Discovering Buddhism: How to Develop Bodhicitta - The Heart of the Buddhist Path (14 October 2010)

0:06 Thank Report an error in the passage at 0:06 Highlight the passage at 0:06

0:35 you. start at 6 a.m. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 0:35 Highlight the passage at 0:35

0:58 I'm trying to start sitting lower. I actually have a nice, you know, the Zappos. And I tried to sit on that flat for a little bit. It did okay, you know, and then I had to get back up. But it's only sort of, you know, restriction out. honestly, I'd like to sound like that was all. Oh, it starts to hurt when my leg is asleep. Report an error in the passage at 0:58 Highlight the passage at 0:58

1:31 Yeah. And then it starts falling off. Yeah, right. I did, yeah. I did, yeah. I did, yeah. I did, yeah. I did, yeah. I did, yeah. Have you ever seen anybody put their head on the floor in meditation? Report an error in the passage at 1:31 Highlight the passage at 1:31

1:42 Oh. Horrible sad. Have you seen that? I've seen people go close. Oh, yeah. Punk. They had an elbow. Have you ever been, like, out of spirit? Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:42 Highlight the passage at 1:42

2:20 and drop it. He'll be here for us. Report an error in the passage at 2:20 Highlight the passage at 2:20

2:25 What are you chuckling about? No pens or pencils. I've got to go to Office Depot and buy some packs of pencil, but you know. Whatever circle right then, you get the ones I like to write. Report an error in the passage at 2:25 Highlight the passage at 2:25

2:41 one Sunday morning, my pen did work. to get you wondering when I get you those two takes. just like, ah, you're not supposed to take them? It's usually worse. It's almost like you're doing the dash. Report an error in the passage at 2:41 Highlight the passage at 2:41

2:54 almost signed up now. You're like praying to put it in the sheet. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I like to try and be professional, but you got a pen? But it's over. Report an error in the passage at 2:54 Highlight the passage at 2:54

3:12 You know, it kind of sucked, but at least it's over now. For now. Did you get your grade? Not yet. You probably didn't. over. Report an error in the passage at 3:12 Highlight the passage at 3:12

3:25 I don't know, it's really, it depends on how everybody else did. Because... Was it like a curve or something? What's that? Yeah, it's on a curve. And how everyone else does. And if I did reasonably. personably, you know, line with the mean, or both, or something. So it's hard to know, because I don't even know if it's that cutoff, actually. Report an error in the passage at 3:25 Highlight the passage at 3:25

3:57 Yeah. It was hard. Yeah, I hope so. Or at least like there's three sections. So in the past two out of three years, and then I'm really looking forward to it. You know, like, maybe I get out of here. Just one. Thanks for your confidence in me. Report an error in the passage at 3:57 Highlight the passage at 3:57

4:27 Yeah, there's a lot of route problems in private land. Report an error in the passage at 4:27 Highlight the passage at 4:27

4:34 going to just go out there. Report an error in the passage at 4:34 Highlight the passage at 4:34

4:39 Because there's a country point where it's just a contradiction. Report an error in the passage at 4:39 Highlight the passage at 4:39

5:10 I think we traditionally do prostrations before we meditate or before we teach a class or do a class, partly to get rid of our pride and partly to just remind ourselves that we respect these teachings and we'll let them in. Report an error in the passage at 5:10 Highlight the passage at 5:10

· · · silence, 1 minute

6:02 We Report an error in the passage at 6:02 Highlight the passage at 6:02

6:18 snuck an extra cushion on here. It's like this feels a little cushy. Satsang with Report an error in the passage at 6:18 Highlight the passage at 6:18

5:59 more, no more stress, no Report an error in the passage at 5:59 Highlight the passage at 5:59

6:23 Hey, how are you? Good to see you again. Twice in one week. Yeah, it's like the princess and the pea, the nun and the pea. Report an error in the passage at 6:23 Highlight the passage at 6:23

6:38 Here we are back again. If anybody either left before they got their homework last week or they weren't here last week, we have lots of homework fives here as well. Oh, there you go. Look at that, jumping right up and getting ready. Report an error in the passage at 6:38 Highlight the passage at 6:38

7:00 I could name who left early, but I'm not going to. Report an error in the passage at 7:00 Highlight the passage at 7:00

7:08 Oh yeah, yeah, would you? That would be great, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 7:08 Highlight the passage at 7:08

7:29 So here we go. Start with meditation. A little one, anyway. End with a big one. Just to try to motivate our minds and let our minds and our bodies catch up with each other. I think there are a number of bodies in the rooms, but I don't know how many minds have actually showed up yet. Report an error in the passage at 7:29 Highlight the passage at 7:29

7:51 And mine hasn't. Report an error in the passage at 7:51 Highlight the passage at 7:51

7:57 Alright, so just take some nice deep breaths and find your posture. If you need to stretch your shoulders or your neck a little bit, then you can do that. Take some nice deep breaths and let your day disappear. The evening is about to begin. Report an error in the passage at 7:57 Highlight the passage at 7:57

8:21 And again, remember if you're sitting in a chair, to try to move away from the back of the chair. Have your feet firmly on the ground, creating a... A stable posture. If you're in a cushion and you find yourself slouching, try to bring your spine upright and your shoulders back a little bit. Report an error in the passage at 8:21 Highlight the passage at 8:21

8:41 I think that's the number one important element of the posture is your spine. Report an error in the passage at 8:41 Highlight the passage at 8:41

8:58 And as your body and your mind begin to calm down, try to follow your breath for ten in and out breaths. Just keeping it right one with the breath. Report an error in the passage at 8:58 Highlight the passage at 8:58

· · · silence, 1 minute

10:08 And just start with trying to think about... Some of the disadvantages that we talked about and hopefully have been thinking about this week of the self-cherishing mind, the mind that's just absorbed with me, me, me, me, me. Report an error in the passage at 10:08 Highlight the passage at 10:08

10:28 Especially the way that it's kept you from practicing or studying the Dharma or meditating. And even, they say, gaining realizations like bodhicitta and even getting enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 10:28 Highlight the passage at 10:28

10:46 They say that we've gotten really close in other lifetimes and things got in the way. And a lot of those things began with self-cherishing mind. Report an error in the passage at 10:46 Highlight the passage at 10:46

11:03 Just think about how it's held you back in this lifetime, if that seems too big, or even just today. You can think of one example today of that self-cherishing mind. Report an error in the passage at 11:03 Highlight the passage at 11:03

· · · silence, 1 minute

11:44 And then think about this mind of cherishing others, being concerned about others as much as we are about ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 11:44 Highlight the passage at 11:44

11:57 This mind can actually inspire us to practice or study or meditate, even Report an error in the passage at 11:57 Highlight the passage at 11:57

12:08 if we don't want to. Report an error in the passage at 12:08 Highlight the passage at 12:08

12:16 Try to think about an example of this mind, if it's helped you do something you didn't feel like doing, either in this life or today. Report an error in the passage at 12:16 Highlight the passage at 12:16

12:51 This is the mind that takes us all the way to enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 12:51 Highlight the passage at 12:51

12:58 So may any ideas or insights or understandings or inspirations that come out of tonight's class May they become the seeds in our hearts and minds to develop bodhicitta in this life, and if not in this life, in our very next life, so that we can get enlightened for the benefit of all living beings without exception. Report an error in the passage at 12:58 Highlight the passage at 12:58

13:43 And as you're ready, you can end your meditation and start with the opening prayer. Report an error in the passage at 13:43 Highlight the passage at 13:43

14:04 Karen's been in enough classes, and for some reason that happens every class. The international sign, I need a prayer book. That you're deep in meditation. Oh, I need that middle light on too. Frank, could I, if you push that middle? The middle, oh, there we go. All right, think about what this means for our mind. Report an error in the passage at 14:04 Highlight the passage at 14:04

14:32 That's our mind on a bad day. That's our mind on a good day. The mind gets brighter and brighter. Yeah, thank you. Is that too bright? I'm sorry. Okay, cool. Report an error in the passage at 14:32 Highlight the passage at 14:32

14:45 Oh, I'm like, what's happening? Okay, somebody's saying, okay. So on page eight, with the wish to free all beings, I shall always go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha until I reach full enlightenment. Inspired by wisdom and compassion, today in the Buddha's presence, I generate the mind of full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 14:45 Highlight the passage at 14:45

15:11 As long as space remains. As long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world. Report an error in the passage at 15:11 Highlight the passage at 15:11

15:28 So I wanted to do a check-in, but I also wanted to, before we take our break, I just wanted to mention that if you do have to leave, I'm going to hand out not just the homeworks tonight. Gosh, I hope I made enough. Every time it's a different amount, so I never know how many to copy. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. I did 10. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 15:28 Highlight the passage at 15:28

16:02 And why? I can actually print it right after class. But I also have the presentation topics for the final retreat day. And I thought I'd talk about that a little bit. I won't talk about it right now, but I'll talk about it right when we get up to the break. Report an error in the passage at 16:02 Highlight the passage at 16:02

16:24 Anyone wants to use glitter for their presentation? Sometimes people get scared by this whole idea of a presentation. It's really incredibly low-key. We sit around in a circle and you don't even have to stand up. Some people just sit there and read their notes and that's okay too. And some people haven't even, they attend the day and they've never even attended the class, so there you go. Report an error in the passage at 16:24 Highlight the passage at 16:24

16:45 And they'll still do a presentation. Yeah, that's right, you do that one. I've had more than one person do that one. Keith does that a lot, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 16:45 Highlight the passage at 16:45

16:56 Yeah, so it doesn't have to be a big deal. I usually say somewhere in the neighborhood of five to ten minutes, and that's all. But the idea is it's a really good way to get your mind around something that caught your attention when I presented it in class. So whether it's one of the meditations and you want to lead us in a meditation, which I always really like because I don't get the chance to be led in meditations very much, or whether it's just like one of the topics that caught your attention for some reason and you want to talk about that a little bit more, it gives you a chance to kind of investigate it. Report an error in the passage at 16:56 Highlight the passage at 16:56

17:35 And if it's too scary... And I totally know that. I used to be the one who the minute, especially in college classes when you had a choice and you didn't have a choice in high school, when they announced it on the syllabus that you had an oral presentation, I just dropped the class just immediately. I totally understand hating anything that sounds like an oral presentation or a report. I'm happy to meet with you at a different time over a cup of tea and you can do a presentation so you don't have to freak out. Report an error in the passage at 17:35 Highlight the passage at 17:35

18:05 But you might get inspired because I really like it on our retreat day to hear from everybody. And it's nice. It's a really, really sweet way to end the class. Now the way we're doing it this time, we're having the retreat day and then we're coming back together on that final night. So if there's anybody that can at 10 on the retreat day, you can also do it on that final night. So that's an option too this time that we don't often have. So I'll hand those out right before the break. Report an error in the passage at 18:05 Highlight the passage at 18:05

