Karma, the Ultimate Makeover

0:00 I did that one time and I drew the raffle and I won it. I thought I cheated. Okay, I'll wait until they come. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:20 We'll start. Okay. Okay, so I'll sing a prayer first. Sing a wee prayer. I like to sing a wee prayer first. And this little prayer says, the first two lines are reminding those of us who think we're Buddhists, you know, of our reliance upon the Buddha and his Dharma and so on. If you're a Buddhist, you remember that. Report an error in the passage at 0:20 Highlight the passage at 0:20

0:23 uh, uh, okay. Report an error in the passage at 0:23 Highlight the passage at 0:23

0:41 The second two lines are just really expressing an altruistic reason for our being here. So sort of thinking I'm sitting here, going to listen to these ideas of the Buddha to see if there's something useful I can take as tools in my life to help me do two things. One is to help me put myself together, to help me be a bit less neurotic, a bit less depressed, a bit less angry maybe, and a bit kinder and useful to others. Report an error in the passage at 0:41 Highlight the passage at 0:41

1:03 In a very simple way, thinking like this, more seamless, sort of says that. Sanghe chadam tsokhe choknam la, jan chobharu dagni khyab suchi, dagi chanyen khipa sonam ki, dro la pen shir sanghe dro pashok. Sanghe chadam tsokhe choknam la, jan chobharu dagni khyab suchi, dagi chanyen khipa sonam ki, dro la pen shir sanghe dro pashok. Report an error in the passage at 1:03 Highlight the passage at 1:03

1:36 Sange charan thoket chok nam la jantru badu dagnikyap suchi Dagi chanyen gipesanam ki Drolapen cher sange drupasham Report an error in the passage at 1:36 Highlight the passage at 1:36

1:58 So karma, this word, you know, is so well known these days. Everybody flies it around, uses it in all sorts of ways. It's a common currency even, isn't it? So, you know, but let's... Report an error in the passage at 1:58 Highlight the passage at 1:58

2:11 Just be a bit precise about it, what it really does mean from a Buddhist point of view, quite precise. So the first thing to always remember when we listen to Buddhist ideas, Buddhist teachings, I think it's crucial to just remember clearly what Buddha is. Where does this stuff come from? Because it's religion, we're just saying a prayer, I'm a nun, there's a nun here, so we think, oh yeah, religion. We have this usual view of what religious ideas are. Report an error in the passage at 2:11 Highlight the passage at 2:11

2:36 And I'm not criticising, but I'm just saying we need to be very clear. Because the implication of it is quite interesting. So obviously, I was born of a Catholic, right? And we know that religion, usually religion is, you posit a creator. And that means God made the universe, God made me, God made the laws of morality. Report an error in the passage at 2:36 Highlight the passage at 2:36

2:52 And in fact, doing what God said is what is doing, that's what being good is. And going against God's will is what a sin is. So it's related to God because he's the creator, he runs the show, you know? But Buddhism is not that. It's got the trappings, just the same. Report an error in the passage at 2:52 Highlight the passage at 2:52

3:24 thing as a creator. He doesn't mean he doesn't think, he uses the term omniscient mind, same as the religion of Catholics and the rest. But he doesn't say, his He doesn't say that omniscient minds create universes. In fact, his point is we don't need creating. He would suggest that's unnecessary, and I'll give you the reason why. Report an error in the passage at 3:24 Highlight the passage at 3:24

3:43 It's about his whole view of where we come from. So he doesn't assert a creator, and certainly himself is not a creator. So then we have to ask the question, well, that's interesting, where does what's Buddhism, where does it come from? If it's not coming from on high, which is how we assume it is? Something you're supposed to do because somebody said. This philosophy is what we assume religion's about. And it's really a similar philosophy in our own life. Report an error in the passage at 3:43 Highlight the passage at 3:43

4:05 You do it because mummy said. You do it because the judge said. You do it because the laws say so. It tends to be, we think of it from on The Buddhist one is this. Buddha... Report an error in the passage at 4:05 Highlight the passage at 4:05

4:29 direct experience came to various direct experiential findings and that's really what Buddhism is it's Buddha's findings about how How reality is. He's not coming to him on high. He is saying, in fact, karma, for example, is a natural law. It just occurs. No one has to make it. No one creates it. No one made it up. He's not speculating. He didn't have a vision about it. It wasn't revealed to him. There's no concept like this. Report an error in the passage at 4:29 Highlight the passage at 4:29

4:58 So what karma is, for example, one of the fundamental views of Buddhism, it's crucial, it's central to the whole of the Buddhist approach to life. Report an error in the passage at 4:58 Highlight the passage at 4:58

5:08 It's coming from his own, he has observed that this is how things are. Now this approach is exactly how we think of science. If I'm Einstein up here telling you about relativity, you know it wasn't revealed to me in a dream. You know it wasn't revealed to me by somebody on high. You know I'm not asking you to believe me. You know that I came to my conclusions and have observed this and am now telling you my findings. Report an error in the passage at 5:08 Highlight the passage at 5:08

5:33 Well that's the Buddha. That's the Buddha. So therefore the approach to Buddhism isn't to believe it. Just like it is with science. You don't go to school and learn one and one is two and your teacher says you better believe it. You can believe it, but it won't get you far. You can memorize it, like some of us do, and you can give the right amount of money. Someone says give two dollars. Report an error in the passage at 5:33 Highlight the passage at 5:33

5:55 But if you don't understand it, what can you do with it? You're stuck. So the Buddha's approach has to be experiential. And as the Dalai Lama says, if you practice Buddhism as he lays it out, And I mean being authentic, not just doing what you think Buddha said, but being precise, being accurate. If you practice what Buddha says and you move along on the path and you come to a point where you don't experience what he says you should, just like in science, then Buddha's wrong. Report an error in the passage at 5:55 Highlight the passage at 5:55

6:24 You must reject him. There's a bit of a shock when we think of religion, but this is the Buddhist approach. So most of us really don't have this level of rigorous, disciplined approach to it. We'd rather just believe, sort of intellectually lazy actually, we prefer that. We might relate to Buddhism, yeah I like reincarnation, but not as animals, no I don't like that. Report an error in the passage at 6:24 Highlight the passage at 6:24

6:44 We take what we tend to like. Many Christians would just say, oh I don't believe in hell, because they don't like it. Well I don't care if we like or not like something. You might not like the fact that fire burns you, but whether you believe it or not, it will burn you because it's the way things are. And this is how Buddha talks a lot. Report an error in the passage at 6:44 Highlight the passage at 6:44

7:01 He uses this term thusness. It's how things are. And what he is suggesting is this is the way he presents. He's very confident. He's not trying to say maybe I'm right, perhaps I'm speculating. He is saying this is how I have found reality to be. And then of course it's up to you. You don't have to believe it. He wouldn't ask you not to believe it. He'd ask you to check it out. Report an error in the passage at 7:01 Highlight the passage at 7:01

7:20 Take it on board and then if it is true, you will slowly experience it for yourself. This is the approach. It has to be experiential. You can't just say I believe in impermanence, you know. You can't just say I believe in karma and then not know what it means, not know how to explain it and not apply it in your daily life. Report an error in the passage at 7:20 Highlight the passage at 7:20

7:40 Just like you say, you know, I believe in one and one is two but you don't know how to apply it. It's even more ridiculous. So it really needs, if you're taking it on board, and you can be a 1 % Buddhist by the way, you don't have to swallow a whole lot whole. You don't have to swallow any of it whole. You take on board what works for you. Report an error in the passage at 7:40 Highlight the passage at 7:40

7:55 You are the boss, not Buddha. It's a really important point. So that's a crucial thing. So in your mind, let's say you've heard this stuff 20,000 times, let's say you've never heard it before, you take it as your hypothesis. And I know it can sound a bit silly. For myself personally, I don't use the word I believe. I believe in it. I believe in Buddhism. I don't say that. Report an error in the passage at 7:55 Highlight the passage at 7:55

8:16 I say I use it as my working hypothesis and that really is the correct approach. They don't use a term, you know, we use a concept. But the Buddha would say check up, check on it. Don't just accept it, check it. When you're confident, first intellectually, then you start to apply. Like we would do anything, you know. You might have heard about some excellent doctor, but you don't just take it on faith. Report an error in the passage at 8:16 Highlight the passage at 8:16

8:38 You check up, you do your own research. You go ask Google, you check it up. Then you have some confidence. And then from your own direct experience... You can really then have confidence more than just merely intellectual, based on experience. So this is the approach actually. So then what is this karma business? Report an error in the passage at 8:38 Highlight the passage at 8:38

8:54 What does Buddha mean by it? Actually it's absolutely central. To all of Buddhists, from the big picture point of view of the way the world is, which is really what Buddhism is, it's a world view, it's a view of how the universe exists, it's a view of what is a person, what is happiness, what is suffering, what are the causes, what is possible, can we achieve this, what is that. Report an error in the passage at 8:54 Highlight the passage at 8:54

9:14 It's not just go and be mindful, because many people think you're walking around looking like all holy, being mindful or closing your eyes and watching your breath or something, you know. There is one tiny technique in Buddhism for good reasons, you know. So the central point for Buddha where karma plays out is in the mind. Mind is completely, Buddha, this is his main thing. Report an error in the passage at 9:14 Highlight the passage at 9:14

9:34 He would in fact say everything comes from the mind. And don't hear it as some cosmic idea. Very precise. It's a very precise point. So the fundamental thing to get to understand, to take as a hypothesis here, because you're going to see, if you haven't heard it before, it's a very different view about what the mind is and indeed what its potential is. Report an error in the passage at 9:34 Highlight the passage at 9:34

9:53 This is absolutely central. So I'm not joking when I say that Buddha really is a psychologist. It's just that we have a very fixed view of what a psychologist is, but he is dealing with the mind. He doesn't talk about soul. He doesn't use the word spirit. He uses the word mind. But let's look what he means by that, because this business of karma, it plays out in the mind. Report an error in the passage at 9:53 Highlight the passage at 9:53

10:13 Karma is done by the mind. Karma is experienced by the mind. Karma is created by the mind. And these are fundamental things that without understanding these even basically, you haven't got a clue what Buddha's on about. Okay, so mind for the Buddha, as soon as we say the word mind in our materialist view, we point up here and we mean our brain. Report an error in the passage at 10:13 Highlight the passage at 10:13

10:38 We mean our brain. Well Buddha, you ask a great meditator in a cave in Tibet who's been there for 50 years or something or whatever, you ask him where his brain is, he probably wouldn't know. They don't study brains. They study the mind. Okay, so what is it? So clearly the brain plays a role. Absolutely, you can't deny this. Report an error in the passage at 10:38 Highlight the passage at 10:38

10:57 And these amazing conferences over the last 30 years run by an organisation called Mind and Life with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and all the best brains in the Tibetan Buddhist world, including among Westerners, and the scientific world, amazing meetings coming together about these marvellous things, about the way mind functions, what it is, all this business, and many of the great findings about neuroplasticity, for example. Report an error in the passage at 10:57 Highlight the passage at 10:57

11:21 The greatest finding of the 20th century, as one scientist said, are coming as a result of experiments on the minds of meditators, the brains of meditators. So clearly the brain plays a role, we can't say it doesn't. But the Buddha would say mind is not physical. So okay, the Catholics and the Muslims would say your soul is not physical. Report an error in the passage at 11:21 Highlight the passage at 11:21

11:39 They would suggest there is something not physical, whereas if you're a materialist, we would suggest if you can't see it, it doesn't exist virtually. So here you could say Buddha agrees with other religions in asserting something that is not physical. But he would call it the mind. Or indeed he'd call it consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 11:39 Highlight the passage at 11:39

11:55 These words are synonymous. That's the first point. It's different. Very different. Second, if we think of our mind, we tend to think of it as our capacity for conceptuality. From the time you wake up until the time you go to sleep. Then we know we've got this weird world called dreams but there's no real common understanding of what the dreams are, how that works, you know, no one quite gets, don't understand much. Report an error in the passage at 11:55 Highlight the passage at 11:55

12:18 But it's the gross level of our conceptuality and then the functioning of our senses, you know. So this is the tip of the iceberg as far as the Buddha is concerned about the level at which mind functions. So there's a really good example of this, an indicator of this difference in the way, the level to which we can cognise things. Report an error in the passage at 12:18 Highlight the passage at 12:18

