The Misleading Mind (23 August 2014)

0:00 If you want, you have tea and stuff because I feel a little shy drinking. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:08 going to say I have my secret thing. I have my own shit secret thing. No. No, I'm going to say I put it back. Oh, good point. That's why we do it like this. Report an error in the passage at 0:08 Highlight the passage at 0:08

0:25 So just a quick introduction also because I started my career with all this started in 1975 when I went to Copan. I went to Nepal as a student. Pretty cool, 75 years as a student. And I wasn't much of a student, so that's probably why I was going to Nepal. Report an error in the passage at 0:25 Highlight the passage at 0:25

0:51 Anyway, so that's where I met Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Lama Yashi, and the, do you know, people ever know Koh Phan? They know, okay. Yeah, so I used to help, I eventually stayed there from 1975 to 1988. Report an error in the passage at 0:51 Highlight the passage at 0:51

1:11 And during that, Lama Yeshi passed away in 1984, so 75 to 84, I had a great fortune of working closely with him in many capacities. Primarily my job at Copan was to develop an English, it ended up being English, we should say Western Studies program for the monks at the monastery. In those days, always had 85 monks. And now it's 750. Report an error in the passage at 1:11 Highlight the passage at 1:11

1:41 Monks and nuns. Maybe 800 now. Lama Yeshe's dream was to have a thousand, so I think they're pretty close to realizing his dream. Report an error in the passage at 1:41 Highlight the passage at 1:41

1:52 So I was there working in the capacity of, well, as sort of, well, one was, sometimes they call me like the principal, but it wasn't the principal. You know, as I headed that Western Studies program, they're volunteer teachers. Report an error in the passage at 1:52 Highlight the passage at 1:52

2:13 Foreigners were coming for the courses and studying and we put them to work in teaching English or Mathematics, Social Studies, Art. Yeah, and this is in addition to their traditional education which is extremely, extremely robust and full on its own. You know, just predicting the Galufa tradition, the Galuf tradition, where there's a complete 25 year system of study. Report an error in the passage at 2:13 Highlight the passage at 2:13

2:40 And it is full time. It's 6 in the morning until 9 or 10 at night. And a lot of these are little kids. It's a pretty intense program. So to add three more kinds of classes in there was a challenge. Because they weren't going to push out anything that they were already doing. So it was more of adding or tweaking their own schedule a little bit. And when we first started teaching... Report an error in the passage at 2:40 Highlight the passage at 2:40

3:05 English language, what I brought, what happened was I was in Nepal as a student, undergraduate student from 1975-1977 and I had, and Lama actually asked me, well, that's kind of the wrong idea, I asked him what I should do next. And this was on the morning, I was leaving Nepal and I had, I sent me breakfast. Do you know how you have those memories like yesterday? We're sitting on top of the, it's like December, no, it's actually February and it's cold and crisp and clear and On top of the monastery. And in those days the food was so bad that it was like a feast with Lama. Report an error in the passage at 3:05 Highlight the passage at 3:05

3:45 He had white bread because after that he just had like the chapatis, like the tortillas. And then he had actual canned peanut butter from India and then some jams and a couple of hard-boiled eggs, a couple of eggs. Wow, this is like... But I was too nervous really to eat because he was a very intimidating presence. He was very affectionate to most people, but he had this other side that was extremely scary. Report an error in the passage at 3:45 Highlight the passage at 3:45

4:16 And with me, he was mostly scary because he just liked to pick on me for some reason. I needed it, right? And so while we're having breakfast, of course, I was going back to the West to finish my one semester left. of college and I just loved I really had found my passion and my meaning and I really wanted to go back, but I didn't know, you know, go back for what? So I asked Lama if I should, you know, I was very nervous, you know, eating this meal and it's like you can't even eat it because you're kind of nervous, you know how that is? Report an error in the passage at 4:16 Highlight the passage at 4:16

4:52 And very self-conscious and all those things. I was only 23 or something old. And so I finally got the guts up to ask him, I said to him, Salama, what should I do next? And his whole demeanor changed, like awfully happened in my relationship. He looked like, kind of heard like the worst question he ever heard, like the dumbest question. His brow furrowed. And he went like that. Report an error in the passage at 4:52 Highlight the passage at 4:52

5:20 And he dismissed himself. I never tell my students what to do. So then I felt like a complete idiot. And then the silence was even... More uncomfortable, just sat there quietly, I'm trying to eat. And then it must be like a minute or two, and then he just looked up at me and said, so when you come back next year, I'd like you to teach my monks. Report an error in the passage at 5:20 Highlight the passage at 5:20

5:42 So he did tell me what to do, I guess. So anyway, that's how I, then I studied how to, I went to, came back here for a year and a half and studied how to teach English. A second language, a foreign language. And I went back and put in this program there. And still, I mean, my point was that we started teaching English, and all the monasteries in the area, because this will happen, started, they would criticize us. Report an error in the passage at 5:42 Highlight the passage at 5:42

6:13 And say, oh, Lamyeshe, you know, he's training those monks just to be able to do business. That's why he wants them to learn English. But now you go to the monastery, they're all, almost all teaching. So, take some courage, too. Do something different. So anyway, that's my, my point is that Lami Eshi had really sort of drilled into us that these teachings are universal. Report an error in the passage at 6:13 Highlight the passage at 6:13

6:45 And he kept saying that. And in the earlier, why I'm bringing this up is because in earlier classes we've talked about this already. And this is, this is, this class is designed to be a Report an error in the passage at 6:45 Highlight the passage at 6:45

6:58 Presentation of a book that I published a couple of years ago. And so it talks about the intention behind the book. And the intention was when Lama actually said, you need to teach these ideas so that your mother can understand them. And it's really amazing. I mean, you don't hear that from a lot of other systems of thought. Einstein said, if you can't teach complex ideas simply, then you don't understand them well enough. Report an error in the passage at 6:58 Highlight the passage at 6:58

7:26 And of course, as you know, in the Buddhist tradition that we're involved in, you know, we've got some pretty complex ideas. And I think it's amazing, it's finally coming out into the West and the modern world, I should say, how deep and scientific a lot of the ideas are and they're complex. And the Soliness said, as you know, a couple years ago, said, if science finds something, let's see, if science disproves, Something in Buddha's thought, then we should throw it out. That's amazing. And there's some things that have been taken out of the traditional Buddhist teachings, but nothing yet that Buddha talked, only things that other commentators spoke to, such as the world being flat. Report an error in the passage at 7:26 Highlight the passage at 7:26

8:13 He said, well, the science has proved that the world isn't flat. Now, that's a very interesting concept, because if we get deeper into it, we can't actually prove that the world, can we prove that the world is flat or round? From a Buddhist perspective. Point of view? Report an error in the passage at 8:13 Highlight the passage at 8:13

8:34 So how is the world... Okay, so let's talk about that. Should I jump forward for a second? Okay, so I Report an error in the passage at 8:34 Highlight the passage at 8:34

8:47 guess I hit you with a big one. So I was walking through, I'm not waiting for them to explain it, because this is really kind of, it can make this whole thing practical. It comes back to our discussion about climate change, for example. So one year I was going up to, there's a place up in the Himalayas. Report an error in the passage at 8:47 Highlight the passage at 8:47

9:01 Um... Report an error in the passage at 9:01 Highlight the passage at 9:01

9:05 That I would go sometimes to retreat. And the first time when I was going, you know, I was very ambitious and a little bit, you know, I was going up by myself. I was going up to this, it wasn't Laudo, it was another place and it was about five days walk from the road from Kathmandu, the edge of Kathmandu. Report an error in the passage at 9:05 Highlight the passage at 9:05

9:28 And walking through there and a couple of Sherpas were walking along, I met them in a tea house. And they said, where are you going? That's where I was going. And I told them, it was near where they lived, where they were going. And they said, oh, come on, you know, walk with us. And it was still another day or two days still to go. Report an error in the passage at 9:28 Highlight the passage at 9:28

9:49 And he said, because, you know, this part of the road, this part of the trail is not so safe. You know, this is how they are. You know, they're very inhospitable. And so we're walking along. And I remember, again, one of those memories. It's vivid. And we're in the middle of this forest. forest. And... Report an error in the passage at 9:49 Highlight the passage at 9:49

10:06 They start talking quite animately in Sherpa, which I don't speak. And then finally one of them turned to me and said in Nepali, he said, do you think a man walked on the moon? Report an error in the passage at 10:06 Highlight the passage at 10:06

10:20 And I said, yeah, yeah. And he went back to his friend and they said, yes. I mean, I'm guessing what he said to Sherpa. See, they think that someone walked on the moon. And they're talking about five, ten minutes. Then they both turned to me and we're stopping in the middle of the course. And they said, do you really think someone walked on the moon? And of course, this was before all the conspiracy stuff. This is 19, you know, it was 1976. Report an error in the passage at 10:20 Highlight the passage at 10:20

10:47 So when did they walk on the moon, 68? 69. And so I explained, I said, yeah. And they said, you know what, that's impossible. Report an error in the passage at 10:47 Highlight the passage at 10:47

11:01 And they were speaking kind of from their Buddhist background. Now these were And they weren't educated, but you know, they had been steeped in Buddhist thought of all life. And they were told that the moon was, is the abode of a particular day, a god. And that what we see is made of light. So a person couldn't walk on light. And it really was interesting because if you think of things in terms of, now from a Buddhist point of view, And we start looking at view, right? Just view and the nature of reality. In a way, their explanation, I don't know if it's any less real or true than ours. Report an error in the passage at 11:01 Highlight the passage at 11:01

11:51 Even though it's only saying if science proves something, we should take it out. That's one of those ideas they took out, that it's maybe a boat of a god and it's made of light because the man walked on it. Report an error in the passage at 11:51 Highlight the passage at 11:51

12:04 It's really curious when you start looking at the nature of reality, whether or not you can trust that that's true or not. We've talked about that a little bit last night, so let's keep that in mind. We'll go through that again now, or this morning. Okay? So, because I think that people here last month won't remember what we taught anyway. Report an error in the passage at 12:04 Highlight the passage at 12:04

12:27 Is that safe to say? Yes. You can tell this group, Eddie. a few bells. Report an error in the passage at 12:27 Highlight the passage at 12:27

12:37 So that's the background. So I just want you to understand because there's a lot of material that we're not going to discuss. It's preliminary, not preliminary, but you know, precedes what we're doing now. Report an error in the passage at 12:37 Highlight the passage at 12:37

12:49 But I want you to get the context where the ideas are such that they're Report an error in the passage at 12:49 Highlight the passage at 12:49

12:58 universal, they matter. I think that's the other thing. Siddhartha and I were talking on the way up here. As explained, we're listening to a bit of a teaching that I wanted to, you know, sometimes when I come up here or go to teach, I try to... Prep a little bit and you know get in the zone. And so there's a teaching by one Lama who was here recently who taught at Land of Medicine Buddha on calm abiding and penetrative insight. Report an error in the passage at 12:58 Highlight the passage at 12:58

13:28 And so of course to drop Siddhartha into this talk. So I just explained it. I said well no even though it's complex all the teachings are designed to be applied. All for practical purposes. So let's not lose that. And that's what Lama Yeshe meant. By when he said, you have to teach these ideas so that your mother can understand them. Because my mother needs to, it'd be good for her to apply them as well, not just monks and advanced practitioners. Report an error in the passage at 13:28 Highlight the passage at 13:28

13:59 Okay? So that's the background. And it's a fun challenge. It's a fun, I encourage everyone to do it. You know, to think of what you, if you study Buddhist thought, what you really like, and you think about going and, without changing the meaning, That's very important, not to change the meaning. You find a lot of Buddhist books now that are a little bit troublesome to me because they, in order to communicate to conventional people, they, they dumb down the meaning so much, they water it down so much that it seems like they actually changed the meaning. Report an error in the passage at 13:59 Highlight the passage at 13:59

14:37 And what would be, anyone have an idea of that, have experience with that? Not to criticize an author or anything like that, but... Report an error in the passage at 14:37 Highlight the passage at 14:37

14:45 There's one area that's really interesting. The whole concept now of mindfulness. Thank you. The mindfulness movement. In a non-judgmental way, well, in a judgmental way, it's very good. Because it's offering something that's a more, to me, it's offering a better state of mind than what a person might have without. Report an error in the passage at 14:45 Highlight the passage at 14:45

15:11 So on that level, we could say positive. Well, also it's offering them a different way of looking at life as opposed to just me, me, me. They're thinking about what they're active doing on a moment-by-moment basis. It's not just focusing on them. Okay. So I'm going to challenge you. You're going to be my challenge today. That's right. I'm leaving early. Report an error in the passage at 15:11 Highlight the passage at 15:11

15:33 See, that's my problem with it. That is your problem? Yes. Because in theory, you're right. In theory. Okay. Could be fine. But you know, you know, if you look at, and I'm generalizing, and there's one mindfulness program that I work with, the Potential Project, you know, I don't know if people know. Report an error in the passage at 15:33 Highlight the passage at 15:33

15:56 It's a corporate-based mindfulness training program. And I'm probably not going to continue to work with it much more because for me it's just not relevant for me right now. But it goes into businesses and teaches mindfulness. Great thing. Because, you know, what's in there, otherwise people are stressing out. Report an error in the passage at 15:56 Highlight the passage at 15:56

16:13 Aggressiveness, high blood pressure, right? All those things. So is it helpful? Yes, on that level. And this kind of goes back to the nursing question we talked about last time, okay? So on that level, okay. Now for me, I want to have, I think I have to do something more in the sense of having more impact than that because that's my training. Report an error in the passage at 16:13 Highlight the passage at 16:13

16:42 Like we talked about, if you're a heart surgeon, maybe better not to be working in a day clinic, right? I mean, it's not using your potential. And I'm not saying I'm a heart surgeon, but compared to the mindfulness thing, I have 40 years of studying and experience. I should use it to the best of my ability. And my experience with mindfulness is it can be making people more self-centered, which the effect can be. Report an error in the passage at 16:42 Highlight the passage at 16:42

17:10 Now people become so aware of what they're being aware of. But are they... Lama Zopa Rinpoche has a very, very good comment when he hears about mindfulness practice. He says, oh, they're practicing mindfulness. He always says, mindfulness of what? We have to analyze. If you become mindful of the breath, think about, okay, it makes you calm. It might help your focus a little bit so you can play golf better. Report an error in the passage at 17:10 Highlight the passage at 17:10

17:43 Or talk to your employer or work better. You know, it's all good, right? We're not saying it's negative. But it doesn't lead to a solution of, it doesn't lead, it doesn't get rid of your mental problems. It suppresses it. It's like a band-aid. Yeah, which is good. We need band-aids, right? Use band-aids at work, right? Yeah, but it doesn't heal the problem. Report an error in the passage at 17:43 Highlight the passage at 17:43

18:08 So the question is, what are you trying to do? Now, they're not in there to be healing problems, right? At that corporate-based mindfulness training, they are not there to heal problems. They are there to help symptoms. That's good. But if you're a heart surgeon, then you want to do more with the band-aids on. And so the question is, what do you want to do? So in my background, I can't, I'm not being responsible. Report an error in the passage at 18:08 Highlight the passage at 18:08

18:35 Do you remember the slide, the very beginning about what the snow, snow, snow plates? Snow tiger. Remember that? I remember that, but I don't remember what it says. Now Report an error in the passage at 18:35 Highlight the passage at 18:35

18:55 I have to go all the way back. Report an error in the passage at 18:55 Highlight the passage at 18:55

19:02 Okay, this is what Lama Zopa Rinpoche said to me. If you're just, you know, as we were going to my office to constipate my office and he said out of nowhere, oh, if you're just helping people feel better, there's not much benefit. That's what I'm talking about. Report an error in the passage at 19:02 Highlight the passage at 19:02

19:18 So it's good to work on training people with mindfulness, good to work on the climate change, good to work. But the question is, what is your definition of helping? Report an error in the passage at 19:18 Highlight the passage at 19:18

19:31 What do we work about? So unfortunately, I was with the Islamists for a long time, and their idea of helping is much more extensive. Report an error in the passage at 19:31 Highlight the passage at 19:31

19:46 So it's not about helping for today. Not about helping for a year from now. You know, we talked about, hey, I mentioned last time, whenever I went to Lama when I was feeling depressed, he never, ever addressed my depression in that sense. Like, I didn't necessarily feel better leaving. Probably did a little bit, right? Just because of the quality of being with a person like that. But in fact, they weren't giving me a quick fix. Report an error in the passage at 19:46 Highlight the passage at 19:46

20:15 Whatever happened, What happened was like, sometimes it would be depression or the problem might have become more intense, in fact, as I work with their solution. Isn't that interesting? I don't know about you, but it's hard to do that. It's really hard. It seems almost sadistic. you would almost hope that... Report an error in the passage at 20:15 Highlight the passage at 20:15

20:37 If you're teaching all these people that have no idea of mindfulness or any of the teachings, it's a good beginning and maybe you're planting that seed that they'll say, I want to learn more. Right, so if you're a heart surgeon, how do you deal with that problem? So you tell them what the problem is, how to change their lifestyle to address the problem. Report an error in the passage at 20:37 Highlight the passage at 20:37

