Discovering Buddhism - The Wisdom of Emptiness (31 March 2011)

0:01 Thank you. Thank you. What you've done is for that and I can set Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 0:01 Highlight the passage at 0:01

1:05 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:05 Highlight the passage at 1:05

2:11 I'm good at yourself. Report an error in the passage at 2:11 Highlight the passage at 2:11

· · · silence, 1 minute

3:28 Yeah, it found itself, I think. Report an error in the passage at 3:28 Highlight the passage at 3:28

3:48 Whenever somebody brings in funny little folders, I save them for things like this. Report an error in the passage at 3:48 Highlight the passage at 3:48

4:02 So let's just start with a quick meditation and motivation. Report an error in the passage at 4:02 Highlight the passage at 4:02

4:17 Extending your spine, relaxing and leveling your shoulders. Report an error in the passage at 4:17 Highlight the passage at 4:17

4:33 In this tradition, when we meditate, we usually have our hands in our lap. Right over left, thumbs touching lightly, about the level of your navel. Or you can also have them on your knees, that's better. Report an error in the passage at 4:33 Highlight the passage at 4:33

4:54 Eyes, in this tradition our eyes are usually open, but it's okay to have them lightly closed. And that just means letting in a little bit of light, especially if you're sleepy. Report an error in the passage at 4:54 Highlight the passage at 4:54

5:14 And the tongue is resting on the roof of your mouth, behind the front teeth, touching, but not, I mean not touching, just lightly behind. Report an error in the passage at 5:14 Highlight the passage at 5:14

5:36 Just allow your breathing to become normal for you. We're going to start with watching the breath, but that doesn't mean that you have to exaggerate it anyway. Report an error in the passage at 5:36 Highlight the passage at 5:36

5:49 You're just going to bring your attention to the breath. An Report an error in the passage at 5:49 Highlight the passage at 5:49

5:58 in-breath and an out-breath equal one, and we're just going to try to count to ten cycles without losing it. So really keeping your mind bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, very alert, watching that breath. Report an error in the passage at 5:58 Highlight the passage at 5:58

· · · silence, 1 minute

7:03 And we just take a moment to set our motivation. I Report an error in the passage at 7:03 Highlight the passage at 7:03

7:16 like to use all the sounds of the streets, the sounds of the people out on the streets, the cars, the buses, the trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, people walking. Report an error in the passage at 7:16 Highlight the passage at 7:16

7:28 Every one of them is tied to a mind that wants to be happy. So all the sounds that we can hear right now are just living beings wanting to be happy and wanting to avoid suffering. And Report an error in the passage at 7:28 Highlight the passage at 7:28

7:49 they're going to work to be happy. They're going home to be happy. They're going out to be happy. Report an error in the passage at 7:49 Highlight the passage at 7:49

8:00 Getting together with somebody to be happy. Report an error in the passage at 8:00 Highlight the passage at 8:00

8:05 Breaking up with somebody to be happy. Report an error in the passage at 8:05 Highlight the passage at 8:05

8:14 And we're exactly like them. We also just want to be happy and avoid suffering. And we're doing that 24 hours a day. That's our baseline motivation, unfortunately. Not that there's anything wrong with being happy. But unfortunately, usually the things we do to be happy cause more suffering. For ourselves and everyone around us. And the things we do to avoid suffering cause even more suffering. Because we just don't understand how it works. Report an error in the passage at 8:14 Highlight the passage at 8:14

8:54 So let's motivate tonight's class to finally getting it in this life. How karma and emptiness work together. How mind works. Report an error in the passage at 8:54 Highlight the passage at 8:54

9:11 So that we can generate this wish to leave saṃsāra, renunciation. So that we can... Generate this mind of bodhicitta to do it for all beings, not just ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 9:11 Highlight the passage at 9:11

9:29 And so that we can have a direct perception of emptiness. So that we can get it. We can get all three principle paths in this lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 9:29 Highlight the passage at 9:29

9:43 And may whatever seeds are planted tonight become the seeds of that enlightenment for the benefit of all living beings. And Report an error in the passage at 9:43 Highlight the passage at 9:43

10:02 then in your own time as you're ready, you can end your meditation. We're going to start with opening prayer. It's the same opening prayer, just on a different page. I think it's on page 229. Report an error in the passage at 10:02 Highlight the passage at 10:02

10:22 And then we're going to follow it with reading the Foundation of All Good Qualities. Report an error in the passage at 10:22 Highlight the passage at 10:22

10:37 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, 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 10:37 Highlight the passage at 10:37

11:09 And then the foundation of all good qualities is on page 137. And this prayer covers the whole lamrim, which is what we're going to talk about tonight, all in a nutshell. All on just a couple of pages. So we're just going to read the English bits and they've... Put them in between all the Tibetan transliteration. They're all the bolded bits. The foundation of all good qualities is the kind and perfect pure guru. Report an error in the passage at 11:09 Highlight the passage at 11:09

11:41 Correct devotion to him is the root of the path. By clearly seeing this and applying great effort, please bless me to rely upon him with great respect. Understanding that the precious freedom of this rebirth is found only once is greatly meaningful. and is difficult to find again. Please bless me to generate the mind that unceasingly day and night takes its essence. This life is as impermanent as a water bubble. Report an error in the passage at 11:41 Highlight the passage at 11:41

12:10 Remember how quickly it decays and death comes. After death, just like a shadow follows the body, the results of black and white karma follow. Finding firm and definite conviction in this, please bless me always to be careful. to abandon even the slightest negativities and accomplish all virtuous deeds. Report an error in the passage at 12:10 Highlight the passage at 12:10

12:32 Seeking samsaric pleasures is the door to all suffering. They are uncertain and cannot be relied upon. Recognizing these shortcomings, please bless me to generate the strong wish for the bliss of liberation. Led by this pure thought, Mindfulness, alertness and great caution arise. The root of the teachings is keeping the Pratimoksha vows. Please bless me to accomplish this essential practice. Report an error in the passage at 12:32 Highlight the passage at 12:32

13:01 Just as I have fallen into the sea of saṃsāra, so have all mother migratory beings. Please bless me to see this, train in supreme bodhicitta and bear the responsibility of freeing migratory beings. Even if I develop only bodhicitta, That I don't practice the three types of morality, I will not achieve enlightenment. With my clear recognition of this, please bless me to practice the bodhisattva vows with great energy. Report an error in the passage at 13:01 Highlight the passage at 13:01

13:31 Once I have pacified distractions to wrong objects and correctly analyzed the meaning of reality, please bless me to generate quickly within my mind stream the unified path of calm abiding and special insight. Having become a pure vessel by training in the general path, please bless me to enter the holy gateway of the fortunate ones, the supreme Vajra vehicle. Report an error in the passage at 13:31 Highlight the passage at 13:31

13:57 At that time, the basis of accomplishing the two attainments is keeping pure vows in Samaya. As I have become firmly convinced of this, please bless me to protect these vows and pledges like my life. Then, having realized the importance of the two stages, the essence of the Vajrayana, by practicing with great energy, never giving up the four sessions, please bless me to realize the teachings of the Holy Guru. Report an error in the passage at 13:57 Highlight the passage at 13:57

14:27 Like that, may the Gurus who show the noble path and the spiritual friends who practice it have long lives. Please bless me to pacify completely all outer and inner hindrances. In all my lives, never separated from perfect gurus, may I enjoy the magnificent Dharma. By completing the qualities of the stages and paths, may I quickly attain the state of Ajradhara. Report an error in the passage at 14:27 Highlight the passage at 14:27

14:56 So that's all you have to get, and then you get enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 14:56 Highlight the passage at 14:56

15:01 Just take it home. Class is done. That's right. Yeah, exactly. Report an error in the passage at 15:01 Highlight the passage at 15:01

15:10 All right. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 15:10 Highlight the passage at 15:10

15:12 So a couple of things I wanted to mention, and also it looks like we have some more people. Different people. Some different people, some more people. So we might do a quick go-around and just say our names, even though we may never remember it, but we can at least try that. But I wanted to mention, I do have somewhere in here the syllabus. Report an error in the passage at 15:12 Highlight the passage at 15:12

15:36 Do you still have the syllabuses in here? Remember you made the copies of them? Oh. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 15:36 Highlight the passage at 15:36

15:44 Let's see what it sounds like. One of the things that was a question last week is one of the nights, one of the Thursday nights is the Soak night, which is the 12th of May. And I think in any normal time, I would have just had us skip a class and then, you know, finish the class. But Chodron Rinpoche is coming on the final weekend of May, and so if we do that, we're going to end literally the night before his first teaching, which is ridiculous, and I don't want to do that, not to mention the fact that it screws up the practice day. Report an error in the passage at 15:44 Highlight the passage at 15:44

16:24 So I want to just plant the seed. If somebody in here would like to host me and the whole class coming over, I would like to find a different location for the class that night. And have the class somewhere where we have room to be. The only other place in the center to do it would be the bookstore, but it's a soaked night and Geshe-la is doing the cymbals and Janet's pounding the drum. Report an error in the passage at 16:24 Highlight the passage at 16:24

16:49 We've done it before, but that night is the night we're going to be talking about comb abiding. I was like, no, I don't think so. So I would really like to find a different location for that class. So if anybody in the class would like to offer their place. And it's easy enough to explain to people where it is, then maybe come up to me on the break and we'll talk about options and then I'll just pass it back out to you. Report an error in the passage at 16:49 Highlight the passage at 16:49

17:15 So on that night I put a little note that said we need to find a different location for this class. So just to remind everyone that that's going to happen. Report an error in the passage at 17:15 Highlight the passage at 17:15

17:25 So that's the 12th of May. But otherwise everything will happen here. That allows us to end the class on the 25th. 21st, and to have our practice day two days later, the 23rd, which is nice, of May, and then it's all done before, shouldn't we say, well it can be the 23rd, maybe it is, is that right? Report an error in the passage at 17:25 Highlight the passage at 17:25

17:50 21st of the salary, so it ends on the 19th then. Okay, so it ends then on the 19th and then the 21st because I was thinking he's supposed to arrive on the 23rd. Again, we'll be practicing. Well, it would be a good thing to be practicing if he did arrive. He's very good at calm and biting. Maybe he'd give us some pointers. Yeah, so that way our final practice day will be on the 21st and our final class night will be on the 19th. Report an error in the passage at 17:50 Highlight the passage at 17:50

