Report an error in the passage at 31:30 Highlight the passage at 31:30

31:37 that's it and that's The stock market we say is how I made money, but the karma is why I made the money. If I save lives and I have good health, you might say how I have good health is I eat good food and I exercise, but why I have good health is because of the karma of protecting life. So there's a difference between how something happens and why it happens. Report an error in the passage at 31:37 Highlight the passage at 31:37

32:07 And we create confusion and suffering when we try to, when we confuse how and why. When we think more hard work is going to give me money. Or when we think the right investment. That's why in Pacho Rinpoche in this book he says, better to create a spark of merit than create a mountain of effort. A spark of merit. Report an error in the passage at 32:07 Highlight the passage at 32:07

32:37 It's why you will experience happiness, merit being generosity or whatnot, patience. Report an error in the passage at 32:37 Highlight the passage at 32:37

32:49 So the difference is that when we look at these, there's a consistency of when something is happening every time. Sometimes I invest in the stock market and I don't make money. Sometimes I invest in the stock market and I do make money. So there's a quality there. It's not every time. Report an error in the passage at 32:49 Highlight the passage at 32:49

33:09 According to the logic in Buddhism, when something is given as a cause, if I say, this causes this, that every time it should be the cause, logically speaking. So there's a quality of consistency with karma. Now the problem is that it takes a while for the cause to give the fruit. Nagarjuna, one of the most famous philosophers of Buddhism, said, Report an error in the passage at 33:09 Highlight the passage at 33:09

33:39 If we experienced our ribs breaking the moment we stepped on a cockroach, then all the problems in human society would be solved because we would no longer do any negative action. The result would come very immediately. But the result of karma takes time. And so because of that time lag, because it's like a seed, because of that time lag, it's difficult for us to connect the action with the result. Report an error in the passage at 33:39 Highlight the passage at 33:39

34:21 There are four laws to karma. That's the first one. That the cause and effect are infallible. You can't get an effect without a cause. And then the second law is that the effect is greater. It's like a fruit. So a little act of kindness creates a much bigger result. A little act of ignorance creates a much bigger result. It's like a fruit gets bigger. Report an error in the passage at 34:21 Highlight the passage at 34:21

34:55 The third law of karma is you will never experience an effect for which you haven't created a cause. If you haven't experienced good health, it's because you haven't created enough causes for that. You can't experience the effect of something for which you don't have a cause. Similarly, if you haven't created the cause for... Report an error in the passage at 34:55 Highlight the passage at 34:55

35:22 know like being Being poverty stricken. It doesn't matter. You can invest your money in rocks and you'll make money. If you haven't created the cause for being poverty stricken, you won't experience poverty. Report an error in the passage at 35:22 Highlight the passage at 35:22

35:38 So anytime you can't have an effect without the cause. And then finally, the last law is that there's nothing that you say, think or do that's going to go to waste. It creates an effect. Everything we say, think or do has an effect. It does involve being motivated. So there has to be a motivation. There has to be an attempt. There has to be success or failure at the attempt. And there has to be whether or not you regret it or whether you're happy about it. Report an error in the passage at 35:38 Highlight the passage at 35:38

36:14 It's like if we think about law, the legal system, they actually include a lot of these elements. If it was premeditated, you know. If the crime was successful or not, these are all factors. Report an error in the passage at 36:14 Highlight the passage at 36:14

36:35 So the reason I went into this so much detail is because the paramita of ethics involves the view of, this is the view of the Mahāyāna. This is the view of the paramita. Paramita has to do with the idea of culmination. And the prajna paramita is the wisdom, culmination or the perfection of wisdom. So what we're talking about is a, it's not just ordinary patience or ordinary generosity or ordinary ethics. We're talking about generosity, patience or ethics that are the kind of ethics, the kind of generosity and the kind of patience that will lead to a state of perfect happiness, Report an error in the passage at 36:35 Highlight the passage at 36:35

37:26 perfection of wisdom. That's the perfection part. Report an error in the passage at 37:26 Highlight the passage at 37:26

37:33 So that's another term that's often used is transcendental generosity, transcendental patience. You're transcending a situation that is in place right now. And what you're transcending is, in many ways, your view of reality and the way you experience yourself and others. Report an error in the passage at 37:33 Highlight the passage at 37:33

38:04 The transcending part is you're transcending a place of thinking that the rope is a snake. The idea is that since beginningless time there's been a confusion around reality. And that confusion has created suffering. Report an error in the passage at 38:04 Highlight the passage at 38:04

38:29 And so the paramitas have to do with not only a view that is more accurate, But behavior that is based on that more accurate view. So the basic view of the paramitas is the view of this sort of setup that I try to talk about with emptiness and karma. It has to do with the notion of everything you experience is a projection of your mind. And when you look for your mind, you can't find it. Report an error in the passage at 38:29 Highlight the passage at 38:29

39:14 So that's a basic... That's a basic place of reality as being ineffable and everything you experience as being related to the ineffability. And by ineffability I mean beyond the four extremes of existence, non-existence, neither nor both. This is a difficult topic, but this is sort of the most I can sort of try to kind of... Report an error in the passage at 39:14 Highlight the passage at 39:14

39:51 It's difficult, but not super difficult. You don't have to relearn another language in order to understand it. But it does involve having to get, and Tsongkhapa said this, when you think of emptiness and you think of karma, and when you think of karma, you think of emptiness, then you've got it. So it's really a key. Report an error in the passage at 39:51 Highlight the passage at 39:51

40:21 Really studying this so that the idea of karma and the idea of emptiness are interchangeable. They're married. Report an error in the passage at 40:21 Highlight the passage at 40:21

40:39 So then there's meditation. Meditation involves being able to develop an understanding of this. So this is like I just said a bunch of words. And we talked about how the way to relate to it is through... um, um, Listening and hearing, so actually trying to hear what was said, and then reflection and contemplation, and then meditation. Report an error in the passage at 40:39 Highlight the passage at 40:39

