← Tenzin Chogkyi

Introduction to Basic Buddhist Thought (4 October 2009, 2)

Tenzin Chogkyi · 4 October 2009 · 2 h 38 min · Tse Chen Ling via Internet Archive

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  • 4:11

    Bodhicitta and then wisdom. So generating these realizations is really necessary at the beginning of the path. So renunciation. Hate this word because doesn't it conjure up visions of nuns in the Middle Ages living in cold convents, eating bread and water. They used to flail themselves with these things and wear hair shirts.

  • 4:50

    And that's not what we're aiming for in Buddhism at all. So I hate this word renunciation. The Tibetan word actually translates specifically as definite emergence. Okay, definite emergence. So that's really different. So the idea of the Tibetan is we're definitely aiming to emerge. So emerge from what do you imagine?

  • 8:44

    Because again, the goal of Buddhism, and sometimes there's this sort of wrong, The goal of Buddhism is to be calm. You meditate to reduce stress. Mindfulness-based stress reduction. I think it's great to use Buddhist techniques to help become calm and stress-free. However, that's not the goal of Buddhism. To die calm. To suffer calm. To be reborn in saṃsāra stress-free.

  • 15:26

    Okay, then on the basis of that, we develop in the Mahāyāna path bodhicitta, this word bodhicitta. It has two components, Sanskrit word bodhi and chitta. And bodhi comes from the same... Sanskrit root as the word Buddha, which means the awakened one, the one who woke up. That's what the Buddha means.

  • 1:45:45

    Okay, so in order to understand the ultimate nature of reality, we need to understand dependent origination, because dependent origination and emptiness are kind of like two sides of a coin, right? There are two ways of looking at the same quality, one from the positive angle and one from the negative angle. So first let's look at...

0:00 It doesn't disturb. Could you do that? Yeah, that would be great. And then you can sit in and then leave when you need to. It's fine. He just said he was afraid he was going to be making noise going in and out the front door. All right. So we're up to the truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering, which... Report an error

0:23 You know, study of the path can be the rest of your life if you're interested. We've got two and a half hours. You know, it's not going to be able to do it justice at all. But we'll at least have an overview of the path, the main points of the path. And we're going to be talking about the path according to the Mahāyāna, the path to enlightenment. Report an error

0:45 Because that's the goal of, you know, Tibetan Buddhism is a branch of the Mahāyāna. with the idea that all beings have the potential to become fully enlightened so we're going to be talking about the past from that perspective and like we said before it They actually say, interestingly enough, It's harder for an arhat to become enlightened than it is for us. And that sounds weird, doesn't it? Because they've already done half the work. Report an error

1:29 They've gotten rid of their defilements, their karma and their afflictive emotions. But that's because this depends on developing something called bodhicitta. And we'll talk about that. The wish to get enlightened for the benefit of all beings. Which is dependent on compassion. You know, dependent on empathy. If an Arhat newly tried to develop that wish based on compassion, it would be harder for them just because they're not suffering anymore. Report an error

2:02 And you know how it is when somebody that you're close to is going through something that you've never experienced? You can't really relate to it much, can you? You know, empathy is sort of dependent on, you know, having gone through. That thing yourself. So they say it's harder for an arhat to newly develop that compassion and bodhicitta than it is for somebody like us at the very beginning. Report an error

2:29 So they say, you know, from pretty early on, I mean not today, you don't have to decide if you're a new student, but pretty early on, you know, you kind of choose which path that you're going to follow because they lead to different goals and the techniques are different. There's a lot of overlap. It's not like we ignore the three higher trainings. But in addition to that, we practice the six perfections, which we're going to talk about to create the causes for the body and mind of a Buddha. Report an error

3:00 Specific karmic causes go into that, creating the cause for the enlightened body and mind of a Buddha. So I just wanted to make clear it's like that. It's not the sequential thing that first we're liberated. And then we're enlightened. We kind of branch off in different directions. And this is the big flip that Marie is going to help me with this one. Report an error

3:24 Hopefully we don't tip the flip chart over completely because we're going all the way to the end. All right. So in terms of the path, whoa, we can actually use the table maybe to prop it up. Will that work? Great. Okay. Report an error

3:41 Okay, this is when I need PowerPoint. I won't have to worry about the thing tipping over. So we talk about the three principal aspects of the past. So these are three main realizations that we work on generating from the very beginning. So this is what a lot of our practices are aimed at generating these, what we call the three principal aspects of the past. Report an error

4:04 We have renunciation, another word that I hate, but we'll talk about what it means. Bodhicitta and then wisdom. So generating these realizations is really necessary at the beginning of the path. Report an error

4:21 So renunciation. Hate this word because doesn't it conjure up visions of nuns in the Middle Ages living in cold convents, eating bread and water. They used to flail themselves with these things and wear hair shirts. Report an error

4:39 It kind of conjures up that idea, giving up all the good stuff, giving up all your fun. And it's that Calvinist thing of like you're only virtuous if you're suffering somehow. And that's not what we're aiming for in Buddhism at all. So I hate this word renunciation. The Tibetan word actually translates specifically as definite emergence. Report an error

5:03 Okay, definite emergence. So that's really different. So the idea of the Tibetan is we're definitely aiming to emerge. So emerge from what do you imagine? Report an error

5:18 Yeah, saṃsāra, cyclic existence. So it's the wish to definitely get free of cyclic existence, definite emergence. So by understanding the faults of cyclic existence. By understanding the first two noble truths, basically, right? We need to have a deep understanding of suffering. We need to understand how it's caused. Report an error

5:44 The whole 12 links thing, and meditating on that, and meditating on the suffering of all the different realms of existence is what gives rise to this definite emergence, this wish to get out. Because you realize as long as you're still subject to that cycle, Of uncontrolled rebirth, there's no guarantees at all of any kind of happiness. As long as you're still subject to that, you could even be having a terrific lifetime full of all kinds of samsaric happiness and then what happens? Report an error

6:19 You die. And we have these deep pockets of karma from countless past lifetimes. Unless you're at a high level of realization, when you die, You have no idea which one is going to detonate next and fling you into that next rebirth. And even as Dharma practitioners, until we're at a very high level of realization, even for us, there's no guarantee that we're not going to be reborn in the lower realms until a very high level of realization. Report an error

6:50 So understanding that, even if you have it really, really good in this life, still. You know, we're going to die. We're subject to those deep pockets of karma. We have no idea what those karmic imprints are. So you just say, it's always a mistake. Anywhere I'm reborn in saṃsāra, bad idea. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, this great Tibetan Lama, used to say to his students, in this very provocative way, he was known for being provocative, he used to say, the beginning of the path. Report an error

7:25 Is hopelessness. And the students would freak out, right? Hopelessness. But it's true. You know, you're giving up hope that saṃsāra is ever going to work to give you lasting, ultimate happiness. And then you can be free. I mean, it's great. You know, quite apart from the bread and water suffering thing, it actually gives you a mind of just completely letting go of all of those ways to try and manipulate your external environment to give you happiness. Report an error

7:54 Remember you become an inner being. Remember that word nangpa. You become an inner being. You're looking within for those sources of happiness and you're not trying anymore to find it on the outside. And that's what this renunciation is. That's what this definite emergence is. So you're actually looking to get free of saṃsāra altogether. Report an error

8:20 So hopelessness. Giving up hope in something that's never going to work. And then you can be free. I have another friend who says, saṃsāra is a broken realm. It's not fixable. You know, it's never going to work. So just give up, thinking that it's going to work. You know, give up hope. So, that's the first thing we have to realize if we're going to be serious about the spiritual path. Report an error

8:44 Because again, the goal of Buddhism, and sometimes there's this sort of wrong, The goal of Buddhism is to be calm. You meditate to reduce stress. Mindfulness-based stress reduction. I think it's great to use Buddhist techniques to help become calm and stress-free. However, that's not the goal of Buddhism. To die calm. To suffer calm. To be reborn in saṃsāra stress-free. Report an error

9:13 That's not the goal of Buddhism. The goal of Buddhism is just to get off the wheel altogether. To get liberated and enlightened. So it's not limited to becoming calm and stress-free. And like I say, I don't diss these techniques, but it shouldn't be presented as the goal of Buddhism, because it's not. Report an error

9:32 It's a technique from Buddhism that's being taken out and used to help people, and that's fine, terrific, but it's not limited to that. Because the goal of Buddhism is get out of saṃsāra. And then on top of that, take everybody else with you. Develop the capability, the qualities to be one of those people that takes everyone else with you. So renunciation is the first step, developing that wish to get free. Report an error

10:02 You might just have said it and I didn't hear, but I will just ask. Can you renunciate without becoming a monk or a nun? Oh, definitely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it's a mental state. It's a mental state. Report an error

10:21 Monastic life is a certain kind of lifestyle that some people pick. A friend of mine, one of my first monastic friends, this Australian monk, used to say, sometimes people look at us and they think that we're actually like some, you know, have some high realization or something because we're a monk or a nun. Report an error

10:41 And he used to say, no, it's because we're weaker. Like we need the help of the vows, you know, it's because we're like wimps and we actually need the structure. Report an error

10:51 So it's a certain lifestyle that some people choose as a way to help them progress, you know, as a way of practicing the path. But it's not at all necessary. It does in ways make it easier. But hardly, you know, there's very few people who are really cut out for a monastic life. It's interesting, when I was in this long meditation retreat, I... Report an error

11:16 I was in retreat for six and a half years. I thought it was going to be three years and it ended up lasting six and a half because I was having such a good time. So for the first, I started as a layperson. I wasn't a nun when I started this retreat and I only decided to get ordained the third year of this six and a half year retreat. Report an error

11:36 And it's really interesting because as a layperson, Trying to meditate really deeply. There are certain things that I realized I needed to do. You know, just kind of by trial and error, I've figured out certain things that work. Don't listen to music. You know, be celibate. Reduce your sense, you know, wear the same clothes every day so you're not distracted by thinking about what you're going to wear. Report an error

12:02 It's very interesting. The lifestyle that I figured out by trial and error enables you to meditate really well just happens to be exactly the lifestyle that Buddha designed for monastics. So when I decided to get ordained, having had that experience, it gave me a lot of faith in this lifestyle that Lord Buddha designed specifically to enable you to meditate really well. Report an error

12:27 You're not distracted by your relationship. You're not distracted by what you look like. You know, because you're ugly anyway. You have a shaved head so you just forget about it. You're not distracted by what are you going to wear in the morning. Same thing every day. So all of these things that enable you to really focus on your spiritual path are enabled by this lifestyle that the Buddha designed. Report an error

12:51 So it does make it easier in a lot of ways but it's not at all necessary. You know, there are many, many liberated and enlightened beings who have not been It just happens to be a vehicle that for some people who are suited to it makes it more easy. Can you just describe the mind of renunciation? Report an error

13:16 It's not just like, okay, I want to be out of saṃsāra. I think there's a little more. Well, it's just, you know, we've talked about this a couple of other times. Can you enjoy things? Can you be happy? You know, if you're on the path and does it have to be this extreme of, oh, I'm sorry, it's all suffering, it's a drag, you know, I'm not going to have a moment of pleasure. Report an error

13:39 And I think there's a mind with renunciation that anything that you experience, you just sort of take it in this very relative way, you know, like it's just kind of karma. Is serving up to you some certain experience that's a result of your past karma. And I think with the mind of real renunciation, there's this mind that's not at all fooled into thinking that those external things are actually the source of pleasure. Report an error

14:09 Pabanka Rinpoche says, you know, the definition of renunciation is not even for a second ever grasping after samsaric pleasure is the source of happiness. So it's like whatever happy experiences you happen to have, but then there's just not any, it's like this thing of no clean at all that you really see with beings like His Holiness and Lama Yeshi and Lama Zopa. Report an error

14:36 There's just no kind of stickiness. Like for most of us, when we have some happy experience, there's some Velcro thing going on, like some... Sticky clinging thing and then you see these beings enjoy things and it's just extremely spacious, like no grasping at all. So I think that's what it would feel like to have that mind, you know, just moment to moment, you know, to be able, whatever is happening in His Holiness the Dalai Lama, I mean, whether he's like walking down the street in McLeod Ganj with all of the dogs with rabies and mange or he's in the Four Seasons Hotel. Report an error

15:12 And for him it's just... One taste, we say. You know, akarasa, it's like all the same to him one way or another and there's just no grasping and clinging in that kind of false view. Report an error

15:26 Okay, then on the basis of that, we develop in the Mahāyāna path bodhicitta, this word bodhicitta. It has two components, Sanskrit word bodhi and chitta. And bodhi comes from the same... Sanskrit root as the word Buddha, which means the awakened one, the one who woke up. That's what the Buddha means. Bodhi means awakening. Chitta is a word that can be translated either as mind or heart. Report an error

16:04 In Asian culture, when you ask somebody the seat of their consciousness, where their mind is, they point here. Awakening. Awakening. And then. Report an error