18:15 So Charles is... Handing out the syllabus for the class. Actually, you don't have to do that right now. Let's do it on the break. Let's do it on the break. Yeah, yeah, because we have homework and things like that. Because otherwise everyone just sits there and reads the whole thing and just completely misses the whole class. So that was the big thing. Report an error in the passage at 18:15 Highlight the passage at 18:15

18:41 Anyone need to check in about whatever we talked about last week or the... assignment or just anything that came up after last week that made you think about it that makes you want to share that with people? Okay, Report an error in the passage at 18:41 Highlight the passage at 18:41

19:19 why don't we go around and just check in and just say hi and if a sort of... Anything at all come up for anyone? Report an error in the passage at 19:19 Highlight the passage at 19:19

19:07 More and more people keep coming. No, he actually lives here. He's allowed to come in. Report an error in the passage at 19:07 Highlight the passage at 19:07

19:15 No, stop. Report an error in the passage at 19:15 Highlight the passage at 19:15

19:18 Okay. Report an error in the passage at 19:18 Highlight the passage at 19:18

19:25 Really quickly, your background in Buddhism, not necessarily, you know, I was born, blah, blah, but just sort of like, I've been coming to, this is like my second Discovering Buddhism class, this is my, you know, whatever, just a little, sort of a little brief blurb on who you are and how you fit into the context. Report an error in the passage at 19:25 Highlight the passage at 19:25

19:44 And if you're excited about emptiness for any reason, you can throw that in too. So my name is Chokyi. I'm excited about emptiness, and this is like my 7,000th Discovering Buddhism class. Report an error in the passage at 19:44 Highlight the passage at 19:44

20:00 Now this is my third time, I think, teaching this class. I haven't taught all of them three times because sometimes we had other teachers, and the very first time I took over for Venerable Carol, I think. At one point in it and started in. But I have taught the whole Discovering Buddhism program twice through and sort of like two and a half times through. Report an error in the passage at 20:00 Highlight the passage at 20:00

20:27 And I am excited about emptiness because I think emptiness is the key to how we're going to like cut all of our suffering and the craziness of our minds and all the negative karma that keeps us here. So it is very exciting. Gina. Report an error in the passage at 20:27 Highlight the passage at 20:27

20:47 I'm Gina. I've been practicing and taking DB classes in kind of a sporadic fashion for the past like three or four years. Report an error in the passage at 20:47 Highlight the passage at 20:47

20:59 Yeah, just so the people in the back can hear you. And I can hear you. My name is Amy and I've been practicing Vajrayana for about ten years and I had been down at GGBC when we moved to Moss Beach. Yeah, hi. Report an error in the passage at 20:59 Highlight the passage at 20:59

21:16 I'm Liza. I've been studying Buddhism for maybe four years. But I want to make my practice better, a lot better. So I have really strong renunciation by now. So I'm trying. Report an error in the passage at 21:16 Highlight the passage at 21:16

21:31 Cool. Doesn't matter. Might be easier for the mic to keep it sort of like that. My name is Daniel, and this is my second Dharma class. I was at the Lojong eight-week course the last few months. And I was first introduced to Buddhism about... Ten years ago and so I'm finally making it a practice and really, really finding it's helping me a lot. Report an error in the passage at 21:31 Highlight the passage at 21:31

22:07 My name is Jen and I've been coming here for about a year and I do work study, so I actually live here. Downstairs. She does. And wait, how many classes have you done? This is the second of the DB classes. Yeah, but then you also did Copan. You went to Copan, so. It counts as several. Kopan is a month-long course in Nepal that goes through the whole lamrim in a month, so it's kind of nice that way. Report an error in the passage at 22:07 Highlight the passage at 22:07

22:40 It's like an intensive, yeah. Marcela. Hi, my name is Marcela, and I'm practicing Buddhism for a year and a half. I lost the track. I'm taking, since I know that I'm here, I'm taking almost all the classes that I can't. I'm trying to do my mind transformation. I'm going through a wonderful experience now. I'm so excited in the way that I'm having a lot of things going on in my life and I'm taking it in a wonderful way. Report an error in the passage at 22:40 Highlight the passage at 22:40

23:17 I feel very blessed. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 23:17 Highlight the passage at 23:17

23:25 Well, I'm John. I've been practicing Buddhism for about a year and a half. I go to pretty much... As many classes here as I can. I live here too, so that makes it really convenient and easy. And I'm really pumped up about emptiness. Finally somebody is. Report an error in the passage at 23:25 Highlight the passage at 23:25

23:47 And he's not a plant. My name is Alan. I've been interested in Buddhism probably for over a decade now. I'm pretty much self-taught, but I need to get more into formalized classes. And a more formalized practice. I'm a big fan of the Heart Sūtra, Diamond Sūtra, Platform Sūtra, and Quantum Physics, which is not Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 23:47 Highlight the passage at 23:47

24:14 And I find the intellectual side extremely easy. I feel comfortable in that, but I need to get more into a formal practice. Yeah, that's great. Thank you, Alan. I'm Charles. I've never taken a Discovering Buddhism. I've been to, I think, one or two of Chokyi's classes in the past. And I live here. I work here. And I got interested in Buddhism about ten years ago. Report an error in the passage at 24:14 Highlight the passage at 24:14

24:41 And I became a monk recently. So, yeah. So you're hopefully still interested in Buddhism. Even more interested in Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 24:41 Highlight the passage at 24:41

24:55 Very good. I'm Fred. That's my third class here. I've been coming for about a year. And I'd love to know about emptiness. I'd get excited if I knew what it was. Hi, my name is Anne, and this is my second Discovering Buddhism class, and I've been coming since August and was raised with a different kind of Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 24:55 Highlight the passage at 24:55

25:14 That's right, yeah, the Pure Lent Buddhism, right, yeah, yeah. And Anne is so much more. Yeah, she is. I was like the dot, you know, that's standing for everything. So I'm Morgan. I've been studying Buddhism, I'd say, seriously for about six years. Like it was said earlier, I've been doing a lot solo lately. So I've really been studying emptiness and attended a lot of teachings really heavily for the last three or four years. Report an error in the passage at 25:14 Highlight the passage at 25:14

25:44 Yeah, I'm scared to teach Morgan. He's like Mr. Smarty. Mr. Know-it-all. Report an error in the passage at 25:44 Highlight the passage at 25:44

26:02 Hi, my name is Kara. This is where people come out of the woodwork, right? Everybody's like old home week. I don't know. Report an error in the passage at 26:02 Highlight the passage at 26:02

26:07 i've this is my Third year? I don't know. I've been here for a while. It feels like a billion. But I've been absent for a little bit, but it's good to be home. Yeah, it's good to have you home. Report an error in the passage at 26:07 Highlight the passage at 26:07

26:20 My name is Alonzo. I've been practicing Buddhism for a little over five years. And I think this is my fourth class. I'm not quite sure. But I also take online teachings from Geshi Tashi. And I'm very excited about emptiness. And I know my excitement is empty, too. Report an error in the passage at 26:20 Highlight the passage at 26:20

26:40 That's true. That's true. Report an error in the passage at 26:40 Highlight the passage at 26:40

26:47 I'm Carla. I've been studying for nine years now. I haven't taken any DB completely, but I did go to Co-Pants. I guess that counts. There you go. You get extra credit. Report an error in the passage at 26:47 Highlight the passage at 26:47

27:05 And I could not be more excited about emptiness, although this is probably the only class I'll make it this time. So I'll be empty next week. This is the only one of this course that you'll make it to. My name is David, and I've been on leave of absence, I guess, for like about a year and a half. But I think this is my fifth or sixth, fifth DB class, maybe. And I'm really interested in finding out. Report an error in the passage at 27:05 Highlight the passage at 27:05

27:41 How to explain the difference between emptiness and nihilism that constantly comes up as a challenging issue to resolve in my mind. Report an error in the passage at 27:41 Highlight the passage at 27:41

27:57 Hi, my name is Eleanor, and this is my second Discovering Buddhism class. And I've been studying Buddhism on and off for a couple of years, and I'm very excited about emptiness, and I feel very full right now, so I have a lot of work to do. Report an error in the passage at 27:57 Highlight the passage at 27:57

28:18 Hi, I'm Susan. This is my second Discovering Buddhism class. I'm confused by emptiness. Excellent. Hi, I'm a merely labeled David. A little emptiness humor. And everything after that just contributes to the label. Report an error in the passage at 28:18 Highlight the passage at 28:18

28:41 I've been coming here, taking classes and volunteering Wednesdays, and I don't live here, although Susan, my wife, occasionally accuses me of trying to live here. Report an error in the passage at 28:41 Highlight the passage at 28:41

28:52 We won't let him. Report an error in the passage at 28:52 Highlight the passage at 28:52

28:56 Gerhard, but yeah. Report an error in the passage at 28:56 Highlight the passage at 28:56

29:01 Well, welcome. Yeah. So as you can see, we have a wide variety of experience in the class, and I kind of wanted that out there. Last week we, of course, went around as well, but we had slightly different people here. Report an error in the passage at 29:01 Highlight the passage at 29:01

29:17 Some people doing some self-study for a long time. Some people doing more academic and less practice. Some people doing a little of both. Report an error in the passage at 29:17 Highlight the passage at 29:17

29:26 And then the rest of us. Report an error in the passage at 29:26 Highlight the passage at 29:26

29:31 So this is why David sits in the front. He always laughed at all my jokes. Report an error in the passage at 29:31 Highlight the passage at 29:31

29:37 They're merely labeled David. And we have two Davids in this class now, so how are we going to work with that one? And they both laugh at all my jokes, so that's good. Report an error in the passage at 29:37 Highlight the passage at 29:37

29:46 So, part of, I decided actually after last week to talk a little bit about the whole lamrim because I am a little bit concerned about people coming in at various levels. Report an error in the passage at 29:46 Highlight the passage at 29:46

29:58 One of the bodhisattva vows is not to teach emptiness to anyone who is not mentally prepared, which I of course was just reviewing for the bodhisattva vows class. And so I kind of feel like I would like very much for all of us to have the overall view of the whole steps on the path to enlightenment. So for some of you this may be a review. Report an error in the passage at 29:58 Highlight the passage at 29:58

30:19 But I want to make sure they're all on the same page before we then go into the next step. The reason is, as somebody voiced that, the whole nihilism and emptiness thing can get confusing in people's minds if there's not a firm foundation of the stages of the path to enlightenment, especially if there's not a really strong bodhicitta motivation going on. Report an error in the passage at 30:19 Highlight the passage at 30:19