41:09 So the idea, let's say, with just this topic that I presented of karma and emptiness, the idea is to first clarify for yourself any questions you have of what I said in terms of it being comprehensible, and then reflecting on it, and then when you feel like you've gotten something that makes sense, to then meditate on it. Report an error in the passage at 41:09 Highlight the passage at 41:09

41:30 And then the meditation is very much related to your conscience. If you have a bad conscience, it's difficult to still the mind. And so the three trainings that often is talked about in all the schools of Buddhism is prajna, which is wisdom, which is what I just talked about, samādhi, which is meditation, and shila, which is morality. Report an error in the passage at 41:30 Highlight the passage at 41:30

41:58 These are talked about. Not just in the Paramitas, but in all the schools of Buddhism, they talk about these three trainings. And the reason they're so connected is because in order to get at wisdom, there needs to be a very deep integration that's beyond just concepts. It needs to have a kind of quality of what's called knowledge by acquaintance. There needs to be an acquaintance of the experience or the understanding of... Report an error in the passage at 41:58 Highlight the passage at 41:58

42:29 Of the mind being empty, the emptiness of your own awareness. And so that experience occurs in meditation. The way that experience occurs in meditation is through a settling of the mind, which is called shamatha, and a clear seeing, similar to like a glass of water that's muddy. And if you let the mud settle, it gets clear. Report an error in the passage at 42:29 Highlight the passage at 42:29

43:00 So that's settling. The clarity emerges. If your mind isn't feeling, if your life is in a place of chaos, in terms of let's say the morality piece, you're in a place of conflict and chaos and you have maybe your conscience is bothering you, it prevents the settling. Report an error in the passage at 43:00 Highlight the passage at 43:00

43:31 The settling of the mind is important because that's the basis for being able to... Have that clear seeing. Report an error in the passage at 43:31 Highlight the passage at 43:31

43:43 Does that make sense? Report an error in the passage at 43:43 Highlight the passage at 43:43

44:02 So the paramita of ethics has to do with, it's based on avoiding negative actions, cultivating positive actions and bringing benefit to others. Report an error in the passage at 44:02 Highlight the passage at 44:02

44:20 Those are the three categories of it. The first one, it's avoiding negative actions. Report an error in the passage at 44:20 Highlight the passage at 44:20

44:32 And the second one is cultivating positive actions. And the third one is bringing benefit to others. And also you can relate these to the three scopes. I don't know if you guys have heard of the three scopes, but the three scopes relate to why anyone would even be interested in the teachings of the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 44:32 Highlight the passage at 44:32

44:57 And the first scope is the people who, and I think we all go through these actually, The first kind of step is you feel like, okay, there's this thing called death and I'd like to not, you know, I kind of, I don't have tools in dealing with it. I'd like some help in dealing with this thing called death. And so one enters the teachings because they don't... Report an error in the passage at 44:57 Highlight the passage at 44:57

45:34 They have enough belief in karma and the teachings of the Buddha that they believe that if they don't create negative actions, that they will not go to have a bad rebirth. So that's called the first scope. The first scope being you're behaving the way you're behaving because you don't want to go to the lower realms. Report an error in the passage at 45:34 Highlight the passage at 45:34

46:03 So it very much assumes a belief in reincarnation and a belief in karma. But you see, the thing is with reincarnation is if you contemplate the pen and the chewy toy example, it makes reincarnation make a lot more sense. Because you realize when you think about that example of the pen and the chewy toy, the dog seeing a chewy toy, that when you die, it's not about your soul going into another body. Report an error in the passage at 46:03 Highlight the passage at 46:03

46:30 It's a shift in perception. Your karma, the karma for this being a human, exhausts ends. And then let's say the next karmic seed that's then coming up is you see the pen as a chewy toy, like you're a dog or something. And so then it's not like this soul goes in another body. It's just shift in perception where now you look at your hands and you see pause. Report an error in the passage at 46:30 Highlight the passage at 46:30

47:00 You see pause, you know. And bones look really tasty. It's a shift in perception. So, what was I saying? Oh yeah, the scopes. So then the first scope is not wanting to have the lower birth. There was one of the monks in the Buddha's retinue. Report an error in the passage at 47:00 Highlight the passage at 47:00

47:36 He was a royal, kind of like a prince. Within the Buddha's kingdom, he was like a cousin of the Buddha or something, and he was madly in love with this young princess, and they had a mad love affair. Report an error in the passage at 47:36 Highlight the passage at 47:36

47:59 And they would be so attached to each other that if they were to separate for even a moment, she would take a little piece of her saliva and put it on his nose and say, by the time this dries, you have to be back. So there was this sort of like this over-the-top attachment. And then the Buddha had been for a long time trying to convince his cousin, who was like a prince with all the riches of a prince, to become a monk. Report an error in the passage at 47:59 Highlight the passage at 47:59

48:32 And the prince was, you know, he's like, there's no way, I'm too attached to my wife. So then the Buddha said, okay, well, come with me. And the Buddha took him to the realm of the gods. Report an error in the passage at 48:32 Highlight the passage at 48:32

48:50 And he showed this prince this amazing room with the most beautiful bed and there was like six or seven goddesses preparing the bed. And the prince was like, who's that for? And they said, oh, this is for Prince so-and-so. We're preparing this so if he becomes a monk and creates virtue, this is where he'll be reborn. Report an error in the passage at 48:50 Highlight the passage at 48:50

49:19 The prince was so inspired by this possible rebirth of following the Buddha's teachings and being reborn. And in fact, the Buddha even said, you know, compared to a monkey, who's more beautiful, your wife or a monkey? And he said, well, of course, my wife. then after he saw the goddesses, the Buddha said, Now, compare to these goddesses, who's more beautiful, wife or these goddesses? Report an error in the passage at 49:19 Highlight the passage at 49:19

49:51 And he said, well, compared to these goddesses, my wife looks like a monkey. So there was just an interesting kind of complete shift, and he became the best monk in Buddha's retinue. He renounced and he became the best monk. And then about a few months later, the Buddha told his retinue, I forgot the prince's name, but he said, that person there, don't sit with him, don't eat with him, don't walk with him. Report an error in the passage at 49:51 Highlight the passage at 49:51

