Discovering Buddhism: Integration Experiences

0:05 With this extra point of I want what you have, aspiration. And Report an error in the passage at 0:05 Highlight the passage at 0:05

0:14 then those of you that know the mantra, I can sing the mantra too. Om Namo Manju Shriye Namo Shriye Namo Bhut Namo Shriye Report an error in the passage at 0:14 Highlight the passage at 0:14

0:39 Satsang with Report an error in the passage at 0:39 Highlight the passage at 0:39

0:47 Manji Shriye Namo Namo Report an error in the passage at 0:47 Highlight the passage at 0:47

1:20 Hi, welcome. You have a new face. Welcome. I Report an error in the passage at 1:20 Highlight the passage at 1:20

1:32 like operatic noise. Someone just training her voice as she's walking. That's great. Report an error in the passage at 1:32 Highlight the passage at 1:32

1:45 It's cool for a minute, but maybe not for the whole day. Report an error in the passage at 1:45 Highlight the passage at 1:45

1:52 All right. Well, my name's Chokyi. Most of you know that. Report an error in the passage at 1:52 Highlight the passage at 1:52

2:00 And this is, I should say, in the Discovering Buddhism program, there are actually 14 modules but only 13 classes. And the 14th class or the 14th module doesn't have a class around it, but I sort of created a class around it. It has to do with these practices. but, Report an error in the passage at 2:00 Highlight the passage at 2:00

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:29 I'm calling them integration experiences or integration practices. And we'll talk about what they mean, what they are and how they're used traditionally and how we can use them to deepen our practice. Report an error in the passage at 2:29 Highlight the passage at 2:29

2:44 And so in the Discovering Buddhism program, if you are doing the Discovering Buddhism program for credit, this 14th module actually... Has the element of doing 100,000 of certain things, 100,000 frustrations, 100,000 Vasya Sattva mantras, mostly in retreat, I think. Report an error in the passage at 2:44 Highlight the passage at 2:44

3:10 And we'll talk about why they would even think about suggesting such an outrageous thing in this day and age. But this class and a couple of classes that will follow it. Report an error in the passage at 3:10 Highlight the passage at 3:10

3:25 These are sort of my attempt to give you some context as to decide whether or not you want to do that, whether or not you want to try taking on one of these practices as a daily basis, a daily practice, or to do it in retreat. And so I sort of just created these because I felt like to tell somebody to do 100,000 prostrations without telling them what it meant seemed slightly interesting to me. Report an error in the passage at 3:25 Highlight the passage at 3:25

3:51 So in this day what we'll do is we'll talk about, this morning we'll talk about these practices which are called Nundro in Tibetan or preliminary practices and translate it into English. Report an error in the passage at 3:51 Highlight the passage at 3:51

4:07 We'll talk about this whole concept of purification, what it is, what we're purifying, why we want to purify, when we know when we should purify like that. And then we'll also specifically learn a couple of these practices, the two main ones being Vajrasattva practice, which is this deity over Charlotte's head. Report an error in the passage at 4:07 Highlight the passage at 4:07

4:31 So she can begin her purification right now. Report an error in the passage at 4:31 Highlight the passage at 4:31

4:38 And prostrations. We're actually going to end the day with prostrations. And part of the reasoning is because my... um um Report an error in the passage at 4:38 Highlight the passage at 4:38

4:48 My throat and my lungs may not last out and I figured right after we did the prostrations we could all just collapse and go home rather than having to summon up and have to continue. I thought it would be good. Also I tend to do better in the afternoon these days. This is just like a week long I've had this cold but it tends to do better in the afternoon so I figured I'd be at my strongest. Report an error in the passage at 4:48 Highlight the passage at 4:48

5:11 So we're just going to start with a little meditation and motivation and then we'll do opening prayer. But first we're just going to quiet the mind a little bit. And the Report an error in the passage at 5:11 Highlight the passage at 5:11

5:28 cushion seems to be sort of hanging off the side. There we go. Report an error in the passage at 5:28 Highlight the passage at 5:28

5:37 So just get comfortable on your cushion. Find your posture. I've got two things with Kleenex. If anybody else needs a Kleenex, I'm willing to share. Report an error in the passage at 5:37 Highlight the passage at 5:37

5:52 Just find your posture. If you've never meditated before, which I don't think is the case for anyone in here. The main thing is just to keep your spine extended. If you're sitting on a chair, just to sit away from the back of the chair just so that you don't get too comfy, especially if you're drowsy, having your feet flat on the floor. Report an error in the passage at 5:52 Highlight the passage at 5:52

6:17 If you're on a cushion, you can have your legs in whatever position feels good for you, stable and not too, you know, contorted. Report an error in the passage at 6:17 Highlight the passage at 6:17

6:34 Your shoulders, you can kind of roll. Out any tension you might feel and then we just kind of roll them back a little bit, being aware that they're level. One side's not up, the other side down. Report an error in the passage at 6:34 Highlight the passage at 6:34

6:53 The chin is tucked just a little bit under. You can decide what that means for you. If you're drowsy at all, it's best not to tuck it too far down. And if you have a lot of mental excitement, it's good not to have it too far back. Report an error in the passage at 6:53 Highlight the passage at 6:53

7:20 The eyes are open and unfocused off the end of your nose. You Report an error in the passage at 7:20 Highlight the passage at 7:20

7:31 can again decide what level they're open. Report an error in the passage at 7:31 Highlight the passage at 7:31

7:39 Your jaw and mouth are relaxed. Your tongue is on the roof of your mouth, behind your front teeth but not touching. Report an error in the passage at 7:39 Highlight the passage at 7:39

7:51 And that allows your mouth to stay moist without having to swallow so much. And Report an error in the passage at 7:51 Highlight the passage at 7:51

8:02 in this tradition we usually have our hands in our lap, right over left, thumbs touching lightly, either holding them at a level. Just below your navel or just resting them in your lap. Report an error in the passage at 8:02 Highlight the passage at 8:02

8:29 And then the final element is your breath. We're going to start with just focusing on our breath for a few moments. So just allow your breathing to be relaxed, unforced. You don't have to change it. You're just going to focus all of your awareness on one spot, either the level of your belly as it fills up and empties. Report an error in the passage at 8:29 Highlight the passage at 8:29

8:58 Or your chest or a little patch of skin inside your nostril. Just the sensation of the air passing over and passing back out. Report an error in the passage at 8:58 Highlight the passage at 8:58

9:12 And just focus all of your awareness on that breath. It's almost like there's nothing else except that breath. You actually become that breath. And all the sounds of the city around us, the sounds of the center, craziness in our own minds, none of that has any real power. Report an error in the passage at 9:12 Highlight the passage at 9:12

9:38 If our minds get distracted, we just gently extract them and place them back on the object, which is the breath. Just as many times as it takes. And if it helps, you can count from 1 to 10 and then just start over. Report an error in the passage at 9:38 Highlight the passage at 9:38

10:01 So we'll start with a few rounds. Report an error in the passage at 10:01 Highlight the passage at 10:01

· · · silence, 5 minutes

14:43 I'm starting to relax. Report an error in the passage at 14:43 Highlight the passage at 14:43

14:48 We can start thinking about our motivation for being here today. We Report an error in the passage at 14:48 Highlight the passage at 14:48

15:04 start looking at the situation that we're in. Report an error in the passage at 15:04 Highlight the passage at 15:04

15:13 A mixture of very bad and very good. Report an error in the passage at 15:13 Highlight the passage at 15:13

15:22 The fact that the Buddha figured out how to get enlightened 2,600 years ago almost, but we're still slugging it out, isn't all that heartening. Report an error in the passage at 15:22 Highlight the passage at 15:22

15:43 If we begin to buy into the fact that we've had many, many lifetimes before this one, we've probably met up with these teachings before and we haven't been able to use them all the way to get enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 15:43 Highlight the passage at 15:43

16:08 We have the methods, we have the teachers, we have the inclination. All of that's great. And we've probably had that before. Report an error in the passage at 16:08 Highlight the passage at 16:08

16:21 But we're still here. Totally controlled by our ignorance and what that ignorance gives birth to. All the myriad of emotions and feelings and negative states of mind like anger, jealousy, frustration, impatience. Report an error in the passage at 16:21 Highlight the passage at 16:21

16:54 So if we just keep following along. All we get is dissatisfaction and suffering. Report an error in the passage at 16:54 Highlight the passage at 16:54

17:08 So what can we do? None of us is getting any younger. Our lives are running out. Report an error in the passage at 17:08 Highlight the passage at 17:08

17:20 What can we do to make this life the most meaningful of all, more meaningful than any of the other lives we've already lived? What Report an error in the passage at 17:20 Highlight the passage at 17:20

17:31 can we do to really integrate the Buddha's teachings into our lives and our hearts right now and make the changes that we know we want to make? Report an error in the passage at 17:31 Highlight the passage at 17:31

17:46 We've had the amazing good fortune to meet the Dharma, to meet the teachings of the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 17:46 Highlight the passage at 17:46

17:55 We found a center and sometimes centers. We have great teachers. And Report an error in the passage at 17:55 Highlight the passage at 17:55

18:04 we also have some interest in making this life meaningful. So Report an error in the passage at 18:04 Highlight the passage at 18:04

18:13 this class is designed to show us how to take these teachings into the field, to test our beliefs, to go deeper, Report an error in the passage at 18:13 Highlight the passage at 18:13

18:29 to take it below the neck, as one of my friends says. Take it more into our hearts and our minds and our lives. This class will help us clear the obstacles. that we have that prevent us from practicing. Report an error in the passage at 18:29 Highlight the passage at 18:29

18:47 May each Report an error in the passage at 18:47 Highlight the passage at 18:47

18:52 of Report an error in the passage at 18:52 Highlight the passage at 18:52

19:02 us, whatever we gain, whatever insights, may we each be able to put them into practice and make this life meaningful. Work with our minds. Use all this amazing opportunity that we have and put these teachings into effect. Increase our capacity more and more to help others. And as Lama Zopa Rinpoche always says, by the way, bring ourselves into lasting happiness as well. Report an error in the passage at 19:02 Highlight the passage at 19:02