18:34 The retreat day, by the way, is the 23rd of October, so it's not this coming Saturday, but it's the next one. So it's coming up fast. Okay, check in. How do people do this week with self-cherishing mind and the mind-cherishing others? Report an error in the passage at 18:34 Highlight the passage at 18:34

19:04 your last lifetime? Report an error in the passage at 19:04 Highlight the passage at 19:04

19:15 Anybody have anything that came up or any difficulties with it? Go ahead, David. I know you want to. Report an error in the passage at 19:15 Highlight the passage at 19:15

19:33 Who's running the soundboard? There we go. Report an error in the passage at 19:33 Highlight the passage at 19:33

19:40 Is that the pipes? It sounds funny in here. Report an error in the passage at 19:40 Highlight the passage at 19:40

19:45 I found that when you think of self-cherishing mind, that actually comes up with almost everything. I think maybe Jen, you want to? Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 19:45 Highlight the passage at 19:45

19:59 This happens if anybody... she could get the pipe. Yeah. I know. Report an error in the passage at 19:59 Highlight the passage at 19:59

20:04 It runs a cold water wash downstairs. Upstairs pipes go insane. And it's starting to do with somebody flushes downstairs, too. Report an error in the passage at 20:04 Highlight the passage at 20:04

20:14 It's like 100-year-old house woes. Go ahead. I find that when you were thinking about that, I used to teach classes. I don't know how to stop and start. Where was I? So when you have air in a pipe, it's very important that as you work on self-cherishing mind, that it actually comes up. on a lot of you know The deeper you dig, the more it just pops up because the self-cherishing mind is the thing that's saying, well, I'm doing this or I'm not cherishing myself. Report an error in the passage at 20:14 Highlight the passage at 20:14

20:51 And as soon as you think that, well, I'm not thinking about myself, well, actually, I am thinking about myself. And what I found was as that was going on, the more I would sort of like try and contemplate that listening to someone else, I could... I could quiet down a little bit and actually hear them more and hear what other people are saying more and then kind of look and see their sort of confusion or upset or something, you know, what's going on emotionally or intellectually. Report an error in the passage at 20:51 Highlight the passage at 20:51

21:20 And you just sort of look at it and say, well, I can see you're very upset and you don't feel as defensive or reactive to stuff. Right, yeah. Because you're just sort of seeing it. Report an error in the passage at 21:20 Highlight the passage at 21:20

21:31 It can happen for a moment. And then you push back again. How are you saying that to me for? Right, right, right. Janet said at one time we were talking, I think it was in Demystifying Tantra, she said learning to tell the difference between observing and judging, both in ourselves and in other people. Report an error in the passage at 21:31 Highlight the passage at 21:31

21:50 It's really huge, I think. And it's observing, because we can observe self-cherishing mind in others too. And it's hard not to judge, and that's the point, is to try not to judge. Because it doesn't have to just be in ourselves. Once you've been working with it in yourself, and then you see it in somebody else, and you see, you don't necessarily even have to say anything. Report an error in the passage at 21:50 Highlight the passage at 21:50

22:10 It's just like, oh, that's what it looks like. Okay. And it doesn't have to be a judgment. It's simply an observation. So it's interesting, too. So it's not just looking at it in ourselves. We can also see it in other people, too. Yeah. Great. Yeah, yeah. Sorry about those pipes. Even though I wasn't here, I cannot. I'll comment. We can always count on you. Report an error in the passage at 22:10 Highlight the passage at 22:10

22:37 Well, because I think I had my own experience with battling the self-cherishing mind and what I was doing is actually realizing that I was trying to avoid, use like the antidote to self-cherishing mind, which is sort of thinking about... others and the welfare of others right as an antidote to my own anxiety So I was dealing with this stupid exam that I had to take and it was really horrible. And like in the moments when I would really freak out about in the exam or leading up to it or in between the... Report an error in the passage at 22:37 Highlight the passage at 22:37

23:09 nine hours of examing that we were doing you know when I would think about a question that I miss and you know you start on that thing I can't believe I did that I can't believe I I The only thing that actually helped me just calm down was to think I was taking it with this friend of mine and all these other people and was to think like I just really hope You do well. Yeah. And actually it helped calm me down. Isn't that amazing? To not be thinking about my own situation. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 23:09 Highlight the passage at 23:09

23:39 You know, because it was really just creating anxiety that was not going anywhere. Right. Exactly. It always does. Right. Because I couldn't do anything about the question I already missed. Right. Right. Yeah. So it's hard to catch it, but I think I was trying to use it to help that circumstance. Yeah, and we talked about that too on the homework. You'll see like this little contemplation exercise thing of taking one day where you just are trying to notice it every time it pops up. Report an error in the passage at 23:39 Highlight the passage at 23:39

24:08 Did anybody do that by the way? I know somebody was because he kept running and trying to write things down whenever we'd be talking. Great, good, good. And then on a separate day, not on the same day, we were going to try to... When it arose, try to counter it with thinking about somebody else. So it could be little ways of just thinking about somebody else. But that really brings up a great point. Report an error in the passage at 24:08 Highlight the passage at 24:08

24:32 And I've definitely seen that in, I'm thinking about Nunez. Nunez are these intense little retreats that we mentioned a couple of times that I've been doing every other weekend. And when you're in a group, like your own suffering, you can kind of... Give other people energy. That gets me through it. If I see people starting to fade or feeling sick, then even if I can't speak, even on the silent day, I can kind of give them something with my eyes or a nice touch or something. Report an error in the passage at 24:32 Highlight the passage at 24:32

25:07 And I miss that, giving it with myself. It's just me, myself. It's easier to fall into self-cherishing. But it's like the one thing that will get you to prostrate and all that when you're really exhausted too. It's like, okay, I'm going to do this for others. I'm going to do this for those who can't do it or whatever like that. Yeah, so you can really use that mind-cherishing others to counter the self-cherishing mind directly. Report an error in the passage at 25:07 Highlight the passage at 25:07

25:32 It's like a direct antidote. Yeah, perfect. That's great. Anybody else? Anybody else thinking about it this week that something came up? Yeah, yeah, again? Other people who haven't attended the class are allowed to? I've never been here before. Report an error in the passage at 25:32 Highlight the passage at 25:32

25:50 So I've been contemplating for a while taking Buddhism more seriously and I went to see the Dalai Lama this week and that was like a catalyst for me to be here tonight. But he mentioned self-cherishing. but... Report an error in the passage at 25:50 Highlight the passage at 25:50

26:03 And it caused me to think deeply and do some self-inquiry about what was going on with me. And in the past, I've had people that were close to me tell me that I was selfish. And I thought, how could that be? Because I feel like I'm a very giving person. And what one of my very dear friends said to me was that I am very giving, but only when it doesn't inconvenience me. Report an error in the passage at 26:03 Highlight the passage at 26:03

26:24 And so I sat with that and I thought, you know what, she's right. How self-cherishing is that? Sure, I'll go out of my way for you as long as I don't have somewhere to be or it doesn't in any way change what I've got going on. I don't know if that's what you were talking about. Absolutely, yeah, yeah. I think if it makes you feel any better, we all have self-cherishing. Report an error in the passage at 26:24 Highlight the passage at 26:24

26:47 It's just a question of degree, honestly. But we all have it this time around. I would be the guy on the throne during those teachings on Tuesday. Yeah, and Wednesday. His Holiness. Yeah, good point. Anybody else? Self-cherishing, mind-cherishing others? Does anybody want to talk about what they did when they were trying to counter it? Report an error in the passage at 26:47 Highlight the passage at 26:47

27:15 Any ideas that came up? If you felt it arise and you decided, I'm going to counter this with something, anything that you did? I suggested just getting somebody a cup of coffee or something. just Report an error in the passage at 27:15 Highlight the passage at 27:15

27:37 Karen is not at her most vivacious time. Report an error in the passage at 27:37 Highlight the passage at 27:37

27:51 Put away your books and papers. It's time for a quiz. Report an error in the passage at 27:51 Highlight the passage at 27:51

28:04 Well, if it's just a matter of keeping the mic away from David. Or Frank. Report an error in the passage at 28:04 Highlight the passage at 28:04

28:14 I wanted to say what you brought up about... I completely I Report an error in the passage at 28:14 Highlight the passage at 28:14

27:48 laughter laughter Report an error in the passage at 27:48 Highlight the passage at 27:48

28:19 Being selfish made me think of what His Holiness said too, was being wisely selfish. And, you know, I think as any of us goes along this path of trying to be more compassionate, you notice that, yeah, when you're nicer to others or when you're thinking of others, you're happy too. So there is like this selfishness with it because, you know, it behooves you. Report an error in the passage at 28:19 Highlight the passage at 28:19

28:49 To use your word. I love that word. I do too. Rarely hear it anymore. My mother used it. I know. Report an error in the passage at 28:49 Highlight the passage at 28:49

29:03 So, you know, there's always like, I think that every time I give, there's always like, there's a selfishness to the giving. But, I don't know, you know, it's kind of cool. Like even... hide that rest. Report an error in the passage at 29:03 Highlight the passage at 29:03

29:20 Even when it's not going to directly benefit me now, I think, eh, it's good for my karma. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's being wisely. That's being wisely selfish like that, yeah. And actually I've heard that we don't do any activity without some awareness of ourselves until we have that direct perception of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 29:20 Highlight the passage at 29:20

29:44 Yeah, so it's going to be a while, yeah. No, no, the direct perception of emptiness is becoming an aria. Yeah, and so, yeah, we still have ways to become. Report an error in the passage at 29:44 Highlight the passage at 29:44

29:56 You actually see when your Buddhahood will happen after that, so it's pretty close to Buddhahood, but you could be a few lifetimes away. I know the Bhumis are when you generate bodhicitta. Yeah? I'm writing a paper on this. 9, step 10. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 29:56 Highlight the passage at 29:56

30:15 Yeah, yeah, no, the direct perception of emptiness could be before or after that, so yeah. That puts you on the path of seeing, yeah, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 30:15 Highlight the passage at 30:15

30:28 Seeing the nature of reality, yeah. So yeah, that little bit of self-cherishing is always kind of there, you know. Report an error in the passage at 30:28 Highlight the passage at 30:28

30:41 I wonder if anybody knows that I did that, you know, that kind of awareness of that self. Until, of course, you have the direct perception of emptiness and then you realize that that self doesn't exist the way you thought it did anyway and the whole thing kind of a pfft. So it becomes different from then on. Report an error in the passage at 30:41 Highlight the passage at 30:41

30:58 So we are now on points eight and nine. So we have done the first seven points of this combined 11-point method of generating bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 30:58 Highlight the passage at 30:58

31:13 People want to hear the seven points? I didn't write them down, so I'm going to see if I can name them. Oh, gosh. Equanimity. Report an error in the passage at 31:13 Highlight the passage at 31:13

31:24 Oh, God. I was completely blank. Why don't I call on people and have people yell out? David, second one. Recognize all beings have been our mothers. Okay. Jen. Report an error in the passage at 31:24 Highlight the passage at 31:24