30:44 It doesn't mean we have to already have generated genuine bodhicitta, thankfully. but it generates. Generating bodhicitta or even attempting a contrived bodhicitta motivation, which is what we were doing with the motivation tonight, remembering to do this class for others, remembering to study for others, remembering to practice for others, remembering to meditate on emptiness for others, keeps the study of emptiness from getting too dry and too self-motivated, self-liberated, liberation-motivated. Report an error in the passage at 30:44 Highlight the passage at 30:44

31:20 Keeps it in the Mahāyāna path, makes it a Mahāyāna Dharma experience. Otherwise it can get kind of more dry and more academic and less juicy. And I like to keep it juicy. What keeps it juicy is the bodhicitta juice, you know, like keeping it for others. So anyway, so I made this decision to kind of go through the whole lamrim tonight quickly. Report an error in the passage at 31:20 Highlight the passage at 31:20

31:45 So we don't have a month, we don't have two weeks, we don't have a week, we're just going to go through it in a single evening. I was actually going to review it quickly last week and then we ran out of time, so I'm just giving it a little bit more space. Report an error in the passage at 31:45 Highlight the passage at 31:45

31:59 The lamrim, for those of you who are not familiar with that term, lamrim is a Tibetan term that just means stages of the path, or graded or gradual stages of the path. And basically it was first... Report an error in the passage at 31:59 Highlight the passage at 31:59

32:15 Pulled together by a teacher, Master Atisha, who came, he was an Indian pandit and he came to Tibet at the time of what's called the second flourishing of the Dharma in Tibet. And he found that the Tibetans probably would benefit from sort of pulling the main sūtra topics together into... Sort of almost like a list or a collection of topics that one would then meditate on repeatedly, not just listen to once and go, okay, got it. Report an error in the passage at 32:15 Highlight the passage at 32:15

32:50 Got precious human rebirth. Okay, next, you know, check. But no, it's repeatedly, you know, dive into study, contemplate and meditate on in order as a guide, as a graduated steps to enlightenment, as a guide. A spiral, actually, to get to enlightenment. So it's a little bit more like the follow the yellow book road, you know, when she goes around and around in a spiral. That's kind of what we do at the Lamrim. Report an error in the passage at 32:50 Highlight the passage at 32:50

33:21 So it's not a linear A to B, A to C, A to D. It's not like that. It's we go around and around and around and we keep coming back to those topics over and over and over. And every time that we meditate on them, we go a little bit deeper and we get a little something else out of it because something in our life has changed or something in our mind has changed. Report an error in the passage at 33:21 Highlight the passage at 33:21

33:41 We've lost somebody, so the suffering of saṃsāra makes more sense. Or we've lost somebody to death, so death and impermanence makes more sense, like in a much more gut way than when we first learned it. Report an error in the passage at 33:41 Highlight the passage at 33:41

33:57 We get our opportunity in some way, so precious human rebirth makes more sense. We're getting it, the amazing opportunity that we have. Report an error in the passage at 33:57 Highlight the passage at 33:57

34:08 We've had some experience with meditating on our own mind, and so the nature of mind makes more sense and so forth. So every time we go through it, every class we've taken in between, every life experience we've had, even the news that we've watched or the situations like the tsunami and earthquake and so forth, it all sort of makes sense in some way more the next time we go through these topics. Report an error in the passage at 34:08 Highlight the passage at 34:08

34:33 So these topics are really, really important. And they are not. I always like to come on in, Phil. I just started. We just needed more chairs or cushions or there's no more cushions. Report an error in the passage at 34:33 Highlight the passage at 34:33

34:50 So I lost it just like that. Who was paying attention? Report an error in the passage at 34:50 Highlight the passage at 34:50

35:00 Did that? Report an error in the passage at 35:00 Highlight the passage at 35:00

35:06 Tsunami earthquake. Well done, Daniel. Gold star for Daniel. Woo-hoo! Report an error in the passage at 35:06 Highlight the passage at 35:06

35:15 Yeah, so every time anything happens in the world, it also, it can become a Dharma experience or even a movie that we watch can become a Dharma experience and make something kind of go in a little bit deeper or some seed go in a little bit deeper. So I know when I started to go from there is that a lot of times people think of the lamrim as sort of the baby steps or the baby classes, you know, and then they get... Report an error in the passage at 35:15 Highlight the passage at 35:15

35:39 They get, and Charles is like, no. So a lot of times people think that and think that once you grow up to Tantra, for example, you don't need the baby steps anymore. No, no, no, no. This is not the case. Tantra will not work unless we have a firm foundation of a lamrim, but also... That we continue to dive into the lamrim. So the lamrim actually is like a lifetime series of topics that we meditate on. Even the great lamas, Geshe-la and His Holiness and so forth, still contemplate and still meditate on the topics of the lamrim. Report an error in the passage at 35:39 Highlight the passage at 35:39

36:21 I mean, at least they manifest that way, maybe for our benefit. Whenever Trina Rinpoche teaches and Lama Zopa Rinpoche attends the teachings, you always see him taking massive copious... um when Report an error in the passage at 36:21 Highlight the passage at 36:21

36:34 Quantities of notes, you know, and what he's taking notes on, who knows, but he's, you know, he's manifesting writing these little notes and turning pages and stuff, so I think it's a lesson for us. Report an error in the passage at 36:34 Highlight the passage at 36:34

36:46 You can break out the topics of the lamrim in a lot of different ways. Sometimes when I'm meditating on it, I end up with something like 22 or 23 or something like that, depending especially on all the bodhicitta-related teachings and the six perfections and all that stuff. But the main topics come down to about nine. That's the way I came up with it. Relying on the spiritual teacher is first. Report an error in the passage at 36:46 Highlight the passage at 36:46

37:11 I should have had a flip chart tonight. The nature of the mind is second. Precious human rebirth is third. Report an error in the passage at 37:11 Highlight the passage at 37:11

37:26 Impermanence and death is fourth. And of course we'll come back to these during the class tonight, so don't worry. Suffering and saṃsāra is fifth. Report an error in the passage at 37:26 Highlight the passage at 37:26

37:40 Karma is sixth. Report an error in the passage at 37:40 Highlight the passage at 37:40

37:47 Seven I've sort of combined to the causes of suffering and cessation of suffering. I put the good news, the bad news and the good news in one. Report an error in the passage at 37:47 Highlight the passage at 37:47

37:59 Bodhicitta and Report an error in the passage at 37:59 Highlight the passage at 37:59

38:04 wisdom realizing emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 38:04 Highlight the passage at 38:04

38:11 And sometimes you... All the schools of Tibetan Buddhism... Have some version of the lamrim and there are variations from all of them, but they all have some version of the lamrim. They may not be exactly in this order. And even if you receive teachings from Lama Zopa or Chodron Rinpoche or Geshe-la, they might say things slightly in a different order. Any of the lamrim texts that we sell in the bookstore, for example, the lamrim, which is translated. Report an error in the passage at 38:11 Highlight the passage at 38:11

38:46 And to English now, in three volumes. And then there are commentaries on that, like Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand and Liberation in Your Hands, which are two commentaries on the same, two translations of the same commentary. Report an error in the passage at 38:46 Highlight the passage at 38:46

39:02 Then Geshe Sopa has a five-volume set, and the fourth volume hasn't been printed yet, fourth and fifth, I think. But anyway, they might go slightly different, but they go generally. Over these in the same general direction. And so as you can see, we're starting, this course is all the way at the end of the lamrim, you know, which is why I'm taking the time to go through this because I have grave concern if people are newer than other people and then they're missing parts. Report an error in the passage at 39:02 Highlight the passage at 39:02

39:37 And so I want people to have all the pieces of the puzzle as we get into this. Report an error in the passage at 39:37 Highlight the passage at 39:37

39:48 It is really, really important. One of the things we're going to talk about in this class, we're going to talk about some of the differences between emptiness and impermanence. And in fact, that's what our assignment is going to be this week. We're going to be meditating on impermanence at a more subtle level because that begins to get us closer and closer to emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 39:48 Highlight the passage at 39:48

40:13 But also to understand the marriage of karma and emptiness. So we're going to spend more time on that. Understanding that is the key to how we can start using these emptiness teachings in our life right now. So obviously what we're shooting for, and we talked about this last week, is to have a direct experience of emptiness. So a non-conceptual, direct, meditative experience of the nature of reality. Report an error in the passage at 40:13 Highlight the passage at 40:13

40:43 But we can use these teachings all the way up to that point. So it's not like emptiness won't help us until we have this direct experience. That's not true. To do that, to experience that, to have that experience takes a lot of time and a lot of effort and a lot of determination and a lot of hours with our butt in direct. Report an error in the passage at 40:43 Highlight the passage at 40:43

41:05 Connection with the cushion. Much less a lot of class time hours of studying emptiness and studying karma and so forth and studying the mind. Report an error in the passage at 41:05 Highlight the passage at 41:05

41:16 But up until that point we are still going to be... Plagued by the sufferings of our mind that have kept us in saṃsāra, actually have created the saṃsāra that we're suffering in. And so when we have that direct experience of emptiness, that's when things will shift in an irreversible way. Our mind actually becomes a completely different mind than before we sat down on the cushion that day. Report an error in the passage at 41:16 Highlight the passage at 41:16

41:46 And we will talk about what that experience is like, or rather what I have heard that that experience is like, because I haven't had that experience yet. But I think the more we can know about it, the more it can be, it can really become a goal for us. I know for the longest time I never even had the goal to do long-term retreat in this life. And having had friends, one currently doing long retreat and one who's done a lot of long retreat, Report an error in the passage at 41:46 Highlight the passage at 41:46

42:16 Gives me sort of a face and an experience of that. What do you call it? Vicariously. I can know what that's like and so now I can actually pray for that to happen. Whereas before I knew somebody who had gone into it and had sort of an idea of what it might be like, then I couldn't even imagine myself doing it. And I think having a direct perception of emptiness is helped by... Report an error in the passage at 42:16 Highlight the passage at 42:16

42:42 What we read about and what we study about and what we know to expect for our own direct perception of emptiness. Because this is not an intellectual class in the idea of just like we learn how emptiness works and then we go home. This hopefully will become the seed of each of us having that direct perception of emptiness in this lifetime. And if not, the very next lifetime. Maybe two later. Report an error in the passage at 42:42 Highlight the passage at 42:42

43:07 We're the slow learners. Myself included. Um. But in order to have that experience, we need a really firm foundation on the path. So we're just going to go through these topics a little bit tonight, especially as they relate to emptiness and some of the comments that were made during the check-in. Report an error in the passage at 43:07 Highlight the passage at 43:07

