Buddhism for Dummies (30 August 2008)

0:01 Asha. Very, very long hair. Uh-huh. You rented which one? I rented . Oh, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 0:01 Highlight the passage at 0:01

0:32 Indian comedies? Yeah. Oh, really? think they're all afraid. Report an error in the passage at 0:32 Highlight the passage at 0:32

0:51 quite see it. Report an error in the passage at 0:51 Highlight the passage at 0:51

1:01 I think it would probably be best if everyone had their own corner of the room. That would, you know, just a little bit more. Maybe if you could just sit back there. That's right. And then it's like a test. Where's that other person going to go? Report an error in the passage at 1:01 Highlight the passage at 1:01

1:22 Or Mike? know. Report an error in the passage at 1:22 Highlight the passage at 1:22

1:24 Might create the illusion of a completely filled room. Start with the corners. Report an error in the passage at 1:24 Highlight the passage at 1:24

1:52 There's a new one? Report an error in the passage at 1:52 Highlight the passage at 1:52

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:27 Except you said she was pro-abortion. Oh, I thought you said you were... I thought you... No, my hearing is dyslexic. Corners. Report an error in the passage at 2:27 Highlight the passage at 2:27

1:36 knew what he was. Report an error in the passage at 1:36 Highlight the passage at 1:36

2:01 don't know who she is, you're not one. Nobody. Report an error in the passage at 2:01 Highlight the passage at 2:01

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:59 She was asked about Iran. She goes, well, I don't know anything about Iran or Iraq. Report an error in the passage at 2:59 Highlight the passage at 2:59

3:07 So she's qualified. Report an error in the passage at 3:07 Highlight the passage at 3:07

3:28 for a quote that you said and I thought I wrote it down, or you said that... Big. Big. Oh. Big. I was just quoting Lama Yeshe. The one that says the harder, basically the harder, the bigger the teaching, the harder it is to get to it. Well, like, it comes from the idea that people who were very sincere, About their meditation practice often attract interferences. And so big saṃsāra and big nirvāṇa sort of go together. Report an error in the passage at 3:28 Highlight the passage at 3:28

4:17 I had quoted Lama as saying big nirvāṇa kind of brings big saṃsāra or they go together, meaning that a big spiritual effort often brings interferences. But Lama also said the opposite, that I remember him talking about it, he said some students who when they start out are very, very unruly, their passions and everything are kind of out of control, so they have like big saṃsāra, often they're the ones who if their mind becomes tamed have kind of big success, big nirvāṇa, because the underlying strength of their mind, which originally had been used, In a kind of self-destructive pattern, if it could be harnessed, then it can produce a big result. Whereas those people who are kind of like wishy-washy good, kind of wishy-washy in their approach to things, not with a really strong passion behind it, then often their Dharma practice is similar, kind of wishy-washy. Report an error in the passage at 4:17 Highlight the passage at 4:17

5:33 So I've heard him approach it from kind of both angles. Report an error in the passage at 5:33 Highlight the passage at 5:33

5:44 I think he was basically talking about strong personalities, you know, and, you know, of course, speaking very generally. Now, before we started, oh, Report an error in the passage at 5:44 Highlight the passage at 5:44

6:02 for this course, or is there another thing going on? There was Report an error in the passage at 6:02 Highlight the passage at 6:02

6:16 one question that was left about Atisha and Tara. Was that the question you gave? I'm not going to be able to help you too much with this one, because... This, the ten Mahavidyas, I'm not familiar with that phrase. And Report an error in the passage at 6:16 Highlight the passage at 6:16

6:46 these Mahavidyas, are they like similar to the Mahasiddhas, like great contract meditators? Report an error in the passage at 6:46 Highlight the passage at 6:46

6:55 They're goddesses. I see. No, I'm not at all familiar with that term. Report an error in the passage at 6:55 Highlight the passage at 6:55

7:08 Yeah, it could have been. Report an error in the passage at 7:08 Highlight the passage at 7:08

7:14 I see. No, that would be... That'd be worth looking up. The name of the author was, what did you say? David Kinsey. Okay, I'll check that. Report an error in the passage at 7:14 Highlight the passage at 7:14

7:29 No, because other than that, the only thing I know is that Tara was a main, if not the main, meditational deity for Atisha and that it seems like he didn't really make any decision without consulting her. And so there are many stories about that. You probably know the famous story that... When he was going to be invited to Tibet, he asked Tara if it was a good idea for him to go, to leave India and go there. And he said, well, if you don't go, you'll live to 92, but if you do go, you'll only live to 72. Report an error in the passage at 7:29 Highlight the passage at 7:29

8:07 You'll lose the last 20 years of your life. And then he said, well, but would it be more beneficial if I went or if I stayed? And Tara said, oh, there's no question about it. It would be much more beneficial if you went. Report an error in the passage at 8:07 Highlight the passage at 8:07

8:22 He immediately made the decision to go. And it's a kind of a slightly ironic story because Tara, among other things, is a deity of long life. And yet by following that advice, he actually shortened his life. But it shows what's really important was the benefit of others. So that's one of the many kind of conversations that he had with Tara. Report an error in the passage at 8:22 Highlight the passage at 8:22

8:52 Well, there's stories about him circumambulating the stupa in Bodh Gaya and while there hearing statues speaking to one another and on other occasions speaking directly to him. And I know some of those statues are identified with Tara. Like you go to Bodh Gaya and they point out one or two statues that are said to have had this connection with him. Report an error in the passage at 8:52 Highlight the passage at 8:52

9:20 So these kinds of conversations that he overheard was, what is the most important thing to develop if one is going to achieve enlightenment? And the answer was the precious, compassionate bodhicitta motivation. And that was one of the things that determined him to eventually go to Sumatra and study with Sir Lingpa there. Report an error in the passage at 9:20 Highlight the passage at 9:20

9:47 And one other that I can remember was that... So, Report an error in the passage at 9:47 Highlight the passage at 9:47

9:50 When he was in Tibet, his disciple Drom Demba had his own disciples, and one of them was sick, and they did some kind of observation that he could recover from that sickness if he did 10,000 recitations of the praises to the 21 Taras. But that's a rather long practice. So Drom Demba asked Atisha for his advice, and apparently he... Report an error in the passage at 9:50 Highlight the passage at 9:50

10:21 Went into meditation and made contact with Tara, and Tara gave him a five-line prayer that summarizes the whole 21 Taras. So I don't know that the praise to the 21 Taras comes from Atisha, but the five-line prayer was given to Atisha by Tara herself. So then his disciple's disciple was able to recite that prayer 10,000 times to recover, whereas the other one would have been two. Report an error in the passage at 10:21 Highlight the passage at 10:21

10:51 Too long and too difficult for him to do. So there were different ways in which he was connected with Tara and also I know that a number of meditation practices relating to Tara he brought into Tibet and disseminated while he was there. So he had quite a lot of connection. Report an error in the passage at 10:51 Highlight the passage at 10:51

11:13 Hi, welcome. We're just waiting for the dribs and the drabs. Report an error in the passage at 11:13 Highlight the passage at 11:13

11:23 I'm sorry. So pleased to meet you. Report an error in the passage at 11:23 Highlight the passage at 11:23

11:39 Last night, because very often on Friday evening, parking around here is particularly, I don't know how difficult it is on a Saturday morning, but on Friday night it's often quite difficult, so there was a lot of dribbing and drabbing going on while people were searching for parking spaces. Report an error in the passage at 11:39 Highlight the passage at 11:39

12:14 I would like to To start by offering a meditation practice that we can do. But I have a feeling that there might still be some more people coming over the next few minutes and that wouldn't be so comfortable for us to be meditating when they walked in. So I want to repeat a question I posed last night because there are some new people here as well. This course being entitled... Report an error in the passage at 12:14 Highlight the passage at 12:14

12:47 Meditation for Dummies is just simply the title of a book. So we can go any direction that we care to go. And I would, especially with a group of this size, I would like much more to tailor it to the real interests. What interests people to come either for this weekend or just to come to this place or their interest in Buddhism, whatever that might be. Report an error in the passage at 12:47 Highlight the passage at 12:47

13:13 Because it's such a wide-ranging... And there's so many different possible areas of interest. And so if you've been, those who were here yesterday, if you've been thinking more about that or those who are new this weekend, what kind of thing would you prefer to discuss or focus on? Yes. Report an error in the passage at 13:13 Highlight the passage at 13:13

13:37 Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 13:37 Highlight the passage at 13:37

13:45 Two things, again, if other people are interested or not. Buddhism and as it relates perhaps any suggestions you might have about child rearing and Buddhism. You seem to have done a fairly good job with your children. An excellent job actually. And my field was psychology. So I'm interested. You had mentioned yesterday that the psychological aspects of Buddhism were interesting. Report an error in the passage at 13:45 Highlight the passage at 13:45

14:14 Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions discussing psychology in that? in that area Report an error in the passage at 14:14 Highlight the passage at 14:14

14:23 Yes, especially about the second one. My own, Report an error in the passage at 14:23 Highlight the passage at 14:23

14:32 what initially hooked my interest was the depth of the psychological insight of the Buddhist teachings. Report an error in the passage at 14:32 Highlight the passage at 14:32

14:43 Kind of only later in my Dharma career was I more attracted to the quote-unquote religious aspect of Buddhism. you know, as, but the, the... The insight into the nature of the mind, that always seemed to me central. So there's quite a lot of things that we could discuss around that. As far as child rearing is concerned, of course some of it's luck of the draw. Report an error in the passage at 14:43 Highlight the passage at 14:43

15:12 And I can talk a little bit about that. So those are two possible directions we can go. Any other? Anything else? Report an error in the passage at 15:12 Highlight the passage at 15:12

15:33 So I'm writing my dissertation. And you want me to write it for you? Yeah. By this afternoon? Yeah, anything you can give me. Report an error in the passage at 15:33 Highlight the passage at 15:33

15:45 No, really. And I have four primary areas of focus. Green Tara, or Tara in general, Tibetan Buddhism, fear. Fear. F-E-A-R, which goes with the psychology, and mantra. yeah. Report an error in the passage at 15:45 Highlight the passage at 15:45

16:04 So... So your dissertation somehow... Overcoming fear through chanting Tara's mantra. I see. I see. Four topics. So, you know, anything you mention, I'm certain, will be useful and great. But, you know, if you think about something on those topics, you can give me the high sign. Okay. All right. Thank you. And I'm curious, what is that a dissertation for? Report an error in the passage at 16:04 Highlight the passage at 16:04

16:37 A local university? Philosophy and religion with a specialization in women's spirituality. From JFK? California Institute of Integral Studies, CIS. A particular Report an error in the passage at 16:37 Highlight the passage at 16:37

16:57 area of interest that you have? Just general. Report an error in the passage at 16:57 Highlight the passage at 16:57

17:10 Oh, yeah. Great. Report an error in the passage at 17:10 Highlight the passage at 17:10

17:22 no um So I would say I'm here primarily because my my wife invited me and I would say primarily and, you know, I would say she's probably more interested in Buddhism than I am. But, you know, I'm very open minded and interested in learning about different things. I guess I've I've never felt the story I'm looking for drawn to other religions. Report an error in the passage at 17:22 Highlight the passage at 17:22

17:48 My parents raised raised me in. I feel like there's still something out there for me. So I'm just interested in just general understanding of Buddhism and really maybe how it can fit into my life and my lifestyle in today's society. So very general. Okay, good. Thank you. You're welcome. And is it fair to say you have more specific interest in Buddhism? Report an error in the passage at 17:48 Highlight the passage at 17:48

18:16 Thank you. Thank you. I do. I was raised Catholic and I have really grown out of... that practice but i miss having a spirituality in my life I want to learn more about the teachings and I want to learn more about if it might be the right way for me to practice. Report an error in the passage at 18:16 Highlight the passage at 18:16

18:53 How to deepen my practice. Oh, good, good. Those are very important, very valid concerns. I mean, for myself, I was not raised with a religious identity. I come from a Jewish background, but for us, being Jewish was a cultural identity. It was not a religious identity. Nobody in my family went to the temple or received that kind of training. Report an error in the passage at 18:53 Highlight the passage at 18:53

19:21 My older brother. A short time did, but other than that, the predominant feeling in my family was kind of a socialist Marxist view. You know, religion is the opium of the people, that kind of thing, just another hierarchical system to regiment people's thought. And that was pretty much the attitude towards religion, organized religion. But that's the kind of atmosphere in which... Report an error in the passage at 19:21 Highlight the passage at 19:21

19:52 Especially from my father that I grew up in. And so I always had a very standoffish attitude towards religion. But kind of like what you said, I always felt that there was something important in life. And I wouldn't call it religious, and even at that time I don't even think I would call it spiritual necessarily. But I admired certain values, and even my father. Report an error in the passage at 19:52 Highlight the passage at 19:52

20:22 Who adopted this very anti-religious stance, he had great admiration for people who had these higher spiritual values, such as one of his big heroes was Gandhi, for example. Report an error in the passage at 20:22 Highlight the passage at 20:22

20:37 And he was a physician who worked very, very hard to benefit lots and lots of people. So this idea of generosity of spirit and giving and tolerance and those things were very, very important to him. So I always had a sense that there were quote-unquote spiritual values out there, but whether they were present in a system of religion, that was highly debatable. Report an error in the passage at 20:37 Highlight the passage at 20:37

21:04 It might have been present, but quickly calcify into something much more rigid. Report an error in the passage at 21:04 Highlight the passage at 21:04

21:13 But in my own upbringing, there were a few things that happened that piqued my interest in Buddhism. Some were just kind of, at the time, they seemed almost like accidental little events. You don't mind me speaking personally about this for a while. It was an easier way for me to get into this topic. One was, when I was in, I'm not quite sure, it could have been 7th, 8th grade, something like that, we were doing a typical public school survey of world history. Report an error in the passage at 21:13 Highlight the passage at 21:13

21:49 In other words, we had a day for Central Asia. So during this day on Central Asia, the teachers said, and here is Tibet, you know, the roof of the world, and they have a very interesting system of government that the leader of the country is the Dalai Lama, and when he dies, the next baby born becomes the next Dalai Lama. Report an error in the passage at 21:49 Highlight the passage at 21:49

22:12 So that's highly inaccurate, but it really piqued my interest, and I thought, wow, what an interesting way of putting together a society in which... It's not dynastic. It doesn't go from parent to child. And it isn't a matter of election. It just carries on that way. Now, later I found out that that was a skewed version of what actually happened. It was close, but no cigar. Report an error in the passage at 22:12 Highlight the passage at 22:12

22:45 But that thought always made this idea of the Dalai Lama kind of always I stuck out a little bit. And then at another point, a friend of mine, no, what was this? By this time it was high school perhaps, and maybe even the beginning of college. And for the first time I came across the Sanskrit name of the Buddha of compassion, Avalokiteshvara, the Tibetans refer to as Chenresik. Report an error in the passage at 22:45 Highlight the passage at 22:45

23:17 Is he here? Report an error in the passage at 23:17 Highlight the passage at 23:17

23:22 Where's the phone? Oh yes, there, sorry. The radiance. Yeah, the forearm version of the Buddha of Compassion. The dependents refer to him as Chen Resig, but his original Sanskrit name is Avalokiteshvara. And the first time I heard that name, it just interested me so much. I just liked the rhythm and the sound of it. And I had a friend of mine who was doing more serious study, and I always had to ask him to repeat the pronunciation. Report an error in the passage at 23:22 Highlight the passage at 23:22

23:57 And then I finally got it down, Avalokateshvara, Avalokateshvara. And I just liked the sound of it. It just had this incredible attraction to me. And then later, when I found that the Dalai Lama and Avalokateshvara have this intimate connection with one another, Tibetans regarding the Dalai Lama as a human manifestation of the Buddha's compassion, then that kind of, you know, these connections became stronger, kind of more significant for me. Report an error in the passage at 23:57 Highlight the passage at 23:57

24:24 So all of these things were the kind of little point instances of things that piqued my interest, but there was not much in the way of any kind of follow-up. You know, they were just a little factoid, you know, swimming around. And then I was in, I think, if I remember correctly, I think this is when I was in the Peace Corps in Iran, in fact, a way, way long time before Khomeini. Report an error in the passage at 24:24 Highlight the passage at 24:24

24:54 It was a good ten years before that. And we had a bookshelf that we were given with all kinds of different titles in it. And I think it was through that bookshelf that I became familiar with a book called The Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha, which I think was published in about 1955. Report an error in the passage at 24:54 Highlight the passage at 24:54

25:15 It's possible that I came across that paperback somewhere else. I think it was when I was in the Peace Corps. And at this point I had no... A specific interest in studying Buddhism. And I was leafing through it and the Report an error in the passage at 25:15 Highlight the passage at 25:15