31:47 Oh, John. John's got it. Oh, do you want to go? Oh, okay. It's actually two parts. It's recognizing the kindness of the mother and recognizing the kindness of all sentient beings. Okay, Jen, you've got it now. What's the fourth? Report an error in the passage at 31:47 Highlight the passage at 31:47

32:08 You just look like you had it. Repaying kindness. Yes, exactly. Wanting to repay that kindness. Karen. Report an error in the passage at 32:08 Highlight the passage at 32:08

32:22 It's an open book. That's how we support each other. That's right. Affectionate love. Affectionate love. Yeah, yeah. You can call it affectionate love. Report an error in the passage at 32:22 Highlight the passage at 32:22

32:41 compassion. Great Compassions, number six. Number seven? The Extraordinary Intention. No, no, no, because we're doing the combined method. Oh. Yeah, yeah. Really? Yeah, yeah. So is it that way? Yeah, because remember equalizing? Oh, equalizing. Yeah, yeah. Equalizing oneself? Yeah, it is actually. I got confused too. I don't know how bad it's fifth. It should be fifth. It should be fifth. Equalizing self and others. And then last week we did six and seven. Report an error in the passage at 32:41 Highlight the passage at 32:41

33:12 And what was that? The disadvantages. That's right. And the advantages of cherishing. Yeah, yeah. Because now we're getting into what you just said. Now it's coming at a later point in this combined method. And that's generating compassion and generating love. And the way that we're doing it is with the practice of Tonglen. And so actually, I think... Report an error in the passage at 33:12 Highlight the passage at 33:12

33:38 Christine mentioned Tonglen, I think maybe in your check-in, if I recall, at the very beginning, yeah. So this practice of Tonglen is, Tonglen is a Tibetan word that literally means giving and taking, is actually what it means, and we do it in a different order. We do taking and giving. Actually, this particular practice could be done in either order. There's no reason. Report an error in the passage at 33:38 Highlight the passage at 33:38

34:08 There's no reason not to do it in the reverse order, but logically it makes sense to take away somebody's suffering before you try to give them happiness. Report an error in the passage at 34:08 Highlight the passage at 34:08

34:17 If somebody is bleeding on the street, you don't want to just give them a cup of coffee. You want to try to take away their suffering in some way rather than just trying to give them happiness first off. So just sort of logically it makes sense to try to take away the suffering, which is compassion and give the happiness. Report an error in the passage at 34:17 Highlight the passage at 34:17

34:37 Which is love. But there's one little tiny step first. And that's, this is important. So everybody listen to this, especially everybody who's going to actually do their homework this week. Because on your homeworks, I forgot to spell out this one. And so I went through and I highlighted them all. So this is the thing that's highlighted. Report an error in the passage at 34:37 Highlight the passage at 34:37

34:56 This is, in your mind, you're going to do this step of actually exchanging yourself with others. So last week, actually the last couple of weeks we've been talking about that whole thing where Shantideva is going, Master Shantideva in the Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life is talking about, you know, why do I see others as so separate from me? Report an error in the passage at 34:56 Highlight the passage at 34:56

35:18 And there doesn't have to be this separation. So here you're actually mentally taking this step of going, I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm going to shift this with my mind. There's no logical reason for me to stay so separate from them. It's just a habit. It's just through familiarity that I see myself as here and you there and I ignore you and I concern 100 % of the time with me. Report an error in the passage at 35:18 Highlight the passage at 35:18

35:44 So we're going to take this step in our mind of doing this actual exchange. What we're actually exchanging is the self-cherishing mind for the mind. Cherishing others. I like to do it sort of with almost like a visualization of doing this exchange of like this, you know, the way we sort of talked about extending that body. Report an error in the passage at 35:44 Highlight the passage at 35:44

36:09 Because that works for my mind. You guys will have to figure out what works for your mind. And maybe it's just simply doing this, you know, switch in your mind. But it gets forgotten. I think it gets forgotten a lot. And it's very telling that I left it off the homework because I forget that one. And this one I think is a huge one because it makes you feel that shift happens and then you start feeling stronger from then on in the meditation. Report an error in the passage at 36:09 Highlight the passage at 36:09

36:36 It's actually quite pivotal. So mentally you make this shift. And whether you do it this way or not is up to you. But the way I do it is sort of like, okay, I now am taking on David. And, you know, I'm David and David is me, so I'm going to care for David the way I normally care for myself, and I'm going to ignore me. Report an error in the passage at 36:36 Highlight the passage at 36:36

37:03 I'm going to ignore me the way I normally ignore David. I don't really ignore you, but you know what I mean, in terms of I'm trying to actually be as concerned about you as I normally am for me. Without any prompting. For myself, I don't have to prompt myself to be concerned about myself because I already am 100 % of the time. This is a little exercise too that you can do off the cushion. Report an error in the passage at 37:03 Highlight the passage at 37:03

37:26 So you can experiment with your housemates or with a co-worker or with somebody on the street or with a friend or whatever. What we're trying to do ultimately is shift our focus of our concern and our caring for others Report an error in the passage at 37:26 Highlight the passage at 37:26

37:45 as much Caring and concerned as we normally focus to ourselves. So it's like taking that spotlight and shifting it a little bit. It's like putting yourself in somebody else's shoes, right? I mean, I think all cultures have this, but this takes it to a radical extreme. And there is nothing normal about the bodhisattva path. Report an error in the passage at 37:45 Highlight the passage at 37:45

38:08 So if you haven't figured that out, this path is incredibly radical, actually. Being a bodhisattva is extreme. But so is being a Buddha. And that's what we're headed towards on the Bodhisattva path. So this is sort of taking that and shifting. Report an error in the passage at 38:08 Highlight the passage at 38:08

38:30 If I do this shift and then my concern for Jessica is just as strong as my concern is for myself. It's like taking that equalizing self and others to the next level. So equalizing self and others is simply saying, well, first of all, equanimity is simply saying that all other beings are exactly the same, right? Report an error in the passage at 38:30 Highlight the passage at 38:30

39:02 So, you know, my best friend and the dog, exactly same. They all want to be happy and they all want to avoid suffering. There's no difference. Equalizing self and others is saying they're all the same as me. So that's taking a separate step. Exchanging self and others is actually doing that shift where now I'm seeing all other beings as me with that same concern as me. Report an error in the passage at 39:02 Highlight the passage at 39:02

39:29 So that's when you start really going crazy in terms of it being a really radical shift in your own mind. Report an error in the passage at 39:29 Highlight the passage at 39:29

39:40 So it's kind of taking away, you're starting to chip away at that view of the separate self. You're starting to chip away at this idea of self, this separate self, which is of course going to lead us into ultimate bodhicitta too, which is emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 39:40 Highlight the passage at 39:40

39:57 But right now, I mean, we normally are just obsessing about ourselves and obsessing about, you know, What we have to get done and where we have to go and whether or not we did well on the test. Normally, in order to keep doing that and not to be aware of other people, we actually squash something in ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 39:57 Highlight the passage at 39:57

40:22 We actually mush our hearts a little bit. We don't notice that we're doing that because we just think it's normal. But what we want to do is to stop squishing ourselves. We want to stop. Jen. Report an error in the passage at 40:22 Highlight the passage at 40:22

40:34 Making our hearts hard. We want to stop squashing our best qualities so that we just are looking out for number one. We're actually trying to shift a many, many lifetime habit of exchanging this self-cherishing mind for the mind-cherishing others. I see a quizzical look from Karen. Do you want to ask a question? Never mind then. Does anybody have a question about that little step? Report an error in the passage at 40:34 Highlight the passage at 40:34

41:05 So in your homework, it's just mentioned exchanging self for others, but actually take a moment to do it. Like really take that moment. Just a quick question, just what you just said. You said equanimity is like all beings are the same, equalizing self and others. All beings are the same as me. And then this exchanging self and others. Report an error in the passage at 41:05 Highlight the passage at 41:05

41:27 How would that be characterized as? That's where I'm actually shifting. Remember when we were talking about really exchanging like... Imagine your skin going out and absorbing all other beings. It's almost like this is where you shift that whole attitude of that self-cherishing mind with the mind totally cherishing others. Report an error in the passage at 41:27 Highlight the passage at 41:27

41:47 So you're shifting that attitude completely. So equalizing self and others is just seeing that they're equal, but your concern still isn't. It hasn't left you. You're trying. It's beginning to, but here's when the shift actually happens that your concern for all others is as strong as it's always been on just you. Report an error in the passage at 41:47 Highlight the passage at 41:47

42:10 Wow. Yeah, yeah. So you're really trying to just shift that. Karen, do you want to pass? John, do you want to pass that mic? Report an error in the passage at 42:10 Highlight the passage at 42:10

42:21 I'm still just going to ask it awkwardly. I'm an empath, and so I've had to learn how to turn it down. so... I'm wondering how I can do this and still be okay, because the problem with it is that, you know, when you go around feeling everybody else's emotions, it's hard on a person. Report an error in the passage at 42:21 Highlight the passage at 42:21

42:48 I'll have to think about that one, actually. Try it on the cushion first. Yeah, because it's probably more when you're actually with the people, right? Yeah, yeah. And actually... We were talking about this, actually, Christine and I were talking about this after His Holiness' talk, too, because he mentioned about as you get more advanced, you can actually let the practice of tonglen ride on the breath and you're doing it all the time. Report an error in the passage at 42:48 Highlight the passage at 42:48

43:18 And so we were talking about with higher level bodhisattvas, up the boomies, they are literally, with every breath, they're doing tonglen. Report an error in the passage at 43:18 Highlight the passage at 43:18

43:30 So that means as they're at work, as they're in the class, you know, everything. So then it becomes more of an issue. But you probably also have, you're a higher level practitioner at that point. I mean, in order to just do that 100%, you're a higher level practitioner, right? Because nothing is distracting you. So your level of concentration has already improved. Report an error in the passage at 43:30 Highlight the passage at 43:30

43:53 Probably your understanding of the nature of reality has also increased. So I would worry about it at that point. And you can experiment with people that maybe it's not so overwhelming. Like don't start in ER, you know what I mean? Report an error in the passage at 43:53 Highlight the passage at 43:53

44:09 At least not on the 19th or the 22th. Go on, maybe Clement Street or something. I think Jessica has something. No, I'm just saying that I think, I mean, I don't know what the answer is, but I have had similar problems in my life. yeah. Report an error in the passage at 44:09 Highlight the passage at 44:09

44:29 It is difficult, but I don't know. The only thing that has helped me in those situations is really trying to actively focus on the wish that you be happy. Just really focusing. Instead of focusing on the negativity and really feeling that negativity and letting it weigh you down, turning it into this energy that is like, I wish you to be happy. Report an error in the passage at 44:29 Highlight the passage at 44:29