19:56 End your meditation and we'll start with an opening prayer. In Report an error in the passage at 19:56 Highlight the passage at 19:56

20:16 the white prayer book in front of you on page 8, Report an error in the passage at 20:16 Highlight the passage at 20:16

20:33 for those of us that were in Pennsylvania, this one has a special meaning. His Holiness uses this a lot. Public gatherings as a way for those of us who have already taken bodhisattva vows to redetermine to use our lives for others and for those who haven't made that determination to make it for the first time. Report an error in the passage at 20:33 Highlight the passage at 20:33

21:00 So we'll do it three times. 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 to dispel the miseries of the world. Report an error in the passage at 21:00 Highlight the passage at 21:00

21:36 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 to 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 with the wish to free all beings. Report an error in the passage at 21:36 Highlight the passage at 21:36

22:14 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. Report an error in the passage at 22:14 Highlight the passage at 22:14

22:43 And dispel the miseries of the world. Report an error in the passage at 22:43 Highlight the passage at 22:43

22:59 So here we are. Report an error in the passage at 22:59 Highlight the passage at 22:59

23:07 Handier. Report an error in the passage at 23:07 Highlight the passage at 23:07

23:18 So in Tibetan Buddhism, there are these things that you might hear the term nundro. And it translates sort of roughly into preliminary practices. Report an error in the passage at 23:18 Highlight the passage at 23:18

23:34 There's also a set of practices called jorcho, which are also sometimes translated as preliminary practices. And so I like to translate them differently just because. I think there's confusion. The Giorgio practices are what we do before a meditation. Remember Geshe-la taught those over a course of Sundays not so long ago and is now teaching them at Gawagadzo Center. Report an error in the passage at 23:34 Highlight the passage at 23:34

24:01 And so those are things like, you know, starting with your offerings on the altar and doing your prostrations and doing the seven limb prayer and things like that. Actually, it begins with cleaning the room. That's where I get hung up. Then I start cleaning the room and then I never get to the practice. So those are the things that we do on a daily basis before we sit down and meditate, which fortunately I don't make you guys all clean the room before we get started. Report an error in the passage at 24:01 Highlight the passage at 24:01

24:29 Maybe that would be a good way to start. Maybe that's what we'll do one Saturday. We'll spend the first hour just cleaning the room and then sit down. So those are different kind of preliminary practice. So I call those preparatory practices just to differentiate the two. But Nundro, preliminary practices, I think truly are talking about preliminary to doing more advanced practices. Report an error in the passage at 24:29 Highlight the passage at 24:29

24:58 In other words, entering Tantra, studying the higher levels of the teachings. You do them before something else. And so you could also say, and I think it's probably almost better to call them foundation practices. Because I think if we think their preliminary is something more juicy, we won't really give them all the attention that we might want to give them. And for most of us, we'll probably be doing these for the rest of our lives. Report an error in the passage at 24:58 Highlight the passage at 24:58

25:27 So if we think, oh, I've got to get them done so I can get on to the great stuff, then you're sort of, as Rubina always says, venerable Rubina always says, you're missing the plot. You've missed the plot entirely. Report an error in the passage at 25:27 Highlight the passage at 25:27

25:42 And instead, like everything else, they're just a way of working with our minds. And I think they're a really skillful means. I think they're a really skillful way of working with our minds. Report an error in the passage at 25:42 Highlight the passage at 25:42

25:52 Because it's a way, for those of us that work with our minds in various ways, like more kinesthetic ways, so you're using your body too, it's sometimes more effective to do something. Report an error in the passage at 25:52 Highlight the passage at 25:52

26:13 Physical as a way of working with your mind. So if you're doing water bowls, for example, all the various aspects of doing the water bowl practice is working with your mind. But you start by doing things with your hands and your body and you're putting them in a certain order and you're filling them in a certain way and you're remembering certain things as you do certain parts of that practice. Report an error in the passage at 26:13 Highlight the passage at 26:13

26:37 So for some of us that are quite... That kind of energy, it's great. I mean, it kind of pulls us in and we learn. And prostrations are the same way. Prostrations are all about working with your mind. But, oh, by the way, you get to throw your body on the ground and do all these various things with your body. And they very much wake you up. Report an error in the passage at 26:37 Highlight the passage at 26:37

26:57 So if you do them before you sit down to meditate, for example, or before a session if you're in retreat. They can also really wake you up. But that's not their purpose. And their purpose isn't to make us really buff. But they kind of can have that side effect if you're doing them on a regular basis. Report an error in the passage at 26:57 Highlight the passage at 26:57

27:17 Their real purpose is to work on your mind. So all of these practices really are about working on our minds. And it's very interesting. If you are doing a lot of any one practice, For example, frustrations or any purification practice. You just go deeper and deeper and deeper into it. If you do it on a daily basis, it sort of colors your whole daily life. Report an error in the passage at 27:17 Highlight the passage at 27:17

27:42 If you do it in retreat, of course, it's more intense. It's much more intense to do it in a retreat. Report an error in the passage at 27:42 Highlight the passage at 27:42

27:52 So foundation practices. So we're building a foundation for the rest of our... We're building a foundation for the rest of our study and for our whole path to enlightenment, without which, of course, it's just going to crumble and not be very strong. It's the first big crisis that we hit. We'll just give the whole thing up, which unfortunately people do. So in the Galuk tradition, which this center is a part of, we have nine of these preliminary practices. Report an error in the passage at 27:52 Highlight the passage at 27:52

28:24 And you usually do, traditionally, in any... With any Lama other than Lama Zopa Rinpoche, you tend to do about 100,000 of everything. I say about because they usually have you do like a buffer for all the ones that you do badly, you know, or the ones that you were like spaced out and you have to do like extra ones. Report an error in the passage at 28:24 Highlight the passage at 28:24

28:43 So it's 100,000 of prostrations, of Vajrasattva practice, of refuge as a practice. So we've talked before in other classes about refuge, but this would be refuge as a practice. Report an error in the passage at 28:43 Highlight the passage at 28:43

28:59 Mandala, you know, if you've seen people with the big mandala sets, you know, and doing, again, it looks like it's a bunch of stuff you're doing, but the reality is what's going on in your mind. If you're doing it the way I often am in morning puja, thinking about what I'm going to have for breakfast, it's not really going to get me anywhere. It may look really cool if you're watching me, but it's not going to do what it's supposed to do. Report an error in the passage at 28:59 Highlight the passage at 28:59

29:24 Guru yoga mantra, water bowls. Report an error in the passage at 29:24 Highlight the passage at 29:24

29:32 And again, it's a practice. Satsas. Satsas are... Does everybody know what satsas are? Satsas are... Do you want to get one, Karen? They're right in the middle. My lovely assistant just arrived. They're little tiny images of the Buddha. I don't think we have one on these altars. They're little tiny images of the Buddha that you make traditionally out of clay. Report an error in the passage at 29:32 Highlight the passage at 29:32

30:04 Yeah, really. Don't get too close. Little tiny images of the Buddha that traditionally were made just with a mold and clay and they would just dissolve. You just leave them outside and they would dissolve. And then we started getting really highfalutin in the West and we started making them with this substance that lasts for a very long time. Report an error in the passage at 30:04 Highlight the passage at 30:04

30:28 Probably way longer than us. But we still place them outside. And now actually there's a satsa studio, there's a place, a studio where you can actually go and make them. It used to be right around the corner from here and I still never used it. Report an error in the passage at 30:28 Highlight the passage at 30:28

30:44 But Venimal Manlam, who is Geshele's attendant, actually started satsa studio because he got 400,000 satsas to do. So he decided, well, why not make a whole business of it to help him and other students who needed to do it create these. And so he did that, but now he no longer runs it. Deirdre Frank runs it. Report an error in the passage at 30:44 Highlight the passage at 30:44

31:09 Dorji Kadro fire puja offerings, which we'll talk about in a minute too. That's another purification practice. Did anybody come on any of the days that I did Dorji Kadro? You did? Okay. We do it on New Year's, or we did it last year on New Year's. It was totally fun. We do it in the karma class. I think I just did it on a holy day last time on Sakadawa. Report an error in the passage at 31:09 Highlight the passage at 31:09

31:34 I can't remember. Anyway, we just pick a time when we think people might be interested because I can actually do it in a really small way just on the front porch. It's a lot of fun at the beach, though, like with a big fire. So on New Year's Day, we actually went to the beach, and that was a lot of fun. I'll do it again next New Year's if you're in town. Report an error in the passage at 31:34 Highlight the passage at 31:34

31:56 That's great because you're throwing your crap into a fire. There's nothing more satisfying than throwing your crap into a fire. Report an error in the passage at 31:56 Highlight the passage at 31:56

32:04 Again, though, you're working on your mind, even though you get to do all the physical stuff. So that's nine. Did you get all nine, Cedric? You were writing them down? Prostrations, Vajrasattva, Refuge, Mandala, Guru Yoga, Water Bowls, Satsas, Dorji Kadro. Oh, I'm sorry. Samaya Vajra. Damci, Dorje in Tibetan. Samaya Vajra mantras. Which is another, and that one's like a purification of... Report an error in the passage at 32:04 Highlight the passage at 32:04

32:32 Specifically in relationship, your relationship with your teachers and your gurus. Report an error in the passage at 32:32 Highlight the passage at 32:32

32:40 So all of them, all of them act to purify. And most of them also simultaneously act to accumulate merit. Some of them are sort of heavier on the purification and some of them are heavier on accumulation of merit. Report an error in the passage at 32:40 Highlight the passage at 32:40

32:57 Vajrasafra and Dorji Kadro and Samaya Vajra, for example, are all much heavier on purification. And if we don't do these, if we don't take the time to do them and to do them as well as we can, then we won't have accumulated, we won't have cleared the obstacles and accumulated enough merit to actually understand the higher practices. Report an error in the passage at 32:57 Highlight the passage at 32:57