50:21 Don't talk with him. Don't associate with him. Because he's in the robes not for achieving liberation, but for achieving more saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 50:21 Highlight the passage at 50:21

50:37 So there's a kind of a big distinction between proceeding with the path because you want to experience the fruit, the positive fruit, but there not being an understanding of the cyclic nature of it. Of how the fruit of the good karma is impermanent. And so the second scope are people who will follow the Buddhist teachings because they want to achieve what's called nirvāṇa. Report an error in the passage at 50:37 Highlight the passage at 50:37

51:11 Nirvāṇa, the definition of nirvāṇa is ending your kleshas, ending the disturbing thoughts that disturb your mind. So you have a state of peace. Report an error in the passage at 51:11 Highlight the passage at 51:11

51:24 The end of the story though is he showed his cousin, After he goes to the realm of the gods and he fulfills that karma, then he showed him a big vat of molten fire in the hell realms. And then the cousin was like, what is that? And he said, oh, this is where, when your karma is finished up there, this is where you'll be going. So then the monk, actually the good news is he decided to practice the Dharma to get out of saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 51:24 Highlight the passage at 51:24

51:56 So then when we talk about transcendence, The paramita of ethics, the first one is to avoid negative actions. The second one is to cultivate positive actions, which can be loosely associated with the second scope. And then the third one is to bring benefit to others. And the third scope, the last scope, has to do with wanting all beings to be out of the suffering of cyclic existence. Report an error in the passage at 51:56 Highlight the passage at 51:56

52:30 it's that's And so that's really the scope of the Mahāyāna. That's the scope that the paramitas are in. The Buddha himself said, commit not a single unwholesome action, cultivate a wealth of virtue and tame this mind of ours. This is the teaching of the Buddha. So that's in a way a summary of transcendent ethics. Report an error in the passage at 52:30 Highlight the passage at 52:30

52:59 I think actually, Report an error in the passage at 52:59 Highlight the passage at 52:59

53:06 so yeah, there's Pajra Rinpoche in here. He says, Avoiding negative actions means rejecting like poison all ten negative actions of body, speech and mind, unless they are directed towards the benefit of others. So the ten negative actions of body, speech and mind I'll go into soon. And then regarding undertaking positive actions, he says, do not take lightly small misdeeds, believing they can do no harm. Report an error in the passage at 53:06 Highlight the passage at 53:06

53:38 Even a tiny spark of fire can set alight a mountain of hay. So that's his main advice in this category of undertaking positive actions, that even the smallest positive action has a big result or can have a big result. Report an error in the passage at 53:38 Highlight the passage at 53:38

54:07 then, then bringing benefit to others, talks about. when you're Report an error in the passage at 54:07 Highlight the passage at 54:07

54:23 Master the kind of ability to work with that self-grasping. When your sense of self-grasping is less, then that capacity to connect with others is much greater. And that has to be established after you've grounded yourself in the ability to develop the discipline of taming your own mind, of working with the mind. Report an error in the passage at 54:23 Highlight the passage at 54:23

54:50 That's why that quotation of the Buddha... The last scope, the big scope is tame this mind of ours. When you tame the mind and you're not in that reactive mode, then their capacity to be a benefit to others is much greater. Report an error in the passage at 54:50 Highlight the passage at 54:50

55:11 So are there any questions so far? I Report an error in the passage at 55:11 Highlight the passage at 55:11

55:22 was going to go into the 10 virtuous actions or the 10 top 10 actions is what they're usually called, the top 10 things to keep in mind in regard to behavior. Report an error in the passage at 55:22 Highlight the passage at 55:22

55:43 And these are... these are The way I'm going to talk about these is based on the notion of what the result of them are. So when you're experiencing something, there's a personal result and an environmental result. That's based on what I was talking about earlier about karma. Report an error in the passage at 55:43 Highlight the passage at 55:43

56:09 And when we talk about karma, we can talk about karma as having an environmental result. Report an error in the passage at 56:09 Highlight the passage at 56:09

56:17 The four types of karmic results is what Report an error in the passage at 56:17 Highlight the passage at 56:17

56:28 I had said earlier about the effect being greater. So how a small act of generosity can magnify into a very large experience of feeling materially content. Report an error in the passage at 56:28 Highlight the passage at 56:28

56:42 So the first piece about the karmic results is that the result is greater than the cause. Report an error in the passage at 56:42 Highlight the passage at 56:42

57:00 The quality of the karmic result is that the effect is similar to the cause. So if you have engaged in killing, you experience your life at being threatened. If you've experienced giving offerings and being generous, you experience your own situation as being content materially. The effect is similar to the cause. Report an error in the passage at 57:00 Highlight the passage at 57:00

57:29 So the effect is greater, it multiplies, and it's similar. The third one is interesting. It has to do with the notion of the tendency to repeat what we're used to doing. So if we have gotten used to being angry, we have a tendency to continue doing that. And there's a very big, in psychology, there's a very strong kind of... Report an error in the passage at 57:29 Highlight the passage at 57:29

58:02 topic around self-consistency, how we are invested in doing what we are used to doing. We're invested in what's familiar. Our nervous system is designed to maintain a balance of not being surprised. And so we would rather do what's familiar than what's new. And so there is a very strong quality to karma that lends itself to being kind of... Report an error in the passage at 58:02 Highlight the passage at 58:02

58:33 To kind of going over and over the same groove that you've been going over. Padmasambhava, one of the saints who brought Buddhism to Tibet, said that if you want to see what you've done in the past, then look at what your current situation is. And if you want to know what your future life holds, see what your current situation is. Look at what you're currently doing. Report an error in the passage at 58:33 Highlight the passage at 58:33

59:04 What you're currently doing not only informs what you will be doing or what will be happening to you, but it also informs what had been happening to lead you to where you are now. Report an error in the passage at 59:04 Highlight the passage at 59:04

59:19 So the effect is greater than the cause. The effect is similar to the cause. There's a tendency to go over and over again what we've been doing, familiarity. Report an error in the passage at 59:19 Highlight the passage at 59:19