12:38 So there was this conference, one of these mind and life conferences in 2003, I think, in Harvard or somewhere. And the topic was what's the capacity of the human mind to concentrate? So there were the materialists presenting their findings, basing them, of course, on their view that your mind is your brain and conceptuality is the capacity of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 12:38 Highlight the passage at 12:38

12:57 And they came up with their five seconds or six seconds or something was our capacity. However they defined it, I'm not sure. There's the Dalai Lama and his mob. Coming up with their findings, basing it of course on the view of mind being the tip of the iceberg is conceptuality, but the word mind which also is referring to thoughts, feelings, emotions, unconscious, subconscious and to a far more subtle, more refined level of consciousness or cognition than we would ever posit as even existing in our materialist views. Report an error in the passage at 12:57 Highlight the passage at 12:57

13:26 They came up with their findings that you could concentrate for quotes months on end. Big difference, okay? So there's a huge difference. The word's the same, but there's an absolute difference in terms of what it actually is, its potential, the level to which one can go in accessing it, and that's where all these meditation techniques come in. Report an error in the passage at 13:26 Highlight the passage at 13:26

13:48 And they're pre-Buddha, you know, these concentration meditation techniques, the mindful... Mindfulness techniques that are so common in the world these days, that so many people are doing, which is fantastic because they're great techniques, they're pre-Buddha. He took them from the Hindus from thousands of years before that. Report an error in the passage at 13:48 Highlight the passage at 13:48

14:03 And they perfected this capacity of the mind to go to very subtle levels, which is why you can have these levels of concentration at months on end, which seems bizarre to us. So the mind of the Buddha goes to far more subtle, more refined levels of cognition. And we need in the long term... To accomplish, this is the third difference, what Buddha would suggest is the potential of this mind. And here the difference is massive, radically different. Report an error in the passage at 14:03 Highlight the passage at 14:03

14:31 So the Buddha says we want every mind that exists. And also another point, difference, a fourth point, is it's not just referring to humans. The term in Tibetan for a living being is the term a mind possessor, semchen. Mind possessor. So mind possessors are not just humans, they're animals. There's many other kinds that we can't even see. The Buddha would suggest beings called God beings, a bit like heaven and paradise, the way Christians and Muslims talk. Report an error in the passage at 14:31 Highlight the passage at 14:31

14:59 Hell beings, spirits, all kinds of sentient beings or mind possessors. So again, a radical difference here. Not just humans. All mind possessors, the Buddha says, possess the potential to literally perfect their minds. To achieve what they call Buddhahood, what they call nirvāṇa, cessation of suffering and the complete development of a state of infinite love, infinite wisdom, infinite kindness, all the good qualities. Report an error in the passage at 14:59 Highlight the passage at 14:59

15:28 Because another point about the Buddha, his point here, fifth point by now I think, about the mind, is that the virtuous or the positive states in our mind, we all know them, love, compassion, kindness, are at the core of our being and they can be cultivated to a level of perfection. Now my Catholic mum was shocked by that. Sounds very arrogant, doesn't it? If you believe in a creator who is perfect, you do not say you can become perfect and seem supreme arrogance. Report an error in the passage at 15:28 Highlight the passage at 15:28

15:54 But this is the major difference of the Buddha, and this is his observation, that every mind can be cultivated to the point of perfection, which means, and this is his other difference, that the negative states of mind, he uses these terms, positive, negative and neutral. Forget the neutral. The positive we know, love, compassion, we all know those, we know inside yourself or if you're on the receiving end we know they're the nice ones, more of those please. Now the negative ones, very simple, fear, jealousy, hate, resentment, bitterness, low self-esteem, depression, we all know these, upside down and back to front. Report an error in the passage at 15:54 Highlight the passage at 15:54

16:30 So in our view, in the materialist world, we take these both, we give them equal status. Report an error in the passage at 16:30 Highlight the passage at 16:30

16:48 some anger, some jealousy we consider a reasonable rounded person to be having all these bits and pieces but in a nice balanced way so then we don't have a view in our materialist world of getting Report an error in the passage at 16:48 Highlight the passage at 16:48

17:01 these neuroses, getting rid completely of the negative states of mind. That sounds quite insane. You go to your therapist and you say, may I have methods please to get rid of all jealousy, all anger, all ego, all fear, all grasping, all depression, and have love and compassion for all living beings equally. Report an error in the passage at 17:01 Highlight the passage at 17:01

17:17 They will think you're a psycho, and I'm not kidding, they'll think you're wacky and will give you a pill and tell you to come back. But this is what Buddha is saying. So please get it in a very practical way, not an airy, fairy, mystical way we think of religion. You know, oh wow, Nirvāṇa, far out. It's not a place like heaven. It's a word that you can use, speaking loosely, to refer to your mind, the mind of the person, having done the job that Buddha's techniques would tell us that we can do, because this is view, that we can perfect our own mind. Report an error in the passage at 17:17 Highlight the passage at 17:17

17:48 The word, in fact, in Tibetan, for the word Buddha, Sangye. The first syllable implies the complete removal, complete eradication down to the subtlest degree of all delusions, all neuroses, all the unhappy states of mind, which like I said we assume are completely normal. We assume even probably are really who we are. Big shock to hear that he says they're not. They have this term in Buddhist psychology. You've got to look up your dictionary to find this word because we never use it. Report an error in the passage at 17:48 Highlight the passage at 17:48

18:19 It's the word that they are adventitious. Means they're not integral to our very being. You can't just believe this. This is why you just don't believe this stuff. You should take it on board and think about it. But it's immensely inspiring to think. And this is Buddha's experience. He's taken from his own direct experience. He's seen it to be so. Report an error in the passage at 18:19 Highlight the passage at 18:19

18:37 And that's what all his methods are about. Giving us the methods to help identify in our mind the neuroses, the misery, the rubbish, the nonsense, the neurotic emotions. Go to far more subtle depths into our minds so we can really unpack and unravel them and remove them utterly from our mind, eventually. And that means the full development of the good qualities. Report an error in the passage at 18:37 Highlight the passage at 18:37

18:56 So the first syllable, Sun, Buddha, Buddha, implies the eradication of all the neuroses. And the second syllable implies the complete development of all the goodness. That's what a Buddha is, is a person who's perfected their minds. Infinite wisdom, infinite compassion, infinite power, infinite goodness, infinite bliss. Report an error in the passage at 18:56 Highlight the passage at 18:56

19:14 Buddha says this is the potential of all minds. So essentially that's what Buddha's saying. These points I've just told you. That's it. What Buddhism is, is how to do it. But that's essentially Buddha's goal, Buddha's deal, you know. If you say you're a Christian, God created, and your goal is to be in heaven with God. That's essentially not being, you know, simplistic. Report an error in the passage at 19:14 Highlight the passage at 19:14

19:33 But this is the essence of what you're doing as a Buddha. Buddha's view of the mind is not physical. Okay, the other major point, missed this one, this is the point now. Didn't come from anyone else. No one gives it to you. I mean, this is a big shock. If you're a materialist, you share one thing in common, at least, with religious people, with creator people. Report an error in the passage at 19:33 Highlight the passage at 19:33

19:53 Somebody else created you. As far as you're concerned, your mummy and daddy make you. This is the total assumption of all scientific findings about the mind, that your mother and father make you because they say it's your brain. Of course, it's obvious. Your brain does come from your mother. No one argues about this. Egg and sperm. Your mummy and daddy worked really hard for that egg and sperm to come together. Report an error in the passage at 19:53 Highlight the passage at 19:53

20:11 And then your mummy worked really hard in nourishing you in her body so you pop out with a decent brain and a decent body. So they did give you the body. Very clear. That's provable. But the Buddha would say they did not give you a mind. This is the conclusion. This is the other final point where Buddha's fundamental difference. It's not physical. It goes to far more subtle levels of capacity for cognition. Report an error in the passage at 20:11 Highlight the passage at 20:11

20:32 It can be rid of the pollution and full of the positive, which means it can become perfect. And it's not given to you by anybody else. This is what Buddha's saying and this is what his findings are. So a person who's taking Buddhism on board in their life, especially the big picture, because many people practice bits and pieces of Buddhism, which is cool, they don't study the philosophy, they don't study the view. Report an error in the passage at 20:32 Highlight the passage at 20:32

20:52 I'm not saying I've done much, but for me in my life always I was worried I'm a Catholic. Then I became an old radical lefty. I always wanted a big view of the world, you know. I wanted a picture somehow to work out in the nuts and bolts of why this, why that, why happiness, why suffering, what makes it work, which of course is what scientists are doing too, from a materialist point of view. Report an error in the passage at 20:52 Highlight the passage at 20:52

21:11 And so for me, you know, in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition certainly, in the big monastic universities, there's an emphasis on not just practicing meditation, which is the cliché view of what a Buddhist is, with their eyes closed and their legs crossed, or maybe your eyes crossed, who knows? You understand? But that's just an application of one of the techniques to be able to accomplish what he says we can accomplish, this perfection of our own mind. Report an error in the passage at 21:11 Highlight the passage at 21:11

21:37 That's what a Buddhist is doing. So these differences you can see are quite radical, quite different from the Christian teachings in many ways and quite absolutely radically different from the materialist views. So a person who's being a Buddhist, if you're doing it properly... You know, one doesn't just swallow this whole thing, oh I like that idea, I think I'll believe in that. No, in a sense what you're trying to do is take on board these ideas of the Buddha, use them as you work your hypothesis and then every day you practice and study it and practice more, hopefully you're going to verify it eventually. Report an error in the passage at 21:37 Highlight the passage at 21:37

22:10 Because if you can't verify it eventually in the long term, it can't be your experience. Because if you go home from your study at school and your teacher tells you one and one is two, she wants you to do two things. She wants you to experience it as the truth, which means you verify it as the truth, isn't it? And that's how you learn everything. If you're going to study acupuncture, you just don't go off and study and memorize it and believe that this needle put there does this. Report an error in the passage at 22:10 Highlight the passage at 22:10

22:35 You experience it. You get to know it experientially. And that's how we learn everything. Well, it's the same here, you know. That's really the way to apply Buddhism in your life. So, of course, it's up to each one of us the degree to which we want to apply it. So that's that first. So let's look then what he means by karma, because it fits into this picture I've just told you. Karma for the Buddha is a Sanskrit word that means action, but it has this kind of dynamic implication of reaction, action-reaction, cause-effect, seed-fruit. Report an error in the passage at 22:35 Highlight the passage at 22:35

23:10 And for the Buddha, this is a natural law, like botany, like gravity. No one made it up. He certainly didn't make it up. It would be very rude if he did. How rude of him to make something up. That's outrageous, you know. He's observed it to be true. So that's what we need to, one takes it on board as one's hypothesis and then through utilizing these meditation techniques and by studying the meaning of all this, one takes it on board and one learns to get, you know, to access certain levels of one's mind in order to do this job of removing the nonsense from our minds. Report an error in the passage at 23:10 Highlight the passage at 23:10

23:44 But the karmic idea fits in, in so far as he says we're not created by someone else. Because, you know, we can look at all the views of psychology in our materialist world are based absolutely upon the assumption, which we take as an absolute fact, which no one refutes, which no one argues with, that your mother and father made you. Report an error in the passage at 23:44 Highlight the passage at 23:44

24:06 Everything in our psychology is based on this. Everything you get from your therapist is based upon this. My mother and father made me. Well, of course, if your mother and father made you, they are the blame. I agree with you. The Buddha says they didn't make you, Robina. They're lying, they're having fun and you come along, you know, basically. So don't blame them. In other words, you know, this is the business of karma. Your consciousness didn't come from your mother's and father's womb, from your mother's womb. Report an error in the passage at 24:06 Highlight the passage at 24:06

24:31 It's not the brain. It has a relationship with the brain. It's not physical. It doesn't come from a creator. So if I'm a Christian, God puts the soul there at conception. If I'm a materialist, the egg and sperm is what I am. The Buddha has this third view, you know, that your consciousness, which is the continuity of mental moments, In the same way that it is right now, we can think of this. If you had perfect memory, you know, you could track your physical experiences back to yesterday, day before, day before, and you could track your mental experiences, your thoughts, your memories, your feelings, your anger, your love, your compassion, your capacity to be good at music, your capacity to be good at football. Report an error in the passage at 24:31 Highlight the passage at 24:31

25:06 They're all mental experiences. So you could have two separate tracks. You could, couldn't you, if you really had good memory. You track your physical back to when you were a little girl and tiny and there and a baby and in the womb and a fetus. You track your mental in the same way. It's an unbroken chain of mental moments. Report an error in the passage at 25:06 Highlight the passage at 25:06