43:31 So the first one is relying on the spiritual teacher. Why is relying on the spiritual teacher the very first one? Do we all have to run out tonight and get a teacher if we don't already have one? No. so. Report an error in the passage at 43:31 Highlight the passage at 43:31

43:41 No, no, no. That's just as bad a no as thinking we have to give up the lamrim once we get into tantra. The system of Tibetan Buddhism is based a lot on tantra. And in tantra, definitely the spiritual master is really key. And in fact, the whole view of the spiritual master in... Tibetan Buddhism is coming from that tantric tradition. However, just as we read in that very opening lamrim prayer, the foundation of all good qualities, right? Report an error in the passage at 43:41 Highlight the passage at 43:41

44:17 That's the very first paragraph. They're talking about once we have taken time to find a teacher, and it's a teacher who is a fully qualified, there's always that fine print, fully qualified teacher, then... Once we've taken that time and that person has chosen us or we have chosen them and we've made that karmic connection, that's when our qualities, that's the root of all of our best qualities. Report an error in the passage at 44:17 Highlight the passage at 44:17

44:48 I mean, that's really what it means. So the reason it's the very first item or the first topic on the stages of the path to enlightenment is that we never really are going to get enlightened without a teacher. At least that's the way it's taught in this tradition. It's really, really important to have a teacher, and it's really, really important to have a fully qualified teacher. Report an error in the passage at 44:48 Highlight the passage at 44:48

45:10 A lot of people take a long time for this, so don't feel like you have to run out and get somebody immediately. It should be somebody that you really check up on quite a bit, including checking up on their students, you know, to see what their students are like, because if their students are still sort of... Report an error in the passage at 45:10 Highlight the passage at 45:10

45:29 Sitting around shooting spitballs at each other, then you probably want to rethink things. You want to see some evidence in them of somebody who lives according to the laws of karma and emptiness, as much as you understand those. So somebody should be living according to that, meaning that they should be very ethical in their behavior. And we're going to talk about what that means and why those are connected. Report an error in the passage at 45:29 Highlight the passage at 45:29

45:57 But if somebody really believes in the law of karma 100 % and are living, you know, trusting that law of karma of cause and effect, then you would be doing virtuous things because you would expect that you would have the result of that experience, a positive experience, a pleasurable experience by doing a virtuous thing. Report an error in the passage at 45:57 Highlight the passage at 45:57

46:23 So you would be doing virtue if you really believed in it. If somebody is not living according to that law of cause and effect, then it might give you pause. So it's something to check up on. Report an error in the passage at 46:23 Highlight the passage at 46:23

46:37 Chodron Rinpoche said, how do you know when a teacher is valid? Because they teach karma and emptiness and how they relate to each other to cause our experience of reality. Report an error in the passage at 46:37 Highlight the passage at 46:37

46:49 How do you know when a teacher is valid? Because they teach karma and emptiness and how they relate to each other to cause their experience of reality. Report an error in the passage at 46:49 Highlight the passage at 46:49

47:00 That's pretty cool. How do you know that? You just have to watch them. You just have to watch them. What I have noticed in my life is that if you are studying and respecting your teachers, teachers will find you. So you don't have to go anywhere necessarily, but if you are karmically creating the causes to meet teachers, then you will meet teachers that are qualified teachers. Report an error in the passage at 47:00 Highlight the passage at 47:00

47:36 However, there is a lot of responsibility on the student in this tradition, and it's up to the student to understand. How important this position is, this role of a fully qualified teacher, to know what they're looking for and to be really clear in their own mind. For example, if you're at a class like this that I would consider more of an informational Dharma class, you're not entering into a guru relationship with me. Report an error in the passage at 47:36 Highlight the passage at 47:36

48:05 For one thing, I won't let you. Don't even call me guru or Lama. People do that and it's very sweet and I'm really, you know, that's great. Let's not even go there. Lama and Guru basically mean, well Guru basically means one who is heavy with qualities. One who is heavy with qualities. So it's very sweet when somebody wants to say that, but I'm sorry. I might have some qualities and I'm not being falsely humble, but we're thinking about like... Report an error in the passage at 48:05 Highlight the passage at 48:05

48:39 This guy above the Buddha, you know, His Holiness the Dalai Lama or Lama Zopa Rinpoche or somebody like that. So we're thinking about somebody who is basically just like, you know, got it all. And they're really, really amazing qualities, you know. In Tibetan, the word for root guru, actually... Tzaui Lama, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 48:39 Highlight the passage at 48:39

49:09 Translates, at least according to one of my teachers, it translates more to like blood brother or something. So it's like somebody you would gladly lay your life down for. So it's kind of a big one. It's not like, it's nothing light or wimpy. It's somebody, I think spiritual friends sometimes these days gets a little bit wimpy sounding to me. Report an error in the passage at 49:09 Highlight the passage at 49:09

49:35 The way it was originally meant was It's the word that we use for a Lama or a guru. When Lama Zopa uses it, he says the virtuous friend, he's talking about a guru. I think in the West sometimes we're talking about a virtuous friend kind of like a big sister or something, like I'm going to come hang out with you a little bit or something. That's not a virtuous friend in the way that traditionally it's taught. Report an error in the passage at 49:35 Highlight the passage at 49:35

50:00 It's like a blood brother. Somebody who you would jump in front of a car for, if necessary, to protect this being so that all beings could be benefited by this being. So it's pretty big. And it's usually by the time you get to a root guru, so there's a level of guru, and then there's another level of root guru. Report an error in the passage at 50:00 Highlight the passage at 50:00

50:21 And actually Alex Berezin has some amazing information just free on his website if people want to go to berezinarchive.org. He has a new book, I think, that we might even have some copies of. It has a new title. It used to be called Relating to the Spiritual Teacher. And he has some lists that he talks about the different levels of the spiritual teacher and how they're all important. Report an error in the passage at 50:21 Highlight the passage at 50:21

50:44 We actually need all of them. We don't necessarily need the university level. But some people got here because they had a university level teacher. Report an error in the passage at 50:44 Highlight the passage at 50:44

50:53 But by the time we get to any level of vow-taking or tantra, then we start getting into guru relationship. So even taking a one-day vow, which we discovered with Kara, after the fact, even taking a one-day vow, the eight Mahāyāna precepts, you enter into a guru relationship. Which is why I kind of refuse to offer them, because I'm not quite ready for that one. Report an error in the passage at 50:53 Highlight the passage at 50:53

51:25 But when you get into definitely taking the refuge, and definitely taking the lay vows, and definitely taking bodhisattva vows, and definitely taking tantra at any level, including the lower tantras, then we are entering into a guru-disciple relationship. What does that mean? That basically means, Geshe-la says when you talk about serving a teacher, you really mean following their advice. Report an error in the passage at 51:25 Highlight the passage at 51:25

51:55 They cage it in this really nice way, serving a teacher. So you're sort of imagining bringing them tea, right? Or something like that. Something that's less heavy. But Geshe-la says basically serving a Lama means doing what they say. So if you don't really want to have that relationship, don't enter that relationship. Report an error in the passage at 51:55 Highlight the passage at 51:55

52:14 So I'm here to tell you it can be amazing. Your practice can be profoundly changed. Your life and your mind can be profoundly changed. But don't do it if you're not ready. And that's really important in the West for us to know that. And what I think, and I do this a lot when I take vows too, I make personal contracts with the Buddhists. Report an error in the passage at 52:14 Highlight the passage at 52:14

52:37 What happens in our mind is really of the utmost importance. So if you attend, for example, I talk with Bob Thurman or something like that and you're just like, I'm just an informational talk here. I'm not taking the guy on as my guru. I do that kind of thing. I'm really clear in my mind so that there's no confusion. Report an error in the passage at 52:37 Highlight the passage at 52:37

52:55 And then if, you know, something happens with that teacher, you don't have to be confused and be like, oh my gosh, I took a class with him. Is he my guru? You know, or whatever it is. However, if you take a university level class and you have this shift in your mind, you're like. This is him, you know, or whatever. Then it can happen in that. It doesn't mean that just because somebody is in a public space, you can't have some sort of a deeper relationship with them. Report an error in the passage at 52:55 Highlight the passage at 52:55

53:23 I know people who consider His Holiness the Dalai Lama their root guru, and they've never had a private meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. But they are 100 % connected with him, and they really believe that all of their advice comes to them through his teachings, and it works. It works fine for them. So who's to say? So anyway, this is a huge subject and the subject of an entire Discovering Buddhism class. Report an error in the passage at 53:23 Highlight the passage at 53:23

53:53 And so all of these are subjects of Discovering Buddhism classes. So we will teach them all again. As a spiral, we continue. But I just thought it was important to bring it up here. Even when we're talking about learning something like how to build a cabinet or how to play the piano, we need a teacher. Report an error in the passage at 53:53 Highlight the passage at 53:53

54:12 So this is really the same thing. It's just we're talking about stuff that we have no idea. One of them being our mind, which is, of course, the very next nice segue. One of them is our mind. And the Tibetan view, well, the Buddhist view of the mind is really, really different than our view of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 54:12 Highlight the passage at 54:12

54:32 So we want somebody who's mastered the mind, right? So what we're looking for in a teacher is somebody who... Has mastered all of this in a way that they can help us master it too. So we want somebody who knows how to meditate, somebody who knows the topics of the Lamrim, somebody who understands emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 54:32 Highlight the passage at 54:32

54:53 If we want to learn emptiness, then we want somebody who really knows it well, somebody who's spent a long time understanding it, preferably lifetimes. Why not? They exist. We actually have some really great lamas in the world today and that won't always be the case. You know, it won't always be the case. Report an error in the passage at 54:53 Highlight the passage at 54:53

55:14 We're actually really at a great time of Tibetan Buddhism where people have come out of a pretty closed environment and the great lamas are still alive. So they're still out there. The second of the topics was not a traditional topic. The nature of the mind is the second of the topics that I'm talking about tonight. Report an error in the passage at 55:14 Highlight the passage at 55:14

55:36 It was not a traditional topic because it was the sort of cultural belief of how the mind worked from both Indian and Tibetan perspective. Our perspective is thoroughly different, however, so it became a topic when it came to the West, and ours not meaning just American, but the West. Report an error in the passage at 55:36 Highlight the passage at 55:36

56:01 So some of the aspects of this, and it is really, really important in that, Understanding of emptiness and how karma works because karma is a working of the mind and so the mind will continue to come up. Well, it's this version of the mind, not the brain. So when we're talking about the mind, we're talking about this much more fluid and spacious view of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 56:01 Highlight the passage at 56:01