16:13 In the West, we point here, right? But the seat of consciousness for an Asian person is here. So heart, mind. Heart or mind is this citta. Okay, so bodhicitta. So awakening heart, awakening mind. And what does it mean? What does this mean? So that's the translation of the word, but the definition of bodhicitta is the wish to become Fully enlightened for the benefit of all sentient beings. The wish to become fully enlightened for the benefit of all sentient beings. Report an error

16:53 So, it's got these two components to it, both of which are necessary. The wish to get fully enlightened is one component. But it's not the wish to get fully enlightened by itself. Just because you think to be a Buddha would be so cool. Wow, look at them, they've got all these arms, all these heads. They're beautiful, they're always 16, they've got some great outfits on, wouldn't that be cool? No, you know, it's not that. Report an error

17:24 It has to be for the benefit of all sentient beings. But it can't just be wanting to benefit beings alone. Because there's plenty of ways that we can do that. If you want to benefit beings, open a homeless shelter. Volunteer at the soup kitchen. You know, do all of that stuff. All of which we should do too. Report an error

17:44 But it doesn't stop there if you have bodhicitta. It's this mind understanding if you really want to benefit beings perfectly, you develop those special qualities that a Buddha has, like we talked about, especially that omniscient mind, you know, that mind that sees their karma, sees their past and future lives, knows exactly like Lama Zopa. Report an error

18:09 In that room with 200 people and everybody walks out, they've heard exactly what they need. And everybody has heard something different. And it doesn't even show up on the tape. It's like that. That kind of capacity. So you realize that in order to benefit beings perfectly, they say the main cause of enlightenment is that wish to benefit beings. Report an error

18:33 And then as a secondary thing, You wish to become a Buddha. But the main cause is the wish to benefit beings. Katya, did you have something? One of the drop-in meditations that I went to, somebody asked, I think it was his first time also, he asked, do you really believe that it is possible to bring all beings into enlightenment? Report an error

18:55 And the person leading the meditation said it was, that he personally didn't think it was possible, and that it's more, but look at what it does to your mind. Report an error

19:04 What is the official take on it? Yeah, the official take is it's possible. And I've heard that from my friends that have studied in Tibetan monasteries. Report an error

19:15 When you're getting a Geshe degree, which is a high degree, it's like a doctor of philosophy or something, it means that you've studied Buddhist philosophy for a long time. And one of the things they do in these Tibetan monasteries is they debate. You know, and you might have seen in movies they're kind of jumping around and slapping their hands and doing these things and you're like, what is it, kung fu? Report an error

19:34 Like, what are they doing? And they're debating. Because unlike us, we do homework and take final exams. They debate as a way to learn. So I've heard that the last question that they always ask is sort of a ritual to, you know, the final... Right before somebody gets one of these high degrees is, is it possible for all beings to become enlightened? And that's always the last ritual question. Report an error

20:00 And then the right answer is always yes. And the proof is because of emptiness. Because saṃsāra is based on a wrong concept. And then they say the truth. It's like standing on two legs. It's solid. The truth will always win out. And what's false is like standing on one leg. It's wobbly. And you know when you tell a lie about something, there's always some chance you'll be found out. But if you tell the truth, who's going to find out anything different? Report an error

20:30 It's the truth. And that's kind of the proof for why all beings will get enlightened. Because the truth about the nature of reality, its emptiness of inherent existence, is the antidote. To the ignorance that saṃsāra is based on. So eventually all beings will get enlightened because the truth will always prevail. Report an error

20:51 So that's the right answer and they debate that and then everybody throws things up in the air and like woohoo this big party. So yeah theoretically it's going to take a dang long time for sure but theoretically yes it's definitely possible. Report an error

21:10 If every being becomes enlightened, does it all just end? Yeah. We asked Tibetan Lamas that. Like, what happens after everybody's enlightened? And we asked this one Lama, and he goes, then we just all go on a picnic, you know? Tibetans are really into picnics. They have these picnics that last like a week and a half. Report an error

21:29 He's like, great, then we all go on a picnic. Yeah, saṃsāra ends. You know, what happens to all those consciousnesses? Big debate, right? And I think it's our... Inability to really even understand what the enlightened mind is like. Like we have this sort of dualistic thing that it has to exist in some way or it has to be in some way. Report an error

21:51 So I think that's just our lack of being able to understand what an enlightened mind is like. There's this beautiful text by Chandrakirti called, it's a commentary on a text by Nagarjuna. It's called The Commentary on the Fundamental Stanzas of the Middle Way. And it's all about the different bodhisattva levels, like what happens as you progress towards Buddhahood. And then the last chapter is the chapter on Buddhahood. Report an error

22:18 And the first stanza said something like, a Buddha's mind is inconceivable, ineffable, you know, incomprehensible, beyond thought, beyond imagination. And then he says, but the Galukvas will try and explain it anyway, you know. And the thing is, how a Buddha's mind exists, so these debates about like what... Report an error

22:37 Where do they go? What happens after everybody's enlightened? This is one of those things that the Buddha refused to answer. Remember we said there were these 14 unanswered questions because we can't even conceive of it. It's so beyond our ability to imagine. It's sort of like, just wait, you'll see when you get there kind of thing because it's almost impossible to explain what that's like. Report an error

23:01 But it's interesting that, Katya, this thing, because I have heard that view. No, it's not really possible, but it's just you say that because it inspires you to practice. But I don't buy that, because then it's sort of like a ploy to get you to develop bodhicitta. You know, and I don't really believe that that could be, it's sort of like tricking you into developing bodhicitta, but it's not really possible. Report an error

23:25 And I don't know, I have problems with that personally, but I have heard people say that. Report an error

23:32 What did I say? Oh, Katya was saying that one meditation teacher said it's not really possible to free all beings from saṃsāra, that it's just something that's taught as a way for us to practice or to inspire us or whatever. But I don't think that's true because then bodhicitta wouldn't be real. It would just sort of take the meaning out of that bodhicitta, which is the only thing, by the way, That's the difference between an arhat, somebody who's aiming for liberation, and somebody who's aiming for enlightenment. It's this bodhicitta. Report an error

24:12 And it's the only thing powerful enough to remove those knowledge obscurations, that second level of obscurations. This is the only thing powerful enough to do it. On the other hand, if someone isn't willing or ready to grasp or to really buy that... It is possible that it might be like a good tool. I think actually it was helpful when he said that for a beginner, maybe because if you don't you know, if I can't give you evidence for that or you're not going to believe that, look at the evidence of your own mind, you know, so maybe it's not like it's not possible. Report an error

24:48 But even if you're not sure. What you can see is the effect on your own mind. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it might be one of those things like what the Buddha responded differently to different people just depending on the capacity of their mind. Yeah, Janet. Report an error

25:06 I'm not sure that I'm recollecting correctly, but it seems to me in some of the teachings that Geshe-la has given, there's certain teachers in certain schools that... Or different levels that believe that some people are able to achieve enlightenment or Buddhahood and others aren't. They get kind of a lower station and you can't switch and not everybody can become enlightened. So there's different teachings. Report an error

25:41 You know that only these certain beings. That have sort of the destiny to become these wheel-turning Buddhas or the only ones that are able to actually become fully enlightened. And for the rest of us, liberation is the only thing that we can look for. So hearing that, you can interpret, well, not everybody can become enlightened. It's just like from a different view, different teaching schools. Report an error

26:07 Yeah, and it's a viewpoint taught perfectly appropriately for people for whom that's suitable. Because we've talked about how the Buddha taught different things for different people. And what is the right answer? Well, certain things are considered to be the highest level in Tibetan Buddhism, but something completely different is considered to be the highest level in Zen, something else completely different in other... Report an error

26:33 Buddhist schools, you know, so we're kind of brainwashed by our Tibetan Buddhist lamas into what we, you know, what they say is the highest level, but other people do have different views. Yeah, it's not completely, you know, unambiguous, and it's a matter of big debate. Even among the monastic universities, you know, have slightly different views of what happens at the different stages of the path. Report an error

26:56 Yeah, Sandra. I was wondering if the Galukpas say if everyone's... Achieved enlightenment, if it's, so duality's gone, if there's, I guess, I don't know what I'm trying to ask, is there subjectivity with that? Like, all of us are, you know, make an analogy, tasting a banana. Yeah. We can't really tell another person what a banana tastes like unless they've tasted it, right? Report an error

27:24 Yeah. So, do the galupa say it's all the same taste of... Yeah. Enlightenment or do they, is there a subjectivity there? Yeah, yeah. And again, it's a huge debate, even within the different Galukpa monasteries about what the, like. What the qualities of enlightened mind are. And then there's some that, you know, and how a Buddha can simultaneously perceive both conventional and ultimate reality. Report an error

27:57 It's like the textbook writers of Sarah Jay dispute with the textbook writers of Sarah May and then they dispute with Gomang and then they dispute with, you know, so it's a matter of a lot of hair splitting. And I think it's just, again, because we can't even imagine what that would be like to have that kind of a mind, to have that sort of subjective mind of an enlightened being. Report an error

28:22 How can we even understand what that's like? So it's a huge matter of debate. Which part about emptiness? Is there debate about that too? Is there a debate in terms of if, let's say, all of us suddenly had a direct experience of emptiness in this room? Report an error

28:40 Would there still be that subjectivity of my emptiness, her emptiness, your emptiness? Not in the direct realization itself. They say when you're having a direct realization of emptiness, there's no subject-object duality at all. The only thing appearing is that emptiness. Afterwards, when you come out of that, yeah. Report an error

29:03 Just like the microphone has its emptiness and the cup has its emptiness and the handout has its emptiness, all the emptinesses of all those things have exactly the same quality, but it's the emptiness of the microphone, the emptiness of the cup. And in that way, after the experience, we could talk about Sandra's direct realization of emptiness and Carla's direct realization of emptiness, John's direct realization of emptiness. Report an error

29:31 The quality of that meditation experience would be exactly the same, but it would be each individual being's experience. Report an error

29:50 Not the direct realization of emptiness until you're a Buddha. That has to be in meditation until you're a Buddha. The direct realization of it, we're skipping ahead to wisdom, let's backtrack to bodhicitta, but the direct realization of emptiness, you know, if you're having the direct realization of emptiness, unless you're a Buddha, you're having it in meditation, right? Report an error

30:14 The only thing appearing to you is emptiness. Then you come out of that meditation. Everything appears the same way it always did, but you know it ain't true. It must be this weird thing. From that point, and then you keep flip-flopping back and forth. Direct realization of emptiness, when you meditate, come out, everything appears the way it always did, until you're a Buddha. Report an error

30:40 Buddha's the only being who's able to have the direct realization of emptiness and be perceiving conventional phenomena simultaneously. And then there's a huge debate about how does that work. And then some people say, That Buddha's cognition of conventional phenomena is dependent on sentient beings' cognition. Report an error

31:03 Like they're only seeing what sentient beings see. And then other people say, that's nuts, because then you're saying a Buddha's omniscience is dependent on deluded sentient beings. And that doesn't make sense. But that's a whole big debate. Okay, let's back up to bodhicitta. Reel ourselves back in to bodhicitta. Report an error

31:24 Okay, so we have the wish to get enlightened for the benefit of all sentient beings. And both of these components are really important. And Lama Zopa gives this beautiful analogy for how these components work and why benefiting beings is the main cause. And he said, it's like getting food from the kitchen, or like today, right? I think it's laid out on the table for you guys, right? Report an error

31:50 So the food is in the containers on the table. And then you pick up the plate and then you go along the line and you serve your food. So Lama Zopa says, how stupid would it be to grab the plate and then sit down at the table with an empty plate, right? The only reason for the plate is to hold the food, right? You grab the plate, it holds the food, then you can take it and eat it. Report an error

32:17 He says, don't grab an empty plate and sit down at the table. Getting enlightened is like the plate. Benefiting beings is like the food, right? So he says, you know, the only reason to get enlightened is because you want to benefit sentient beings. To get enlightened without wanting to benefit sentient beings, I mean, for one thing, it's stupid. It's like grabbing the empty plate and sitting down at the table. Report an error

32:43 Number two, it's impossible because you have to have bodhicitta in order to get enlightened. You have to. Unambiguous. No way to become a Buddha without the wish to become one to benefit beings. So it's just like, I love that analogy of the plate and the food. It's like the plate is like getting enlightened, the food is benefiting sentient beings. The only reason you need to get enlightened is to benefit beings. Report an error

33:12 And it's the only thing that will... Make you be able to do it. So it's got this kind of interesting reciprocal relationship. It's the cause for enlightenment and it's the only reason why you'd ever bother to get enlightened in the first place. If you don't want to benefit beings, forget about it. Quite frankly, liberation is a lot easier. If you don't really want to benefit beings, forget about becoming a Buddha. Report an error

33:38 Just become liberated. Much easier. You know, sorry, but it is. So the only reason that you'd want to do it is because you want to benefit beings. Yeah, Betty. If you become liberated, become an arhat and decided, well, you want to benefit beings, can you go on a different path to become enlightened? Report an error