25:21 In Buddhist psychology they use a term, they have a term, mental continuum. Now we don't remember most of what goes on in our mind. We talk about not remembering a past life. Well, excuse me, 99 % of today. I'm sorry, we just don't. Our gross conceptuality doesn't have the capacity. In other words, the Buddha's view is, and we can see it, it's true, but we never question this because we think it's normal, that our capacity for cognition, which is the job of your mind, is very limited. Report an error in the passage at 25:21 Highlight the passage at 25:21

25:51 We don't remember most of today. What we do remember is completely clouded by what's in our own mind, our neuroses and our anger and our fears. We don't see things clearly at all, he says. So forget about remembering when we were a child or to mention a past life. But the Buddha would say your mind goes back and back in an unbroken chain of mental moments. Report an error in the passage at 25:51 Highlight the passage at 25:51

26:09 There's not a single microsecond of your existence that your mind hasn't existed, even just to remember it. So if you go back to the first second of conception, of course the big question is where did it come from? We know your body came from your mummy and daddy. Well your mind came from, very simple, a previous moment of itself. It's its own continuity, its own river of mental moments, its own mental continuum. Report an error in the passage at 26:09 Highlight the passage at 26:09

26:31 Clearly the mind goes to more subtle levels, because obviously it wasn't the gross conceptuality. If there's no brain there, there can't be. Report an error in the passage at 26:31 Highlight the passage at 26:31

26:40 It's a reminder of something. So the whole idea is the Buddha said, of course you can't possibly prove this initially. One can't see this as true. But the Buddha says when you've accessed these subtle levels of your own mind through meditation, one of the characteristics that we all cultivate, which the Hindus talked about as well, but which is just a part of the deal in your Buddhist practice as you really develop yourself, and it's quite a high realisation, you become clairvoyant. Report an error in the passage at 26:40 Highlight the passage at 26:40

27:06 We think this is some weird, wacky, hippy, trippy thing that somebody remembers they were an Egyptian princess 14 miles ago, maybe. But the Buddha would say that the gross level of mind functioning in this body in relation to a brain, the tip of the iceberg, doesn't have that capacity. And this is where these marvelous psychological meditation techniques come in. They're functions of the mind. They're psychological. Report an error in the passage at 27:06 Highlight the passage at 27:06

27:29 Where you can focus the mind to a stunningly subtle degree that enables you to get to more subtle, more refined levels. Like I said before, that we don't even posit as existing. So when one does this, at that level of mind which is more subtle, which doesn't depend upon a brain for its existence, then you can see more subtle phenomena such as the past, the future, the minds of others, etc. Report an error in the passage at 27:29 Highlight the passage at 27:29

27:52 This is just part of the deal in Buddhism. Buddhism says we've all got this capacity. So very many differences we can see. These are functions of the mind. So this mind of ours keeps going. And then you track it back not more than a few weeks, it was in a subtler level, subtler form, and you're going to see it was in a previous body, Buddha says, after it left that body. Report an error in the passage at 27:52 Highlight the passage at 27:52

28:11 So this is where karma plays in now. So then, what karma is, as I said, it's a Sanskrit word that means action. It has the implication of reaction. Basically, if we think of ourselves right now, every microsecond, whatever our mind is doing, Every second, we know this. Even in psychology they say there's like a thousand thoughts a second. Buddha would agree with that. And we know we don't remember 99 % of them. Noticing what we're thinking most of the time, forgetting about the unconscious and subconscious. Report an error in the passage at 28:11 Highlight the passage at 28:11

28:40 But every microsecond of whatever's going on in our mind, each one is a karma, an action, that will necessarily leave an imprint in our own mind itself. In other words, we're programming our mind every second. And these imprints, all these seeds, if you like, are left in our minds, whatever we think or indeed do or say with our body and speech on the basis of what's in our mind. Report an error in the passage at 28:40 Highlight the passage at 28:40

29:03 Let's face it, the body and speech are just the servants of the mind. They carry out its wishes. But everything we think and do and say is a karma that leaves an imprint or programming or whatever in the mind that will ripen in the future in this river of mental moments. As our future experiences and indeed whatever we are experiencing now is necessarily the fruit of seeds we planted in the past. Report an error in the passage at 29:03 Highlight the passage at 29:03

29:29 So we're talking big past, like before this life, we're talking after this life. But this is just what Buddha's deal is. He says your mind is beginningless and endless. It doesn't need creating. It's always existed and it will always exist. Again, a very different view. This is just what Buddha has observed. This is his observation. And all of Buddha's philosophy and his experiences, all his metaphysics, all his practices, all his psychology are all based upon this assumption. Report an error in the passage at 29:29 Highlight the passage at 29:29

29:53 That mind is beginningless and endless. It doesn't come from someone else. It's your mind, baby. And whatever's in it, you put it in there. This is a fundamental idea of karma. So we can see, very different view. Very, very different view. It means cause and effect. And we understand this in very simple ways. We understand the law of cause and effect. I mean, we are brilliant at this in the physical world. Report an error in the passage at 29:53 Highlight the passage at 29:53

30:17 We know very well you put a seed in the ground and put water on it and give it a bit of sun, a bit of time, you'll get a nice little flower. That's called cause and effect. And we know it's a natural law and we know you'll get a rose every time from a rose seed. You won't suddenly get a peach tree. Big surprise. It's a natural law. Report an error in the passage at 30:17 Highlight the passage at 30:17

30:35 So, you know, we know these laws well. That's why we're so brilliant in science and so brilliant at making computers and houses and things. We have the law of numbers down, so houses stay up every time if you obey the law nicely. Well, Buddha talks about the law of karma in exactly the same way, with the same certainty, that whatever we think and do and say... Report an error in the passage at 30:35 Highlight the passage at 30:35

31:08 of music. You follow the laws of cooking, you'll get a cake. You follow the laws of botany, you'll get a flower. You follow the laws of numbers and engineering, you'll get a house. We're not surprised by this. We're geniuses at it. The same precision and clarity and... And is what Buddha would demand we use to understand the law of karma in order to live our life well. So what he's dealing with in karma is happiness and suffering. Report an error in the passage at 31:08 Highlight the passage at 31:08

31:35 He says every moment of suffering, however you label it, and we can look at what he means by suffering, is the fruit of a seed you planted in your mind in the past. What kind of seed? Well, a seed of a negative state of mind like anger, Wish to harm, negativity, fear, jealousy, the craving, the stealing, whatever we call it, an action in the mind that with a body and speech carried out the wishes of that left an imprint in your mind, a seed in your mind that will then ripen as you're suffering. Report an error in the passage at 31:35 Highlight the passage at 31:35

32:10 But the same with happiness. You see, people talk about karma and we're only worried about the bad things because we're all addicted to bad things. We love negativity. Ego loves negativity. Report an error in the passage at 32:10 Highlight the passage at 32:10

32:48 So the Buddha would say, just having this kind of attitude, wanting to be in a thing like this, you know, checking on the meaning of life, being a human being, it would blow our minds if we realised how hard we worked morality and goodness and the spiritual path, even probably keeping vows of morality and generosity and kindness and patience, a whole pile of good actions that accumulated energy in our mind, because nothing goes astray. Report an error in the passage at 32:48 Highlight the passage at 32:48

33:17 Every seed you put in that ground ever brings something. So everything we think and do and say will not go astray. Buddha's basically saying, in other words, we create ourselves. We are the main cause of how come we're human, how come we have happiness, how come we have good health, or indeed how come we have bad health, how come someone's mean to us, how come we have negative tendencies. Report an error in the passage at 33:17 Highlight the passage at 33:17

33:35 We are the boss. We are the boss. We do it, he says. It's not your parents, they're secondary. A superior being, the Buddha's view, Buddha's a superior being, he uses the term superior being, they have nothing to do with it. We run our own shows. Big surprise is we don't think we do, we think everybody else does it to us. Report an error in the passage at 33:35 Highlight the passage at 33:35

33:55 We think I didn't ask to get born, it's not my fault is it? It's their fault, his fault, her fault. That's how we think, it's our default mode. Buddha fundamentally disagrees. Okay, so karma you can say are past actions of a thought or something in the mind. Lama Tsongkhapa, Shantideva There's no one up there judging, there's no one up there rewarding, there's no one up there punishing, there's no one up there pulling the strings. There's no view like that in Buddhism. Therefore it's not punishment and it's not reward. Report an error in the passage at 33:55 Highlight the passage at 33:55

34:47 It's a natural law, the Buddha says. What minds do brings their own results. So if this is true, as Buddha's suggesting, then if you want to get a handle on your life, you better know what seeds to plant and what ones not. It's kind of obvious, isn't it? So if a negative seed will ripen as my suffering, I've got to check. Do I want suffering? Nope. Conclusion? Don't put the bad seeds in. Report an error in the passage at 34:47 Highlight the passage at 34:47

35:12 It's very simple. If I want happiness, yes please. What are they the result of? Virtuous actions. And again, keep remembering, it's not punishment or reward, which is the default mode we have. Even if we're not religious, we still think in terms of punishment and reward. If I'm a good person, I'll get rewarded. If I'm a good person at work, they'll praise me. If I'm a good girl, mummy will thank me. Report an error in the passage at 35:12 Highlight the passage at 35:12

35:32 And if we're not thanked or not praised, we get disappointed because we have this dualistic idea that we need to be praised and we need to be rewarded by someone else. Well, my mother used to say, a Catholic, you know, virtue has its own rewards. That's Buddha's point. And non-virtue brings its own non-rewards. Report an error in the passage at 35:32 Highlight the passage at 35:32

35:51 This is, for Buddha, a natural law. It takes a while to get our head around this concept. It's not a complicated concept. It's not difficult. But it's emotionally so different. And the assumptions behind it are so different, it takes a while to process it, honestly. So the Buddha's basically saying, one, your own humanity itself, your mummy and daddy were lying there, and due to very many causes and conditions, it's highly complex, actually, the workings of this law. Report an error in the passage at 35:51 Highlight the passage at 35:51

36:18 One is speaking just very simply here, just the principles of it, you know, that's all. But you know the workings of it are super sophisticated. So, you know, due to many, many causes and conditions in the past, in your mind, you... Created the cause of a time of death, virtuous karma would have ripened, you would have had a decent death, you would go through this different kind of state, like a dream state, they call it the intermediate state, and then eventually when your mummy and daddy are there doing their thing, in my case in Melbourne, Billy and Teddy doing their trip, my mummy Agnes Bliss married my daddy Teddy Courtin, there they were. Report an error in the passage at 36:18 Highlight the passage at 36:18

36:51 And they weren't going, now we'll make Robina, they were just having fun. And I wasn't going, oh there's Teddy and Billy, I might go over there. No. Karma programs your mind, you're on autopilot, you know. So you know the karma ripens and your mind zaps over there, boom, in you go, the beginning of Rabina. Report an error in the passage at 36:51 Highlight the passage at 36:51

37:09 That's the first way your karma ripens, the kind of birth you get. Then the second one is all your tendencies. You know, we think I am angry because my daddy's angry. I'm good at music. My mother was a musician, right? She said I was good at music. Oh, that's because mummy's good at music. The Buddha would say no. Report an error in the passage at 37:09 Highlight the passage at 37:09

37:27 We're both good at music because we've practiced it before. My daddy and I are both good at anger because we've practiced that before. Mozart, you know, you give him a piano at the age of six, off he went, writing his sonatas. He must have brought that with him. Hitler, look at him. You can't blame his poor Austrian house mummy for that. Excuse me. Buddha says we are the creators of ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 37:27 Highlight the passage at 37:27

37:48 It's a big shock, really. This is Buddha's deal. We are accountable. So the conclusion from this... You know, the very humanity that you've got, you're being a human being. The main cause that is not your parents is your past karma, your past accumulation of virtue. Then secondly, your tendencies. The fact that we're sitting in this room and not out there trying to kill people. That's a tendency in our mind of virtue, an appreciation of goodness, wanting to answer the questions. Report an error in the passage at 37:48 Highlight the passage at 37:48

38:16 What is this? What is that? Why are we happy? Why are we suffering? Those are tendencies in our mind that we have nourished. That's why they ripen. Report an error in the passage at 38:16 Highlight the passage at 38:16