33:24 So either we'll just be sort of useless vessels for the teaching or worse, we'll think the teachings don't work and so we'll lose faith. And then we'll just start telling everybody else around us that they don't work and that I've been doing this for 45 years and I've never seen any changes. So it'll actually become worse. Report an error in the passage at 33:24 Highlight the passage at 33:24

33:45 It's almost worse than it not working is you blaming the teachings for it. So we have to do things, we have to do practices that actually make us become more worthy vessels. And that's what these practices are about. For the most part, most of us at this point, Report an error in the passage at 33:45 Highlight the passage at 33:45

34:08 See them as lifetime practices. I think traditionally you would have done them all in a relatively short number of years and then moved on and done your higher practices. And most of us live busy lives and work and live in cities and blah, blah, blah. And we don't get to getting them all done in a timely fashion. Report an error in the passage at 34:08 Highlight the passage at 34:08

34:30 So I just sort of tend to think of them as life practices, and I do them simultaneous with the study. But I can definitely see if you take time out, even just to do a short retreat, like what I consider a short retreat, like a month-long retreat, and just really focus on sort of, you know. Putting a little Drano into the pipes and getting as purified as you can, like doing a number of these practices for a while. Then you come back and study and your ability to retain things is really significantly increased. Report an error in the passage at 34:30 Highlight the passage at 34:30

35:02 It's very interesting. Or if you do a series of Nunez, for example, too, which is a really intense purification retreat. So there is a definite correlation. It's not just to make you do a lot of hard things. Report an error in the passage at 35:02 Highlight the passage at 35:02

35:18 A lot of hard, odd things that you've never heard of from some weird other culture. There is a purpose to them and they are to help you transform your mind. You know, we use this phrase a lot, transforming the mind. And that's really what it's about, is sort of clearing the old heavy blocks and obstacles, the sludges, a sludge from our sort of daily life, the ordinary way that we look at life, which is actually incorrect. Report an error in the passage at 35:18 Highlight the passage at 35:18

35:46 correct the Buddha said um It's clearing out some of the old crap so that any new insights have a place to land. It's like preparing the field before you plant. So we're preparing the field of our mind before we plant. Otherwise the new seeds don't have any place to take root and they just sort of fall on this hardened soil and it just sort of... Report an error in the passage at 35:46 Highlight the passage at 35:46

36:11 Or they may sit there for 30 years and then... Conditions are better and then they take root. But we want them to ripen as quickly as possible. So it allows that to happen. It's like adding the fertilizer to the field, just to keep that analogy going. Report an error in the passage at 36:11 Highlight the passage at 36:11

36:30 So if you were doing the Discovering Buddhism program for credit, meaning to get a certificate, The ones that are the 14th module, the required practices in the 14th module are 100,000 Vajrasattva mantras, 100,000 prostrations to 35 Buddhas, a two-week lamrim retreat. Report an error in the passage at 36:30 Highlight the passage at 36:30

36:58 And so actually in October, I'll do a little Saturday morning, not a full day, but a Saturday morning on how to set up a retreat and what does retreat mean and like that. So to continue that. Report an error in the passage at 36:58 Highlight the passage at 36:58

37:13 And three Nunye purification retreats, so I'll talk about that as well at that time. And they also suggest that it's really good to do pilgrimage. Report an error in the passage at 37:13 Highlight the passage at 37:13

37:24 And so we're going to ask when we're being out, she's going to lead her own pilgrimage this year, which she doesn't always do. So when she gets back in the fall, like probably in December, we'll have her come and just talk about why do you do pilgrimage? What's the purpose of pilgrimage? So she'll finish. Report an error in the passage at 37:24 Highlight the passage at 37:24

37:42 Our little integration experiences package with that one. And all of them have to do with purification and all of obstacles and negative karma. And all of them have to do with accumulating merit. Report an error in the passage at 37:42 Highlight the passage at 37:42

38:03 So Report an error in the passage at 38:03 Highlight the passage at 38:03

38:07 then we think about what does that mean to purify? What are obstacles? What are obscurations? You hear these different terms. Obstacles, obscurations, blocks. Report an error in the passage at 38:07 Highlight the passage at 38:07

38:21 Wrong view. And all of them are formed by karma. We're going to get into exactly what karma is at least a little bit for people who haven't studied it so that everybody at least has the same amount of information as to why. But karma, if we create negative karma, which we do all the time, unfortunately, just due to habit, negative karma. Report an error in the passage at 38:21 Highlight the passage at 38:21

38:52 It's what causes all these different blocks and obscurations. It also causes the really good stuff. It also causes everything that's wonderful. The fact that we have the center and that we have a number of great teachers here, which is amazing. There are many, many places in the world that it's really hard to find a Buddhist center and that if you can, then it's like they might have tapes and things that you listen to or something. Report an error in the passage at 38:52 Highlight the passage at 38:52

39:18 I mean, we're really, really blessed. And then we have not only this, but all the other things that are happening in this area. So all of that is a result of our good karma. So we get good stuff out of karma too. So karma is positive as well as negative. Karma simply means action. And the results, in this case, it's the resultant. It's the action that we create when we, you know, have any kind of thought or do any kind of speech or do any kind of action. Report an error in the passage at 39:18 Highlight the passage at 39:18

39:46 And then it's also that result. How that seed that we plant, you know, manifests. And so we'll talk a little bit about what karma is. So these practices are meant to sort of clean the windows of this, you know, house that we're in. And they say that, you know, get rid of all these kind of built up, you know. Report an error in the passage at 39:46 Highlight the passage at 39:46

40:16 sledginess. Sledginess that keeps us from having any kind of longer view or gaining any insights or making any progress on our path. And they say that at least once in our lives, it's really good to just make time to do like a really good clean, like a really thorough purification. And then it just becomes like maintenance. But you might also find that you need to do it from time to time rather than... Report an error in the passage at 40:16 Highlight the passage at 40:16

40:44 Just do one and then all purification, all maintenance. But they say that to take a time to do like a three-month purification retreat is really, really good. Because remember that we're purifying from not just this lifetime, but all of our lifetimes up until this point, which is a huge leap for most of us. Report an error in the passage at 40:44 Highlight the passage at 40:44

41:04 But often I'll hear, and from Buddhists as well, when am I going to stop purifying? When does all this purification end? Especially for those of us who are purifying at a kind of heavy rate all the time. And once you start, if you work and live in a Dharma center, you are purifying at a really high rate all the time. Report an error in the passage at 41:04 Highlight the passage at 41:04

41:26 But you have to keep remembering that, wow, this is like from lifetime after lifetime after lifetime. And I want this out of the way. You know, bring it on. I don't want this crap in my life anymore. I don't want this to keep me from progressing. I don't want this to build up obstacles for me to be able to understand stuff. Report an error in the passage at 41:26 Highlight the passage at 41:26

41:43 So just bring it on, you know. Bring on this flu. Report an error in the passage at 41:43 Highlight the passage at 41:43

41:51 So when they designed the Discovering Buddhism, which is the education department of the FPMT, the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahāyāna Tradition, which is center as a part of. um um Report an error in the passage at 41:51 Highlight the passage at 41:51

42:02 They didn't want to make it just a beginning program to introduce the teachings of the Buddha. They wanted it to give you enough tools in your toolkit so that you would actually achieve a certain level of attainment, spiritual development, which is actually a huge goal for somebody to try to design a program like this. Report an error in the passage at 42:02 Highlight the passage at 42:02

42:26 So they didn't want to dumb it down and make it easier. Because they knew that people would freak out when they, I mean we all freaked out when we heard that 100,000 freshers office was going to be a part of the package. Report an error in the passage at 42:26 Highlight the passage at 42:26

42:41 So they wanted to make it something that was going to actually change our hearts and minds. Those of us that take part in it. Report an error in the passage at 42:41 Highlight the passage at 42:41

42:52 And you know people come into it in different ways. People come in and do a class here and a class there. That's really the way most people do it. But there are some people that are trying to take it as thoroughly as they can. And for those people, this module was created. Report an error in the passage at 42:52 Highlight the passage at 42:52

43:09 Because sometimes it's like we hear these stories, and we often keep up these stories of when you go in and you talk to Lama Zopa Rinpoche and you ask him for your nundro. If you ever reach that point, you ask your teacher for your nundro. But Lama Zopa is especially big on this. Report an error in the passage at 43:09 Highlight the passage at 43:09

43:25 Because he doesn't choose 100,000 of this or 100,000 of this. He chooses certain practices. Hey, come on in. Sit down. He chooses certain practices specifically. He doesn't necessarily give you all nine. And he gives you different amounts. So like for Refuge, for example, he gave me 8,000. Like some really small number, 8,000. But then on the other scale... Report an error in the passage at 43:25 Highlight the passage at 43:25

43:54 There's no limit to how many. So, like, for example, for Manlam, he gave him 400,000 of the satsas. For one guy I know, he gave him 1.2 million prostrations. And so there's these stories of these people sort of stumbling out of the interview, you know, going, did I hear him right? You know, oh my God, you know, and like freaking out. It's not... Report an error in the passage at 43:54 Highlight the passage at 43:54

44:22 It's not out of any kind of sense of cruelty. He's not doing it to be mean. He is actually seeing, if we believe he is what he seems to be, he's actually seeing where you need additional work and where you don't need as much work, at least not right now, because you can always add them on later. That's another thing to remember. You could think you finish them all and go, okay, and then all of a sudden it's like, well, maybe good to do. Report an error in the passage at 44:22 Highlight the passage at 44:22

44:50 But after we actually go and do these practices, we just realize how incredibly amazing they are. For example, when I went to do my Raja Safra retreat in India, I had no idea what I was doing. I was just like, okay, sure, you said to do a three-month retreat. I'll just show up and I'll just do it. And I had no idea what I was signing myself up for. And it was like the most pivotal thing I've ever done in my life. And I'm incredibly happy I did it. And it was really, really hard. Report an error in the passage at 44:50 Highlight the passage at 44:50