44:56 That kind of mantra over and over. Because sometimes there's nothing you can do. Right. And that's the worst situation when there's nothing you can do. Often there's nothing you can do. Right. To be honest. Right. Often. I think most of the time there's nothing you can do. Sometimes there are little things you can do that are, you know, helpful. But not on the 19 or the 22. Right. And so I find that it calms me a little bit and doesn't take me to that dark place of getting really down. Report an error in the passage at 44:56 Highlight the passage at 44:56

45:23 Because I think it can be very self-depressant. But you know what? You can also just... This is an example of suffering. Yeah. So it's not really yours to fix. I remember actually when I was going to go be with my mom and I knew she was dying. And I remember Tenzin Chokyi as I got into the car saying, she has her karma and you can't take that away. You and I have had this discussion before. Report an error in the passage at 45:23 Highlight the passage at 45:23

45:51 You can't take that away. And I remember that coming up when she was really suffering. And it was actually sort of the saving grace is just staying. There wasn't anything I could do, but just staying. And so I'm not, you know, with Tonglen, as we're getting into it, we are using this visualization to help us build our courage, but we aren't literally taking on their suffering, you know. Report an error in the passage at 45:51 Highlight the passage at 45:51

46:25 And by the end of this, we actually are going to see how... This itself is limited because it's simply a visualization. It's a strong, powerful visualization. I think Tonglen is the most powerful. I think it's one of, if not the most powerful of the meditations. But ultimately we have to become a Buddha and that's where it's going to take us in our mind is I've got to be able to do this reality. Report an error in the passage at 46:25 Highlight the passage at 46:25

46:51 I really want to take that suffering out and so that person or that being or that animal. It doesn't have to suffer anymore. So you can, even though we visualize taking it on, we aren't really taking it on. Report an error in the passage at 46:51 Highlight the passage at 46:51

47:08 It's not the taking it in. It's the burning it off and the burning the self-cherishing. That's the hard part, you know, turning that energy around. Report an error in the passage at 47:08 Highlight the passage at 47:08

47:22 There's something I came across for me a long time ago in terms of like the, or actually recently, because I, for... All the years I worked as a paramedic and like trying to help people and you know and you're there for I mean just the whole spectrum without stories and that there's a point where you actually just realize that there's you know there's no martyrdom in Buddhism and that that you know when this when this so there's a there's a part of like when that that energy and this stuff is going with people and it's just really coming in that in fact when we take on that pain and carry it Sometimes chewing out of that stuff is really sort of the ultimate self-cherishing because now it's like, oh, I'm feeling all this suffering, this pain, and it's like taking me down as opposed to suddenly this me thing. Report an error in the passage at 47:22 Highlight the passage at 47:22

48:12 And I found that when that stuff got really heavy, that's like a wonderful time to start meditating on emptiness. You start looking at who's this thing that's feeling all this stuff. And I think there's a point when it's still there, you still acknowledge it. You still can feel it, but it's much lighter because now you look at it and you look at someone and you say, wow, they're really having all this stuff going on. Report an error in the passage at 48:12 Highlight the passage at 48:12

48:41 It just happened to me the other day. My sister called up. She usually just calls me up when she wants or needs something. She called me up and I was like, oh yeah, whatever's going on. She kind of went through this whole thing and later my wife was saying, well, she was calling up to be manipulative. Report an error in the passage at 48:41 Highlight the passage at 48:41

48:58 And I kind of looked and I said, well, she could or she could not, but like I don't, I understand that, but I'm upset about it because it's, what's there to manipulate, you know, it's like you can't, what was that W.C. Fields movie, You Can't Cheat an Honest Man, you know, that if you just try and, if you just, that stuff comes in and it's like, oh yeah, that's interesting, that you don't carry it on, it's the more transparent you can be, it lets that stuff sort of like a breeze moving through a room. Report an error in the passage at 48:58 Highlight the passage at 48:58

49:29 Because when you take it and you hold it on, now it's more causes and conditions. We're getting ahead of ourselves because we haven't even gotten to Tonglen yet and we're already discussing it. At this point we're actually just doing the exchange and now once you've done the exchange this is when we're then moving into this meditation called Tonglen. Report an error in the passage at 49:29 Highlight the passage at 49:29

49:51 We'll stop for some more questions later and see if we can help with that. But the whole idea with Tonglen, and I agree with David that I think we do get caught up with this fear of taking on suffering. And the thing that gets afraid is the self-cherishing mind. That's what's getting afraid because that's what gets annihilated by this meditation. And remember that the self-cherishing mind isn't the self. Report an error in the passage at 49:51 Highlight the passage at 49:51

50:19 It isn't you. It isn't Karen. It is the selfish mind that's always had its way and been able to boss you around for lifetime after lifetime. That's what's getting scaredy-cat. Or as Menorabina calls it. I guess in Australia they call it scaredy-baby. Scaredy-baby. That's what gets scaredy-baby in this meditation. Report an error in the passage at 50:19 Highlight the passage at 50:19

50:40 So let's move on and then we'll... Stop for some more questions. So with Tonglen, and probably many of you have tried Tonglen in various settings and it might be slightly different. So I'm going to just tell you how I do it. I'll walk you through it and then after the break I'll lead you in... A meditation and but we're going to start with talking about it as though you were visualizing yourself because that's the way it's traditionally taught that we start with ourselves because we have to start out having compassion for ourselves and loving ourselves before we can bring somebody else into the equation and often that's surprising to us and I think especially in our culture. Report an error in the passage at 50:40 Highlight the passage at 50:40

51:27 It's much better, or we think it's somehow much better to dive into trying to help others, but if we haven't done the work with ourselves, it's actually, we can't. We have to develop compassion for ourselves. And I find it quite useful at times to do this for ourselves, to do this for myself, if I know, for example, I'm going to go through something really difficult, or if I am going something. Report an error in the passage at 51:27 Highlight the passage at 51:27

51:50 through something really difficult to do this meditation. And of course, it's easier to take on my own suffering, right? Because that's not something from outside of me, quote unquote. Report an error in the passage at 51:50 Highlight the passage at 51:50

52:04 And part of that is, and I think too that's something caring to think about is really doing the visualization of exchanging oneself first, seeing if that might help you with this meditation because you're no longer separate from this being in front of you. And it is mind games. It's all mind games. Because what we're trying to do is develop courage. This meditation is all about developing courage. Report an error in the passage at 52:04 Highlight the passage at 52:04

52:29 It's the bodhisattva kind of warrior meditation. So we start out bringing to mind, in this case I'm going to say yourself. Yourself going through a hard time or yourself later in the day, yourself if you know you're going to be having a really hard conversation, for example, later in the week or something like that. Report an error in the passage at 52:29 Highlight the passage at 52:29

52:47 So just bring yourself to mind in front of you. Later we're going to do somebody that you feel really strongly that you love. So you don't even have to imagine loving this person. We start with easy ones, right? So we start with ourselves. We love ourselves, hopefully. And that's another issue that we'll take outside of class if you don't, which is really huge and epidemic in our culture. Report an error in the passage at 52:47 Highlight the passage at 52:47

53:08 But this might be a way that you can develop love for yourself. So start with yourself and imagine yourself right in front of you. And imagine in detail. All of the picture, all of the pain and suffering that you might be experiencing in that situation. So if it's right now, you can imagine that. If you know, for example, that you're going to have a really difficult conversation with your landlord or something like that, you can imagine yourself at that point. Report an error in the passage at 53:08 Highlight the passage at 53:08

53:36 And if you know, for example, you're going to have a medical procedure. So it doesn't have to be a mental difficult time. It can be physical pain. Report an error in the passage at 53:36 Highlight the passage at 53:36

53:48 You can even imagine yourself 30 years from now as you age and so forth. So you can imagine whatever aspect of yourself you want to imagine. Report an error in the passage at 53:48 Highlight the passage at 53:48

54:01 And usually we take a little time then to think about that and to think about that in detail. And luckily with yourself, you know your problems, so you can think about what your problems are in detail. And then take a moment of just thinking that you want to remove those problems from that future you. Report an error in the passage at 54:01 Highlight the passage at 54:01

54:22 Because that step is actually generating compassion. Wanting to remove another's suffering is how compassion is defined in Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 54:22 Highlight the passage at 54:22

54:33 So you have to make that determination in your mind. That also is the beginning of that courageous mind. Report an error in the passage at 54:33 Highlight the passage at 54:33

54:42 Then it gets in... Oh, I was like, where's that voice coming from? Report an error in the passage at 54:42 Highlight the passage at 54:42

54:51 I know, I don't know. He said... Can you repeat that? Yes. What did I say? I said you... Oh, yeah. know, that was weird. Report an error in the passage at 54:51 Highlight the passage at 54:51

54:54 I hate it. Um. Report an error in the passage at 54:54 Highlight the passage at 54:54

55:06 It's developing a courageous mind. You have to make that determination that you want to remove the suffering from that future you sitting in front of you. Report an error in the passage at 55:06 Highlight the passage at 55:06

55:19 And all of these, I mean, it's great to take notes. Report an error in the passage at 55:19 Highlight the passage at 55:19

55:27 It's great to take notes as we go along, but you will have notes. So I Report an error in the passage at 55:27 Highlight the passage at 55:27

55:38 know, well, we've had them, but it just hasn't quite worked. So what do you mean by that? To develop that determination. Hand him back the mic if he wants to go. Report an error in the passage at 55:38 Highlight the passage at 55:38

55:48 more? Okay. At this point, you take a moment to really think that you want to remove the suffering of that future person in front of you, yourself in the future, because that's taking that step towards becoming courageous. You're deciding you want to, out of compassion, you want to remove that suffering from your future self. Report an error in the passage at 55:48 Highlight the passage at 55:48

56:15 So it's not enough just to see that person, you in the future suffering and then just go about your business. We're changing our behavior. We're actually deciding now at this moment, I want to take this suffering. I want to remove this suffering from this future me. And then at this point we move into a visualization and we start imagining all of that suffering, whether it's nerves or whether it's physical pain or whether it's... Report an error in the passage at 56:15 Highlight the passage at 56:15

56:46 A headache or whether it's worry or whether it's mental illness or whatever it is that we have that we are imagining in ourselves, we actually now imagine it taking the form of black smoke. And you can imagine it sort of like sooty black smoke within our body and our mind. And when you're doing this meditation, it's almost like that body of your future you is clear, except for this smoke. Report an error in the passage at 56:46 Highlight the passage at 56:46

57:14 In your limbs or your hands or your mind or your heart or whatever. And it's all of the types of suffering that you will have. So if you're imagining a particularly tense meeting or exam or medical procedure, then you can imagine the things that are specific to that. If you're just imagining yourself in... Report an error in the passage at 57:14 Highlight the passage at 57:14

57:39 15 years, then you can just kind of go crazy and just think of all the possible problems that you know that you have. And the next one will be imagining somebody that we really care about. And so you're just imagining all the problems that they have sort of in general right now. Report an error in the passage at 57:39 Highlight the passage at 57:39