38:52 But why are you good at anger, Robina? Oh, that's my father's fault. Oh, that's Fred's fault. Nothing to do with me. I didn't ask to get born. It's not my fault. When it comes to emotional stuff, morality, we can't bear to own it. Even the goodness. We don't even like to own it. We don't even think we're good. Very different views we have. It's kind of interesting. So your tendencies are the results of your having practiced those before. Report an error in the passage at 38:52 Highlight the passage at 38:52

39:15 All your junky ones, all your good ones. And the third way your karma ripens is kind of interesting. Here's the stuff that happens to you. This kind of gets heavy for us. People give you a million dollars. You're born to a loving family, kind parents, beautiful friends, nice boss. You get a job. The credit card companies trust you and give you credit. Every good thing that happens to you, every bad thing that happens to you, the Buddha says, same law, the main cause of it, honey, your past action, based upon a state of mind. Report an error in the passage at 39:15 Highlight the passage at 39:15

39:49 So the suffering stuff, people punch you in the nose. Report an error in the passage at 39:49 Highlight the passage at 39:49

39:55 mind that you didn't pull out and has now ripened and all the good as well and if we look into our lives we have bucket loads of good many we have the fact we have family friends support we have bad stuff too but all the good but we don't ever worry about that we tend to go we agonize about the bad stuff why do bad things happen to me don't know why you know never say why do good things happen to me We don't care why, just give me more, you know. But the Buddha would say, it's like the weeds and flowers in your garden. You can't just have one law for the flowers. Oh, you own the flowers, but the weeds are not my weeds. Report an error in the passage at 39:55 Highlight the passage at 39:55

40:30 I'm sorry, the law of botany applies to weeds and flowers as well. Same here. All your suffering, all your happiness, Buddha says, he puts us in the central role. So of course we hear that, we go, oh, you mean I'm to blame? Of course that's the word we use. Well, yep, you are, for all the good things. Report an error in the passage at 40:30 Highlight the passage at 40:30

40:49 That's me here. We like that. We kind of, oh, wow, you may not have been a good person before. Incredible. We like that. So we can own the good stuff. It's not hard to own the bad. But it's painful for us because everything in our being wants to put it on someone else. And our materialist view supports that. Report an error in the passage at 40:49 Highlight the passage at 40:49

41:07 We didn't ask to get born. Well, according to the materialist view, you didn't ask to get born. Your mummy had decided, daddy decided to make you and give you depression and anger and jealousy. And I agree, if they did make you like that, they're very rude. You should sue them. I'm not kidding. But the Buddha says they didn't make you, Robina, they just provided you with a body and you've got strong karmic history with them. Report an error in the passage at 41:07 Highlight the passage at 41:07

41:29 The fact that we meet anybody, it's not just a random event. And again, you think about it, if it's a law, the Buddha says it's a natural law, there's nothing random. There's nothing random about a garden. Report an error in the passage at 41:29 Highlight the passage at 41:29

41:40 You don't have some flowers that don't come from scenes and others do. Don't be ridiculous. We know by definition a flower is the fruit of a seed. If the flower's there, whether you like it or not, it's from a seed, baby. It's in your garden. This is the idea. So the implication of all of this is kind of tasty, that I'm in charge, although we think it's the exact opposite. Report an error in the passage at 41:40 Highlight the passage at 41:40

42:02 So one has to become in charge. Because if I created the cause to have the suffering I've got, and I don't like suffering, well, Buddha says, honey, here's the methodology. Stop sowing bad seeds, babe. And this is the basis of morality in Buddhism. And again, the difference here is massive. Morality in Christian terms is by definition doing God's will. Morality in Buddhist terms is a conventional reality that you can prove quite quickly by doing market research in this room. Report an error in the passage at 42:02 Highlight the passage at 42:02

42:32 I'll put out a survey. Do you like being punched in the nose? Do you like having your food stolen? Do you like starving? Do you like being kicked? Do you like people being mean to you? Do you like being loved? Do you like being happy? We'll all have the same boxes tipped. So Buddha says there's the proof of morality. Morality is a reasonable thing based upon experience. And you look at the dogs and the cats as well. Report an error in the passage at 42:32 Highlight the passage at 42:32

42:57 They don't like being punched in the nose. They don't like having their food stolen. So we can deduce that morality is an action of benefiting another and immorality is the action of harming another. It's a convention. We agree upon it. It's not from on high. So the Buddha says from this point of view, because... Report an error in the passage at 42:57 Highlight the passage at 42:57

43:15 You know, his very first level of practice is abiding by the laws of morality. Not because he said so. He's like a doctor who advises us because of his own experience that if you kill, well first of all you define killing as negative because others don't like getting killed. But secondly, the reason he'll tell you in the beginning not to kill, that's his advice, is because it'll harm you. Because the crucial point about karma, as I've been saying, Every second you think or do or say something, you are moulding yourself into that shape. Every time you play piano, what are you creating? Report an error in the passage at 43:15 Highlight the passage at 43:15

43:52 A musician. Every time you get angry, what are you creating? An unhappy person. Not to mention the person who's going to harm others. So when we really get this, and I think in our culture, in our world, we're so disconnected from ourselves, we don't get this. Because we're so believing that I'm happy because she made me happy. And I'm suffering because he made me suffer. So it's like we blame Fred for making us suffer, but we also blame Mary for making us happy. Report an error in the passage at 43:52 Highlight the passage at 43:52

44:21 We dump it on other people. And that's why we get lonely. Oh, I've got no one to make me happy. The Lord Buddha says you've got to make yourself happy, Robina. And you make yourself miserable. So if you're loving and kind and work on your mind and get rid of attachment and rid of anger, and that's being your own therapist, that's what being a Buddhist is. Report an error in the passage at 44:21 Highlight the passage at 44:21

44:38 Why? Because you're sick of suffering, baby. And then eventually, the more advanced practice, you start to benefit others. The fundamental starting point. Buddha says a bird needs two wings, wisdom and compassion. And all the stuff we're talking about here is the nuts and bolts of the wisdom wing. Buddha's view of what you are, where you come from, what is happiness, what is suffering. Report an error in the passage at 44:38 Highlight the passage at 44:38

44:59 Don't want suffering, do want happiness. Conclusion, work on your own mind, honey. Pull out the weeds and grow the flowers. And then guess what? That will be what will bring you the happiness you want, the contentment, the satisfaction, the joy, the comfort, and then indeed you'll be able to be useful to others. Report an error in the passage at 44:59 Highlight the passage at 44:59

45:15 And people will adore you, get all the friends you want. Something like this, okay? That's a summary of Buddhism. Does that make sense? Report an error in the passage at 45:15 Highlight the passage at 45:15

45:26 Now you can ask me some questions. Five to eight. Ask me some questions. I'll talk non-stop for 40, for 50 minutes. And I talk fast. So it's more like about 9 o 'clock already. So ask me your questions now, come on. Report an error in the passage at 45:26 Highlight the passage at 45:26

45:46 It's a summary of Buddhism. Did I miss any main points out? Okay. Overview. This is the basis for a person who's trying to be a Buddhist, this is the basis of how you live your life. Report an error in the passage at 45:46 Highlight the passage at 45:46

46:00 So any questions? Of any kind at all? And there's more to it than this, but this is the basis. Yes, my dear. Go, go. Report an error in the passage at 46:00 Highlight the passage at 46:00

46:09 I'm just starting, so the progression of mind, what happens with animals? Because if we as human beings have the potential to choose good and bad things, animals act on instinct. That's right, exactly. Exactly, I understand, exactly. Did you get her question? You heard it back there? What happens to animals? She said she assumes with humans we have the ability to choose What we're saying here, but animals clearly don't, they act on instinct. Yeah, that's the point. The Buddha would say, like I'm saying, they're in the same boat as we are. They're born as an animal due to their negative karma, in fact, and that's why now their lives are based on fear and paranoia and they lash out. Report an error in the passage at 46:09 Highlight the passage at 46:09

46:55 They're suffering animals. So as an animal, you can't do much. That's the tragedy. You can't do much. That's why for a human to have animals... Report an error in the passage at 46:55 Highlight the passage at 46:55

47:06 It's marvellous because at least you stop your pussycat from killing, you stop your little doggy from killing, you try to give it some love and stop it at least creating more negative karma. And all you can do is, for any being, at the time of the death of a being... Report an error in the passage at 47:06 Highlight the passage at 47:06

47:20 What causes the next life is whatever karma ripens at that time. It's highly complex. And so where you at least help animals, the Buddhists would say, if they're dying or they're sick, you try to help them have a happy mind, you don't have to be paranoid or fearful so negativity doesn't ripen. And even the Buddhists would say mantras, would put on CDs of things to help put a good imprint in their mind. Because everything we hear or see leaves a karmic imprint in your mind. Report an error in the passage at 47:20 Highlight the passage at 47:20

47:46 It's like a person who's very mentally ill, who doesn't have any ability to make choices, who's really mentally suffering. The best we can do is help them, support them so they don't create more negativity and try and put good imprints into their minds. You understand? The best we can do. Because we can see, we talk about humans having choice, but let's look at the world. Report an error in the passage at 47:46 Highlight the passage at 47:46

48:08 I mean, we might theoretically have a choice, but how often do we exercise that choice? And look how hard it is. We might be psychos going around killing people and, you know, multi-rapists, who lots of people do. I mean, we work with people in prison. I mean, Cherki's taken over the job from me running this thing called Liberation Prison Project. Kevin works there. And we have some pretty crazy guys in those prisons who, I mean, like we heard one of our friends in Kentucky on death row, he talks about one guy that is a real psycho. Report an error in the passage at 48:08 Highlight the passage at 48:08

48:35 I've met him. Report an error in the passage at 48:35 Highlight the passage at 48:35

49:00 potentially, but we can see how hard it is. You understand? Look at the human world. Many people don't even, as Lama Zopa says, we don't even know, realise half the time that our mind even plays a role. We're so addicted to blaming the world. Look at the world, the violence that goes on. People are completely caught up in rage and anger. Report an error in the passage at 49:00 Highlight the passage at 49:00

49:19 They don't think anything going on in their mind is the problem. They don't think they have to change at all. So there's almost no choice sometimes. And that's what humans are. It's kind of hard to make choices, isn't it? Nothing is going to disappear in practice. Report an error in the passage at 49:19 Highlight the passage at 49:19

49:34 Yeah. Does that make sense, people? Any more questions? Yes? Within that context of cause and effect, does that mean there are no such things as accents? Absolutely. It's kind of an interesting point. Just like with botany. It's really true. If there's a law, I think this is the crucial point to hear. If it is, as Buddha is suggesting, if it is a natural law, then we all know with laws... Report an error in the passage at 49:34 Highlight the passage at 49:34

50:03 Why we can make the most amazing buildings and make computers and have a perfect computer every time because you've got the laws down and you can predict, if you do it well, you can predict the result perfectly, can't you? And we know there's no accident there. If it were accidental, if it were random, there would only be chaos. You'd never get a cake every time if things were random. Report an error in the passage at 50:03 Highlight the passage at 50:03

50:24 But we know the meaning of this being a law. It's predictable. Well, that's Buddha saying essentially that there's no such thing as random or accidental. There can't be. It's kind of a shocking concept when we assume that it's just random, that no one knows, it's all just hot luck. If you're a really devoted Christian or Muslim, you know it's God's law and you know it's His business and you stick your nose out of it and you have faith in God. Report an error in the passage at 50:24 Highlight the passage at 50:24

50:48 I think that's an amazing way to live life. With respect, most Christians and Muslims don't. You second guess God all the time. You complain and moan. If you really were a perfect Christian, everything is God's will. It's a stunning view. You'd be blissful. Are you hearing my point? But most people who are Christians, they argue and say God will, but they want to complain about it. But that's God's law. That's fine, but our job isn't to know God's law. Report an error in the passage at 50:48 Highlight the passage at 50:48

51:13 But Buddha says it's not a holy thing. It isn't somebody who made it. It's a law that we can all identify and learn to live by. So of course, if it's a law, it can't be random. It can't be. It just can't be. Which is a very outrageous idea. So whoever you meet, you know, if you've got rats eating your house, honey, they're your rats. Report an error in the passage at 51:13 Highlight the passage at 51:13

51:30 You've got some karmic history with those sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 51:30 Highlight the passage at 51:30

51:56 predictable, and this is a big shock to think that you can You can plan a future life. It sounds so hilarious you can't even believe it. But you're a gardener. Let's say you know botany really well. I've never even heard the concept of gardening, let's say. And you've got this acre of barren ground out there but you've just planted a whole pile of seeds. And couldn't you give me a really good vision of what it would look like in 50 years? Report an error in the passage at 51:56 Highlight the passage at 51:56