20:56 Maybe they won't need surgery if they diet and exercise and take this medicine or whatever it is that they need to. Yeah, they're coming in because they want to have the surgery. Report an error in the passage at 20:56 Highlight the passage at 20:56

21:06 And they usually want a quick fix. And they want a quick fix. You know, it takes so much courage not to do a quick fix. It's like having kids, you know, a lot of times with kids, you know, you know that in parenting, you don't always do a quick fix. Report an error in the passage at 21:06 Highlight the passage at 21:06

21:20 Well, I don't know if you don't. I don't know kids. Saṅgha. I don't mind. I don't mind. Okay. Well, I can honestly say with Dharma practicing, it would be a lot easier not having kids. And I have three of them. So do I. Would it be easier or not? Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 21:20 Highlight the passage at 21:20

21:44 If it would be, it would be better. I don't know about better, but easier. Should we do better or easier? Whatever's the hardest thing to do? Better is better. Better is better. Well, one of the things about being a parent is that it's unconditional. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 21:44 Highlight the passage at 21:44

21:51 easier. Not too much. Thanks. Report an error in the passage at 21:51 Highlight the passage at 21:51

22:03 I mean, you're there for your kids no matter what on some level. You know, you never ultimately abandon them. You know what I mean? You always have to deal with whatever is going on. You know, and then it makes you a better person now. I don't know about that, but it's a challenge. It really is. Because one of the things I've thought about a lot lately is my next life, please, no kids. Do you think, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 22:03 Highlight the passage at 22:03

22:34 Next life note, please. But then, as I remember saying to Venable Brene, who is going to do it then? We have to be human beings somehow or another to become enlightened and you have to become human some way. Well, I have another question for you. Can you become enlightened without developing patience? No. Without developing compassion? Report an error in the passage at 22:34 Highlight the passage at 22:34

22:58 No. Without developing affection and warmth? So can you develop those things without a person, an object? I don't think so. Yeah, you need an object. So why not, so a parent is forced to develop those, or not. I mean, you're confronted with those all the time, but, forgive me, the Saṅgha, you could be sitting alone in your room and doing your practices and not be confronted with that, right? Report an error in the passage at 22:58 Highlight the passage at 22:58

23:33 You did something else. So even the Saṅgha, our Mahāyāna Saṅgha, need objects. All right. All right. All right. It's not like they're free of that thing either. Report an error in the passage at 23:33 Highlight the passage at 23:33

23:47 You know, we talk about, I mean, I have the same thing. But it is a voluntary commitment. Which one is? Saṅgha. When you're a parent, your commitment is there. You have to, you can't abandon that. Well, I mean, yeah, but if you're going to be a decent parent, you can't. Right, if you're a decent person, you're not going to abandon it. Report an error in the passage at 23:47 Highlight the passage at 23:47

24:06 You can't. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 24:06 Highlight the passage at 24:06

24:07 And that always takes precedent. It seems like even at a 40-year-old son that I have, you know, you're still dealing with drama. Big time drama. But, you know, so the trick is, and this is a different subject, but getting down to the heart of it is we have to develop these mental qualities. And that's what we're talking about. Okay? Developing the mental qualities. Now what's unique about... Report an error in the passage at 24:07 Highlight the passage at 24:07

24:35 There's a couple different approaches to developing those mental qualities. And that's why we have different levels of practice and different schools of Buddhism. Even in Buddhism. And even different religions. Because people are different levels, right? And so the way that they, that a person's individual development might be, you know, it varies according to the individual. Report an error in the passage at 24:35 Highlight the passage at 24:35

24:57 You can't say one size fits all. Yeah. So what does the heart have to do with all this? Is that the same as the mind or mental qualities? Is that the same as the heart? Yeah. How are they connected? Right. I think heart is good. I mean, it's a good word. I think when we look at strictly in terms of Buddhist psychological map, there's nothing that's called heart. Report an error in the passage at 24:57 Highlight the passage at 24:57

25:28 But there is. It's the hardest. What we refer to as compassion or affection form. But not a physical, what we once call any, this doesn't have a physical location. Like the mind, well the mind doesn't have a physical location either. But sometimes in the western sort of vernacular we talk about the head and the heart. Report an error in the passage at 25:28 Highlight the passage at 25:28

25:51 Well we have a head, but, and the heart doesn't mean this thing, it means something here, right? Well in Buddhist physiology or psychology they don't quite have the same way. But it's not a big deal. So the heart usually refers to the sense of compassion and warmth. And, you know, we have a saying that wisdom without compassion is like a bird with one wing. Report an error in the passage at 25:51 Highlight the passage at 25:51

26:18 Okay, so we could say a saying, wisdom without heart, it's a perfect synonym in a sense. So if we're focusing on one or the other, it's not going to lead to a completely healthy or liberated state of being. Actually, liberate would be good. That's technical. But generally speaking, we need to develop both sides, heart and head. Okay? Report an error in the passage at 26:18 Highlight the passage at 26:18

26:44 Does that answer it? Yeah. We can talk about that more. So, okay. So in this form of this mental health, this psychology, so as we often talk about Buddhist psychology, I use the word more often than I say Buddhism, you know, when I teach. Because I think Buddhist psychology is tangible for the modern person. Report an error in the passage at 26:44 Highlight the passage at 26:44

27:19 Buddhism sounds like a religion. It's funny when someone's Dalai Lama refers to Buddhism as a synonym often as mind science. Report an error in the passage at 27:19 Highlight the passage at 27:19

27:30 If you mind, psyche, right? And science is like the study or the research of psychology. So mind science is a synonym for psychology. That's pretty amazing. He uses that as his synonym for Buddhism. So Buddhism must be psychology. And I think it makes total sense to look at it that way. Even the devotional practices and the faith-oriented practices in Buddhism, which you closely do have, you could even trace back to having some ultimately being a psychological mechanism for creating, when I say psychological, for creating a healthy psyche. Report an error in the passage at 27:30 Highlight the passage at 27:30

28:11 A healthy mind. So anything we do in Buddhists, I mean really, I think we should be a bit analytical and think about all these things that look devotional, right? For most of us. Tankas, water bowls, prostrations, all these rituals look very faith-oriented. They could look that way. And people, by the way, some people are more faith-oriented of a mindset. Report an error in the passage at 28:11 Highlight the passage at 28:11

28:42 But if you really trace them, they have a psychological component. They are mainly designed to help the psychology. Lama Yeshe, why I was so lucky to study with him, is he would often try to explain everything in terms of how it affected one's psychology. Even if it was your physiology. This, like, talking about balancing your body. Lama Yeshe brought in... Report an error in the passage at 28:42 Highlight the passage at 28:42

29:12 Yoga to the monastery. The other Lamas, as soon as Lamyasa started traveling, left the monastery, the other Lamas would tell the monks to stop doing yoga because they thought it was, they didn't get it, you know? The way Lamas teach it is, because even in Tibetan Buddhism we have yoga, right? There are types of physical, I mean, Hatha Yoga. They'll call it that, but there it is Hatha Yoga. Report an error in the passage at 29:12 Highlight the passage at 29:12

29:35 So Lama understood that these things are done with the right attitude. Created a healthier psychology. Help. Support. Just like being healthy. Right? It's easier to practice meditation when you're healthy than when you have a cold. Try to do mindfulness meditation. Report an error in the passage at 29:35 Highlight the passage at 29:35

29:55 You're meditating on the breath, right? Report an error in the passage at 29:55 Highlight the passage at 29:55

30:02 So we call it so. So this is all the background. The background is psychology. And yet Report an error in the passage at 30:02 Highlight the passage at 30:02

30:17 we don't even know what the mind is. Report an error in the passage at 30:17 Highlight the passage at 30:17

30:23 We talk about that a lot too. I'm not going to go into it again, but if you check up those people who have any mental health background, right, you don't receive any definition of the mind, and yet you're a mental health worker, you're a psychologist, a psychotherapist, you know, a psycho and you have no definition of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 30:23 Highlight the passage at 30:23

30:49 That, to me, is sort of a travesty, okay? Report an error in the passage at 30:49 Highlight the passage at 30:49

31:00 Did we use three umpires last time? I think we did. So, The reason this, because there's a few people newer today, right? Do you guys remember this? Three umpires? You weren't here last time. Okay. So I tell you three umpires because it's baseball season anyway. Anybody watch baseball? Do you? Yeah, me too. I love baseball too. But you and I am probably not going to be friends because you're a Giants fan. Report an error in the passage at 31:00 Highlight the passage at 31:00

31:33 Well, I'll watch anybody. Oh, great. That's a good answer. See if you can tell if he's really a nun. No controversy. Because I'm a Dodger fan. It's really hard up here to be a Dodger fan. Report an error in the passage at 31:33 Highlight the passage at 31:33

31:50 So the idea here is there's three umpires after a game, right? They're in the bar having a beer. And they're discussing about umpire. Rosie. Report an error in the passage at 31:50 Highlight the passage at 31:50

31:47 No, no, no. Report an error in the passage at 31:47 Highlight the passage at 31:47

32:03 And the first umpire says, there's balls and there's stripes and I call them as they are. That's what we talked about earlier, not the global warming thing. Oh, the earth being flat. Or the moon being there, walking on the moon. There's balls and there's stripes and I call them as they are. Report an error in the passage at 32:03 Highlight the passage at 32:03

32:25 The second umpire says, well, you kind of got it wrong. There's balls and there's stripes and I call them as I see them. Report an error in the passage at 32:25 Highlight the passage at 32:25

32:35 The third umpire says, you're both wrong. There's balls and there's stripes and they're nothing until I call them. That's the Buddhist point of view. So, did people walk on the moon or not? Report an error in the passage at 32:35 Highlight the passage at 32:35

32:52 If you took the third one, they didn't walk on the moon until I said they walked on the moon. Now said doesn't mean just words. It doesn't make you a mistake. It means the mind has this function of constantly labeling and creating reality. Well, let's go into that now. Okay, we talked about it last time. We went through the psychology. Report an error in the passage at 32:52 Highlight the passage at 32:52

33:15 Kind of quickly. And then we did a lot of talking. I want to go through it again because I think this for me, when you see these schematics, it has a lot of impact on understanding how things exist. So the fundamental here, let's be quick. What the fundamental diagnosis in Buddhist psychology is that, yes, we do have many disorders. Report an error in the passage at 33:15 Highlight the passage at 33:15

33:40 We have obsessive compulsive disorder. We have... We have major depressive disorder, we have dysthymia, we have anxiety disorder, we have attachment disorder, we have trichotillomania, we have 294 different diagnoses in the VSMs. Report an error in the passage at 33:40 Highlight the passage at 33:40

34:01 But in Buddhist psychology, the cause of all of those is the same thing. And that's a misperception of the world. We'll say technically. It's a misperception of reality. And when we talk about reality, we're talking about really only two things. The reality of how I exist, like the self, your self-identity. So how is that? So that's misperceived. And then the other thing is everything else. Report an error in the passage at 34:01 Highlight the passage at 34:01

34:37 Only two things. And everything else. In other words, subject and object. Okay? Because we see our sense of self, or identity, or me, or I, we see that incorrectly, all the mental disorders arise from that. We could also say, because I see you, or objects, the world incorrectly, therefore all the mental disorders, all the confusion arises. Report an error in the passage at 34:37 Highlight the passage at 34:37

35:06 We don't have to say either or, we could say, they're very interrelated. So any problem that arises, The ultimate cause is we see things incorrectly. The balls and the stripes and they ain't nothing until I call them. We don't believe that. We see balls and stripes. We see global warming. There is global warming. Don't you know? It's a fact. Report an error in the passage at 35:06 Highlight the passage at 35:06

35:34 Actually, it's not a fact. It's not a truth. That's what it does. An inconvenient truth. It's actually not a truth with a capital T. It's a truth with a little t. Report an error in the passage at 35:34 Highlight the passage at 35:34

35:50 Okay? But we see it as a capital T. We see men walking on the moon with a capital T, not a little t. Okay? The little t, the little truths, always have some error in them. That's why they're little truths. Okay? The big t, the big truth, that has no error. Report an error in the passage at 35:50 Highlight the passage at 35:50

36:17 In other words, they say that, so those are two truths, conventional, there's conventional truths, there's ultimate truths. Report an error in the passage at 36:17 Highlight the passage at 36:17

36:25 So conventional truths are true, but they don't exist the way they appear. They're still true because there's something there. Report an error in the passage at 36:25 Highlight the passage at 36:25

36:38 We just see them in a mistaken way. They're valid, but we're mistaken. How about that? Can you have something that's valid but mistaken? Have you ever heard that before? Report an error in the passage at 36:38 Highlight the passage at 36:38

36:48 That's kind of an interesting way to hear that. Report an error in the passage at 36:48 Highlight the passage at 36:48

36:56 So you could say there's a cup there, and that's valid. But the way I see the cup is mistaken in a mistaken way. I don't see actually how it is. But there's still a cup there. So that would be valid but mistaken. Report an error in the passage at 36:56 Highlight the passage at 36:56

37:18 That's how we see everything. And sometimes when you hallucinate, when a person's hallucinating, or someone's schizophrenic, that's not valid. It's mistaken and invalid. Because there is no conventional bugs crawling on his skin. Report an error in the passage at 37:18 Highlight the passage at 37:18

37:38 It's real for him. We don't deny that. But on a conventional level, it's not real for anybody else. No one can see that. So that's considered invalid and mistaken. Does that make sense? Now, then there's a third category of valid and not mistaken. That's what ultimate truth is. That's when we see reality. Sometimes they call it emptiness, which is a misleading term. But that's that one, where it exists. Report an error in the passage at 37:38 Highlight the passage at 37:38

38:12 You see it, and it appears that way, and it's not mistaken. If you're like me, you don't see that one. Report an error in the passage at 38:12 Highlight the passage at 38:12

38:22 So everything we see is kind of mistaken. But do you believe it? When you walk around in your world, do you think about that? I see that, I hear that chuckling by. Do you think, but I hear it in a mistaken way. Does anyone do that? Report an error in the passage at 38:22 Highlight the passage at 38:22

38:41 Yeah, I'm going to guess probably not. You probably wouldn't be in the supplies of yours. See, that's the difference. And to begin to doubt that the sound of that truck is really, that exists that way is really powerful. Just to be able to say, gosh, really? It doesn't? That's interesting. Let me think about that. That's very, very powerful. That cut, you know, that really is. Report an error in the passage at 38:41 Highlight the passage at 38:41

39:08 Okay. We did this at the end of the class last time, yeah? So when Report an error in the passage at 39:08 Highlight the passage at 39:08

39:18 that truck drove by, all right, right now, for me to see you and engage with you and you engage with me, hear my voice, you do. You see the colors and the shapes around here, right? So the first thing that has to happen is perception. So we're perceiving things right now, aren't we? And maybe we didn't even perceive that car door slamming, maybe some people did. But now to have a perception, it doesn't look, it looks like we're just having it, right? Report an error in the passage at 39:18 Highlight the passage at 39:18

39:54 But actually there's a whole lot of things going on to have one simple perception. that's you, that's Report an error in the passage at 39:54 Highlight the passage at 39:54

39:58 And we, in some texts, they have a, that there's 60 mental instances or mental perceptions in every instant. Instantly, I can't snap the fingers. That's an instant. And some texts say there's 60 mental experiences or perceptions in that instant. Report an error in the passage at 39:58 Highlight the passage at 39:58

40:30 You put them together and it makes separate people. Some texts I think say 280. And actually I don't think it's, you know, I think it's something that's fluid so it's hard to say there's any. I mean there's beginning, middle, and end. So, you know, you keep dividing them up into probably zillions. When the mind becomes very trained, it can perceive, it perceives those instances. Report an error in the passage at 40:30 Highlight the passage at 40:30

40:57 When we develop really good mindfulness, we see those. Report an error in the passage at 40:57 Highlight the passage at 40:57

41:04 For a reason. It's valid. So we don't see that. Or at least I don't see it. So in that perception, to have an experience like this, it actually looks like you are all just there, out there for me. And I'm probably over here for you, right? But to have a perception, you need three things, a minimum of three things. Report an error in the passage at 41:04 Highlight the passage at 41:04

41:30 Well, to begin with, you need three things. You need a consciousness, a mind. Report an error in the passage at 41:30 Highlight the passage at 41:30

41:39 A sense organ with an eye or an ear or a nose or a face or a tactile or smell. I guess it's a smell. Maybe a thigh. And there's a mental sense as well. That's the one that's when you're asleep at night and you're perceiving dreams. That's the mental sense. Mental sense organ. It's not really an organ I don't think, but it can't be an organ. But anyway, it's like the brain. Report an error in the passage at 41:39 Highlight the passage at 41:39

42:07 So that's, so you need that. So you need a consciousness, you need an organ, a sense organ, and you need something to see or perceive. So you need an object. If there's no object, you're not perceiving it. Okay, so no one here is perceiving a deer. Report an error in the passage at 42:07 Highlight the passage at 42:07

42:34 What are those things called? Report an error in the passage at 42:34 Highlight the passage at 42:34

42:42 You know those rabbits with the horns? Deer. one here is perceiving... Report an error in the passage at 42:42 Highlight the passage at 42:42

42:45 No. Jackalope. Jackalope. I love those things. No one here is perceiving a jackalope. Of course, they were all thinking about it. Report an error in the passage at 42:45 Highlight the passage at 42:45