33:57 You can, and it's quite hard, you know. According to the Mahāyāna, yeah, at a certain point, and there's these things in the Mahāyāna scriptures and they say, The Buddhas appear to you and snap their fingers in your face and say, hey, there's more work to do. You know, get going. Let's go. You've got more work to do. But because of the fact that those beings are completely already free of their own suffering, harder for them to newly develop bodhicitta than it is for us. Report an error

34:28 Easier for us. I don't know about you guys, I'm suffering. You know, so when other beings are suffering, I can relate to that. And I can develop compassion for that. So it is true that an arhat can develop bodhicitta, but it is more difficult, so it's said, than it is for us, newly starting. Well, are the arhats hanging up there with the Buddhas and they just do their thing? Where are they? I mean, again, it's one of those things the Buddha refused to answer because we can't conceive of it. Report an error

34:59 Okay, really interesting. We say that bodhicitta is the only thing to remove those very, very subtle obscurations to omniscience, right? Those knowledge obscurations. So why do you think that is? Why is bodhicitta so powerful? Who can guess? Sandra, microphone. Report an error

35:28 Maybe self-cherishing or lack of... Okay, in what way? With Rinpoche, somebody who thinks... Thinks of others first before themselves. Do you have something to add? You take attention off yourself. Your attention is on the other. This is what I understand with Tonglen. You take the negativity from others and you give back compassion. Report an error

35:58 You really forget about your own drama. That's my experience. Janet? Report an error

36:14 I would think that... You know, I mean, you forget. Report an error

36:17 Bodhicitta is what actually keeps you returning in order to continue and in order to benefit. Because without it, nirvāṇa is so blissful and so magnificent, you wouldn't bother. You'd go, wow, this is so cool. I'm going to hang out here for a few eons. Right, right, right. What? They'll meet me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And what Jan is talking about, a being who's developed this, bodhicitta, is called another Sanskrit vocabulary word, a bodhisattva, which means a being who has developed bodhicitta. Report an error

37:01 And at a higher level, those beings actually have control over their rebirth, even before they're enlightened. They can choose their rebirth, so they choose to keep coming back. To benefit beings. And actually this word we have in Tibetan, choku, choku, is the word for emanation body. I mean it's the Tibetan word for emanation body. So we're saying all of these, you know, reborn Rinpoches are actually bodhisattvas. Report an error

37:30 They're actually emanation bodies of Buddhism. I mean that's the way we train ourselves to think about it because they keep coming back. But it's not saṃsāra for them. They're free of uncontrolled rebirth. So because they choose to take rebirth willingly, the force of that is their compassion. They say the force of that rebirth that those bodhisattvas take, what propels that instead of karma and delusion, which is what propels the rest of us, we're flung out of the slingshot of karma and delusion. Report an error

38:03 Those beings are flung out of the slingshot of compassion and all of their prayers made to benefit beings. So every time before a teaching we set our bodhicitta motivation, at the end we dedicate. It's creating that power that when we're at that level, when we're free of karma and delusions, then that's the energy that drives our rebirth willfully, you know, out of compassion. Report an error

38:27 I mean, it's really beautiful. And they might not look any different. And spiritual revisionism, look back in your life. You know, some bodhisattva that's taken a rebirth, Through the power of their compassion and their pure prayers, could look like your mother, your best friend, your dog. They say in Master Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, it says, if it's beneficial, you manifest as a bridge or a dog. Report an error

38:58 I love that, a bridge and a dog. Why did he pick that out of all the possibilities? But it could be anything. It doesn't need to look like some kind of holy being in some religious. outfit at all. Yeah, Katya Nanjan. Report an error

39:14 How many bodhisattvas might there be? It could be everybody but you, Katya. Or it could be just you. Because you said you almost guarantee... Those of us in this room, because we're so special, have had these people. But yet, even when you think about people who might have helped you, they also seem to have their own delusions and be stuck in the same. Report an error

39:45 So does that mean... And from the highest level, remember we're saying that the way things appear to you is due to your perception, forced on you by your karma. So is that person really a jerk from their own side or is it just your karma forcing you to have that appearance? And that gets even more interesting when you go to that level. Report an error

40:07 And how many times have we had this experience? It happened to me just last week. Somebody started complaining about somebody, you know, and just talking about this self-existent quality that this person had and how much trouble he had with this person. And I'm sitting there and I'm just going, that's like one of my favorite people. I can't, you know, I've never seen that. Report an error

40:29 Equality at all. And it was just, you know, and most of the time it's me complaining about somebody that somebody else thinks is pure. It's not that I'm so pure. But in that instance, it was like, wow, that's so interesting. You know, a friend of mine and I used to say when things like that would happen, another proof of emptiness, right? Like this guy's karma forced him to have this perception. Report an error

40:54 My karma. Forced me to see something completely different. So always questioning. When we have an appearance, I think at our level, always questioning. Wow, what's causing that appearance for me? So many times the most irritating people... Are the ones that mirror our own qualities that we don't accept in ourselves. I've really found this for myself. I've got a good friend and she's really bugged by these people who are really kind of space cadets. Report an error

41:23 You know, there's a lot of them in Santa Cruz. You know, and she, I remember back in the mid-90s, she was always complaining about my men friends in Santa Cruz because she'd be like, God, you hang out with these guys and they're just like totally space cadets. She's like, they're so spaced out. And I was like. Report an error

41:40 That doesn't bother me at all because I don't have a spaced out bone in my body, like I'm so intense, you know. But for me, if somebody's really controlling and domineering, drives me crazy because that's mirroring qualities in me that I can't stand, you know. So often I think the people that bug us the most are the people that are mirroring qualities in us that we haven't accepted. Report an error

42:03 So if you want people to appear a lot nicer, start accepting the qualities in you that are always bugging you when you see them in other people. So it's interesting, there's all these little tricks we can do and actually through practice you notice that your perception of people actually starts to really shift because it's not there in them inherently from its own side. Report an error

42:26 We're co-creating our reality, we're co-creating our perceptions. Yeah, John. Report an error

42:36 I think one of the other things I see why it might be good to develop bodhicitta is that you were talking earlier about karma. And it just seems kind of natural to me to see it that we're all separate beings. And our minds perceive... All of existence in our own particular way. Like the way I perceive that flower is different than the way you perceive that flower. Report an error

43:14 And it seems that that differing perception is, and the delusions that go along with those differing perceptions is what goes and generates saṃsāra, right? So it would seem to me that if you... are able to generate compassion towards other beings and help them to overcome their karma and their delusions etc. Report an error

43:48 then not only are you helping that being get that closer to enlightenment and you're helping yourself get that closer to enlightenment just by way of karma but from the whole consideration of a Buddha having An omniscient mind. Since all beings have different perceptions, by becoming compassionate, you are able to see more of what that being is perceiving as saṃsāra and thereby getting more of a grasp of, you know, not only do I perceive the flower that way, but now you perceive the flower that way. Report an error

44:24 So by me becoming compassionate to you, I can now see the flower kind of the same way you can. thereby getting, you know, more Insight into saṃsāra and the nature of reality. I can kind of see why one would want to go and develop bodhicitta. because you kind of this maybe like a more subtle play on Developing an omniscient mind. I've never thought of that. That's a really interesting thing. I'll have to think about that aspect of it. That's very interesting how that empathy and that compassion can help you tune in. Report an error

45:03 I think that's definitely true. What I was thinking about in terms of why bodhicitta is so powerful for eliminating those last very, very... Tough stains, right? Those very, very tough obscurations to omniscience is because it's the most powerful virtue that you can think about. And think about it in terms of the four components that make a complete karmic action. We just studied this. So object, right, is the first component. Report an error

45:34 Oh, let's say all sentient beings, okay? You know, motivation, to free them from all of their suffering forever. The action, becoming a Buddha in order to do it, the hardest thing possible. You're pulling it off. And then the completion is freeing them from all their suffering forever. We've just designed the most powerful positive karmic act. That's bodhicitta. That's becoming a Buddha in order to free all beings from suffering. Report an error

46:08 By definition, it's the most powerful virtue. So that's why it's the only thing powerful enough to eliminate those knowledge obscurations. So it's very cool to think of it in terms of the components that make a complete karmic action. Did you have something? Just going back a little bit to bodhisattvas. Report an error

46:35 Somehow I've heard different teachings within Galupa. one is that Bodhisattvas are the beings that They keep on reincarnating many times to help sentient beings and they wait to become a full enlightened Buddha or is bodhicitta just like on the way to become a Buddha and then you help sentient beings. Report an error

47:02 There's a little confusion there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think in some schools of Buddhism it's taught that you wait You wait for your final enlightenment. But it's actually not that. You're just waiting and you're not going to liberation or nirvāṇa and staying there. That's the difference and I think that's where the misunderstanding comes in. What it means is bodhisattvas keep being reborn so they don't check out. Report an error

47:32 All together and go off to, like we call nirvāṇa, solitary peace. So they're not going off to solitary peace. However, in the Tibetan tradition, the way we teach it is, become a Buddha as quick as you possibly can. Because then you'll have so much more qualities to benefit beings. So you're not at all trying to postpone your enlightenment for any reason, right? Report an error

47:54 The quicker you become a Buddha, the better. Because only a Buddha has omniscient mind. Only Buddha is able to send out these infinite emanation bodies effortlessly. Bodhisattvas at a high level of realization can send out emanation bodies too, but it's limited. Their powers are limited. So in the Tibetan tradition what we say is don't hold off on enlightenment. We're trying to avoid nirvāṇa because that would just be the solitary... Report an error

48:25 But become a Buddha as quickly as possible because a Buddha has so many more qualities to benefit others. So there's no benefit in somehow holding off on Buddhahood. But I have heard that and I think it's maybe a different understanding of the difference between enlightenment and liberation. So becoming a Bodhsapha is just part of reaching... Report an error

48:50 Enlightenment, it's just like natural, it's there, it happens and then up to the moment that you become legit Buddha. Right, exactly. Yeah, and it's a stage, you know, because first we develop bodhicitta. The minute we develop bodhicitta... What we call uncontrived bodhicitta, meaning it's there all the time. It's not just a result of a really good meditation, right? Because sometimes you can have a really good Tonglen meditation, then all of a sudden you're crying and you're overwhelmed and you're like, yes, I'm going to do it, I'm going to become a Buddha for the benefit of all beings. Report an error

49:22 And ten minutes later you're like, where's the chocolate cake? You know, like whatever. But the minute you develop that uncontrived bodhicitta, Carla can't relate to what I'm saying at all, the minute you develop that uncontrived bodhicitta, and they say it's like your baseline emotion, in fact they say it's your main mind, like it's the kind of baseline for everything that you do, then you deserve the label bodhisattva. Report an error

49:49 The minute you develop that uncontrived bodhicitta, then you're bodhisattva, and then yeah, from that point on, All the way to the microsecond before your full enlightenment, you get that label bodhisattva for that whole time. So it's just descriptive of a state of mind that you've developed bodhicitta and then you could be at any given kind of range of qualities all the way up to Buddhahood if you're a bodhisattva. Report an error

50:17 Potentially you could be a bodhisattva for a split of a second if you had the realization. It takes a little longer than that. Between bodhisattva and enlightenment. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, that sometimes in other schools, like there's this thing that you'll read that you just kind of instantaneously attain enlightenment, like you drop a bucket of water on your foot and then all of a sudden, boom, everything changes. Report an error

50:41 And in the Tibetan tradition, we say, no, it's a gradual path. It's got these stages. You know, the quickest it can happen, apparently, from start to finish is three years and three phases of the moon. Which is like six weeks. Which is why we have this traditional three year retreat in the Tibetan tradition. Because apparently that's the quickest that you can progress all the way through all the stages of the past. Report an error

51:06 So it can't be that instantaneous. But it could be that you're a bodhisattva for three years, five weeks and six days or something. And then you become a Buddha. My last question on this. So let's say then you do become a Buddha, why would a Buddha still reincarnate, would still come back into saṃsāra or a Buddha would just send emanations, right? Report an error

51:33 Yeah, we say it's emanation bodies at that point. At a certain level of realization, even way before Buddhahood, you're not restricted to just one body anymore. And that's why sometimes, like do you remember this movie, what was it? Was it the little Buddha when the one Lama had three different incarnations? So often you'll find, even in the Tibetan system, that there'll be, I think they can see Rinpoches, there's like six or seven of them. Report an error

52:01 So you're not limited to even just one incarnation, much less, and who knows how many emanation bodies those beings are flinging off, but these are just like actual rebirth. For the whole lifetime they're recognized as the reincarnation of that being. And then they can be the dog and the bridge and everything else momentarily. Report an error

52:23 Because we talk about different kinds of emanation bodies or different kinds of chokus. One is called a rebirth emanation and that means like what we're used to in the Tibetan system that then for the whole lifetime you take that birth. And then there's other kinds of rebirth of emanation that are sort of more instantaneous. That if the need arises, you emanate as something, even in an inanimate object, momentarily. Report an error

52:52 Yeah, that's a whole other story. Okay, Mike, do you have a question or are you raising your hand? Just resting. Okay, yeah. Report an error