25:33 second entry in the book had this kind of most unpromising title to it. It was called Questions Not Tending to Edification. Report an error in the passage at 25:33 Highlight the passage at 25:33

25:45 I said, oh, that sounds like a barn burner. But the thing was that whenever I flip through tables of contents, I always see what page numbers they are. And I could see that that one was a short one, you know, it was only a couple of pages long. So I said, it's short, I'll read that one, you know, because some of the others were quite a bit longer. So I said, I'll start with that one. Report an error in the passage at 25:45 Highlight the passage at 25:45

26:07 And it turned out to be really interesting. And I actually relate it in brief in the book, Buddhism for Dummies, that it's a story of, it comes from a sūtra, a teaching of the Buddha, and it relates. There was an incident that happened with this one monk. In Buddhism for Dummies, I call him the Venerable Mal, M-A-L, because his name is Mal-something, but it's many, many syllables long, so I just call him Venerable Mal. Report an error in the passage at 26:07 Highlight the passage at 26:07

26:43 He had been a disciple of the Buddha for about a year, and then one day he went up and he approached the Buddha and he basically said, You know, I've got a problem. I've got a bone to pick with you. He said, I've been studying and practicing with you for over a year, and during that time you never addressed these questions. Report an error in the passage at 26:43 Highlight the passage at 26:43

27:07 And then he gave a list of 14 questions which were kind of the kinds of philosophical questions which were very powerful in those days, very widespread in those days among spiritual seekers. Report an error in the passage at 27:07 Highlight the passage at 27:07

27:25 Because the time that the Buddha lived was a time of great philosophical speculation. There was many, many different schools present at that time. And so he listed these questions which were foremost questions on the minds of people who were into philosophy and religion in those days. And, you know, does the universe have a beginning? Does the universe have an end? Questions like that. What happens to an enlightened being after death? Report an error in the passage at 27:25 Highlight the passage at 27:25

27:54 All these kinds of questions. Many of which... In slightly different language, or even present now, you know, like people wonder, is the universe going to continue expanding forever, or is it going to reach a point and start contracting? You know, that's a question that astronomers and others pose, and they keep coming up with different evidences. So there was kind of 14 questions like that, that he posed. Report an error in the passage at 27:54 Highlight the passage at 27:54

28:24 And he said, I've been with you for a year now, and never once did you address any of these questions. And if you don't... If you don't address them, then I think I'm going to leave. I'm going to stop being a monk and go back to my former life. And so the Buddha answers by then turning the question back to Venerable Mao. And he said, first, he wants to make sure that there's no cause for accusing the Buddha of false advertising. Report an error in the passage at 28:24 Highlight the passage at 28:24

28:57 So he says, well, when you joined, did I say that I was going to talk about these things? No, no you didn't. So he kind of cleared the air first that he didn't allow this person to become a disciple under false pretenses, that he never said he would address it. So first he gets that out of the way. And then he poses another question. He puts it in a very interesting way. He said, suppose that there was a soldier who is wounded in battle. Report an error in the passage at 28:57 Highlight the passage at 28:57

29:27 He gets hit by an arrow that has poison on it. And the... He's taken off the field of battle wounded, injured like this, and his companions procure the help of a physician. Report an error in the passage at 29:27 Highlight the passage at 29:27

29:46 And what would you think if the wounded man said, I won't have this arrow removed until I find out what cast the soldier was who shot me, or what kind of wood the arrow was made out of? Report an error in the passage at 29:46 Highlight the passage at 29:46

30:05 Or what village my enemy came from, the one who shot me. And they list a whole bunch of questions like that. He says, what would you think? And then Lama says, well, he would be very foolish because he would die before any of those questions could be answered. Report an error in the passage at 30:05 Highlight the passage at 30:05

30:23 And then the Buddha says, well, it's the same here. Then he turns back to the 14 questions. He says, whether the universe has a beginning or not. Whether enlightened being exists after death or not. And then he goes through all of these 14 questions and he gives either a yes or no answer to either of them. Report an error in the passage at 30:23 Highlight the passage at 30:23

30:45 He says, whether it's this way or that way, for any of these questions, it doesn't benefit. He says, still, however you answer any of these questions, there's still suffering. Report an error in the passage at 30:45 Highlight the passage at 30:45

31:03 There's the suffering of sickness, old age, death, meeting with what you don't like. Parting from what you do like. And it is for the alleviation of this suffering that Buddhas appear in this world to give their teachings, not to answer those speculative questions. Report an error in the passage at 31:03 Highlight the passage at 31:03

31:26 And then there was a line which struck me greatly at the time. He says, it is the alleviation of suffering. He says, that is the true Report an error in the passage at 31:26 Highlight the passage at 31:26

31:42 Now, it's interesting because I think, I don't know the original from this sūtra, but I'm sure that if it were being translated now, they wouldn't say that's the true value, true purpose of religion. It probably would say something, that's the true purpose of Dharma, you know, the teachings. Report an error in the passage at 31:42 Highlight the passage at 31:42

32:03 But that's not what the translator said. The translator said that's the true purpose of religion. And when I read that, it really struck me powerfully. Because I realized that what I didn't, what I wasn't attracted to in the religions that I had been exposed to as a youth was all of these speculations and worship and devotion and you're so great and I'm so little attitude. Report an error in the passage at 32:03 Highlight the passage at 32:03

32:29 That I had no interest in. But what undoubtedly I had an interest in was training the mind in such a way that suffering could actually be overcome. You could deal with the inevitable pains and discomforts in this life. And so, when I read that the Buddha said that the true purpose of religion, the true purpose of Dharma, was to overcome suffering, it immediately put Buddhism in a different category. Report an error in the passage at 32:29 Highlight the passage at 32:29

33:00 If it wasn't about philosophical speculation, if it wasn't about worship, and we can talk more about that later, but that it was pointed Very firmly in the psychological direction. That immediately sparked my interest. So this chapter that had such an unpromising title, Questions Not Pending Towards Edification, actually turned out to be really fascinating for me. Report an error in the passage at 33:00 Highlight the passage at 33:00

33:34 And it made me want to kind of read more or understand more about, well then, what was the prescription for overcoming Overcoming suffering, and I discovered that was really the main thrust of all of the teachings, underlying all of the other teachings. Report an error in the passage at 33:34 Highlight the passage at 33:34

33:53 So, the fact that, at least from this point of view, that Buddhism was advertising itself as an enlightened psychology, rather than as a system of religious worship, immediately made it more attractive to me. Report an error in the passage at 33:53 Highlight the passage at 33:53

34:16 It as if I had I had one system of worship and I didn't care for it anymore and I wanted to worship something else. It wasn't that. I was really looking for something that had much deeper personal value. And it seemed like this had a good chance to be that way. And then on top of that, and this was something that I remember having pointed out to me by some other author, that the voice of the Buddha In the various discourses, the various sutras, the voice with which he's speaking, it's like the voice of someone who is a good friend and is interested in engaging in reasoned discourse rather than someone who is filled with fire and brimstone warnings and injunctions against this and that. Report an error in the passage at 34:16 Highlight the passage at 34:16

35:23 Fear of monitoring and the kind of authority that comes from having this kind of powerful, forceful, kind of demagogic personality. None of that was present. It was someone who, no matter what the question was, addressed it on this very reasonable, friendly, concerned tone. And I liked being spoken to that way. And I emphatically didn't like to be spoken to. Report an error in the passage at 35:23 Highlight the passage at 35:23

35:54 The way so many religious preachers that I would see tended to speak to their flock, you know. So the tone also, it appealed to something, kind of more reasonable, you know, something you can work it out, we can kind of, you know, we can figure this out together kind of attitude. And that showed itself time and time again as I was studying the teachings. Report an error in the passage at 35:54 Highlight the passage at 35:54

36:27 And eventually, when I actually met the living tradition, when I met the various lamas who gave the teachings, they also shared that kind of approach. Very rarely, if ever, did I come across a teacher who was kind of shoving Buddhism down my throat. There was this attitude of, here's what we're presenting, like this. Report an error in the passage at 36:27 Highlight the passage at 36:27

36:50 Here's this smorgasbord. I lay out the table in front of you. And is there anything here that appeals to you? Then partake. If nothing here appeals to you, then leave it be. You know, kind of not believe it and be saved, don't believe it and be damned. That was never the tone of the teachings that I'd ever discovered in person or through readings, and that was very appealing as well. Report an error in the passage at 36:50 Highlight the passage at 36:50

37:23 So that's just kind of a personal attitude. But it's basically how Buddhism presented itself to me, or at least how I understood it. Now, as I said, the more I got into Buddhism over the years, then I discovered that there were other aspects to the Buddhist spiritual practice that appealed to other parts of me. Report an error in the passage at 37:23 Highlight the passage at 37:23

37:47 Like, in the beginning, it wasn't, devotion did not have a really strong, was not such a strong element. Not what I would call religious devotion. But I discovered, for example, that the more I became familiar with what, for example, Avalokiteshvara represented, or Tara, or the various Lamas that I met, that it appealed to a more devotional aspect of my being that wasn't so strongly developed in the beginning. Report an error in the passage at 37:47 Highlight the passage at 37:47

38:18 So things tended to go in unexpected directions. But still, in relation to the Psychological truths that were presented that had their kind of initial and continuing grasp on my mind. Does that make any sense out of your experience at all? I mean, some people here have had a lot of experience, others are just moved to it, but does that speak to the kind of experience that you've had or that you imagined in some way? Report an error in the passage at 38:18 Highlight the passage at 38:18

39:08 There is one other personal story I should say because it ties in with some of the other questions that were asked or posed in the beginning here. Report an error in the passage at 39:08 Highlight the passage at 39:08

39:21 So, based on that kind of exposure, I did a bit of reading in Buddhism over the next few years. Not a lot, because there wasn't a lot, you know, in those days. There wasn't a lot available. But one of my closest and oldest friends, he went, studied Far Eastern languages, and then eventually got a Fulbright scholarship to go over to India to study with the Tibetans. So, of course, I was quite interested in what he was doing. Report an error in the passage at 39:21 Highlight the passage at 39:21

39:51 And he pointed out a few titles, but there weren't that many in Tibetan Buddhism for me to read in those. So, actually, most of my reading was in Zen Buddhism. I really like the writings of Alan Watts a lot, especially one called The Book Against Who You Are. There's a lot in that book that really caught my mind and my attention. Report an error in the passage at 39:51 Highlight the passage at 39:51

40:21 Also, by that time, I had taken a course in college in Far Eastern religions, and the professor was kind of hopeless when it came to Hinduism and Islam, but he was really a world expert when it came to Confucianism, Taoism and Chinese Buddhism. So that was also quite interesting. so, my... Report an error in the passage at 40:21 Highlight the passage at 40:21

40:42 Up until 1970, whatever interest I had was really kind of superficial, because I had never met a practicing. And even though the readings were greatly appealing to me, and I've told this story before, so some people here may have heard it, I always had this big doubt or caution in my mind. Because in the readings, so many times I came across Report an error in the passage at 40:42 Highlight the passage at 40:42

41:16 A phrase that enlightenment, liberation was the desireless state, the state beyond desire. And that desire was the root cause of suffering, and that the spiritual path had to do with overcoming desire. I kept coming across that kind of phrase over and over again. Report an error in the passage at 41:16 Highlight the passage at 41:16

41:37 And I was in my kind of mid-twenties at that time, and the last thing I wanted to hear was a spiritual path that required overcoming desires. I mean, everything was desire. So to me, overcoming desire was kind of like being dead. And then I would look at, like I'd go into a museum and I would look at these beautiful statues of the Buddha, and there was no question that the expression on the face, very, very beautiful, was serene and beyond desire. Report an error in the passage at 41:37 Highlight the passage at 41:37

42:12 But I wasn't sure I wanted to end up like that. I wasn't sure that I was really interested in the path. You end up being like a stone or a wooden Buddha, serene, beyond desire, but kind of not alive anymore. There was so much in the readings that seemed to me palpably true and beneficial, but that aspect of it was really a thorn in my understanding. Report an error in the passage at 42:12 Highlight the passage at 42:12

42:44 But eventually, after my friend had been over in India for one year, Eventually he had an interview with the Dalai Lama. Before that he had been studying with another Lama who eventually became one of my main teachers as well. But on that occasion he went over to Dharamsala where the Dalai Lama was and had an interview with him. And when he came out of that interview he wrote me a really long letter. Report an error in the passage at 42:44 Highlight the passage at 42:44

43:10 And the gist of it was, Buddhism doesn't exist just in books. It's really a living tradition because it's still producing enlightened beings. It's not a history, it's not a fairy tale about what might have been or what could be or what people suppose. It's a tradition which is still churning out enlightened master. And then he went to describe what it was like to be with the Dalai Lama on that occasion. Report an error in the passage at 43:10 Highlight the passage at 43:10

43:38 And he described the extraordinary clarity and compassion of the Dalai Lama. All characteristics which I was fortunately able to see in ensuing years myself. And then he went on to say that the Tibetans consider themselves, you could say, custodians of a treasure. Report an error in the passage at 43:38 Highlight the passage at 43:38

44:01 And I talked a little bit about this last night, that Buddhism that made its way into Tibet grew up over centuries in India, especially in the northern monastic university that's in London and so forth, and then made its way into Tibet from there. Report an error in the passage at 44:01 Highlight the passage at 44:01

44:20 then very shortly after that transplantation process was initiated... Then Buddhism was wiped out in its home country through a series of invasions. So the Tibetans tend to think that they're in possession of an Indian treasure. And now, because of historical circumstances, the destruction of the Tibetan civilization in Tibet itself, and going into exile of the Dalai Lama and so forth, that now's the time for them to take this treasure. Report an error in the passage at 44:20 Highlight the passage at 44:20

44:52 That they had kind of guarded and preserved for so many centuries beyond the Himalayas and to bring it back into the world, bring it back into India and so forth. And it was quite clear to the Tibetans that among those who could be interested and benefited by these teachings, by the treasure that they had kept, in the forefront were young Westerners, you know, because young Indians were interested in learning how to start businesses and make money. Report an error in the passage at 44:52 Highlight the passage at 44:52

45:21 And young Westerners, in the form of hippies and flower children and so forth, were making their way to the East in search of wisdom, in search of ancient wisdom. So it was quite clear that among the people who were most interested and could be perhaps benefited the most by these teachings was a young Western populace, who the Tibetans had not been exposed to at this time, until this time, hadn't been exposed to at all. Report an error in the passage at 45:21 Highlight the passage at 45:21

45:52 And so there was a great need for people who could translate, and people who could edit, people who could write, because the Tibetans felt that they had something, and if it just stayed in Tibetan, it wasn't going to reach these people. Report an error in the passage at 45:52 Highlight the passage at 45:52

46:09 And I didn't have a, you know, I wasn't professionally a writer or an editor at that time, but I had majored in English literature in college, and I liked writing. I had an idea of what a sentence was and what a paragraph was, which a lot of people didn't, you know. So it was an interest of mine, so my friend said, look, because you have these skills, the Tibetans would be very, very interested in supporting you in whatever way they could. Report an error in the passage at 46:09 Highlight the passage at 46:09

46:38 Now, they can't support you monetarily, but they can help make sure that you get the visas you need to stay in the country, you know, and set up a situation in which you can study and practice like that, be supportive in that sense. Now, when I received that letter, I had only returned home from being overseas in the Peace Corps. I'd only been home for about less than a year, and I was really itching to leave the United States again. Report an error in the passage at 46:38 Highlight the passage at 46:38

47:07 My culture shock was not going to Iran. My culture shock was coming back to this country. So all I wanted to do was leave again. And when I was in Iran, I didn't visit India, but friends of mine who did, they brought back these incredible posters, you know, like, Vishnu with a thousand faces and so forth, and I thought, wow, any culture that produces this really seems interesting. So I already had a kind of a predisposition to go to India, but when my friends said that I could actually meet Report an error in the passage at 47:07 Highlight the passage at 47:07

47:38 this living tradition as exemplified by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and be of benefit, you know, kind of pay my own way in a sense by the work that I did. Report an error in the passage at 47:38 Highlight the passage at 47:38

47:51 That appealed to me greatly. So it took about six months for me to get my whole act together. But in Christmas of that year, Christmas of 1970, I went. Report an error in the passage at 47:51 Highlight the passage at 47:51

48:03 And so that's wintertime. And where my friend had been studying was, well, Dharamsala is up in the north of India. And not terribly far from it, as the crow flies, but kind of a long, long bus trip over the hills, is another small station, hill station, called Dalhousie. And that's where my friend had been studying. And a lot of Tibetans were living there at that time. The upper and lower Tantra colleges, for example, which were great monasteries, they were located in Dalhousie. Report an error in the passage at 48:03 Highlight the passage at 48:03

48:35 And this teacher, Geshe Malandargi, was located there. There was a big presence. But because it was in such a high altitude, higher than Dharamsala, that in the wintertime, a lot of people left. Report an error in the passage at 48:35 Highlight the passage at 48:35