42:58 There, that's different though. See, no one's perceiving a jackalope. This doesn't exist. It's not in our field of observation, is it? Now you're thinking about it, so you're having some experience with a jackalope, but that's different. That's not the jackalope jackalope. It doesn't. There's no object there. Report an error in the passage at 42:58 Highlight the passage at 42:58

43:14 So if you don't have an object, you don't have a perception. Get it? Why is this important? Report an error in the passage at 43:14 Highlight the passage at 43:14

43:27 One reason is for a lot of reasons. One reason is do you see? So there's a process going on, right? It's a process. For example, so my voice, you're hearing and listening to me. Where's the sound? It's over here, right? Report an error in the passage at 43:27 Highlight the passage at 43:27

43:50 But it's not over here. Because we just said you need three things to have it over here. To have this experience, you need at least three things. You need an ear, an ear consciousness, a part of your mind is, you need a mind, you need an ear, and you need my voice. Report an error in the passage at 43:50 Highlight the passage at 43:50

44:08 And we think, but we don't say we need that. We say, oh, his voice is over there. So which is right? You see what I'm saying? You still think his voice is over here, don't you? That's right. Think of the experience of the voice. Report an error in the passage at 44:08 Highlight the passage at 44:08

44:30 Where's the experience of the voice? Report an error in the passage at 44:30 Highlight the passage at 44:30

44:41 didn't have the mind, I would be able to. So is it only the head? No, it's in your ears because you could be deaf still understand what you're saying because maybe I read lips. Yeah, and then it's not sound though. It's visual. Isn't that interesting? You're not hearing my voice when you read lips. You're using another sense organ because you don't have the organ. Report an error in the passage at 44:41 Highlight the passage at 44:41

45:04 You just said you're getting an organ. But we all walk around saying, Karuṇā's voice is over there. I mean, don't you do that, honestly? Yeah, his voice is coming from over there, so he must be. And your mind kind of goes over here, and you listen over here, and you really believe it's over here. Report an error in the passage at 45:04 Highlight the passage at 45:04

45:27 Same thing with color now. Color and shape. That's the visual, that's the eyes object, right? Colors and shapes. I really think that Lisa's sitting over there. Don't you think I'm over here? Where is your vision now? Where are you having this experience? Report an error in the passage at 45:27 Highlight the passage at 45:27

45:51 If you're like me, and when I say you don't, bear in mind I'm talking about me. You don't have the perception of me over here as being a mental experience. Report an error in the passage at 45:51 Highlight the passage at 45:51

46:07 You're walking around thinking, he's over there. And we do that all day long. Report an error in the passage at 46:07 Highlight the passage at 46:07

46:16 Think about something that upsets you. A person. Is there some person in your life that upsets you? Probably not. Report an error in the passage at 46:16 Highlight the passage at 46:16

46:29 Think of that person. Report an error in the passage at 46:29 Highlight the passage at 46:29

46:33 Isn't that person over there? As far away as possible. Yeah. And so when, excuse me. So let's say that, just imagine this. So that person comes in today. They come in right now. Heard about this class. Somehow you mention it to them. Report an error in the passage at 46:33 Highlight the passage at 46:33

46:58 And they come in. What happens to your body? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 46:58 Highlight the passage at 46:58

46:55 All right. Report an error in the passage at 46:55 Highlight the passage at 46:55

47:03 What happens to your mind? Maybe a little tense? I mean, everyone's different, but, you know, your teeth might get a little tight, or you go, oh, God. Okay, I'll leave early. And yet, where is all that happening? They walk in, there's color, all there is is color and shape. All there is is what I call data. It's the data being a cumulation of atoms, molecules, protons. Report an error in the passage at 47:03 Highlight the passage at 47:03

47:37 They need nothing until I call them. Right? That irritating person is not an irritating person until you call them that. So there's something else going on in your mind, our minds, that make, but do you see that, but we say, no, it's true, everyone finds her irritating. Right? And you get the validation from everybody to make sure that everybody knows that she's irritating. Yeah, and the problem is you only talk to those people anyway. Because as soon as you talk to her boyfriend who loves her, You're not going to talk to him. That guy is so delusive. How is he being so manipulated by her? What is he not getting? Report an error in the passage at 47:37 Highlight the passage at 47:37

48:21 And we say that's real, by the way. We say she is really annoying. When we say she's really annoying, we're saying she is really annoying. In reality, she's an annoying person. That's what we go through every instant. Can you believe that? Of course, those are bigger examples. Report an error in the passage at 48:21 Highlight the passage at 48:21

48:40 But those big examples come from little events. Those are big events. Little events. Right now we're doing the same thing. Even though I'm not getting much strong emotion or anything going on, we're doing the same thing. We're setting ourselves up, by the way, right now to have a big emotion, aren't we? Because all I need to do is say something like, you know, if people were so stupid and get this better, you know, I'm going to insult you, right? Report an error in the passage at 48:40 Highlight the passage at 48:40

49:11 In an instant, Now those little molecules are becoming a little more expansive, aren't they? You see what happened? Just nothing. All it took was a simple molecules of these sound waves that had a different tone to them, but were neutral just like everything else. But according to you, that was when it goes into this, see? It's just an object when I say, if you people weren't so stupid, Report an error in the passage at 49:11 Highlight the passage at 49:11

49:44 It has no quality to it. Report an error in the passage at 49:44 Highlight the passage at 49:44

49:49 Not until you call it. That object comes and you hear it, still has no quality. That thing is just a lens like that camera. It's just neutral. You know, it's not the ear organ that's saying, you know, God, he's so insulting, right? It's not a problem yet. The problem comes here. Correct? Are we on the same page? Okay. Report an error in the passage at 49:49 Highlight the passage at 49:49

50:19 Not do this. We did this last time. I'll just tell you what this is about. This is about sort of some recent, you know, elementary ideas on neuroscience. In that what's happening within the brain itself is really fascinating because, of course, in Buddhist anatomy, psychology, the brain and the mind are different. Report an error in the passage at 50:19 Highlight the passage at 50:19

50:43 The brain is not the mind. It seems to be like an organ of the mind, but it's not the mind. I think the brain is dependent on a mind, but a mind is not dependent on a brain. Make sense? Because when we die, we still have a mind, but we don't have a brain. Report an error in the passage at 50:43 Highlight the passage at 50:43

51:03 Okay? Just like a sight is dependent on the eye. I mean, the eye is dependent on the sight, but still, you can perceive things without an eye, can't you? Like when you're dreaming, you can still see colors. But those are mental events, by the way. For a physical sight, you have to have eye orbit. But that aside, so there's a lot of talk about neuroscience. So what's happening in the brain is there's an interrelationship between brain and experience, brain and mind. Report an error in the passage at 51:03 Highlight the passage at 51:03

51:36 And this just has to do with the developing habits, mental habits. And that's why I have this stuff on neuroscience. And we're not going to do that today. Report an error in the passage at 51:36 Highlight the passage at 51:36

51:51 We can always talk about it at some point. Okay. So now a living being. Now living being, we're really talking about Well, we're focusing on people, human beings, but there's six different kinds of living beings, right? Do you know? Report an error in the passage at 51:51 Highlight the passage at 51:51

52:09 How many of you know the six types? Oh, good. What's one of the types? Gods, celestial beings. What's another one? Pregtas. Pregtas. Let's go from high to low. Demigods. Demigods. So, there's two levels of celestial beings. One are like the angels level or the very exalted level, and then there seems to be more competitive, more aggressive, but they're still celestial beings, but just a lower consciousness than the high. Report an error in the passage at 52:09 Highlight the passage at 52:09

52:51 Then there's the humans. So those are three higher realms. And now, when we talk about realms, I don't talk about this very often, by the way. I mean, I do if I'm teaching a more traditional class. But I think this is not too bad of a thing to talk about in terms of psychology. When we talk about these three, these six realms, think of them as mental states. Report an error in the passage at 52:51 Highlight the passage at 52:51

53:11 Don't think of them as places, at least for this class. Mental states. Mental states. Think what is a human mind, okay? That's better. So there's a celestial mind, and if you think there's not, or you find it hard to grasp, just think about what someone is like. Report an error in the passage at 53:11 Highlight the passage at 53:11

53:32 Well, this might not be the best example, but like, Report an error in the passage at 53:32 Highlight the passage at 53:32

53:38 you know, extremely euphoric state, extremely euphoric athlete, or, you know, sometimes they say like, I don't know about heroin, you know, when you're really high on heroin, because that turns really bad. Yeah. But there's a point there, right? Yeah. No, but the reason is, okay, so, well, don't put the camera on me, but like when I used to do meth, you reach this point. Report an error in the passage at 53:38 Highlight the passage at 53:38

54:02 Exactly. And you feel fully awakened. That's right. So that's what I'm talking about. The fact that you are in a human mind, or you and I are in human minds and human bodies, we don't stay there. So that's the suffering of it. But there are beings who do stay there. So as an analogy, think of human beings that hang out there more than like others. Report an error in the passage at 54:02 Highlight the passage at 54:02

54:29 It's hard to imagine because you can't stay there as a human being. But, well, you can in some ways. I'll tell you an example. Meditators. You, Report an error in the passage at 54:29 Highlight the passage at 54:29

54:40 you know, it is well known that the whole purpose of meditation is to train the mind because the mind has this vast potential. And, you know, there are, you know, just in the mindfulness practice, well, in developing single point of concentration, you don't have to attain enlightenment, nothing. But you can attain single point of concentration and your mental... Report an error in the passage at 54:40 Highlight the passage at 54:40

55:04 Your mental quality, your mental state goes into the realm of the goddess. Very quickly, in fact, if you develop lower levels, not even the highest level of samādhi, there's nine stages, and then you develop the ninth stage, which is full single point of concentration right after that, actually. So that's the nine stages of developing single point of concentration. Even in developing those stages, in a way, if you develop a seventh stage, you are actually equivalent to Some, you know, one of the lower God realms. Your state of mind is similar to there. If you stay in that stage, you are in a God-like mentality. Report an error in the passage at 55:04 Highlight the passage at 55:04

55:46 That's the power of the human mind, by the way. It has the potential to go to all six of them. Animals don't have the potential to go to lower ones. The higher ones have the potential to go to the other ones. So, so there are, so when you know of people who are really good meditators and now Add my criticism to it. They're kind of blissing out. It happens. They aren't attaining any, all they're doing is postponing, because you're going to come down, just like with meth. Report an error in the passage at 55:46 Highlight the passage at 55:46

56:19 Well, I quit doing psychedelic way, way long time ago, just like, and could make any high. I just get so tired of coming down. Yeah, it was really like, ah, not again. I couldn't figure out, why can't I stay there? I understand that, why I couldn't stay there. Okay? You don't have enough imprints to stay there. I'm not of that mental caliber. So then you have the three lower realms, which are the animals. Report an error in the passage at 56:19 Highlight the passage at 56:19

56:48 So they can't do much. They can't do this thing. You can't tell your cat. I had a person in class the other day, another place. I took a survey. I said, would anyone really want to be their pet? Be an animal? And some people would still raise their hands. That always interests me. I said, really? What would you want to be? She said, oh, my cat. Report an error in the passage at 56:48 Highlight the passage at 56:48

57:10 And I said, does anyone here, would you like to be an animal? Does anyone think like that? It's not uncommon though, right? In this normal world. I want to be an eagle. I want to be like my dogs who are so pampered. Yeah. Wouldn't I like somebody to do that for me? Right. They don't think of it as an analogy though. Report an error in the passage at 57:10 Highlight the passage at 57:10

57:28 They think I would. Anyway, I'm preaching to the choir right now. It freaks me out. You know, when I think about, wow, being a cat. And that's. People want to be like animals, they always choose like a pet. And you look statistically. In the animal realm, what, statistically, what is a, how many of the animals in the animal realm are a pet? Report an error in the passage at 57:28 Highlight the passage at 57:28

57:51 I think you can't even, it's so minute, you can't measure them, right? Like I said, preach to the choir. So a cat can't, the cat, an animal, a chipmunk, can't really, doesn't have any volitional power. Report an error in the passage at 57:51 Highlight the passage at 57:51

58:07 It reacts, it lives, and it's like. The next one, of course, is the spirits. You're saying they're called the Prentas. And then the third, the lowest, the hell realms. Those are the psychotics, the schizophrenics, the people in war zones that are being shot at right now. That intense fear, things like that. Being tortured. Domestic violence. Domestic violence. Whatever torture in your mind. Report an error in the passage at 58:07 Highlight the passage at 58:07

58:34 So you think about, it really makes sense now. You know, not to worry so much about the realms of the mental state. When you're in domestic violence situation, how well can you meditate? Yeah. So, when you're really, like what would be an animal kind of mentality? Report an error in the passage at 58:34 Highlight the passage at 58:34

58:56 I don't know. Just obsessed with food. Food. Food. How can you think about, huh? Defense. Defending yourself. Defending yourself. Living in a really bad neighborhood and walking around. Like when you walk through your neighborhood, And you feel threatened, can you meditate? Just love all sentient beings, okay? Your enemy is your best friend. I know. So as you walk, you're unique. Report an error in the passage at 58:56 Highlight the passage at 58:56

59:25 No, I mean it. You're unique. You've heard these ideas. But if you, you know, your friends that haven't heard these ideas, and when they walk out of their apartment to the convenience store, they lose it. Right. They have their defenses. They have to be protected. Whatever, right? Yeah, yeah. Can they meditate? No. No. You want that mentality? Report an error in the passage at 59:25 Highlight the passage at 59:25

59:44 Do you want that statement? No. Scared animals. Yeah. Good point. Scared animals. So, by the way, let's just go a little religious for a second. Report an error in the passage at 59:44 Highlight the passage at 59:44

59:58 Psychologically, okay, we're not being religious, no faith, just psychologically. If the mind is a continuum, right? If, which it is, but you have to check that. If it's a continuum, and your continuum day after day is in the tenderloin, not yours, but these acquaintances, okay? And you see a defensive, defend, protective, fearful. Do that for years, years, years, years, years. You've got a mental, there's a mental continuum, right? Report an error in the passage at 59:58 Highlight the passage at 59:58

1:00:26 Then, boom, you die. Does that mental continuum stop right then? No. So what do you think that mental continuum is going to have to look for? What kind of body would fit that? Similar. Something lower, something... Exactly. It makes sense then of how rebirth works. Yeah. That's rebirth. Because it wants to search for something it knows. Yeah. It's compelled. It doesn't even want. It's forced. Yeah. Isn't that interesting? Report an error in the passage at 1:00:26 Highlight the passage at 1:00:26

1:00:55 So then I started becoming a believer in reincarnation. That makes sense. Let me think of that. Now you could say, why isn't he just born as another person in that situation? That happens too. It's just that it's a bit of unreliable. You don't want to rely on it. It's becoming. A human in a tenderloin again. You might not. Even if someone has that opportunity, there's still a way out there. If you go down, lower the... Report an error in the passage at 1:00:55 Highlight the passage at 1:00:55

1:01:25 Once you go down? It's hard. Because you know what your friends... I don't think about it. Your acquaintance is in a tenderloin. No, no, seriously. Your acquaintance is in a tenderloin. I bet there's a part... Like you told me last night how you sat down and you went to see this family. I don't know if that was in a tenderloin. It is in a tenderloin. And then all of a sudden there's 18 people in there listening to you, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:01:25 Highlight the passage at 1:01:25

1:01:44 An animal can't do that. That's what's amazing about the human. That's where you stick with that. Yeah, they can't make that conscious decision. Even if they're sitting there, they can't. They don't comprehend it. They don't know what you're saying. There's some imprint, but they don't comprehend it. Okay, so that's a living being. So living being, all these six different types, they all have a body and they all have a mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:44 Highlight the passage at 1:01:44

1:02:06 Okay, so quality of mind. So that's when we talk about this human life being so important, so precious. That's the point. That is the point. Really, we're not in the tenderloin mentality. We're not in the cocaine mentality. We're not in the soldier mentality. All those different places take in mind. You have to have a particular mindset. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:06 Highlight the passage at 1:02:06

1:02:32 And it's not a judgment, by the way. When you try meditating in some sniper blind in the Afghan mountains, good luck. Or while you're on patrol. You know, you might have, by the way, you have heightened awareness, don't you? You've got mindfulness, don't you? You've got mindfulness. It is mindfulness. You're sitting up there as a sniper, you better, they develop mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:32 Highlight the passage at 1:02:32

1:03:06 That's my problem with this mindfulness movement. If you're a really, really good burglar, perhaps you're mindful. Very mindful. I mean, myself, I've been in that, everyone has been in that heightened awareness. Okay, you're home alone at night and you hear sound. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:06 Highlight the passage at 1:03:06

1:03:26 How is that mindfulness different than what's been taught by a lot of people? None of that. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:26 Highlight the passage at 1:03:26

1:03:36 So that's why Lama Zopa Rinpoche is always just mindfulness of what? You can be mindful of your target, or you can be mindful of compassion, you can be mindful of wisdom. Mindful of? Sports players. Sports players. Well, athletes. Even drug addicts. Even drug addicts. Athletes, you know, can you tell me the heightened awareness of a batter in a baseball game? Oh my God. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:36 Highlight the passage at 1:03:36