52:21 You could do that, couldn't you? And I'll go, wow, you're clairvoyant. And you'll say, no, I just know the laws of botany. So we're not surprised about predicting the future. We're predicting the future all the time when we apply the laws. You know, you've got an architect plan. I've got to have a house there in two years and look like this. Report an error in the passage at 52:21 Highlight the passage at 52:21

52:37 That's not surprising to us. Well, why should it be surprising if you do this and this and this action, you'll get that result. It's the same logic. This is how Buddha talks. Report an error in the passage at 52:37 Highlight the passage at 52:37

52:48 It's very different. You've got to admit it. Report an error in the passage at 52:48 Highlight the passage at 52:48

52:55 I called him the breakfast, I called him the child peace. What's that? Start again. I missed the first bit of your sentence. It's kind of a dicey thing, you know, for those of us who work in community services or things like that. Sure. We called in the rapists, we called in the child sexual assault, abuse. Report an error in the passage at 52:55 Highlight the passage at 52:55

53:13 Yeah, yeah. And then how do you work with that? Okay, that's the compassion wing. That's the compassion wing. Today I just had a talk with some people who have all been abused in some way, you know. They were there having a meeting. And we were discussing this thing. Because you see, there's two wings of the bird, wisdom and compassion. So here I'm giving you the nuts and bolts of the wisdom one on the assumption you want to hear it. Report an error in the passage at 53:13 Highlight the passage at 53:13

53:39 That's why you came to the talk. And it's not for you to apply it to somebody else. So if a person comes to me who's been abused by their father, let's say, I wouldn't give them a lecture about karma. Just like if you're a doctor and I come with a bleeding hand, you don't give me a theoretical analysis of why I've got a bleeding hand. You just heal it for me, please. Report an error in the passage at 53:39 Highlight the passage at 53:39

53:57 Then I can learn the biology later. Biology, yeah. Biology, that's right. The body, that's right, yeah. So the same here. If you came to be distraught, according to what you need, if I'm skilful, I'd give you a hug, I'd love you, I'd support you. How dare they do this to you? It is wrong. They should not have harmed you. You help a person and then as a Buddhist, if you want to take this view on board, you would apply it yourself when your mind is ready. Report an error in the passage at 53:57 Highlight the passage at 53:57

54:22 But like I was saying to these people today, if you've been abused, and let's face it, the world, terrible things happen in the world, people do terrible things to each other, there's undenial. You've got to first know where you're at with it, own the fact that it's happening, and so many of us have suppressed all this and don't even know how to deal with it. We've got to first deal with it, find people to support us, have a broken heart, but get beyond the fear and the pain and the victim and the guilt to a place of strength and courage. Report an error in the passage at 54:22 Highlight the passage at 54:22

54:50 Then we can start, if we want to, because our question, the major question in our life, why does it happen to me? I think it's because we don't have an explanation. There's so much panic and fear. So you take this as and when you're ready. And you don't just rush off forgiving everybody if you're not ready for it. Report an error in the passage at 54:50 Highlight the passage at 54:50

55:10 You've got to take yourself according to your own pace. And if you're a helper, your job is to help people. You might yourself be a Buddhist, let's say, with a view of karma. You keep your mouth shut. That's your explanation of why it is, but that's all karma is really. It's got no moralistic implications. It's simply a nuts and bolts explanation, an answer to the question, why did it happen? Report an error in the passage at 55:10 Highlight the passage at 55:10

55:33 That's all it is. That's Buddha's answer. But it can be used wrongly. We can hear it in a wrong way. It's been dictated by a stick to beat ourselves with. So inappropriate. appropriate. Report an error in the passage at 55:33 Highlight the passage at 55:33

55:44 So there's the two wings. Our job is to help others. Karma is what you apply yourself to your own mind if and when you want. You understand my point? As an explanation of why. That's the point. Where are you? Kevin, go on. Report an error in the passage at 55:44 Highlight the passage at 55:44

56:05 That's right. Exactly. I'll tell that story. Again, this story is like a shock to our mind. Richard Gere, as you know, is a Buddhist. No, it's really something about the nuns. Report an error in the passage at 56:05 Highlight the passage at 56:05

56:15 A bunch of ex-prisoners, like 20 former American prisoners, all of whom had had some experience with meditation in prison, to a conference in New York. It was in 2003. And a bunch of people like me were invited too because I was based in America for many years. And who worked with people in prison. So I went along. And it was a very moving day. There was 20 people. And His Holiness the Dalai Lama was there teaching because he invited him as well for the teachings. Report an error in the passage at 56:15 Highlight the passage at 56:15

56:39 And then they met him. And it was just a really moving time. It was so moving. And all these people, all these Puerto Ricans and Mexicans and blacks and whites and males and females, a whole cross-section of American society. And it was a very moving day. All talking about their experiences and their struggles and their sufferings and their sexism and their racism and the blah, blah, blah, you know. Also invited were two young Tibetan nuns, quite young women. Report an error in the passage at 56:39 Highlight the passage at 56:39

56:59 Who'd been tortured and sexually abused in prison for like a couple of years, I don't know how long, like common in Tibet. So they're these two young women. The context, of course, is they're brought up with this stuff. So the same way that the default mode of understanding the world for us is the materialist world that mummy and daddy made you, that no one knows why things happen, it's all not my fault. Report an error in the passage at 56:59 Highlight the passage at 56:59

57:18 This is our view, let's face it. It's our philosophical view right in the bones of our being. Report an error in the passage at 57:18 Highlight the passage at 57:18

57:25 These young women, this view I'm just telling you, this is in the bones of their being. This is what they're familiar with. This is what they've been brought up with and this is what they're living their lives according to. So there they were in this experience being abused and tortured. Well, first of all, everybody in that room could hear that their experiences were worse than anybody else's put together, if you want to quantify. Report an error in the passage at 57:25 Highlight the passage at 57:25

57:43 But secondly, what was shocking for us in the materialist world, who have the view that there's no reason why it happened, therefore we have this massive anger and fear and suffering. They weren't angry. This doesn't make sense to us. Why? Because they have the view of karma. They don't agonise, why is this happening? Report an error in the passage at 57:43 Highlight the passage at 57:43

58:07 They have a reason, which is what they have confidence in. So at the end of their talk, they were sad, tears were coming, but they didn't have that kind of wide-eyed anguish and kind of... stress and drama we have we have very painful experiences you know they just didn't have that and they said at the end and of course we had compassion for our torturers because we know we had harmed them in the past This is the Buddhist view. This is what people who are living Buddhist lives, who fully understand the Buddhist view, this is the view they have. Report an error in the passage at 58:07 Highlight the passage at 58:07

58:43 So the implication of it is... You don't agonize why is it happening. You know why. Therefore, you can imagine in their life, and you can see from the result of it, they worked with this deeply and powerfully on their own minds. Of course, if they happily got out of prison, they would have run like hell. They couldn't. So then you deal with it. You learn to deal with the suffering. You find a way to bring it into your practice. Report an error in the passage at 58:43 Highlight the passage at 58:43

59:05 You learn to have compassion. I mean, it's an outrageous idea, but this is the Buddhist view. Report an error in the passage at 59:05 Highlight the passage at 59:05

59:28 And of course you choose to live this way, you're not being forced to. Report an error in the passage at 59:28 Highlight the passage at 59:28

59:33 No one else. There's a lot of believing in karma. I don't ever use that word. It's so superstitious. I believe in karma. Who cares you believe in it? Report an error in the passage at 59:33 Highlight the passage at 59:33

59:42 It's either true or it's not and I'm working with it as my hypothesis. Good enough for me. So far so good, you know. So I can say from my own experience what it brings if you're really applying it every day and it's hard work and you're working on your mind. It's your mind, it's your junk in there and you know you're sick of suffering so you want to change. It's your goodness so you know you want to grow it. You know you're living in the same world as everybody else who wants to be happy too. Report an error in the passage at 59:42 Highlight the passage at 59:42

1:00:06 So applying the view of karma to your daily work on your mind. Brings more stability, brings more contentment, brings less fear, lessens your anger, lessens your jealousy, lessens your neurosis, grows your love, grows your forgiveness, grows your kindness. And I'm not saying this is the only method. I mean, I know good Christians who are unbelievable beings because they have faith in God. There are many approaches, you know. It's like three times. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:06 Highlight the passage at 1:00:06

1:00:30 This is the worst one I'm talking about here. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:30 Highlight the passage at 1:00:30

1:00:37 Someone else? Report an error in the passage at 1:00:37 Highlight the passage at 1:00:37

1:00:42 Yes, we know. Yes. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:42 Highlight the passage at 1:00:42

1:00:47 I can't quite hear my deal. I'm so sorry. I'd like to get my head around how you deal with a parent betraying their child via incest. I really want to hear every word you say. I've got bits. Sorry. I'm so sorry. I'd like to get my head around how to deal with a parent betraying their child through incest. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:47 Highlight the passage at 1:00:47

1:01:07 I understand. Okay. Well, now that you ask, I'll tell you that my father sexually abused me. So I can talk from my own experience and then how I've worked with this as a Buddhist. Would you like me to do that? Yes. Yes, okay, I will. I mean, it's one of the worst things, isn't it? What parents can do to children in this way. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:07 Highlight the passage at 1:01:07

1:01:26 The worst, as you said, betray the trust. It's so true. I mean, so my father, you know, there were seven children in my family, a Catholic family. My daddy wasn't Catholic. I do love my father now. This is the end result of all this. Okay, but I have to work through it all. But as a child, many of us daughters. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:26 Highlight the passage at 1:01:26

1:01:43 He abused, you know. It wasn't the worst abuse possible, it wasn't quantified, but it was abuse. It was inappropriate behaviour from my father to his little girls, you know. And it went on for many years. And so every one of my sisters has dealt with it in different ways, you know. He's given me therapy. Not everybody's forgiven my father. I for sure, even as I can say for myself personally, because everyone's different, you know, that I can see my father's suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:43 Highlight the passage at 1:01:43

1:02:08 Even as a child I can see that. For some reason, I mean I'm fortunate in a way. Even though still it was so inappropriate what he did, and as I got older, even as before I was a Buddhist, it wasn't such a deep, it has to have done some harm to me, but I didn't hold such deep anger towards my father. Some way or other, sisters have, each of us is different. But I can see with my mother, you know, the interesting point with my father was he always, he would confess it, it wasn't totally hidden. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:08 Highlight the passage at 1:02:08

1:02:34 He would confess to my mother, he begged us to forgive him, he'd go to a psychiatrist, and then he'd keep doing it, you know, because he fell into the hat. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:34 Highlight the passage at 1:02:34

1:02:42 My mother adored him. They were very attached to each other. They loved each other very much. She was a good Catholic, so you don't get divorced, you know. But she suffered all this terrible guilt later. She felt it was all her fault. She should have left him. All the agonies and dramas, you know, and all the dramas in our daily life. Completely dysfunctional, crazy family. Although I adore all my family now. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:42 Highlight the passage at 1:02:42

1:03:01 I love all my sisters. We're all close friends. And each of us in our own way has dealt with it. And the thing was, my father in the end, his own sadness, he killed himself in the end. He was the one who suffered most, more than us. I can see this with absolute certainty. And so everybody's so different. I'm just telling you my particular experience, you know. But the one blessing I think was, for me, it wasn't hidden. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:01 Highlight the passage at 1:03:01

1:03:23 It was out. Somehow it was out. Which is often, when it's just denial, it's very hard to get, you know, if a father keeps denying he ever did it, it's very painful for the child. Do you understand? It's so extra painful. For some reason my father, because I can really see now, he was a good man, he had many good qualities, but he just had this other thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:23 Highlight the passage at 1:03:23

1:03:43 And it was quite severe, it was really wrong, of course it was. But I can see he was a good person with many good qualities and he had this terrible sadness, he was an alcoholic and then he killed himself because of his own inability to deal with it. So each story is so different, it can't be the same. And so depending on, I don't know how you're talking, where you're coming from. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:43 Highlight the passage at 1:03:43

1:04:02 But it seems to me it's so important that it's got to be dealt with. And if my mother had the courage, it would have been best for everybody to leave, to not put up with this. But she kind of colluded in it in a way. She thought he was trying to be better. She thought he was trying to improve. But she wasn't really on the case. She wasn't watching. So, I mean, some of my sisters are sort of mad at her for not really being a strong mother. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:02 Highlight the passage at 1:04:02