48:49 And the wintertime also happened to be the best time of the year to go to Bodh Gaya. Kind of the Mecca of Buddhism, the place where the Bodhi tree is in the stoop of great enlightenment, kind of the center of the Buddhist world is in Bodh Gaya. And Bodh Gaya is in the part of India which gets incredibly hot during the summer months, maybe the hottest place in all of India. People were telling me that the temperature gets up past like 140, 150 degrees in the summertime. Report an error in the passage at 48:49 Highlight the passage at 48:49

49:21 timing. When I went... One... There once, I asked someone, you know, who lived there year-round, I said, what do you do when it gets that hot? He says, well, when it's like that, he says, the only time that you can think of doing anything is just before sunrise, about an hour before sunrise. That's the only time during the day. And he didn't say it's the only time that you can do something. He said it's the only time you can think of doing something. Because once the sun rises, just forget it. Report an error in the passage at 49:21 Highlight the passage at 49:21

49:50 You know, and then when the sun sets, it takes... Nearly the whole night for the temperature to go down just a few degrees, and then it starts over again the next day. So that's what it's like during the summer months, meaning May, June, July, until the monsoon comes. So the only time really to be there is in the wintertime, when it's quite pleasant, in fact. So because of that, because Dalhousie is too cold to be in the winter, and Bodh Gaya is just right to be in the winter, then it was always a natural... Report an error in the passage at 49:50 Highlight the passage at 49:50

50:23 Migration that people were up in the hill stations part of the year and then go down to the plains towards both Nepal and Bodh Gaya during the winter months. And so when I arrived in Delhi in Christmas, the scene had shifted from Dalhousie to Bodh Gaya for this annual migration. So my friend met me in Delhi and a day later we got on a train and went straight up to Bodh Gaya. So actually the first place I visited in In India was Bodh Gaya itself. And our plan was we were going to spend a few days there and then spend the winter months traveling around South India. Report an error in the passage at 50:23 Highlight the passage at 50:23

51:00 And then when the weather warmed up in Dalhousie, then we'd head back up there and I would rejoin the teachings that my friend had been taking from his teacher. And that was the plan that we followed. What happened was that after I'd been in Bodh Gaya a few days, a word came through. That a Tibetan Lama who knew some English, and that was being very generous in fact, was coming and he was going to have a question and answer session in the local Gompa, in the local Tibetan temple. Report an error in the passage at 51:00 Highlight the passage at 51:00

51:35 So I thought, oh that's great, you know, I'm here to meet Tibetan Lamas and hear the teaching, so great, I'll go along. I remember we went into the Tibetan Gompa, we went up to an upper store, upper room, excuse me, upper floor. And in it was this room. I don't think I would have been back in that room. And then a whole bunch of us were kind of waiting for Lama to show up. Report an error in the passage at 51:35 Highlight the passage at 51:35

51:58 And it was really quite a group. You know, this was like the last week of 1970. And it was like all of the world travelers, all the hippie freaks, you know, that were in India at that time, or certainly in Baghdaya, they were there in that room. And they were from all these different countries, Australia, France, Germany, America, everywhere, you know, and dressed, you know, very kind of scruffy fashion, you know, long flowing hair, all of that. Report an error in the passage at 51:58 Highlight the passage at 51:58

52:28 It was really a mixed kind of unusual group. And then into the room came this Lama flanked by two Westerners that he was traveling with. Report an error in the passage at 52:28 Highlight the passage at 52:28

52:44 And the minute he came into the room, It was like something deep within me reacted to his presence. The way I used to describe it was like I felt that there were iron filings in my chest and an electromagnet had just walked into the room. Maybe you remember from high school that experiment where you put iron filings on a piece of cardboard and then you put a strong magnet underneath it and the filings, they move around and then they take upon themselves this really beautiful... Report an error in the passage at 52:44 Highlight the passage at 52:44

53:19 A pattern caused by the magnetic fields. Well, that's what it felt like. It was like something was kind of rearranging itself in my heart in the presence of this person. And of course, that caught my attention for sure. And then he started speaking and his English was horrible, really, really broken. Report an error in the passage at 53:19 Highlight the passage at 53:19

53:46 He used to talk about... And then, dear, you develop this warm feeling. And it took me a while to realize that Tibetans really don't pronounce F very well. So instead of warm feeling, he was talking about warm feeling like that. And I didn't, it took me a while to understand the words he was saying, but the warm feeling was very powerful. Report an error in the passage at 53:46 Highlight the passage at 53:46

54:09 So it was a very remarkable experience, because in terms of verbal communication, it was very minimal. But in terms of deep communication, it was extremely powerful. But I felt I had never been in the presence of someone who had communicated the way this Lama was. And with that, at the same time, here was somebody who was very, very clearly human. Report an error in the passage at 54:09 Highlight the passage at 54:09

54:31 He was very humorous, he was very warm, very affectionate. Whatever it meant to have gone to overcome desire, it hadn't deadened him in any way. Report an error in the passage at 54:31 Highlight the passage at 54:31

54:44 Remember, that was my fear. That was the one big question that I had about, Following the Buddhist path was that it would somehow be a lessening of one's humanity rather than an expansion of it. And here was living proof that that was just a false idea. Because here was someone who impressed me as being both, hard to express in words, but he impressed me as simultaneously being transcendent in the sense of having Achieved or experienced something that allowed him to be kind of elevated over the ordinary, but at the same time, extremely human, down to earth. Report an error in the passage at 54:44 Highlight the passage at 54:44

55:34 So it wasn't like I felt I was in the presence of someone to be worshipped, like he's so wonderful. It was rather that he was like a living embodiment of what oneself could become, what I could become. It wasn't like he was from outer... A whole different level of being. He had achieved some different level of being without losing any humanity. And that was really appealing to me. Report an error in the passage at 55:34 Highlight the passage at 55:34

56:02 Because it was kind of the last big question that I had in my mind about the value of the Buddhist teachings. And here was someone who was manifesting these qualities which seemed so attractive and so appealing without any of the downside that I had feared. Report an error in the passage at 56:02 Highlight the passage at 56:02

56:21 And just to bring that story a little bit to a close, I didn't see him again for two and a half years, but I knew right from the first time I would see him, and that I was interested in seeing him again. But he was living in Nepal, I was living in India, so two and a half years went by, and during that time I had to have my friend, who had been studying Tibetan, remind me of his name over and over again, because this was the first Tibetan name I had ever heard. Report an error in the passage at 56:21 Highlight the passage at 56:21

56:53 Lama Tsukten Yeshe, and I heard that a lot of Tibetan Lamas were called Geshe. So it was all confused in my mind. Tsukten, Geshe, Lama, Yeshe, it was all kind of a mixture. Every once in a while I'd ask my friend Alex, what was his name? Tsukten Yeshe, reminding him of it. And so two and a half years later, when I was living in India, he visited. Report an error in the passage at 56:53 Highlight the passage at 56:53

57:23 He visited where I was living, and I saw him again. And when I had a chance to see him again, there's a whole story about it, but I won't tell. When I had a chance to see him again, I was a little bit nervous, because I thought, you know, well, maybe that was infatuation. The experience that I had in Bodh Gaya was kind of like falling in love with someone at first sight, and then when you spend time with them, you realize, well, maybe they're not as great as they first thought. Report an error in the passage at 57:23 Highlight the passage at 57:23

57:50 So I thought, well, maybe if I meet him again, he'll be a lot more ordinary. I was just kind of overwhelmed when I first went there. But when I saw him again, everything that I had noticed in the first minute that I was with him was still present, was still very, very powerful. And from that time, I had a continuing Report an error in the passage at 57:50 Highlight the passage at 57:50

58:18 relationship with him, either visiting Nepal or... About a year later, he came to the United States for the first time, and I was in the United States then, so I saw him. I come from New Jersey and came to New Jersey, the next community over from where I lived, and I took a course from him there, and then had ensuing courses with him in the East and the West over many, many years. Report an error in the passage at 58:18 Highlight the passage at 58:18

58:41 Also, I had a chance to work as an editor for the teachings that he was giving, which is what I had been doing in Dharamsal for other teachings. Report an error in the passage at 58:41 Highlight the passage at 58:41

58:52 I knew Lama Yeshev for the better part of 13 years, not continuously. Over that stretch of time. And he always impressed me as kind of a living symbol of what is possible. Report an error in the passage at 58:52 Highlight the passage at 58:52

59:10 And that I found true for the other Tibetan teachers that I studied with as well, up to and including the Dalai Lama. That whatever qualities they had, the way they manifested it was in a sense like, you have this too. This is nothing. This is nothing special. It's not, you know, I'm the Dalai Lama, so I'm great, you know. It's like whatever qualities that you see in me that you find attractive, they're in you as well. Report an error in the passage at 59:10 Highlight the passage at 59:10

59:40 And that was the whole, not that they would ever say that in those words, but that was always the impression that I had, that the teachings were to unearth something which was very human, very present, and that very largely what the spiritual path seemed to be. It was a stripping away of what was inauthentic. Report an error in the passage at 59:40 Highlight the passage at 59:40

1:00:06 It wasn't as if these great beings, who I came to really regard as great beings, in fact, holy beings, it wasn't as if they possessed something that we didn't possess. It was that they lacked something that we still had. In other words, that there was a pure essence that was shared by all humanity, all beings, and that what the evolved beings had done Let's figure out a way of stripping away that which was inauthentic, that which was covering this pure radiant nature. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:06 Highlight the passage at 1:00:06

1:00:40 But that at the heart, there was something pure in all of us. And Lama Yeshe's big words over those 13 years, one of his most commonly repeated phrases, was communication. When he'd speak to a class or when he'd give initiations and so forth, he'd always ask, are we communicating, dear? Are we communicating? He very, very often said that. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:40 Highlight the passage at 1:00:40

1:01:08 And that really was his passion. Because he really felt it wasn't as if, and by communication he really meant something mutual. It wasn't like, I know the truth and I'm telling it to you. Are we communicating? Do you understand what I'm saying? It wasn't... Tied solely to that perspective, it was, is there something in you that resonates with this, isn't there? Are we communicating? Report an error in the passage at 1:01:08 Highlight the passage at 1:01:08

1:01:36 And that kind of attitude, that really respectful attitude, was extremely appealing to me and continued to be that way. And I really don't think I've met a Tibetan teacher who doesn't express that in one way or another. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:36 Highlight the passage at 1:01:36

1:01:56 That what's happening is a heart-to-heart communication. And basically, if we have a job at all, it's simply to be receptive to what we experience inwardly when we're faced with these so-called higher realities. Because the seed of that higher reality is within us already. So, Report an error in the passage at 1:01:56 Highlight the passage at 1:01:56

1:02:23 anyway, I went off, as I often do, on a little bit of a rant there. But that... I think that embodies a lot of what I found appealing in Buddhism, why I refer to it largely as the psychological aspect of it was so primary in my mind. Oh yeah, one last thing. During the time that I was in India in those days, in the early 70s, of course I was writing back to my parents all this time. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:23 Highlight the passage at 1:02:23

1:02:52 And remember, I knew my father was dead set against religion. Though later I found out that the one religion he had respect for was Buddhism. I didn't really know that at the time. But I never ever said I was studying Buddhism. I never wrote that. I always said I was studying Buddhist psychology. Because I figured that was a skillful way of communicating with my people back home. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:52 Highlight the passage at 1:02:52

1:03:20 And also because it was true. Because from my point of view that's what I was doing. I was studying Buddhism. Psychology, an approach to the nature of the mind, which I thought was very, very profound, very, very beneficial. And something that even if you didn't come from a religious or spiritual background, you could relate to. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:20 Highlight the passage at 1:03:20

1:03:42 Because in those days, certainly psychology was something that could be a respectable discipline to study. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:42 Highlight the passage at 1:03:42

1:04:04 Well, I promised that we were going to start with meditation, which we have not done. So why don't we give ourselves, we've been sitting for about an hour straight, so why don't we just give ourselves just a couple of minutes to stand or stretch or get a drink if we need it, and then when we come back, let's just share a meditation practice for about 20 minutes or so. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:04 Highlight the passage at 1:04:04

1:04:47 So I thought that for the, we have about a, Maybe a half an hour or a little bit more before the break for lunch that I would offer a meditative practice that we could do together. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:47 Highlight the passage at 1:04:47

1:05:06 So if you already are familiar with the practice of meditation, then the instruction is just simply, to begin with, just simply to adopt a comfortable, upright posture. And if there is an exercise that you normally do to calm and focus the mind, then you can do that now. And if you're not familiar with a meditative technique, then first thing to do is just to make sure that whether we're seated on the floor or whether we're seated on the chair, that we're comfortable. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:06 Highlight the passage at 1:05:06

1:05:44 That we kind of feel our presence on the cushion, on the chair, on the floor. We feel that we're relaxed into it so that whatever posture we adopt, we can stay in for 20 or 30 minutes without it becoming unduly uncomfortable. And Report an error in the passage at 1:05:44 Highlight the passage at 1:05:44

1:06:16 we can begin by withdrawing the field of our awareness inwards so that we're basically aware of what's taking place within this physical envelope. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:16 Highlight the passage at 1:06:16

1:06:36 So feel the very volume. The air that it's displacing now and stay within that framework. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:36 Highlight the passage at 1:06:36

1:07:03 So in a sense we're looking at the body not from the outside but experiencing it from the inside, Report an error in the passage at 1:07:03 Highlight the passage at 1:07:03

1:07:15 feeling not only the volume that it takes up but its very massiveness, its weight. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:15 Highlight the passage at 1:07:15

1:07:27 And as we relax we feel that weight gently pressing down, pressing down on our seat, pressing down on the cushion. Pressing down on the floor. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:27 Highlight the passage at 1:07:27

1:07:48 And pay particular attention to those points of contact. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:48 Highlight the passage at 1:07:48

1:07:57 For example, under the soles of our feet. If we're seated on a chair with our feet on the floor. Or the back of our legs. Or our behind. All these places where our body touches the floor, the chair, the cushion. At all of these places of contact. There are tactile sensations to be experienced. So tune into those places, the feeling of contact, the feeling of pressure. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:57 Highlight the passage at 1:07:57

1:08:46 And now, using the power of imagination, starting from these places of contact, send down roots into the earth. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:46 Highlight the passage at 1:08:46

1:09:04 Extend those sensations downward, through the chair, the cushion, the floor, as if they were roots of light. Tubes of light penetrating down through the floor of this room, the foundation of this building, deep into the earth and then anchoring us there. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:04 Highlight the passage at 1:09:04

1:09:40 So our body is not just placed on top of the earth but is deeply rooted, deeply anchored into the earth itself. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:40 Highlight the passage at 1:09:40

1:09:53 And this induces a sense of stability which is very helpful for cultivating good concentration. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:53 Highlight the passage at 1:09:53

1:10:21 And now, We can use the following visual imagery, which we might find helpful. We can imagine ourselves to be like a great, deeply rooted tree, and Report an error in the passage at 1:10:21 Highlight the passage at 1:10:21

1:10:39 in the same way that water and nutrients rise up through the root system of that tree, eventually making it all the way up through the trunk, out the branches, to the twigs, and to the leaves. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:39 Highlight the passage at 1:10:39

1:10:53 In the same way, feel that the energy that we've contacted by Imagine attentively rooting ourselves in the earth. Imagine that this energy itself begins to make its way up this imaginary root system. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:53 Highlight the passage at 1:10:53

1:11:16 So very slowly and deliberately, in the mind's eye, follow this energy upwards until it eventually enters us from below, Report an error in the passage at 1:11:16 Highlight the passage at 1:11:16

1:11:37 making its way up our legs and eventually reaching the area of our hips, our pelvic basin. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:37 Highlight the passage at 1:11:37

1:11:53 And from this point, it makes its way upwards, slowly and deliberately up the trunk of our body, the area encompassing our spinal column. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:53 Highlight the passage at 1:11:53

1:12:09 And now let us make this upward journey in a particularly slow and deliberate manner. If we can move upwards one vertebrae at a time, that would be excellent. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:09 Highlight the passage at 1:12:09

1:12:24 But if not... At least allow the energy to rise up the spinal column in this slow, deliberate manner. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:24 Highlight the passage at 1:12:24

1:12:38 And whenever we encounter some sort of blockage, maybe a pocket of tension, something that interferes with the smooth, upward movement of this energy, just breathe deeply into that place. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:38 Highlight the passage at 1:12:38

1:13:03 Take a long, slow, deep inhalation right into the center. This pocket of tension and as we hold the breath for a moment, imagine that the air that we've breathed in begins to dissolve this pocket of tension, release this blockage and Report an error in the passage at 1:13:03 Highlight the passage at 1:13:03