1:04:10 How do they hit something coming to them at 90 miles an hour that's 60 feet away? You know, I To even be able to tune all that noise out. We can do that too. When you have really strong meditative abilities, you don't hear all this. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:10 Highlight the passage at 1:04:10

1:04:30 You don't get distracted. So I think it was Hank Aaron, I don't know who it was, who said, I don't know what Hank Aaron, I can't remember who it was, said when he was at bat and the ball came to him, it looked like a basketball and it looked in slow motion. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:30 Highlight the passage at 1:04:30

1:04:46 And that's what happens with heightened awareness is everything slows down. That's the only way you can hit a 90 mile and have a ball. There's no way you can do it that way. Your perception changes. Your consciousness changes. I think that's interesting. So of course we can develop single point of mindfulness. Do you need a break? Yeah. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:46 Highlight the passage at 1:04:46

1:05:08 Quickly. And then we're going to stop at noon. It's about 45 minutes. Have a quick lunch. And then do our last session. So go ahead. Stretch. of the distraction. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:08 Highlight the passage at 1:05:08

1:05:30 You have to, and then you enjoy it more. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:30 Highlight the passage at 1:05:30

1:05:36 Sidi, how are you doing? Good. I hope you're listening too. I am, I have to ask questions. Oh good, I saw you smile a few times. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:36 Highlight the passage at 1:05:36

1:05:52 Do you have something to do with that? Yeah, we've got a microwave. I love microwave, but let's keep it up without boiling. Yes, Report an error in the passage at 1:05:52 Highlight the passage at 1:05:52

1:06:09 I'm Anna. than you. Yeah. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:09 Highlight the passage at 1:06:09

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:06:34 My oldest sons and my daughters. Thank you. the rest of our sister-in-law. Yeah. They have been drugged in that. And then they went back. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:34 Highlight the passage at 1:06:34

1:07:12 And they were developing a business. Thank you. Thank you. So you know, you know this, you know the math, the drawings, and I'm not right. And I thought, oh, I thought it was questionable. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:12 Highlight the passage at 1:07:12

1:08:02 And then my wife said, wait a minute, we've got to change this. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:02 Highlight the passage at 1:08:02

1:08:36 Oh, I know. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:36 Highlight the passage at 1:08:36

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:09:09 Thank you. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:09 Highlight the passage at 1:09:09

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:09:45 I mean, I have a joke. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:45 Highlight the passage at 1:09:45

1:10:12 now it's time to them up. Oh, I would talk a lot. I almost called one in the beginning. I'm going to look that away. Oh, I know. I know. I told them about that. I don't want to look that one. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:12 Highlight the passage at 1:10:12

1:10:33 you. Thank you. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:33 Highlight the passage at 1:10:33

· · · silence, 3 minutes

1:13:46 Context, we're talking about, Report an error in the passage at 1:13:46 Highlight the passage at 1:13:46

1:13:56 with these five, Report an error in the passage at 1:13:56 Highlight the passage at 1:13:56

1:14:01 yeah, with Report an error in the passage at 1:14:01 Highlight the passage at 1:14:01

1:14:07 sense organs, they perceive, Report an error in the passage at 1:14:07 Highlight the passage at 1:14:07

1:14:18 so, and again, I'll comment that I was, when I started looking at this in a different way some years ago, not that long ago, I realized, oh, you mean, if they can only perceive form, that means sound is form. I just never really made a connection. Sound always seemed to mean something like formless, but no, it's made up of, it's still made up of molecules and atoms and the sound waves. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:18 Highlight the passage at 1:14:18

1:14:45 I think that's very interesting. So the eyes perceive only those things that are made of nose, ear. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:45 Highlight the passage at 1:14:45

1:14:57 Now, that doesn't mean that everything we perceive is form, because we, for example, if you think about your childhood home, just think, remember it, see it? Report an error in the passage at 1:14:57 Highlight the passage at 1:14:57

1:15:11 No form there. You saw it in your mind's eye, as they say. If there's a way to perceive the formless, then that would be with the mind. The mind perceives form. Now, the mind perceives form, too, because it's engaged in senior red shirt, which we already said is form. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:11 Highlight the passage at 1:15:11

1:15:31 But when you're perceiving only formless things, these organs can't do that. They're not in their normal function. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:31 Highlight the passage at 1:15:31

1:15:45 So if you're wondering, if you know an event or something is formless, then it's going to be the mind that's perceived, like dreams, mental stuff. So when you talk about the mind now, and by the way, these descriptions that I'm giving you are truths with a small t. It's just one way of organizing the information. So in the primary mind, the reason, it's because these have functions. So these are called the primary minds, and you have six primary minds, corresponding to six organs, or six types of experience. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:45 Highlight the passage at 1:15:45

1:16:26 Five senses and the mental experience, okay? So an eye consciousness, E-Y-E, consciousness, does not perceive an odor. If Report an error in the passage at 1:16:26 Highlight the passage at 1:16:26

1:16:40 you don't have the eye consciousness, but you've got, remember that other thing, consciousness, organ and object. So you have an object, like the red shirt. You have an organ, like the eye. But you don't have an eye consciousness, maybe it's impaired. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:40 Highlight the passage at 1:16:40

1:17:01 You're not seeing things. You don't have the experience of sight. The same with all these six. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:01 Highlight the passage at 1:17:01

1:17:12 So something could be impaired mentally with your ear consciousness and you don't hear sounds. It's not just necessarily the organ. You wouldn't hear sound if there's no object, there's no noise. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:12 Highlight the passage at 1:17:12

1:17:28 You wouldn't hear sound if your ear's not working properly, no ear organ. And you wouldn't hear sound if your ear consciousness was impaired. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:28 Highlight the passage at 1:17:28

1:17:38 For example, maybe when you're sleeping, let's say, your ear consciousness might be impaired. Impaired meaning not functioning. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:38 Highlight the passage at 1:17:38

1:17:51 You're snoring away, and your snoring doesn't wake you up, or someone talks to you and you'll hear them. Your organ is probably functioning at that time. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:51 Highlight the passage at 1:17:51

1:18:01 And the object is there, someone's voice, but your consciousness is not active. Okay? Make sense? Report an error in the passage at 1:18:01 Highlight the passage at 1:18:01

1:18:16 So when we talk about this, this is an experience, okay? So to have an experience, you have an object, you have a sense organ, and you have consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:16 Highlight the passage at 1:18:16

1:18:26 And then, that's not all you need, however. Okay? Report an error in the passage at 1:18:26 Highlight the passage at 1:18:26

1:18:35 I mean, so this is going, this is going a little bit deeper and I won't, but we need, and this you can have Gesho teach you this in detail, it's very fascinating, but you have, we have to have other mental functions, functioning going on to still have an experience. So, when I, you know, those three things of consciousness, object and organ, okay, but there also has to be, when that's happening, There's also things, you have to have contact with the object, right? If I don't have contact with your robes, I can't experience them. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:35 Highlight the passage at 1:18:35

1:19:16 The organ, everything's becoming, particularly the eye organ is becoming, but these are mental functions. And I can discern, you know, I can discern that by knowing, I can discern there's a table here, so I don't run into it. Not seeing its fine quality, necessarily, but I have discernment. Then there's feeling, and this is where trouble, so these five are always there. Remember those experiences we're talking about, 80 or 60, 60 per instant or 280 per instant? Report an error in the passage at 1:19:16 Highlight the passage at 1:19:16

1:19:45 These are always there too, because you're having an experience. You can't have an experience without having contact, discernment, feeling, some attention, and some intention, okay? Because intention is what moves the mind to your white shirt, you know, kind of. It brings my mind there as opposed to her red shirt at that time. There's a subtle sense of intention. And you'll know as you study more that these become more pronounced in terms of like intention becomes bigger, feeling becomes bigger, more pronounced, more exasperated, more exaggerated. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:45 Highlight the passage at 1:19:45

1:20:30 But like when I have When I have a good feeling towards, let's see, we meet. I have a good feeling towards Betty. I don't know why. Well, it's interesting. It started here. It started in those 280 instances. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:30 Highlight the passage at 1:20:30

1:20:45 Okay? But I just go, oh, you know, she feels like a, you know, I like her vibe. That's, right? That's kind of going off a feeling and discernment. Those things are happening. Contact. But what's causing that? Ah. I was just going to say, would that be your karma that's causing you? Ah, I get that. I'm waiting for those guys to get that. The caffeine freaks out. The caffeine freaks. What's their problem? As I'm drinking mine. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:45 Highlight the passage at 1:20:45

1:21:19 This is decaf, huh? Report an error in the passage at 1:21:19 Highlight the passage at 1:21:19

1:21:24 Yes. Is there a name for the round of... Yes. Which one? The one that you just showed. The five? The one before this? What is this? Ah. This is called the five omnipresent mental factors. These are all mental factors. Well, I don't want to say that quite that way. But yes, let's put it this way. They're mental functions. But these are what are described as five omnipresent mental factors. There's 51 mental factors in this schematic. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:24 Highlight the passage at 1:21:24

1:22:03 There's many ways to talk about it, but this is a very common one. 51 mental factors. Out of the 51, you break them down. There's five, these five are five on the present. And then there's the six root delusions. Those are, if anyone can add these up, they shouldn't be the 51. And then there are, so six root delusions, 20 secondary delusions. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:03 Highlight the passage at 1:22:03

1:22:28 You heard of it? The six roots are like, you know, ignorance, anger, attachment, that kind of thing. And the secondary ones are things like jealousy and harm. So, and then there's five, you can call it attentional mental factors, those are the ones, those are five more. There's 11 virtuous mental factors, like warmth, like non-harming, non-violence, compassion, things like that, patience, I can't remember all 11. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:28 Highlight the passage at 1:22:28

1:22:59 And there's four neutral ones, that should equal 51, okay? For example, sleep is a mental factor, right? It's a mental function, isn't it? So it's one of the neutral ones. Sleep is either bad or good. Depends on how we use it. We make it bad or good. But anger is never good, for example. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:59 Highlight the passage at 1:22:59

1:23:29 Now, sensation, like one of those, one of these... Going back to anger never being good? Correct. Hasn't, didn't Lama Yeshe ever get angry at you? No. Never? It got wrathful. Rahul, that's different. Well, let me explain. That's compassionate anger. Yes. They say when you become, when we realize reality and get control over the mind, at that point it is possible you, these negative factors can be used and transformed into beneficial factors. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:29 Highlight the passage at 1:23:29

1:24:03 However, in a common language, they'll say sometimes that attachment can be used in a positive way. But they'll say anger can never be used in a positive way. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:03 Highlight the passage at 1:24:03

1:24:17 It's never positive. Nah, I don't know. It seems like it could be. But I think the way it stains your mind is never positive. Attachment can, for example, if you're attached to meditating, you know, that can lead to, you know, a better state of mind. But if you're angry with something, it's difficult to have leads to a better state of mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:17 Highlight the passage at 1:24:17

1:24:15 say anger can never be used in a positive way. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:15 Highlight the passage at 1:24:15

1:24:44 You know, we can sometimes use one angry with the suffering in the world. I'm not sure that's real anger. And if it is, then you start killing, you know, abortion doctors. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:44 Highlight the passage at 1:24:44

1:24:57 You know what I mean? So that's why I say anger is never positive. So in those five omnipresent factors, we've got to hear one of them is feeling, right? So I like that one. So what happens is, you know, with feeling, there's only three feelings and they can't be simultaneous. You have one or the other. Now, of course, it can change in an instant. So the five sensations or feelings that we'll have? Report an error in the passage at 1:24:57 Highlight the passage at 1:24:57

1:25:26 Five. Three. Of the mental factor of sensation or feeling, there's only three that we experience. One of three. And that's pleasurable. I put here agreeable, disagreeable, neutral. Because pleasurable is almost, to me, is like... The grosser form of it. You think that 280 times in an instant, you're all having a feeling every time, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:25:26 Highlight the passage at 1:25:26

1:25:56 Can you really say that you have a pleasurable feeling every time? It's more subtle than that. I'm not sure what the subtle word is, so I thought I'd put agreeable, disagreeable, or neutral. What happens next, though, now if you have, if your attention is on, you know, it's on a sensation like tea. You know, there's a lot of instances between that, when I reached and when I took it. Probably about 30 instances times 280, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:25:56 Highlight the passage at 1:25:56

1:26:30 That's how many feelings I was just getting. But of course, there's cereal, and they're going to be similar. So then the sensation is agreeable. Let's say it's not agreeable. It's cold, okay? Right? Now, cold is neutral also. But for me, that's not agreeable. That's karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:30 Highlight the passage at 1:26:30

1:26:49 Simple. Karma is nothing more than that. It will go into a second. So I have a reaction to that sensation. That's where then problems come up. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:49 Highlight the passage at 1:26:49

1:27:03 It is cold, quote, you know, or lukewarm, but is it agreeable or disagreeable? It's not. It's just nothing until I call it. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:03 Highlight the passage at 1:27:03

1:27:15 But based on previous experience, I react. So contact, another one is, we don't have to leave. It doesn't matter. We don't leave. We have contact. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:15 Highlight the passage at 1:27:15

1:27:27 This is the 51 mental factors. I'm not going to stay here, but just to show you. You have those five that are always present. Well, ascertaining is the word. Then there's five to ascertain. Don't worry when they are. The 11 wholesome. The four variable like sleep and regret is another variable one because regret can be good or bad. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:27 Highlight the passage at 1:27:27

1:27:46 Doesn't mean it's good, doesn't mean it's bad. When it turns to guilt, it's bad. When it goes to awareness, it's good. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:46 Highlight the passage at 1:27:46

1:27:56 Secondary afflictions and main afflictions, that makes 51. But one point is, when we go through these five that we were just talking about, it activates these. Well, hopefully it activates this, wholesome. It doesn't. Very, very rarely does the wholesome ones get activated. Very rarely. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:56 Highlight the passage at 1:27:56

1:28:22 Because what happens when I took the sip of T, T is a very simple action, right? So when I use the T example, think about, What's really happening throughout your day, bigger things than tea. Going to get the cocktail. No, no, I'm sorry. Not picking on you. That's a bigger thing than me taking a sip. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:22 Highlight the passage at 1:28:22

1:28:42 You know what that was? I'm going to make this up. Just go with me on this. It'll be a little different for you. What happened in Lama Tsong's mind? What got him to leave the building and go to fog? What was it, fog busting? Yeah, fog busting. What was it again? Fog busting. Fog busting, yeah, fog busting. What was it? Report an error in the passage at 1:28:42 Highlight the passage at 1:28:42

1:29:08 Think about it. Something? Well, no, no bad? Something's in bad words. You think about it, yes. What do you think? No, no, yes. We're not there yet, though. What happened was maybe Loh Tsong, he had a perception. We're talking about way back. You guys are still out. Earlier, before the break, about perception. And he had a consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:08 Highlight the passage at 1:29:08

1:29:40 He had an object. And he had an organ. Now, what was the object? Let's just say he felt, let's say it was a mental object, like the thought of coffee. Oh, I could have coffee. So that's an object, right? The thought. The sense organ is the mental sense organ that perceived that thought. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:40 Highlight the passage at 1:29:40

1:30:03 So nothing's happening, it's all this, that's all that's happening, right? And then the consciousness. Then that stimulated, because those five omnipresent things are always there, some sort of agreeable, disagreeable, or neutral feeling. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:03 Highlight the passage at 1:30:03

1:30:21 My feeling is it was an attachment. My feeling was it was a disagreeable feeling. Maybe you felt like a little tired, a little bored. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:21 Highlight the passage at 1:30:21

1:30:30 He's been yawning all morning. So that yawning, that tiredness gives a sensation that's disagreeable for him. Get it? Then what happened? Then it stimulates. So those were there. And then it stimulated a wholesome. Wholesome. No. Yes. We don't know. We're judging. Then a wholesome. He thought. I need to work for the benefit of all beings. I feel so sad for them. I'm not working well for them. I have some regret. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:30 Highlight the passage at 1:30:30

1:31:07 I'm tired. I can't get everything done. I'm going to get a coffee so everyone can benefit from my presence. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:07 Highlight the passage at 1:31:07

1:31:16 Embrace yourself. Okay? Well, that's what I say before I go to work in the morning. Good. So you see how it works? Do you see how it works? Report an error in the passage at 1:31:16 Highlight the passage at 1:31:16

1:31:29 Now, when you're talking about catchment, craving, I think I thought that meant catchment. Yeah, so all of it comes from wanting and clinging. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:29 Highlight the passage at 1:31:29

1:31:40 So, poor Lama Tsong. He wants, so he goes, I want a coffee. He came in his mind, didn't say the words, maybe he didn't say, by the time he says the words, it was already long, he was done. He was a victim. He was already out the door. He had no chance of not going. Because if we said, he's getting it, and he takes that one or two steps to the door, and I say, hey, little song, hang on a second. No, I'm already committed. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:40 Highlight the passage at 1:31:40

1:32:07 I'm already committed. No, I know. I say, hang on a second. Could you get me a fresh cup of tea? Lisa, can you get it? Now he has a disagreeable sensation, doesn't he? Because his wanting came up, and then clinging, now I'm not going to... The clinging here is just the elaboration of the wanting. I have the clinging when I go get the teeth. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:07 Highlight the passage at 1:32:07