45:25 It was really, really hard work. So if I hadn't been told to do it. If I actually hadn't been assigned it, I'm such a, you know, I sort of trained with the system of like a homework assignment. I had a homework assignment and sort of deadline. He actually had a deadline for that one. It had to be done within a certain amount of time. Then I wouldn't have done it. I just know I wouldn't have done it. So a lot of this is really giving us that extra push that we need, you know, to do the spiritual work that we can often find other things that are not. Report an error in the passage at 45:25 Highlight the passage at 45:25

46:05 Not quite as difficult to do when the going gets tough. So the DB program was never designed to be just an academic program. It was designed to get us onto our paths and progress us on our paths and ultimately to get us out of suffering. It's the same goal as the Buddha had. It's just taught in a way that is accessible for Western ears and eyes and voices and habits. Report an error in the passage at 46:05 Highlight the passage at 46:05

46:34 But the goal is still the same. And so learning these practices are really about helping us learn joyful effort, which is one of the bodhisattvas activities that to be able to do things, to take delight in virtue is actually how joyful effort is defined. Report an error in the passage at 46:34 Highlight the passage at 46:34

46:56 Enthusiasm. Sometimes it's translated as that's all we have to add to these practices. The practices are there. They're clear. They are proven. And then we just sort of have to add our effort to the mix and, you know, maybe a few lifetimes. Report an error in the passage at 46:56 Highlight the passage at 46:56

47:15 And we get a good result. So this is where this whole module of the integration experiences came about. It was to take it to the next level. We can learn about all that, you know, as you go through the discovery, those of you who are familiar with the Discovering Buddhism program, you know, you study the mind, you study karma, you learn how to meditate, you study refuge, you study the various points of the lamrim along the path. Report an error in the passage at 47:15 Highlight the passage at 47:15

47:45 And then in this module, you sort of take it to the streets, you bring it into your heart and your mind in a really profound way. Report an error in the passage at 47:45 Highlight the passage at 47:45

47:56 Level, practice level that the other classes don't you don't really have time for. Report an error in the passage at 47:56 Highlight the passage at 47:56

48:05 So the two activities that I've been talking about, accumulating merit and purification, accumulating merit and when to do them, you know, sort of when when in your practice you decide, oh, I need to I need more merit. And when when you decide, oh, my God, I need to go purify for a while or start doing a purification practice. Report an error in the passage at 48:05 Highlight the passage at 48:05

48:26 Accumulating merit is usually, and merit is simply positive karma that we are sort of earmarking for enlightenment. That's really all merit is. So when our practice feels like it's sort of running out of steam or running out of gas, then our petrol. Report an error in the passage at 48:26 Highlight the passage at 48:26

48:50 That's usually when we kind of need a little bit more merit making. So if it kind of feels like it's gone and you just need a little bit more infusion, that's when you should do some merit-making stuff. And we always, of course, have many things for you to do if you can't think of one on your own. You don't have to do formal practice. Report an error in the passage at 48:50 Highlight the passage at 48:50

49:13 You can also, if you just help another, you know, any other person, old lady across the street, you know. You can help them with this and just dedicate it to your enlightenment, and that's making merit. So you don't have to do a formal practice to make merit. Of course, any time you help out at the center is making merit. Report an error in the passage at 49:13 Highlight the passage at 49:13

49:33 So we did a mailing last night, and that was making merit for those people who joined in. Any way that you can help out here, any way that you help any of your teachers is also making merit. Report an error in the passage at 49:33 Highlight the passage at 49:33

49:49 And any way, you know, buying them socks. It's a great way too. It doesn't need to be any sort of large way, although of course large ways are great too if you have the means. And of course any of the traditional practices. And of the ones that I mentioned, the mandala especially is accumulating merit. Water bowl offerings is also accumulating merit. And if anybody ever wants to learn it and be a regular water bowl volunteer at the center, Please talk to me at lunch. I just lost a day. Somebody just gave up a day, so I definitely have been needing somebody. Report an error in the passage at 49:49 Highlight the passage at 49:49

50:26 And purification practice is when it feels like you're trying really hard. Like you've got the energy, you've got the inclination, but your mind just seems kind of dark or blocked. You're not, you know, like if you're studying and you're not getting it. You know, you've been studying, especially studying the kind of hard, Report an error in the passage at 50:26 Highlight the passage at 50:26

50:49 Well, actually, maybe all the topics become hard when you've got this problem. But like you're studying it and you just keep reading the same paragraph or Geshe-la said it like five different ways and you still don't get it. And, you know, that's a sign for purification. For me, I tend to always have all of these. So I just probably why I became a nun and started working at the center. Report an error in the passage at 50:49 Highlight the passage at 50:49

51:11 But, you know, you can definitely feel when those. When you don't have them, it's just like when your practice is going really well, which I made that joke, but actually you can really feel the difference because you can feel everything starts connecting. Everything you read is connected to what you're studying. Every incident in your life is like reflecting what you're learning from the classes. It's just like popcorn. Report an error in the passage at 51:11 Highlight the passage at 51:11

51:39 It's like everything is just taking off. And that's what we want to get to. But it's not always like that because we have all this built-up karma crap that we have to clear out. And it comes and goes. You hum for a while and then you start getting kind of sluggish and then you hit some blocks. And often the blocks... Report an error in the passage at 51:39 Highlight the passage at 51:39

52:06 I feel like it's just my personality or something like that. Like my own laziness can be a block, but that's considered a block. It's a karmic obstacle. Laziness is simply, you know, a negative state of mind that we can actually help clear away. So don't get caught in the idea of I'm just lazy and there's nothing I can do about that because it's all changeable. Report an error in the passage at 52:06 Highlight the passage at 52:06

52:28 Thankfully, that's how we can become a Buddha. so So the one we're focusing on more today is purification. Maybe a little bit later in the fall we'll do ones that are more about accumulating merit. Report an error in the passage at 52:28 Highlight the passage at 52:28

52:44 And Lama Yeshe, there's a great quote in his book. I think this one came from Becoming Vajrasattva. He talks about how negative karma buildup, which sounds like charter, charter buildup, negative karma buildup can hinder our practice. We often find that when we meditate we encounter many hindrances. We can't understand why it's so difficult to meditate, to control our minds, to gain realizations. Report an error in the passage at 52:44 Highlight the passage at 52:44

53:12 Even an hour's meditation is so difficult. I love that. How about even five minutes? It's not just lack of wisdom. It's that over countless lives the negative energy forces of our body, speech and mind have accumulated such that now they fill us like a vast ocean. If they were in a manifest and physical form, they would occupy all of space. By contrast, our small intellectual knowledge wisdom is as weak as the light of a flickering little candle. Report an error in the passage at 53:12 Highlight the passage at 53:12

53:43 A little candle isn't much help on a dark and windy night. Our tiny candle-like knowledge wisdom can't control or release us from the overwhelming force of our negative mind. Report an error in the passage at 53:43 Highlight the passage at 53:43

53:55 It is the energy of our wrong conceptions, our negative mind, that makes it difficult to actualize the everlasting peaceful path of liberation and to receive realizations. Therefore, we need a powerful purification practice like Vajrasapha to destroy both the energy forces of the ignorant mind and the negative actions of body, speech and mind that arise from it. Report an error in the passage at 53:55 Highlight the passage at 53:55

54:16 So if you ever need it, maybe I should just make this my motivation for every time I do Vajrasapha practice. It's just a reminder of how important it is and how we. We really need this really powerful practice that comes from the Buddha to clear all our negative karma buildup. Because otherwise we just can't progress and we end up blocking ourselves. So we are going to talk about what's called the four opponent powers, which is the power behind any purification practice. Report an error in the passage at 54:16 Highlight the passage at 54:16

54:52 Any purification practice you do at all employs these four opponent powers. And the very beginning of them we start with regret because we first just start thinking about, well I mean there are two ways that you would do a purification practice. One is you've done something that you immediately regret. So regret takes on this importance because otherwise why would we even do that? And the other is because you just do it on a daily basis and so it's time for you to do it. Report an error in the passage at 54:52 Highlight the passage at 54:52

55:21 So you have to be able to remember your reason for doing it. Either way, you know, you have to come back to this regret where you guys all just showed up for the day and so you're going to do a purification practice. But the regret is really, really powerful because if it's going to motivate your whole reason for purifying, it needs to be sincere and it needs to be accurate. Report an error in the passage at 55:21 Highlight the passage at 55:21

55:45 So we're going to spend a little bit of time talking about regret. And I really find that it's useful, especially at the beginning of doing a purification practice and especially for a daily practice, to really be specific. So don't just think... I purify all the horrible things I've ever done in my whole life and everything I did in all the other lives. It's great to throw that in. Report an error in the passage at 55:45 Highlight the passage at 55:45

56:12 Why not? But for it to mean something, it's better to actually think about specific things that you've done. When you first meet Buddhism, it's sort of like all the really horrible things you've done might haunt you a little bit, so maybe get rid of some of them. Report an error in the passage at 56:12 Highlight the passage at 56:12

56:30 As you've purified and you're doing your maintenance work, it's just like, what have I done in the last 48 hours that I really, really regret? And usually no, because usually when you sit down, you start getting one in mind. Or you're sitting down because you have one in mind, like you just screamed at somebody or something. So keep it really specific. And really, one of my teachers said, replay it a few times in your mind, even though it makes you cringe. Report an error in the passage at 56:30 Highlight the passage at 56:30

56:54 Like even though it's like... It's not a pretty picture that you ate an entire cake or you screamed at somebody or you had some mad envy attack or something. Whatever the negative act of your mind or your body that you did, you punched somebody. Whatever the negative act that you did to remember it in some detail. Report an error in the passage at 56:54 Highlight the passage at 56:54

57:26 And Report an error in the passage at 57:26 Highlight the passage at 57:26

57:30 If we can't think of a specific thing, which I can't imagine, I don't think I've ever sat down and couldn't think of something, but if this does happen to you, then you can think about where your life maybe isn't going so great and think about the karmic causes for those problems and purify them. So it's like a sort of a little backward way in. Report an error in the passage at 57:30 Highlight the passage at 57:30