1:13:27 then when we let go of the exhalation, continue our upward journey slowly and deliberately up the trunk of the body. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:27 Highlight the passage at 1:13:27

1:13:45 If the tension we encounter is particularly resistant, we Report an error in the passage at 1:13:45 Highlight the passage at 1:13:45

1:13:53 might find it helpful To allow the body to sway from side to side or front to back as if we were a great redwood tree and Report an error in the passage at 1:13:53 Highlight the passage at 1:13:53

1:14:07 the wind has come up and the tree is gently rocking back and forth, side to side. This very gentle swaying or rocking movement can be quite helpful for letting go of those pockets of tension, releasing them. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:07 Highlight the passage at 1:14:07

1:14:41 And then whenever we feel the time is right, we can allow this swaying motion to dampen itself to stillness once again and continue the movement upwards. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:41 Highlight the passage at 1:14:41

1:15:08 And as we move upwards, first through the lumbar region of the lower spine, Report an error in the passage at 1:15:08 Highlight the passage at 1:15:08

1:15:18 then to the area behind the abdomen and the chest, and eventually up through the back of the neck and the back of the head all the way up to the crown, as we make this... Slow upward journey. See if we can feel a natural elongation of our posture, as Report an error in the passage at 1:15:18 Highlight the passage at 1:15:18

1:15:46 if we were gently lifting ourselves upward, the same way that a tree we can think of as being lifted upward by its reach up to the sunlight. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:46 Highlight the passage at 1:15:46

1:16:13 And if we wish, we can focus particularly on our breastbone, the sternum, and lift that ever so slightly upwards. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:13 Highlight the passage at 1:16:13

1:16:30 And with that gentle uplift, our shoulders relax, and Report an error in the passage at 1:16:30 Highlight the passage at 1:16:30

1:16:50 as they're pulled backwards, our chest cavity opens, Report an error in the passage at 1:16:50 Highlight the passage at 1:16:50

1:17:00 our neck and our head raise upwards ever so slightly. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:00 Highlight the passage at 1:17:00

1:17:13 And so while we're still relaxed and comfortable, our posture is taken on an upright, alert attitude, Report an error in the passage at 1:17:13 Highlight the passage at 1:17:13

1:17:27 combating any tendency towards sleepiness or drowsiness or torpor. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:27 Highlight the passage at 1:17:27

1:17:47 And once we reach the very crown of our head, Report an error in the passage at 1:17:47 Highlight the passage at 1:17:47

1:17:54 again use the power of imagination to continue this upward journey up and out of the body itself. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:54 Highlight the passage at 1:17:54

1:18:06 So imagine that our awareness, which started deep in the bowels of the earth and made its way up the root system and climbed the spinal column, imagine that it leaves the body and climbs upwards, directly above us. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:06 Highlight the passage at 1:18:06

1:18:31 Eventually penetrating through the ceiling of this room, the roof of this building, then Report an error in the passage at 1:18:31 Highlight the passage at 1:18:31

1:18:44 climbing up through the atmosphere above this section of San Francisco, Report an error in the passage at 1:18:44 Highlight the passage at 1:18:44

1:18:54 up beyond all weather, Report an error in the passage at 1:18:54 Highlight the passage at 1:18:54

1:19:04 still upwards where the atmosphere becomes thin and even thinner, Report an error in the passage at 1:19:04 Highlight the passage at 1:19:04

1:19:16 up to the very edges of space, Report an error in the passage at 1:19:16 Highlight the passage at 1:19:16

1:19:27 then up and into space itself. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:27 Highlight the passage at 1:19:27

1:19:37 Now feel our awareness. Our consciousness has Report an error in the passage at 1:19:37 Highlight the passage at 1:19:37

1:19:51 become completely freed and Report an error in the passage at 1:19:51 Highlight the passage at 1:19:51

1:19:58 grows as expansive as space itself, Report an error in the passage at 1:19:58 Highlight the passage at 1:19:58

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:20:50 without boundaries, Report an error in the passage at 1:20:50 Highlight the passage at 1:20:50

1:20:56 without limit. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:56 Highlight the passage at 1:20:56

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:21:35 Just as making contact with the earth element beneath us helps support our practice of concentration, Report an error in the passage at 1:21:35 Highlight the passage at 1:21:35

1:21:47 so making contact with the spacious element above us enhances our mind's alertness and clarity. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:47 Highlight the passage at 1:21:47

1:22:10 Then having tasted this expansiveness of space itself, begin the downward journey Report an error in the passage at 1:22:10 Highlight the passage at 1:22:10

1:22:21 back into this atmosphere, Report an error in the passage at 1:22:21 Highlight the passage at 1:22:21

1:22:27 back down through the roof of this building and the ceiling of this room, Report an error in the passage at 1:22:27 Highlight the passage at 1:22:27

1:22:37 entering back into ourselves through the crown of our head and Report an error in the passage at 1:22:37 Highlight the passage at 1:22:37

1:22:45 slowly making its way downwards until we come to rest deep within the center of our chest at the so-called heart chakra or heart center. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:45 Highlight the passage at 1:22:45

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:23:33 And see if we can experience the seat of our consciousness, the seat of our conscious awareness as being in the center of our heart. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:33 Highlight the passage at 1:23:33

1:23:59 And it is from this heart center that we look out to the world. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:59 Highlight the passage at 1:23:59

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:24:38 And let us make a determination that for the remainder of this session we'll sit as quietly, as still as our body allows. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:38 Highlight the passage at 1:24:38

1:25:02 Physical stillness, greatly Helping the mind to be calm and still as well. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:02 Highlight the passage at 1:25:02

1:25:39 But despite our determination to remain as still as possible, we notice, we experience that an incessant movement is taking place. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:39 Highlight the passage at 1:25:39

1:26:01 An involuntary movement that never stops. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:01 Highlight the passage at 1:26:01

1:26:15 It is the rhythmic movement of our own breath. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:15 Highlight the passage at 1:26:15

1:26:27 Allow this rhythmic movement. To be the main focus of our attention, Report an error in the passage at 1:26:27 Highlight the passage at 1:26:27

1:26:39 allow ourselves to experience it as fully as possible. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:39 Highlight the passage at 1:26:39

1:26:58 Notice that as the air flows into us through the nostrils, it causes a corresponding expansion of our abdomen. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:58 Highlight the passage at 1:26:58

1:27:18 And then as we exhale, the swelling of the abdomen subsides. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:18 Highlight the passage at 1:27:18

1:27:34 Feel this rise and fall of the abdomen. Induced by the inward and outward movement of the breath. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:34 Highlight the passage at 1:27:34

1:28:05 If at any point during this practice we discover that our attention has been hijacked by some other consideration or a memory of the past or an anticipation of the future, Report an error in the passage at 1:28:05 Highlight the passage at 1:28:05

1:28:23 simply escort our attention back to the present movement of the breath, to the rise and fall of the abdomen or to any other movement. Stimulus, any other sensation stimulated by this rhythmic movement of the breath. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:23 Highlight the passage at 1:28:23

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:29:25 Let us see to what extent that we can relinquish control over the breath, simply allowing it to happen, Report an error in the passage at 1:29:25 Highlight the passage at 1:29:25

1:29:42 allow the breath to flow in and to flow out of its own accord, Report an error in the passage at 1:29:42 Highlight the passage at 1:29:42

1:29:57 yet all the while Report an error in the passage at 1:29:57 Highlight the passage at 1:29:57

1:30:02 remaining acutely mindful of this movement, observing it, Without controlling it. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:02 Highlight the passage at 1:30:02

1:30:27 And as we pay close attention to the breath in this way, and all of the sensations induced by this rhythmic movement, Report an error in the passage at 1:30:27 Highlight the passage at 1:30:27

1:30:40 let us see if we can increase the resolution of our attention. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:40 Highlight the passage at 1:30:40

1:30:50 Our attention becomes sharper, more focused. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:50 Highlight the passage at 1:30:50

1:31:13 When we're focused on the in-breath, for example, Report an error in the passage at 1:31:13 Highlight the passage at 1:31:13

1:31:20 see if we can catch that very moment when each inhalation begins. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:20 Highlight the passage at 1:31:20

1:31:32 And stay with it. Observing breath is flowing in, as it is flowing in, right up to the very end of each inhalation. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:32 Highlight the passage at 1:31:32

1:31:48 Being mindful of the whole process, breath is flowing in. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:48 Highlight the passage at 1:31:48

1:31:59 And similarly mindful of each exhalation, from the very moment that the breath begins to leave the gateway of the nostrils until the exhalation has come to an end. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:59 Highlight the passage at 1:31:59

1:32:15 Breath is flowing in, breath is flowing out. This is what we're mindful of. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:15 Highlight the passage at 1:32:15

1:32:28 Observing the breath while relinquishing control over it, Report an error in the passage at 1:32:28 Highlight the passage at 1:32:28

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:33:37 as we maintain our awareness of this inner and outward movement, Report an error in the passage at 1:33:37 Highlight the passage at 1:33:37

1:33:44 we may begin to notice things about the breath that were not obvious in the beginning. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:44 Highlight the passage at 1:33:44

1:33:55 For example, perhaps we notice that there's a difference in temperature between the in-breath and the out-breath. One feels distinctly cooler and the other warmer than the other. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:55 Highlight the passage at 1:33:55

1:34:37 We may also notice that although the pattern of the breathing remains the same, Report an error in the passage at 1:34:37 Highlight the passage at 1:34:37

1:34:48 each in-breath and each out-breath has its own individual character. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:48 Highlight the passage at 1:34:48

1:35:00 Sometimes one is deep and the other is shallow. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:00 Highlight the passage at 1:35:00

1:35:21 Sometimes the breath comes and goes quickly, at other times much more slowly. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:21 Highlight the passage at 1:35:21

1:35:47 Sometimes the breath is smooth and continuous, Report an error in the passage at 1:35:47 Highlight the passage at 1:35:47

1:35:54 other times rough and interrupted. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:54 Highlight the passage at 1:35:54

1:36:15 Without having any preference whatsoever for one type of breath over the other, simply stay aware of the present moment, Report an error in the passage at 1:36:15 Highlight the passage at 1:36:15

1:36:34 observing what is happening without controlling what is happening. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:34 Highlight the passage at 1:36:34

1:36:59 And though our attention on our breath is focused, Report an error in the passage at 1:36:59 Highlight the passage at 1:36:59

1:37:10 it is also relaxed. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:10 Highlight the passage at 1:37:10

1:37:17 So if we notice tension has built up in our facial muscles perhaps, Furrowing our brow, tightening the area around our eyes in an attempt to pay attention. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:17 Highlight the passage at 1:37:17

1:37:36 See if we can relax those muscles. Allow our expression to be soft and gentle. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:36 Highlight the passage at 1:37:36

1:37:50 The area around our eyes and our forehead to be smooth, relaxed, like the expression of a sleeping baby. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:50 Highlight the passage at 1:37:50

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:38:51 As a final exercise, to cultivate relaxed, Yet concentrated attention, Report an error in the passage at 1:38:51 Highlight the passage at 1:38:51

1:39:03 we can begin to count our breaths. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:03 Highlight the passage at 1:39:03

1:39:10 And to do this, Report an error in the passage at 1:39:10 Highlight the passage at 1:39:10

1:39:16 we'll consider each in-breath and each subsequent out-breath as constituting one cycle of breath. And Report an error in the passage at 1:39:16 Highlight the passage at 1:39:16

1:39:33 then make the determination to observe ten consecutive cycles of breathing with Report an error in the passage at 1:39:33 Highlight the passage at 1:39:33

1:39:45 as relaxed yet focused a mind as possible. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:45 Highlight the passage at 1:39:45

1:39:56 So we're not only observing breath is going in as it's flowing in and breath is going out as it's flowing out, but we're also keeping count, Report an error in the passage at 1:39:56 Highlight the passage at 1:39:56

1:40:11 counting the first cycle as one, the second as two and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:11 Highlight the passage at 1:40:11

1:40:20 So let us start relinquishing control over the breath, but observing it in as concentrated and relaxed a manner as possible. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:20 Highlight the passage at 1:40:20

1:40:40 in this way, observe 10. Consecutive cycles of breathing and then rest. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:40 Highlight the passage at 1:40:40

· · · silence, 2 minutes

1:42:24 When we have completed ten such cycles and pause for a moment, Report an error in the passage at 1:42:24 Highlight the passage at 1:42:24

1:42:36 reflect on the quality of the attention that we just paid. Were Report an error in the passage at 1:42:36 Highlight the passage at 1:42:36

1:42:45 we in fact able to observe ten consecutive cycles of breath? Or was our attention interrupted, hijacked by a stray thought, a memory, a sensation? Report an error in the passage at 1:42:45 Highlight the passage at 1:42:45

1:43:07 Were we able to pay attention to the breath? Without simultaneously controlling it, were we able to let the breath simply happen as we paid attention to it? Report an error in the passage at 1:43:07 Highlight the passage at 1:43:07

1:43:27 And did our attention remain sharp, or did it become vague? Report an error in the passage at 1:43:27 Highlight the passage at 1:43:27

1:43:42 So now, let us observe a second cycle of ten consecutive breaths, starting with the resolution that for this cycle of ten, we will relax. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:42 Highlight the passage at 1:43:42

1:44:04 Yet remain focused and Report an error in the passage at 1:44:04 Highlight the passage at 1:44:04

1:44:10 try to have our relaxed focus be as continuous and uninterrupted as possible. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:10 Highlight the passage at 1:44:10

1:44:20 Let's try that now. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:20 Highlight the passage at 1:44:20

· · · silence, 2 minutes

1:45:55 And then finally, after a brief pause, pay attention to another cycle of ten consecutive breaths. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:55 Highlight the passage at 1:45:55

1:46:07 But during this last cycle, Report an error in the passage at 1:46:07 Highlight the passage at 1:46:07

1:46:13 this last set of ten consecutive breaths, Report an error in the passage at 1:46:13 Highlight the passage at 1:46:13

1:46:19 if we notice that our attention is beginning to drift, See if we can keep it gently but firmly placed on the incoming and outgoing movement of the breath without it becoming vague or dull Report an error in the passage at 1:46:19 Highlight the passage at 1:46:19

1:46:41 and practice once more. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:41 Highlight the passage at 1:46:41

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:48:09 And then, at the conclusion of this observation of the breath, allow our attention to remain in the center of our heart and simply rest in this heartfelt awareness for just a few concluding moments. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:09 Highlight the passage at 1:48:09

1:48:50 Relaxed, yet alert. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:50 Highlight the passage at 1:48:50

1:49:12 Not running after anything. Not rejecting anything. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:12 Highlight the passage at 1:49:12

1:49:24 Simply aware. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:24 Highlight the passage at 1:49:24

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:50:27 So now we can relax the strength of our meditative concentration and arise from this meditation. It's Report an error in the passage at 1:50:27 Highlight the passage at 1:50:27

1:50:55 now about a quarter to one. So this would be a good time to have our lunch break. And I don't know how many people are... free or have the time or inclination to come back this afternoon but after the lunch break I'd be very happy to return and on the meditative practice that we did and also begin to address some of the questions that had come up earlier and to integrate it into the meditative practice Report an error in the passage at 1:50:55 Highlight the passage at 1:50:55

1:51:29 As I said, it's about a quarter of one now. So, would you feel comfortable coming back at I don't know how far afield you'll have to go for lunch. Do you feel comfortable coming? Just the cafe. Oh, so you didn't have to actually go anywhere? I see. Okay. Well, what do you think about starting up again at 2? Report an error in the passage at 1:51:29 Highlight the passage at 1:51:29

1:52:01 Is that comfortable? Not too long, not too short? You happy with that? Want to extend it a little bit, contract it a little bit? 2? Okay. So we'll start again at... And then my thought is to go until maybe just before 4 o 'clock, you know, around 345, something like that. Give us a little bit leeway. If we have to go longer, then it won't go beyond 4. And we want to stop earlier than a little bit earlier. Okay? Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:01 Highlight the passage at 1:52:01

1:52:47 There are three statues in kind of the main part of the altar. And this represents... Report an error in the passage at 1:52:47 Highlight the passage at 1:52:47

1:53:02 afraid if I lose the flowers, I'm going to knock everything over suddenly by the cynical figure. These are the ones I'm referring to. And the central figure, his name is, that's a statue of Je Tsongkhapa. And Je Tsongkhapa is the founder, 15th, 16th century founder of the last of the Report an error in the passage at 1:53:02 Highlight the passage at 1:53:02

1:53:32 Four major Tibetan traditions of Buddhism known as the Galupa tradition. One of his foremost disciples later became known as the first Dalai Lama and so we're in the time of the 14th Dalai Lama. So, Jay Tsongkhapa is a very, very revered figure and he's very, very often pictured in statues and in paintings. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:32 Highlight the passage at 1:53:32