59:33 And then the fourth... The fourth thing is environmental result. There's an environmental quality, so it's going to affect the way you experience your environment. And I'll go in more detail right now in regards to these, and then we'll end the talk. So killing would be the first in the top ten. We talked about this is the top ten things you want to be aware of in terms of... Report an error in the passage at 59:33 Highlight the passage at 59:33

1:00:06 If you buy into the whole karma piece, then this would be the next step in terms of relating it to your experience. This next piece has to do with what's called very difficult to see, because in Buddhist logic there's the things that are easy to see, like easy to get, like impermanence. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:06 Highlight the passage at 1:00:06

1:00:33 When the Buddha talks about impermanence, you can see it with your own... experience very vividly. then there's another category called difficult to see. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:33 Highlight the passage at 1:00:33

1:00:47 not impermanence, emptiness, like the notion that things, causes and conditions coming together. And then the very, very difficult to see is how karma works. Like, how is it that when I do this, this is the result? Report an error in the passage at 1:00:47 Highlight the passage at 1:00:47

1:01:07 And so they say that with the first two you can use your reasoning mind. But with the last one, that your only real information is coming from the Buddha because he has the perception on a very, very subtle level. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:07 Highlight the passage at 1:01:07

1:01:29 The second one, difficult to see, is something which relates to what I was talking about with meditation. that I could talk about Emptiness and karma, but it requires a level of meditation to be able to experientially understand it. That has to do because it's on the second level of difficult to see. You're settling the mind to the point where you're connecting to a very subtle dynamic. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:29 Highlight the passage at 1:01:29

1:02:05 So that is something that you can't see. But in regards to karma, For example, to understand how is it that sexual misconduct creates living in a filthy environment. That's something that's not immediately available to our understanding. It just seems like, how did you go from that to that? And that has to do with the third category, very difficult to see. Even if you meditated, you couldn't see it. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:05 Highlight the passage at 1:02:05

1:02:35 And the only reliance we have is the teachings of the Buddha. And the only way we can... The reasoning is that the only reason to believe the Buddha is because you haven't found him lying in anything else. So there's an idea of if you haven't experienced an inconsistency, then it lends itself to maybe considering it seriously. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:35 Highlight the passage at 1:02:35

1:03:00 When we talk about logic, we're talking about consistency and coherence. How much does it explain and how consistent is it? Report an error in the passage at 1:03:00 Highlight the passage at 1:03:00

1:03:10 um, This comes from the fourth chapter of the Abhidharma. It's Vasubandhu's commentary on the Buddha. And then there's another commentary on that by Tsongkhapa. So this comes from that source. So the first one is killing. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:10 Highlight the passage at 1:03:10

1:03:29 This has a personal, and so each of these have a personal and environmental result. The personal result is you have a short life. It doesn't matter how much you work out. You can't get fit. It doesn't matter how much you take medicine. It doesn't work. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:29 Highlight the passage at 1:03:29

1:03:45 It doesn't matter what diet you try, you don't feel the vitality. So the basis of that karmic situation of experiencing that is, they say killing, but it also involves not protecting life, being careless with life. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:45 Highlight the passage at 1:03:45

1:04:11 So then what one would do is then to do the opposite of each of these. So from a karmic standpoint, Why you would get healthier is... Yes? I'm not sure about plants. Anything with a nervous system would count. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:11 Highlight the passage at 1:04:11

1:04:47 So the next one is stealing. And that involves... Here it says, you know... Includes shady business deals, cheating on rent, taxes or bills, underpaying what's due to local government or society, etc. So when I say these stealing or killing, there's a much subtler level too that we're going. So the personal result is you don't have enough to live on or you don't feel content materially. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:47 Highlight the passage at 1:04:47

1:05:25 And the environmental result, it says here the crops are few and far between. They have no power to remove hunger. They spoil or never come up. Dry spells stay on too long. It rains too much. The crops dry up or die off. So I don't know how this would be totally related to, you know, if we're living now in a metropolitan, this was written in an agrarian rural culture, but you get the idea that you don't get what you need. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:25 Highlight the passage at 1:05:25

1:05:54 It's not available to you. Obviously, the way to work with this result is generosity. This is actually a good example because the generosity, we're bombarded with the message, you know, invest in this or work hard or do this. And again, we're constantly faced with the challenge of, you know, do I put my eggs in the basket of generosity, which is what is according to karma, or do I, you know, decide to screw my business partner? Report an error in the passage at 1:05:54 Highlight the passage at 1:05:54

1:06:30 And get involved with this business venture or whatever it is, you know, or work hard or do this. It's a world view. It's a lens. And we go back and forth with it. That's why I said initially in the beginning of the talk that I think most people, it's not that they have a view and they're consistent with the view. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:30 Highlight the passage at 1:06:30

1:06:50 That the view is, it's all like mixed and mishmashed, okay? It's like, yeah, I believe in karma and I also believe in, you know, Report an error in the passage at 1:06:50 Highlight the passage at 1:06:50

1:07:02 Working 60 hours a week and trying to get ahead or whatever it is. It's a very provocative quotation by Patron Pache. Better to create a spark of merit than to create a mountain of effort. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:02 Highlight the passage at 1:07:02

1:07:20 The third one. So these are the body. When I talk about the top ten in terms of the actions, there's body, speech and mind. So right now we're doing the body. So the first one was killing. The second one was stealing. The third one. Sexual misconduct. And so this one is adultery. This means adultery. And not just adultery with someone who's married, but having someone who's involved in any romantic relationship and creating disturbance in that commitment to that romantic relationship. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:20 Highlight the passage at 1:07:20

1:07:57 Cheating on your partner or a person to who you are committed to. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:57 Highlight the passage at 1:07:57

1:08:07 personal results of Sexual misconduct is people who work around you are inconsistent and unreliable. You find yourself having a lot of competition for your partner. And the environmental result is you live in a place where there is filth all around, mud, it stinks, it seems unpleasant and distasteful, Report an error in the passage at 1:08:07 Highlight the passage at 1:08:07