1:32:40 It's everywhere. So you have to have the soul. My mouth is dry. My throat is dry. It's an unpleasant, disagreeable sensation. Look how I was just driven to this cut. You see that? No awareness, no consciousness, no control. Was I? I mean, generally speaking, no control. I was... So that's the wanting and clinging. The wanting is I want relief from the suffering, this discomfort, and then you cling to it. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:40 Highlight the passage at 1:32:40

1:33:09 Now the clinging, depending on how hard it is, and I take a sip and it's cold, then I get upset. That's depending on how much the clinging is to it, being a certain way. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:09 Highlight the passage at 1:33:09

1:33:20 And it's all false. It's all completely, 100 % fabrication, and I think it's real. It's a whole mental fabrication about the teeth. Even the taste. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:20 Highlight the passage at 1:33:20

1:33:37 Lama, he actually said, you people don't even know how to make a cup of tea. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:37 Highlight the passage at 1:33:37

1:33:47 And that's what he meant. You think about it, we don't know, what do we do? We go in there, right? You may put the water, the tea, but there's no, it's all reaction. There's no real awareness. Even if you try to be aware, there's no real awareness of what the mind is really creating this thing. If we know the mind is creating that tea and creating the experience, wow. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:47 Highlight the passage at 1:33:47

1:34:11 Then you can transform it. It's just mine. We think that tea is in that cup. We think that coffee is down one block down. But the whole mental experience of it, I think, look, when you went down the street and came back, just think about that. It's one little experience of zillions of them, right? How much of that time, I mean, honestly, just how much of that time, in that time, going back, didn't you see the whole thing as out there? Report an error in the passage at 1:34:11 Highlight the passage at 1:34:11

1:34:42 And I have to go to, and I'm projecting where the experience is over there and I need to go over there in order to feel what I want. And how much of it is out there? You know, based on what we're talking about now, if you use this as a metaphor or an example, and then you expand it to going to get the coffee, you expand to coming here, sitting here, you know, this cup of tea. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:42 Highlight the passage at 1:34:42

1:35:13 Looks to me like it's right there, doesn't it? But I have a question for you. Where is color? What do physicists say about color? There is no color. Did we talk about that last time? Yeah, a little bit. Physicists say there is no color. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:13 Highlight the passage at 1:35:13

1:35:36 It's just light, right? And waves. The color is made in the mind. Ooh. Blue is much... Some people say... You know, a classroom should be green because it relaxes the kids more. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:36 Highlight the passage at 1:35:36

1:35:53 What is that? That's mass, mass ignorance. Yeah, but why is it that the bulls get attracted to the red? Bulls and they're colorblind, by the way. They are. They see so many objects. Yeah. But anyway. A moving object. But I don't, not even at that level. No. No. When. Lama Tsongkhapa went down there, he had a lot of colors and shapes in his experience. He's only gone 10 minutes, had zillions of experiences, and a lot of it was shape and color, white, concrete, going in the doors, glass, the cups, the person, and that color was there. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:53 Highlight the passage at 1:35:53

1:36:35 I'm sorry if I project onto you, but if you were me, if you were me, I would say all those things were out there. Who helped you, a man or a woman? Female. And what would she wear? Report an error in the passage at 1:36:35 Highlight the passage at 1:36:35

1:36:52 So she was wearing something, let's just say, a brown shirt. That brown shirt, so he's engaging with this woman, all this thing, and none of it was like that. None of it was like that. And you and I believe it's all like that. Right now, everything we're seeing, all these colors, they don't exist the way they feel. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:52 Highlight the passage at 1:36:52

1:37:12 Didn't say they don't exist. They appear to me like they're out there. Does it appear to you that they're out there? Report an error in the passage at 1:37:12 Highlight the passage at 1:37:12

1:37:21 Intellectually, maybe you begin to get that they're not, but forget about intellectually, that's a good beginning. But perceptually, so then I say, really that, you know, that, I don't know, that black backpack, you know, who would have black like that? Because we believe it's black out there. We buy the shirts and clothes for our esteemed saṅgha because based upon we think that color is there. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:21 Highlight the passage at 1:37:21

1:37:52 So Report an error in the passage at 1:37:52 Highlight the passage at 1:37:52

1:37:57 what's the relationship? relationship with two objects When he was going to get his coffee, well, the object coffee is out there. Is it? Which one? Well, when he went to get that cup, that liquid, brown liquid. Now, that whole experience of it being pleasant, you know, pleasure, the attachment, whatever, that was, of course, in the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:57 Highlight the passage at 1:37:57

1:38:26 He had to go to the object, let's say, to make all of that experience happen. Can you tell me, based upon what we talked about, where I can find the outer object? Report an error in the passage at 1:38:26 Highlight the passage at 1:38:26

1:38:44 Yes, we believe, gosh, there's a girl over there and a store over there. Of course that's what the belief is. But how do you know that? I mean that sincerely. What's the mechanism that you know about? From experience, I go to, I drink a cup of coffee because in the past it's been pleasant, I've enjoyed it, it's fulfilled, satisfied, whatever it was that I was trying to satisfy at that moment. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:44 Highlight the passage at 1:38:44

1:39:16 And so if I do it again, I have that expectation that if I go to that object. So the object, but you're still seeing the object as existing outside of you, right? Yes, not that maybe the experience of it. I understand. Yeah, but you know what, it gets even more funky. That's what I'm trying to get to. How do you know, what validates, what way do you validate that the object is existing over there? Report an error in the passage at 1:39:16 Highlight the passage at 1:39:16

1:39:50 Tell me where your proof is. I guess the proof level is that the coffee is, they sell the coffee. How do you know that? Because I've done it before and that's... If you've done it before, it's not proof that it exists that way. And then I have the expectation that if I do it again, I will have the same experience. Is that proof? Well, if I go again and I have that same experience, I would say yes, that was it. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:50 Highlight the passage at 1:39:50

1:40:25 I've done it two or three. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:25 Highlight the passage at 1:40:25

1:40:31 So when you haven't done it, then there's no proof. That's true, but I haven't done it. You do it the first time, it's not true. The first time is, well that's the contact, and then there goes the discernment. What I'd like you to do is go a little further. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:31 Highlight the passage at 1:40:31

1:40:52 All of your experience that you're describing, the first time, second time, third time. There's experience through the senses. And I was just saying, so when you think of that, what in that experience is outside of your mind? Report an error in the passage at 1:40:52 Highlight the passage at 1:40:52

1:41:14 Give me one thing that's outside of your mind. I would say it was the object. Okay, so the object exists outside of your mind, right? Yeah. So you're saying the object exists independently in your mind? Yes, to a certain extent it would. It can only be yes or no. It can't be halfway. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:14 Highlight the passage at 1:41:14

1:41:34 Then I would have to say yes, it does. Okay, so it exists independently, it exists over there on its own. Right. Okay. If it existed over there on its own independently, there's a lot of ways it doesn't, by the way. I don't believe it does. Okay, yeah. One way, if it exists over there independently on its own, then everyone would experience that story the same way, because it exists over there independently. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:34 Highlight the passage at 1:41:34

1:41:57 Right. But we all go there, I hate that story. Right. You like that story. But that's the experience of it. What is separate from it? Anna, I understand. What is different? You saying experience and then something separate from it. I'm saying there's nothing separate from experience. Right. So he went over there. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:57 Highlight the passage at 1:41:57

1:42:17 He got the coffee and apparently had a pleasant experience. I didn't go there with him. Right. You know. know, he testify the fact Report an error in the passage at 1:42:17 Highlight the passage at 1:42:17

1:42:33 But the experience was not outside of my body, it was here. Well, you haven't walked there. No. How do you walk there? His experience of walking, this is tricky, but this is where we're going. Loso's experience of walking was still a physical act, right? Yes. So it's based upon information that's atomic, molecular. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:33 Highlight the passage at 1:42:33

1:43:00 Experience through his senses. We don't know he walked there. Just because he had that experience in his five senses, he thinks he walked there. He thinks he independently walked to an independent place. I don't believe there's any independent store, there's any independent self-existent walking. All of it exists as a myth. And this is how much we're deluded. This is the whole point. We're so deluded that we... Report an error in the passage at 1:43:00 Highlight the passage at 1:43:00

1:43:31 Think that there's a store over there, the way you're describing it, by the way. There is no store over there the way you're describing it, or the way he was describing it, the way he thinks he was even going to it. That store doesn't exist. It never has existed. Is there a store over there? I guess there's something, but not the way we're experiencing it. This is what we have to get comfortable with. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:31 Highlight the passage at 1:43:31

1:43:53 And it's not comfortable, actually, it's quite earth-shaking. Because we are not experiencing things the way they are. And the way you're describing that store, you're describing as a store that exists independently. That is how we see the world and we react to everything that way. And all I'm saying to you is, it doesn't exist independently. There is no store over there independently. If it's not independent, it's dependent. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:53 Highlight the passage at 1:43:53

1:44:19 Right. If it's dependent, it can't be independent. But how is it that he is having a very similar experience to what I... Report an error in the passage at 1:44:19 Highlight the passage at 1:44:19

1:44:31 That's a different question. That's a good question. It's a different one. Is that like a collective karma? Yeah. Right. Because we're both humans, we both, due to previous experiences, we both like the sensation of gas, coffee on our tongues, and we create this whole hallucination. Lama Yeshu is called a hallucination. It's a hallucination. A mutual deal. We all share it. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:31 Highlight the passage at 1:44:31

1:45:01 There's one difference between hallucination and what we're talking about. An hallucination doesn't exist on any relative level at all. But this thing has some real, it has some, there is a shared experience, but it doesn't exist in the way it feels. I mean, it could also be looked at kind of like, you know, when we have dreams. We, like, some of the dreams we feel are real. It's exactly like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:01 Highlight the passage at 1:45:01

1:45:25 But it's all happening here. That's right. It's not out there. If it's out there, you have proof. So, I'm kind of new to all this, but I... Me too. I was older, I could explain it, but yes. I have been meditating for about three minutes every day, and so, you know, there is no I because my body and mind is constantly changing, etc. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:25 Highlight the passage at 1:45:25

1:45:51 So I get that, there's no I, there's no myself. But, you know, I'm not perfect or anything, obviously, but I do tend to think that I'm a... your last secret. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:51 Highlight the passage at 1:45:51

1:46:00 I do know that I'm a good person, per se, and so, you know, and I'm thinking, what is it that gets me here, or sitting here for five hours or whatever, listening to this, and, you know, some of the things I ask the universe for are, like, willingness, etc. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:00 Highlight the passage at 1:46:00

1:46:22 So what is it that's asking me for this? It's all karma? So what is it? Why am I even asking this? Why am I even talking to you? And I have a choice to ask these questions. But there is no me. There is no I. So what is it? So that's a great question and a really important one. And I'll give you a shorter answer rather than a really extensive, okay? So, it's very, very important to understand when we're learning about no I, like you said, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:46:22 Highlight the passage at 1:46:22

1:47:01 There's no I, I meditate on the no I. There is an I, okay? There's an I and then there's... So, there's no I in the way that we perceive it, okay? What that means, and I get very comfortable, this is where I was on, this is where I was trying to... Report an error in the passage at 1:47:01 Highlight the passage at 1:47:01

1:47:25 two things we see in this universe incorrectly. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:25 Highlight the passage at 1:47:25

1:47:32 the other is the eye. But they're very similar the way we see them. way we see them incorrectly is basically the same. We see both them as there's something existing independently on its own. Steve. Steve. Steve. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:32 Highlight the passage at 1:47:32

1:47:55 When we meditate on the no-I or the emptiness of the I, the first step in that is meditating on first what we call the object of negation. Remember that? That's okay. So don't meditate on the no-I yet. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:55 Highlight the passage at 1:47:55

1:48:18 Meditate first on how, like Lama used to say, it's good enough. to see how you're seeing things incorrectly don't worry too much about seeing things correctly they're really the same thing but his approach was see how you see things and that is incorrect how that's incorrect so Steve it's like this first get really really familiar that you perceive a solid Report an error in the passage at 1:48:18 Highlight the passage at 1:48:18

1:48:52 independent solitary Report an error in the passage at 1:48:52 Highlight the passage at 1:48:52

1:49:00 Self-existent or natural-existent, I, like Steve. Now here's a good test. If I say Steve, you feel something. If I say Siddhartha, Anna, Barbara, if I say your name, only you is going to go, oh, he's calling me. That's a me. The moment you feel it, that's the I. That I goes, ah, I, he's talking to me. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:00 Highlight the passage at 1:49:00

1:49:33 That I or me. He's with us all the time, 20%. That's the eye that went to the coffee shop. That eye, you've got to become very, very, very, very clear. So you meditate and you actually see me say, I'm sitting there. That, and you go, oh, you really get the feeling after a while that that thing is solid and it exists independently. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:33 Highlight the passage at 1:49:33

1:50:01 Right now, these are just words. You have to get the feeling yourself. It's permanent. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:01 Highlight the passage at 1:50:01

1:50:10 So if I say, Steve, Look up. That's Steve. It's a natural feeling that, oh, he's calling me. That Steve doesn't exist. But that Steve's always there thinking he exists. Now, is there someone over there writing these notes? Yes. That's not the one we're trying to eliminate. That's a relative Steve who's changing moment to moment. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:10 Highlight the passage at 1:50:10

1:50:37 And will change into enlightenment someday. You know, when you attain enlightenment, I don't attain enlightenment. There's something there. If we say there's nothing there, then that's nihilism, right? That's extreme. But we have to learn what our extreme is not that there's nothing there. Our extreme is that there's something permanent, unchanging there. That doesn't exist and never has. Now, because I think that's there, I get in all kinds of trouble. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:37 Highlight the passage at 1:50:37

1:51:09 Okay? So, why doesn't Karuṇā stop talking at his lunchtime? Like that? Okay? That's the trouble. I'm hungry. That I doesn't exist. Is there some hunger going on? Yes. But the moment there's a sensation, I'm hungry. And that I, Steve, is what we have to be really familiar with. That I, so meditate on that first. And you see how he shows up as permanent, unchanging, real, solid. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:09 Highlight the passage at 1:51:09

1:51:42 And that's the guy we fight for and defend all the time. We feed him. We sleep him. We walk him. We coffee him constantly. That's what we're doing constantly. And that one doesn't exist. And because we do that literally 24-7. Constantly. Even when we're asleep. Even when we're asleep. It's called self-brasping. So we have to understand self-brasping before we let go. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:42 Highlight the passage at 1:51:42

1:52:13 And the way to let go is meditating on how it doesn't exist that way. That's called emptiness. It's empty out of existing that way. So it's better to say, It's not really appropriate to say we need to meditate on emptiness. That's a misconception. It's better to say we need to meditate on the emptiness of the I, the self-existent I. Now, I would suggest, I don't know, I think this is okay to suggest this. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:13 Highlight the passage at 1:52:13

1:52:41 I suggest people first start with the emptiness of the permanent I. Okay, see, it's going to show up to you as permanent. It's like... He's going to go, he always shows up as unchanging, when in fact he's constantly changing. But that's not how we see him. Now the meditating on emptiness of the permanent eye is not the deepest understanding, but it's deep. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:41 Highlight the passage at 1:52:41

1:53:07 It's good enough for as a beginner. Then we go into the more deeper, subtle way that eye shows up. It's not only that he or she shows up as permanent. He or she also shows up in other slightly more subtle ways. But to start with the permanent one, Or independent, both, per se. That coffee shop appears to you and me as independent. Is it independent or not? Report an error in the passage at 1:53:07 Highlight the passage at 1:53:07

1:53:35 It's dependent, right? But it shows up as independent. And when you were talking about it, you were insisting it exists over there. That means existing independently. I don't accept that. I might see it that way like you did, but intellectually I don't believe that. Because if something is dependent, it can't be independent. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:35 Highlight the passage at 1:53:35

1:53:54 And I can prove to you that coffee shop is dependent. Why? Just that one schematic. Consciousness, object and organ. That proves it's dependent. That coffee shop cannot exist without a mind cognizing it. And an organ to perceive it. And an object to perceive it. But what is motivating you to meditate every day? Report an error in the passage at 1:53:54 Highlight the passage at 1:53:54

1:54:24 Yes. Is it karma, past experiences? Is it past thoughts? Yes. And then that's not, since I'm always changing and there's no I, so what is it? No, there's a relative I, remember? Well, first of all, first of all, you know, the I, it doesn't exist. It has created all this karma, all these imprints. Now, the imprints are changeable, not as truly existing, but then the I keeps going, yes, it is, yes, it is, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:54:24 Highlight the passage at 1:54:24

1:54:56 It keeps grabbing onto them. So when we suffer, it's the I suffering, right? The misconception. By the way, there is no suffering. But there's a perception, I hate, you know, let's think of suffering. I'm hungry, really hungry. That I is suffering. That I, the moment it says I'm hungry, puts an imprint on the consciousness, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:54:56 Highlight the passage at 1:54:56

1:55:28 So next time you come in contact with that same object, you're habituated to see it that way. It's habit. Habit is another work of karma, or part of karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:28 Highlight the passage at 1:55:28