1:54:01 Surrounded by two of his major disciples. And on his right, our left, is Gelsavche. And on his left, our right, is Kedrovche. And what's interesting to me about these is that very often when you see paintings or statues of these three figures, they're all done in rather kind of stylized, a certain stylized way. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:01 Highlight the passage at 1:54:01

1:54:29 So their faces are almost like generic faces. But in these, they're much more individual. So, for instance, you can see that Geltschopche on our left, he's shown as being a little bit older, slightly grayer, and it has a very kind of a peaceful expression on his face. Whereas Kedrupche on the other side is younger and has a more what we almost call intense or almost even wrathful expression on his face. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:29 Highlight the passage at 1:54:29

1:55:01 If you can't see it from where you're standing, maybe you can. You might have to, you've seen that already? Okay. So, what's interesting, one of the things interesting about this is that Jai Tsongkhapa himself is seen to be, you know, as I was saying that the Dalai Lama is considered a human manifestation of Chen Resig, or Abbalokiteshvara, the Buddha's compassion. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:01 Highlight the passage at 1:55:01

1:55:29 Well, Tsongkhapa is considered to have that same connection. With Manjushri, the Buddha that represents wisdom. So, for instance, there's a statue of Manjushri right behind here holding a sword, holding a sword of wisdom. Whereas his two disciples, Yeltsupche and Kedrupche, are said to be manifestations or emanations of the qualities of compassion on the left and power or energy. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:29 Highlight the passage at 1:55:29

1:56:04 On the right. And these three qualities together in combination are said to be the significant qualities of enlightenment, almost the definition of enlightenment. Enlightenment is a mind in which all of the delusions such as hatred and jealousy and ignorance and greed and so forth, all of those have been removed from the field of mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:04 Highlight the passage at 1:56:04

1:56:29 And then the pure mind that's left over has three Defining characteristics. It has unlimited compassion. It's not like the compassion that we might have. We have it for some people but not for others. It's unconditional compassion. Wishing all beings to be removed from their suffering. Unlimited wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:29 Highlight the passage at 1:56:29

1:56:51 The ability to see things as they are with all the veils, the obscuring veils removed. And then unlimited power or means. That's the ability to... Enter into situations and do what's ever beneficial for that situation. And those three qualities, generally speaking, are represented in Buddhist art, certainly in Tibetan Buddhist art, by the three figures, Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri and Vajrapani. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:51 Highlight the passage at 1:56:51

1:57:21 Now I looked around this room and I didn't see any Vajrapani in any of the tankas, at least not in any size large enough for us to see. So I thought I would just show you these representations. So this is a representation of the Buddha's compassion, similar to the one that's on the painting over there. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:21 Highlight the passage at 1:57:21

1:57:44 And then this is Manjushri, like the sword of wisdom, like in the statue. And then this is the one that I didn't find represented in this room so clearly. so I'll go with the fish bar. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:44 Highlight the passage at 1:57:44

1:58:02 Vajrapani, and you can see that, the others, his representation is in a very forceful, wrathful manner, he's playing. This is all symbolic. I was in the Oh, it's in the middle there. Okay. So there are representations of Vajrapani where he's also similarly shown in a peaceful aspect. But this is very typical of how Vajrapani is shown. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:02 Highlight the passage at 1:58:02

1:58:28 to kind of communicate the power of going into a situation and helping you to change it for the better. I think it's even one of the steps. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:28 Highlight the passage at 1:58:28

1:58:43 of the statues? Report an error in the passage at 1:58:43 Highlight the passage at 1:58:43

1:59:05 are largely different forms of non-power. These are also very powerful. Protect your babies. So, um... So we need a glass of honey. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:05 Highlight the passage at 1:59:05

1:59:23 So I just wanted to point it out because we don't always have representations of the three major figures whose facial expressions kind of mirror the qualities that they're sometimes set to represent. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:23 Highlight the passage at 1:59:23

1:59:37 Do the colors mean, like some of the blue and green? The colors do mean, color is quite important. in Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:37 Highlight the passage at 1:59:37

1:59:58 Is Report an error in the passage at 1:59:58 Highlight the passage at 1:59:58

2:00:03 there a shade to that window by any chance? Report an error in the passage at 2:00:03 Highlight the passage at 2:00:03

2:00:20 Color in Buddhism is a... Oh, thank you so much. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:20 Highlight the passage at 2:00:20

2:00:52 Chris, could you pull it this way just a little bit, the screen? Yeah, thank you. There's a little heart on my eyes, that Claire. No, but put Report an error in the passage at 2:00:52 Highlight the passage at 2:00:52

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:01:06 Color is a really fascinating but very vast and complex consideration in Buddhist art. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:06 Highlight the passage at 2:01:06

2:01:22 In fact, if it's something that you're kind of interested in exploring it, then there are a couple of books that go into it in some depth. But this book... Images of Enlightenment that I put together in one of its chapters on the five Buddha families, chapter three. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:22 Highlight the passage at 2:01:22

2:01:47 It goes into an Report an error in the passage at 2:01:47 Highlight the passage at 2:01:47

2:01:59 explanation, but basically in the system of spiritual development that's outlined in this of Buddhism known as the Vajrayana or the diamond vehicle, then the path is from impurity to purity. So an impurity is the way the veiled mind operates with such delusions is anger and jealousy and hatred and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:59 Highlight the passage at 2:01:59

2:02:36 The underlying energy of all of these delusions is still pure. And so if you can just remove the thorn of ego grasping from all of these, then the negativities turn into their corresponding positivity or wisdom. And so there's a color representation. For example, just to give one example, green in many cultures, Western and Eastern, represents jealousy, the green-eyed monster. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:36 Highlight the passage at 2:02:36

2:03:07 But if you take out this kind of... Self-referential ego grasping from the mind of jealousy, then you're left over with a mind that can accomplish activities. It's kind of generated to look at situations and engage in them to accomplish whatever needs to be accomplished. So the color green is sometimes used as a pathway from the delusion of jealousy to the wisdom of... Report an error in the passage at 2:03:07 Highlight the passage at 2:03:07

2:03:39 To what's known as the all-accomplishing wisdom. And then that color green also shows up as the main color of Tara, for example, the female deity of enlightened activity. So again, it has that active quality, that verdant quality, that kind of Mother Nature quality to it. So that's various ways in which the color green is used to express... Report an error in the passage at 2:03:39 Highlight the passage at 2:03:39

2:04:06 You know the spiritual transformation. And then the same thing can be said for the other major colors like white, red, blue and yellow. They each relate to on one hand a delusion to be overcome and on the other hand a wisdom to be experienced as a result. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:06 Highlight the passage at 2:04:06

2:04:22 So just a general idea. A general idea. And then the other thing is that especially in Tibetan Buddhism sometimes there's a feeling of being overwhelmed. If Buddhism is a religion with no god, then what are all these gods and goddesses doing? There's so many, not just a few, but tons. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:22 Highlight the passage at 2:04:22

2:04:50 And Lama Yeshe once explained, he said, the reason that there are so many representations of, so many variations in the representations of enlightened beings is because we're so different. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:50 Highlight the passage at 2:04:50

2:05:05 So certain figures that iconically appeal to one person, Won't have the same appeal to someone who's put together slightly differently, has a different karmic background, for example. So these qualities manifest in different forms dependent upon how we're put together. So for instance, just to give, this is now a hypothetical example. Let's say I'm Report an error in the passage at 2:05:05 Highlight the passage at 2:05:05

2:05:38 one of the great Indian gurus from the past. And I have a direct, non-conceptual vision of a particular meditational deity. In other words, a quality of enlightenment appears to me as this kind of living being made out of light, put together a certain way. That's the vision I have. But then I have a certain disciple, and I can see that through this disciple's predisposition, the way that this deity would manifest to him would be different somehow. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:38 Highlight the passage at 2:05:38

2:06:14 Different in color or shape or number of arms or number of faces. Some difference that would manifest, that would determine how that figure would manifest to him. Then I can introduce that figure to him through that slightly changed version. So you get maybe a hundred different versions of the Buddha of Compassion. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:14 Highlight the passage at 2:06:14

2:06:39 That white forearm version is kind of a main central one. But there's many, many, many other ways in which Avalokiteshvara appears, and many ways in which Vajrapani appears, and many ways in which Manjushri appears. Not because they're different, but because we're different. So it's the color, the shape, the gender, all of those things vary, not in dependence on their qualities, but on our own qualities. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:39 Highlight the passage at 2:06:39

2:07:10 And so many different... Many different versions come into existence on that basis. Now, there's one thing in my explanation that's a bit second class, and that is that it isn't just a matter of a teacher deciding, oh, I think I'll have the deity appear this way. It's not like some kind of intellectually formed decision. It's actually a vision. It's actually what does appear to that person. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:10 Highlight the passage at 2:07:10

2:07:45 Who has the ability to enter into those really deep states of meditative absorption. So it isn't like an artist who decides, oh I think I'll paint it green this time, oh next time I think I'll paint it yellow. It's not that kind of, it's not a decision made from that part of the mind. It's rather an experience coming from a much deeper part of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:45 Highlight the passage at 2:07:45

2:08:06 But I think there was a few questions in regards to that. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:06 Highlight the passage at 2:08:06

2:08:14 I don't want this to sound like a flip question, maybe it is. I mentioned to you during the break, I had asked earlier about its sort of relationship to psychology and I kind of understand. And you had mentioned the different manifestations that the deities take. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:14 Highlight the passage at 2:08:14

2:08:33 If one, so to speak, gets it, if someone has a predisposition towards enlightenment, if that's the right word, and gets it, then the rest, say I have an affinity for Avaloti Keshwara. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:33 Highlight the passage at 2:08:33

2:08:49 Learning the rest of the deities and all the other sort of bells and whistles is not relevant. Or is it important for me to know insofar as so I can help other people reach enlightenment so I have to learn? Not that I have, but in order to help other beings I need to know all of the different multiple manifestations and all of the other stuff. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:49 Highlight the passage at 2:08:49

2:09:16 Right. No, that's a good question because... Especially in Tibetan Buddhism, one can be simply overwhelmed by the number of sutras there are, the number of references, the number of images, the number of this, the number of that. And you can end up kind of ending up studying a huge amount of material and then all your Buddhism is up in your head. You become kind of like a budologist rather than a Buddhist. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:16 Highlight the passage at 2:09:16

2:09:43 So that's definitely possible. And the Tibetans themselves recognize this danger. There's a saying that I've heard. They used to say, we Tibetans, we practice hundreds of different meditational deities. In other words, practices based on so many of these different figures. We practice hundreds of them, but we don't accomplish any. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:43 Highlight the passage at 2:09:43

2:10:12 The Indian masters who came before us, they practiced one and accomplished them all. so I think this This tends towards answering your question, that if we gain insight through any one of these practices, if we gain true insight through it, it opens up the door to all the rest. We don't have to learn each one individually. But also, as you said, a value for someone who is a great teacher, let's say like His Holiness the Dalai Lama or our own Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:12 Highlight the passage at 2:10:12

2:10:51 The value of being well-versed in a lot of different practices is not so much for their sake, but for their disciples' sake. You know, that if they meet a situation or if they have a disciple who has a particular problem or a particular challenge or a particular ability or a particular affinity, they can direct that disciple to a practice that is more like specialized for their... Report an error in the passage at 2:10:51 Highlight the passage at 2:10:51

2:11:20 Even though for themselves, the singular practice that they've accomplished has accomplished all the rest. For the sake of the disciple, then they can provide more specialist help. So that may not be a definitive answer to the question, but I think it gives a flavor to it. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:20 Highlight the passage at 2:11:20

2:11:43 Also, I've thrown out this term. Meditational deity as if we've already discussed it or not, but in fact that's been an end run because I haven't really focused in on it. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:43 Highlight the passage at 2:11:43

2:11:59 The tradition from which all of these figures arise, as I said before, is the Vajrayana tradition or the diamond vehicle tradition which grew up based on the insights of Shakyamuni himself, but it especially reached flowering. In these North Indian monastic universities that I talked about earlier. And what the Vajrayana tradition has that in a very significant way differentiates it from other Buddhist traditions is that it has a practice known as Deity Yoga. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:59 Highlight the passage at 2:11:59

2:12:46 And in Deity Yoga, Deity Yoga. Report an error in the passage at 2:12:46 Highlight the passage at 2:12:46

2:12:49 The different qualities of the enlightened experience are visualized as having form, having visual qualities that the meditator learns to identify with, almost like, to use a Western example, almost like an archetype. It becomes their kind of predominant archetype. And so by visualizing a figure that represents compassion, for example, Report an error in the passage at 2:12:49 Highlight the passage at 2:12:49

2:13:20 It jumpstarts our own compassion. It becomes a very powerful way for getting in touch with the depth of our own compassion and bringing it to fruition. So, as I said, enlightenment has three major qualities to it. Compassion, wisdom and what's sometimes referred to as wisdom or power or probably best maybe skillful means. Report an error in the passage at 2:13:20 Highlight the passage at 2:13:20

2:13:46 That's probably the best term for this third quality. And to give an idea, the difference, for example, between compassion and skillful means, if people are out on a picnic and a child falls into a river and is being carried away by the river, then everybody looking on will have compassion. Everybody will think, oh, how wonderful it would be if this child were saved from drowning. So that's compassion. Report an error in the passage at 2:13:46 Highlight the passage at 2:13:46

2:14:18 If someone was present and had no compassion at all, they might say, good, let him drown. But that's not usually what happens. So compassion arises. But not everybody has the skill to rescue that child. Not everyone is a good swimmer. Some people might be unable to or prevented for one reason or another. So skillful means is the ability then to sizing up the situation with wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 2:14:18 Highlight the passage at 2:14:18

2:14:48 Deciding what action is going to be the best to bring about the desired result. And true skillful means, the skillful means of an enlightened being is something also that arises spontaneously. You don't have to sit down and think, oh, should I do this or should I do that? It arises the way a mirror reflects an image. Report an error in the passage at 2:14:48 Highlight the passage at 2:14:48

2:15:11 The mirror doesn't have to think, now I'm going to reflect an image. Simply the fact that it's clear, the image is... So similarly, when the mind is sufficiently clear, like the mind of an enlightened being, then skillful means, the ability to act in a way that's beneficial, arises spontaneously from the mind of that enlightened being. Report an error in the passage at 2:15:11 Highlight the passage at 2:15:11

2:15:38 So those three qualities, wisdom, compassion and skillful means, in and of themselves have no form. They're just states of mind, that's all they are. Just states of qualities of consciousness. We all have them to some extent. Enlightened beings have them with no covering, with no limitation. So when a person says, okay, here's a picture of Manjushri. Report an error in the passage at 2:15:38 Highlight the passage at 2:15:38

2:16:03 Well, what is Manjushri? Manjushri is simply a visual representation of a quality which has no color, no shape, no gender, no size to it at all. But it's a representation of that quality. In visual form. So that someone can use it as an object of meditation and receive inspiration from it and eventually learn to identify with it. Report an error in the passage at 2:16:03 Highlight the passage at 2:16:03

2:16:31 In other words, the meditator actually learns to identify his or her own mind as being the mind of Manjur Sri or Avalokiteshvara or Vajrapani, for example. Or any of the other... You know, hundreds of other deities who represent different combinations and permutations on this same basic scheme. So the figure that we focus our mind on, out of our desire to cultivate these qualities so that we can best help others, those figures are deities or meditational deities. Report an error in the passage at 2:16:31 Highlight the passage at 2:16:31

2:17:11 And these meditational deities are present in the Vajrayana system. the... So the characteristic quality of the Vajrayana is this practice of deity yoga. Now yoga, in this case, doesn't refer to just physical exercise. It's related to our word in English, yoke, to unite two things together, like yoking the ox into the cart, for example. Report an error in the passage at 2:17:11 Highlight the passage at 2:17:11

2:17:45 So yoga apparently, from what I've been told, comes from the same Indo-European root. So deity yoga, it means yoking or unifying our mind with the mind represented by the meditational deity so that his or her compassion, wisdom, skill becomes ours like that. Report an error in the passage at 2:17:45 Highlight the passage at 2:17:45

2:18:08 Now, two things more to be said about it. Though by the time I'm finished saying the first, I'll probably forget what the second is. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. The first one is that there is a mistaken way in which deity yoga can be practiced. There's a mistaken way in which all practices can be done. But there is a big danger of a mistaken way in which deity yoga can be practiced. And that is, here I am identifying myself as John Landau, whoever I think I am. Report an error in the passage at 2:18:08 Highlight the passage at 2:18:08

2:18:47 And then I'm interested in practicing, let's say, Chen Resig. Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of Compassion. So I wear his image as if it were a mask over mine. So I'm really John Landau, but I'm kind of pretending to be Avalokiteshvara, like wearing a mask, like someone in a play who might wear a mask. That would be a completely mistaken way of practicing deity yoga. The only way that deity yoga can be practiced in a beneficial manner, in a realistic manner, Is if that deity yoga is based on emptiness yoga. Now what emptiness yoga means doesn't mean I don't exist. Report an error in the passage at 2:18:47 Highlight the passage at 2:18:47