1:08:38 lying. So that's just giving someone a wrong impression. And again, these can be very subtle. And the way to work against them is the opposite. So let's say in this current situation, your current life, you've never cheated on your partner or you've never done anything close to adultery. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:38 Highlight the passage at 1:08:38

1:09:02 But you're experiencing what seems to be the result of inconsistency or unhappy relationships. And so the idea, again, is to... If you think about what you're experiencing, they say that 95 % of what you're experiencing is from your previous lives. So it's really kind of taking it, okay, well, I'm not doing it now, so what do I do? Report an error in the passage at 1:09:02 Highlight the passage at 1:09:02

1:09:29 Or if I'm experiencing, you know, if you're experiencing these things, you're experiencing financial struggle even though you're generous, you know, it's relating to it on a subtle level. So like with adultery, Not even flirting, for example, with a man or a woman who you know to be involved in a relationship. Or kind of working on a very subtle level with it. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:29 Highlight the passage at 1:09:29

1:09:57 One of the things about all of these is when you take a vow, you magnify the karmic result. So if you are someone who doesn't kill, but you decide to take a vow of not killing, every moment you're not killing, It magnifies the karmic result. Taking the vow is like a mental act. Like we said, karma is movement of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:57 Highlight the passage at 1:09:57

1:10:27 So you're doing something with your mind that in relation to something like killing or adultery. And every time you are refraining from engaging in that act, it's magnifying the result. Which is why when you take a vow, it's... Report an error in the passage at 1:10:27 Highlight the passage at 1:10:27

1:10:48 Because you're magnifying the positive, but you're also putting yourself in a place of creating karmic results that can be more powerfully negative if you are engaging it. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:48 Highlight the passage at 1:10:48

1:11:02 So that's one piece. And then the second piece is that the Prajnaparamitas, these are all behaviors that are supposed to be looked at from within the greater scope of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:02 Highlight the passage at 1:11:02

1:11:14 Like we talked about the view. Karma and emptiness is the basis for transcendental generosity or transcendental patience. It's not just ordinary patience. It's not just ordinary generosity. It's the kind of patience and generosity that will be culminating. It's a culmination of perfect generosity that leads to a culmination of a perfect result, which is enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:14 Highlight the passage at 1:11:14

1:11:41 That's the idea of the paramitas. So when you feed a bird, When you feed a bird with the idea of emptiness, you completely magnify the karmic result. When you do a behavior with thinking about emptiness, thinking about the view, it magnifies the karmic result. So if you're doing any of these ten acts, the ten virtues, with the notion of emptiness and karma, like, okay, I really feel an attachment. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:41 Highlight the passage at 1:11:41

1:12:20 To saying something negative about this person who I'm at work with. But I'm not going to because of my understanding of karma. That magnifies the result. The key to this, the philosopher's stone to this, the Archimedean point, as I said, the point that hasn't moved for 1800 years, is the view of middle-waste, the middle-waste school of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:20 Highlight the passage at 1:12:20

1:12:48 It's a key. It's a key to lead out of darkness. It's a key to dispel ignorance. So that key is something that's not just something to be looked at in a book. It's to be applied in your life. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:48 Highlight the passage at 1:12:48

1:13:21 been eating my pumpkins One pumpkin and one Report an error in the passage at 1:13:21 Highlight the passage at 1:13:21

1:13:28 had rat problems in the past. So they know I'm Buddhist. And so I love them, but the woman told me one day that they had these rat problems and details aside and that they were going to have to kill the rats. So then she says, I know you're Buddhist. And I generally listen, but I don't know how. So at one point I just said, don't tell me, don't tell me, don't tell me about a lot. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:28 Highlight the passage at 1:13:28

1:14:00 How does that work? Because I support them in their problem, so I have compassion for their struggle, but I'm not, I don't know how to, where do I draw the line? Report an error in the passage at 1:14:00 Highlight the passage at 1:14:00

1:14:15 Am I going to get negative karma by supporting them as neighbors? I don't know quite the conventional, what do I do? Well, they say in general karma, there's like, there's the intention. There's the act, whether or not the act was successful, and then whether or not you're happy about it. So in order for it to be like a full-on karmic-like movement, there would be you doing something based on your intention to do it, being successful about it and rejoicing about it. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:15 Highlight the passage at 1:14:15

1:14:56 have this superficial knowledge that if I it, then it's not good for me. But they're just letting me know because they're my neighbors. And they're planning on putting the traps on their side of the property. Yeah, and I suggested that there's this electronic device that sort of wards them off, but apparently the husband has tried it and it didn't work. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:56 Highlight the passage at 1:14:56

1:15:19 I don't mind if they eat my, you know, Report an error in the passage at 1:15:19 Highlight the passage at 1:15:19

1:15:26 but, you know. Yeah, I mean, I think actually I don't really see too much of a karmic involvement on your part other than the fact of... you rejoiced over it, know what I mean? Report an error in the passage at 1:15:26 Highlight the passage at 1:15:26

1:15:41 I'm way to help somebody like that is, know, go and find resources, how they can get rid of the problem instead of giving the evidence. And you will be helping that person, too. Even if they don't believe in what you as a Buddhist believe, they can get rid of the problem. Which one were we on? Lying? Report an error in the passage at 1:15:41 Highlight the passage at 1:15:41

1:16:11 Okay, so we have to get through this. So, environmental result of lying. Your work in cooperation with others fails to prosper. People around you don't work well together. Everyone generally is cheating one another and is afraid. Okay, so divisive talk. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:11 Highlight the passage at 1:16:11

1:16:33 That means splitting people up with your talk, saying things to alienate or separate people. Causing one person to like another person less. so Report an error in the passage at 1:16:33 Highlight the passage at 1:16:33

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:16:44 The personal result, you lose friends easily, people around you are always fighting, and people around you have an undesirable character. The environmental result, the ground you live in is split up, uneven, covered with crags, gullies, highs and lows. Residents of San Francisco probably all experience this with the potholes on the street. Travel is difficult. You're always afraid. Harsh speech. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:44 Highlight the passage at 1:16:44