1:04:25 Do you understand? It's just there's so many ways. And as for the person who's on the receiving end of it, Then, I mean, this is something I was talking to you today, exactly this. Each of us, I mean, everybody's so different. In my own family, the seven of us, each of us was completely different in the way we dealt with it. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:25 Highlight the passage at 1:04:25

1:04:41 So because two of, I think of two of my sisters who were more, they were pacifiers and they got asthma, you know, so they spent their lives trying to make everything nice and make all the, whereas in me I was more angry and violent and leap into the middle of it. So, you know, and then many of my sisters had complete mental breakdown. They're all now healthy and... Report an error in the passage at 1:04:41 Highlight the passage at 1:04:41

1:05:13 No matter how bad it is, we've got to confront it, we've got to let it out, we've got to find ways to help it, have people help us deal with it. Because once it's out, once you've dealt with it, then it's gone. But if it's inside and then all the wracking of the fear and the guilt and the shame and the blame, which is often what victims do, turn it on themselves. That's right, and the raging anger, but the fear, this is what poisons us. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:13 Highlight the passage at 1:05:13

1:05:37 This is what finally poisons us. Of course what my father did was terrible, but that, I don't mean to make it diminishing now, but that's not really what causes the main suffering. A friend of mine, again this guy on Nethro in Kentucky. He said that this old Catholic guy had come to visit them, who 30, 40 years ago, his daughter was murdered. So clearly, for 30, 40 years, this old guy said he was out of his brain with rage and bitterness and grief. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:37 Highlight the passage at 1:05:37

1:06:05 And then he finally went back to Mass. He came back to church and then he let go of that rage. And he said, what I realized was the real suffering didn't come from my daughter's death, but from my own rage and hopelessness. And I think that's with everybody. So whether you're the perpetrator or whether you're the victim, we've got to find ways to get it out, to bring it up, to look at it and then to walk through it and walk past it because that's when sanity comes. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:05 Highlight the passage at 1:06:05

1:06:34 Whoever the role is, we have to do this. But the secrecy and the lying and the pretending is what makes people completely crazy. And that's why at least now, I remember telling a friend who was a therapist, it was most unusual, my father's example, I never thought of that, that he, from day one, because he was a good person, he confessed it. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:34 Highlight the passage at 1:06:34

1:06:53 He wanted to deal with it, but it didn't work properly. It just didn't happen. At least it was something you could talk about, not talk about, but deal with because it was acknowledged. You understand? So whatever that role is, whether you're the wife, whether you're the husband, whether you're the perpetrator, whether you're the victim, we've got to find ways to get it out because that's what the suffering is. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:53 Highlight the passage at 1:06:53

1:07:13 And then from this healing, eventually we can forgive and whatever. We can't rush into that part. We've got to deal with what's inside. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:13 Highlight the passage at 1:07:13

1:07:24 And no, it's not permanent. And if we're brave enough, we can learn from our bad experiences. We all know we learn from the worst experiences if we're brave enough. All my friends in prison, what their mantra was, this is my wake-up call. If we're brave enough, we can go beyond all this and become better human beings and more sympathetic to other people's suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:24 Highlight the passage at 1:07:24

1:07:43 Because I've had a bit of suffering in my life, I can empathise with other people's suffering now. If I'm living in my own misery and self-pity and unhappiness and victim mind, I'm destroying me and everybody else. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:43 Highlight the passage at 1:07:43

1:07:54 Does that cover the thing you want? Because everybody Report an error in the passage at 1:07:54 Highlight the passage at 1:07:54

1:08:01 has something. We all, you know, we harm and be harmed all the time, each other. It's heartbreaking. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:01 Highlight the passage at 1:08:01

1:08:13 And that's where the karma one, I mean, that might be relevant at all. It's up to each person. For me, that would be, even before I became a Buddhist, I somehow, for whatever reason, my mind, I could see that my father suffered more than us. And it was true. I could see this. He was stuck in it, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:13 Highlight the passage at 1:08:13

1:08:29 So I could see that and that's a great blessing for me. You didn't make it so enraging, you know. I was able to deal with it better when I could see this. That was very helpful. But that doesn't follow. People have got to deal with what's inside them first. If you've suppressed it all your life, you've got a lot of work to do. You've got to come out. Yes? My brother was killed by a hitman. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:29 Highlight the passage at 1:08:29

1:08:51 Yes. 20 years ago. Yes. And I often... I should just sit up. No, no, you don't have to, darling. Sit down. I can see you there. It's okay. And I often think about the person that killed him. Yes. And over many years, I suppose it wasn't that long, I did forgive him. Yes. But I still do think about that person. Of course you would, I believe you, yes. Whether, you know, his complete thought of that out of his mind. Right, exactly. Or whether he even knew he killed somebody. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:51 Highlight the passage at 1:08:51

1:09:19 I think he would have done. He probably did. No, I think that's the point. That's the point. I mean, like with my father, for example, who did bad things to other people. In the end, he really was the one who suffered most. He didn't know how to deal with it. He couldn't get past it. He couldn't own it. He sort of did, but only half did. He wasn't able. He didn't believe he could change. So a person like this, you can only imagine the suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:19 Highlight the passage at 1:09:19

1:09:42 No, I bet you do. I bet you do. I have forgiven him. Yes, that's really incredible for you. Because I know it's really bad for your body to contain all that. Exactly, darling. Now that's the one. It really is. Yes. So that's, see that, what you're saying is amazing. And that's the point. That if we, you know, what you're recognising is that your inability to forgive is destroying you. He doesn't know you don't forgive him. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:42 Highlight the passage at 1:09:42

1:10:06 So what we really, this is the point I think about karma, the way we're talking here. The fundamental first point has to be that we have to see that my anger, my bitterness, my guilt, my fears, my neurosis harm me. So it's almost like out of self-respect you'd want to forgive somebody. Then of course it's for his sake, but it's for your own sake first. That's why it's like, but because we're so, you know, some people might do what you do. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:06 Highlight the passage at 1:10:06

1:10:33 They'd say, but I'm allowed to be angry. But you can sort of, it's like saying you're allowed to stab yourself. You are, but look at the harm you're doing. So it's very powerful to see the benefit to ourself, you understand, of being loving and forgiving, but according to our own pace. So what you're doing is fantastic. That's for your sake. For his sake, God knows. I mean, I guarantee you, he's either blotted it out. People do. But it has to be like this heavy burden of stress and shame in his mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:33 Highlight the passage at 1:10:33

1:11:01 There's no question about it. We all can see, even the small things we do, we carry around this burden, you know. We understand the pain of it all. And this is why if we're really brave enough we can see how people suffer from being bad. Not just, we like to have compassion for victims, but when you really can see how people, when you harm others, you're vindictive, you're mean, you're nasty, you're angry, forget about killing people, it harms you. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:01 Highlight the passage at 1:11:01

1:11:26 So if we really can see that we harm ourselves, we can afford to have compassion for people. You understand what I'm saying? This guy for 30 years had his brain with rage over his own dead daughter. He realised his own rage was what was destroying him. That's the point. That's a very brave conclusion to come to. So I really admire that you can do that. Absolutely. I mean, this other person, you can see we all torment it. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:26 Highlight the passage at 1:11:26

1:11:50 Even the small things we do, it torments us. We can see it because we deal with it and confront it. We have this practice we do every day. We call it purification. And as one of our teachers says, one of our Lamas, you're insane not to do it every day. So we call it purification. And basically, it's very practical. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:50 Highlight the passage at 1:11:50

1:12:08 Psychologically, it's very powerful. It's an easy way to remember. It's got four steps. It's the four R's. Well, the first one is regret, which is not like guilt. It's like you acknowledge, well, I did badmouth my husband. I did get mad at the cat. I did steal this. I mean, we're talking little baby things. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:08 Highlight the passage at 1:12:08

1:12:27 But everything we know that we do. Forget about whether we're being judged. We know ourselves. What do they say? Our own conscience, you know. So to be able to acknowledge, listen, I did do that thing today. You're talking to yourself. But then the reason you regret is quite specific. It's not guilt. It's because you don't want that burden inside you. You don't want that pain. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:27 Highlight the passage at 1:12:27

1:12:47 You don't want any more suffering. You're sick of being angry. You're sick of being jealous. You're sick of being depressed. You're sick of bad-mouthing people. You're sick of the little baby things we all do. You're sick of it for your own sake. So this is a really important step because we tend to have guilt and then we think we should do it for compassion. But compassion comes later. That's the second step. The first one is like you've got to have compassion for yourself. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:47 Highlight the passage at 1:12:47

1:13:07 You've got to realise that your unhappy states of mind, your anger, your fears harm you. And it's a pretty amazing thing to come to terms with. Well, we can do this. We are happy. It's like regretting that food you just ate because you don't want to get sick. We understand that one. So regretting the emotional things we do, the mean things to our kids, the mean things to the hubby. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:07 Highlight the passage at 1:13:07

1:13:29 And it's always the people we're close to because we live with them. We must, I mean, the guilt we have, but don't make it guilt. Make it, I'm sick of this. I'm sick of this suffering. I regret it because I'm sick of the suffering. And then you think, well, what can I do about it rather than just festering it? Report an error in the passage at 1:13:29 Highlight the passage at 1:13:29

1:13:59 week. I will not. And you really make a decision. You know, you can say for 20 years I'll go on a diet. I'll tell you myself. For 30 years I've been overweight. I'm still a nun, it doesn't matter, but I'm overweight. And every day I go, I'd better go on a diet. And the cake comes and you forget the diet, you know. And so one day, recently, seven weeks ago exactly, I decided I am sick of being 77 kilos. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:59 Highlight the passage at 1:13:59

1:14:24 I really made a strong decision. Well, guess what? My hand stayed in my lap when the food was there. Now I've lost 11 kilos. So we all know when you make a strong decision, you will do it. And this is powerful. If you just have guilt, I'm a bad person, I'm hopeless, I'm just so angry, you'll never make a decision to change. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:24 Highlight the passage at 1:14:24

1:14:40 But if you regret it because you're sick of the suffering, you then have compassion, you then do a little practice and redo these things, and then you make a decision. I will not be angry for a week. And then you grow it, you know. Then don't be surprised you change. Because one of Buddha's fundamental points is there's nothing in our mind we can't change. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:40 Highlight the passage at 1:14:40

1:14:58 We're not setting stone. We can change according to our own level, taking it incrementally, slowly, slowly. And that means you've got to be prepared to face your problems. You fall down again, you pick yourself up again. You fall down again, you pick yourself up again. But you've got to keep moving. We can change. And the Buddha's view is we have this amazing potential. There's nothing so bad that we can't change it. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:58 Highlight the passage at 1:14:58

1:15:19 Does that make sense? It's kind of encouraging, you know. Anyway, thank you for your point. Thank you very much for your point. Yes? We're just moving on from that. With that point in mind, about the purification process, how can you work with an issue of financial lack, like if you've got a serious financial karmic lack? Report an error in the passage at 1:15:19 Highlight the passage at 1:15:19

1:15:42 You mean lack of money in the bank, you can't pay your bills? Yeah, yeah, so how do you work with that one, using the purification stuff? Well, okay, being technical about it, the Buddhist approach would be, the reason you're having obstacles with money is because of past stealing or past lack of generosity. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:42 Highlight the passage at 1:15:42

1:15:57 Buddha always says the past cause, so then okay, so then you would deeply regret whatever lack of generosity and stealing you've done in the past that is blocking your ability to have money, your ability to get credit, your ability to get a job. The Buddha would put us in the centre of everything, so you'd regret whatever passed. You don't remember what it was. And then you would purify, then you would vow to be especially impeccable. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:57 Highlight the passage at 1:15:57

1:16:25 Pay your bills. Even if you've got big debt, always want to pay your debt. Don't try to get out of your debt. Because everything you do in your mind impacts upon you. So to have an attitude of wishing to be very honest with money. I think with money we're very sneaky sometimes. People have debt and they try to get out of the credit cards thinking I don't have to pay it. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:25 Highlight the passage at 1:16:25

1:16:44 But you're just blocking yourself. So to really want to treat money with respect, to pay your bills as soon as they come in. This, in other words, develop a happy mind about giving money to pay your bills and pay your debts and stuff. It's very important. Even to want to do it. Sincerely want to do it. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:44 Highlight the passage at 1:16:44