1:55:44 And so it's the I, in a way, it is the I that leads you to practice. Because the I does feel better when it's meditating than when it's actually eating chocolate ice cream. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:44 Highlight the passage at 1:55:44

1:55:57 Once you analyze it, you know, once it starts becoming more aware, normally we think chocolate ice cream is more pleasurable when we meditate. And people say, How can you sit there and meditate? Isn't that boring? Well, it's right. When you do it and do it more, you go, oh, well, wait a minute. This is a truer, closer to reality, helping me understand reality. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:57 Highlight the passage at 1:55:57

1:56:17 And reality, understand reality is happiness. It's just, but not what normally we think. We think happiness is a chocolate cake. Okay? Does that answer your question on that? So it is the I that gets you to also practice Dharma. But it's not going to, it's not going to, eventually it's the end of mental factors that will carry on. Mental factor of wisdom, for example. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:17 Highlight the passage at 1:56:17

1:56:49 When you're meditating on emptiness of the eye, or whatever, that's another part of your mind, right? And that part might be the wisdom, those wholesome mental factors, it might be the mental factor of wisdom, meditating on emptiness of the eye, and that, as it's subdued, as it's, what's that? Report an error in the passage at 1:56:49 Highlight the passage at 1:56:49

1:57:13 the positive mental factors become more active, by the way. And by the way, the 11 mental factors that are positive are not very active because the other ones are. And they become activated by, once they become surprised, subdued. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:13 Highlight the passage at 1:57:13

1:57:30 hope I answered your question. That's a good question. Thank you. you very much. So, in terms of You're teaching, right? Does it help us in terms of our awareness with having the awareness that there's the conventional, let's say, cafe, and then there's the ultimate? You know, conventional, there is conventional, but it depends what you mean by that. So I find that many students that I know use conventional as a word to... Report an error in the passage at 1:57:30 Highlight the passage at 1:57:30

1:58:11 As a substitute for, there's a way of masking a misunderstanding still. Conventionally, there's no coffee shop there independent. Conventionally, how it exists conventionally, it's a cause and effect experience, it's a dependent experience, that coffee shop. So I still don't see it that way. I know it intellectually. The way I see it is not conventional either. You say conventional. Oh, conventionalist coffee shopper. That's not conventional. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:11 Highlight the passage at 1:58:11

1:58:53 It's still completely false, the way I'm seeing it. There is no independently existing coffee shopper, not conventionally either. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:53 Highlight the passage at 1:58:53

1:59:03 Conventionally, there's only a dependently existing coffee shopper. Well, the word is independent, right? One of them. There's others. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:03 Highlight the passage at 1:59:03

1:59:13 Permanent, we see it permanently. On a permanent level, there's no permanent problem, but we see it as unchanging. We might intellectually say, oh yeah, I know it's changing. We're not talking about intellectual here. We're talking about perceptually. Perceptually, again, like we were talking about seeing that eye, we need to first see that I see that pocket shop as existing permanently. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:13 Highlight the passage at 1:59:13

1:59:39 We have to do that first, when it is not. right? Mm-hmm. And I Report an error in the passage at 1:59:39 Highlight the passage at 1:59:39

1:59:45 Nothing permanent about that coffee shop. It's in a constant state of change at this very moment, and my mind perceiving it as a constant state of change. There's nothing fixed about it, nothing static. And yet I see it as static and fixed. I'm going to that fixed coffee shop, and the other one is independent. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:45 Highlight the passage at 1:59:45

2:00:03 I'm going to that independent coffee shop. There's just a couple. There's a few others, too. Well, the experience could also change, right? Right. It was always a pleasant experience, and that's why I go there. I go there. Oh, wow. It's a terrible experience. I don't like it. That's because it's not permanent. If it was permanent, it would always be good to spend. But we see it as permanent. When you're going there, you're not seeing it as a bad experience. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:03 Highlight the passage at 2:00:03

2:00:29 Oh, I'm going to have a good couple problems. We're tricked. And because of that tricks, we have psychological problems. That's the whole point. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:29 Highlight the passage at 2:00:29

2:00:39 So we better eat something in order to have more psychological problems. And physical problems. Should we come in there? No, I'm not bringing it up. Sorry. parading food out here. And then, yeah. So we'll take a break and eat a little while and then we'll finish. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:39 Highlight the passage at 2:00:39

2:00:57 Yes indeed. How do I stop this? finish. Al? Report an error in the passage at 2:00:57 Highlight the passage at 2:00:57

2:01:05 Two months before the city comes in laying out pipes so that every street has pipes and people can have a faucet. Okay, wow, they didn't have water. There you go, logistics. Yeah, there you go. But the rest of the facilities are there. Yeah, right in that area. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:05 Highlight the passage at 2:01:05

2:01:27 Well, everybody has access to water. Other facilities that we should Maybe you should all all be be sharing. sharing my restroom system. That's true. That's true. But you might want to do something. Something, but I'll teach someone else how to do it. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:27 Highlight the passage at 2:01:27

2:01:44 Yeah, after a few days. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:44 Highlight the passage at 2:01:44

2:01:53 it's pretty fascinating, the fact that it just up. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:53 Highlight the passage at 2:01:53

2:02:03 Okay, ready? No, waiting for everybody. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:03 Highlight the passage at 2:02:03

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:02:50 I was listening, but it's hard to tell the difference with these little guys, and I don't see the volume up and down on those things. It's so simple, I can't... You can't figure out how to increase the volume? Yeah, I can't see a volume of... More sophisticated than you are. He's a professional. I know it's too simple for him. That's the problem. He's used to bigger. Yeah, bigger, huger. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:50 Highlight the passage at 2:02:50

2:03:19 Would this be on YouTube? Eventually, yeah. I'm trying to figure out. We're just in the process. I've just been collecting content for the last couple, several months. And then now Siddhartha and the other fellow are people I've been looking for because you need someone professional to start paying the loan. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:19 Highlight the passage at 2:03:19

2:03:40 Well, you can find people professional at $2,000 a day. Now you have two attendants. Yeah, they're only $1,000 a day each. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:40 Highlight the passage at 2:03:40

2:03:50 But anyway, we'll see. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:50 Highlight the passage at 2:03:50

2:04:00 The workshops? I just read that. What? 24 workshops. You have 24 modules. Oh, where did you read that? I read it right there. Do I have that many? Yeah. you very much. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:00 Highlight the passage at 2:04:00

2:04:15 Sorry, 12. In two hours. Over what period of time are you doing that? Two hours? No. Through the year you were thinking? We were thinking like through the year. Yeah, but we're getting to the kind of, this is number four. But I think it was 12 hours. They put 12 modules on. Okay, I doubled it. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:15 Highlight the passage at 2:04:15

2:04:42 a heart attack. As you can see, I can talk forever. You can come once a month and talk about anything you want. We're happy to have you. I thought I was going to finish today, but I'm not going to. I keep going backwards and then forwards. It's just that when I teach the full misleading mind seminar, it takes about 12 hours, but that has expanded. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:42 Highlight the passage at 2:04:42

2:05:00 um, Report an error in the passage at 2:05:00 Highlight the passage at 2:05:00

2:05:11 It takes a little longer sometimes. Although I just did, I was in Mexico a couple months ago for a month. And I taught at four, well, that's this particular one, four different centers. And I never, but see that's translated. So that's only half time. But they have, I did 12 hours, I didn't even finish half. Or maybe a little bit more. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:11 Highlight the passage at 2:05:11

2:05:38 It was very hard. It was kind of like this, you know, I like this style. I can do intensive and Deliver content. But I like the style of having some exchange because I want people to get it. You know, it's the information we can get from a lot of places. We can get it from a book. But to have the, you know, really people that can get the concept is a different, that usually comes through some sort of dialogue. And we should do it, we'll do a meditation practice as well today before we finish. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:38 Highlight the passage at 2:05:38

2:06:09 Yeah, so I don't know if I answered your question. It's just, yeah, about 12 hours I can do it. But as we're looking at developing, that's why I'm working with Siddhartha and a couple other people, I have this idea that a lot of this can be done online or some things can be done online. I'm thinking about offering mind training exercises online, things like that, maybe just audio, we're just talking about, and I've thought about this for the last year or so, because this is not the most efficient user. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:09 Highlight the passage at 2:06:09

2:06:45 There's one thing that's very, very important about this face-to-face that doesn't happen online, even with video. And that's the personal connection. It's very tough to get that through video. And you don't need it for a while, but at a certain point, you have this kind of dialogue, it's hard not to be live. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:45 Highlight the passage at 2:06:45

2:07:05 And you could do it through a coaching session online, for example. there's many levels that people can benefit from, but... But ultimately, you know, you have to practice and you have to have some connection, interaction. Because otherwise, what do you know when you're practicing, right? People think I'm doing the right thing and then it's not necessarily the right thing. Unlike a dance class. Unlike or like? Report an error in the passage at 2:07:05 Highlight the passage at 2:07:05

2:07:36 Like a dance class. Like a dance class. I like that. Okay. So, anyway, I hope I'm moving quick enough for you in terms of delivering content. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:36 Highlight the passage at 2:07:36

2:07:48 Okay. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:48 Highlight the passage at 2:07:48

2:08:05 This may not be a good example, but let's go back to the global warming situation. It's really interesting. Just so everybody knows, I'm totally obsessed. Totally. I'm putting that out there. I'm over the top. Which means I can pick on her. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:05 Highlight the passage at 2:08:05

2:08:25 So when we talk about the global warming issue, and I'm trying to make it contextual to this, what we're talking about. So when we were talking, You see, how is that a problem? That's the first important thing. You know, you really think about, oh, the global warming problem. Now, when we started this module, this program three months, four months ago, we started with the idea that, as it mentions in the book, I think that we are not, how do I say it, Report an error in the passage at 2:08:25 Highlight the passage at 2:08:25

2:09:08 the definition of a spiritual person for me. Is someone who is looking at developing, looking at problems in their solution and looking at developing their potential through an inner focus rather than an outer focus. That to me is a spiritual person. So it doesn't, I'm going to say religious. I think religious institutions have developed and grown as an answer to that. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:08 Highlight the passage at 2:09:08

2:09:35 People, I don't think Jesus made a religion first, right? Nor did Buddha. They became institutionalized ways of helping people develop their inner quality, inner potential. That's my belief in the way. So when people come to me, and global warming is just one of the zillions of problems. You know, what they're going to find when I approach it, and this is a discipline for myself too. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:35 Highlight the passage at 2:09:35

2:10:03 I'm not trying to say that I'm perfect in doing this. I'm far from it. It's a way of me practicing it. So it's very tempting when we talk about global warming to talk about, excuse me, as a way of talking about it as if the problem exists the way it appears. We've already talked about that, things not existing the way they appear, the coffee shop, the eye, okay, those things. They don't exist the way they appear and that's where all problems arise. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:03 Highlight the passage at 2:10:03

2:10:38 So when Benny and I were talking about global warming, I wasn't going to get sucked into the typical way of thinking about problems. Oh yes, global warming. Oh yes, America's releasing 25 % of the carbon emissions. Oh yes, you know, China's building a coal plant every week. Oh yeah. You know, because that's how people want to talk about it, right? That's the normal way of talking about it, okay? But that's not a spiritual way of talking about it. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:38 Highlight the passage at 2:10:38

2:11:06 That's not a genitive way of talking about it. That's not a real way of talking. I use real in the true sense of the word. That's all talking about description. That explanation of global warming is nothing but a description. It's not what's really, it doesn't really exist that way. Am I saying there's no global warming? Report an error in the passage at 2:11:06 Highlight the passage at 2:11:06

2:11:26 Am I saying there's no problem out there? I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that's not where the problem really, the cause of the problem is not there. Isn't that weird? So the cause of global warming is not America's emissions. Coal fire plants in China or whatever. All those outer things are not the cause. That's a pretty bold statement, isn't it? But if you hear, if you begin to look at these ideas and go, gosh, it makes sense here and it makes sense there, you have to start thinking maybe they make sense everywhere. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:26 Highlight the passage at 2:11:26

2:12:05 Now, am I saying that we shouldn't reduce our carbon footprint? No, I'm not saying that. I haven't even talked about it yet. How about causes? If you don't know what the cause is, can you get rid of the result? No. Okay. The cause of global warming is none of those things, none of those outer things. Report an error in the passage at 2:12:05 Highlight the passage at 2:12:05

2:12:27 Okay? The cause of global warming is right here. What am I talking about? I want what I don't have. I don't want what I do have. Report an error in the passage at 2:12:27 Highlight the passage at 2:12:27

2:12:42 Okay? I want what I don't have. This whole consumerism thing, this philosophy of consumerism. Is I want what I don't have. Isn't it? If we stop wanting all that stuff that we don't have or that we have but what we don't have. Because what, if, it's really interesting. If people were satisfied with Volkswagen bugs and just improved, you know, from what I had in 1958, I wasn't, my first car was a 1958 Volkswagen bug. Report an error in the passage at 2:12:42 Highlight the passage at 2:12:42

2:13:15 Now emissions probably weren't so good in this, like they didn't improve that. But if everyone just had Volkswagen bug, you know, the old, Report an error in the passage at 2:13:15 Highlight the passage at 2:13:15

2:13:24 I think coal over warming would be a different consideration, for example. Why don't we? Because we wanted things we didn't have. We saw something better. We saw something better, quote, unquote. Something went faster, something that was bigger, something that had better leather involved, something that carried our skis and snowboards better, something that put a DVD player in there, because now we... Report an error in the passage at 2:13:24 Highlight the passage at 2:13:24

2:13:49 My kids don't have a DVD player and they want it and their friends have a DVD player in their car, so why not get a DVD player if this is something I don't have but I want? Always that way. Or, Report an error in the passage at 2:13:49 Highlight the passage at 2:13:49

2:14:04 you don't want what you do have. Now we have something we don't want. We don't want polluted air, right, because it's having all these negative effects. Droughts. Droughts. Droughts. Droughts. All these things. We don't want them. Report an error in the passage at 2:14:04 Highlight the passage at 2:14:04

2:14:22 Here's the hard part. I'm not saying I'll convince anyone of this today. In 1977, 78, does anyone know or do anyone remember? I think there was a drought in California then. Yeah, there was. And that was from a year, year and a half I was back in the States between my life in Nepal. Report an error in the passage at 2:14:22 Highlight the passage at 2:14:22

2:14:47 And I went to a Chinese Buddhist, what's his name? Sorry, he's passed away now, but it was a Chinese Buddhist. Report an error in the passage at 2:14:47 Highlight the passage at 2:14:47

2:14:57 What's the center here? Gold Mountain. Yes, yes. I went to a teaching there in 1977, and the master was teaching. And he was teaching, I believe he was teaching in Chinese and translated to English. I don't think he spoke English. We're sitting there and he's, I mean, you know, this guy is scary. Report an error in the passage at 2:14:57 Highlight the passage at 2:14:57

2:15:24 He is scary. He's very, very, very disciplined, very stern, very austere. He's out of Chan Buddhism, I think, Zen Buddhism, or Chan, right? Yeah, Hebrew Chan. Right. And so, you know, they have a very strict banaya, very strict discipline. So he had a number of monks and nuns there, and they're sitting without moving. And really, he's doing this teaching. Report an error in the passage at 2:15:24 Highlight the passage at 2:15:24

2:15:55 And then I think maybe he had a question and answer or something. And someone asked about the drought. And he said, oh, well, all of my monks and nuns and all of my students from now forward will fast until it rains. Report an error in the passage at 2:15:55 Highlight the passage at 2:15:55

2:16:17 Just like that. Whoops. I was having dinner with my mother tonight. Report an error in the passage at 2:16:17 Highlight the passage at 2:16:17

2:16:27 Truly, that's how he was. And you know they did fast. He wasn't, the guy didn't joke. It rained 10 days later. Thank God. I didn't have water, I don't know, I think just water and tea or something. I don't think they, you know, they were really fasting. And why? Why did he say that? Everyone was saying the drought, the drought, global warming. Report an error in the passage at 2:16:27 Highlight the passage at 2:16:27

2:16:54 Now they didn't say global warming then, but we could say that today. You know, too much carbon, those coal plants. He didn't talk about any of that. He didn't say, now we have to campaign against these governments to reduce something better. We've got to get more water out of the Sierras. The cause is not enough water. Report an error in the passage at 2:16:54 Highlight the passage at 2:16:54

2:17:12 The cause is the corrupt politicians in Los Angeles who divert all the water down there. That's the cause, right? He knew that the cause was mental. Report an error in the passage at 2:17:12 Highlight the passage at 2:17:12

2:17:24 The condition is drought. Side effects. There's always side effects, but the cause is mental. Can you believe that? So the cause of global warming... It's something related with the minds of people, collectively. And by the way, you know there's places on this planet that aren't affected by global warming at all? Report an error in the passage at 2:17:24 Highlight the passage at 2:17:24

2:17:47 I know it's hard to believe because it does seem to be a collective planet, excuse me, karma or imprints. But there are some places that have no effect, no negative effect because they don't have causes. You know that in 19, when was it? Report an error in the passage at 2:17:47 Highlight the passage at 2:17:47