57:58 And then you are imagining that you want to take this suffering on. And so what you're going to do is as you're breathing, You're imagining that all this suffering is coming out of all the parts of this being in front of you and moving into the heart into a little tiny ball, like a little sphere of smoke. Report an error in the passage at 57:58 Highlight the passage at 57:58

58:23 So it's coming from the head, the heart, the limbs, the fingers, and it's all just moving into this little sphere of black smoke at the heart. Report an error in the passage at 58:23 Highlight the passage at 58:23

58:40 And I think it's really important to take time to do that. So you can kind of, once you know how to do it, you can go faster, but you still, doing this with the breath allows you to take a little time with each part of that visualization. Report an error in the passage at 58:40 Highlight the passage at 58:40

59:00 And then one of my teachers used to always stop and say, make sure you get it all. Like, don't leave some pain in the foot or something, you know, some worry in the mind, you know. Take it all. Report an error in the passage at 59:00 Highlight the passage at 59:00

59:21 And then here, because this meditation is all about building courage, at this point you're making this decision to take on this suffering and to use it to destroy that self-cherishing mind. So your self-cherishing mind at your heart, you're going to use this visually to obliterate, remembering again that that self-cherishing mind is a concept. Report an error in the passage at 59:21 Highlight the passage at 59:21

59:51 It's not you. You're not blowing up your heart. You're simply using this visualized visualization to chip away at our selfishness we're working on here. Report an error in the passage at 59:51 Highlight the passage at 59:51

1:00:13 So then through this visualization, you just start breathing that smoke out. So I usually just imagine it coming from the heart up through the future use nostrils and then... You know, like you take a few breaths to do that and then it comes into the air in between you like a little puff of smoke. And it takes a few breaths to do that. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:13 Highlight the passage at 1:00:13

1:00:39 And then you stop and you look at your own heart and you think of some selfish act that you have done today or yesterday that's representative of that self-cherishing mind in you. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:39 Highlight the passage at 1:00:39

1:01:00 And I like really taking some definite example, like not just like, I'm horrible, I'm really selfish. Like really think of just something, and it doesn't have to be huge, just something that you did that was selfish, that you kind of want to get rid of because it's keeping you from getting enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:00 Highlight the passage at 1:01:00

1:01:22 And that you imagine like a cold rock around your heart. Because that's the way it feels. It feels really cold and solid and hard. And it keeps us confined. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:22 Highlight the passage at 1:01:22

1:01:41 Then you start breathing in that black smoke. And it starts coming in and it begins to sort of encircle that coal black heart, rock around your heart. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:41 Highlight the passage at 1:01:41

1:01:56 And I like to sort of imagine it beginning to soften it a little bit. Like it has some sort of dissolving property. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:56 Highlight the passage at 1:01:56

1:02:10 And then in a flash, like a bolt of lightning. It just completely obliterates that. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:10 Highlight the passage at 1:02:10

1:02:24 And the feeling there is that it's completely obliterated all of what holds us in and blocks us. So there's this feeling of relief. And you can imagine that there's this glowing light that's released from your heart. So you have like this cold black and then it explodes and then there's this light, glowing white light at your heart. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:24 Highlight the passage at 1:02:24

1:02:53 That's been released, which is our baby bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:53 Highlight the passage at 1:02:53

1:03:06 And take a moment to just imagine feeling really happy at that point that that's been freed. And if you know anything about emptiness, this is the point where you take a moment to really remember that the self-cherishing mind is a concept. It doesn't exist as a separate being the way we're visualizing. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:06 Highlight the passage at 1:03:06

1:03:30 So whatever you know about emptiness you can apply it there. If you don't know anything about emptiness then that's okay too. Just skip that part. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:30 Highlight the passage at 1:03:30

1:03:44 And that's the giving. I mean that's the taking. And so then we move from there into giving. And giving is actually where we generate love. In Buddhism wanting to give another happiness is how love is. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:44 Highlight the passage at 1:03:44

1:04:06 is defined. Wanting to give happiness to all beings is great love or affectionate love or loving kindness. The translations are all the same word. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:06 Highlight the passage at 1:04:06

1:04:20 Great compassion is wanting to remove the suffering of all beings and great love or loving kindness is wanting to give happiness to all beings. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:20 Highlight the passage at 1:04:20

1:04:30 So in the same, so you haven't left the meditation, you just, this baby bodhicitta is glowing in your heart and now you just look at that future you and you see the relief in the eyes because you've taken away all that suffering and there's relief and then you want to give that future you happiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:30 Highlight the passage at 1:04:30

1:04:50 So maybe it's relief from the physical pain of that operation or maybe it's... The knowledge to be able to think of everything that you need for that exam. Or maybe it's if you know you have a job interview, then you want to be clear. Whatever it is, it can be that level. It can be very mundane. It doesn't have to be everything at first. You're going to start with giving that future you whatever you need at that moment. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:50 Highlight the passage at 1:04:50

1:05:19 So maybe it's a new job. Maybe it's all the love that you need. Maybe it's a hug. Maybe it's... Money, you know, whatever it is. And what we're going to do is we're going to build on that and it's going to be everything. So it'll be all the way up to enlightenment itself. You're going to give to that future you. But we're going to do it as a visualization. So now it's that glowing white light at your heart becomes like this cloud, kind of like, and as you're breathing it out, it goes, it rides on the breath. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:19 Highlight the passage at 1:05:19

1:05:53 So as you... You start breathing it out towards that future you on the breath and you take a little time to do that and then that future you begins to breathe it in and for a little while the two of you are sharing this breath, this light that's just filled with all positive things. So from the level of enough money to get through the week. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:53 Highlight the passage at 1:05:53

1:06:25 All the way up to enlightenment. So it's all of your best qualities, all of your virtues, they say, you know, like all the merit you've ever accumulated since beginning this time. All wonderful things, all happy things, all beneficial things that you can imagine. All contained in this glowing light cloud of sort of this puff. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:25 Highlight the passage at 1:06:25

1:06:51 Sparkling light cloud of bliss that you are breathing towards that future self. And that future self is starting to breathe in. And as they breathe it in, it brings them ultimate happiness. It gives them totally all the happiness that they need, that you need, that you will need at that moment. So it might be peace of mind. It might be, you know, the wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:51 Highlight the passage at 1:06:51

1:07:23 Understanding emptiness. It might be the generation of bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:23 Highlight the passage at 1:07:23

1:07:29 And so you share it for a few breaths and then that future you breathes it in and it disconnects from your heart. And you just see that future you becoming filled with this pure white light until they have everything and all the way until they become a being of light, a Buddha, a perfect mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:29 Highlight the passage at 1:07:29

1:07:55 And then you just take this moment of feeling incredibly happy that you're able to do that. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:55 Highlight the passage at 1:07:55

1:08:05 So in general, that's the way it works. And you take time for each of the steps. And what happens at the end is that it is a really blissful experience, but you have to realize that it is just a conceptualization. It's a visualization. And you're getting the experience of... Of developing your courage to be willing to take on the suffering of others and to want to give them happiness in whatever form. But it's not enough at this point. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:05 Highlight the passage at 1:08:05

1:08:40 It's still at the level of visualization. Because the next steps that we'll talk about next week is when you realize that you have to take it to the next level and actually become a Buddha. You actually have to develop the capacity to literally be able to help all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:40 Highlight the passage at 1:08:40

1:09:01 So it is also possible with this meditation, you could think of yourself at different points in your life. So you can think of yourself, like I mentioned, you know, if you're imagining yourself as you age, you know, as you're quite old, or even imagining yourself on your deathbed, imagining yourself on your deathbed, even taking, being willing to take on that suffering from yourself so that you can die with a completely happy mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:01 Highlight the passage at 1:09:01

1:09:30 And then, of course, moving on and being able to do that for people that you absolutely love and that you have adored so you don't even have to create that feeling in yourself. And then we're moving on. Then you can move on to strangers, people that we've talked about in, like, for the equanimity meditation, people that you chose for the stranger. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:30 Highlight the passage at 1:09:30

1:09:53 Imagining taking that person's suffering on, somebody you read about in the paper. I've had incredibly profound meditations just reading about situations in Tibet or something like that. You don't have to know the person to have an incredible meditation about them. And then, of course, you can also move on once you feel like you're ready to people you might consider enemies, people you have difficulty with probably better first, and then maybe people who have harmed you. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:53 Highlight the passage at 1:09:53

1:10:25 And again, I've had incredibly profound... Experiences meditating on that too. You can also think of situations, for example, whatever problem we have, I can guarantee you that somebody else has the same problem almost assuredly even worse than we're having it right now. So you can do a meditation based on that. You can imagine somebody having the same problem as you. And I've also had amazing... Report an error in the passage at 1:10:25 Highlight the passage at 1:10:25

1:10:54 Experiences with this when I had a huge amount of grief with my mom and I was really looking at it and then I began imagining all the women of the world who have had lost their mothers in really tragic ways and my mom was 85. Bless her heart, it wasn't a tragedy, you know. Except me. But it wasn't a tragedy. And I thought about the different ways that women have lost. I especially say women, but anybody has lost a parent and the number of them that are tragedies. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:54 Highlight the passage at 1:10:54

1:11:28 And then I breathed that on and then tried to give them happiness. And that's really what cut the grief, finally. So it's really, really powerful to do that. You can also think of, you know, we fall into what Lama Yeshe calls self-pity mind so easily if we get sick. That's a really good time to do Tonglen. Especially one of those sicknesses that nobody cares about, like a bad cold. If you're really sick, everybody's getting in line to help you out. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:28 Highlight the passage at 1:11:28

1:11:56 But if you're sneezing and coughing, nobody wants to be near you. And that's when you can do Tonglen. And you can do Tonglen, of course, when the big stuff, too. If you're facing really, really big problems and illnesses and stuff. It's like what you were talking about with the mind-cherishing others. It kind of cuts that self-cherishing mind a little bit. That's just like, oh, I have problems. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:56 Highlight the passage at 1:11:56

1:12:19 It's just like so many other beings have problems. Then there's the, you can really go crazy with some of the visualizations, too, where Shantideva does this. A lot in Guide to a Bodhisattva's Way of Life where he starts imagining literally making his body into things that other beings need, like people in drought areas turning your body into rain, people who are starving turning your body into food. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:19 Highlight the passage at 1:12:19

1:12:51 I mean, it's crazy, right? But it's this amazing, it really begins to build this amazing heart, courageous heart to want to give yourself and give. Give yourself 100%, 110%, whatever it is that other beings need, turning yourself into that. And then you get to this point where you can, because Tonglen I think is incredibly profound on the cushion. As I just said, I think it's one of the most profound meditations. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:51 Highlight the passage at 1:12:51

1:13:25 And it's fairly simple, but you can actually do a lot of things with it on the cushion. But you can also, of course, take it on the street. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:25 Highlight the passage at 1:13:25