56:27 Mind, according to Buddhism, the actual definition of mind is that which is clear and knowing. That which is clear and knowing. Sometimes they say aware and knowing. It's colorless, it's formless, it's completely non-physical, completely different substance altogether. Report an error in the passage at 56:27 Highlight the passage at 56:27

56:50 Therefore, it does not arise from physical causes. So as Venerabina always used to say, sure, our body is the product of our mommy and daddy, no problem, but not our mind. Our mind is coming from the previous moment, the previous moment, the previous moment, the previous moment, the previous moment. And in fact, one of the meditations that we do in the class on the mind is trying to follow our mind back even just through today, which is a profound thing, to think about all the states of mind that you've had today and how the one before that was slightly the same and slightly different than the one before that. Report an error in the passage at 56:50 Highlight the passage at 56:50

57:30 But then if you start really going through your whole life, Back to your, you know, and all of us are different ages, but just, you know, at least back to your 20s and your teens and your little kidhood and your infancy, even if you have memory of that. Even if you can only remember little bits of things that grabbed your attention and were important to you and following them back. At some point. Report an error in the passage at 57:30 Highlight the passage at 57:30

57:59 Even just through imagining yourself as this little being in a womb about to be born and then imagining what might have come before that. Report an error in the passage at 57:59 Highlight the passage at 57:59

58:11 Did it just begin when the egg and the sperm came together, which is the Western approach? Or was there just another moment of mind before that, which was the final moment of mind of the being right before as that being lay on their deathbed? Report an error in the passage at 58:11 Highlight the passage at 58:11

58:29 You know, if it was a fox or something, it was like running in the woods or something right before it was killed. So just exploring that in meditation is kind of an interesting process because even just looking at the different beings that you were in this lifetime, you know, in your 20s or your teens or when you were 9 or 10 years old and you're, you know, when you were 5 years old, when you were 2 years old. Report an error in the passage at 58:29 Highlight the passage at 58:29

58:55 All of those being shared this continuity of minds, but are they all you in the same way that you're you? So that begins to kind of get into this like merely labeled. This one who is merely labeled Chokyi. Well, obviously, I wasn't Chokyi when I was two. I wasn't even Chokyi when I was in my teens. I wasn't Chokyi in my 20s either. I had many names throughout my life. Report an error in the passage at 58:55 Highlight the passage at 58:55

59:23 There is some continuity, there is some the same, and then there is also some very, very different aspects. And the subtle most mind is it goes back and goes back and goes back and goes back. If we follow it from, you know, if we take it as far back as we can, and some people even have memories of a previous life. You know, some people... Report an error in the passage at 59:23 Highlight the passage at 59:23

59:48 Not just in other cultures, but in this culture too. Some people have the experience. Rinpoche was actually talking about that meditation in one of the teachings that he did down in San Jose. And he was talking about how somebody was doing this meditation and they didn't have to imagine. They actually had memories of being in the womb and then they actually had memories of past life experience. Report an error in the passage at 59:48 Highlight the passage at 59:48

1:00:13 Usually they say it's more clear the younger we are. If we are to have those kind of memories, as we get older, the mind gets more encrusted kind of with the identity of this life and all that. But still people suddenly will have flashbacks or a dream or something that's like, oh, you know, remembering some house or some experience or something from a previous life. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:13 Highlight the passage at 1:00:13

1:00:36 And as His Holiness the Dalai Lama says, there's nothing that's proven it to the, you know. Exclusion of anything else. So why not just open the mind up to the possibility? But according to Buddhism, the mind is sort of like the number line. It's beginningless and endless, going in both directions. It goes back beginninglessly. It goes forward beginningless, I mean endlessly. And that's really important to know because I think a lot of times we just think of me right now as it, as all there is. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:36 Highlight the passage at 1:00:36

1:01:12 According to, actually even to Western science, we only use the tiny tip of the iceberg of this enormous, vast thing called mind. And that's definitely true in Buddhism. It's taught that we don't begin to use our mind in the ability that we can use it. So the next topic is precious human rebirth, which basically is... Report an error in the passage at 1:01:12 Highlight the passage at 1:01:12

1:01:38 Just getting it that it's all this set of qualities of, they say, the freedoms and the fortunes or the richnesses. Basically, it's just all these different possibilities of how we could have been born and we weren't. So you sort of go through this meditation on all these different qualities that all of us in this room actually have. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:38 Highlight the passage at 1:01:38

1:02:08 Which is pretty cool. Not all humans have a precious human rebirth. And for some reason that one squeaks by a lot of people, even people who have studied the Dharma quite a bit. They think that precious human rebirth means that just being born human is something to crow about. Well, I think many of us have seen humans and maybe even know of humans in our lifetime who... Report an error in the passage at 1:02:08 Highlight the passage at 1:02:08

1:02:32 Who have had incredibly horrifying lives, you know, and have suffered a lot and in fact are so buried by suffering that they can't possibly have any kind of a spiritual life and they can't, you know, explore the mind and they can't even think about caring for others because they're just so absorbed with their own pain and suffering, either through mental illness or physical illness or the conditions of where they live, you know, maybe they're in a gang area, maybe they're in a war-torn area, maybe they're... Report an error in the passage at 1:02:32 Highlight the passage at 1:02:32

1:03:01 In a tsunami and an earthquake, you know. So not all human rebirths are precious human rebirths. And not all precious human rebirths, and this one feels like it's really important to me when I'm studying it and meditating on it, not all precious human rebirths end at death. Some of them end because something's happened in our life. Like we get some terminal diagnosis or we suddenly develop mental illness. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:01 Highlight the passage at 1:03:01

1:03:30 We lose all of our limbs or something like that. Something happens that makes our precious human rebirth become just a regular human rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:30 Highlight the passage at 1:03:30

1:03:43 The basic gist of when you're meditating this, you're just trying to get this idea that you have all the conditions now to practice. Both this topic and the next topic. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:43 Highlight the passage at 1:03:43

1:03:57 Are sort of geared to psych you up. I mean, when you're meditating on them, you should come out of it sort of, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, basically what we tend to do is we wait for things to get better, right? We wait to have less noise on the street outside the house. So then I can start meditating. Or we wait until we have, you know, an early retirement. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:57 Highlight the passage at 1:03:57

1:04:22 Or we wait until I don't have that loud. you know, roommate, or I don't have, know, I'm not involved with that person who hates meditation, or, you know, whatever. I don't have to get up so early for work, or whatever. Precious Human Rebirth, when we really get it that we have all of these qualities in our life right now, we have all the conditions that we need to practice, then it basically is just like a license to go for it. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:22 Highlight the passage at 1:04:22

1:04:52 So that's really the way you come out of it. Any meditation on the precious human rebirth. And actually when you're meditating on the precious human rebirth, that's one later when you're meditating, when you're doing calm abiding meditation. If the mind gets dull or depressed, you can't, if it's like so heavy and you really can't get out of it any other way. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:52 Highlight the passage at 1:04:52

1:05:13 And we'll talk about that in the classes on calm abiding. But there are... There are different methods that you can try, but sometimes you just can't get out of it. It just begins to feel really heavy. One of the things you can do is just take your mind off the object and contemplate your precious human rebirth, and that lifts the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:13 Highlight the passage at 1:05:13

1:05:31 So it helps to already know the meditation on precious human rebirth. In the same way, the meditation on impermanence and death can dampen the mind if the mind is the energizer bunny, which is one of my favorite places for the mind to be. So sometimes we have to kind of be like, okay, girlfriend, you're going to die. You're going to die. So then I can kind of calm down and just get focused because my mind is like all over the place. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:31 Highlight the passage at 1:05:31

1:06:02 So impermanence and death is the fourth topic. I think until we get into emptiness, impermanence and death can be just as earth-shattering. Not so much, I mentioned it last week, not so much that it's news, things are impermanent, right? Impermanence and death, in terms of that class, that's the class that I probably have the least amount of new material to teach anyone. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:02 Highlight the passage at 1:06:02

1:06:30 I think most of us know that things are impermanent, hopefully. And most of us know that we are impermanent. Most of us by a certain age certainly know that we're impermanent. Like, oh my God. But we haven't necessarily realized it to the fact that we stop getting angry at people and angry at ourselves and change our behavior. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:30 Highlight the passage at 1:06:30

1:06:55 Because of that realization. So we haven't realized it in that sense that we really are applying it to our lives. So the meditations that you do on impermanence and death, first of all, just to become familiar with it, and secondly, to get that it can happen at any time, because that's true. It's not a scaremongering thing. It's actually true. We just really don't know when it will happen, only that it will happen. We keep sort of hoping, okay, that's great, but like... Report an error in the passage at 1:06:55 Highlight the passage at 1:06:55

1:07:24 30 years from now, 40 years from now, right? Not necessarily. We don't know out of any of us who will still be here next week or next year. We assume. We like to think. But the reality is that we don't know. And so when we meditate on death and impermanence, one of the things that we're doing is, again, doing that. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:24 Highlight the passage at 1:07:24

1:07:53 It doesn't matter if we live in a noisy house and we don't have the most absolutely perfect conditions. We don't know if we ever will. So that's okay. Just go for it. Think about the conditions that some of the great lamas, the great masters of Tibetan Buddhism and all of Buddhism, they were in disgusting caves. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:53 Highlight the passage at 1:07:53

1:08:19 with like Little spiders and snakes and things like that coming in. Tenzin Palma, when she did her meditation for 13 years in India, in the mountains of India, every spring it would flood and she'd have everything out in the sun and bandits would come by and steal her food and things like that. I mean, look, we've totally got cushy conditions here. It's just that we have so many other distractions. That's our biggest problem, I think, in the West. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:19 Highlight the passage at 1:08:19

1:08:51 mine as well. But everybody's got stuff to deal with. So impermanence and death sort of reminds us that we may not have a perfect setup right now in a lot of ways, but it may be the best that we'll ever have. So why not go for it? Why not go ahead and just get started and try to get enlightened in this lifetime? One of the things that we're always praying for in our next life is perfect conditions. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:51 Highlight the passage at 1:08:51

1:09:20 Well, we have them right now. We forget that. I forget that too. Sometimes lately when I've been really contemplating setting up the best conditions for my next rebirth, I'm like, well, how well have I used the ones I've had? I don't know how well I've used them. So I really want to use them really, really, really well because otherwise I won't create the causes to have them again next time. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:20 Highlight the passage at 1:09:20