53:03 When you went back to the four components of karma in relationship to bodhicitta, I mean, with the Buddha not having omnipotent, he's not omnipotent, so he can't make people. You know, he can't complete that karma. He can't complete them to become enlightened. No, no, because if he could, he would have, and we'd all be enlightened now. Right. So that's one of the differences between the Christian idea of God and an enlightened being is omnipotence. Report an error

53:31 You know, the ability to actually, I mean, there's this idea of the Christian God or in some, you know, that we're all sort of puppets and they make things happen and make, and Buddhism doesn't have that idea. You know, an enlightened being can't change your karma. All they can do is show you how to change your own karma. Okay, so bodhisattva, let's talk about this word for just a second. Report an error

53:55 We say that that's someone who's developed this thing that we call uncontrived bodhicitta. And it's really nice, this word bodhisattva. You can tell that I really like language. So bodhi is the same as this bodhi, awakening. And then sattva is a word that has three distinct but related meanings. It means a being, just being. Report an error

54:21 That's one of them. S-A-T-T-V-A, sattva, S-A-T-T-V-A. So it refers to a being. It's one of the words that is used to refer to mind. And then it has this connotation of bravery or courage, right? One of the nicest, in fact maybe I should write sattva here, Report an error

54:54 being with bodhicitta. So one of the nicest translations of bodhisattva that I've ever seen is again by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and he calls them awakening warriors. And I really like that because the warrior has that feeling of bravery or courage. Because if you're going to take on freeing all beings from suffering forever, man, you've got to be brave. To take on that task and to have that kind of determination and that kind of will to actually do that, you have to be extremely courageous, extremely brave. Report an error

55:33 Any more questions about bodhicitta? Before we take our break, just the last aspect. Oh, by the way, why is it in this order of renunciation first and then bodhicitta? Can you have bodhicitta if you haven't developed renunciation? What do you think? Marcela, microphone? Report an error

56:10 I believe that first we have to be free of suffering before we start to develop to help somebody else. Okay, we don't have to be free of suffering yet, because if we were free of suffering, we'd be liberated. And then that thing would be linear, that we'd be liberated first, and then we start to benefit beings. Report an error

56:36 So it's not quite that we need to be free of suffering before we can start benefiting beings, because I think we can start doing it today, right, even though we're not free of suffering yet. But there's another relationship. Catherine. Report an error

56:51 I think we have to at least start loosening up our self-cherishing before we can start working with other people. So my understanding was that it's not like step one, two, three on these, but you can work on a little bit of renunciation and then a little bit of bodhicitta and then maybe get a glimmer of wisdom and then go back and have the capability to renounce a little more. Report an error

57:13 Yeah, and we're working on all three together, but for real, uncontrived bodhicitta... Why is that dependent on renunciation? So decreasing your self-cherishing isn't enough? Not quite. John and then Janet. I think I've seen it in terms of karma. Because if you don't want to go, if you don't develop the motivation to go and free yourself, From the delusions and saṃsāra in general, then you're going to keep on planting or potentially keep on planting seeds of negative karma. Report an error

58:01 And it's not going to be in the long term beneficial for you or for other beings. But if you go and develop the desire to leave the delusions behind, to eventually leave saṃsāra behind, Report an error

58:20 Then it would seem to me that you are more in a mind space to be able to go and start planting more positive karmic seeds that will help you in the long term and as a direct result of that also help other beings and get the whole thing rolling, so to speak. I know that's true. It's not exactly quite what I was looking for. Janet? Report an error

58:50 I think as long as... We think that there's some real happiness in saṃsāra that there's never really the drive to remove ourselves. And even if we think, well, I can leave saṃsāra, but... I mean, why would you want to take somebody out of some place where they can be happy anyway? Yeah, exactly. So why bother? Yeah, that's what I was looking for. Report an error

59:17 If you think that happiness is right around the corner in saṃsāra, and if you think that all you need is a new boyfriend or a new job or a new house, if you want to benefit beings, you're going to want to get them a new boyfriend or a new job or a new house. If you think that happiness is possible in saṃsāra, you're going to work for beings to get samsaric happiness. How on earth, what, you're going to become a Buddha really hard to liberate them when you just want a new boyfriend? Report an error

59:49 Like, come on, you know? So it's like that. You have to get it in relationship to yourself first. Because, I'm sorry, we're all the center of our own universe, as we all know. So usually it's about our own suffering first, you know, and that realization comes in terms of ourselves. And then we broaden it. Then we realize, hey, if it's true for me that saṃsāra is a broken realm, you know, and there's no possibility of lasting ultimate happiness, if I care about other people, I'm going to help them get free of it too. Report an error

1:00:21 Exactly like that. And that's why you can't develop bodhicitta without renunciation. It could be simultaneous, right? If you care enough about people, your own renunciation and bodhicitta could be nearly simultaneous, but it at least has to conjoin. It can't be in the order of this first and then this. And what Catherine said is right, because what we're doing is working on developing all of these realizations. Report an error

1:00:49 You know, we work on all of these, but for real uncontrived bodhicitta, first we at least have to have that realization. That saṃsāra is a broken realm and that wish to get free ourselves first. And then we apply it to others. And it can be almost simultaneous. But in our practices, yeah, we're working on developing all three of these. We don't wait until we have perfect, uncontrived renunciation before we even start thinking about others. Report an error

1:01:17 You know, we kind of do it all simultaneously. Great. All right. God, everybody's so overwhelmed. I'm just looking out and I'm like, oh my God. Okay. Let's take a break. Let's take a 15 minute break. Then we'll come back. And so I don't overload you completely. I want to talk a little bit about the six perfections, which is after you've developed bodhicitta, you know, that wish to become enlightened for the benefit of all beings, it's not enough to actually create the cause to be a Buddha. Report an error

1:01:49 You need to do other things that create the causes for the body and mind of a Buddha. We'll talk about that. And we'll talk a little bit about wisdom. You know, we won't have much time and it's a long story. Like I said, if you want the wisdom part, come back in three weeks for the Heart Sūtra. It'll be all about wisdom. Okay. Okay, so let's take a little break and come back in 15 minutes. Report an error

1:02:20 Unanswered questions. Because next after Report an error

1:02:26 the answered questions, we'll leave a little Report an error

1:02:31 later. Probably for 30 years, you have some kind of dispensation. you. Thank you. Report an error

1:02:47 Thank Report an error

1:02:51 you. next year. Report an error

1:03:16 Yes, if people would like to offer contas at the end, if people need to borrow, I have loaners. Do you want to do one? You don't even know what I'm going to ask, but yeah, you kind of do one. Do you want to do one? Report an error

1:03:54 Thank you. you just take her to the end to other classes. I mean other classes, other non-medicine. Okay. So Maria, do you want to ask? Report an error

1:04:31 She's going to do mandala, which would be cool because she's done it before until you get away. So she'll do mandala, body, and I'm going to show you how to help you. I'm going to show you how to help, and then I'm going to show you how to help you. You know, let's find out. I'll find somebody. We'll see if she is. Report an error

1:04:47 Thank you. you'll do body and your feet and your mind and I'll do the operative. See you're going handy and I'll do the dog. Report an error

1:05:01 Thank you. Thank you. Report an error

1:05:06 That's true. Report an error

1:05:25 I watch it and I have to watch it for 20 million times to get it. Oh, you didn't see the person? Oh, the first thing? Report an error

1:05:49 Thank you. Report an error

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1:06:35 Thank you. Report an error

1:06:47 do you need a constant? I put this in. I actually have to remember to bring one of them. Report an error

1:07:17 going to take it. I'll take it. I'll take it. I'll take it. Report an error

1:07:51 Thank you. Report an error

1:08:13 yeah, got all that. Report an error

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1:09:00 some here. Okay. All right. Report an error

1:09:20 Yeah, we'll go really slow motion, and then we'll just pull it right on top of it. I'll clear that. Oh, okay. Right there. I'll get off. Okay. Report an error

1:09:35 I'm going to end up buying them all, but, you know, other than that. All right, Jim. Report an error

1:09:58 So is this your residence year round right here? Me? Yeah, it was not this room, but upstairs, -round, day-round. when I see how the services go, they have these old buildings. Report an error

1:10:14 I love the curved windows that actually raise. Those must be there to embrace one. Yeah, because you have to custom have it made. Yeah, we actually have one that's broken right now. that's in Michelle's room, it's like there's not anything can do, but it And afford another one. But all the stained glass and everything, it's amazing. And actually this wallpaper is original. Report an error

1:10:40 Really? And apparently it matches the same in the opera house or one of the something, like the opera and symphony or something. Report an error

1:10:52 And the marble, unfortunately you can't see, the marble in this fireplace behind the altar is blood marble, which apparently there's no more left in the world. Is this for a higher teacher? Yeah, that's Shantideva who snuck, well you might not say because you were back in that corner, he snuck back in, he just kind of ran into his little coat. Report an error

1:11:10 He's a 75 year old Tibetan nation who lives directly on top of us and also teaches here. Report an error

1:11:37 Would Report an error

1:11:45 you do me a favor? Would you toss those away? Maybe not, maybe all the parts of that. Report an error

1:12:12 get your four people checking? No, I was going to ask you to be the last. I hadn't come to get. No, I want you to actually be one of the presenters. I want you to be mine. So you just follow the crowd. When we start going, it's how you can do it. Thank you. I'm not sure if that's the average thing. Report an error

1:12:35 I need to set this on the table behind it. Just need to slightly move down a little bit. Yeah. Report an error

1:12:45 I've done it. Report an error

1:12:52 really hot. Report an error

1:12:59 actually was thinking how to fix it. Because if I'm double-tape, you still can't flip. If you put double-tape, you should. Yeah. Ow. Report an error

1:13:15 Okay, so here's what's going to happen. At the very end, we'll just dedicate whatever, and then we'll do, I have to mention everybody, the team will all get up, just quickly but quietly, and then come up, you'll be. the last, so just watch everybody else. You'll take whatever's left, right, and take it. Now, for Betty, we'll do Matala. Report an error

1:13:50 Marcella will do body. Maria will do speech. You'll do mind. Which one is my first? Speech, yeah, it could be speech, the text. And I'll hand you a kata, I'll unfurl it, and then you'll put it across your palms. And then I'll put your item on. And you hand it to her. Wait until she takes it. Actually, you guys will all touch it to your forehead first. And then hand it to her. Report an error

1:14:17 And then she takes it. And then just offer her the costume. She'll give that back to you. And now I'm here. Um, is that when we use that one? Yeah, it's really not straight at all. Uh, You use the one that you will be holding. But then everyone will come up with offers? You can get back in line. So there's probably, so the part that I didn't tell you, you might have already seen this before, when we'll start doing Sajikugi, we'll do it slow, slower than last time. Report an error

1:14:50 Michelle started doing it too fast even if she was the one who did it. So do it. We could just like start again? Sure, no, that's okay. We have many. They're falling apart, but we have many. It's just like one. don't know if you didn't want to talk about everything. Report an error

1:15:17 I know. I really wonder if they have, like, these are great. But they didn't do this until after. What's happening? It's a lamination. I mean, it's thoroughly, completely ripped off facts and stuff. Who the heck? I mean, they're pouring it out like, yeah? Report an error

1:15:41 I know. Not like Megan's leg, taking a nap. I know, it was so weird. Report an error

1:16:00 Thank you. Report an error

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1:16:35 Thank you. Report an error

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1:17:20 That was so bad. What? Report an error

1:17:27 No, no, no, it's okay. Just as long as there's one for after class. I'm staying in this cave in the basement. Nobody brings me cookies done in my cave. No, no, no. Just have radar for chocolate. Report an error

1:17:45 I can smell it. I can tell chocolate a mile away. Oh Carla, you're a rock star. Report an error

1:18:04 Yes, we're going to touch on wisdom. Yeah, we're going to definitely touch on it. Report an error

1:18:13 Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. see my Report an error

1:18:23 Gandhi and Vajrapani, sometimes they have me lead the motivation for these meetings that we have. And they never give me a bell, so at the end I always go, ding. Report an error

1:18:34 And he thinks that's much better. In fact, I think he keeps the bell away from me because he always just cracks up like when I go, ding, he goes, ha, ha. I'm so glad it amuses you. Report an error

1:18:52 Gandhi's not allowed to be on the phone. We're starting. Okay. So any other leftover questions about bodhicitta? Or bodhisattvas or renunciation. Report an error

1:19:08 We should have a contest just like the new word for dukkha. We should have a new word for renunciation too that's more descriptive. I can't stand it. Alex Berzin is always retranslating things in creative ways. I don't know what he calls it. I should look it up. Because he calls refuge taking safe direction. Report an error

1:19:28 I mean he always has this really interesting... Dink! Dink! Report an error

1:19:32 Translations for things. Okay. I mean, definite emergence is literal. That's literal, yeah. Okay, so we develop bodhicitta, this wish to become an enlightened being for the benefit of all beings, and then the way to actually pull that off. That's the motivation for our practice. But it isn't powerful enough to actually create the causes for the enlightened body and mind of a Buddha. Report an error