1:13:32 On the 22 or the 19 is a great time for me to do Tonglen, actually. Especially if I don't know what else to do. And the same if you really love somebody and they're suffering and you want to stay with them, but there isn't anything for you to do. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:32 Highlight the passage at 1:13:32

1:13:51 So you just stay with them and you take on their suffering. And you try to give them back, whatever. They don't have to know. You don't have to do... This exaggerated breathing thing. Although, you know, you can tell if you've been in this business for a while and one of your friends is doing Tonglen for you. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:51 Highlight the passage at 1:13:51

1:14:10 But you don't have to make it obvious. The whole idea is your mind is getting stronger because you're actually going to surprise yourself by your willingness to want to relieve the suffering of others. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:10 Highlight the passage at 1:14:10

1:14:27 And I say that only because I've surprised myself too. You don't have to start out as Mother Teresa to develop a compassionate heart. That's the good news actually. Maybe she didn't start out that way, I don't know. But the good news with Tibetan Buddhism is that there are these methods. If we apply these methods and we really do them, we can develop these really strong hearts. And that's kind of what they're all about. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:27 Highlight the passage at 1:14:27

1:14:59 Yeah, so any questions about that part? About any of that? Because I know there was a lot if you guys haven't ever done it before. It's overwhelming, yeah. I Report an error in the passage at 1:14:59 Highlight the passage at 1:14:59

1:15:15 was just wondering, you talked about visualizing your future self being suffering. Is it inappropriate to, like if you've had a past trauma to imagine? Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's great. That's a good point. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Anybody else? Report an error in the passage at 1:15:15 Highlight the passage at 1:15:15

1:15:36 Christine. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:36 Highlight the passage at 1:15:36

1:15:44 show all my self-cherishing, but when I do And you're the only one in the room who has it. We're all just waiting for you. When I do the visualization, I always feel like I'm making a prompt for the future. Like, I can't really help them today, but in another life, I'm going to come across Report an error in the passage at 1:15:44 Highlight the passage at 1:15:44

1:16:06 it. But then I go to great lengths to make sure I clear out all my negativity when I do it, and then send them back love, and then I'm clear. Because I'm afraid if I don't, then I really am taking on. and I'd be like . Report an error in the passage at 1:16:06 Highlight the passage at 1:16:06

1:16:18 suffering as opposed to making a promise to help them. I feel like I'm taking a promise to really physically suffer in Oh, yeah, yeah. No, no, no. Yeah, again, the point of the visualization is to imagine taking their suffering on to use it to destroy the self-cherishing mind. No, nothing more. Once that self-cherishing mind has blown up, there's no suffering left in your body. It's actually, there's no suffering left in the universe around you either. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:18 Highlight the passage at 1:16:18

1:16:45 It's not like it hovers near your brain or something. If you don't complete that part of the visualization, does it create a cause in the future? You should only take on that suffering visually if you're going to use it to destroy your self-cherishing mind. I think that's the whole point of Tonglen. So if you don't, I think, then it might, yeah, you'll probably end up getting a loom or something. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:45 Highlight the passage at 1:16:45

1:17:10 Yeah, so use it to get strong. And is that selfish to use that person's suffering to get strong? No, that person's suffering anyway, whether it's you or somebody else. Like the suffering's already there, you're just making use of what's there to draw your attention to your self-cherishing mind, to decide to destroy it, which is a huge decision, and then to visualize doing it, whether you actually are or not, because everything starts with the mind, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:10 Highlight the passage at 1:17:10

1:17:38 As Rubina used to always quote Lama Zopa, everything exists on the tip of a wish. Which is all talking about motivation and intention, right? So if we start wanting to destroy that self-cherishing mind that holds us back and doesn't allow us to love and doesn't allow us to open up our hearts wide for others and give, then it begins dissolving on its own because it's nothing but a conceptualization anyway. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:38 Highlight the passage at 1:17:38

1:18:06 But it's had control over us. We've given it control over lifetime after lifetime after lifetime. No, very good question. So don't stop before you use it, even if you just do it really quick. That's why it's a little hard to do when you're driving. It is. It is a little hard to do when you're driving, but it's possible just when you stop, do the explosion thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:06 Highlight the passage at 1:18:06

1:18:32 Don't do that while you're driving. But otherwise, you can breathe in and give back when you're driving. The blowing up thing, I think. I think it could get dangerous. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:32 Highlight the passage at 1:18:32

1:18:47 They probably do now. We're really close, actually. Anybody else? Did you, Steve? Did you? Not yet. We're going to do it again as a meditation, and we're going to do it with somebody that you care about, and you can pick anybody. And in some ways, some people find that one easier. Yeah. It's dangerous, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:47 Highlight the passage at 1:18:47

1:19:11 Sometimes it's easier, but it's good to learn how to do it for yourself because if we don't know how to take care of ourselves, then we can't really take care of other people, honestly. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:11 Highlight the passage at 1:19:11

1:19:21 And it's not selfish to want to take care of ourselves. It's important to take care of ourselves. I'm learning the hard way. Yeah, so we definitely want to learn that way. Why don't you guys take a break? But before you do, we're going to hand this out. So in case people disappear and I never see them again. There's the homework and then this is the presentation topics. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:21 Highlight the passage at 1:19:21

1:19:48 I just put down eight ideas that might be your idea. You might have a completely different idea. This is not a complete list at all. And so you can look at it and number nine you'll see is the possibility of just coming up with your own. But just bounce it off me first. So that I have some say if it has absolutely nothing to do with the class. If you're going to do something that's not on that list, just tell me first. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:48 Highlight the passage at 1:19:48

1:20:18 I say that one, please, please. On the 23rd, do people know yet if they are able to come? If they are able to come on the 23rd, the retreat day? That's not this Saturday, but the one after. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:18 Highlight the passage at 1:20:18

1:20:37 Can we have a show of hands? Report an error in the passage at 1:20:37 Highlight the passage at 1:20:37

1:20:42 It's going to be, we usually do 10.30 to like 3, and the reason we do that is so that we can all eat together normally. So there's one missing, right? There's two missing? Oh, Kara, maybe I didn't include Kara. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:42 Highlight the passage at 1:20:42

1:21:03 Yeah, but do you have the presentation? Yeah. You get to look at it anyway, whether you're going to come or not. So I need to do, no, that's last week, so I'll email you guys both, I promise. Yeah. okay. So. So because we're going to do that, we're going to come back together again for a final class after the 23rd, then I thought the final class we'd actually watch the DB video. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:03 Highlight the passage at 1:21:03

1:21:29 So after lunch on the retreat day, we're going to just do a purification session. So if people can't come to all of it and they just want to do how to take those four opponent powers that we talked about and purify, we're going to learn Vajrasattva. So if people want to come and do that, Then that's also great. You can just come for part of the day or just come for the afternoon. But it is really nice. It sort of depends on how many people come and how many people do presentations because we might just end right after that. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:29 Highlight the passage at 1:21:29

1:21:58 It sort of goes like that. Okay, so I'll take a break. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:58 Highlight the passage at 1:21:58

1:22:17 Oh, but you said you had it, Kashi Sopa. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, you have it. You have this first three. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But there was something else that you were going to remember, and I was going to help you remember, and then we both forgot. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:17 Highlight the passage at 1:22:17

1:22:31 Remember, you were going to write something down. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:31 Highlight the passage at 1:22:31

1:22:45 Well, Report an error in the passage at 1:22:45 Highlight the passage at 1:22:45

1:23:04 I Report an error in the passage at 1:23:04 Highlight the passage at 1:23:04

1:23:25 just said just keep it on the cushion first. I think that's what I just suggested is before you try to do it out in the world or even with a good friend or even with Max. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:25 Highlight the passage at 1:23:25

1:24:00 Yeah, Report an error in the passage at 1:24:00 Highlight the passage at 1:24:00

1:24:04 yeah, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:04 Highlight the passage at 1:24:04

1:24:10 But then that's, look at that. mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:10 Highlight the passage at 1:24:10

1:24:12 Because that's just that eye. Because they're just trying to help. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:12 Highlight the passage at 1:24:12

1:24:19 It was being misunderstood. But that's just that eye. Just watch that arise. It's actually good. Now you can meditate on that. For a separate meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:19 Highlight the passage at 1:24:19

1:24:39 During the anger class? It actually came up in the anger class? That's great. That's it. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:39 Highlight the passage at 1:24:39

1:24:52 Isn't that interesting? No, yeah. Oh, being angered or something? Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:52 Highlight the passage at 1:24:52

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:25:18 In Sanskrit. In Sanskrit, bodhicitta's mind, but he said, in Tibetan, they say, which is purification and renunciation attitude, which is, which I think is strange, because that's tapagata. Isn't the tapagata the mind purification? Report an error in the passage at 1:25:18 Highlight the passage at 1:25:18

1:25:47 On top of my head, I don't know, Dr. God. You know, I'm not constantly talking on the way up. And I and Jung-Ju, a different Because we were talking about, you know, translating, know, how powerful how you have to, you know, she has to understand all this process. Right. Because she's making decisions on how this work goes. Right, right, right. And so, anyway, we start talking about Jung-Ju. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:47 Highlight the passage at 1:25:47

1:26:13 But what did he say? What was his? Oh, I didn't ask, no. Definition, no, His Holiness. His Holiness is purification and the mind of purification and renunciation, the attitude of renunciation. But he didn't define it. No, that's not funny. Because usually it's defined with Maitreya's definition, which is the mind wanting to get enlightened for the benefit of all being. Yeah, he did. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:13 Highlight the passage at 1:26:13

1:26:36 Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he said that. Like literally what jangshub means. What literally jangshub means. it. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:36 Highlight the passage at 1:26:36

1:26:48 Just as I was sitting here and you were saying, clear your mind, then it came to me, but obviously that was tough. But that's tough. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:48 Highlight the passage at 1:26:48

1:26:59 Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Purification. Like all these layers. How about Ziggy? But anyway, I was thinking, that would be a great topic. Sure. Yeah, yeah, sure. Thank you. That's good. I do a poster with glitter. Yeah, I do. Sad sauce for everybody. everybody. I think I'm out of slas. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:59 Highlight the passage at 1:26:59

1:27:38 you mentioned earlier about having a heart that's like a rock and i feel like i have heart in mind so that like people cannot hurt me so it's hard to undo it That's a little bit what Karen was talking about too. So you're just visualizing it. So maybe for you also do it as a visualization on the cushion rather than trying to do it like while you're walking around, you know, or when you're with a friend or whatever, just do it as a visualization on the cushion and imagining when that heart, when that hard heart opens, it frees your love. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:38 Highlight the passage at 1:27:38

1:28:24 So it's just freeing your love and your compassion so that then you can do with them what you want. It's not like it's losing anything. Do you see the difference? So it's not taking away anything, it's actually opening you to be able to give. That's the self-charging mind. So when that arises, because nobody's saying you have to go out and then just stay open and raw to all beings. That's not what the point is. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:24 Highlight the passage at 1:28:24