1:09:46 So impermanence and death is really like that. Suffering and the causes of suffering. Suffering and saṃsāra. The Buddha taught that basically suffering of saṃsāra. Saṃsāra just means cyclic existence. It means cycling through all these various realms of existence, which we won't get into in this class. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:46 Highlight the passage at 1:09:46

1:10:11 But it also means, you know, the... When the Buddha first taught, after he got enlightened, at first he refused to teach for a really long time, and all these different people kept asking him to teach, including the devas, came down and begged him to teach. The first thing he taught was the four noble truths. There is suffering. Okay, we got that one, right? That's the one noble truth that we don't need a whole lot of instruction on, because most of us have had some. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:11 Highlight the passage at 1:10:11

1:10:39 But he wasn't only talking about broken arms or, you know, Massive migraines or being exhausted or mental illness or having your honey say goodbye to you or having the cat die. He wasn't talking about just that. Of course, that is suffering. That's gross suffering. That's the first level of suffering, according to the Buddha. But there's more subtle suffering as well. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:39 Highlight the passage at 1:10:39

1:11:06 Our mind, actually, is in the nature of suffering. And that's what he was really talking about when he talked about dukkha. He's talking about this subtle mind of dissatisfaction that just is running all the time through our minds. So even when we covet something, we really want that chime. It's a great chime. It's kind of a silly thing to do, but I don't have a cup right now. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:06 Highlight the passage at 1:11:06

1:11:34 So we really, really want this chime. I'm like coveting it. It's Gina's chime and I've been wanting it and wanting it and wanting it. And then I finally get it. And because my mind is dukkha, it's of the nature of dukkha, immediately I find fault with it. I get bored with it. I start looking at David's chime. You know, it's just the way our mind works. And our mind is like that with everything. It's like that with our relationships with people. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:34 Highlight the passage at 1:11:34

1:11:57 It's like that with our cars. It's like that with our... Our clothing, maybe not all of our clothing. Well, it might even be with our clothing, too, actually. Well, look, his is longer than mine. He's got a wool's end. Oh, okay. But that's just what our mind does, and we keep trying to pretend or trying to fix it. And actually, that is the nature of saṃsāra, is this level of dukkha. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:57 Highlight the passage at 1:11:57

1:12:24 However, fortunately... So this mind of dukkha gives rise to these afflictions, which are the causes of suffering. These mental afflictions or delusions, sometimes they're called, in Sanskrit they're called kleshas, which I like. I actually like that word kleshas. It goes really well with karma. But also I like it because it just sounds like, when I have a kleshas attack, it feels like a kleshas attack. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:24 Highlight the passage at 1:12:24

1:12:50 It's like my mind has gotten disturbed, which is all a delusion is. Anything that disturbs the mind. So whether you're upset because of David's chime or whether you're jealous of somebody or whether you're starving or whether you're grasping or totally averse, hating somebody or pissed off at somebody or just slightly irritated. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:50 Highlight the passage at 1:12:50

1:13:18 All of those disturb the mind so they can all be described as klesha. So it doesn't have to be just the huge gross ones. It can be also the really mild irritations and so forth. According to the Buddha, that is the main cause of saṃsāra, is this crazy wacky mind of ours that's unsubdued. That's it in a nutshell. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:18 Highlight the passage at 1:13:18

1:13:42 What happens is those wacky little states of mind that we just let run rampant, Because we haven't really worked with our minds well enough and long enough to have subdued them. They cause us to act either through our speech or through stirring up our mind more and more and more. Then she said that and then he said that. I can't even believe it. Sometimes we just do that in our own mind. We don't even talk to anyone else. And then somebody's like, Marcella, how's your day going? Report an error in the passage at 1:13:42 Highlight the passage at 1:13:42

1:14:11 You're like, what? What? And you haven't even left your room. you know. So actions with our mind or actions with our speech, you know, and then we live to regret it. Or actions with our body, right? Well, you know, I heard what you said about me, blah, blah, blah. Punch, you know. So those mental afflictions cause us to do all those different actions. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:11 Highlight the passage at 1:14:11

1:14:37 Well, those actions then create karma. And that karma... Which is the next thing, the next topic, that karma ripens, it's like an imprint in our mind to both do those actions again, every time we give in to it, we do those actions again, which is one of the ugly things about karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:37 Highlight the passage at 1:14:37

1:15:03 We have a... Negative result if our mind was motivated by a negative state of mind, which unfortunately it is 90 % of the time in some way. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:03 Highlight the passage at 1:15:03

1:15:15 And if we did an action that results in pain. So it's not from any other standpoint that something's called a negative karma. It's something done with a negative state of mind that also ripens. As a suffering result, something is called a positive karma if it's done with a positive state of mind and has a pleasurable result. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:15 Highlight the passage at 1:15:15

1:15:43 So, and then of course a lot of it's mixed, right? We do something with a positive state of mind and, you know, we have a negative result because it's actually, it is a negative act. And a really big one of that is, for example, if... I find a bug that's suffering and I want to help it and so I kill it. But I don't really have enough wisdom to know what's going to happen after I kill it. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:43 Highlight the passage at 1:15:43

1:16:12 That's the biggest problem with that situation is that we don't really have enough wisdom. We have sort of a foolish compassion, you know. So we're trying to help. So we have a mind of trying to help. So thankfully that mitigates quite a bit in karma. Quite a bit of karma is determined by the mind. But we've also just killed the bug. So we took away its most valuable possession, which is its life. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:12 Highlight the passage at 1:16:12

1:16:35 So we do create some negative karma in that situation. And then there's a lot of gray area in between. So I always like to use the example that there could be three of us doing the exact same action with three different states of mind and then creating three different types of karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:35 Highlight the passage at 1:16:35

1:16:55 Sorry, you guys are in the front row so you get this. So if David and I and Gina are all smashing a bug in the same exact moment, our minds could be completely different. David could be incredibly sweet and compassionate and wanting to help this little bug with a broken leg. I could be just like, ah, I hate them, you know, and she could just be completely oblivious. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:55 Highlight the passage at 1:16:55

1:17:16 She just didn't notice and she just leaned forward and just smashed the bug. So all three of the physical actions were the same, but our mind... Which is the ultimate creator of the karma. Those are all different. So that action is actually a very different action in all three minds. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:16 Highlight the passage at 1:17:16

1:17:34 So karma, which is Sanskrit for action, means having done some action with our body, speech and mind. Regular karma, unstained karma is... Karma that is motivated by a deluded state of mind, whether that delusion is positive or negative. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:34 Highlight the passage at 1:17:34

1:18:00 It's done with an ordinary state of mind, I should say. It can be done with a deluded state of mind or just an ordinary virtuous state of mind. Our ordinary virtuous states of mind are not completely free of... um or well okay it's Report an error in the passage at 1:18:00 Highlight the passage at 1:18:00

1:18:14 Self-cherishing mind or selfishness until we actually have that direct perception of emptiness. So we're creating karma all the time. Just since you've been here tonight, you've been creating thousands of little karmic imprints in your mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:14 Highlight the passage at 1:18:14

1:18:31 Hopefully you're getting some really nice seeds of the lamrim, but you also could be going, God, she hasn't given us a break for Christ's sake. Can't she just shut up? Which is not such a great karma maybe to be having. You might also be just checking your text. You might also be really hating the sight of the robes. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:31 Highlight the passage at 1:18:31

1:18:51 There could be a lot of different things going through your mind right now, and so it may not be entirely positive what's going in there. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:51 Highlight the passage at 1:18:51

1:18:59 According to the lower schools of Buddhism, we create new karmic imprints at the rate of 65 moments per finger snap. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:59 Highlight the passage at 1:18:59

1:19:11 So 65 with each of those. According to the highest school, it's like 365. So we're creating new karma all the time. Fortunately, karma isn't fixed in the idea of it being some sort of absolute or permanent thing. It's fixed in the idea that if you do something positive, you have a positive result. If you do something negative, you have a negative result. And that way it's fixed. So you hear that as one of the first conditions of karma. But it's not fixed in that it's permanent. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:11 Highlight the passage at 1:19:11

1:19:43 Everything is impermanent, right? So karma is no different. And you can purify everything. And all purification practices really do is dismantle the karmic imprints or short circuit them actually in sort of a more technical term. It short circuits what we've already created. So we have the opportunity to purify as much as possible. And we're going to talk a little bit about purification practices in this class because... Report an error in the passage at 1:19:43 Highlight the passage at 1:19:43

1:20:12 Purification of karma, that karma that blocks us from having that direct perception of emptiness, right? That's really important. Just like accumulating positive karma, especially the positive karma that will get us enlightened, which is called merit. So merit is specifically positive karma that we're putting in that bank of enlightenment. So it's like specific. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:12 Highlight the passage at 1:20:12

1:20:35 Positive karma. It's not just positive karma helping the old lady cross the road, right? Unless, of course, helping that old lady cross the road is done with the bodhicitta motivation to get enlightenment so that you can really help her, in which case that becomes a bodhisattva activity. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:35 Highlight the passage at 1:20:35

1:20:50 Nice segue also. The next one is bodhicitta. So bodhicitta is the next of the stages on the path to enlightenment. Bodhicitta, I think we did talk about it a little bit last time, but I'm sort of confusing the two classes because, of course, we did the Bodhisattva Vows class on Friday night. Bodhicitta, I think, gets a little wimpy reputation in the West, too. Bodhicitta is not necessarily a warm, fuzzy state of mind that loves everyone, but does love everyone, but it's not necessarily nice to everyone. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:50 Highlight the passage at 1:20:50

1:21:26 Right? Because a bodhisattva may realize, just like in this life, somebody with great wisdom might realize that you need to have a firm talking to because you're acting in a really dangerous way. Right? And sometimes bodhisattvas have to do that. We have to not, and I can say we in that His Holiness the Dalai Lama allows anyone who's on the bodhisattva path to actually call ourselves a bodhisattva. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:26 Highlight the passage at 1:21:26

1:21:55 We're not really yet. We're wannabes. But that's okay because a lot of Buddhism is actually about faking it till you make it and being on the bodhisattva path is like that. So bodhicitta is developing this mind, this huge, vast, brave mind. That wants to remove the suffering of all living beings, including that roach with the broken leg, or that baby rhinoceros, or that guy on the bus who is screaming and wild and drunk, and my mom. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:55 Highlight the passage at 1:21:55

1:22:40 So it's like all living beings without exception wants to help all of them get that happiness that they're looking for. All those guys driving around us right now and the causes of the happiness wants to get rid of all of their suffering and the causes of that suffering and will do whatever it takes for however long it takes to make that happen. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:40 Highlight the passage at 1:22:40