1:20:02 So for that we need the practice of the six perfections. That's the actual path of the Mahāyāna. And it's one of the reasons that the paths of going towards liberation and enlightenment are different. We're creating really specific causes in the Mahāyāna by the practice of the six perfections, very specific causes for the enlightened body and mind of a Buddha, which are really different than the body and mind of an Arhat, right? Report an error

1:20:32 Reached liberation, somebody in nirvāṇa. So we talk about the six perfections and I wanted to go over these quickly and then give the emptiness in a nutshell in about 20 minutes, which is not doing it justice at all, but maybe it will whet your appetite for the Heart Sūtra class. So we've got, whoops, that's falling on you, Maria. It's kind of sliding. Report an error

1:20:57 All of a sudden she's going to be crushed by the flip chart. all right. Report an error

1:21:02 Okay, so the six perfections. And the first one that we practice, and it's sort of sequential. I mean, we do as much as we can simultaneously, but it's said that the practice of the first perfection sort of creates the spiritual momentum for the practice of the second one. So in a way, they're sequential. So we talk about the perfection of giving. Report an error

1:21:27 And there are four different kinds of giving that we practice when we're practicing this perfection. Giving of material things. That's easy. Food, clothing, money, you know, any kind of material support. And then the giving of Dharma, generosity of Dharma. And you don't have to be somebody sitting up in front of the class with a red suit on to do this one. Sharing any kind of insights that you have, anything that you've learned from your Dharma teaching with other people. Report an error

1:21:59 You don't even have to call it Buddhism at all. And there's a lot of skillful ways that you can share your insights with people. And that would be the generosity of Dharma. Report an error

1:22:10 Providing... The generosity or the giving of fearlessness. And this is kind of an interesting one. So protecting beings that are in danger is one kind of practice of generosity. Those of you that have known me for a while, you know I'm really into this animal rescue thing. And right now my thing is raising money for this donkey refuge in India. Report an error

1:22:33 There are these donkeys in India and they're put to work when they're really young before their bones and joints have formed. And then they're worked so hard that they're often crippled. And so this friend of mine in India that has a dog rescue operation, we're trying to buy land for these donkeys because then after they're crippled and can't work anymore, their owners can't afford to feed two donkeys, so they just kind of put them out to fend for themselves. Report an error

1:22:59 But they're very timid by nature. And competing with them for any available food are also dogs, cows. And the donkeys are very timid and they won't fight for the food like the dogs and the cows are, so they often starve to death. So my friend and I are trying to raise money for this donkey refuge, so that would be an example of providing fearlessness, a being that's in danger of starving to death and you help to provide for it. Report an error

1:23:26 Or like my friend with the pit bulls, anything that you can do to protect beings that are in some kind of danger. And then, this is my favorite. Love. The generosity of love. Just being nice to people. Being kind. Being loving. Trying to make people happy. It's free. It's easy. You don't need any kind of special knowledge for that. So that's one kind of generosity. So sometimes when we think of the perfection of giving, we think, oh, I don't have much money. Report an error

1:23:57 There's not much I can do. But thinking in terms of some of these other ones, there are ways that we can practice this perfection. Report an error

1:24:06 So giving. And then we have the perfection of ethics or morality. We have three kinds of ethics. Restraining from misdeeds. And that would be avoiding those ten non-virtues would be an example of that, right? So avoiding, killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, the rest of the ten non-virtues. And then we have the morality of gathering. Report an error

1:24:31 Virtue, doing things to generate merit. We have these words merit and virtue that we use a lot in Buddhism. And I like to think of it as spiritual potential, spiritual momentum, right? Virtue and merit, we're doing virtuous actions to create positive karma and that kind of spiritual momentum that we need for our practices to succeed. Report an error

1:24:57 So gathering virtue. And then working for the sake of sentient beings. So these are three kinds of morality. So sometimes when you think of ethics or morality, we only think in terms of restraining from misdeeds, but it's also gathering virtue and working for the benefit of beings. So this is the practice of ethics. Any question about giving or ethics? Pretty straightforward. Report an error

1:25:26 Yeah. Sometimes I've... I've seen people who work to benefit people, like a bigger category of people, and it's at odds with benefiting their immediate family or something. Do you know what I mean? Are they higher or lower? Yeah, and you know you need a lot of wisdom for doing all of these practices. We talk about wisdom being the sixth. Report an error

1:25:51 Perfection. And it just kind of goes along with some of the things we've been talking about, about knowing what's best in any given situation. Generally, the Tibetan Lama say, hey, it's really easy to practice compassion for the tsunami victims in Sri Lanka, you know, and to benefit them. You don't know how annoying they are. They're halfway around the world. You know, we have to practice mostly with the people closest to us. And if you're ignoring the people close to you for the benefit of somebody... Report an error

1:26:20 Far away, not so good. So mostly when we talk to the Tibetan lamas about that, they say first practice all these things with the people in your house, with the people closest to you. Don't just do it for someone else that's some greater cause and then just blow off the people that are close to you and the people that you live with. Report an error

1:26:40 So mostly like that. And again, what is that wisdom? Are the people that you... That are close to you being unrealistic in their maybe neediness for your time and that you do need to set limits or something like that. But just completely ignoring the people close to you just so that you can benefit people really far away usually is not seen as something that's very wise. Report an error

1:27:06 Okay, so the next, we're racing through these pretty quickly. Whoa. Rip. Okay. So the next one is the practice of patience. And this also has three kind of components to it. And the first one is not getting angry and retaliating. Okay, so something happens, somebody does something to you, you think it's completely justified, like the yelling boss thing, right? Report an error

1:27:39 A perfect example. But you don't get angry, you don't retaliate. That's one level of the practice of patience. Another level is just accepting difficulties and hardship, not complaining so much, not expecting things to go well all the time. And that's one thing, I mean, I think sometimes when you just understand the nature of saṃsāra, it makes you complain a lot less. Your expectations are pretty low when you have a... Report an error

1:28:09 Good understanding of the nature of saṃsāra. You know, it's pretty amazing that we just have enough to eat and we have a place to live and we're in the human realm. Like that in itself is a minor miracle, right? So just not having, just accepting when hardships come, you know, when difficulties come. Report an error

1:28:28 It's just the nature of things. Doesn't mean that you can't do anything to... Prevent it. But it just means you have kind of realistic expectations of what can you expect from this mixed bag. You know, we have a mixed bag, deep pockets of both good and bad karma, ripening all the time. It's going to give us good experiences. It's going to give us a hassle from time to time. Report an error

1:28:51 So just accepting that difficulty. And then the third level of patience is, you know, putting in effort to understand and practice Dharma. It's sort of the patience that you need to be able to understand and practice, especially emptiness, which is a very subtle concept, right? Betty rolls her eyes in the back row and gives a big sigh. And it's that, you know, that sometimes things take effort and they take study, they take a lot of practice. Report an error

1:29:23 And being okay with that, putting in the patience that it takes to actually practice and study Dharma. Okay, any questions about patience? Okay, then the next perfection is the perfection of joyful effort, which is just defined as delight in virtue. And this is the opposite of that Calvinist thing of only if you're suffering is it virtuous. This is saying the exact opposite. Report an error

1:29:54 You should get off on doing good things. Be happy about doing virtuous things. Have a good life. I had a friend who was just visiting me. I met him in Dharamsala. He was in some of my classes last spring, and he was just visiting. Actually, Dion met him. He's a professional juggler of burning fire brands. Report an error

1:30:13 Like, go figure. He's in, you know, he was in a circus in New Zealand for a long time, and then he just did this tour across Canada, performing. And then he goes to all these festivals. Of course he went to Burning Man. Like, of course he would have to. And he told me there's like 12,000... Fire performers at Burning Man that juggle and do this whole thing and I was just like, wow. So he does this thing and he says, he came to Vajrapani to visit me right after Burning Man and I was like, how was it? Report an error

1:30:45 Because he was saying how for fire performers that's like the ultimate thing and he'd been hearing about it for years and he'd never gone and he thought it would be so amazing. He was just like, you know, most of the time I was like, what am I doing here? So he hung out at Vajrapani, he did all this work, you know. Report an error

1:31:03 Hang out with the nun and drink tea. And he's like, this was way more fun than anything else that I've done. And he was talking about it the last day when we were just cracking up. He was just going, I go to all these festivals. I'm a performer. I do this whole big deal. And like cleaning out the rain gutters of the nun and having a cup of tea with her afterwards was more fun than anything I've ever done. Report an error

1:31:27 And that's delight in virtue. And you'll notice that as you start to practice Dharma. We think that self-indulgence will make us happy. And less and less is that the case. And sometimes there's this sort of lag period that you're still doing that self-indulgent stuff out of habit, and then you're kind of confused. Report an error

1:31:49 How come it's not making me happy anymore? Like my fire-brandishing friend at Burning Man. Like, what am I doing here? You know, get me to Vajrapani. I'm missing the teaching. You know, and then... You more and more get used to taking delight in benefiting beings, taking delight in doing virtuous things. And it's very cool, you know, to see. Report an error

1:32:09 I mean, it's confusing at first, I will admit. I went through that nasty kind of weird lag period of doing those old habitual things and being confused about why they didn't make me happy. And then slowly, slowly, it shifts, you know. So that's delight in virtue. And it's the antidote for three kinds of laziness. Report an error

1:32:29 We talk in Buddhism about laziness. One is the laziness that we usually think about when we think of the word laziness. Just wasting time lying around, right? So just wasting time lying around. The second is the laziness of procrastination. Putting off your virtue. You know, putting off doing your meditation. Oh, I have plenty of time. I'm young. After I retire, then I'll start. Report an error

1:32:59 So the laziness of procrastination. And then the last one is especially important, I think, for us, and that's the laziness of discouragement. Oh, everybody's got Buddha nature but me. Everybody's able to practice but me. There's something wrong with me. So joyful effort is the antidote for all three of these kinds of laziness. Report an error

1:33:27 Yeah. Yeah, and the first one is the laziness of just lying around, being attracted to kind of worldly pursuits, you know, just spending all your time resting. We don't have so much of that. You see a lot more of that in Asia. You know, in the chai shops, the guys sitting around just chatting and smoking beaties all day, you know. Report an error

1:33:50 It's interesting, Sokyo Rinpoche, this one Tibetan Lama said, Westerners are lazy by being busy. And I think that... We don't lie around, but we distract ourselves constantly with meaningless things. You're always on the cell phone and the iPod and the this and the that, and always busy. And that's one way that I think we're lazy. It's not the lying around kind, because most of us don't do so much of that. And then the second one is the laziness of procrastination. Report an error

1:34:22 You're putting off... The last one is the laziness of discouragement, which is really important for us to counteract. Joyful effort is the antidote for those three kinds of laziness. We talk about the first four and a half perfections creating the causes for the enlightened body of a Buddha. We talked about those emanation bodies. Report an error

1:34:53 There's other form bodies that a Buddha takes. So those are created by about four and a half of the perfection. And then the last, meaning that concentration helps both the ones that came above it and wisdom. It's primarily for the sake of wisdom, but also any kind of concentration or focus we have for the practice of the other perfection. Report an error

1:35:21 So then we've got concentration, which is simply developing single-pointed concentration so that you can focus on an object for as long as you want. In the scripture they talk about four hours without wavering on one object with perfect clarity, perfect focus and intensity. You're engaged with the object just like you are with the last Harry Potter novel. Report an error

1:35:47 That you're dying to find out what happens. So that level of engagement and intensity. Now developing that concentration is just a tool. It's a tool primarily for meditating on emptiness. In order to have that direct realization of emptiness that we were talking about before, we need this sort of laser beam of this concentration. Report an error

1:36:13 We need to be able to focus on... That object, the emptiness of the lack of inherent existence of reality to develop that realization. Especially for wisdom, which is the last perfection, we need that concentration. Any questions about those whipping through quickly the perfections? Report an error

1:36:45 Just to confirm, to get the concentration and the practice of meditation and get the concentration, we need to practice every day. And for me or for everybody who's new, it's ten minutes about the length that we have to meditate every day. Yeah, yeah. And I think in order to really develop that single point of concentration, there's actually a lot of factors that are mentioned in the scriptures for being able to develop that perfect single point of concentration. Report an error

1:37:16 Definitely we need to practice every day. I think to really get to the point of perfect single point of concentration, at some point, I think you would have to go into some deep retreat. To finish that off, you know, we talk about nine different levels of developing single point of concentration. My idea is, I've never heard a Tibetan Lama say this, but I think you can get to about maybe the fourth level in regular kind of worldly life. Report an error

1:37:46 And I think to progress past that level, you would need to set up some really specific circumstances and kind of finish the last couple of levels in some kind of deep. Meditation retreat. But for sure, for beginning that process, I think every day. And they say more frequent short sessions is best in the beginning. Report an error

1:38:08 So even if you sit for half an hour, 45 minutes, to divide it into sort of mini sessions. In the Sakya tradition they say 12 and a half minutes. I think that's really hard. But when I'm leading meditations, often if I'm leading a single point of concentration meditation, I'll ring the bell after 15 minutes, like if we're sitting for 45 minutes. Report an error