1:28:57 This is actually just getting to the point where you are... Using this visualization to eliminate that selfish mind and to cultivate the courageous mind. That's all it is. So it's an exercise. It's sort of like you're going to the bodhicitta gym and then you end the meditation and you get up and nobody has to know you've ever done the meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:57 Highlight the passage at 1:28:57

1:29:23 So it doesn't mean that you have to run out and take in all the homeless people. and give up all that you own or anything like that it's not like that it's just it's like a practice session that you do in the comfort and safety of your own home and then and then nobody else has to ever know that you've done it it doesn't mean you have to suddenly change any outer behavior at all so just try experimenting with But that fear rising is actually a good sign because that's the self-cherishing mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:23 Highlight the passage at 1:29:23

1:29:56 That's arising and it doesn't want to be obliterated. It's having a great time with you as things are and it doesn't want to obliterate itself. So that's actually a good sign. So just try it. Just try it. Okay. Hi. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:56 Highlight the passage at 1:29:56

1:30:21 And is this hurting your back? Yeah. Okay. You can grab one of those cushions actually. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:21 Highlight the passage at 1:30:21

1:30:49 So we've got a lot of this conversation. I told her that I had seen her on a three-way program. Do you know what you think is Tuesday coming up from the . Well, you know, Emily was just talking about anger, and the direct antidote to anger is patience, so I bet she covered that, actually, but you could download. Did you attend any of those classes? Report an error in the passage at 1:30:49 Highlight the passage at 1:30:49

1:31:14 Oh, you did, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:14 Highlight the passage at 1:31:14

1:31:17 Oh, I see, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. Unfortunately, I don't really know the programming anymore. So you could write to Charles, charles.sajinling.org, and just ask him if he has any. Yeah, because I think the more people that do, it gives them ideas on what to do classes on. So it's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that'd be great. I think it would be, oh, great. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:17 Highlight the passage at 1:31:17

1:31:39 I think it'd be a great one to have an evening on, so maybe even over the holidays. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Prior to the holidays, they were paying Report an error in the passage at 1:31:39 Highlight the passage at 1:31:39

1:31:49 Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a good time for it. And gratitude. And gratitude, yeah, exactly. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:49 Highlight the passage at 1:31:49

1:32:11 Really, yeah, I mentioned on the first day, were you in the class on the first day? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We usually, any of the Discovering Buddhism classes, we usually do a retreat day, a practice day near the end. I mean, usually it's the final class, and then as I said, I'm experimenting with this one and coming back together for one more class. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:11 Highlight the passage at 1:32:11

1:32:33 That would be great, yeah. I've never known anyone. Did Christine leave already? Did she leave? She said she had to go because she often is the one who advertises the retreat days. People really, really like the retreat days, even if they can only come for part of them because people get a lot out of it. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:33 Highlight the passage at 1:32:33

1:32:56 Yeah, Report an error in the passage at 1:32:56 Highlight the passage at 1:32:56

1:33:00 she has a long commute now. She had emailed me and said that she would have to leave early, not to take it personally. I told her I'd try to get the break a little early. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:00 Highlight the passage at 1:33:00

1:33:15 Well, why don't we come back together and we'll actually, so we'll just do this meditation together and then there'll be a little time for questions and then we'll be able to end on the early side. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:15 Highlight the passage at 1:33:15

1:33:29 Unless, of course, David has many long questions. You never know. Something, yeah, zip the lip and keep your hands to yourself. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:29 Highlight the passage at 1:33:29

1:33:41 And it's totally fine if you do have questions, don't feel like horrible. So take a little time to let go of any conversations you might have just been having. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:41 Highlight the passage at 1:33:41

1:33:54 And I was just mentioning to one student, if that fear arises, notice that because that's actually that self-cherishing eye. So if that fear arises, I don't want to do this, I don't want to take on this suffering, that I is the I that's been getting us into trouble for so long, which is why this meditation follows considering the disadvantages of the I, that self-cherishing I, and considering the advantages of developing the mind that cherishes others. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:54 Highlight the passage at 1:33:54

1:34:27 So that's why it falls in that order. You might find as you're doing this at home that you want to have that list handy. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:27 Highlight the passage at 1:34:27

1:34:37 That's how that's gotten you into trouble. So check your posture, extend the spine, bring the shoulders back, let your breathing relax. And Report an error in the passage at 1:34:37 Highlight the passage at 1:34:37

1:34:55 I usually like to take a couple of nice deep belly breaths. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:55 Highlight the passage at 1:34:55

1:35:13 So we're going to take that moment to do the actual exchange, exchanging that self-cherishing mind for the mind that cherishes others. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:13 Highlight the passage at 1:35:13

1:35:31 And you can imagine this as a visualization, imagining sort of, it's almost like, Some Monty Python graphic of imagining yourself sort of expanding out to include all beings. It's okay. Even those who are loud in the back. Expanding out, including all beings. Or just do a simple sort of like a switch in your mind of self-cherishing mind Report an error in the passage at 1:35:31 Highlight the passage at 1:35:31

1:36:02 exchanged for this mind cherishing others. And as I said, when you're doing these 11 points back to back, which we'll do on Saturday the 23rd, that's what I'll do in the morning meditation, is just lead you through the whole set so you'll see sort of how they all fit together. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:02 Highlight the passage at 1:36:02

1:36:24 It sort of makes sense after you've just contemplated these two, then you do that switch. It's Report an error in the passage at 1:36:24 Highlight the passage at 1:36:24

1:36:36 the ultimate changing places with another. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:36 Highlight the passage at 1:36:36

1:36:51 We'll move into Tonglen. So imagine... Somebody that you care very much about sitting in front of you. So it can be a parent or a child or a close friend or sibling. Somebody that you know very, very well and you love very much. So you don't even have to cultivate this mind of caring. You already have it for this person. That's why it's kind of an easy person to meditate on. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:51 Highlight the passage at 1:36:51

1:37:25 Imagine this person sitting right in front of you at the same level as you and start imagining some of their problems in as much detail as you can. So whether it's problems in their life right now or problems in their mind or problems in their body, take a little time to imagine those problems. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:25 Highlight the passage at 1:37:25

1:37:58 Take a few breaths and during that time imagine some of their problems. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:58 Highlight the passage at 1:37:58

1:38:32 And then feel strongly. That you'd like to remove the suffering from this person. This is compassion. Just wanting to remove the suffering of another is compassion. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:32 Highlight the passage at 1:38:32

1:38:57 And then begin to visualize this person's problems and their pain and suffering taking the form of black smoke all through their body and their mind. And take a few breaths to do this. Just imagine it in all the corners of their mind and all the... Digits of their fingers, their toes, top of their head. Imagine the smoke. And Report an error in the passage at 1:38:57 Highlight the passage at 1:38:57

1:39:35 as you're imagining it, start moving it towards their heart where it takes the form of a little black ball. And take a few breaths to do this. And Report an error in the passage at 1:39:35 Highlight the passage at 1:39:35

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:40:30 make sure you don't forget any of it. Get it all into that ball. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:30 Highlight the passage at 1:40:30

1:40:57 And then make this determination that you want to use this suffering. Take it on, to take it away from them and use it to destroy that selfish mind, that mind that's kept you from getting enlightened, that mind that's keeping you in this lifetime from practicing, from meditating, from studying. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:57 Highlight the passage at 1:40:57

1:41:35 And then slowly begin to breathe that black smoke up out of their heart, through their nostrils and then into like a little puff. A black smoke between the two of you. And take a few breaths to do that. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:35 Highlight the passage at 1:41:35

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:42:35 And then look at your own heart and imagine something that you've done that was self-obsessed or selfish. Sometime in your life, but it could also be in the last day or so. And try to be really specific. It doesn't have to be huge. It can just be not listening well to somebody or cutting somebody off or eating the last piece of cake. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:35 Highlight the passage at 1:42:35

1:43:00 It can Report an error in the passage at 1:43:00 Highlight the passage at 1:43:00

1:43:07 be anything. That's an evidence of this mind in you. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:07 Highlight the passage at 1:43:07

1:43:21 And imagine that mind taking the form of this cold black rock at your heart, confining, limiting you, limiting you from becoming what you know you can be. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:21 Highlight the passage at 1:43:21

1:43:51 And then take a few breaths to bring this smoke in through your own nostrils and then down into your heart. And imagine it beginning to encircle that cold. Rocky heart, the casing over your heart. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:51 Highlight the passage at 1:43:51

1:44:14 And I like to imagine at this point that it's beginning to soften and dissolve that hard casing on our heart. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:14 Highlight the passage at 1:44:14

1:44:25 And take a few breaths to do that. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:25 Highlight the passage at 1:44:25

1:44:38 And then imagine with a crack, like a lightning bolt, a flash, that smoke just completely obliterates that cold, black casing around your heart. And it's gone an instant along with all of the suffering of that person in front of you. Nothing remains in your body, in your mind, in your heart. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:38 Highlight the passage at 1:44:38

1:45:10 All that remains is this glowing white light. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:10 Highlight the passage at 1:45:10

1:45:18 Imagine that you can breathe deeper and easier and that you feel this huge relief. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:18 Highlight the passage at 1:45:18

1:45:36 And imagine that you can feel this warm glowing at your heart and that you feel really happy to have freed. All the love and compassion that you have. This is your baby bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:36 Highlight the passage at 1:45:36

1:45:57 And don't forget that person in front of you. Imagine their relief at being free of all this suffering that you've taken away. And feel happy that you took it away. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:57 Highlight the passage at 1:45:57

1:46:22 And if you know anything about emptiness, this is where you remember that nothing exists the way we think it does. That cold, black heart, that self-cherishing mind doesn't truly exist the way we think it does. Solid and concrete. It's just an example of our selfishness. If you have any solid views about who and what you are, imagine they're also dissolving into a vast empty space. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:22 Highlight the passage at 1:46:22

1:46:59 And feel some sort of freedom in that. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:59 Highlight the passage at 1:46:59

1:47:09 And just rest in this vastness of your own pure, clear, loving mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:09 Highlight the passage at 1:47:09

1:47:30 And then return to that person in front of you. And feel for a moment that you want to give that person total happiness. This is what love is defined as, wanting to give another happiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:30 Highlight the passage at 1:47:30

1:47:52 So you're going to end up giving them whatever they need right now in this life. It could be really mundane, like a new apartment or a new job. And you're going to give them everything all the way up to pure enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:52 Highlight the passage at 1:47:52

1:48:11 So we just begin with coming back to that glowing white. Light at your heart and as you breathe, begin breathing it out. One of my teachers described it sort of like silly putty. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:11 Highlight the passage at 1:48:11

1:48:29 Imagining it breathing out a little bit further each time into the air between you and moving it closer and closer and closer to them. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:29 Highlight the passage at 1:48:29

1:48:44 But it stays connected to your heart for a few moments and Report an error in the passage at 1:48:44 Highlight the passage at 1:48:44