2:19:32 It means that we let go of all solid concrete conceptions of self. And in letting go of that it creates this open space in which we can contact the essential formless nature of our being. And then on that basis We can arise in the form of Chenresig or Manjushri or Vajrapani, whatever meditational deity we're concentrating on. So before deity yoga can be practiced successfully, we also have to have a background in kind of, for want of a better expression, emptying ourselves out. Report an error in the passage at 2:19:32 Highlight the passage at 2:19:32

2:20:14 In other words, letting go of all restrictive models of self. Images of self that keep us imprisoned in our present narrow ego identity. If we don't loosen that up, then there's no space in which to arise as the meditational deity. Report an error in the passage at 2:20:14 Highlight the passage at 2:20:14

2:20:35 So that's one thing. And that opens up a very, very profound subject for investigation, which is why this path, the Vajrayana path, is built on all the preceding paths. excuse me, the preceding paths of That have to do with cultivating not only compassion but the wisdom of emptiness itself. Learning how to dissolve concrete self-images. Then the second thing is that this presentation of what meditational deities are, I believe is still kind of only half the story. Report an error in the passage at 2:20:35 Highlight the passage at 2:20:35

2:21:25 It's still relating to these meditational deities as a symbolic function. So if we ask who is Chenresic really, who is Avalokiteshvara really, well it is compassion. And the Avalokiteshvara that appears in paintings and statues is just a symbolic representation of that quality. So it's like a spiritual archetype, we could say. Report an error in the passage at 2:21:25 Highlight the passage at 2:21:25

2:21:59 But it seems that in addition to that, that the meditational deities have another level of reality as well. Because great beings like Atisha and Tsongkhapa and modern masters as well actually have cultivated relationships with these deities. So they're not just for them, they're no longer just symbols or archetypes. Report an error in the passage at 2:21:59 Highlight the passage at 2:21:59

2:22:29 They're actually beings, living beings. And there are many, many stories throughout history and up to the present day of masters who have had the kinds of contact or conversations with these deities that we would have with each other, as real as that. So that leads me to believe that at least within that experience, those meditational deities are appearing not just as a symbolic function, but actually as A being that can be contacted. Report an error in the passage at 2:22:29 Highlight the passage at 2:22:29

2:23:03 So either we have to conclude that beings like Atisha and so forth are delusional, and they're living in some cloud cuckoo land where they're having conversations with beings who don't actually exist, or they've contacted another level in which reality appears. Something much... Much more subtle than the way things often appear to our gross senses. And that's definitely possible, I think. Report an error in the passage at 2:23:03 Highlight the passage at 2:23:03

2:23:40 I think that's definitely possibly true. I always think of that line from Hamlet in which he's encountered the ghost and speaking to his friend Horatio about it. And Horatio is expressing this. He's so confounded by the experience. And then Hamlet says there are more things in heaven and on earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. So you might be a very learned student, you might know a lot, but there's more things than what you've learned in Wittenberg. Report an error in the passage at 2:23:40 Highlight the passage at 2:23:40

2:24:14 I think that's the college they went to. So it makes me think of that, that in the process of clarifying... The field of our consciousness, removing the delusions and so forth. We also gain access to maybe what we could call a level of reality or a subtleness of reality which is not available to us when our mind is still quite opaque, still thickly covered by delusions. Report an error in the passage at 2:24:14 Highlight the passage at 2:24:14

2:24:47 So in that respect, the meditational deities may then... They manifest themselves in a much more quote-unquote real way than just simply as symbolic references. Report an error in the passage at 2:24:47 Highlight the passage at 2:24:47

2:25:08 And perhaps this represents a very individual characteristic on my part, but as I said a little bit yesterday and a little bit this morning, I didn't come into Buddhism from a devotional point of view. Some people do. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:08 Highlight the passage at 2:25:08

2:25:28 Some people do. They grow up with a very devotional attitude towards the Buddha and the other enlightened figures. They cultivate this kind of heart connection. Maybe, for example, maybe they grew up in a Catholic background and from their background they were able to cultivate this kind of heart connection with a deity, with a spiritual being. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:28 Highlight the passage at 2:25:28

2:25:55 And then they were able to kind of shift that. You know, this is kind of... Report an error in the passage at 2:25:55 Highlight the passage at 2:25:55

2:25:57 Or direct that towards the Buddhist iconography. So some people come from that. I didn't. I came more from a kind of a head psychological viewpoint. So it was hard for me to get down. And I don't mean that in a negative sense. I mean going from the head down to the heart. Getting down into the heart level way of relating to things. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:57 Highlight the passage at 2:25:57

2:26:22 But some people have what you might call a devotional genius. It's just... They have the ability for their heart to make contact with things on that level through this devotional aspect. And that seems to be one of the major doorways, if not the major doorway, for establishing this kind of connection with these meditational deities beyond the merely psychological, beyond the merely symbolical, so that they become a kind of a living, breathing entity, for one. Report an error in the passage at 2:26:22 Highlight the passage at 2:26:22

2:26:57 And I once complained of that to Lama Yeshe. I remember I had a conversation with him once because I was feeling very frustrated. And I asked him, I said, these meditational deities like Chen Resi, he said, are they real or are they just symbolic? You know, are they simply symbolic of qualities of enlightenment? On that level, I can relate to them. Or are they really, are we meant to see them as living separate actual beings? Report an error in the passage at 2:26:57 Highlight the passage at 2:26:57

2:27:23 You know, I was really, I was really disturbed by that. I remember his answer. He said, whether we view them as symbolic or as separate living beings, it comes to the same point. Report an error in the passage at 2:27:23 Highlight the passage at 2:27:23

2:27:40 That's what he said. So he didn't answer the question that they're one or the other. He basically said there's two ways of approaching them. And if we approach them either of those ways, eventually it comes to the same point. Meaning, I believe. Report an error in the passage at 2:27:40 Highlight the passage at 2:27:40

2:27:57 Hesitate to put words in his mouth, but meaning that we actually come, the important point is that we come to embody those qualities ourself. That's the end point. The end point is, are we more compassionate? Are we wiser? Are we more skillful? That's the end point. And so if we come to it by approaching these meditational deities as symbolic figures, we can come to it in that path. Report an error in the passage at 2:27:57 Highlight the passage at 2:27:57

2:28:25 Through the path of devotion, we can achieve that same aim. And of course, if we come to the practice combining both, of course, then so much the better. Report an error in the passage at 2:28:25 Highlight the passage at 2:28:25

2:28:37 So he didn't give a definitive yes or no, this or that answer, because I think probably that answer would have been false. You know, it would have been a good answer for some people and a bad answer for others. Instead, he kind of validated that there were at least these two different... Avenues that lead to the same goal. So, anyway, that's what I wanted to report about meditational deities. Report an error in the passage at 2:28:37 Highlight the passage at 2:28:37

2:29:10 If there's no specific question, which I'm happy to entertain them if there are, I wanted to take the meditational practice that we just tasted at the end of this morning's session and build on a little. But we have time to do that if there are some other questions or issues. Yes, please. Report an error in the passage at 2:29:10 Highlight the passage at 2:29:10

2:29:38 Thank you. So you were discussing the different deities and kind of the three, I guess, main qualities being compassion, wisdom and skillful means. Right. And, you know, I've heard a lot about, I think, compassion and wisdom. with our relationship, you know, with relationship. It has a valid Sanskrit word which it comes from, upāya. Report an error in the passage at 2:29:38 Highlight the passage at 2:29:38

2:30:23 Compassion is... Karuṇā and wisdom is prajna and this skillful means is upāya. So it's definitely identified as a major aspect of the enlightened situation. But there's a sense in which it is, and here I'm a little bit out on a limb, so take what I'm going to say now with a grain of salt. My understanding about this I think still needs a lot of refinement. That I think skillful means is in a sense derivative of the other two. Report an error in the passage at 2:30:23 Highlight the passage at 2:30:23

2:31:08 In other words, as we cultivate the compassion that wishes to benefit others and help them become removed from suffering, and as we develop the wisdom that sees things as they are as opposed to how we falsely imagine them to be, Report an error in the passage at 2:31:08 Highlight the passage at 2:31:08

2:31:27 know, As we cultivate those, then it seems as if, to some large measure, skillful means derives from that combination. So it's not so much necessarily, and here, take again that grain of salt, it's not necessarily a third separate quality that comes into the equation, but rather a third quality which is cultivated as a result of having cultivated the other two. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:27 Highlight the passage at 2:31:27

2:31:54 So that might be the reason. In your experience, while you heard more about the first two and less about the third, it might be that with the development of the first two, the third comes more or less automatically. But it does have its own separate place, its own, like Vajrapani being the major manifestation of this enlightened quality. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:54 Highlight the passage at 2:31:54

2:32:18 That might be the reason why you're more familiar with the first two than the third. It is considered very important because Report an error in the passage at 2:32:18 Highlight the passage at 2:32:18

2:32:35 here's one approach to it. Report an error in the passage at 2:32:35 Highlight the passage at 2:32:35

2:32:43 The heart of the Vajrayana path, as of the general Mahāyāna path, from which the Vajrayana is like a subcategory, we could say. The heart of it is the precious bodhicitta motivation. Now, I mentioned it last night, but I'm wondering, that term bodhicitta, does that... Means something to you or is that kind of a new term? A new term? A new term, right? So this, we can think of bodhicitta as the motivation of a bodhisattva. Report an error in the passage at 2:32:43 Highlight the passage at 2:32:43

2:33:17 Now a bodhisattva is someone whose intention in following the spiritual path is not limited to his or her desire for their own liberation from suffering. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:17 Highlight the passage at 2:33:17

2:33:30 Their heart motivation is to help benefit others. They realize, of course, that without being liberated oneself, there's only a limit as to how much we can help others. But the main focus is not me getting out of my own problem, but me elevating my mind to the extent in which I can help others get out of their problems. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:30 Highlight the passage at 2:33:30

2:33:52 So that's the bodhisattva. That's the compassionate-minded hero of Mahāyāna Buddhism or Vajrayana Buddhism. Now there are many, and that motive, that quality of consciousness which is devoted to attaining enlightenment out of love and compassion for other beings, that motive itself is called bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:52 Highlight the passage at 2:33:52

2:34:15 That's the enlightened attitude of a bodhisattva. Now there are several different significant meditative techniques for cultivating this bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 2:34:15 Highlight the passage at 2:34:15

2:34:30 And this is often a subject of meditation courses. There are two major traditions for developing the bodhicitta and then there's a third which combines the first two. But in the stages of meditation leading up to the cultivation of the bodhicitta, there's a certain crucial point which is reached. Now before that crucial point, The being does have great compassion for others. Report an error in the passage at 2:34:30 Highlight the passage at 2:34:30

2:35:05 No matter who that person sees or encounters or just even imagines, in regards to those beings, this practitioner feels compassion, feels not a hint of cruelty or indifference, but spontaneously wishes how wonderful it would be if... Report an error in the passage at 2:35:05 Highlight the passage at 2:35:05

2:35:29 If this being, this being that I'm thinking about, this being in front of me, we're removed from not only the gross, obvious sufferings and pains of this life, but even the subtle causes of that, that compassion becomes a major aspect through training, through step-by-step training of such a practitioner. Report an error in the passage at 2:35:29 Highlight the passage at 2:35:29

2:35:52 But that occurs before the next step. And the next step is not simply feeling how wonderful it would be if beings could be separated from their suffering, but I myself must achieve enlightenment to help others overcome their suffering. In other words, it's taking on this kind of sense of personal responsibility. Like going back to the riverside, everybody there is going to feel compassion for the child, but not everyone is going to jump in the river after. Report an error in the passage at 2:35:52 Highlight the passage at 2:35:52

2:36:33 Not everyone is going to take the personal responsibility for actually rescuing that child. Even though all wish for the child to be rescued, there's no one there who doesn't wish that. But not everyone is going to do what's necessary, either because they can't or don't know how, or they just haven't developed compassion to the point where they're taking that responsibility. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:33 Highlight the passage at 2:36:33

2:36:56 In the system of meditation, that's known as the superior intention. The superior intention. It's based on compassion, but it now becomes very personal. It's kind of personal determination to do something about it. And it's at that point, when we start to cultivate this superior intention, I myself must do something, that skillful means becomes really important. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:56 Highlight the passage at 2:36:56

2:37:23 Before that... Skillful means is not so vitally important. I mean, it's never unimportant, but it's never vital. But then when you say, now I'm going to do it, then you say, well, wait a minute, I can hardly help myself, much less rescue everybody else, you know, work for their sake. Then it becomes vital to say, well, then who has the skill and who has the ability and how can I model myself on such a person? Report an error in the passage at 2:37:23 Highlight the passage at 2:37:23

2:37:54 So that I develop a similar skill. And that's when the image of full enlightenment as something to be emulated, something to be practiced, becomes really central to our practice. So at that point, the desire not only to be compassionate and wise, but skillful, particularly skillful, becomes very important. Report an error in the passage at 2:37:54 Highlight the passage at 2:37:54

2:38:16 And I have a... I mean, there are many examples of... Why this is so important, even on a worldly level, like, you know, certainly ecology and everything related to environmentalism is such a big issue now in people's minds. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:16 Highlight the passage at 2:38:16

2:38:41 But one of the things that we've discovered, people who study this have discovered, is if you have an ecosystem and then you see that it's kind of out of whack somehow. And... Report an error in the passage at 2:38:41 Highlight the passage at 2:38:41

2:38:55 And then out of compassion and with whatever wisdom you have, you try to introduce something or subtract something from that ecosystem to solve that particular problem. You may be successful or you might create a bigger problem. Because a lot of people, they add something to the system or subtract something from the system and their intention is compassionate. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:55 Highlight the passage at 2:38:55

2:39:18 And they're using as much wisdom as they have, but unfortunately it's not enough. They've taken into account eight factors, but in fact there were 12 factors to take into account. And by not taking into account those other four, they made the system even more out of balance than it was before. So it's not that they're stupid, and it's not as if they're cruel. They're smart, they're well-intentioned, they just didn't have the breadth of understanding so that they'd have full skill. Report an error in the passage at 2:39:18 Highlight the passage at 2:39:18

2:39:53 And because environmentalism and ecology is extremely complex, well, dealing with human psychology is also very, very complex. To know in this kind of intuitive way what would be the most helpful way of responding to a situation that has the best chance of bringing about success. Now even a Buddha, even a fully involved Buddha can't come into a situation from his or her own side and suddenly change it for the better. You know, because we all have our own karma, we all have our own predispositions. Report an error in the passage at 2:39:53 Highlight the passage at 2:39:53

2:40:30 All a Buddha can do is show a path, show an approach that if followed will be beneficial, but it's up to us whether we actually follow it or not. Otherwise, all that's required is a Buddha becomes enlightened and then he enlightens everybody else. But that's just not the way it works. A Buddha shows the path. Report an error in the passage at 2:40:30 Highlight the passage at 2:40:30

2:40:50 We're the ones who have to actually follow it. So skillful means then is this spontaneous ability to provide whatever direction would be the most beneficial. And then it's up to the individual as to how well they can respond to it. Report an error in the passage at 2:40:50 Highlight the passage at 2:40:50

2:41:14 One factor about all of this that I've always found intriguing is it says in the scriptures that the activities of a Buddha occur. Report an error in the passage at 2:41:14 Highlight the passage at 2:41:14

2:41:29 I'm forgetting the word. Report an error in the passage at 2:41:29 Highlight the passage at 2:41:29

2:41:37 What's the word where you think about something before you do it? Report an error in the passage at 2:41:37 Highlight the passage at 2:41:37

2:41:43 It's almost like that. Report an error in the passage at 2:41:43 Highlight the passage at 2:41:43

2:41:50 Yeah, that's it. Premeditation. Without premeditation. That was the word I'm looking for. Report an error in the passage at 2:41:50 Highlight the passage at 2:41:50

2:41:58 That the activities of Buddha take place spontaneously without premeditation. The Buddha doesn't have to sit down and think, oh, that situation is like that, so I think I should do that. It arises, again, like the reflection of a mirror. Because the mind is so clear, the beneficial way of acting or responding just appears. Report an error in the passage at 2:41:58 Highlight the passage at 2:41:58

2:42:22 And, well, I can't claim enlightenment for any... I have seen and I've heard stories about occasions in which this kind of spontaneously beneficial way of acting has arisen, apparently almost out of nowhere, without premeditation. Report an error in the passage at 2:42:22 Highlight the passage at 2:42:22