1:38:31 Every 15 minutes I'll ring the bell and then have people just take a mini break. I mean they don't get up and make a cup of tea and go to the toilet, but just relax their posture, relax their concentration for a minute. And then go back to the object. And I think this is really important. It helps us be more successful with our concentration. So I think for daily practice, if you did do half an hour, 45 minutes, dividing it into smaller kind of mini sessions, then you can make a lot of progress. Report an error

1:39:01 But yeah, definitely every day, for sure. I had this student who's a professional musician. And he was talking about coming to Vajrapani to do a weekend retreat. And he had this... You know, this kind of dilemma. He plays the bass, like the big one, not this kind, but this kind. And he said, if I don't practice for one day, I can tell the difference. Report an error

1:39:26 He said, if I don't practice for two days, the person sitting next to me in the orchestra can tell the difference. If I don't practice for three days, the conductor can tell the difference. If I don't practice for four days, the audience can tell the difference. And I think it's the same thing with our meditation. Report an error

1:39:41 You know, about the same thing. You don't practice meditation for one day, you can tell the difference. Second day, your spouse can tell the difference. You know, the third day, the rest of your family can tell the difference. So it's like that. You know, you really need to practice. And he was like, I have to practice every day. Report an error

1:39:59 I've been doing it every day since I was like 13. You know, this is just what I have to do. Yeah, Dion. Report an error

1:40:10 I have a question about using. Dion. Report an error

1:40:13 Background noise or not necessarily music, but I have a strange case of tinnitus. So I hear when it's perfectly quiet, I hear a ringing like a strange just kind of like this sound all the time. And it it's so. It's so distracting and so bothersome that I have on my iPod, it's a thing that makes pink noise. Report an error

1:40:46 Yeah. And it's like white noise, but it sounds different. White noise is real like this and pink noise is, it's just very, it's like the wind blowing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And is that okay? Because I am so, this tinnitus makes me. Yeah. And I could probably use that as a tool for meditation, but I'm not there yet. Right, right, right. So what do you think about that? Report an error

1:41:15 Nothing for something like that that wasn't like a melody or something. I mean, sometimes people ask me, there's a meditation tape and it's like some soothing music and I go, no, that's not. The object, right? You need to have something else. But I think if it's something like that and it isn't really anything with some kind of melody that doesn't distract you but it's just blocking out your tinnitus, I think that's okay. Report an error

1:41:39 I think that's okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But some people, you know, there's all these, in this new age bookstores, they have all these meditation tapes and it's all this, you know, harp music and all that stuff. I mean, forget it. Don't do that. To relax, but not to develop single-pointed concentration. To relax, it's great, but don't use that while you're actually trying to meditate on an object to develop single-pointed concentration. Report an error

1:42:10 Would you not be able to use that as the object of meditation, like the nada sound? Not really, because it's changing all the time. See, that would be the difference. Something with a melody isn't really one object. Oh, the tinnitus. Yeah, you could. But it seems like she's not quite there yet. You know, in the future she might be able to. Yeah. Report an error

1:42:33 Yeah, yeah. If it creates that much aversion for her, then she wouldn't be able to do it. No, it's okay. Report an error

1:42:47 I love it that she still has that enthusiasm where everybody else is like in a coma. Okay. Because I keep meaning to ask you this and I forget every time I see you. I'm just kidding. That happens sometimes. Go ahead. No, you know the chants? Yeah. The Tibetan chants by the monks, that noise they make that's so, I mean, it's just hypnotic. It's so amazing. What is the purpose of that and where does that fit into this? Report an error

1:43:22 Yeah, and that's not something that you would use for developing single-pointed concentration. Things like mantras, you know, that sometimes, or things like that kind of chanting. There's a couple of levels going on. You know, there's the level that they're actually saying words in Tibetan that mean something, that remind you to do a meditation. It's sort of a prompt for a certain kind of meditation. Report an error

1:43:48 You know, reciting, and that's why when we recite prayers, and sometimes in the Tibetan tradition we recite these practices, and then... It's a way to just remind us of what we should be meditating on conceptually. So it's a different kind of meditation than this one. Also, for recitation of mantra and some chanting, we're working at an even subtler level with the subtle body and this kind of resonance and vibration in different energy channels of the subtle body. Report an error

1:44:18 So some of that is working even deeper than a conceptual level. You know, that's why sometimes when we recite mantras and the students always want to know, what does the mantra mean? But that's not the point because it's not working at the level of conceptual thought, it's working at the level of vibration. Report an error

1:44:35 Okay, and sort of vibration, attuning your subtle body. And so some of that chanting is like that. It's working at a vibrational level, which is why it's so effective, isn't it? You know, you hear it and you're just like, whoa, you're just kind of transfixed because it's working on your body, on your subtle body in a very, you know, powerful way. Report an error

1:44:54 So that's what a lot of those are for. Yeah, yeah, yeah, good. Glad you remembered, Tian. What would have happened if you'd remembered it when you were driving home? Report an error

1:45:14 All right, are you two maxed out to hear a little bit about emptiness? Are you okay? Oh, you guys are so enthusiastic. Okay, let's see, let me find it first. Report an error

1:45:42 we go Okay, so in order to understand the ultimate nature of reality, we need to understand dependent origination, because dependent origination and emptiness are kind of like two sides of a coin, right? There are two ways of looking at the same quality, one from the positive angle and one from the negative angle. Report an error

1:46:11 So first let's look at... Dependent origination, the three levels of dependent origination. I'll use my favorite example that Carla at least has heard many times, maybe some of the rest of you, the cup. So let's talk about the three levels of dependent origination of the cup. And then we'll talk about its emptiness, which is dependent on understanding the three levels of dependent origination. Report an error

1:46:38 So the first level... We say the cup is dependent on causes and conditions for its existence. This one's really easy to understand. The causes are the material stuff that went into making the cup. The porcelain, the glaze, whatever substances, chemicals went into making the glaze. So the actual stuff that turned into the cup would be the cause. And then the conditions would be... Report an error

1:47:10 You know, Acme Cup Manufacturing Company in Beijing or wherever it is. You know, the people that work there, the equipment in the cup making factory, the people that paint it or the machine that stamped the design on it. Those would be the conditions. So we can't talk about the cup existing independent of causes and conditions. That's one level of dependence. Report an error

1:47:35 Super easy to understand, right? The cup does not exist independently, independent of causes and conditions. And then the second level, we say the cup doesn't exist independent of its parts. So what are the parts of the cup? You've got a cylinder with a bottom. It's open on the top and it has a handle. Report an error

1:47:59 It doesn't have to have a handle, but I hate those cups. I always burn my hand. You know, those like Japanese things without a handle. They're really uncomfortable. So I like it that the parts of this cup include a handle. So the cup exists independent on these parts. It needs all of these parts in order to be a cup. If it were just the bottom, it would just be some kind of weird little ceramic coaster. Report an error

1:48:25 You could use it to put another cup on. If it were just the cylinder without the bottom, it would just be some kind of weird ceramic tube. What would you use that for? Who knows? A gigantic napkin ring, like something. If it weren't open on the top, you couldn't drink out of it. It would just be like a container, this enclosed thing. Like I said, the handle is optional. I'm happy about that. The cup is dependent on all the parts. Report an error

1:48:55 The cylinder, the bottom, the opening, the handle. It couldn't exist independent of... That's also easy. Now comes the hard part. We say the cup only exists in dependence on my conceptual imputation, my designation. This one's more subtle. It hardly does justice to do it in 20 minutes, but you asked for it. What this level says is, I have an idea. Report an error

1:49:22 So, Report an error

1:49:32 In my mind, cup. A concept cup. It's what we call a generic image. There's this word in Tibetan, dunci. Generic image. Very, very rough. Very, very general. My generic image of cup, a cylinder of a certain size. If it's too big, then it's the generic image of a trash can. If it's too small, it's the generic image of a thimble. Report an error

1:50:01 It's got a range of size, this generic image, cylinder of a certain size with a bottom and with an opening at the top. So I have this very, very general image in my mind. So what happens is I walk in the room, scanning the objects in the room, and I see a cylinder of a certain size with a bottom, open top, capable of holding liquid to drink. Report an error

1:50:31 Because that's my concept of cup. And then I label that object cup. And what this level says is there's no cup there from its own side, independent of that process of designating or labeling with my concepts. The only thing that's there is a cylinder with a bottom and a handle and the top is open. I make a cup. Report an error

1:51:02 There with my concepts, with my conceptual designation. So there's no cup there. There's what we call a basis of imputation. A basis of imputation. We say in order for it to be a basis of imputation of the label cup, it needs to function as what we've all agreed a cup is. So this great book by Tsongkhapa Rinpoche, this great Lama called What Makes You Not a Buddhist. I totally recommend this book. Report an error

1:51:37 It's brilliant. And he talks about how do things then conventionally exist. And he says there needs to be consensus, continuity and function. For me to validly label this cylinder cup, there needs to be some continuity. Report an error

1:51:57 Even though this isn't the same cup, strictly speaking, as was here on my table an hour ago, there's a continuity. Even though it's changing moment by moment by moment, right? All the molecules and the electrons and the subatomic particles have changed completely. You know, it's decaying moment by moment by moment. Report an error

1:52:16 But there's enough of a continuum that I can validly say, oh Carla, could you please make me a cup of tea in my cup? And she knows which one I'm talking about, even though it's changing moment by moment. So there's some continuity there, right, that makes the object still recognizable, one second, over time. Report an error

1:52:36 Then we have consensus. We've all called, you know, we all in 21st century Western culture call an object that's a, you know, ceramic cylinder with a bottom, with an open top. We all decide, yeah, that's a cup. And then it's got the function of holding liquid, which is our definition of what a cup is. Cylindrical object with the function of holding liquid. Report an error

1:53:02 So it's dependent on those things. Very relative. Maybe some Inuit in northern Greenland would see this object. I don't know what they drink out of, sealed bladders or something, right? So they would see this ceramic, no serious, they would see this ceramic cylinder and they wouldn't impute cup, right? Report an error

1:53:26 There would be no cup there for them. You know, and we have this cultural imperialism. Sure it's a cup, they just don't know it's a cup. Forget about it. It's just a ceramic cylinder with a bottom. And they can use it for whatever they want. Anybody who's my age or older may have seen this movie, The Gods Must Be Crazy, right? Perfect example. Report an error

1:53:50 And the reason it's so funny, right, this movie about, did anybody not see it? Oh, okay, sorry. So it's this movie, right, and this bushman in the Kalahari Desert walking through in this Coke bottle drops out of the sky and he takes it. Back to his village. And this movie's hysterical. They use it as a rolling pin, then they start using it as a weapon, they're bopping each other over the head with it. Report an error

1:54:19 He decides to take it to this chasm and like hurl it in there because it's this evil, terrible thing. And the reason the movie's so hysterical is because we think, ha ha ha, look, it's really a Coke bottle. It's really a glass cylinder. For those people in the Kalahari Desert, it's a rolling pin. It's not a Coke bottle. There's no Coke within a thousand miles of the Kalahari Desert. We just think it's a Coke bottle because we have that conceptual imputation on that object. Report an error

1:54:49 And that's why the movie's so funny. If you take Lama Zopa to see the movie, you'd be like, what's so funny? Because he gets it, you know? It'd be like, it's just because of our wrong view, thinking it's a Coke bottle from its own side, independent of our concepts. Okay, so that movie is the perfect example of emptiness. Proof of emptiness, it's not a Coke bottle from its own side. It's whatever you impute based on consensus, function and continuity. Report an error

1:55:21 Right, so in that village in the Kalahari Desert, the consensus and the function is rolling pin. Why not, right? For us, the consensus and the function is, you know, This greenish glass cylinder of a certain shape that we all recognize that holds this liquid that was first designed to cure migraine headaches, like back in 18-something. Report an error

1:55:45 And if the guy that invented it, and it had cocaine in it and all these other things, if the guy that invented it would know that everyone around the world would recognize this strange drink and crave it, so like that. So that's how things exist in dependence. On these three levels, especially this subtlest one. Now, its emptiness is its absence of being anything else other than a dependent origination. Report an error

1:56:18 So its emptiness says it doesn't exist from its own side, independent of these three levels, especially this subtlest level. So its emptiness... And its dependent origination are like two ways of looking at the same quality. Its dependent origination is saying it exists in dependence on causes and conditions, parts and conceptual designation. Report an error

1:56:46 Its emptiness is it ain't any other way. It doesn't exist any other way. It's completely devoid or empty of what we call inherent existence, meaning independent of These three levels, especially the subtlest level. So it's two ways of looking at the same concept. Now Michael's been very patient. He's had a question in the back row. Report an error

1:57:16 This may just be the way that you explain things or your particular teaching style, but yeah, it's kind of flashing me back because when I was in college I decided to put myself into a philosophy course and I asked a professor, why should I do this? And he said, to identify truth, to identify untruth, and have the vocabulary to... Report an error