2:18:09 I don't know, it's like 82. There was a... A plane flying over the Amazon, it was Ecuadorian Airlines, I think, and it got hit by lightning and a wing fell off. They're two miles up. Everyone died, right? Because that's the cause of mass death, right? No. One person survived. Walked out for 14 days and lived. Report an error in the passage at 2:18:09 Highlight the passage at 2:18:09

2:18:37 The cause is not the lightning of everyone dying. It's the condition. That girl who walked out, I think she was a teenager. She didn't have the mental imprints that would manifest as end of life. If we didn't have the mental imprints to manifest as no rain, we wouldn't have a drought. Report an error in the passage at 2:18:37 Highlight the passage at 2:18:37

2:19:02 Change the mental imprints and rain will come. So that's what the teacher was trying to say. That's what he was saying. He knew it. He knew the connection. He had complete, when I say faith, it's not even faith. It's perception. It's knowledge, right? It's not faith that I, you know, if my car doesn't start, that I replace the starter. That's knowledge. But to someone else, it looks like faith. Report an error in the passage at 2:19:02 Highlight the passage at 2:19:02

2:19:30 So for these Lamas and these seers, it's not faith. It's perception. For us, we think that coffee shop is down there. Report an error in the passage at 2:19:30 Highlight the passage at 2:19:30

2:19:46 Make sense? Okay. So stop wanting what we don't have. Anyway, that's just situated with problems. Even depression. What's a problem for you? Anyone have a problem? Anyone have a problem? Report an error in the passage at 2:19:46 Highlight the passage at 2:19:46

2:20:04 Go into work. Okay, well let's take your obsession. Your obsession with global warming. If you didn't want it differently, would there be a problem? I don't feel I have a problem with global warming in that way. Report an error in the passage at 2:20:04 Highlight the passage at 2:20:04

2:20:29 No, if I didn't want it differently then. phone? Yeah, whatever. Just one. Does anyone have Report an error in the passage at 2:20:29 Highlight the passage at 2:20:29

2:20:31 But then again, you know, that's how I see a lot of people seeing it, is that they don't see that there's a problem. But we're talking about a problem out there. Yeah. Okay, remember, I'm not talking about problems out there anymore. I'm not that guy. I'm talking about mental health. Do you want mental health? Yeah. And when you're obsessing about global warming, are you mentally not mentally healthy? Stop wanting it differently. What would you have to do with your mental health? Report an error in the passage at 2:20:31 Highlight the passage at 2:20:31

2:20:59 I'd be more peaceful. Okay. Mental health. How do you stop wanting it differently, really? I mean, I think I'm starting to stumble upon how I can do that. Report an error in the passage at 2:20:59 Highlight the passage at 2:20:59

2:21:12 It's our life's mission to answer that, to deal with that. I hope that there's many ways, there's many techniques, there's many interventions we have to offer, and we hope to talk about a few of those. I just want to hear from you. Report an error in the passage at 2:21:12 Highlight the passage at 2:21:12

2:21:34 And I'll just answer that. The short answer to that is all of those problems will cease to exist. All the wanting will cease to exist when we see reality. Report an error in the passage at 2:21:34 Highlight the passage at 2:21:34

2:21:46 Because, you know, let me take a gross example. Forgive me if it's too crass. If you have a magician there who conjures up a beautiful woman and all the heterosexual males in there are like, wow, right? If you know it's an hallucination, an illusion, are you going to feel that way? No. So when we know that the way that I'm seeing that coffee shop is just mentally fabricated, am I going to be so intent on the coffee, so attached? Report an error in the passage at 2:21:46 Highlight the passage at 2:21:46

2:22:22 No. I'm going to drink it probably, but it's like I'm not going to be tricked. Be tricked means, yeah, you're not going to be tricked. Because getting tricked means you get tricked more. Have it. And you don't like it. It doesn't feel as good as seeing reality, by the way. The coffee's not nearly, that's what Lama says, you people don't even know how to make a cup of tea. Report an error in the passage at 2:22:22 Highlight the passage at 2:22:22

2:22:43 That's what he was talking about. He used to say to us, you know, that, he said, you know, you never heard from Lama this. He said, you know, you Western people, because Western people are foreigners, but you Western people, you have beautiful things in your country, but you don't know how to enjoy them. Report an error in the passage at 2:22:43 Highlight the passage at 2:22:43

2:23:08 You have the best things in the world, the best food, the best cars, the best houses, and you don't even know how to enjoy them. We're like, I thought we weren't supposed to. Report an error in the passage at 2:23:08 Highlight the passage at 2:23:08

2:23:23 And he would say, no, go and enjoy. It's crazy. You have it there, why wouldn't you enjoy it? Report an error in the passage at 2:23:23 Highlight the passage at 2:23:23

2:23:33 But just, he said, but just don't clean. So, it's not even the wanting as much. Report an error in the passage at 2:23:33 Highlight the passage at 2:23:33

2:23:47 Don't cling. The reason we cling is because we see things incorrectly. What do we see? Something permanent, fixed and static. So of course you would cling to that, right? But what if you saw it as smoke? You would think you can't cling. How do you cling? You can't grab it. So for them, all these things, the coffee house, global warming, you know, all that things that you want are just smoke for them. Report an error in the passage at 2:23:47 Highlight the passage at 2:23:47

2:24:17 Where do you grab something that's moving? It's already gone. I really want that cup of coffee. It's gone. That gets you to see this fixed even more. Report an error in the passage at 2:24:17 Highlight the passage at 2:24:17

2:24:38 That's not really much different than any other. It's all dry. It's all physical body driving it, really. Especially the chocolate cake. The chocolate cake is the same. Report an error in the passage at 2:24:38 Highlight the passage at 2:24:38

2:24:51 Endorphins. Are we denying the endorphins? Are we denying the endorphins? No, we live for the endorphins. We're living for the pleasure, right? What we live for, actually, is pretty pathetic. Pleasure of, like, you know, 20 seconds. That's what we call life. Ah, great life. I can have chocolate cake whenever I go, oh, yeah, how often do you eat chocolate cake? Report an error in the passage at 2:24:51 Highlight the passage at 2:24:51

2:25:19 Oh, well, you know, I don't like it every day because then I get kind of tired of it. Well, wait a minute. If it's so great, why don't you just eat it like all the time? Or at least every half hour. We don't do anything like that unless you're an addict, right? But in the addicts, but the addict needs that. We all are thinking that the endorphins being stimulated, generating that sense of pleasure is happiness. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:19 Highlight the passage at 2:25:19

2:25:49 Pathetic. Because it doesn't last very much longer. The whole day, that's it. Seriously, I mean, think about it. The whole day, it's like one piece of chocolate or one cigarette or eight cigarettes. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:49 Highlight the passage at 2:25:49

2:26:06 Endorphins, we become endorphin addicts because we become recruited into the idea that endorphins, that pleasure, that good feeling is happiness. It does feel good, but is it happiness? No. Because of happiness, it doesn't last. It's very cyclical, right? So what was your question? Report an error in the passage at 2:26:06 Highlight the passage at 2:26:06

2:26:35 If these chemicals have this power over our body, which is a series of electrochemicals. process is Report an error in the passage at 2:26:35 Highlight the passage at 2:26:35

2:26:47 Yeah, so the way to go, only one, it's tough by the way, I'm not saying it's easy, the only way to overcome it is being mentally too committed in the whole series, right? First you have to see that the endorphins, that cycle is not happiness. Then you begin to see that the happiness more comes from control rather than being under the control. Report an error in the passage at 2:26:47 Highlight the passage at 2:26:47

2:27:11 So the description of yours is very common. We're under the control of these chemicals, right? We don't have control. It's like cigarettes. We're under the control of cigarettes. Stupidest thing. Cigarette doesn't do anything, actually. I mean, at least cake offers some, I don't know, you know, some little extra pleasure, but cigarettes? You know what I mean? Really amazing. Report an error in the passage at 2:27:11 Highlight the passage at 2:27:11

2:27:31 Cigarettes are kind of amazed by them. But anyway, similar problem. And then they adort, but then it becomes a habit. So the first thing is you have, well, I have a whole thing, four steps I have. Talk about a couple of classes, right? Anyone remember? Second class. Second class. So there's a process. First thing, first is four steps in my one way of looking at it. Report an error in the passage at 2:27:31 Highlight the passage at 2:27:31

2:27:55 First step is you have to see you have a choice. So the first thing is you don't, you have a choice whether to be a person in reaction or in control. That's the first thing. And most people don't even know that. They don't know that being in reaction is unhappy place to be. You have to see that being in reaction means not being in control, and you have to see that not being in control means not being happy. You're not going to be happy if you're not in control. Report an error in the passage at 2:27:55 Highlight the passage at 2:27:55

2:28:22 You're whipped around by whatever emotion comes up or whatever sensation. Oh, I need more endorphins. Oh, I need more chemicals. That's not being in control, is it? Report an error in the passage at 2:28:22 Highlight the passage at 2:28:22

2:28:33 So that's the person's choice. That's what we call it. The first step is you have a choice. That's the person. That takes a while and that takes a long time. Report an error in the passage at 2:28:33 Highlight the passage at 2:28:33

2:28:43 You can be human or you can be... What does it mean to be human? To me, to be human means using our human mind. That's our potential. To have a human mind means, okay, to me, an animal is in reaction. Report an error in the passage at 2:28:43 Highlight the passage at 2:28:43

2:28:58 It needs to hunt because it needs food, because it's hungry, and to survive. How are we any different if that's all we're doing? Human has a quality, the potential to be in control, whereas an animal doesn't. Report an error in the passage at 2:28:58 Highlight the passage at 2:28:58

2:29:14 An animal can't exercise a mental control. Report an error in the passage at 2:29:14 Highlight the passage at 2:29:14

2:29:19 Can't decide that, as far as I can see. Report an error in the passage at 2:29:19 Highlight the passage at 2:29:19

2:29:29 Here's your clinging. So because we see things incorrectly, we see things as permanent, we see things as independent when they're not. The next thing is a natural thing is we're either attracted to it or we have, you know, repulsion to it. Global warming. Report an error in the passage at 2:29:29 Highlight the passage at 2:29:29

2:29:54 Well, I picked on you a little more. That's why I'm here. That's why I got it. So ignorantly, Barbara sees that global warming has a problem out there. That's why she's agitated, right? Those damn politicians. Report an error in the passage at 2:29:54 Highlight the passage at 2:29:54

2:30:32 Ignorance sees it that way. Both? Yeah. damn politicians. Report an error in the passage at 2:30:32 Highlight the passage at 2:30:32

2:30:30 That's So she is set up right then. What happens then is either going to be a sense of attraction or a sense of aversion, okay? Report an error in the passage at 2:30:30 Highlight the passage at 2:30:30

2:30:45 Which is it? By the way, aversion does come from a kind of, but generally it's easy to say it's like, aversion is like, Report an error in the passage at 2:30:45 Highlight the passage at 2:30:45

2:31:01 yeah, that's what I was thinking, was anger. Yeah, with anger, right? Yeah, negative A word. Negative A word, yeah. So aversion, yeah. You see how aversion disturbs the mind? So because you're a spiritual person, you made this commitment, you have to do something different now. Because you can't feel aversion. Because you want to be a healthy person. You want to be a happy person. Anger, aversion, whatever that emotion is, it's not a happy feeling. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:01 Highlight the passage at 2:31:01

2:31:35 What, as an intervention, what is it, if aggression or aversion, if aversion, remember that thing about feeling agreeable, disagreeable, neutral? Remember that? For you, because of your history, it generates a feeling of disagreeable through a mental perception. So let's say that you, let's just make this up. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:35 Highlight the passage at 2:31:35

2:31:57 You're driving to LA and you see all the smog. LA doesn't have that smog anymore. It's not as bad. So someone, you're driving to LA and you see the smog, right? Or the fire. Or the fire. Aversion or attraction? Aversion. That bad feeling, right? Report an error in the passage at 2:31:57 Highlight the passage at 2:31:57

2:32:16 And when Betty sees it, She sees it as permanent, unchanging. That smoke appears unchanging. We all know it's changing, that's not the point. We're talking about how we see it. Make sense? And so you're responding to something that doesn't exist that way. Report an error in the passage at 2:32:16 Highlight the passage at 2:32:16

2:32:47 You drive over the hill to Grapevine, you see fires. Report an error in the passage at 2:32:47 Highlight the passage at 2:32:47

2:32:53 There it is. Where is it? Where's the bad part? It's this moving energy, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 2:32:53 Highlight the passage at 2:32:53

2:33:07 It doesn't come bad until you make it bad. It doesn't come a ball and strike until you make it bad. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:07 Highlight the passage at 2:33:07

2:33:20 That's everything. Driving home today, sore knees, same thing. Is a sore knee bad or good? It's bad. You see what I'm saying? You want it differently. I want a good knee. Remember a few slides ago? You want what you don't have and you don't want what you do have. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:20 Highlight the passage at 2:33:20

2:33:48 One or the other. Okay. This is our fourth chapter. That's why I said I'm not going to take it anymore. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:48 Highlight the passage at 2:33:48

2:34:00 That's me. Really? Every morning? Like that face? Yeah. I don't think we're going to be over or around you. He doesn't have any roommates. Report an error in the passage at 2:34:00 Highlight the passage at 2:34:00

2:34:16 So, yes, just what's coming up is for your example. you know, so, do you need Betty again? Yes, yes. No, Barbara. My wife did this really funny thing, funny, where sometimes she forgets people's names. I know that doesn't happen to anyone else. And she was talking to this guy who was doing some work at the school that she helps run. Report an error in the passage at 2:34:16 Highlight the passage at 2:34:16

2:34:50 And she kept saying, thanks Dave, thanks Dave. This went on for like a third time. She says, oh, my name is Steve. So we always joke about, oh, there's Steve. There's Dave. Hey, Dave. And what the problem is, I keep thinking, is it Dave or Steve? Is it Barb or Betty? Sorry. Anyway, what came up for you? Well, what was coming up is, so... Report an error in the passage at 2:34:50 Highlight the passage at 2:34:50

2:35:14 Sorry. I'm sorry. Report an error in the passage at 2:35:14 Highlight the passage at 2:35:14

2:35:20 That global warming is such a sensitive topic, and I have definitely mine too, especially with like animal rights and things. I start hearing that and I'm like, oh, it just makes me cringe to think about how animals are treated. So one way that I start, what I'm hearing is, you know, look at it a different way, it's neither bad nor good, but I start to go on the part of, one way not to experience all that anger is to not really see, which makes me start to retreat, which says I end up in a cave and I'm in like... Report an error in the passage at 2:35:20 Highlight the passage at 2:35:20

2:35:46 cave land with nothing around me and sure I'm am I happy then I don't That's a great question, great point. No, you're not. Not in this description. Now, the answer is not to go to the cave. However, Report an error in the passage at 2:35:46 Highlight the passage at 2:35:46

2:36:06 when, you know, one year during the November course, because I was the one who organized it after, you know, while I was organizing them, and And depending on who the retreat lead, Lama Zopa Rinpoche always taught them. But we always have a retreat leader, which I still do. And I was always a foreign or a western person, monk or nun. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:06 Highlight the passage at 2:36:06

2:36:34 And so the style of the course often reflected a little bit of that monk or nun's personality. The ones that were kind of strict, you know, and the course tended to be stricter. So one year there was one nun that was, you know, she was much more, a little more open. and flexible. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:34 Highlight the passage at 2:36:34

2:36:53 And so, you know, I would hear that there's some people were leaving the hill, it's on a hill, going and maybe taking a hot shower, going to get a meal in Kathmandu or in Boda or, you know, some people, you know, having a cigarette on the back side of the hill. So I hear a lot of this because this particular retreat leader wasn't very, this wasn't her style to be strict, you know. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:53 Highlight the passage at 2:36:53

2:37:21 Very soft and gentle. And so I went to Lama Yeshe and I was telling him this. And I go, you know, like, great, I've got an ally with this one. Report an error in the passage at 2:37:21 Highlight the passage at 2:37:21

2:37:33 Lama Yeshe never was my ally in anything except my enlightenment. Because, you know, if something was green and I said it was green, he said, you know, stupid, it was red. And whatever it was, it was opposite. And so I went to him and I was describing this retreat. And he looked at me and said, that's okay. It's okay. People are at different levels here. So it has to do with motivation. Report an error in the passage at 2:37:33 Highlight the passage at 2:37:33

2:38:01 So some people can't handle the world. They maybe need to go to a cave for a while. In this path, you know, on a more advanced level is that that won't get rid of the problem. Just going to a cave. I mean, just isolate. That's what the point is. Isolating doesn't get rid of the problem. If I am an alcoholic. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:01 Highlight the passage at 2:38:01

2:38:22 And I don't want to drink, don't go to a bar, at least in the beginning stages, right? Does not go into the bar and get rid of my addiction to my dependency and alcohol? We hear about it all the time, dry drunks, right? Dry drunks, you know, they go from alcohol to whatever, gambling or sex or cigarette, whatever, right? Report an error in the passage at 2:38:22 Highlight the passage at 2:38:22

2:38:46 Food, that shows that. But it's better to be a dry drunk than a practicing drunk in this scenario, okay? But that's not getting out. You're going to do a higher level, you then hang out with the problem and deal with it. And then the highest level is you actually want to go into the bar because you want that dependency to rise in your mind and you want to conquer it because it's the only way that you're going to get rid of it. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:46 Highlight the passage at 2:38:46