1:17:02 There's no doubt about that. Really, don't try to get away with it. That's just meanness. To truly want to be generous, to want to pay your debt. That's extremely important because everything starts with the mind. Everything starts with the thought. This I think is huge. Because we don't like giving money. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:02 Highlight the passage at 1:17:02

1:17:21 Even if it's a debt, we don't like paying it. We love getting it. You see how you don't get cheques anymore. Pretend you've got two bits of mail. One's a bill and one's a cheque. Look how we feel when you get a bill. Oh no. Look how we feel when we get a cheque. We're all excited. Well they say bodhisattvas, these really advanced Buddhist practitioners, they feel like when they give, they feel like we feel when we receive. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:21 Highlight the passage at 1:17:21

1:17:46 Because they've completely changed it. So be happy to have a bill. I love serious. You've got to pay it anyway. Why be miserable? I mean, you've got to pay your credit card bills. It's so stupid. Why be groaning and painful to pay the money? The bank has given you this whole credit for a whole month. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:46 Highlight the passage at 1:17:46

1:18:01 Yes, they're getting their percentage. But we'd be homeless. Many homeless people have less debt than we do because they can't get credit. We've got all that wretched credit, you know. Aren't we fortunate that banks can trust us? So pay your debts imperfectly. Even pay a tiny amount. Of course, if you don't have the money and the banks are going to come on top of you, then you negotiate. But have the wish to do it and to be impeccable with money. It's very important. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:01 Highlight the passage at 1:18:01

1:18:25 But do the regretting and then purify and then be generous in whatever way you can be. I really hear that part about what I really hear is want to do it. Want to do it, yes. That's all of it. That's incredible. They have a nice saying in Tibet, everything exists on the tip of the wish. The first step is the thought. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:25 Highlight the passage at 1:18:25

1:18:43 Everything comes from the thought. I want to pay my debt. Otherwise you won't write the cheque. That's it. And then we give all the reasons. I can't afford it, all this and that. We lie to ourselves very often. Be very, have integrity with it. It's really important. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:43 Highlight the passage at 1:18:43

1:19:02 Someone else? Anything else? Maybe there's enough food for thought. Yes, go my dear. Talk to me. I just ask, what happens when a child is born, like a baby, is still born? Yes. When they don't have that... I understand. Okay, I understand. Okay, so the Buddha view is it's sort of like karma is a bit like putting petrol in the tank. So if you put lots and lots of virtue and goodness and morality and kindness and generosity, bucket loads of good stuff in your petrol tank, next life you're going to get a reasonable body like we've got. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:02 Highlight the passage at 1:19:02

1:19:36 Here we are, you know, we're not dead yet. So your petrol tank hasn't run out basically. I'm not kidding. We know healthy people die. We know young people die. They just die for seemingly no medical reason. Buddhism would be the morality karma that was finished. That's why a relationship will end. One day you wake up and you can't believe this boring person is next to you. Karma's over. The relationship's finished. Bye-bye dear. Off. Another one. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:36 Highlight the passage at 1:19:36

1:20:00 So it's the length of life. I mean it's sad when it's your baby. They created the morality karma, very powerful, like winning the lottery to get a human womb, but the karma literally ran out. There wasn't enough morality karma there, so the karma finished, whether they're in the womb or whether they're one or two or six or twenty. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:00 Highlight the passage at 1:20:00

1:20:19 You die earlier than a regular life span. There's all sorts of practices you can do to try and lengthen that. The Buddhist view would say if you live a moral life that you can make your life live longer. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:19 Highlight the passage at 1:20:19

1:20:44 say that but not even an ant because all living beings want to be happy and they've all been humans before they've all wanted you know blah blah the same thing so the fundamental one of morality of not harming others is the basis of Buddhist practice and try and respect all living beings so by Living your own life really well by not harming, not killing, not lying, not stealing, this can actually give you, can put more help, more petrol, last longer, sort of thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:44 Highlight the passage at 1:20:44

1:21:10 That's the Buddhist explanation. Yeah? Just what gets bandied around sometimes is that the word national and also to a cultural karma is just talk about... Oh, okay, groups, you mean, there's groups. Absolutely, I mean, if we see, look at us, you know, we do everything in groups, don't we? We do things as social beings, we have families, we have, there's groups of men and groups of white people, groups of women, groups of, there's groups, we identify with groups, you know, Sidney Swan's barricades, my sister, Sidney, fanatic Sidney Swan, what's not to like? Report an error in the passage at 1:21:10 Highlight the passage at 1:21:10

1:21:46 What day is it? Who's playing tonight? Oh, you're in New South Wales, you don't care about them. So we've got group karma, it means this way. So we can say, you know, if we look at Australia, okay, the fourth way that karma ripens, I didn't mention this one, is the type of birth you get, your tendencies, all your experiences, but the fourth one is interesting, it's called environmental karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:46 Highlight the passage at 1:21:46

1:22:10 Now I would think in general, I go around the world, the difficulty centres, right, I come back to this country, I can't believe how fortunate we are. So clearly not everybody is fortunate. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:10 Highlight the passage at 1:22:10

1:22:32 You know, I mean, in general, it's a very amazing place. The environment's just incredible. Food is delicious. You get reasonable, you get jobs mostly. It's still suffering, I can know that. But in general, so then we can say the group of people labelled Australians as a general category of people. Due to our past karma, we went to mummy's wombs in this country, in a decent country with a decent environment, where it's not 110 in the summer with billions of creatures eating you. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:32 Highlight the passage at 1:22:32

1:22:58 And although we do have awful things happening, but, you know, people... The weather things are terrible. But in general, good environmental karma, where the food nourishes us and the air is reasonable, the water washes us, and we're not in a war zone. This is no accident. We're not living in a desert. So it's very fortunate. That's group karma, you'd say, from virtue. And because Buddha said we've all got countless lives and we do things in groups, so all the Nazis had strong group karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:58 Highlight the passage at 1:22:58

1:23:25 To think the same way, to be born as Germans in that particular period, to all agree with Hitler and to hate the group called Jews. Jews had group karma. Every group that you experience has a group that's connected there. But it's individual minds making up that group, each bringing their own thing to it. We've got group karma in this room. We're somehow from some past lives. We've been together in a spiritual context. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:25 Highlight the passage at 1:23:25

1:23:48 We will never meet again in this life as this group. Everyone will go off in a different way. Some of you might think, yeah, Buddha was okay, but thanks a lot, mate, not for me. Others might become practitioners. We all bring something different to it. You understand? Like a family, our family. Each of us very similar, but each of us different, bringing different things to things. So that's root karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:48 Highlight the passage at 1:23:48

1:24:06 Like that. And in relationship to Tibet, what happened there? Okay. They're all practitioners. Exactly. I mean, not that I think there's something wrong with it. No, I do understand. It's not just from one, it's not that from that life, that's the point. You know, in the same way that, like you can see with some plants, like an oak tree, it takes a couple hundred years to ripen. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:06 Highlight the passage at 1:24:06

1:24:27 That seed wasn't planted yesterday, that was 200 years ago. So you can say with stuff like a country or a lot of things happening like Hitler or Tibet, that's karma from probably a thousand lives ago. It wasn't from that group in that particular time who did it as a bunch of Jews. They created the cause due to the karma a thousand years ago to be born as a bunch of Jews in Nazi Germany, as a bunch of Tibetans on that piece of earth at that particular time. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:27 Highlight the passage at 1:24:27

1:24:53 It was from a long time ago, the way they'd say it. Does that make sense? Yeah, I guess that explains why the Dalai Lama said that the invasion of Tibet, what the Tibetans needed to do was to actually meditate more. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:53 Highlight the passage at 1:24:53

1:25:12 This is true. Something that they weren't properly had caused them to... It would be probably the catalyst for it. Yes, exactly. But it wouldn't have been the main cause. I think His Holiness when he talks to the General West, he doesn't go on much about the big picture of karma, he makes it kind of simple. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:12 Highlight the passage at 1:25:12

1:25:34 Yeah, for sure, that would be, but it's mainly from the past karma. That's why you would say, why do bad things happen to good people? You know, but you also say, why do good things happen to bad people? Because, okay, there's two, I'll put it like this, let's say in your life, let's say you, let's say you have no tendency to steal. From past karma, you've never stolen, you haven't stolen this life, you just don't steal, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:25:34 Highlight the passage at 1:25:34

1:25:56 But you could have things stolen from you, couldn't you? And so it doesn't mean you're a bad person in this life, because the scene to be stolen from, Report an error in the passage at 1:25:56 Highlight the passage at 1:25:56

1:26:29 You understand? And that's why I forgot these young nuns. That's why they can cope with it and handle it because they knew it was from past actions that they must have created. That's why they're experiencing the result. So they are able to own it and deal with it rather than resist it and think it's wrong and shouldn't be happening. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:29 Highlight the passage at 1:26:29

1:26:45 You understand? I mean, it's pretty intense, but that's the basis for why they can do that. Yes? With, you know, you're taught that you should rejoice in things that happen to you. Yes. Right, that's right. But, I mean, sometimes... Report an error in the passage at 1:26:45 Highlight the passage at 1:26:45

1:27:02 Because it's very painful. I just think practice, Kevin. What he's saying is, you know, that every time... Okay, this is interesting. I did a conference one time in Miami. There was a Catholic, a Lutheran, me and a rabbi. And the topic was why do bad things happen to good people? Well, of course, I could just go blah, blah about karma, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:02 Highlight the passage at 1:27:02

1:27:22 It was easy to me. I mean, I gave this talk, you know, whatever talk. And then what was interesting, the rabbi clapped. He said, we agree with you. Now all the Jews in the audience were gobsmacked. They'd never heard of such a thing. But apparently the Kabbalah Jews, the Esoteric teachers, they have the view of reincarnation and karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:22 Highlight the passage at 1:27:22

1:27:40 And all of them, the people were very surprised. So he cracked jokes. I mean, he was cracking jokes about Hitler. Jews do not crack jokes about Hitler. He said his mother, he came from Israel. He said that his mother never had one bad word said about the Arabs in her house. Because he had this view of karma. And he said, we have a saying. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:40 Highlight the passage at 1:27:40

1:27:57 Every time something bad happens you go, great, one less debt to repay. So that's the attitude. So Kevin's point, every time something bad happens, the attitude in Buddhism is, well good, that's the end of that karma. Meaning every time a fruit comes, it's the end of that seed, isn't it? So if it's a bad seed that's just ripe, it won't come again. So of course you rejoice. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:57 Highlight the passage at 1:27:57

1:28:18 but the instinctive one is self-pity not fair poor me why is it happening so it's just practicing it's just remembering and practicing and slowly our mind begins to actually experience it as real you know and you're really able to rejoice when the bad things happen I mean it's painful because our default mode is to only have nice things isn't it practice practice Kevin that's all it is thought it was really interesting about the juice that was I'm interested in this idea that All humans have the capacity for this choice. Yes. So some humans challenge us in terms of whether we think that they have a capacity to think like that, to make choices. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:18 Highlight the passage at 1:28:18

1:28:58 What do you mean they challenge us in thinking? Well, I guess many people have mental incapacity. Oh, I see. So I'm interested in the Buddhist view. Is it really all humans? No, no. I understand. You see, it's interesting this point. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:58 Highlight the passage at 1:28:58

1:29:18 In general, the Buddhist view would be to get a human life is a better... If you want a long neck, you have to want to be a giraffe, don't you? They're the best. You can't beat giraffes' necks. If you want to fly, it's best to be a bird. But if you want to work on your mind, the Buddha would say it's best to have a human birth. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:18 Highlight the passage at 1:29:18

1:29:35 But that doesn't follow. This is the point. In general, a human has more options in the mind to make choices. But the point is we can see very vividly. Whether you're mentally ill or whether you're just a psycho, you can't access the good part of you. So it's almost, you might as well say virtually that some people don't have choice. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:35 Highlight the passage at 1:29:35

1:29:55 So okay, the big point the Buddha is saying is this. Every mind possesses the potential in general. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:55 Highlight the passage at 1:29:55

1:30:22 life, it will ripen. at this moment in time, for some humans, we can definitely see. You tell them, even And it's even before I heard the Buddha's teachings when I was an old radical lefty, really into being angry and I thought it was a noble thing to be angry and shout and go out and demonstrate. I mean, well as well. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:22 Highlight the passage at 1:30:22