1:57:35 Explain to who you were talking to why it was right or why it was wrong. And I've never seen a belief system so dependent. I can't see Dharma path without having Buddhist philosophy supporting it because everything that you're telling us, you know, and it's weird because I'm just sitting here going, wow, I'm back in philosophy course. Report an error

1:57:54 Just sitting there. Yeah. Report an error

1:58:02 Let's see, two things. One, I kind of spaced out when you started. Janet. Report an error

1:58:08 Continuity, consensus and function. And what were you saying? Was that the three aspects of a valid base? I kind of missed what... How things do conventionally exist. And this is an explanation according to Tsongkhapa Rinpoche that I find really useful. So if things are just created according to your conceptual designation and your imputation, why can't anything be anything and you just decide? Report an error

1:58:37 So this is saying how things validly are what they are. Why can't I call this a telephone? Because I just decide, right? The only thing that creates this is my concepts. Hello, you know, Lama Tsongkhapa, I'll be up at Sicheling Friday night at 8 o 'clock. You know, it doesn't function as that. We haven't agreed on that. We agreed that this is the top of a cup. Report an error

1:59:03 It functions as that. We've all agreed on it. So there is some basis for why we call things what they are conventionally. We can't just decide. So it is the three aspects of a valid base. I just wanted to make sure I had the right title up at the top. And then, like, in the case of imputation, in another country, there would be no cop. Report an error

1:59:31 Absolutely. It would be another, right? Is that correct? Yeah, absolutely. The way it works is... Or there might be something that they drink liquid out of. It sure wouldn't look like this. Well, I mean, it could look like that exactly, but it would be something else. It wouldn't be a cup. Yeah, so it's very culturally relative. It's very culturally relative, you know. Report an error

1:59:50 And there's so much relativity to our reality. And this is what this is telling us. It's not absolute. And that's why that movie was so funny. Because we think there's some absolute Coke bottle there. And that's why that movie's funny. And if we got dependent arising, if we got emptiness, we'd be like, well, yeah, sure. You know, of course it could be anything. Report an error

2:00:14 Depending on that consensus and function in that. So there's a lot of cultural relativity. I kind of like to think about it, like sometimes I think about it in terms of a house, because everybody's like, oh, nice house. But if I was a termite, I'd go, wow, lunch. Exactly, yeah, yeah, totally, totally. And you think about beings from other realms, and that's a great way to think about it. Report an error

2:00:39 To an ant, this would be a swimming pool, or a really good place to drown, you know. For dog it would be like maybe a bowl of some liquid and it would be weird to them because they're used to water. Yeah, you can think about it in terms of other cultures and other realms to break down that kind of solid concept that we have. Report an error

2:01:00 John has something. Report an error

2:01:06 So based on this idea of dependent origination. Emptiness, something being empty, is that defined as the state of something that if you take away these parts, say you take away causes and conditions, you take away these various aspects, is that what is meant by an empty state? Okay, emptiness is just... Report an error

2:01:42 We say it's a mere absence of an impossible way of existing. So all emptiness is, we say it's a non-affirming negation or a mere absence of existing in any other way than this. So emptiness isn't a positive thing. Some of these early texts would... These bad translations and they'd say the void, capital V, like the emptiness, capital E, as if it's some black hole and the goal of the path is to somehow merge into this black hole. Report an error

2:02:15 I don't know, that sounds really freaky. But it's not any kind of positive thing like that. It's just the quality of every existing object and that quality is its absence of being anything other than dependently originating. So emptiness is empty. And emptiness is empty. Emptiness is just a concept that we've imputed on that quality of every existing object. Report an error

2:02:43 So in that case, does that not then mean that the state of enlightenment... The state of becoming a Buddha, Buddhahood, is empty in and of itself too. Everything is empty. So that doesn't even have any inherent existence. None whatsoever. Okay. Report an error

2:03:09 And if I can jump to where you're going through, that's why it exists and that's how it exists and that's the only reason that it functions. Because emptiness doesn't mean... all right, so. Report an error

2:03:21 That things don't exist, it doesn't mean that they don't function. In fact, if they weren't empty, they couldn't function. They can only function if they're dependent originations. We could, thank God, we're empty of inherent existence because otherwise we'd be stuck as John and Tenzin Chogky somehow stuck there. Report an error

2:03:42 Because we're a product of causes and conditions, parts, conceptual imputation, we can become enlightened beings. Okay, so if you inherently existed, that would imply that you could have no effect upon anything. Anything, exactly. You couldn't be a result of anything and you couldn't affect anything. You can't interact with something without being a cause or condition of that existence and vice versa. Report an error

2:04:09 Right, exactly. That's how karma works. Yeah, exactly. It explains everything. Sometimes at the beginning we kind of panic. I remember in the beginning I would say, well at least Buddhas should be inherently existent. They've got to be somehow more real than everything else. But it's that misunderstanding. Report an error

2:04:27 Understanding that reality means somehow existing inherently, which is just that basic wrong view. And the more you get used to it, actually Lama Tsongkhapa has this special way of presenting emptiness, that emptiness and dependent arising just go hand in hand. And you see how things can only exist if they're empty. In fact, Arya Nagarjuna said, because of emptiness, everything is possible. Report an error

2:04:53 If it weren't for emptiness, nothing would be possible. So emptiness allows for things to arise and things to come into being. Because of that emptiness, it allows for things to arise and come into being, including Buddhahood, including enlightened beings, including our transformation into an enlightened being. Report an error

2:05:16 So I say, God bless emptiness. If it weren't for emptiness, we'd have no chance of actually transforming into a Buddha. Okay, so here's my next question. Is there anything that is inherently existent? Nope. Nothing. Not even emptiness. Impossible. Report an error

2:05:35 No exceptions. Yeah. And as one of my friends who teaches this says, you gotta cook it. I'm giving you the raw ingredients and this is where listening, contemplation and meditation really come into play. We have to just keep thinking about it over and over and over again. For sure you're not going to get it in 15 minutes of presentation. You have to keep mulling over it, keep studying. His Holiness the Dalai Lama was asked recently, and there's these questions when he gives these teachings that the translator reads, and one of the questions was, how do I get a direct realization of emptiness? Report an error

2:06:16 So His Holiness goes, study, study, study. We have to keep thinking about it, studying, contemplating like that. Report an error

2:06:28 There's this really famous linguist named de Saussure. I don't know if anyone's ever brought this up, but he basically said the exact same thing and is like... What was his name? De Saussure. Oh, I haven't heard of him. I mean, this is exactly what he said and he's like, it was like revolutionary in like Western, not only linguistics, but like all philosophy and like, well, Buddha said the same thing how long ago? Report an error

2:06:49 I mean, it's just crazy because I've never heard emptiness explained this way and I'm just like... How do we not even know that this ever happened where we learned this as being so important? I remember studying, I haven't heard of this one, but I remember when I was in high school, Hayakawa, this linguist, and he was talking about how language makes us perceive things differently. Report an error

2:07:12 You know, I always use the example of Inuits in Greenland and they have like 85 words for snow. They actually perceive 85 different kinds of snow because they have those concepts and they have that language. Me, I've never really lived anywhere where it snows. I only perceive two kinds, like the dry powdery kind and the wet mushy kind. Report an error

2:07:32 So I was teaching this class on emptiness according to the four philosophical schools in Dharamsala this spring and this woman from Finland raised her hand and she's like, we have 11 words for snow. You know, in Finnish there's 11 separate words for snow. And so she perceives 11 different things that I don't even perceive. Report an error

2:07:52 So for us for sure as humans, language is so tied up. With our concepts and our conceptual designation. There's some cultures, like I remember Hayakawa saying, for Navajos they work so much with turquoise and there's this one word for both blue and green and it's sort of like, do they even perceive what we would say Is the difference between blue and green or is it all just this one kind of aquamarine color? So it's very interesting to think about how language really plays a part with this conceptual designation too. Report an error

2:08:27 It's just crazy how long ago he said it and nobody would even listen to it. But the other thing is when you try to meditate on this, is there a specific way, method for doing that? Yeah, there are and we don't have time unfortunately to do that. Report an error

2:08:44 Yeah, there's several good techniques. And by the way, the main object for a meditation on emptiness is us, because it's the main troublemaker, is having a false view of how we exist. Oh great, she got the book. Do Report an error

2:09:08 you? Yeah. So how do we exist in dependence on these three levels? Let's look at personal selflessness. Lend it to Report an error

2:09:18 Obviously we depend on causes and conditions. You know, the sperm and egg of our parents, all the food that we ate when we were growing up, the education that we got that allowed our mind to develop, that's easy. Parts, you know, torso, arms, legs, mind, all the different parts. And then on the basis of this effort, just like the cup, exactly like the cup. Report an error

2:09:44 On the basis of this ever-changing continuum of body and mind, right? Mind changing moment by moment by moment. Body changing moment by moment. We slap this label, you know, me, on this constantly changing continuum of body and mind. And that's how we do exist. How we don't exist as some kind of solid, concrete, independent, you know, we always think that there's some me in there somewhere. Report an error

2:10:15 Mostly because we're Western, we think it's here. I remember when I was a little kid, I had this thing of like, oh, I kind of live behind my eyes, you know, and I'm looking out my eyeballs at reality. You know, and I really thought like there was something looking out through these holes, and that was the real me. Report an error

2:10:35 And I thought it was so profound and all I was doing was meditating on the root ignorance that's the cause of saṃsāra. Oh wow, here I am looking out my eyeballs. Like we think there's some essence in there somewhere. And Buddhism says, ain't no such thing. You know the Buddha... Famously taught this doctrine of anatman, or no self. And he didn't say, we don't exist, it's all a hallucination, you're not sitting on your cushion. Report an error

2:11:02 What he said was, the way you do exist, constantly changing continuum, and you're slapping a label on it with your concepts. We have some view of me. And why does that get us in trouble? Anything that threatens our concept of me, we push it away. I mean, how many times, I've said this a million times myself, somebody said something about me or some idea they have of me, you don't know me at all. Report an error

2:11:31 How can you say that about me? You know, Buddhism would say, hey, their conceptual imputation is every bit as valid as mine, right? And understanding that helps us. I remember just this one example, how does it help? Meditating on personal selflessness. I remember this one time. I can't remember what happened. It was a couple of years ago. I did something. And because it was me, most likely motivated by a wish for happiness and a wish to avoid suffering, I did some deluded action. Report an error

2:12:06 Pretty benign, most likely. One person in my life saw this thing that I did and thought it was the most selfish act of this heinous, horrible, selfish monster, and I was just awful. You know, this other person in my life saw it as the enlightened activity of an emanation of a holy being. Same thing. So we had three different conceptual imputations going on. Report an error

2:12:31 There's me flailing around trying to find happiness just like I have been since beginning of this time. You know, there's friend X who thinks that I'm like a horrible, selfish monster who's just trying to like make him tortured. Somebody else who sees it as enlightened activity. So how do I get angry? Right? I'm not going to get pissed off at the person who thinks I'm horrible. Report an error

2:12:54 Hey, it's just his concepts. Poor thing. Because of his karma, he has the karma to perceive something unpleasant. And then the person who thinks I'm a holy being, am I going to get proud? No, I rejoice. Wow, whatever she did to create her to have that perception. Meanwhile, I'm in the middle. So this is how it really helps us, very practical, when we understand this. Report an error

2:13:20 And this is why that's... You know, at the top of the list right below afflictive emotions, you know, because believing that we exist in some way, if I still believe that from the depths of my heart, I would have gotten angry at the other guy, I would have gotten proud because of what the other one said, you know, would have increased my delusions, but because at least intellectually I get it a little bit, I was just like, wow, another proof of emptiness. Report an error

2:13:46 Look at this. Three completely distinct views of this poor little continuum. Poor little Tenzin Chogky, some ever-changing continuum with these really solid conceptions. So that's how it helps us. It's not just some theory. It's not just some philosophical trip. Use it. Use it when you're attached to the object. Report an error

2:14:09 They're just appearing that way because of your concepts. Use it when you have a version. That object is just appearing that way because of your concepts. Use it when you start to defend yourself. Or you start to feel proud because somebody praises you. And this is the understanding that's at the root of all of our practice. It takes it to that deeper level. Report an error

2:14:32 And I wish we weren't out of time. It would be fun to talk about this a lot more, but I hope I've given you at least a taste of something that can be useful. When especially you feel those strong emotions arising, think about this level. One thing that I found really helpful for keeping this in mind is pick an object that you encounter all the time. Report an error

2:14:59 For me, it's always the cup because I lived in India for a long time and I'm addicted to tea. I'm always drinking tea. So for me, it's the cup. And whenever you encounter that object, just quickly... Review these three levels of dependent arising. You know, you don't have to sit cross-legged in some posture and close your eyes. You can do it at work with the pen or the cup or the computer. Report an error

2:15:23 And just review in your mind for a couple of minutes how does this cup exist in dependence on causes and conditions? How does it exist in dependence on parts? And then see how we're creating the cup. We're laying our trip on this innocent little cylinder that's empty. From its own side of being a cup. And we've got this concept in our mind, cup, and when it matches the raw data that fits our concept, then we create a cup there. Report an error