2:39:17 That's very advanced. You mean you actually take a drink in the bar? You might. What I did to test myself? I went and I hung out with friends that were slamming meth. Did you do anything when you were doing that? No. You were around it. I was around it, and it was just, I am now, now I don't want to say convinced, but I made that determination. Well, this adds to that, and this is philosophically speaking. Report an error in the passage at 2:39:17 Highlight the passage at 2:39:17

2:39:48 You have the imprint, but you did a lot of math and you have those imprints. Now, you get rid of the imprints, right? It's like to have those urges come up and then you kind of subdue them and immediately eliminate them from wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 2:39:48 Highlight the passage at 2:39:48

2:40:07 Okay, that's the highest level. Well, actually, the highest level is actually using them and transforming them. It's very advanced. Okay? Does that answer your question? Oh, yeah. Really, it helps. Yeah. Okay. Especially what you said. I mean, both combinations because I'm starting to think because I'm hearing kind of... Report an error in the passage at 2:40:07 Highlight the passage at 2:40:07

2:40:23 These things come up and then the emotional response comes up and you not just subdue the emotional response, but you sort of feel it. That's why mindfulness practice doesn't get rid of the problem. Because you didn't do anything with all those imprints. Right. However, better than engaging. And also it makes you feel, you know, more balanced. A lot of the things about the practice, I'm just saying they'll never get you enlightened, that alone. Report an error in the passage at 2:40:23 Highlight the passage at 2:40:23

2:40:47 You have to apply it to some correct antidote. So you use mindfulness with? The E, Inqua, A, B, C, D, E. Okay, who was I talking about earlier? Report an error in the passage at 2:40:47 Highlight the passage at 2:40:47

2:41:03 So let's do something right now, okay, because we're talking a lot. Let's do a little, I'll introduce that A, B, C, D thing again to you guys. We'll do a little meditation, okay? Report an error in the passage at 2:41:03 Highlight the passage at 2:41:03

2:41:16 I'm going to talk a little bit during this and then we'll also have some quiet. said that, I think, first or second. Report an error in the passage at 2:41:16 Highlight the passage at 2:41:16

2:41:24 Because I want to introduce, okay, so I don't usually talk about meditation, I usually talk about mind training. Because meditation can also be not mind training. Report an error in the passage at 2:41:24 Highlight the passage at 2:41:24

2:41:37 Or it could be mind training in the wrong thing, like spacing out. So the purpose of mindfulness practice is to help the mind become trained. But why you have a trained mind is when Siddhartha was asking about the endorphins and the chemicals, that's about being in reaction. Not in control. And we are, for most of us, we're in a constant state of reaction and very little in a state of control. Report an error in the passage at 2:41:37 Highlight the passage at 2:41:37

2:42:08 And the happy, free person, it's so amazing when you hear this, you would never think that a synonym for freedom is control. It's not like the opposite. But being in control means being free. Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Shantideva, have, I believe, complete control over their minds. Report an error in the passage at 2:42:08 Highlight the passage at 2:42:08

2:42:29 So if the urge came, you know, like, you know, anything. I mean, a gross one would be the urge to, you know, I don't know, have a piece of cake versus, and all the way down to the low level, the urge to see that table existing that way and like it or not like it, they have control over all of those. Report an error in the passage at 2:42:29 Highlight the passage at 2:42:29

2:42:53 Complete control over that. Okay? So they're not under the control anymore. They're in control. That's what freedom is. So that's what control means for you. Report an error in the passage at 2:42:53 Highlight the passage at 2:42:53

2:43:07 So the only reason to do mind training then is to get control of the mind. And why I get control of the mind is so we can do things with it that'll make our world more happier. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:07 Highlight the passage at 2:43:07

2:43:29 You see what I'm saying? So happiness is a mental state. So now you begin to think happiness means being in control of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:29 Highlight the passage at 2:43:29

2:43:39 So being not in control of the mind is very simple. You know, it won't take much, right? Show how much we don't have control of the mind. If I say to everybody, like, Report an error in the passage at 2:43:39 Highlight the passage at 2:43:39

2:43:56 if something upsets you, and someone says, or you're depressed, and someone says, oh, just snap out of it. People say that all the time, right? Do you snap out of it? No. Why not? You know not being depressed is better, right? You know something. Just don't take meth anymore, okay? Just stop. Just don't worry about low warming. Be okay about it. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:56 Highlight the passage at 2:43:56

2:44:23 I'm not saying okay about it. Your mind just be non-disturbed, okay? I'll just whip that switch. Oh, you like that show also? Big C. Right? It doesn't work that way. That's what's amazing. Okay? So then we talk about mind training, okay? Just so it's clear what it's all about. Report an error in the passage at 2:44:23 Highlight the passage at 2:44:23

2:44:48 Okay, so this method is called ABCD method. I borrowed it from friends at the Potential Project. And it's just a simple way of developing mindfulness practice that's completely secular. Report an error in the passage at 2:44:48 Highlight the passage at 2:44:48

2:45:04 And so you can do it anywhere. So in this case, it's meant for real beginners. So the A stands for the anatomy. It often is encouraged, you know, people are sitting in chairs or whatever. The A stands for anatomy, which means that you just make sure the feet are flat on the floor if you're sitting in the chair. The hands are sitting on your knees or laugh comfortably. Report an error in the passage at 2:45:04 Highlight the passage at 2:45:04

2:45:26 Your eyes are just slightly open or just slightly closed. Your head is just slightly bowed. And the main thing is the crown of your head is in line with your tailbone. Report an error in the passage at 2:45:26 Highlight the passage at 2:45:26

2:45:39 There's no rigidity, no tension, but just alertness with the body. So that's A stands for anatomy. B stands for... For breath, in this case the anchor is the breath. You don't manipulate it, it's neutral, it is what it is. And you're observing the breath in a very neutral manner. You're observing it either at the nostrils or the abdomen. Report an error in the passage at 2:45:39 Highlight the passage at 2:45:39

2:46:11 If it's fast, it's fast. If it's slow, it's slow. I often talk about watching the breath as like watching traffic from a skyscraper. You can't do anything whether it's congested or... Report an error in the passage at 2:46:11 Highlight the passage at 2:46:11

2:46:26 fast or slow, you just observe it. Report an error in the passage at 2:46:26 Highlight the passage at 2:46:26

2:46:30 C stands for counting. In this case, in this exercise, we count the exhalations. So as you exhale, you count one. Next exhale is two. Next exhale is three. Keep counting the exhalations up to ten. And then you reverse the count to nine, eight, seven, six. Report an error in the passage at 2:46:30 Highlight the passage at 2:46:30

2:46:57 The one on the exhalation. The exhalations are used instead of inhalations because when the mind wanders, it tends to wander when we're exhaling. And then you do three rounds of these ten. So you go ten, one, two, three, ten, ten, nine, eight, one, and do three rounds of that. Report an error in the passage at 2:46:57 Highlight the passage at 2:46:57

2:47:19 Now, if you lose count, you have to start over again. That's A, B, C. D is the real essence here, which is, at this point, D stands for distractions, and it's not about not being distracted, it's about catching the distraction. So whenever your mind wanders from the counting and the breath, and you catch it, you've done your job. Report an error in the passage at 2:47:19 Highlight the passage at 2:47:19

2:47:46 No reason to start over again. The object of this meditation or this mind training is to notice that the mind, when it gets distracted, come back from the counting and then continue. That's A, B, C, D. I've added an E to this exercise, but I'm going to leave the E out for the next few minutes. And you'll just, on your own, practice this ABCD method for Report an error in the passage at 2:47:46 Highlight the passage at 2:47:46

2:48:16 a few minutes. Report an error in the passage at 2:48:16 Highlight the passage at 2:48:16

2:48:21 You hear the sounds, and you just say, oh, it's traction, and come back to the coming. You follow the mind wanders and you catch it, that's what you're doing, you're doing a good job. Report an error in the passage at 2:48:21 Highlight the passage at 2:48:21

· · · silence, 7 minutes

2:55:16 That's what that attraction and aversion part of. And it manifests, you know, and I know this, now it's, now, If you think about the, what we call the mental afflictions, like the mental disorders, when you think about your mind being really, it's really, really, really important. Usually when you're asked in a class like this or a situation, you know, when you feel these things, you know, it kind of disappears like, I remember my first meditation course, I really thought I had no anger. Report an error in the passage at 2:55:16 Highlight the passage at 2:55:16

2:55:48 Because the anger one was, I could see attraction and I could even see ignorance, but I couldn't find, I didn't seem like a very angry person. Report an error in the passage at 2:55:48 Highlight the passage at 2:55:48

2:55:57 Well then, you know, over time you begin to realize that if you're like everybody else, you do have anger. And it manifests like, the way I saw it manifest for me is I realized I was quite a critical person. And I think in a way that was a kind of an anger. So if you just think of like this feeling, if the mind is moving and agitated, and it's not attraction, it's probably aversion or anger, like being irritated. Report an error in the passage at 2:55:57 Highlight the passage at 2:55:57

2:56:33 Or annoyed. Those are all fed up. Those are all manifestations of aversion. Report an error in the passage at 2:56:33 Highlight the passage at 2:56:33

2:56:47 It's true that we can tend to have more of a dominant style, like more dominant style of being an attachment person, an attachment mind coming up more than the aversion mind. That's possible. But it doesn't mean we don't have it. You know, it's like when lunch was put out here, what came up? Attraction or aversion? Report an error in the passage at 2:56:47 Highlight the passage at 2:56:47

2:57:14 Maybe attraction, oh yeah, you have to really, and the mind is moving, see how it's just already moved from its class, now it's moving to that. Why? Because we think it'll make us happy, in a very basic sense of the word. And then we move on, maybe you saw something there, they go, oh, let's see, yeah, no meat, making that up. Or beets, beet salad, people don't really like beets, that's a virgin, okay? Report an error in the passage at 2:57:14 Highlight the passage at 2:57:14

2:57:47 It's just, if it's not attraction, it's probably going to need aversion. I want more. It's a moving towards a pleasure of, okay? You know all this. Report an error in the passage at 2:57:47 Highlight the passage at 2:57:47

2:57:57 Now, we've got warming, aversion, moving away, just like unpleasant, yucky, not wanting, get me out of here. See what I chose? I originally had another picture. It was a smoggy city. But, you know, if you want control over your mind and you want to be happy, you better get a handle on this. It's not in that oil derrick, that oil platform. Report an error in the passage at 2:57:57 Highlight the passage at 2:57:57

2:58:23 You know, Buddha taught, the very first thing he taught, the very first thing, what? Truth of suffering. He didn't teach the truth of nirvāṇa. Report an error in the passage at 2:58:23 Highlight the passage at 2:58:23

2:58:36 He taught the truth of suffering. Why? Because we don't accept it. We don't get it. Did it matter that there wasn't oil platforms then? It didn't matter. It's all the same. Report an error in the passage at 2:58:36 Highlight the passage at 2:58:36

2:58:57 You might say, oh, the problem is bigger, like global warming is going to wipe everybody out. Whereas in when Buddha lived, there were plagues, there were diseases, there were droughts. So many people got killed, percentage wise. It's really very insignificant differences. That's a good thing to remember. When I said to you it's about imprints, it's about karma. Buddha was saying people have on their minds imprinted dispositions that's going to ripen as negativity. Report an error in the passage at 2:58:57 Highlight the passage at 2:58:57

2:59:33 That's all. Then it was plagues and now it's global warming. It really doesn't matter. It's all bad. Okay? It's all bad. Report an error in the passage at 2:59:33 Highlight the passage at 2:59:33

2:59:46 Indifference is like a not caring. Okay? This is a tough one. This is a tough one. You know when you've got the guy on the side of the road who's got a sign there, veteran, blah, blah, blah. Now you might have aversion to it. I don't think a lot of people have attraction. But it can also be a sense of indifference. Report an error in the passage at 2:59:46 Highlight the passage at 2:59:46

3:00:09 Okay? Report an error in the passage at 3:00:09 Highlight the passage at 3:00:09

3:00:12 So not caring, not stimulated, bland, neutral, but dull. It's insensitive. An insensitivity from Report an error in the passage at 3:00:12 Highlight the passage at 3:00:12

3:00:26 difference. And yes, you are a multiple personality, and I don't have to worry about it anymore. The truth is out. You have multiple personalities. Okay? All this centers around me, I. And what we, this is a, let me see what the next slide is. Yeah. So the root of the issue is this sense of I. That is projected on the things, okay? So, Steve was talking about this permanent sense. When we are seeing ourselves, let's just say I'm tired. Report an error in the passage at 3:00:26 Highlight the passage at 3:00:26

3:01:08 When we say I'm tired, we are, that I is felt and perceived as something solid, unchanging. That's how, if you meditate on this, which you've got to do, how do you see this I? You will see it that way. As if it really exists the way it appears. So if it was that way, it's pretty easy. So in a little while, now I have to say, Steve's writing. Report an error in the passage at 3:01:08 Highlight the passage at 3:01:08

3:01:37 He's drawing a doodle. So now he's a doodler. I thought you were a tired person. You see what I'm saying? When we're doing this thing, you say, I'm doodling. The doodling is happening, but the eye thinks it's a doodler. It's a doodler all of a sudden and not a tired person. And then he gets, oh, I'm tired also. Well, you can't actually be both at the same time. It's funny. And your sense of irony. I mean, there can be tiredness and doodling. Report an error in the passage at 3:01:37 Highlight the passage at 3:01:37

3:02:09 But when you say, I'm this or I'm that, you're one or the other. You might bounce back and forth quite quickly. And as you see, is... So, the multiple personalities is that you have these things coming up. These, remember these? These are 51 mental factors. So all of a sudden you have sleepiness coming up. It's a neutral. And you say, I'm tired. Report an error in the passage at 3:02:09 Highlight the passage at 3:02:09

3:02:32 Now that's really curious to me. Think about this for a second. There's tiredness that comes up, right? Follow me? And you can perceive that tiredness, right? If you say I'm tired, there's an I and there's tiredness, right? Subject, object. Report an error in the passage at 3:02:32 Highlight the passage at 3:02:32

3:02:55 So if Report an error in the passage at 3:02:55 Highlight the passage at 3:02:55

3:02:59 there's a subject, object, aren't they different? Report an error in the passage at 3:02:59 Highlight the passage at 3:02:59

3:03:06 Think about it. One's a subject, one's an object. So there's tiredness and all of a sudden I'm tired? How can that be? It's separate from me. Report an error in the passage at 3:03:06 Highlight the passage at 3:03:06

3:03:20 If it wasn't separate, you couldn't see it, correct? A mirror can't see itself. The camera lens can't see itself, right? It can only be able to see an object. When you say, I'm tired, isn't your perception there's a subject and then you see tiredness? Does that make any sense? Report an error in the passage at 3:03:20 Highlight the passage at 3:03:20

3:03:44 Isn't that two, not one? Aren't they separate? If you're to see tiredness, don't you have to be separate from it? Or else how could you see it? Report an error in the passage at 3:03:44 Highlight the passage at 3:03:44

3:03:55 Who's with me here? Nobody? Sort of. Are you asking why does it make a difference? Are you that tanka? No, I see the tanka. Report an error in the passage at 3:03:55 Highlight the passage at 3:03:55

3:04:10 Subject adopted. Why do you say that I'm tired? You feel tired. But the tiredness is separate from your eye. Isn't it? How could you see it? You'd say your body feels tired. There's a sensation of tiredness. But we're, we, for some reason, when it's in our body or mind, we say, oh, that's I'm it. Why? Report an error in the passage at 3:04:10 Highlight the passage at 3:04:10

3:04:33 Why are you any more of that than you're not the topic? Subject-object, they have to be separate. If they're the same thing, you can't say subject-object. They'd be one thing. We Report an error in the passage at 3:04:33 Highlight the passage at 3:04:33

3:04:53 make this error. We believe we're the tiredness. That's what we do all the time. Any perception, we're always identifying with that. Report an error in the passage at 3:04:53 Highlight the passage at 3:04:53

3:05:05 We don't see it as an interdependent thing. We see it as independent, and I'm independent, but how can you... It gets really complicated, doesn't it? We're so complicated. But you don't say I'm in the nature of tiredness. Maybe that's what we should say. I mean, you'd be more accurate. Correct. Why don't we say it? It sounds funny. No. Or maybe it's not. We just don't say it that way. Report an error in the passage at 3:05:05 Highlight the passage at 3:05:05

3:05:29 It's not because it sounds funny. But we don't learn it that way. That's not how we see it. Right. We don't learn it that way is one way of saying it. Isn't that more of a fact? Report an error in the passage at 3:05:29 Highlight the passage at 3:05:29

3:05:47 Are you really tired? No. No. Do you think you are? That I that I was talking to Steve about earlier today, is that permanent or impermanent? Report an error in the passage at 3:05:47 Highlight the passage at 3:05:47

3:06:02 Impermanent. Okay. So, how can it be tired? Once it says I'm tired, it disappears. Because you believe it's permanent. You lied to me. You're a monk. I didn't lie. I was... It's out. It's out. I'm totally careful. Isn't that weird? I think that's weird. So that's not how things really are. Report an error in the passage at 3:06:02 Highlight the passage at 3:06:02