1:30:37 You tell me that anger was harmful, I would have laughed at you. In other words, I wasn't able to hear it. Do you see what I'm saying? So we've all got the potential in general, in theory, in reality, but it's like it's buried under the weeds. So a lion, there's no way a lion can choose. You tell a lion the buffalo doesn't like having his guts ripped out for breakfast. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:37 Highlight the passage at 1:30:37

1:30:58 She's incapable of accessing, but she's got all those potentials in her mind. Buddha says maybe that's the point. We've all got the potentials, but many of us can't access them. Do you see my point? So indeed we have to see that so many can't possibly. Like my friend who's got this addiction to torture, one in prison. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:58 Highlight the passage at 1:30:58

1:31:18 He's got this ancient habit in his mind from before, you know. You almost could say if he had the opportunity to torture, he couldn't choose not to. Like an alcoholic. I mean, some of us are alcoholics, you know. It's easy to say you've got choice, but until you begin first saying, no, I won't have the alcohol, then really working on your mind and slowly, painfully exercising that will. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:18 Highlight the passage at 1:31:18

1:31:39 It's not easy. Are we communicating here? You don't feel like you're still thinking about it? You're okay? Okay, good. Thank you. Yes? I struggle with the notion that I've always got to be nice, always got to do the right thing, please, blah, blah, blah. Who says that? I think you're one of the good girls. You're a good girl. What I struggle with is the guilt when I need to draw my boundaries, do what's right for me, but I'm not actually being nice. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:39 Highlight the passage at 1:31:39

1:32:11 So why are you feeling guilty about that, do you think? What's that mean, guilt? Unpack the guilt for a second. What's it mean? What's it sound like? What are the words in it? I feel like now I must be being a bad person because I haven't made the other person happy. Okay, okay. This is a good girl, good boy mode. I know, I hear it darling. Listen, it's this. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:11 Highlight the passage at 1:32:11

1:32:36 The Buddha psychology says we've got a bunch of these neuroses and the deepest one, the one you're referring to, Okay, the deepest one inside our mind that runs the show daily is called attachment, which is such a cute word. So it can be at a gross level like attachment to pleasure, attachment to, you know, sex, drugs and rock and roll. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:36 Highlight the passage at 1:32:36

1:32:52 But the subtle one, the more primordial, is the attachment to be seen as a nice person. Attachment to our view of ourselves as a nice person. Attachment to be liked by other people. So that runs underneath for all of us. So even when we do good things, it's our view of being a good person. We're attached to doing good things. We're attached to being seen as a good person. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:52 Highlight the passage at 1:32:52

1:33:18 So when my attachment worked, and I didn't get what I... Because attachment wants to get what it wants every second, which is a nice sound, nice smell, nice taste, nice praise and all that business. It's very primordial, okay? And it's mixed with all our other good things and our bad things. So when my attachment didn't get what it wanted, I didn't try to placate people and I didn't have guilt. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:18 Highlight the passage at 1:33:18

1:33:36 I got angry. So guilt is internalised anger. You beat yourself up instead of beating someone else up, which is our default mode, you know. So what we've got to do is start to have the courage to do this wisdom wing, which is to know yourself. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:36 Highlight the passage at 1:33:36

1:34:24 To know you can't make everyone happy. Listen, what compassion is, is the wish to always make everybody happy and take away their suffering if you could. But don't hold your breath, sweetheart, because it's up to the other person to play tennis with you. You can't just do it, they've got to hit the ball back. So you can try to be making another person happy, but if they're a miserable old mother and nothing makes them happy, that's not your fault. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:24 Highlight the passage at 1:34:24

1:34:46 That's because they don't know how to be made happy. They don't know how to take your kindness. Do you understand what I'm saying? So you've got to want to make others happy. Of course you do. But you've got to be reasonable. You've got to be perfectly reasonable. So if you've got to work tomorrow morning and I bring up and I'm just moaning and want to go out to the movies with you, you have to be brave. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:46 Highlight the passage at 1:34:46

1:35:05 You have to say, no, Robina, I can't. Even if I get mad at you, you've got to risk that people might like you. You've got to risk that people might be happy with everything you say and do. Are we communicating here? And it's necessary. Stop being selfish. We're selfish now because we're not being reasonable. So eventually as you get better and better as a human being and more and more courageous, you'll be able to say yes for other people's sake, but you've got to know where you're at yourself first. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:05 Highlight the passage at 1:35:05

1:35:30 We need to work on ourselves first. You've got to. If you're an alcoholic, you must say no to that alcohol. You must say no to the invitation to go, even if they think you're stupid and weak. You've got to know what is good for you. Good meaning helps you get less attached. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:30 Highlight the passage at 1:35:30

1:36:01 victim they'll keep getting victimized and bullied you know you've got to have the courage to stand up person, like in my case, had to be patient and put up with it. Each person is different. we communicating? We've got to know our own mind first. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:01 Highlight the passage at 1:36:01

1:36:19 And guilt is just an old habit and there's no virtue in it. It's a waste of time. We like to be guilty. We think it's almost virtuous to be guilty. But we need to change the voice of guilt. So if you did do something wrong, you need to acknowledge it. That's what regret is. You need to say, I did do something wrong. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:19 Highlight the passage at 1:36:19

1:36:37 I should have been nicer. I wasn't so kind. Honest. Be honest about it. But then you say, okay, what can I do to change? Not just, oh, I'm a bad person, I should have done that. That's a waste of time. It's just like anger. You did this and you should be this. It's a waste of time. You've got to be courageous not to have guilt. You've got to own responsibility for your choices. That's scary. You understand? Report an error in the passage at 1:36:37 Highlight the passage at 1:36:37

1:37:01 You've got to be responsible. If you don't feel like going out, even if it's because you're being lazy and you can't be bothered, then be honest with yourself. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:01 Highlight the passage at 1:37:01

1:37:10 or don't say no to me when I hang up and then feel guilty. mean, that's just wasting time. You did both things stupid. You must either say yes or no. And in each case, if you say yes to me, because you really think I need support tonight, don't moan about it. Oh, that would be a waste of my time and I'm so tired. Don't say yes to me and then complain. If you say yes... Report an error in the passage at 1:37:10 Highlight the passage at 1:37:10

1:37:45 courageous. Whatever your choice is, according to your level, you make that choice. And then you live with that choice. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:45 Highlight the passage at 1:37:45

1:37:55 make yourself happy, then you make other people happy. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:55 Highlight the passage at 1:37:55

1:38:05 you're not. should I? It's late. Where are you? Yes, darling, talk to me. In the past, I was all about destroying myself because of what happened. Oh, sweetheart. And I've sort of gone past that part and I want to live life, but I want to live life to the fullest. Good. I was just wondering, where do you start? Report an error in the passage at 1:38:05 Highlight the passage at 1:38:05

1:38:37 Sweetheart, I think you sound like you're well and truly starting. You're doing an amazing job. The words you just said then indicated you're well and truly beyond starting. Don't you think? Report an error in the passage at 1:38:37 Highlight the passage at 1:38:37

1:38:48 Sweetheart, how do you live your life? What do you do with yourself, darling? I've got chronic liver pain, so I can't work. You can't fix it, darling? Yes, she said the best she can do is 50 % make it, which is so good. Do you live with the pain? It's quite difficult? Yeah. You take tablets? That helps? Yeah. I've reduced the tablets so I'm not so drowsy. Of course. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:48 Highlight the passage at 1:38:48

1:39:19 And what do you do with your day? A lot of it's doctor's appointments for my neck. Right. And then I see a psychologist. Right. Do Report an error in the passage at 1:39:19 Highlight the passage at 1:39:19

1:39:40 you do any volunteer work? Yeah, I've been doing volunteer work. Oh, you have? That's fantastic. Well, there you go, sweetheart. You're doing what you can to take care of yourself and you want to help others, right? Well, darling, you are doing every single thing you can. You just really, but I think with your body, just be creative and find, really don't give up on it. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:40 Highlight the passage at 1:39:40

1:40:01 I think if you find different people, all kinds of, so many good people out there now who can do all kinds of things for you. I think really be optimistic. You can find, I think you can find people. You know, take care of your body, make yourself very healthy. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:01 Highlight the passage at 1:40:01

1:40:39 thing, but it's sensitive. Fantastic. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:39 Highlight the passage at 1:40:39

1:40:46 Two little prayers, one saying, kind of really extrapolating here, one is saying, in all this hour, nearly two hours, as many thoughts as each one of us has had is as many seeds we've each planted. So we think, may we nourish these seeds with our... May our efforts and our goodness and our struggles and our wish to become better people and our kindness to others, may we nourish these seeds every moment so they do grow into the development of our amazing potential. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:46 Highlight the passage at 1:40:46

1:41:11 Never give up on your own potential. We've got so much potential for goodness, so much potential that everyone must never, never think we haven't. And then we think there's one prayer so we can really develop to help others. And then the other one is may compassion grow and grow in the hearts of all. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:11 Highlight the passage at 1:41:11

1:41:28 Kewa-dee-yoo-doo-dah La-ba Report an error in the passage at 1:41:28 Highlight the passage at 1:41:28

1:41:42 Lama Report an error in the passage at 1:41:42 Highlight the passage at 1:41:42

1:41:48 Tsongkhapa and Report an error in the passage at 1:41:48 Highlight the passage at 1:41:48

1:42:04 Lama Zopa Rinpoche Report an error in the passage at 1:42:04 Highlight the passage at 1:42:04

1:42:29 everybody very much. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:29 Highlight the passage at 1:42:29

1:42:33 Oh, the raffle! Come on! Report an error in the passage at 1:42:33 Highlight the passage at 1:42:33

1:42:37 you buy my ten tickets? my five tickets? Five tickets. Your tickets. Jessie, your tickets are number 50 and 51. How many do I have to pick? You have to pick seven. Seven tickets. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:37 Highlight the passage at 1:42:37

1:42:55 here goes one. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:55 Highlight the passage at 1:42:55

1:43:00 a winner. That's one. Okay, one. I'll read them one at a time. 22. LPP. It's Kevin. Kevin LPP. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:00 Highlight the passage at 1:43:00

1:43:13 Kevin wins first prize which is high tea for two at Lilien Fels and there's multi-organic nourishing gift products. products back there for you as well. Well done, Kim. The next one is Susan Lloyd. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:13 Highlight the passage at 1:43:13

1:43:35 That's what you get for forgiving people. Susan Lloyd. Susan Lloyd. There you go, Susan Lloyd. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:35 Highlight the passage at 1:43:35

1:43:38 Okay, so you're going to win the chasseur enamel cast iron casserole dish, the pizza stone and the wooden rack. Right, but also you get a massage. She sounds like she's got more than Kevin. It's more, but it's less. Oh, okay. And it's karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:38 Highlight the passage at 1:43:38

1:44:08 And it will choke you. You win some chocolates from Josephine. Oh, she doesn't eat chocolates. Give her another one. No, no, no. And also the organic beauty gift pack. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:08 Highlight the passage at 1:44:08

1:44:35 -0-3-2-1-3-0? Paul. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:35 Highlight the passage at 1:44:35

1:44:44 The fifth gift Report an error in the passage at 1:44:44 Highlight the passage at 1:44:44

1:44:54 prize which is the individual teapot and cup, the vanilla tea from Aiku and a gorgeous flower voucher from Katoomba Fine Flowers. Belinda! Belinda! there isn't. They're not here. Okay, so that's number six. 82D, there's no name. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:54 Highlight the passage at 1:44:54

1:45:21 That's it, Report an error in the passage at 1:45:21 Highlight the passage at 1:45:21

1:45:25 the seventh prize. You win the mystery prize, actually, which is a pure wool shawl from Kulu Valley, some soaps, a handmade paper journal, that's me, I put the wrong money. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:25 Highlight the passage at 1:45:25

1:45:22 Oh, well done, yep, that's it. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:22 Highlight the passage at 1:45:22

1:45:39 And some cards. Well, there you go. Thank you very much for coming, Venerable Robina, for giving a great talk tonight. Thank you very much to everyone here. Amazing karma. And amazing karma for us to have you accept our... our request to come visit the mountains again if there's a couple of places left the weekend if anyone's interested wants to come and join us for the weekend a bit more on karma and also on emptiness the nature of reality a bit more deep and profound Buddhist philosophical view that will tempt you to Report an error in the passage at 1:45:39 Highlight the passage at 1:45:39

1:46:30 Okay, thanks a lot. Good night. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:30 Highlight the passage at 1:46:30

1:46:43 I'll hang it up. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:43 Highlight the passage at 1:46:43