57:56 Because that starts looking at, then you're playing with how karma works. If karma actually helped us create this entire existence that we have, all of the experiences and all of the things that are happening to us come from our karma. If we are having a lot of problems, like I keep losing things, or people keep borrowing things and not giving them back, Report an error in the passage at 57:56 Highlight the passage at 57:56

58:21 You know, people steal my clothes out of the wash or something like that. Like if all these things are related to the same karmic cause, it's all from the act of stealing. So then I would do Vasya Safa really heavily for stealing. Even if I don't remember in this life doing that, I could think of maybe borrowing things and not returning them on time, which is a form of stealing, especially if I start thinking of them as mine. Report an error in the passage at 58:21 Highlight the passage at 58:21

58:45 The minute you think of it as yours, you've stolen it. If you still are thinking, because I asked Ishla this once when he was talking about this one, I said, you know, if I haven't given back a book, but I keep intending to, but I haven't seen the person, I don't know how to reach them. He said, as long as in your mind you're thinking, I'm going to give that book back as soon as I see that person. It's like you haven't in your mind started thinking, you have it like written in the front, Karen. Report an error in the passage at 58:45 Highlight the passage at 58:45

59:11 Please return to. It's still in your mind that you need to give it away, that it's not yours. But the moment that we think that it's ours, then it becomes stealing. So you could do it that way. You could think about where your biggest problems are right now, such as, you know, everyone around me is screaming all the time or people talk to me really gruffly or, you know, people are swearing at me or something like that. Report an error in the passage at 59:11 Highlight the passage at 59:11

59:38 We hear really horrible sounds outside, sirens constantly. All right, maybe we hear a few of them here. That's all harsh speech. So then I would look at my own harsh speech and I could work on purifying that. Like that. We're not going to get into all the correlations. We talk about this more in the karma class. Report an error in the passage at 59:38 Highlight the passage at 59:38

59:57 But this is an idea if you should ever sit down and can't think of a solid thing that you want to purify, then you could back into it a little bit. And it's also a fun thing to do if you have a little space, like on a weekend, whatever your weekend is. Report an error in the passage at 59:57 Highlight the passage at 59:57

1:00:14 Or you just have some time away and you have a little quietness to think about, wow, what areas in my life need a little bit of work? And what could the karmic causes for those problems be? And let me just purify some of those. And to do it with some sincerity over a couple of sessions so that you just kind of take the Drano and get rid of some of that karmic buildup, which we sometimes don't have time in our everyday life. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:14 Highlight the passage at 1:00:14

1:00:44 I think it's really, really powerful to do. And they say with Vajra Safa practice, this is, Geshe-la gave us some teachings on Vajra Safa practice one time, and actually that might be a really fun teaching to have him do again. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:44 Highlight the passage at 1:00:44

1:01:00 He says that this is the fastest and strongest method of purification that you can do, which is pretty powerful, because there are a lot of them out there. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:00 Highlight the passage at 1:01:00

1:01:14 And they say it's because of the power of the mantra and the blessings of this practice. And in this particular lineage, meaning the FPMT lineage, Lama Yeshi was really, really, one of his favorite practices was Vajrasafra practice. And in fact, after he passed away in the 80s, his students did Vajrasafra practice continually around the clock for one year. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:14 Highlight the passage at 1:01:14

1:01:41 It wasn't the same students, clearly. They filled in and they took breaks and stuff. But at one center, they just did one year of Vajrasapha practice. I just think that's so amazing. I'm still so, like even just talking about it kind of gives me a little chills because I think it's so cool. And he had actually requested that before he passed, you know, like on his deathbed. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:41 Highlight the passage at 1:01:41

1:02:01 And here's one more. Oh, how about one more Noondro practice? Um, Which is great because how better to deal with your, I can't even imagine, heartbreaking grief at the loss of your Lama than to throw yourself into this purification retreat for a year. It's so, again, skillful means. So if you are ever interested in doing more serious... Report an error in the passage at 1:02:01 Highlight the passage at 1:02:01

1:02:29 Taking the Vajrasapha practice more seriously and doing it either as a retreat, which I highly recommend, even if you just do a short retreat, or you decide you want to do one of the three-month retreats, which are offered now at least four places in the world that I know of. Kopan Monastery does one over the winter. Tushita Meditation Center in Dharamsala does one over the summer, which is the one that I did. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:29 Highlight the passage at 1:02:29

1:02:59 I just saw that one was going to be offered in New Zealand. They were throwing in Vipassanā too. I don't know how. And Melarepa in Vermont does one over the summer too. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:59 Highlight the passage at 1:02:59

1:03:12 Probably the cushiest of all. um um Lama Yeshe's book is just, you have to have it. You definitely have to get this book and you have to read it and take it with you into retreat. It's just, whether you do a retreat by yourself or whether you go as a group, it's like having Lama there with you the whole time, holding your hand and helping you do the practice and helping you remember as you're complaining about something what it is. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:12 Highlight the passage at 1:03:12

1:03:38 Just the whole time, it's like having him with you. I think they retitled it. It used to be The Tantric Path of Purification and then they reissued it as Becoming Vajrasattva. There's also a book that Lama Zopa Rinpoche issued that's called Teachings from the Vajrasattva Retreat. And it's all sorts of teachings. So not all the teachings are about Vajrasattva but the ones that are about Vajrasattva and that. So that one you might pick and choose. Or if you're going into a three-month retreat, why not bring it? Report an error in the passage at 1:03:38 Highlight the passage at 1:03:38

1:04:11 There's also a little tiny pocketbook on the practice. And then I'm just going to give you a short, easy version of the practice in your binder, which I'm not giving you so that you're not reading it while I'm talking. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:11 Highlight the passage at 1:04:11

1:04:28 So just a little bit about why we do negative acts and why those negative acts create negative karma. They say that the three main... The instigators in our mind of these negative acts and negative karma are what's called the three poisonous minds. And the three poisonous minds are sort of the top three of the negative mental afflictions that we have or afflicted states of mind that we have. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:28 Highlight the passage at 1:04:28

1:04:56 And they're attachment, aversion and ignorance. And you could also call it, as one of my teachers said, liking things ignorantly, disliking things ignorantly and just plain ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:56 Highlight the passage at 1:04:56

1:05:11 Liking things ignorantly, disliking things ignorantly, and ignorance. And in this case, ignorance, just like wisdom, could refer to a lot of different things. But in this case, ignorance is specifically about how we perceive our world, where things come from, how they exist, and how they don't exist. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:11 Highlight the passage at 1:05:11

1:05:36 And the Buddha actually taught that we misperceive our world all the time. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:36 Highlight the passage at 1:05:36

1:05:44 Which aspect? This particular form of ignorance is how things exist, where they come from and where they don't come from and how they don't exist. I like to throw in the negative too. Tibetans are always big on double negatives. So what's really causing the things that make me unhappy and how do I really get to the things that I really want? Report an error in the passage at 1:05:44 Highlight the passage at 1:05:44

1:06:11 How do I really change? How do I change my world? How do I get what I want? Report an error in the passage at 1:06:11 Highlight the passage at 1:06:11

1:06:21 Sorry, we made it pretty far before I had that. My grandma coughed. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:21 Highlight the passage at 1:06:21

1:06:28 I've got several tanks going here. The plain water and then we have the herbal tussin. It's about to explode. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:28 Highlight the passage at 1:06:28

1:06:45 Yeah, I know. Actually, I found it. I had a major coughing fit at Pooja. last week and we sort of all ran into the kitchen to help I mean everybody ran into the kitchen to help and we found a box of this it was just an herbal tea Report an error in the passage at 1:06:45 Highlight the passage at 1:06:45

1:07:04 wait why don't you do it now since i'm having a good this is a great time but you have to use the um the talking stick can somebody make sure that it's actually recording Just rub the little pad. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:04 Highlight the passage at 1:07:04

1:07:24 There you go. And is it talking? All right. Good. Okay. It's on. You don't have to turn it on, but you just have to hold it. Yeah, there you go. Okay. Yeah, just pretending you're a lounge singer. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:24 Highlight the passage at 1:07:24

1:07:38 I was tempted. Can we make a list of regrets, especially if we have a lot and we're older and we have a poor memory? Oh, you mean before you do your practice? For sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was thinking specifically, it's like, well, maybe Mondays work on this and Tuesdays work on that. Sure. Or, yeah, I mean, if you're just going to do a longer session, you might stop for a minute and really think about stuff. I know for me, often my Vajrasapha comes at the very, very end of a very, very long, long day. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:38 Highlight the passage at 1:07:38

1:08:11 And so I just do whatever pops into my mind. But if you have the time, which I like to do, and we will have time today, we can take some time before that and just really think about stuff that we regret and have it in front of us on paper. You know how we did for Dorji Kadro too? Yeah, you write it down on paper for that one. But then you have a place to throw it and here we might just leave it and then somebody would read it and you don't want to do that. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:11 Highlight the passage at 1:08:11

1:08:39 Yeah, writing it down, no problem. Okay, and the second one is, must you do the full practice or can you just do the mantras when we're talking about 100,000? Have to do the four opponent powers. Absolutely, and we will talk about what those powers are. We're going to have a break pretty soon. Have to do all four powers, but you can do them quick. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:39 Highlight the passage at 1:08:39

1:09:04 There's a quickie version. You'll be happy to know, which is great, of all of these. And in fact, you can even do the tiny version of the mantra. I mean, unless you have a commitment to do the hundred syllables. Yeah, it's best to do the hundred syllables. But if you are, for example, at work and you do something and you're like, oh, crap, I just did something. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:04 Highlight the passage at 1:09:04

1:09:25 So I go into the bathroom and just do. If it's really bad, I'll just stand there and do the long mantra. I mean, what are they going to do? Nobody's going to come and knock on your door, right? They're just going to wait and they'll think, I guess she's having problems in there. But if I don't have that much time, I'll just do the short mantra. And then there's like, no, you just go through first power, second power, third power, fourth power, and you're just doing the little shorty one and you're done. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:25 Highlight the passage at 1:09:25