1:23:06 So I kind of hesitate to use the word has the wish or desire to do it because that just sounds really wimpy to me. It's like, I'll be nice, okay, you know, but then you don't really do anything, right? I think the word should be determination. I have the determination to get enlightened because that is the absolutely best tool to make that happen. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:06 Highlight the passage at 1:23:06

1:23:29 If it was just a wish, we all would have that wish at some point, unless we're just mean, cranky people or cranky Buddhists. We have a really nice meditation retreat or meditation experience or class on the final practice day. We're all like, hug, hug. It's all wonderful. Then you go out and you scream at the cab driver. It's like you forget it a second later. Bodhicitta, when it's genuine and when it's... Report an error in the passage at 1:23:29 Highlight the passage at 1:23:29

1:23:56 When it's firm and when it's really enhanced and strong is irreversible. And we never lose it. And these two parts of it, wanting to get enlightened and wanting to become a Buddha. I mean, wanting to get enlightened and wanting to remove the suffering of all beings and working for their benefit are happening simultaneously all the time under our mind, all the time. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:56 Highlight the passage at 1:23:56

1:24:22 And they say it's like water running under ice, you know. It's just constantly happening. So we wake up in the morning and we have it. We don't have to cultivate it. We don't have to like, you know, now we're sitting there like... Trying to cultivate this mind bodhicitta to start our day and we keep trying to come back to that mind. I'm doing something kind of mundane and I'm like, oh yeah, I'm supposed to have a bodhicitta, okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:22 Highlight the passage at 1:24:22

1:24:47 I was doing that when I was cleaning today and I was like, oh yeah, this is my mind, this is my mind, I need to make my mind clean. But that's cultivated bodhicitta, that's contrived bodhicitta, they call that. That's okay, we do that. Again, that's part of our... Faking it until we make it, you know. But ultimately when we generate this actual mind of bodhicitta, this engaged mind of bodhicitta, then we're also, we're not just thinking it, we're not just kind of forcing it. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:47 Highlight the passage at 1:24:47

1:25:17 It's actually just there all the time. And then we have no doubt about what to do with our lives. You know, then it becomes, it's just like... Whatever we're doing becomes part of the bodhisattva path. Whether it's cleaning the house or whether it's working for others in some obvious way or whether it's doing taxes, whether it's doing our meditation, whether it's studying, whether it's writing the 22. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:17 Highlight the passage at 1:25:17

1:25:46 It becomes a bodhisattva activity and you can use it as a bodhisattva activity once we have that mind all the time. There's no stopping us. We will then get enlightened for the benefit of all beings. And all enlightenment really means is perfecting our mind, removing every one of those deluded states of mind that keeps us here one by one or all at once once we get. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:46 Highlight the passage at 1:25:46

1:26:13 The direct perception of emptiness, we start being able to use that direct perception of emptiness to remove them. Fortunately, they aren't part of the nature of the mind. Remember, mind is clear and knowing. There's no aspect of mind is cranky. Mind is jealous. Mind is depressed. Those are thoughts and experiences that arise in our mind, but they can be removed from our mind, fortunately. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:13 Highlight the passage at 1:26:13

1:26:41 So, then we spend all that time as a bodhisattva wannabe and bodhisattva, actually once we were a bodhisattva, and once we've had this direct perception of emptiness, getting used to what the nature of reality actually is and we realize that we can remove all of those causes of our suffering and their imprints forever. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:41 Highlight the passage at 1:26:41

1:27:07 We can develop all the qualities of our minds, compassion, love, wisdom, the capacity to help others, which is called skillful means. All of those things can be so perfected that they cannot be developed any further. And once you have those things, that makes you a Buddha. So that's why as a bodhisattva, we want that because that's the best tool to be able to help everybody with. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:07 Highlight the passage at 1:27:07

1:27:36 There's no other reason to get enlightened. So we don't want to get enlightened just because it's really cool to look golden and hold big cool swords and have your hair be really neat and those big earrings and have our ears get really long and stuff like that. That's not enough. We have to actually want the capacity that that state or that condition of mind brings. So that just becomes the best tool. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:36 Highlight the passage at 1:27:36

1:28:02 So The wisdom of emptiness or the direct perception of emptiness, wisdom is often a code word for the direct perception of emptiness or emptiness itself. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:02 Highlight the passage at 1:28:02

1:28:19 If we have a direct perception of emptiness without having this whole foundation of the path and especially bodhicitta, it just becomes... A cause for us to gain nirvāṇa and to get out of suffering ourselves, basically. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:19 Highlight the passage at 1:28:19

1:28:41 If we have it with bodhicitta, then very quickly, and sometimes they say, and I'm talking about on the sūtra path and not on the tantra path, within a few lifetimes we can gain enlightenment for ourselves and for all beings, so we can then reach that state. They say sort of standard. It's like about seven lifetimes. I don't know how you know these things, but I guess. What am I to say? I mean, I guess if I'm eight lifetimes and I'm going to be like, oh man, I'm late. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:41 Highlight the passage at 1:28:41

1:29:18 So emptiness, understanding emptiness and understanding the nature of reality according to the Buddha begins with All the way back with finding our teacher and going through the fact that we have a precious human rebirth this time and impermanence and death and karma and the causes of suffering and the cessation of suffering and bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:18 Highlight the passage at 1:29:18

1:29:54 It's wound in all of those. So that's part of why when we talk about... And studying the Lamrim, it becomes a spiral because the more we understand about the so-called later topics, they will infuse the earlier topics with new meaning when we begin studying them the second time around or the third time around or the fourth time around. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:54 Highlight the passage at 1:29:54

1:30:16 Because then we have an understanding of bodhicitta when we're studying the suffering or the karma. We have an understanding of emptiness when we're studying impermanence and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:16 Highlight the passage at 1:30:16

1:30:30 So... Report an error in the passage at 1:30:30 Highlight the passage at 1:30:30

1:30:36 So, when we get to the level where we're beginning to study emptiness, which is what this class is all about, it begins to break down all of the absolutes that we have had about our life and our practice and our mind up until now. And so from that standpoint, that's why I say it really... Will rock your world. It does rock your world because it breaks down all the absolutes that we even just thinking in our sort of our standard life of he's a bad person. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:36 Highlight the passage at 1:30:36

1:31:12 She's a really great person. I'm an angry or, you know, happy or. a no-good person. We pick labels for ourselves, right, and we believe in those labels 100%. Today was great. Yesterday was horrible, right? And we believe in it 100%, you know. We don't realize how our mind is labeling things constantly and changing. Those labels are constantly changing because everything is changing. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:12 Highlight the passage at 1:31:12

1:31:46 And so we get caught up in just one little label. I'm a horrible person. Because she said so, right? And we believe that. Whether I said so or somebody else did, I believe in that label 100%. Emptiness is beginning to talk about the fact that none of those things, including all of those topics on the path, exist in the way that we think they exist. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:46 Highlight the passage at 1:31:46

1:32:16 But that isn't to say that they don't exist. And that's why it has nothing to do with nihilism. You see? Because it actually, it's breaking down, emptiness is the absence of things existing in that solid, permanent way. Really. And that's really all emptiness is talking about. And the reason that we get to emptiness later is because... Report an error in the passage at 1:32:16 Highlight the passage at 1:32:16

1:32:45 First we lay the foundation and then we begin to examine how each of those topics on the path that lead us to enlightenment don't exist in themselves in the way that we thought that they exist. But that doesn't mean that they don't exist. And that doesn't mean that karma doesn't function. Things function. And so we'll talk about that relationship because karma is related intimately with... Report an error in the passage at 1:32:45 Highlight the passage at 1:32:45

1:33:12 With emptiness, in fact they usually call it the marriage of karma and emptiness. And that's the only way that karma can work and it's the only, karma can only work in relationship with emptiness. We can only get enlightened in relationship to emptiness. So we're going to start with this meditation on impermanence. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:12 Highlight the passage at 1:33:12

1:33:36 And of course it is really important for us to think about how things are impermanent, period. This is impermanent, how this is impermanent, how this is impermanent. But what has the greatest effect on our minds is thinking about how I am impermanent. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:36 Highlight the passage at 1:33:36

1:33:54 Yes, I might get upset if I broke the stick. I might get upset if the building fell down, especially if I was in it. But what's really going to affect my mind the most is thinking about my own impermanence. And that's also going to get us closest. Towards emptiness, you know, it's still not emptiness, but impermanence and especially subtle impermanence begins to break down the level of solidity that we think exists around us and in us. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:54 Highlight the passage at 1:33:54

1:34:30 And so that's what we're going to start with this week. Why don't I, that was a lot of information, covering the entire Lamrim in about 45 minutes, actually in about an hour. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:30 Highlight the passage at 1:34:30

1:34:43 Questions about anything that I've said, and then maybe take a five-minute break, and then we're going to end with a meditation on impermanence, which will be your meditation this week. So questions about anything on the entire lamrim. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:43 Highlight the passage at 1:34:43

1:35:01 Yeah, Eliza. Wait, wait, wait. Talking stick, talking stick. So I was thinking about the experience of direct perception and wondering is it necessarily consolidated into one event or can it occur like breadcrumbs? Yeah, we'll talk about that in more detail. But yeah, first you have more than one direct perception of emptiness. So your very first one is pivotal, key. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:01 Highlight the passage at 1:35:01

1:35:32 But then if you're thinking about the five... For some of us, when we studied Buddhism, you can also look at the whole path to enlightenment in terms of five paths. The third path, the path of seeing, is that first perception of emptiness. So the path of seeing is actually quite short. Could be. Could be only about a half hour. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:32 Highlight the passage at 1:35:32

1:36:01 Path of habituation or meditation, which is the fourth path, you're just constantly going back into that state of meditation and getting used to it, as one of my teachers always said, getting used to it. You're habituating yourself with the understandings that you can only gain in deep meditation. But can you have a direct perception of emptiness while you're doing the dishes? No. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:01 Highlight the passage at 1:36:01

1:36:21 It's not like that. You can gain insights. Oh, wow, like things could happen out in the ordinary world, you know, even on the 22. You can have insights that you bring back into your meditation, but the actual direct perception of emptiness can only happen in deep meditation. Yeah, which is why we have to get into deep meditation in this lifetime. So we actually talked about that last week. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:21 Highlight the passage at 1:36:21