1:17:12 So that means with bad intent. Including sarcastic sarcasm and swearing. I think of harsh speech as just if you were someone standing there and you didn't know this person, it would be unpleasant to hear. Usually with a lot of vulgarity and yelling. The personal result is you hear many unpleasant things. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:12 Highlight the passage at 1:17:12

1:17:45 And notice how with each of these, it's like very much a reflection. If you're experiencing, if you're talking badly about other people, you experience people around you who were really unpleasant to you, which further promotes talking badly. It's like a vicious circle. Each of these creates the dynamic more and more to engage it. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:45 Highlight the passage at 1:17:45

1:18:15 So harsh speech. You hear many unpleasant things. You hear things as bad sounds. When others talk, it always seems to you as if they want to start a fight. Environmental result is that the ground where you live is covered with obstacles like fallen trees, thorns, stones, sharper broken glass. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:15 Highlight the passage at 1:18:15

1:18:37 I usually think of this as traffic. That's an obstacle, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:37 Highlight the passage at 1:18:37

1:18:47 Idle talk, which is meaningless chatter. um, Report an error in the passage at 1:18:47 Highlight the passage at 1:18:47

1:18:52 Useless joking, whining, complaining, gossiping. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:52 Highlight the passage at 1:18:52

1:19:02 Personal result is no one listens to you. No one respects what you say. No one thinks what you say has any particular value. And you are afflicted with a lack of confidence and self-esteem. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:02 Highlight the passage at 1:19:02

1:19:15 Environmental result is fruits refuse to grow or they grow at the wrong times. They seem ripe when they're not. They have frail roots. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:15 Highlight the passage at 1:19:15

1:19:27 So that's the speech. Killing, stealing, sexual misconduct as body. And then we did lying, divisive talk, harsh speech and idle talk. So that's speech. And then now we're going into mind. So craving and coveting. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:27 Highlight the passage at 1:19:27

1:19:49 This comes in, it says you're attached to your own possessions or desire to accumulate more than you have. You discover another's possessions and like to make them your own, or desire becomes unmanageable and you lose shame, meaning that you act on out of a reactive mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:49 Highlight the passage at 1:19:49

1:20:10 Personal result is your personality is dominated by desire. You are never satisfied with what you have. And the environmental result is every good thing you manage to find starts to get worse, decreases by the days, months, and as the seasons pass. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:10 Highlight the passage at 1:20:10

1:20:29 And then ill will. It's to wish bad things upon others. Personal result is your personality is dominated by anger. You are always finding yourself without help. You never find the help you need. And you are always hurting others or always being hurt by others. And the environmental result is you live in a world of chaos, disease spreads, evil is everywhere, plague, conflict, fear, fear of harm from the military, dangerous animals. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:29 Highlight the passage at 1:20:29

1:20:58 You're surrounded by harmful spirits, thieves or muggers. And then the last one is wrong view. And that's the most pervasive one of the ten non-virtuous actions. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:58 Highlight the passage at 1:20:58

1:21:12 So the basic way in which when you take a vow, so these are the top ten things to avoid. And I talked about how taking a vow can be very powerful in working with your karma. And so when you take a vow, the four most important things with it is, Getting the support from a spiritual mentor, whether it's a Lama or whether it's basically the idea of spiritual mentor has to do with emulating a person who you fundamentally view as awake. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:12 Highlight the passage at 1:21:12

1:21:55 It's an emulation towards wakefulness and sanity. So it connects on a very deep spiritual and intimate level of connecting to a teacher who again is the embodiment of, for you, is the embodiment of wakefulness and sanity. And it's a wakefulness and a sanity which you aim to emulate as being a basic feature or facet of that. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:55 Highlight the passage at 1:21:55

1:22:28 So They say that in keeping the vows from being damaged, and this is the last thing before I'll end, is relying on a teacher. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:28 Highlight the passage at 1:22:28

1:22:41 The second one is your intention with the vow. Why did you take the vow? Why did you decide to not kill? Why did you decide to do this? This goes back to my original point in the talk that it's really critical to think about what is your view. What is your relationship with your life and why are you connecting at all to these teachings? Report an error in the passage at 1:22:41 Highlight the passage at 1:22:41

1:23:11 And so based on your intention, a lot of times we find people who have supposedly taken vows or who are supposedly involved in a certain lifestyle. And they don't really live that. It's almost like their spirit isn't in it anymore. It's like there's a laissez-faire quality or they're jaded or there's a cynicism. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:11 Highlight the passage at 1:23:11

1:23:38 Not just, you know, within like Buddhism, but you see it so often. We've seen it like with, you know, all the situation like with the Catholic priests and the sexual abuse that was going on. They had a string of reports a few years back. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:38 Highlight the passage at 1:23:38

1:23:58 What's going on with that? It has to do with having to go back to your original intention with taking the vows. It's easy to take a vow that seems nice and then just sort of go through the moves with it. So the key and one of the most important things is to return to your intention in taking that vow and to really appraise its vitality for you. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:58 Highlight the passage at 1:23:58

1:24:26 So that's the outer and inner support. The teacher is the outer support. Your intention is the inner support. The third most important thing in keeping your vows is to know what the vows are. To actually know what your vows involve and to know what works against them. So this is like the concentric circle theory. Like if you are trying not to drink alcohol, don't go into a bar. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:26 Highlight the passage at 1:24:26

1:24:59 If you're working on a certain vow, like you're really working on not speaking harshly, well then don't go see your mother-in-law who you hate and you want to speak harshly about. I mean as a beginning step, this is being able to think about are you putting yourself in a vulnerable place that's going to cause you to break your vow. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:59 Highlight the passage at 1:24:59

1:25:28 The fourth has to do with understanding Report an error in the passage at 1:25:28 Highlight the passage at 1:25:28

1:25:35 The importance of, you know, there are times of the year that people take time out to really check in with themselves, really kind of, you know, it's called, you know, a lot of times in retreat, you go into retreat, a lot of times like on full moons they do sojong, which is like a purification practice. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:35 Highlight the passage at 1:25:35