1:09:47 And I mean, you could honestly do the whole thing in like two minutes. Yeah, but that doesn't count toward your 100,000. It doesn't count toward your 100,000. But it counts toward your karmic buildup, which is more important than the 100,000, right? These are, as I started this morning, these are all practices to transform the mind. Go ahead. All right, last question. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:47 Highlight the passage at 1:09:47

1:10:13 Could we do anything modified at the center? So are you doing this every day? Is this a practice that the center does every day that you can participate in? Well, you can participate. I'm usually flat out on the floor in my room. But, you know, hey, if you want to come over, it's usually like, you know, 11, 1130 or something. No, we don't do them as a center practice every day. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:13 Highlight the passage at 1:10:13

1:10:37 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's an idea. It's an idea. It's an idea. Yeah. Especially now that we have the upstairs classroom. I was just thinking of knocking out that 100,000. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:37 Highlight the passage at 1:10:37

1:10:45 Maybe we could do, at least once a week we could do Bajrasafra practice. What a great idea. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:45 Highlight the passage at 1:10:45

1:10:56 Still doesn't take that long. You'll see. When we do this practice, you'll see it doesn't take that long. Same with the frustrations. I think the buildup in our mind is always like, oh my God, it's going to take so long. I mean, honestly, it takes to do the whole 35 Buddhas and thinking about it first. All right. Giving you a little time first to think about it, to think about your regret, and then to end it with some dedications. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:56 Highlight the passage at 1:10:56

1:11:18 15 minutes. It doesn't take that long. And by yourself, it's the same. It doesn't take that long. It's probably 10 minutes. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:18 Highlight the passage at 1:11:18

1:11:33 It's just in our minds. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:33 Highlight the passage at 1:11:33

1:11:39 Yeah. That's what I always do, too. It's so funny. At the beginning of a retreat, when you know you have a certain amount of mantras to complete, which I actually think gets in the way in our minds a lot. I think it's skillful means because it's supposed to keep us there for a certain amount of time. For me, it would have been easier to have somebody say, stay and do Vajra Safa practice for three months, rather than saying, do 100,000. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:39 Highlight the passage at 1:11:39

1:12:03 Calculator's out every night. How am I doing? How long does it take me to do one mala? How many malas do I have to do? I get totally weird and anal about it. And I do that with every deity retreat. It's just crazy. It's just insane. So I don't know, maybe for the Tibetans, it wasn't a real problem. Maybe you could just say to them, you know, do blah, blah, blah. But for me, for my mind, it's like the numbers, I think because I was a bookkeeper for 25 years, it's just, you know, even counting the breath, it took me years before I would even okay that one because I was like, no, I don't need any more numbers in my head. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:03 Highlight the passage at 1:12:03

1:12:37 So, yeah, we can make ourselves crazy. I think Cindy has her. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:37 Highlight the passage at 1:12:37

1:12:50 She's afraid of what might follow. I'm just wondering, for $100,000 or something, is there time given to you to complete? Is there frustrations? No, you mean if you're doing it as a daily practice? A daily? $100,000? Daily? No, no. I don't think it's humanly possible. Maybe Rubina, but nobody else, I don't think. How would you divide that? No, no, I'm just, I was asking. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:50 Highlight the passage at 1:12:50

1:13:15 I was trying to get clarification on your question. No, usually, you know, I mean, the idea is, it's like with everything else. It's good to get it done in a certain amount of time because we're all going to get old and not be able to do it, number one. I think just practically speaking. But I don't think there's any guideline that you, once you start. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:15 Highlight the passage at 1:13:15

1:13:36 The prostration practice. And I do highly recommend if you have any inkling to do these, to do them while you're young because many, many things do go wrong with the body as it ages. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:36 Highlight the passage at 1:13:36

1:13:47 Doesn't mean you're off the hook. But if you receive an empowerment in Vajrasattva, then there is sometimes a guideline. For example, if you take a Vajrasapha initiation and the Lama says to do 100,000 in a year, then yeah, then there is. But in terms of the Nundro, there's not really. I have known people to do Vajrasapha as a daily practice. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:47 Highlight the passage at 1:13:47

1:14:20 And most of us do prostrations as a daily practice just because it's kind of hard to go and do that one all in retreat. And it's totally possible to do. And you just set a guide. I think the way it usually is done with Vajra Safa. I did Vajra Safa's retreats. I'm not sure. But I think with Vajra Safa, you just decide, like, I'm going to do a mala a day or I'm going to do 21 a day or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:20 Highlight the passage at 1:14:20

1:14:43 And then you just stick to that, you know, pretty much no matter what. Yeah. Once you start it, you're not supposed to not do it. With the prostrations, if you have a physical reason that you can't do them, To keep the thread going, you still have to recite that and visualize. So if your knee goes out or something, you have to give it a rest for a couple of months, then you still have to be reciting them. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:43 Highlight the passage at 1:14:43

1:15:09 You still have to keep that going. But yeah, you kind of decide, a certain amount I'm going to do each day, and I'm just going to do it until I get them done. Yeah, I have one friend who did his prostrations that way, and he did 100 a day. And he did them no matter what. No matter where he was, no matter what else was happening in his life, I was really impressed actually because I think that one's harder. That's hard to do with that much discipline. But Geshe-la is very traditional and strict when he does it. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:09 Highlight the passage at 1:15:09

1:15:38 Lama Zopa is like... Just do it, do the best you can, do it wherever you are in the world. Geshe has to be done at the same place every day, no matter what. Stephen did it according to Geshe-la's advice and he finished his 1000 and boy was he over the moon. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:38 Highlight the passage at 1:15:38

1:15:56 We had katas everywhere, katas on every picture, he just ran around, he was like throwing katas. He was so happy. Is there other questions? But, you know, you have to do, like, he's very, and, Report an error in the passage at 1:15:56 Highlight the passage at 1:15:56

1:16:09 You had one, yeah, yeah. I don't think anybody else did. Is it, how important is it to actually count as opposed to, because I would be inclined to do it the other way to measure how long it took me and then set a time. Yeah, and I do that sometimes with prostrations. I'll figure out, especially if I'm in retreat, I know how fast I do them and I'll just tally it all up at the end of the day rather than. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:09 Highlight the passage at 1:16:09

1:16:35 Then counting each one, especially with prostrations, they're hard to count. They are hard to count. People have varying ways, you know, like malas around their hands while they're trying to do them, which I have never figured out, or, you know, stones or something like that. I think it's fine. I always just, when I do it that way, I always subtract a couple in case I, because I don't want to over, I'd rather under, and I figure there's probably somewhere I was spaced out, so I'd rather buffer down that way, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:35 Highlight the passage at 1:16:35

1:17:03 Seems to interfere with thinking also about mantras. I'd like to be focusing on what it is. Yeah, with mantras it's really easy because you're doing your, yeah. So then you just, that's fine because then you know how many of these you've done. Yeah, I mean, like I said, I had a lot of problems with the counting thing and I definitely don't suggest ever bringing a calculator into retreat, number one. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:03 Highlight the passage at 1:17:03

1:17:29 And just constantly reminding yourself it's really not about that. You know, it's just about, you know, the work on the mind. But in the end, you know, you do want to, you don't want to say that you've done 100,000 if you haven't. So there's an honesty level of that too. So I would just, you know, just, just, if as long as you're always using your mala, then your mala is a counter. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:29 Highlight the passage at 1:17:29

1:17:51 That's actually all malas are. Malas are not holy and inherently wonderful things in and of themselves. They just help us count while we're walking or while we're sitting. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:51 Highlight the passage at 1:17:51

1:18:00 So. um so That's probably fine. Or you could do the thing, if you really don't want to even do the mala, then just figure out about how much time it takes you to do them and then assume you've done that many. Do that in Nunez too. Figure out how many I do in a day. The first day I count and then after that I don't. And then I just sort of apply it all. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:00 Highlight the passage at 1:18:00

1:18:25 So really quick and then we'll take a quick break. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:25 Highlight the passage at 1:18:25

1:18:30 We were just talking a little bit about... Yeah, attachment, aversion and ignorance. And especially this form of ignorance where we see, we have a misperception of how things are happening and we see ourselves sort of as the victim, which often happens. Especially in our culture, it's a victim society. So the more we can understand how karma works and also... Report an error in the passage at 1:18:30 Highlight the passage at 1:18:30

1:19:00 This understanding of emptiness, which is simply how the Buddha observed that things exist and how they don't exist. They don't exist out there separately, solid, concrete, unchanging the way they seem to appear. Whether it's pain in our lives or whether it's my own view of myself or whether it's my view of Keith or whatever it is, we tend to see everything as sort of solid out there coming at me. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:00 Highlight the passage at 1:19:00

1:19:30 You know, and we forget any role that we could have played, not just conventionally speaking, like maybe I screamed at him and that's why he's running at me, conventionally speaking, but karmically we have created that situation. So the connection between karma and emptiness becomes really, really important. And the more that we understand that I can work with it, because karma can always be purified no matter what we've ever done, no matter what we've ever done, every single act. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:30 Highlight the passage at 1:19:30

1:20:00 Every single thought, no matter how heinous, as long as we are sincere in wanting to eliminate it, that karma from our mind stream, we can eliminate it, we can get rid of it, which is the good news. There's no sense of eternal damnation in Buddhism. We created our mess and we can get ourselves out, which is the good news. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:00 Highlight the passage at 1:20:00

1:20:24 So the other thing to think about is that Our mind goes on and on and on. Our mind, according to Buddhism, is limitless. It's beginningless and endless. It's like the number line. It goes, you know, there was never a beginning to it and there's never an end. It just goes on and on and on. So if we are accumulating all these negative acts of body, speech and mind just due to this ignorance, which most of the time is why we do things. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:24 Highlight the passage at 1:20:24

1:20:56 or Or habit. I mean, habit is really just a function of ignorance. Then if I were to die tonight, I'd just carry all these negative karmas into my next life, according to a Buddhist teaching. So of course I want to figure out a way to get them out. It's like if I know I'm going on a trip, I always sort of clean my room, right? If I know I'm going to die, and I really get that I'm going to die, and that it could happen at any time, I don't want to carry this crap with me. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:56 Highlight the passage at 1:20:56