2:15:52 So it's really useful as a way to get used to these concepts. And you find if you do it for one object, it starts to break down that solid appearance of everything. It sort of bleeds over into... Everything. So it's quite interesting to pick one thing and keep working with it like this. All right. So any last burning? Report an error

2:16:13 Oh, Betty had a burning. No, go ahead, Betty. You were waiting patiently all weekend. It's the only reason you came to ask your emptiness question. Report an error

2:16:24 Emptiness of karma. It functions, doesn't it? Yes. You know, it functions to produce the result of either happiness or suffering. So yeah, karma is empty, but it doesn't mean it doesn't function to produce a result. And we define positive and negative karma by the result that it produces, because of its emptiness. Report an error

2:16:47 If it weren't empty, it couldn't function to produce a result. And again, just because something's empty doesn't mean it doesn't function and it doesn't exist. So karma, because it's empty, that's the only way that... It can function. If it weren't empty, it would never produce a result. It would just be somehow frozen in time. So by definition, well that was easy. Report an error

2:17:13 I was scared. Sandra and then John and then Dion. Report an error

2:17:23 Does one also have a... Direct experience of dependent arising and if one does have a direct experience of dependent arising is that also in meditation or can it be before meditation and is it kind of melded with the direct experience of emptiness or is it very distinct where you're kind of I mean I don't know obviously. Report an error

2:17:45 Do you recognize The direct experience of dependent arising. Yeah, and you do. Separate from emptiness. In another advertisement for the Heart Sūtra class, we're going to talk about what's called the five paths, which are the different levels of realization as you're moving towards Buddhahood. And it's said that there's something called the path of preparation that's right before the path of seeing. Now the first moment of the path of seeing is when you go into that direct realization of emptiness for the first time. Report an error

2:18:14 Right before that, you have... This path called the highest supreme dharma, part of the path of preparation. During that, you're getting a direct realization of dependent arising. Not in meditation. You're drinking the tea out of the cup. Report an error

2:18:38 You've been meditating like crazy, purifying, accumulating merit, meditating on emptiness intellectually. And then you have a moment that you realize that everything that you've ever seen is a dependent arising. You know, you get that direct realization of dependent arising on all three of these levels. Report an error

2:18:58 After that you go sit down into meditation and then right after that you get a direct realization of emptiness. So it immediately precedes the direct realization of emptiness and that apparently happens out of meditation, that direct perception of dependent arising. Good question, we'll talk about that when we get to that. And then quickly I've heard of other emptiness but are you going to talk about that? What other kind of emptiness? Report an error

2:19:24 I've heard it's not in the Gellig school but... They say it's another emptiness with no dependent horizon. Oh, other emptiness, yeah, yeah, we won't get into that. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty complicated, and so we won't get into that in the seven minutes that we have left. Report an error

2:19:42 I don't think so, because that's not something that's really explained a lot in the Galipa tradition, so I think it would be confusing. I think it's better kind of left. know. Report an error

2:19:52 Maybe we could talk about it on the side at some point, because it's something I'm interested in, but it's kind of a long story. Report an error

2:20:03 His Holiness the Dalai Lama, there's this book called The Gelukagyu Tradition of Mahamudra, where His Holiness the Dalai Lama gets into it in that book and it's a brilliant explanation. Do you? Great, great. I'll try and find the passage or when I get home I've got it book darted. When I get home I can email you and give you the passage where he goes into an explanation of that because it's brilliant and super clear. Report an error

2:20:29 Just two real quick questions. Hopefully. John, somehow I'm not quite sure. Say you take away conceptual imputation, can you still have something exist? Not necessarily from its own side, but can you still have dependent arising if you take away the third? Yeah, and actually that's a good point. Only the highest school, according to Tibetan Buddhists, which is called the Middle Way Consequence School, accepts this level of dependent arising. Report an error

2:20:36 man. Oh. Report an error

2:21:03 All Buddhist schools accept that things exist in dependence on causes and conditions. Certain other schools accept that things depend on parts, but only the highest school talks about this level of dependent arising. So all the rest of them would say, yeah, sure, the other two levels are enough. According to the Middle Way Consequent School, you have to also have this level. Report an error

2:21:28 To talk about dependent arising. Yeah, because it would seem to me that if you remove the conceptual imputation requirement, then do things exist if there are no beings? Report an error

2:21:42 Oh, I see. If you don't need to have anybody there having a concept. If you have no thing there to go and put a label on something, do those things still exist? You know, the way that it's argued in the scriptures is there's always an omniscient being. Perceiving everything. Yeah, but then would that not mean that that omniscient being has to be all pervasive and all constantly existing? Report an error

2:22:08 It has to be the first cause in that case. No, no, no. No? No. No, no, no. Yeah. Anyway, that's a little esoteric, so let's leave it for the moment. And the other real quick question is, are there any truths that exist? like from, you Report an error

2:22:28 That cannot be proved to be true in the Buddhist system. Any truths that exist that can't prove to be true? Can you think of an example of what you're thinking of? I can't. Not right off the top of my head. Are you meaning anything that would be considered true by some other system that's not considered true in Buddhism? Or what do you mean exactly? Report an error

2:23:00 The way I'm thinking of it is that you have a system of axioms upon which the entire structure is built. You can build all components of that structure from these simple concepts and thereby create all of reality from those concepts and those axioms. Report an error

2:23:33 If you define a truth in your system as being something that is able to be proved from those initial axioms, then are there truths out there that exist but cannot be proven using those axioms, using that formal system? It's sort of in the reverse in Buddhism. The Buddha was just describing what he... Report an error

2:23:57 What he experienced. So it's very empirical. It's not like there was some theory that then reality was constructed on the basis of axioms. It's kind of the other way around. The Buddha, because of his perception of the nature of reality, described it. So it's very empirical. So it's not like there's anything that's considered truth apart from what the Buddha was able to actually perceive and then describe. Report an error

2:24:22 So it's kind of... The reverse. Okay, so going in reverse then, you can have the conceptual foundation of the world being a subset of a larger set of axioms, larger set of, you know, since you're basing, since, you know, like the conceptual foundation of the system is Report an error

2:24:54 Brought about by the experience of the world, experience of saṃsāra and enlightenment. Then if there's something beyond that, that could have, working backwards, a larger set of concepts that you could work from to maybe beyond enlightenment. Does that make any sense? I think it's just that the Buddha being omniscient can... Report an error

2:25:20 perceive and experience everything and then he just described what it is that he could perceive and experience he didn't describe everything because remember the thing I said about the handful of leaves he didn't talk about everything that he he had a direct experience of but I think I'm kind of wondering what's up in the other trees. Yeah, I would love to know that too, and he just wouldn't say. Report an error

2:25:48 Unfortunately. He was like, when you're an enlightened being, you'll get it. And until then, you're a little bit like Vashigoda, I've noticed. Just wanting to know theoretically how it all works, and then the Buddha just said, hey, just worry about your suffering, what causes it, how to get out of it. Report an error

2:26:05 I'm like that too. Sometimes I think I want to become enlightened, not necessarily because I'm really interested in benefiting beings, but I just have such a need to know how it all works. Report an error

2:26:15 And then that's my huge motivation. Yeah, I can relate to that. Okay, Maria and then Katya. And then maybe we'll need to dedicate the merit because we're getting to the end. I keep hearing from its own side and what my process in my brain is. Like I have thoughts that I'm putting on the cup. Like it's an ugly cup, it's a pretty cup, it's a whatever cup. Report an error

2:26:44 From its own side, does that mean that the cup itself doesn't think I'm pretty, I'm ugly, it's just there, or it doesn't think that any other cup is better or worse than it? What it means is this is a cup independent of my concept labeling onto this cylinder. That's what's creating a cup. So from its own side would mean there's a cup there independent of my... Report an error

2:27:11 Conceptual designation of what I'm thinking. You know, Buddhists would say, yes, there are external objects, there is a cylinder, but it doesn't become a cup until I impute onto that poor, innocent cylinder. So it's not a cup from its own side. So that's what from its own side means. Yeah, we create a cup. Report an error

2:27:37 This is saying that this is a cup only because my concept Is labeling this cylinder, you know, cup. Yeah, Katia and then we'll dedicate. Maybe this is a good question to end with. Will everyone get in line? Yes. I already asked that. Oh darn. That's the traditional last question. Well, yesterday, this has been kind of an intensive experience. Yesterday I was kind of like, what do I do now? Report an error

2:28:11 Got home, I was just like, everything is so weird. And like I saw my friends and I was just like in a weird mood. I'm like, what is, I don't know what, yeah, what to do. What's the best thing to do after I leave this place? Yeah, and I think, you know, really, like I say, I've just given you tons and tons of information. Report an error

2:28:30 Like we said the first day, we've, you know, we've completely packed 10 days into like what? 12 hours or something. It's ridiculous what we've tried to do. So I think, you know, take your hand out, take your thing, keep mulling over it, keep cooking it, you know, keep thinking about it. And then just slowly, slowly keep investigating more, you know, keep taking more. Report an error

2:28:57 More steps. And I think that's it. And very slowly. We advise people not to make really huge shifts in their life on the basis of their first course or something like that. Because usually then you freak out and go back. Shave your head, get ordained after your first weekend course or something. So just slowly, slowly, slowly start. Report an error

2:29:19 Learning more, practicing more, kind of making those shifts. And it's great. It actually shows that you have really strong imprints if you've already felt such a strong effect. Already it shows that there's some familiarity and some imprints there. But I think just taking it slowly and not to feel like you have to make a lot of major kind of shifts in your life. Report an error

2:29:42 Keep investigating. Luckily, we've got this place. It's incredible. You know, there's teachings here all the time on the whole path. It's incredible to have this resource to check in. Often students in the beginning, they feel like, you know, they start to get interested in Buddhism and then they're super into it and none of their friends are into it, so there's this weird... Report an error

2:30:05 You can't talk about what you're thinking about all the time with your old friends. And that's why it's nice to have the community here of people who are thinking about the stuff that you're thinking about. And at least they'll understand what you're going on about. Your friends will just think you're weird, but you come here and she'll understand, she'll understand. They're all here. Report an error

2:30:25 And so that part's nice. So I think a lot of times when we do get into Buddhism, we kind of shift our community a little bit. But slowly, slowly and don't reject all the old stuff. But just keep open and keep checking. All right. So we'll dedicate the merit from our weekend together. And I've had a great time. And again, I know I've just overwhelmed you with a ton of information. Report an error

2:30:54 And especially if John's like, yes, bring it on. So especially if you're new, a lot of these are new concepts, new words. Don't worry. Don't feel like you have to understand it all. Don't be overwhelmed. The more and more, and I think those of us who are older students, you keep hearing the same thing over and over and over again. It always sounds different because you're at a different level. Report an error

2:31:17 So this has introduced some basic concepts to you that you'll be hearing over and over and over again. So this is just for some of you, your first exposure. Don't worry about it too much. Just kind of keep exploring, keep cooking it. So let's dedicate the merit and I want to dedicate with verses from this beautiful prayer by Master Shantideva from the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. Report an error

2:31:43 But first just take a minute. To think of your own dedications. Think of your spiritual goals. If there's anybody in your life that you'd like the merit to be dedicated to in terms of helping them, kind of putting that positive energy from our weekend together. So just spend a minute thinking of your own goals, your own dedications. Report an error

2:32:27 May all beings everywhere, plagued by sufferings of body and mind. Obtain an ocean of happiness and joy by virtue of my merits. May no living creature suffer, commit evil or ever fall ill. May no one be afraid or belittled with a mind weighed down by depression. May the blind see forms and the deaf hear sounds. Report an error

2:32:58 May those whose bodies are worn with toil Be restored on finding repose. May the naked find clothing, the hungry find food. May the thirsty find water and delicious drinks. May the poor find wealth, those weak with sorrow find joy. May the forlorn find hope, constant happiness and prosperity. May there be timely rains and bountiful harvests. Report an error

2:33:33 May all medicines be effective and wholesome prayers bear fruit. May all who are sick and ill quickly be freed from their ailments. Whatever diseases there are in the world, may they never occur again. May the frightened cease to be afraid and those bound be freed. May the powerless find power and may people think of benefiting each other. Report an error

2:34:04 For as long as space remains, for as long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain to dispel the miseries of the world. Report an error

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2:36:56 myself, and what I've been doing with the offerings I've been doing for lately is dumping refuge that I was talking about because we need to buy a couple of acres of land in India. So the offerings from this course will go towards the dumping refuge in India. Thank you. Report an error

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Talk by Tenzin Chogkyi, recorded 4 October 2009. Original at Tse Chen Ling Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/IntroductionToBasicBuddhistThought. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US. Transcript generated automatically and may contain errors; the audio is the authoritative version.

Recorded at Tse Chen Ling Center, San Francisco, and archived by the center on Internet Archive. More from Tse Chen Ling

Listen on Internet Archive · CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US