1:36:49 So we will be... That's why we're introducing calm abiding in this class and trying to take the time to do it. We won't, obviously, because of time and so forth, be able to go very far with it, but hopefully you guys will all have tools that you can then apply in your own time and try to get into it and to get deeper and deeper in it. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:49 Highlight the passage at 1:36:49

1:37:12 The only way we're ever going to have a direct perception of emptiness in meditation is if we can get deep enough in our meditation. Meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:12 Highlight the passage at 1:37:12

1:37:22 To have that direct perception of emptiness. So we have to be able to meditate, they say, between one and two hours a day to be able to even reach that state of meditation. One more really quick. So is there like a book I can find that describes these five paths? I'll mention them. I'll mention them later when we get to the path of seeing. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:22 Highlight the passage at 1:37:22

1:37:48 That's it, huh? wow Wow. Okay, well, why don't we take a five-minute break? Report an error in the passage at 1:37:48 Highlight the passage at 1:37:48

1:37:57 Oh, and you know what your roll is now that it's been found. Thank Report an error in the passage at 1:37:57 Highlight the passage at 1:37:57

1:38:12 you. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:12 Highlight the passage at 1:38:12

1:38:22 All right. All right. It's like the little, yeah. Okay, so, no, I borrowed David's. So in front of you, you should have, you can go ahead and hand these out. I want to make sure, see how we're doing with them. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:22 Highlight the passage at 1:38:22

1:38:44 So what you're getting is the binder of readings. We couldn't afford one with a pocket on the inside, so you just have to be careful when you put your things in it. And then you should also have a homework for tonight's class and a syllabus for the whole class, which of course I have the right to change if I want to. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:44 Highlight the passage at 1:38:44

1:39:07 So there. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:07 Highlight the passage at 1:39:07

1:39:11 And some of the readings and then also my email address for people who might not have it. And some upcoming retreats and teachings that are happening that I felt like were related to emptiness. Last week we talked about the fact that I am the first, but this term or this in the next couple of months. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:11 Highlight the passage at 1:39:11

1:39:37 Well, actually, probably Geshels will go on sometime, but we're going to have three different classes on emptiness going on simultaneously at Seichen Ling. This is the Discovering Buddhism class on emptiness, and then on Tuesday nights, which will be the next one that comes in, that's April 24th, Emily Hsu will be teaching on Special Insight 12th? Report an error in the passage at 1:39:37 Highlight the passage at 1:39:37

1:40:01 I thought it was 24th. All right, there you go. Tuesday night, and that's an earlier time at 6.30 to 8.30, slightly earlier time. And then Geshe-la is returning from India next Monday. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:01 Highlight the passage at 1:40:01

1:40:17 He is going to finish the concentration chapter of Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, which he's almost finished with in April. Then in May, he's going to start the ninth chapter, which is the chapter on emptiness. That will be Wednesday nights, 7 to 9. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:17 Highlight the passage at 1:40:17

1:40:39 He's taught this emptiness chapter before, but we've never had as brilliant a translator as we currently do. um and that's um gonna that'll be the first Report an error in the passage at 1:40:39 Highlight the passage at 1:40:39

1:40:47 Fully trained in her own right to teach the course, Ziggy. So she'll be translating while Geshe-la attempts to teach us about emptiness. So I would highly recommend, even if you can't make all of those, to just... Sit in on some of them just to check out some of the amazing teachers that we have here. Then Friday night, if you're finding that you need a little grounding in bodhicitta, we have the bodhisattva vows class that just started last week. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:47 Highlight the passage at 1:40:47

1:41:17 Really primarily for people that have just taken the bodhisattva vows or are about to take the bodhisattva vows or want to take the bodhisattva vows in this life. You can take it if you can study the bodhisattva vows without having taken them yet. It's one of the few sets of vows that you can. But we do have some people in the class who aren't, they just are coming to find out what it's all about and that's fine too. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:17 Highlight the passage at 1:41:17

1:41:46 Okay, so we're going to end the class with a little meditation on impermanence. I'm going to go through it a little faster than probably you will do at home, unless, of course, you're doing it like me first thing in the morning or just racing out the door. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:46 Highlight the passage at 1:41:46

1:42:00 Even the meditation isn't permanent, right? But this will just give you an idea of how impermanence pervades everything. I mean, everything in our life is impermanent, our mind, our body, this class. The coming together of this particular group of people is impermanent. And even things like migraines are impermanent, thankfully. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:00 Highlight the passage at 1:42:00

1:42:29 And I'm with you, sister. Oh, my God. Susan's got a migraine. I am plagued by them myself, those beasties. All right. So just start with finding a meditation posture that you can hold for the next five. We're going to just do a short version of this, five, ten minutes. Most importantly, just keeping your spine extended. If you're in a chair, moving away from the back of the chair so that you don't get too comfy. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:29 Highlight the passage at 1:42:29

1:43:02 Just take a nice, deep belly breath and let it go. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:02 Highlight the passage at 1:43:02

1:43:20 And then, of course, when you're doing this meditation at home, you're going to take some time to calm your mind and to set your motivation, but we're going to hope that you still have some of the motivation that we said at the beginning of the class and that it will carry you through. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:20 Highlight the passage at 1:43:20

1:43:41 So just start with examining your body a little bit, thinking about all the different parts of your body, your legs and arms, head, skin, muscles, organs. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:41 Highlight the passage at 1:43:41

1:44:04 Try to examine them with your mind. Probe them with your mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:04 Highlight the passage at 1:44:04

1:44:15 Visualize their texture, their shape, size, how they interconnect. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:15 Highlight the passage at 1:44:15

1:44:31 And become aware of the changes in your body right now. All the movement. Have every single moment your heart beating, your lungs expanding, contracting, the flow of your blood and Report an error in the passage at 1:44:31 Highlight the passage at 1:44:31

1:44:51 all the energy. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:51 Highlight the passage at 1:44:51

1:45:03 And then move down to a more subtle level of your body, Report an error in the passage at 1:45:03 Highlight the passage at 1:45:03

1:45:14 thinking about the cellular structure, all these living cells that make us up, Report an error in the passage at 1:45:14 Highlight the passage at 1:45:14

1:45:27 the cells coming into being, abiding and disintegrating. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:27 Highlight the passage at 1:45:27

1:45:53 And then think about your mind that we started exploring a little bit tonight. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:53 Highlight the passage at 1:45:53

1:46:02 It's also composed of parts, Report an error in the passage at 1:46:02 Highlight the passage at 1:46:02

1:46:09 thoughts, perceptions, feelings, tumbling one after another, ceaselessly. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:09 Highlight the passage at 1:46:09

1:46:30 Just watch this ever-changing flow of your own mind stream. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:30 Highlight the passage at 1:46:30

1:46:56 And after spending some time looking inside, think about the world that surrounds you. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:56 Highlight the passage at 1:46:56

1:47:05 Expand your awareness to include just this room, the seat you're sitting on, the walls, the ceiling. All these objects, the tankas, the statues, each Report an error in the passage at 1:47:05 Highlight the passage at 1:47:05

1:47:32 one of these is also just a mass of these tiny particles coming into and moving out of existence, even though they seem solid and permanent. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:32 Highlight the passage at 1:47:32

1:48:07 And then keep expanding your awareness to include this building and Report an error in the passage at 1:48:07 Highlight the passage at 1:48:07

1:48:17 the streets outside, all the cars, buses, trucks. The trees, the animals, the people, Report an error in the passage at 1:48:17 Highlight the passage at 1:48:17

1:48:33 the ground itself, Report an error in the passage at 1:48:33 Highlight the passage at 1:48:33

1:48:39 the ocean, the bridge, Report an error in the passage at 1:48:39 Highlight the passage at 1:48:39

1:48:44 the city itself, Report an error in the passage at 1:48:44 Highlight the passage at 1:48:44

1:48:49 the mountains, keep expanding. Every one of these things is made up of these tiny particles moving into and going out of existence, constantly changing. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:49 Highlight the passage at 1:48:49

1:49:23 And if at any point during the meditation you find yourself sort of being struck by the impermanence of things, that feeling, that experience, Report an error in the passage at 1:49:23 Highlight the passage at 1:49:23

1:49:34 Stop the meditation and try to hold on to that experience. Place your attention there as long as you can. In other words, do stabilizing meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:34 Highlight the passage at 1:49:34

1:49:49 And then when you get distracted, then you continue with the analysis, letting your mind explore your immediate surroundings, your greater surroundings, the whole environment, even the whole planet and the impermanence of that planet. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:49 Highlight the passage at 1:49:49

1:50:20 And then you just end the meditation by thinking about how Unrealistic it is to hold on to things the way we do, grasping at them as though they were permanent, being shocked when things break or change. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:20 Highlight the passage at 1:50:20

1:50:47 Whatever is beautiful or pleasing to us will change, so there's no reason to grasp at it to give us lasting happiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:47 Highlight the passage at 1:50:47

1:51:01 But whatever is unpleasant or disturbing will also change, so there's less and less reason for us to get. Upset or angry. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:01 Highlight the passage at 1:51:01

1:51:34 With a dedication, Report an error in the passage at 1:51:34 Highlight the passage at 1:51:34

1:51:39 may whatever insights, understandings or seeds were planted tonight take us all the way to full enlightenment so that we can perfectly benefit all living beings without exception, including ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:39 Highlight the passage at 1:51:39

1:52:12 Okay, thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:12 Highlight the passage at 1:52:12

1:52:20 You got another one? you get two? Well, yeah. Good. Good. No, no, I think there's enough. So did everybody get the homework and the syllabus and a copy of the reading? I mean, those who want a copy of the reading. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:20 Highlight the passage at 1:52:20

1:52:44 You did? Yes. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:44 Highlight the passage at 1:52:44

1:52:53 So everybody got it? No, Phil? Report an error in the passage at 1:52:53 Highlight the passage at 1:52:53

1:52:59 See, you have to do twice as much, Phil. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:59 Highlight the passage at 1:52:59

1:53:06 That's good. -ha-ha-ha! Report an error in the passage at 1:53:06 Highlight the passage at 1:53:06

1:53:08 Did you get the reading though, Phil? Okay. So we don't need to make any extra? Oh. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:08 Highlight the passage at 1:53:08

1:53:20 Well, you guys can share it because you live in the same house. All right. Thanks, you guys. And if you have any time to help clean up the room, that's great. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:20 Highlight the passage at 1:53:20

1:53:34 Oh, actually, should I mention, do we want anybody this weekend to help cleaning, to clean the center? If anybody wants – has any time to give this weekend to prepare for – Geshe-la is returning on Monday. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:34 Highlight the passage at 1:53:34