1:21:27 I can see the suffering that's already caused me in this life. So why do I want to carry it on? And that's a better attitude to take than I'm a bad person, I'm a horrible, you know, like we don't want to get into that whole mindset of mea culpa, mea culpa. You know, it's not like about I do negative things and so I'm a negative person or guilt. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:27 Highlight the passage at 1:21:27

1:21:53 There's no, not even a word for guilt in Tibetan. It has more to do with regret, understanding, intelligent regret based on understanding how karma and emptiness works, even if it's a tiny understanding of how karma and emptiness works, which is fine. That's enough to start with. So we want to generate as sincere regret as we can and then that motivates the whole practice. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:53 Highlight the passage at 1:21:53

1:22:23 So, yeah, let's take a break real quick and then we'll come back and we'll just give you some real... Clear specifics on what karma is and the principles of karma. And then we'll have some more time for questions. I won't do Karma Chameleon. Karma means action, but it doesn't just refer to punch, you know, killing, stealing. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:23 Highlight the passage at 1:22:23

1:22:52 It doesn't just refer to karmas of our body. It's referring to action. Action just means movement, really. It's more like movement. So it's like movement. Hang on one second. It's like movement of my speech. So I'm talking. Or do you want to know if you hit? Report an error in the passage at 1:22:52 Highlight the passage at 1:22:52

1:23:10 Okay. If we don't understand how karma works, then we don't even want to purify. Yeah. Okay. Did you hit the unpause? Okay, good. Is it going? Well done. You're hired. Okay. So, and it's also referring to, because we don't think this way. So that's why I take a second. tired. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:10 Highlight the passage at 1:23:10

1:23:32 An action of our mind. So a movement of our mind, I think, is a better word than action. When our mind moves in a way that is negative, so if I have a thought of anger, I think the ones in mind are the hardest, to be honest. We do usually start with the ones of our body, and they're easier to begin to control. And then the ones of our speech, at least we can hold our tongue. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:32 Highlight the passage at 1:23:32

1:24:02 What's going on inside is the hardest. And we can't just say, I will not be angry at all today. We can try. We can make the determination. But we can't 100 % know what's going to happen that's going to test that. And maybe we'll succeed and be victorious. And maybe we won't. So the mind is the hardest one to subdue. And that means basically we can create a negative karma with anything from, you know, That extreme anger that just takes you off and fills your mind and body and causes you to kill your wife or something. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:02 Highlight the passage at 1:24:02

1:24:43 That kind of horrible anger. All the way down to just being slightly irritated by this pattern on the rug. That can cause, that's actually a negative karma. Because all I'm doing with a negative karma is I'm planting a seed to not only create that action again, So every time I get pissed, I create the cause to get pissed, which is so frustrating. That's why we get trapped in saṃsāra, right? Every time I reach for a piece of cake, I'm creating a cause to keep reaching for a piece of cake. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:43 Highlight the passage at 1:24:43

1:25:18 You know what I mean? Out of that usually, because you're not usually eating a piece of cake. I use cake as an example because it's not eating a salad. I'm not usually drowning my... Trying to take care of my needs with a salad, although I am sometimes. Luckily, I like salads. But that kind of obsessive attachment is what I'm demonstrating here. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:18 Highlight the passage at 1:25:18

1:25:40 Hang on one second. So these little movements of mind actually can get us into more trouble, is my point, because based on those little movements of mind, we then act and speak, right? So the little movements of mind or the big movements of mind, not only do they cause problems inside of us and disturb our mind, which is the actual definition of a mental affliction, but they then cause us to act out or manifest. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:40 Highlight the passage at 1:25:40

1:26:11 So I'll get pissed off and I'll punch Keith and I'll scream at Claire. So all these negative actions will come because I got pissed off, if I had never gotten pissed off. Then I wouldn't have done those other acts, which I now then have to purify. So all of these acts I have to purify. Claire, do you want to take that? But then I want to get to this so you guys can have your lunch. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:11 Highlight the passage at 1:26:11

1:26:36 About thoughts as action? I'm confused because sometimes in meditation instruction people say, you know, there is anger in me as opposed to I'm angry. And so the implication then is that it's sort of... It's not you who has anger. It's not you. So then why, if you're angry, is that affecting? Because you're still creating a karmic seed. And it's not the anger that you're purifying per se. It's what that anger produced, which is the karmic seed for more anger in your mind stream. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:36 Highlight the passage at 1:26:36

1:27:20 So every time we get angry, we create more karma. And we create the seeds for the negative actions that we then do based on that anger. It's based, okay, we go back to the discussion that we were talking about right before the break, which was the three poisonous minds. The one thing that I didn't say because I had my coughing fit was that ignorance begets anger and attachment. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:20 Highlight the passage at 1:27:20

1:27:50 So we often think of them as the three, but they aren't equal. Ignorance is actually the... The root cause of the other two. Because I don't see things clearly, because I have this misperception of reality, I don't get at all that I see Keith as this inherently existent absolute being who's, if he's screaming at me, he's a monster. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:50 Highlight the passage at 1:27:50

1:28:15 If he's bringing me flowers, he's divine. You know, like I just, I paint all these. Things that really have nothing to do with Keith, they're just based on my perception, which is based on my karma. So my ignorance is giving me the setup and it's letting me not see it correctly. If he then is, if I'm perceiving him as this sort of monster based on the karma that I have, because he's screaming at me about something, then... Report an error in the passage at 1:28:15 Highlight the passage at 1:28:15

1:28:45 Based on my ignorance, then I can allow my anger to just like arise and manifest and then cause me to do all these different things. So the anger itself is not, it's not a great thing, but it's not what we're purifying. What we're purifying is the seeds that that anger produces in our mind stream. But I thought just the thought itself is producing negative karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:45 Highlight the passage at 1:28:45

1:29:09 Isn't that true? The thought of anger. Yeah, like a hateful thought. Yeah. So if you don't have any control over that because the anger is not yours. But the anger isn't you, but the anger is yours. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:09 Highlight the passage at 1:29:09

1:29:28 We aren't our mental afflictions. They're simply thoughts that arise in our minds. But we actually can work to control them. But the way that we work to control them isn't by repressing them. It's by analyzing how it all works, which is why I keep spending so much time on karma and emptiness. Because by understanding how it all works, I can see that there's absolutely no, there's no, there's nothing to hang my anger onto in reality. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:28 Highlight the passage at 1:29:28

1:29:55 My anger is an old mental habit that's arising, but it's based on this completely conceptualized view of Keith as a monster screaming at me. When in reality, he's just some, either he's, either I can see him as somebody who He's completely consumed by his own mental afflictions and so I can have compassion for him. Realistically, that's a more logical approach if I'm a Buddhist. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:55 Highlight the passage at 1:29:55

1:30:22 Or I can see him as my karma, my karma coming back at me. I've created this situation because of screaming at people in my past lives. In either case, there's no reason for me to see him as a monster and then react to that. Monster coming at me with more anger, which simply perpetuates the situation now and in all my future lifetimes. So it's more like that. But I'm not, if I have anger, if I have anger arising in my mind, it's simply a mental habit based on karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:22 Highlight the passage at 1:30:22

1:30:56 It's not that I am an angry person. So I'm not the anger. And I'm not, you know, it's not like that. It's not like, but I do, but it is my anger. It's my anger in the responsibility quotient. It's my anger in that ultimately the Buddha, you know, he gave all these teachings about ways to work with our minds and ways and how to get enlightened and he basically then said, okay, now it's up to you. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:56 Highlight the passage at 1:30:56

1:31:25 What you do with these teachings is up to you. So in that case, it is my anger because it is my responsibility. I don't want to inflict my anger on anyone else. I mean, Keith's not going to run at me. I'm simply using him as an example. I don't want to inflict my anger on anyone, including myself. And I don't want to create the seeds to keep doing it. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:25 Highlight the passage at 1:31:25

1:31:48 So in that case, it's my anger in the way that it's my responsibility to kind of work with it and to figure it out. But in terms of karma and emptiness, then I begin seeing that it actually doesn't even have any substance. And yet I give it so much power over me. You know, I actually give my life to this anger. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:48 Highlight the passage at 1:31:48

1:32:09 And I give all my future lives to this anger too because I create all these negative seeds that then I keep carrying with me. So in that sense it is my anger. Does that help the difference between the two? You just want to cook it for a little bit? Yeah. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:09 Highlight the passage at 1:32:09

1:32:32 Okay, so karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:32 Highlight the passage at 1:32:32

1:32:44 So if we think about karma being the creator of everything we exist, there's no... Creator God in Buddhism at all. Everything that we experience from wonderful to horrible that we experience, and it's best to just look at these teachings just like me and my mind and my experiences at this point, is created by karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:44 Highlight the passage at 1:32:44

1:33:09 My karma. And I say my karma even though... You know, Chokyi wasn't Chokyi in my past life. It was some other, you know, dog or sheep or something like that. You know, it was like doing things that then, you know, must have been a really great sheep though because I got a pretty good life this time around. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:09 Highlight the passage at 1:33:09

1:33:28 So we, karma is not fate and it's not destiny and it's not, you know, it's not like something that's solid and fixed. You know, often we'll say, well, it's just my karma. It almost gives it more substance than it has. Karma is actually considered to be a working of the mind and it's coming from this movement of mind which then instigates the movements of body and speech. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:28 Highlight the passage at 1:33:28

1:34:05 And it comes from these actions that we do based on this. A state of mind of ignorance, basically. So not perceiving reality as it is, as the Buddha observed it to be when he got enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:05 Highlight the passage at 1:34:05

1:34:22 So karma, we create these imprints that follow us from life to life. Our most subtle mind goes to the next life and carries all these imprints, not just the imprints that we've just been creating in this life, which they say actually we create karmic imprints at a rate of one. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:22 Highlight the passage at 1:34:22

1:34:43 What is it? 65 per, 65 moments per finger snap. That's how many individual moments of karma we're creating all the time. So we're creating mountains. That's where Lama Yashi gets off saying, you know, if you could see it all, it would be like this huge mountain of our stuff. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:43 Highlight the passage at 1:34:43