2:42:48 It seems a truism that gurus respond to each of their disciples as the disciple needs. So I know there was this one famous Lama who was passing away and a succession of his disciples came to him. And then they would leave the room that he was in and then people would say, oh, how was the Lama? How was the Lama? How was the Rinpoche? And one person would come out and say, oh, he's kind of miserable. He's in a lot of pain. The other one would come out and say, oh, he's very blissful. Report an error in the passage at 2:42:48 Highlight the passage at 2:42:48

2:43:21 He's very happy. He's very relaxed. So it's like... It was as if the guru was manifesting to each disciple what was most beneficial for that mind at that time. In a sense, from their own side, they're empty. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:21 Highlight the passage at 2:43:21

2:43:36 There's no one solid at home. They're just pure consciousness. But they manifest in whichever way is helpful. And there are many stories of lamas who's, and I'm sure this is true outside of Buddhism as well in many, many other traditions. In which a spiritual master behaves spontaneously in a way which can be seen as shocking at first but is just the perfect way to help train this disciple's mind or that disciple's mind. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:36 Highlight the passage at 2:43:36

2:44:09 Unfortunately the only story that's coming to my mind is not a particularly brilliant story but it illustrates it to some extent. Report an error in the passage at 2:44:09 Highlight the passage at 2:44:09

2:44:17 There was this one teacher who was traveling around and there were a number of people who were following him from place to place because they're so attracted. And among them was this one person who very, very much wanted to establish some kind of strong connection with the Lama. And so he had his own mala, this string of beads helpful for when reciting mantras like Omani Padmeyam and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 2:44:17 Highlight the passage at 2:44:17

2:44:46 He had one. It was kind of a special one, I believe, made out of kind of special substances. And he just wanted to make a presentation to the Lama of the Mala. And in a sense, he kind of kept bugging the Lama, take my Mala, take my Mala, like that. And then on one occasion, the Lama said, okay, I'll take it, and kind of grabbed it from him. Report an error in the passage at 2:44:46 Highlight the passage at 2:44:46

2:45:09 I wasn't there and present, so I'm kind of telling you what I imagined happened. But it was reported that it was something like this. He took the mala and he just ripped it apart like that. So the beads and everything went in all the different directions. Now looked at from the outside, you could say, well, wow, what is that? Here's this guy trying to make an offering and the guru just destroys it like that. Report an error in the passage at 2:45:09 Highlight the passage at 2:45:09

2:45:34 But it had an incredibly transformative effect on this guy. Because what the Lama was breaking was not really the mala. He was breaking this kind of concrete image that this disciple was having of me being the perfect disciple, making the perfect gift to the perfect guru. In other words, it was all these thought balloons up in cloud cuckoo land. It was nothing present, nothing real about it in that sense. Report an error in the passage at 2:45:34 Highlight the passage at 2:45:34

2:46:00 And so the Lama spontaneously realized, again, without premeditation, but just spontaneously understood that something, he had to break through that somehow. You know, kind of free that person from that tight, narrow, grasping attitude. Otherwise, the real guru-disciple relationship would never happen. Report an error in the passage at 2:46:00 Highlight the passage at 2:46:00

2:46:23 And so that act, instead of alienating that student, actually made that student a closer disciple. Now, if he had done the same thing to another disciple, you know, on another occasion, and it wasn't appropriate, that could have been disastrous. You know, the person could have gone away thinking, What a jerk he is or what a mistake it was for me to follow him and end up bad-mouthing him and developing all kinds of negativities. Report an error in the passage at 2:46:23 Highlight the passage at 2:46:23

2:46:52 But in this case, for this disciple, that was skillful means. And there's many instances, especially... One tradition that seems to be filled with examples of this kind of unusual skillful means is the Zen tradition. There's so many Zen stories of masters who have done something... Totally unexpected that it just blew their disciples' minds and it actually helped their spiritual path. Report an error in the passage at 2:46:52 Highlight the passage at 2:46:52

2:47:25 Again, there's many, many stories. One comes to my mind, it's kind of a traditional story in which a professor, kind of like a professional budologist, comes to a Japanese roshi and the roshi invites him to partake in the... A tea ceremony. And of course in the Japanese tradition this is kind of immaculate. How you brew it, the kind of cup you use, the whisk. Report an error in the passage at 2:47:25 Highlight the passage at 2:47:25

2:47:53 It's a whole artistic production. And so the Roshi was sitting there with this professor and performing this tea ceremony. And when it came time to pour the tea into the cup, the Roshi just kept pouring. And pretty soon the tea is overflowing the cup and the saucer is getting all over like that. You know, quite the opposite of what you think of as the immaculate tea ceremony. Report an error in the passage at 2:47:53 Highlight the passage at 2:47:53

2:48:21 He's kind of spilling all over the place. And the professor goes, watch out, can't you see? The cup's already, it's already full like that. And then the Roshi stopped and said, and so is your mind. You know, you're so filled with your own ideas, there's no space to receive any more. You know, and he just uses as an example to show that, That this professor was coming to him with a certain kind of proud, full of self-attitude. Report an error in the passage at 2:48:21 Highlight the passage at 2:48:21

2:48:52 I'm the professor. And so there was no place in which, there was no empty space to be filled, to be nurtured by real transformative teachings. So in a sense, a certain kind of knowledge of Buddhism can be destructive. If it's only head knowledge, it just fills your head with lots of facts and doesn't leave room for heart transformation. So that kind of Zen story is in part a kind of an illustration of that. Report an error in the passage at 2:48:52 Highlight the passage at 2:48:52

2:49:25 So the Zen master used a technique which was so totally unexpected. You know, you think the tea ceremony is going to be immaculate and perfect. And he made a mess out of it just as a teaching situation like that. And then many, many... Many, many other examples. I'm just going to limit myself to one more. It was from a Mongolian Lama that I met in New Jersey of all places. Report an error in the passage at 2:49:25 Highlight the passage at 2:49:25

2:49:52 That's where he had a monastery. And he himself was kind of, even though he was Mongolian in the Tibetan tradition of Buddhism, he had a lot about the Zen master about him. Report an error in the passage at 2:49:52 Highlight the passage at 2:49:52

2:50:09 He often showed himself as kind of... Strict and curmudgeonly, sort of like Gandalf a little bit. He even had a kind of a, which is unusual for Mongolians and Tibetans, he had a wispy beard also. Report an error in the passage at 2:50:09 Highlight the passage at 2:50:09

2:50:29 Wonderful, incredible character. And I heard the story that his disciples were helping him build another residence and another temple. I think next to the one, the older one that they had. And so during the part of the day they would receive teachings and then part of the day they would work together. Report an error in the passage at 2:50:29 Highlight the passage at 2:50:29

2:50:54 And the teachings they had was on the wisdom of emptiness, understanding the nature of the eye and so forth. And one of the students kept having a question. He said, okay, so there's a conventional eye but it's not concrete and self-existent. He says, I don't... I don't understand what the difference is. He kept asking questions about this eye. Report an error in the passage at 2:50:54 Highlight the passage at 2:50:54

2:51:23 So now, during the time that they were working together, this same disciple was in charge of cutting boards to length. And so one day, while all of this was happening, the master, the Mongolian Lama, came by and he looked at what this disciple was doing. you know. Report an error in the passage at 2:51:23 Highlight the passage at 2:51:23

2:51:44 And he said, you've done all these wrong. You've measured all these wrong. Now we're going to have to throw out all of this lumber. You've cost us hundreds of dollars and wasted all our time. And he starts berating him for the work he's doing. And the disciple is thinking, I've dedicated all these hours of work selflessly. Report an error in the passage at 2:51:44 Highlight the passage at 2:51:44

2:52:07 I'm not getting paid for any of this. All this energy and all I get is insulted. Why I? And then when he said that, he says, why I, then the master said, there, do you see it? Do you see the I that you're holding on to? It's not just some, it's not a simple pronoun, because at that moment the I, you know, seems to exist self-existently, some concrete permanent entity, which is somehow separate from this body-mind combination that we're holding on to. Report an error in the passage at 2:52:07 Highlight the passage at 2:52:07

2:52:42 And when it gets insulted, it kind of pops up. So strongly. That's the I that's the trouble. That's the problem. Like that. So in a sense, the Mongolian Lama, he kind of stage managed the whole thing to be able to show this person in a way that, in which would never come out from an ordinary teaching situation, exactly what it was that they were examining. Report an error in the passage at 2:52:42 Highlight the passage at 2:52:42

2:53:09 This grasping onto I as a separate concrete. And you can talk about that all you want, but this was a case of direct showing like that. So that's an example of skillful means. Now, all the examples I've given are skillful means in which someone does something which is kind of unexpected or unusual. It doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't have to have that unexpected, unusual quality to it. Report an error in the passage at 2:53:09 Highlight the passage at 2:53:09

2:53:37 But what it does have... If it truly is skillful means, is that somehow or other it's effective. Somehow or other it brings a change of perspective that allows the person to go on, to continue on. Report an error in the passage at 2:53:37 Highlight the passage at 2:53:37

2:54:16 I can't resist, there's another story. This story actually goes back to the time of Buddha and it's one of my favorites of all the Buddha stories and there's nothing terribly spectacular about it. And maybe that's the reason I like it so much. At the time that this story took place, Buddha was already famous. Report an error in the passage at 2:54:16 Highlight the passage at 2:54:16

2:54:39 He had already attracted a large number of disciples, the Saṅgha, and people were referring to him by epithets such as the Conqueror, the World Honored One, the Bhagavan, the Blessed One, just the same way we talk about the Dalai Lama as His Holiness. But even more extensive than that. So among a large portion of the population he was well honored. Report an error in the passage at 2:54:39 Highlight the passage at 2:54:39

2:55:12 But he continued his same practice as he always did. He carried a begging bowl with him. He begged for the food in the morning and would eat one meal a day at the lunchtime meal. A pattern which is still followed in Burma in Thailand to this day. Showing the connection between... Spiritual teachers and the community that they're serving, that it's an integrated connection. They each depend on the other. Report an error in the passage at 2:55:12 Highlight the passage at 2:55:12

2:55:40 So he was still in his own means, still humble and not pushing himself forward in any way. But nevertheless, he had become very famous, very well known. So he was making his way through a village, probably on something like a begging round. Report an error in the passage at 2:55:40 Highlight the passage at 2:55:40

2:56:01 Suddenly he gets confronted by this young guy who's really angry and really bitter. And he starts laying all of these insults onto the Buddha, basically saying, oh, you think you're so great and you're so famous and everybody thinks you're wonderful and worships you. He says, but you're just as ridiculous as everybody else. You just put on a good show and that's why people think you're so wonderful. Report an error in the passage at 2:56:01 Highlight the passage at 2:56:01

2:56:28 And in this way he just heaps. Insult on the Buddha like that. And then finally at the end, he pauses, the Buddha who's been listening to all of this quite patiently, he says, tell me young man, if you buy a present for someone and they don't accept it, who does the present belong to? Report an error in the passage at 2:56:28 Highlight the passage at 2:56:28

2:56:52 And the guy who's just dumped all this crap on the Buddha's head is surprised to be asked a question like this, and he's so surprised that he actually thinks about it for a second. Report an error in the passage at 2:56:52 Highlight the passage at 2:56:52

2:57:03 If I buy a present for somebody and the person doesn't accept it, well, I bought it, so it belongs to me. So he says, yeah, it would belong to me then. And the Buddha says, it's exactly the same with your anger. He says, if you get angry at me and I don't react to it, then the anger just falls. Back to you. And the only person that makes unhappy is you. Except I don't think his voice went up when he said it. The only person to be harmed by your anger is yourself. Report an error in the passage at 2:57:03 Highlight the passage at 2:57:03

2:57:35 He says, if you don't want to be harmed, if you don't want to suffer, then you have to somehow get rid of your anger. And those words, those few unexpected words in response to this unexpected question, cause this Young man to see that the Buddha had just described his entire life. That he had always been miserable. He had always been unhappy and he had always been angry. Report an error in the passage at 2:57:35 Highlight the passage at 2:57:35

2:58:04 And the Buddha was able to point out so clearly that the reason he was so miserable was because he was so angry. And that the only way to really become happy, you know, peaceful, is somehow to do something about the anger. As opposed to doing something about all the... Supposed causes for the anger, the external causes, find the internal cause for the anger. And so the man said, you know, would you teach me? Report an error in the passage at 2:58:04 Highlight the passage at 2:58:04

2:58:35 Would you teach me how to overcome my anger? And he said, certainly I'd be happy to teach anyone who wants to learn. And so he became a follower. So that kind of ability, you know, to respond to a situation which is like a major attack and then to turn it. So perfectly into a teaching situation, for me, is like one of the best examples of skillful means. And it's something that you can hardly imagine coming up with that in premeditated. Report an error in the passage at 2:58:35 Highlight the passage at 2:58:35

2:59:04 You know, the next time someone comes and insults me, I'm going to say this, I'm going to say that. Couldn't possibly have been that way. It must have been just a spontaneous response coming from a perfectly clear mind. And as I said, I like this story because there's no miracle involved. The only miracle is that the mind could be so clear that it could come up with such a response like that. But it doesn't require gods and goddesses or flames or anything like that. Report an error in the passage at 2:59:04 Highlight the passage at 2:59:04

2:59:32 So it's, to my mind, much more approachable. Report an error in the passage at 2:59:32 Highlight the passage at 2:59:32

2:59:42 Okay, that'll be the last story. Anything else that you wanted to talk about before we do a concluding set of meditations? Anything else in your mind? Report an error in the passage at 2:59:42 Highlight the passage at 2:59:42

2:59:56 I'm not sure. Depends what it is. Certainly, please. I'm sort of like the beginner of the beginners and I'm at a point where the more I read, the more confused I get instead of clarifying. So this brought back a lot of stuff where you were mentioning about not necessarily the aversion, but just sort of like not taking... Report an error in the passage at 2:59:56 Highlight the passage at 2:59:56

3:00:24 All the concepts about deities positively and stuff. And that kind of reflects upon my background, which is I grew up with a strong Christian background. And so after I moved away from that, whenever I come into contact or sort of think about supernatural metaphysics or deity or any concepts of it, I wouldn't necessarily say it's aversion. Report an error in the passage at 3:00:24 Highlight the passage at 3:00:24

3:00:53 You've got to withdraw from it. Yeah, I'm not really comfortable. Throughout the years, I've read my share of books about Zen as well as Tibetan Buddhism. But these days, there's so many books out there. You don't really exactly know where to start or what's good or what's not unless you have some track to begin with, which I don't. Report an error in the passage at 3:00:53 Highlight the passage at 3:00:53

3:01:18 So I sample here and there. Right. I'm not really comfortable. Report an error in the passage at 3:01:18 Highlight the passage at 3:01:18

3:01:21 My question is along the lines of like what advice can you give to sort of like a beginning person who is sampling this in terms of like trying to look at, well, I would like to try Tibetan Buddhism, but if there's an element of question of like deities as well as a question of faith in your Lama or whichever, is there still room to walk? Report an error in the passage at 3:01:21 Highlight the passage at 3:01:21

3:01:50 Or should I go out there and study, sample all of it first before I go further down? I'm a little still confused on that. Sure. Report an error in the passage at 3:01:50 Highlight the passage at 3:01:50

3:02:11 It's difficult for me to give a blanket answer to that. And that's a very, very important, very realistically based question that you ask. Report an error in the passage at 3:02:11 Highlight the passage at 3:02:11

3:02:24 Because our predispositions are so different, one from the other. Report an error in the passage at 3:02:24 Highlight the passage at 3:02:24

3:02:31 It's often said that there's a place in the beginning for a certain amount of window shopping. In other words, sample a little of this and sample a little of that. See where your affinities lie, what attracts you, what speaks to you, what doesn't. And just sample enough so that you can find something that by and large appeals more than repels like that. Report an error in the passage at 3:02:31 Highlight the passage at 3:02:31

3:03:03 So there's kind of a place for that, that kind of supermarket mentality in the beginning. But it's said that if you really want to delve deeper, then at some point you have to make at least the tentative decision, well, I'm going to train in this path. I'm going to follow this because if we stay in the supermarket, sampling a little from this aisle and a little from that aisle, we never really get... Report an error in the passage at 3:03:03 Highlight the passage at 3:03:03

3:03:34 We actually have to take the ingredients home and actually cook them up. So we have to kind of train in one tradition. But I don't think it's necessary that we swallow everything that that tradition has to give us. Report an error in the passage at 3:03:34 Highlight the passage at 3:03:34

3:03:50 We still have our own intelligence, our own discriminating awareness. And if there's something in the tradition that doesn't appeal to us, then... It's not necessarily a matter of denying it or saying I'm not going to believe in that or become avert to it, but we just simply put it aside. For the time being, put it aside. Now, I had a case, a very, very strong case in my own connection with Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 3:03:50 Highlight the passage at 3:03:50