1:25:57 On Monday, this Monday, it's one of the four holy days of Buddhism where... Supposedly your karma is multiplied 10 million times. So all this has to do is really developing a situation with your life where you take time out and you really check in with yourself and with your vows and with your commitments. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:57 Highlight the passage at 1:25:57

1:26:16 And you either change the commitments that no longer make sense to you or you infuse them with a vitality that if they've been waning, if they're an important commitment. Commitment to people, commitment to your own aims, your own endeavors. So the fourth one has to do with being able to, I mean, traditionally this fourth category involves Sojong and the three-month retreat. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:16 Highlight the passage at 1:26:16

1:26:53 But in our modern situation, we can think of it as, you know, Just certain times of the month. For example, for me, there will be twice a month that I'll actually do practice. Like you guys have, we do guru puja here. They'll do the pujas and stuff. Or you take a time out for yourself during the day. But you actually reserve and preserve a time, a container to check in with yourself and your vows. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:53 Highlight the passage at 1:26:53

1:27:25 So... The outer support of the teacher, the inner support of your intentions, and the third is the environmental situation, not putting yourself in an environmental place where you're vulnerable. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:25 Highlight the passage at 1:27:25

1:27:39 It's also one of the reasons they recommend against getting drunk or stoned, because when your inhibitions are lower, you're making yourself vulnerable to breaking the other vows. And the fourth is just taking time out in retreat, whether it's a one-day situation or a three-month situation. To reconnect to your commitments. So that's all I had with the paramita of ethics. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:39 Highlight the passage at 1:27:39

1:28:08 Any final questions or last words before we dedicate? Please. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:08 Highlight the passage at 1:28:08

1:28:18 society where when you get a job, when you're looking for a job, I'm not, but it comes up, where the question is around the pressure of telling the truth at all times and under all circumstances. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:18 Highlight the passage at 1:28:18

1:28:36 It's common advice when you're writing a resume that if you've ever been fired, you don't put that down. Right. So I'm just curious what your information is about how to navigate around these sort of conventional cultural sort of norms. Yeah, that's important. And it's an uphill battle because there are a lot of... Report an error in the passage at 1:28:36 Highlight the passage at 1:28:36

1:29:06 Cultural beliefs that contradicts the teachings. And one of the interesting things is they say that if you study the teachings enough, like the teachings on karma, you won't be able to do those things comfortably anymore. Like it won't feel comfortable. It'll feel... You'll feel... Report an error in the passage at 1:29:06 Highlight the passage at 1:29:06

1:29:44 Inauthentic and crappy. And so that's a good sign because that's a very genuine movement towards more consistency with worldview. One of the things I mention is our challenge these days is our worldview is all mixed up, you know. And so starting on a smaller level seems to be the way it usually works where you begin just applying the teachings. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:44 Highlight the passage at 1:29:44

1:30:14 On a more kind of mundane level that's not so, like that doesn't create as much of a conflict. And it just gets more and more, and it creates an inertia to it and a power to it. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:14 Highlight the passage at 1:30:14

1:30:29 There is a practice, I think it's called Tundra, where it means holding the line. And it's an actual practice where you check your vows six times a day or four times a day. But you're doing it where you're holding the line it sets. You're being unreasonable with the situation. You're choosing to really go for it and to go for what makes sense from the karmic standpoint. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:29 Highlight the passage at 1:30:29

1:30:59 And so that takes courage and that takes a level of being rather defiant with the cultural norms that are maybe contradicting. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:59 Highlight the passage at 1:30:59

1:31:12 I think... For the most part, it's a question of developing it gradually and really kind of being okay with that yucky feeling that comes up when you do something that feels hypocritical. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:12 Highlight the passage at 1:31:12

1:31:44 By comparison, I'm just acknowledging how difficult it is. The environment should change in about six months. When you practice these teachings on the vows and you check your vows several times a day, with the notion of emptiness. The environment actually changes. It becomes more conducive to practice virtue. Because the environment is empty as well. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:44 Highlight the passage at 1:31:44

1:32:12 Every time when I was talking about one of those things, there was an environmental result. So the environment is as empty as everything else. It's workable. And so you find that if you're experiencing the result of negative karma, then you're experiencing... That it's very difficult to actually create good karma. It's like the Wall Street Journal, you know, it takes money to make money kind of thing. And so it takes good karma to make good karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:12 Highlight the passage at 1:32:12

1:32:38 And if it's hard to create good karma, that's actually part of the package of bad karma, is the fruit of negativity makes it difficult to actually cultivate positive deeds. But when you give it an inch, wisdom takes a mile. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:38 Highlight the passage at 1:32:38

1:33:03 Things begin changing, yeah, absolutely. But that's with the view of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:03 Highlight the passage at 1:33:03

1:33:13 Because emptiness is like an atomic bomb. It magnifies the karma. Usually karma takes a long time to come to fruition. But when you think of it in terms of emptiness, it accelerates the process. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:13 Highlight the passage at 1:33:13

1:33:37 I'm just going to sit Well, one of the facets, for example, in doing a practice like that, any kind of purification involves the resolve. So whatever behavioral resolve you're having, if you're resolving to be more generous, for example. If you're doing that practice that you mentioned and then getting up and not being generous, it's not really going to stick. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:37 Highlight the passage at 1:33:37

1:34:04 So one of the reasons in terms of checking the vows during the day is it recalibrates you in the right direction. Because we learned that one of the hallmark features of karma is that there's a tendency to keep doing what you've been doing. And so in order to recalibrate in the right direction, it's helpful to kind of recheck, where's my mind? Report an error in the passage at 1:34:04 Highlight the passage at 1:34:04

1:34:28 Yeah. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:28 Highlight the passage at 1:34:28

1:34:53 Do you have that one? Divisive talk, yeah, to split people apart. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:53 Highlight the passage at 1:34:53

1:35:07 So what were the personal and environmental results of wrong view? Oh, that's sort of the linchpin to all the other nine. So you can kind of think of it as it being, depending on what kind of wrong view. I mean, when you yell at someone, there's a wrong view around that. When you're not generous, there's a wrong view around that. So the wrong view is like the active ingredient in all of the other ones. Which is why it's so important to have some clarity around your view when you're engaging in these paramitas. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:07 Highlight the passage at 1:35:07