1:48:58 then eventually they begin breathing it in and for a moment the two of you share This sparkling cloud of everything good, all of your best qualities, all the good you've ever done, all of your positive karma, your merit, Report an error in the passage at 1:48:58 Highlight the passage at 1:48:58

1:49:22 everything they need in this moment, whether it's a calm mind or whether it's a roof over their heads. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:22 Highlight the passage at 1:49:22

1:49:33 Imagine everything is contained in this cloud of white light. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:33 Highlight the passage at 1:49:33

1:49:46 And then eventually it breaks off from your heart and they breathe it completely in and it fills them up with all of these qualities. It fills them up with all the teachings, all the potential of their Buddha nature, all the realizations, bodhicitta itself, direct perception of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:46 Highlight the passage at 1:49:46

1:50:15 And imagine that they become a being of light. Everything about them becomes perfect. They become a Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:15 Highlight the passage at 1:50:15

1:50:32 Imagine that they're just completely filled with bliss. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:32 Highlight the passage at 1:50:32

1:50:48 And imagine that you too feel totally happy that you were able to do this for them, to take away all of their suffering and to fill them with every kind of happiness and wisdom, compassion and love and peace. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:48 Highlight the passage at 1:50:48

1:51:25 And then we just take a moment to dedicate the merit from even having this desire for one person to take away their suffering. And to bring them total happiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:25 Highlight the passage at 1:51:25

1:51:43 We dedicate it to each one of us generating bodhicitta and being able to take it all the way to Buddhahood. No matter how long that takes, no matter how hard it is, it's possible for each one of us. And Report an error in the passage at 1:51:43 Highlight the passage at 1:51:43

1:52:05 we dedicate it to that person in front of each of us, whoever it is that we imagined, that they also become enlightened for the benefit of all beings. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:05 Highlight the passage at 1:52:05

1:52:39 So does anybody have any? Questions about how that works? Report an error in the passage at 1:52:39 Highlight the passage at 1:52:39

1:52:55 Any questions at all? Report an error in the passage at 1:52:55 Highlight the passage at 1:52:55

1:53:02 Okay. You've been silent so far. Can we pass the mic? I think it's completely turned into a macrame. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:02 Highlight the passage at 1:53:02

1:53:16 John. Can Report an error in the passage at 1:53:16 Highlight the passage at 1:53:16

1:53:22 you combine Tom Lynn with purification practice? Because it seems that this would be a good way of purifying negativities. know like that are that are are on your mental continuum you know having that those negativities represented by you know like black stone encircling your heart or your mind and then bringing in that energy and then pulverizing it as a way of purifying is there anything like that at all or It might be better to do a purification first and then to do it. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:22 Highlight the passage at 1:53:22

1:54:01 But I think what you're specifically trying to do is to use it to destroy the self-cherishing mind. So I think if you start bringing in too many things, you might get distracted from that. You can spend longer destroying it. Because believe me, it's tough, actually. I sort of sped you through it, but you can spend more time on any of the steps. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:01 Highlight the passage at 1:54:01

1:54:27 And in fact, one of my teachers actually said to take... I think he had us do ten breaths for each of the steps. I think I have you guys do five breaths. But it's mostly to slow us down. You can decide what feels right to you, but just to try to spend a little time on each step so you're not just speeding through to the great explosion and then, you know, take a little time with each step so that you don't go too fast. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:27 Highlight the passage at 1:54:27

1:54:54 But, yeah, I think you might get a little distracted from the... The job to be done. But they are similar. I mean, when you're doing Vajrasapha, yeah, you're definitely bringing white light in and you're purifying negativities. But I think in this case, yeah, yeah. In this case, we're trying to really get that hard heart. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:54 Highlight the passage at 1:54:54

1:55:18 Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:18 Highlight the passage at 1:55:18

1:55:22 Anybody else? Report an error in the passage at 1:55:22 Highlight the passage at 1:55:22

1:55:27 Yeah. And the same, too, with Nam Gyama. I mean, it comes up with other practices, you know. And healing practices too, because of course healing is simply trying to destroy the negativities that cause the suffering, whether the pain or not. So it's similar. It comes up a lot. Steve, did you have a question? I'm just feeling kind of overwhelmed by it all. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:27 Highlight the passage at 1:55:27

1:55:59 It's a lot to do. It is a lot to do. So may I ask how much do you meditate? Because I try to do it 20 minutes a day and I'm having difficulty. What I do is if I find 20 minutes in my day, like I don't have a set schedule. I haven't been perfect, to be honest, since I started this course. You can do it in general. You don't have to. I mean, I give you the steps because I think it is profound at first at the beginning to really take the time. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:59 Highlight the passage at 1:55:59

1:56:33 But you can do it as simply seeing the suffering. Taking that suffering, using it to destroy, boom, and then breathing out the goodness. So you don't have to take all the time. I think it's useful at the beginning to try it, to take all the time. Because then you don't have to take it. I mean, all of these steps, the way they're taught is we take a lot of time with them as they're introduced each week. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:33 Highlight the passage at 1:56:33

1:57:01 But when we put them all together, they'll be... And and as I mean Report an error in the passage at 1:57:01 Highlight the passage at 1:57:01

1:57:05 There will just be a few minutes for each step because you're reminding yourself. Because if you spent some time, if you spent 20 minutes a day on one step, when we're doing it, then two minutes is all you'll need to remember that feeling that you've got. So it doesn't end up being so much when you put it all together. It is overwhelming at first. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:05 Highlight the passage at 1:57:05

1:57:32 The other thing that comes up, then I get irritated, a sense of irritation about myself and negativity or negative about myself. Yeah, just try, just try. You don't need to make it any longer than 20 minutes. Just try your best to just sort of imagine, you know, I'm spelling out the steps, but when you're actually doing it, you don't have to stop at each step. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:32 Highlight the passage at 1:57:32

1:57:59 You can kind of just imagine a person in front of you, you know. Because now you have this voice, blah, blah, blah. But when you're at home, you're just kind of like, you know, oh, you know, Karen's in front of me. I know some of the suffering that's going on, you know, and then I'm breathing that in. But I'm not necessarily thinking of everything in specific and I'm not, you know, and then I'm just kind of like smoke all through the body. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:59 Highlight the passage at 1:57:59

1:58:25 But the conception begins to disappear. Do you know what I mean? Like you're not, the words aren't coming out so much. It's just image. And then image. And then image. Like that. So then, I mean, eventually, actually, you can get to the point where you're just sitting with somebody and they're having a problem and you can do this without any of the conceptualization. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:25 Highlight the passage at 1:58:25

1:58:53 It's just image, you know, visualization. Just try a little, yeah. But not when you're driving, yeah. Well, I was going to, you know, you were talking about driving. So wouldn't that be multitasking and, you know, isn't that something we should try to do less of? Well, I mentioned it, especially with Christine because she's been doing this long commute and so she does like Vajrasapha and things like that while she's driving. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:53 Highlight the passage at 1:58:53

1:59:29 Yeah, to some extent, I know I sometimes when Geshe-la will say, just drive when you're driving. But I definitely do mantras when I'm driving, you know. I don't drive very much, but when I'm walking, when I'm on the bus, I definitely do. I think it is different, of course, when you're driving versus walking and riding on the bus because you're not doing a whole lot on those other things. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:29 Highlight the passage at 1:59:29

1:59:50 But I think you can still do some. I wouldn't do Tonglen if you aren't familiar with it, but it could be useful. Say you go by somebody's car and you see somebody really raging and you just have compassion for them and you just... Wish that you could remove their suffering. So then it can be like taking the opportunity as it arises right in front of you. That's kind of what I'm thinking about. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:50 Highlight the passage at 1:59:50

2:00:16 And you know sometimes in long commutes you're just stuck too. You're not really moving. You're not driving. You're actually just sitting there on the bridge or something. But I agree. It can be multitasking in which case it could be just another distraction. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:16 Highlight the passage at 2:00:16

2:00:35 Anybody else? Can I share an anecdote? Sure. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:35 Highlight the passage at 2:00:35

2:00:42 San Jose from a training session a couple of years ago. And I was coming back on 280 and I got to the ceremony and it just became a parking lot. Everything stopped. And a guy came up behind me in a pickup truck and everybody stopped. And when he pulled up behind me, he started honking his horn and he just left the horn on. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:42 Highlight the passage at 2:00:42

2:01:03 And this went on for about 20 seconds and then traffic started to move and he let off the horn. The second I stopped again, his horn came back. I realized he was putting his horn on when my brake lights were on. So I don't know how this fits with what you're talking about. I started playing his horn just to see if that's what he was doing. It was really my taillights that were causing him to want to honk. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:03 Highlight the passage at 2:01:03

2:01:33 So we're sitting there stopped. Nobody's moving. So I realized if I let off my brake lights, he'd stop honking. So finally when the traffic let up, I just let everybody start going. I was in the fast lane and I just stopped and waited until he went around. And I still don't know what the hell he was doing. He was suffering, for sure he was suffering. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:33 Highlight the passage at 2:01:33

2:01:58 I don't know what it was. Did you say maybe you'd be No, I thought I'd put it in the rears. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:58 Highlight the passage at 2:01:58

2:02:08 All right. I think it's a perfect place to end the club. Can we dedicate some to Don Weckerly? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I think it did go through. Oh, no, no, no. It's usually at midnight, and it's in Oklahoma, I think, right? Oh. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:08 Highlight the passage at 2:02:08

2:02:29 So there was a prisoner that was supposed to be executed tonight who was a longtime student of Liberation Prison Project. 6 o 'clock Standard. Oh. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:29 Highlight the passage at 2:02:29

2:02:39 Has been practicing for a while, and there is a lot of hope that maybe he would be, that it would be lifted, but it doesn't look like it well. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:39 Highlight the passage at 2:02:39

2:02:55 Yeah, Tupton Children is his teacher, his main teacher, yeah. She, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, but some of the monks from Shravesty Abbey have gone, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:55 Highlight the passage at 2:02:55

2:03:07 Oh, that's Report an error in the passage at 2:03:07 Highlight the passage at 2:03:07

2:03:15 good. Well, that's good, actually, yeah. That was the only concession they made. That's good. Yeah, that's good. Anyway, so yeah, good point. Thank you. So let's dedicate to Don Walker Lee, is his name, and also to the victims. I don't really know what his crime was, but the victims of his crime and those families and also all of his loved ones. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:15 Highlight the passage at 2:03:15

2:03:44 We'll dedicate to all of those suffering sentient beings tonight. But especially that Don is able to meet. More perfect conditions in his next life that he's able to practice and generate bodhicitta and get enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:44 Highlight the passage at 2:03:44

2:04:04 Thank you, Karen. Thanks for reminding me. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:04 Highlight the passage at 2:04:04

2:04:19 I had just read the email, so I thought, I was already doing Medicine Buddha, because I said doing Medicine Buddha, and then I read through it's like, oh no, it's not until today, then it's like, well, no. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:19 Highlight the passage at 2:04:19