3:04:21 I was a very, very serious student, even more serious than I was in later years during my first three years, basically doing nothing. But studying, many hours a day, receiving many teachings and so forth. And not once, not once in those three years did I believe that reincarnation was true. I never thought that there was such a thing as past and future lives. And yet, that was a part and parcel of the teachings that I was receiving all that time. Report an error in the passage at 3:04:21 Highlight the passage at 3:04:21

3:04:53 But it just didn't strike me as being possible. So I thought, well, when the teachers are talking about it, they're referring to something else. Maybe this is poetic language that they're using. Maybe there's another way of understanding it. But I can't accept it on that level. But there was so much else that I could not only accept, but that I saw was truly valuable, that I just said, okay, I'm just going to put that to the side for the time being. Report an error in the passage at 3:04:53 Highlight the passage at 3:04:53

3:05:22 And I did that for three years. It's a long time to put something as vital as that to the side when you run across it all the time, until finally I had to confront it much more directly. But I'm not saying that the path that I followed should be emulated, but what I am saying is that, especially let's say in a tradition like Tibetan Buddhism, for example, that there's such a wealth of things in it that you can really focus your mind on those things that speak to your condition. Report an error in the passage at 3:05:22 Highlight the passage at 3:05:22

3:05:54 And then if there's something that doesn't quite speak to it, that's maybe a bit mythological or a bit authoritarian or whatever it is, whatever it appears to be that you're finding uncomfortable about it, then just gently put it to the side. So you're not rejecting it. You're not closing your mind off to its possibility, but you're just deciding, I'll think about that later. Report an error in the passage at 3:05:54 Highlight the passage at 3:05:54

3:06:19 Right now, I've got my jealousy to deal with or I've got this to deal with. And here the teachings have a lot to say about that, so I'll work on that. So I think that can be a very helpful attitude, not to feel that if I follow a path, I've got to immediately swallow, hook, line and sinker every aspect of the path. Report an error in the passage at 3:06:19 Highlight the passage at 3:06:19

3:06:40 I think it's still important for us to retain our individual discriminating awareness. Now later... As we progress in the path and as we encounter more things, then we might have to revisit our discomfort and find out that maybe it's based on a lack of knowledge or experience. Report an error in the passage at 3:06:40 Highlight the passage at 3:06:40

3:07:02 So it doesn't always stay over there in the corner. But that we concentrate on those that really seem to have some transformative value for us. And not worry so much about the others. Report an error in the passage at 3:07:02 Highlight the passage at 3:07:02

3:07:24 That's kind of my initial response to that. The other is that there are now some excellent surveys of many different spiritual traditions including Tibetan Buddhism that give, especially I find from my own predisposition, especially the writings of the Dalai Lama himself, that he has a very kind of Some of his books are quite technical in nature and I wouldn't necessarily recommend them to a beginning student because you might feel kind of overwhelmed by the terminology. Report an error in the passage at 3:07:24 Highlight the passage at 3:07:24

3:08:04 But he has others in which he speaks in a much more conversational direct fashion to the experience of people. And I find that those books give a very nice... Report an error in the passage at 3:08:04 Highlight the passage at 3:08:04

3:08:26 Accessible overview to the path. And using those as kind of the foundation rather than the more technically oriented books, that might be a good way of going, focusing on that. Report an error in the passage at 3:08:26 Highlight the passage at 3:08:26

3:08:42 I'm actually having what's more or less in the nature of an experiment coming up because it's new for me. There's a book that His Holiness has brought out called How to See Yourself as You Really Are. Report an error in the passage at 3:08:42 Highlight the passage at 3:08:42

3:08:56 And from what I understand and from the bit I've delved into it myself, it's a very practice-oriented way of cultivating this wisdom in which we overcome this grasping for separate ego identities. Report an error in the passage at 3:08:56 Highlight the passage at 3:08:56

3:09:18 And it's not, as far as I can see, it's not filled with a lot of technical information, but it's a much more gentle... Introduction into this. And so I've just been asked to teach a course down in Monterey, south of where I live in Santa Cruz. And we decided as a group that we would use that book as the text, which I've never done before, use the text for the course. Report an error in the passage at 3:09:18 Highlight the passage at 3:09:18

3:09:44 So I'm thinking that if things go as I hope that they will, that it'll turn out that this book is indeed accessible. That it doesn't require a lot of past knowledge to get into it and still derive something from the wisdom teachings through this. So if that's the case, then that would be the kind of book that we could read. Report an error in the passage at 3:09:44 Highlight the passage at 3:09:44

3:10:06 You know, just read a little bit each night and just follow the different practices that are suggested and just slowly get into the practice, you know, in a kind of easier, more accessible way. Rather than, there are other books. Written by the Dalai Lama and others, which is a very, very detailed explanation of the same teachings, but are filled with the four schools and their divisions and their view of ultimate reality and their view of conventional reality and what's this difference and how they debate with each other. Report an error in the passage at 3:10:06 Highlight the passage at 3:10:06

3:10:39 You read some of that and it's like it just becomes too much. So those books which provide that kind of gentler, easier, more accessible overview, those would be the ones I would I would more recommend. And I Report an error in the passage at 3:10:39 Highlight the passage at 3:10:39

3:11:04 don't know whether you've read two books by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa, one called Wisdom Energy and the other Introduction to Tantra. Have you looked at those? I had a hand in editing those, so I'm a little bit prejudicial towards them. But what I find special about them is especially Wisdom Energy was... Report an error in the passage at 3:11:04 Highlight the passage at 3:11:04

3:11:30 A compilation of the teachings that Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa gave when they first went to the West in 74. They had been teaching Westerners in the East, but this was their first visit to North America. And they also went to other places on that trip as well. And then this book is a compilation of the talks that they gave on those occasions. So basically they were addressing audiences that they knew had virtually zero background in the kinds of things they were talking about. Report an error in the passage at 3:11:30 Highlight the passage at 3:11:30

3:11:58 So they really... They put things in as relatable and accessible a manner as possible. So they touch on many, many profound topics, but they do it in a way that's much easier to relate to than a more traditional approach. So you might want to look at that. Because then on the basis of something like that, then getting that overview in that way... Report an error in the passage at 3:11:58 Highlight the passage at 3:11:58

3:12:29 Then you can take something that's maybe more technical and get into it without feeling so overwhelmed because you've got kind of a background now. Also in that book, towards the end of their stay in America, they gave a meditation course. And in that, there was a presentation of the entire path in miniature. Report an error in the passage at 3:12:29 Highlight the passage at 3:12:29

3:12:55 They gave a whole meditation course just on a brief weekend. And so there you have an overview of the entire path, but again presented in this kind of very simplified, much easier to get into manner. So wisdom energy, I think that would be a kind of a reasonable way to start, a reasonable way to get an overview. Report an error in the passage at 3:12:55 Highlight the passage at 3:12:55

3:13:26 Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 3:13:26 Highlight the passage at 3:13:26

3:13:30 Of course, for so many people... The path only becomes a living reality when it's seen reflected in someone who has embodied it. So that makes a big difference. You can have books that are nice and paintings that are nice to look at and so forth. But to see a living, breathing other man or woman, someone that you can relate to as another human being, Who has embodied these qualities and then you feel some kind of, especially if it's someone you feel some kind of connection with, then studying in relationship to that kind of teacher also is so much more meaningful than just reading books on one's own because they speak to you. Report an error in the passage at 3:13:30 Highlight the passage at 3:13:30

3:14:25 And it doesn't mean that just because a teacher is famous and well-known or attractive doesn't mean that that's the perfect teacher. you know. Like the Dalai Lama, I think he is a perfect teacher, but that doesn't mean I think he's the perfect teacher for everybody. There's some people who don't feel a karmic connection with him. Report an error in the passage at 3:14:25 Highlight the passage at 3:14:25

3:14:44 They do better studying with someone else. So the fact that someone is well-respected and everybody likes him and they prostrate when he comes into the room and stuff doesn't mean that that's necessarily your teacher. Report an error in the passage at 3:14:44 Highlight the passage at 3:14:44

3:14:56 There also has to be some kind of, you have to be simpatico on some level. There has to be some... Some resonance, I think. Okay. Anything else you want to do before we... Oh, we have about a half an hour, a little bit less. Anything you'd like to bring up before we do concluding meditation? Report an error in the passage at 3:14:56 Highlight the passage at 3:14:56

3:15:26 No? Okay. So let's take a five-minute break and then I'll come back and I'll ring the gong and then we can... Finish up with a meditation, which I guess is going to last about 20 minutes, something like that. Report an error in the passage at 3:15:26 Highlight the passage at 3:15:26

· · · silence, 1 minute

3:16:15 So, this for the... It's working? Yeah. So, here for this final brief session together, I'd like to offer a meditation practice based on what we did before, but taking it another step or two. So, let's start with just... A minute or two of silence and during that time check to see that first and foremost that we're comfortable, that we can adopt a posture that we can stay in for approximately 15 minutes or so without feeling too antsy and uncomfortable and Report an error in the passage at 3:16:15 Highlight the passage at 3:16:15

3:17:00 feel that we're not only comfortable but also somehow or other alert, upright. Not uncomfortably so but in a sufficiently Alert and upright posture to combat the tendency towards drowsiness which is so easy to happen especially after lunchtime. Report an error in the passage at 3:17:00 Highlight the passage at 3:17:00

· · · silence, 1 minute

3:18:23 And then on the basis of being relaxed and comfortably upright and alert let us withdraw the field of our awareness to the rhythmic movement of the breath and the various bodily sensations that this rhythmic movement induces. Report an error in the passage at 3:18:23 Highlight the passage at 3:18:23

· · · silence, 1 minute

3:19:28 And as a suggestion Any time during the remaining meditation, if we feel that our mind has become distracted and scattered or wandered off to some extraneous object, or any time that we feel that our attention has become dull and sleepy and vague, we can return our attention from whatever it is that we might be investigating at that moment and bring it back to the present moment of the incoming and outgoing breath. Report an error in the passage at 3:19:28 Highlight the passage at 3:19:28

3:20:04 Because the breath is always there for us. It's always available for us to turn our attention towards. And so, for example, if we're meditating on a particular topic and our mind becomes distracted and unmanageable, very difficult to keep it focused on that topic, then as we bring our attention back to the breath, we can pay particular attention to the exhalation. Report an error in the passage at 3:20:04 Highlight the passage at 3:20:04

3:20:38 Because as we know, the exhalation is a letting go of the air. Report an error in the passage at 3:20:38 Highlight the passage at 3:20:38

3:20:45 So while we're letting go of the air in the exhalation, we can also let go of our grasp onto whatever it was that may have distracted us in the first place. Whether it's a sound coming from the outside, or a memory that popped up in our mind of something that happened to us earlier in the day, or an anticipation of something that might happen to us later. Report an error in the passage at 3:20:45 Highlight the passage at 3:20:45

3:21:13 Any of these extraneous objects that our mind has wandered towards, we can simply relax and let go at the same time that we're letting go of the breath. Report an error in the passage at 3:21:13 Highlight the passage at 3:21:13

3:21:36 And the other major distraction to meditative concentration is when our mind starts growing dull. It loses its sharp edge in focus. So even though the mind hasn't drifted away to anything else, The field of our mental vision is obscured and unclear. So if we discover that's happened, if we discover that we're losing the sharp edge of our concentration, then again we can bring our attention momentarily back to the breath, but this time pay particular attention to the inhalation. Report an error in the passage at 3:21:36 Highlight the passage at 3:21:36

3:22:19 And each time we inhale, we can sharpen the focus, sharpen the resolution of our attention. Tighten the grip of our attention on whatever object that we're focusing on, starting with the breath and then returning to whatever the object was that we had been meditating on before our mind grew dim and vague. Report an error in the passage at 3:22:19 Highlight the passage at 3:22:19

3:22:45 So in this way, we can use the breath as a self-regulator, exhaling distraction and inhaling to increase the resolution of our attention whenever our mind either wanders, Report an error in the passage at 3:22:45 Highlight the passage at 3:22:45

3:23:08 So now start by simply allowing the breath itself to be the object of meditation, the object of our focus. We Report an error in the passage at 3:23:08 Highlight the passage at 3:23:08

3:23:34 can do this by relaxing our control over the breath and simply let the breath come and go of its own accord, Report an error in the passage at 3:23:34 Highlight the passage at 3:23:34

3:23:47 not trying to control it in any way, Report an error in the passage at 3:23:47 Highlight the passage at 3:23:47

3:24:02 but at the same time remaining as sharp and as mindful of it. As we can be, Report an error in the passage at 3:24:02 Highlight the passage at 3:24:02

3:24:20 as I mentioned earlier, try to become aware of each in-breath from the very moment that the air enters the nostrils until the inhalation is over. All that time, making the mental note, breath is flowing in. Report an error in the passage at 3:24:20 Highlight the passage at 3:24:20

3:24:46 And, in a similar fashion, being aware of each exhalation from the moment the air begins to leave the nostril until the exhalation is finished. All the while making the mental note, breath is flowing out. So we're not controlling the breath here. We're letting it come and go as it will. But we're paying close attention to it, staying in the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 3:24:46 Highlight the passage at 3:24:46

· · · silence, 1 minute

3:25:51 So the incoming and outgoing breath is like the rise and fall of the ocean waves. And Report an error in the passage at 3:25:51 Highlight the passage at 3:25:51

3:26:03 our attention floats on these waves the way a raft might float in the open ocean. Gently rising and falling as the ocean swells and depresses beneath it. Report an error in the passage at 3:26:03 Highlight the passage at 3:26:03

· · · silence, 1 minute

3:26:51 Now we will return to the contemplation of the breath in a moment. But before that, we bring into the meditation a different quality of attention. Report an error in the passage at 3:26:51 Highlight the passage at 3:26:51

3:27:04 And we do this by posing a question to ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 3:27:04 Highlight the passage at 3:27:04

3:27:12 What is it that could happen now? Or what is it that the world could present to me Report an error in the passage at 3:27:12 Highlight the passage at 3:27:12

3:27:23 Give me a sense of well-being. Report an error in the passage at 3:27:23 Highlight the passage at 3:27:23

3:27:32 In other words, in my heart of hearts, what is it that I'm yearning for? And Report an error in the passage at 3:27:32 Highlight the passage at 3:27:32

3:27:46 whatever it is, however you express it, imagine the world providing this very thing for us. Report an error in the passage at 3:27:46 Highlight the passage at 3:27:46

3:28:13 Now initially, our response to this question might be rather superficial, Report an error in the passage at 3:28:13 Highlight the passage at 3:28:13

3:28:27 some momentary gain or experience of pleasure. Report an error in the passage at 3:28:27 Highlight the passage at 3:28:27

3:28:35 An increase in our wealth and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 3:28:35 Highlight the passage at 3:28:35

3:28:45 But see if we can look deeper. Report an error in the passage at 3:28:45 Highlight the passage at 3:28:45

3:28:53 What is it that we truly wish out of this life? Report an error in the passage at 3:28:53 Highlight the passage at 3:28:53

3:29:04 Some people might say peace of mind and contentment. Report an error in the passage at 3:29:04 Highlight the passage at 3:29:04

3:29:23 Others may say an experience of well-being or Report an error in the passage at 3:29:23 Highlight the passage at 3:29:23

3:29:43 perhaps the scope to use my creative powers to Report an error in the passage at 3:29:43 Highlight the passage at 3:29:43

3:29:56 have a meaningful, fulfilling life. Report an error in the passage at 3:29:56 Highlight the passage at 3:29:56

3:30:10 All of these And others that may occur to us are aspects of what we might call genuine happiness. Report an error in the passage at 3:30:10 Highlight the passage at 3:30:10

3:30:26 Something much deeper than transitory pleasure. Report an error in the passage at 3:30:26 Highlight the passage at 3:30:26

3:30:34 A deep sense that our life is purposeful, meaningful, valuable. That we're actually living, not simply surviving. Report an error in the passage at 3:30:34 Highlight the passage at 3:30:34

3:30:54 So imagine circumstances in which the world provides to us one way or another. The circumstances for experiencing such genuine happiness. Report an error in the passage at 3:30:54 Highlight the passage at 3:30:54

· · · silence, 1 minute

3:31:57 This yearning for genuine happiness is an aspect of the goodness that exists in each of our hearts. Report an error in the passage at 3:31:57 Highlight the passage at 3:31:57

3:32:22 So imagine this goodness in the center of our hearts as Report an error in the passage at 3:32:22 Highlight the passage at 3:32:22

3:32:33 if it were a small sphere of radiant white light. Report an error in the passage at 3:32:33 Highlight the passage at 3:32:33

3:32:54 And each time we breathe in, Report an error in the passage at 3:32:54 Highlight the passage at 3:32:54

3:32:59 Feel that the goodness that we're receiving from the world flows into this sphere of radiant white light in our heart and increases its radiance. Report an error in the passage at 3:32:59 Highlight the passage at 3:32:59