1:35:51 Are Report an error in the passage at 1:35:51 Highlight the passage at 1:35:51

1:35:55 there any other questions? Report an error in the passage at 1:35:55 Highlight the passage at 1:35:55

1:36:00 Did you have all ten? Which one? Do you Report an error in the passage at 1:36:00 Highlight the passage at 1:36:00

1:36:19 have ill will? Report an error in the passage at 1:36:19 Highlight the passage at 1:36:19

1:36:35 Was there a question? I think that this role about speaking wrong speech for me it's so difficult sometimes know whether it's helpful or whether I someone. So I get lost many times in that. For example, I work. I have to be decided. I have to what I think about something so many times I have the impression that I heard people really want to work. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:35 Highlight the passage at 1:36:35

1:37:16 Yeah, yeah. I think the one thing you have in your control is intention. Your intention is to help. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:16 Highlight the passage at 1:37:16

1:37:29 So in that situation, let's say you have the intention to help and then you fail at helping. So you have the intention, you try to do it, so you try to act it out, you fail, and then you feel bad about it. So that's 75 % good karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:29 Highlight the passage at 1:37:29

1:37:51 Because you had a good intention that you made the attempt to carry it out. Even though it failed, you feel bad that it failed. You're not happy that the person got hurt. the – know, I think so much of the – To have confidence in motivation, because we often are so result-oriented in our culture, so result-oriented that even when we have the very good motivation, very good intention, and if the result isn't there, we beat ourselves up. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:51 Highlight the passage at 1:37:51

1:38:27 And then there's actually more of a reason to be proud or to be, you know, like, gee, I really tried to help. And you weren't experiencing, like, anger or negativity. And that's your wisdom mind. That's the Buddha nature of priests, you know, to really be able to respect that and to know that that's the bigger part of you. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:27 Highlight the passage at 1:38:27

1:38:54 And then I think with that kind of, with that tendency, then there's more of an opportunity for being able to, you know. navigate those difficult situations. A lot of times the navigation can be difficult because we're not sure and we're not really able to fully communicate well because we're holding back. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:54 Highlight the passage at 1:38:54

1:39:35 In regarding how I think with other people. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:35 Highlight the passage at 1:39:35

1:39:48 Let's say you said something that hurt someone. -hmm. Um... well you would do it like in terms of both Report an error in the passage at 1:39:48 Highlight the passage at 1:39:48

1:39:52 At 9 o 'clock, and then you check your vow at 10 o 'clock, and you're like, okay, at 9 o 'clock I said this that was hurtful. And you kind of, you know, and then you think to yourself, what can I do to correct it? So you kind of think of something as an antidote to the, and then if you did something that was positive, you rejoice over it. So there's that quality of rejoicing an antidote. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:52 Highlight the passage at 1:39:52

1:40:20 If you decide something that hurt them. You think of maybe something you can say or do that would be a gesture of goodwill to that person. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:20 Highlight the passage at 1:40:20

1:40:39 to one monk who a lot with monastics and I asked him what was... he found on God's love. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:39 Highlight the passage at 1:40:39

1:40:57 The intention can be pure, but then the other person receives it in the wrong way. Right. See? And then there's, like, codependence, which is, like, a whole other addiction. can't really figure out, like, where to be. So... So if you say something out of good intention, but then they take it the wrong way and you check yourself. So I did 75 % karma, but then you have to live with this person. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:57 Highlight the passage at 1:40:57

1:41:32 And then your pattern is to over-apologize. How do you state, because I feel like harmony, you know, social harmony is really difficult to attain at all times because people are going to be like tired and they're like, you know, there's so many different conditions for the mind that, you know, anybody at any time without, you know, notice is going to be insane to quote you, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:41:32 Highlight the passage at 1:41:32

1:42:02 So like when you're in tension and you're trying to hold on to your vows and you say something you want to say and then you take it the wrong way. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:02 Highlight the passage at 1:42:02

1:42:09 Yeah, well that's what I think what Jesus meant when he said when someone strikes you, you turn the other cheek. The practice of patience, the idea is that the person who struck you is a projection of your mind. And how they have, you know, how the situation arose the way it did is maybe they had a bad day or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:09 Highlight the passage at 1:42:09

1:42:34 But why, which is the linchpin, why is the karmic reason? That this is your karma coming to fruition. And if you want them to disappear, like when you turn the other cheek, they'll hit you. You'll turn the other cheek, they'll hit you again, because it takes a while for karma to work. But then they disappear, or they become your best friend. There's an emptiness to that situation. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:34 Highlight the passage at 1:42:34

1:43:04 You don't have to necessarily of your Report an error in the passage at 1:43:04 Highlight the passage at 1:43:04

1:43:11 and it's okay to just kind of sit with the discomfort and just reflect on it. From that emptiness comes up with a wise action. Yeah, and being able to practice patience. I mean, I said it earlier before you came that these paramitas, they get gradually more difficult. It's said that one day of practicing ethics is like 100 days of practicing generosity. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:11 Highlight the passage at 1:43:11

1:43:35 And one day of practicing patience is like 100 days of practicing ethics. And it's almost like to be able to... Practice patience with the notion of emptiness has a massively greater effect on the karmic setup, which is why that whole six-month thing happens, where things begin shifting around, changing, because you're practicing patience with the situation. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:35 Highlight the passage at 1:43:35

1:44:14 frame. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:14 Highlight the passage at 1:44:14

1:44:21 mean, the six-month is something that was... It's not like a hard and fast thing, but it has to do, but it's from the Abhidharma, the fourth chapter of the Abhidharma Kosha, where your discussion on karma and how when you think of, it's actually I think Zongkhapa's commentary on the fourth chapter, where he talks about how when you think of emptiness, it magnifies it. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:21 Highlight the passage at 1:44:21

1:44:45 And then when I was receiving teachings on this, the Geshe talking about it, talked about things happening. really quickly like in six months and I actually at the time Report an error in the passage at 1:44:45 Highlight the passage at 1:44:45