1:35:08 So we're creating all these karmic imprints and then they're ripening at the same rate. So everything, the fact that we're sitting here together in this room, we're getting this talk on karma, we're surrounded by these really beautiful images. This is really positive karma ripening. So we're actually using up some of our positive karma, which is why we dedicate all the time, so that we can keep it going, so we still have some more left in the bank account. Or in the tank. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:08 Highlight the passage at 1:35:08

1:35:33 I like to think of it like a tank. And birth and death are simply aspects of karma. Our coming into being in the conditions of our body and our situation and our lives and our parents and all those aspects, so it's all karma ripening. And when that karma ends, we call that death. It's not anything other than that. It's simply karma ripens and then manifests. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:33 Highlight the passage at 1:35:33

1:36:01 The physical aspects are also karma and then the life is lived and then karma ends. That's the biggest karma shift, I'll have to say. But karma shifts in relationships ending, you know, dogs getting lost, losing the job, losing your voice, especially permanently. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:01 Highlight the passage at 1:36:01

1:36:23 You know, there's lots of other ways that karma shifts and they're like little, little tiny deaths, thank you, that prepare us for the big one. But that's all still actions of karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:23 Highlight the passage at 1:36:23

1:36:36 So there are, and the hardest thing, the hardest thing about karma is that, Um... Report an error in the passage at 1:36:36 Highlight the passage at 1:36:36

1:36:41 There's a time lapse between when we create it and when we experience the results. And that's always the hardest aspect about karma to get. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:41 Highlight the passage at 1:36:41

1:36:51 Because if I got it that screaming at you was going to bring me back the result of more screaming people, I wouldn't scream at you. I would get it. you know narga juna actually is the one who said we Got it that, you know, by killing, we would receive death as a result. By harming, by injuring somebody, we receive harming as a result. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:51 Highlight the passage at 1:36:51

1:37:21 We wouldn't harm. You know, we definitely, as one of my teachers said, if I was stepping on a roach and suddenly a large foot came down and began scratching me, I would get it. Like, I wouldn't have to think. It wouldn't be an analytical thing. I wouldn't have to sit and ask questions or anything like that. I would just get it. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:21 Highlight the passage at 1:37:21

1:37:37 But unfortunately, the way karma works is there's just lag time. And it's almost always from prior life. Almost everything that we are experiencing right now is created in a prior life. Except if the object of your action is so vast or so powerful or so strong, then you can actually have it ripen in this life, whether for negative or for positive, which is how tantra works. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:37 Highlight the passage at 1:37:37

1:38:04 and how, you know, a lot of, you know, having This bodhicitta motivation, trying to make our motivation be for all beings is a vast positive motivation. So even if we sit down and do our little 10 minute motivation, our little 10 minute meditation, but we motivate it really well so that I can become enlightened for all beings, I'm now expanding my motivation such that that little act of meditation becomes big enough that I could receive. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:04 Highlight the passage at 1:38:04

1:38:36 the ripening in this life all the So helping out with the flower boxes can become a cause that would ripen in this life because it's helping this center become more welcoming to sentient beings that could then help those sentient beings get enlightened. So it can be really huge, even though it seems like I'm just coming over and I'm just going to help. So little things can actually ripen in this life. And that's how Tantra works as well. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:36 Highlight the passage at 1:38:36

1:39:03 That's why Tantra... That's totally why tantra works, because our object is so powerful. But for the most part, most of our little good works and little bad works are things that will ripen next life. And everything that we're experiencing, little pains in the knees and little, you know, being able to have a nice, you know, thermal mug. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:03 Highlight the passage at 1:39:03

1:39:26 So positive or negative are all things that we created causes for in past lives. Four principles of karma. The first one is that karma is definite. And in that sense, it means that if you do something positive, you get a positive result. If you do something negative, you get a negative result. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:26 Highlight the passage at 1:39:26

1:39:49 And I underscore this in all the classes that I ever do on any purification. Anytime I mention karma, I always give these four principles because these are basic and explain everything, I think. Many things about karma. No good action you ever do. Will ever get you a negative result, even if it sometimes feels like it. Like you save the guy from drowning and then he kills you. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:49 Highlight the passage at 1:39:49

1:40:17 Or something, that's a bit extreme, but you know what I mean. And likewise, no negative thing you do will ever yield you a positive result, even if it seems like it. Like lying on my tax return. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:17 Highlight the passage at 1:40:17

1:40:34 Result of getting $500 is coming from a generous act in the past. The lying has yet to yield a result. They're two separate things. There's that lag time again. So we have to think about that. The more confidence you have in this, the more you're willing. You're not looking for a result right now. You're simply doing what's right because it's right. Because you're not thinking, I'm going to suddenly. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:34 Highlight the passage at 1:40:34

1:41:04 Become Anjushri tonight. It could happen. And we believe this in the natural world. If we plant lemon seeds, we totally expect to get a lemon tree. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:04 Highlight the passage at 1:41:04

1:41:15 We don't expect by planting lemon seeds to get an apple tree. And we would be shocked if that ever happened. So it's the same. If we plant negative seeds, we're going to get a negative result. If we plant positive seeds, we're going to get a positive result. The second principle of karma is that it always increases. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:15 Highlight the passage at 1:41:15

1:41:36 Increases in size, expands. The results are always bigger than the cause. So again, this works for positive and negative. For positive, it's really important to remember that there's no act so tiny that you won't get a positive result from it. So even something as tiny as picking up some trash in the gampa because you see it and you want it to be a clean place. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:36 Highlight the passage at 1:41:36

1:42:06 You know, that can be so tiny, but it doesn't matter, you know, bringing hot water to a struggling teacher. No act is so tiny that it won't yield you an infinitely greater result, actually. But the reverse is also true. No negative act is so tiny, even if you do it in your own room and nobody sees you, that it won't also cause you A negative result. So it's just nobody's there keeping score with a clipboard. It's your own mind recording it. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:06 Highlight the passage at 1:42:06

1:42:46 Even if you're doing it out of ignorance, which unfortunately, just like with the law, that's actually most of the reasons why most of us do anything is out of this ignorance of not really getting how it all works. So our responsibility is to figure out how it works and to work with it. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:46 Highlight the passage at 1:42:46

1:43:08 The third one is if you didn't create the karma, you won't experience the result. See, here's that double negative again. Nobody else can cause your suffering and nobody else can bring you happiness. It all comes from you. You create the causes for both. So if you are suffering, that means you created the cause and you can purify. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:08 Highlight the passage at 1:43:08

1:43:32 You can purify. You can purify everything. If you're suffering, you created the cause for that suffering. If you didn't create the karma, you won't experience the result. And you can't, therefore, make somebody else happy or unhappy. You can do things that can harm people, but truly our happiness comes from our own mind. And we, anyway, this gets into a whole different thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:32 Highlight the passage at 1:43:32

1:44:07 But that's why working with our mind becomes our number one practice in Buddhism. From our side, we don't want to cause harm to other people, but it's also really important for us to know that happiness and suffering start with us. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:07 Highlight the passage at 1:44:07

1:44:25 If you decide that what you want is the ultimate goal, which is enlightenment, therefore you have to create the causes for it. We can't just think just by being sort of generally nice or, you know, a generally good guy that we're going to become a Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:25 Highlight the passage at 1:44:25

1:44:45 It's really methodical. You have to create the causes to get a body of light and infinite capacity to help all beings. There's actual steps. You can't just come to church on Sunday. The final one is that karma is never lost. It never completely just disappears. And this is really important in terms of purification. The tiniest acts will still produce some result. When we... Report an error in the passage at 1:44:45 Highlight the passage at 1:44:45

1:45:15 To purify, we don't lose it entirely. What happens is it just gets diminished. So what might have been the potency that would have ripened as a lifetime as a sheep, for example, might instead ripen as a really bad flu or something like that. Oh, thank you. It's like flying out the door. Oh, it's on a cord. Thank you. I know. I forgot. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:15 Highlight the passage at 1:45:15

1:45:47 Yeah, the clip has been missing for a while and actually Chad got a clip and I was going to try it out today and of course I forgot. So if I can remember I'll get it. It's a different kind of weirdo clip but we're going to try it. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:47 Highlight the passage at 1:45:47

1:46:01 So what happens is it just gets diminished. So you might become aware that as you're doing a lot of purification practice that you're getting a lot of... Aches, pains, sicknesses, weird things happening. And it's kind of like, well, why do I want to do this? You have to keep remembering how karma works and that you actually want to eliminate the negative karma, which is why I say bring it on. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:01 Highlight the passage at 1:46:01

1:46:25 When I was, you know, at the beginning I was like, bring it on. And the reason is because I don't want this crap muddying up my mind any longer. Did you bring a clip? Oh, there you go. Hair clip will work. There you go. See, it works with. Here we go. That could work. Who needs the expensive Mac one? Well done. Great little assistant thingy. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:25 Highlight the passage at 1:46:25

1:46:52 And it's not like shaped like a butterfly or anything, so it's not too embarrassing. Yeah, so it's sort of like you just, you can rejoice actually when this stuff happens. If you can remember how it works. Because otherwise you're just seeing it conventionally like, oh. I don't want to have this sickness and I don't want to have sore feet or whatever and just think, why would I want to do Buddhism? If you're thinking, okay, I'm just going to get rid of this negative crap in my mind stream and I'm not going to carry it on. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:52 Highlight the passage at 1:46:52

1:47:26 It's not going to ripen its suffering later. I'm just going to get rid of it now while I have the greatest conditions to be able to study, practice and work with teachers and so forth. And I don't know what my next life is going to yield. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:26 Highlight the passage at 1:47:26

1:47:38 Then I can rejoice and I can just accept it and I can I can actually go for it, you know, and it's I'll get you in a second. Actually, I wanted to finish one thought. I think I may have just lost it about karma, about taking it. Shoot. I think it just went. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:38 Highlight the passage at 1:47:38

1:48:15 Hopefully it'll come back. Hopefully it'll come back. Because if I know that my consciousness doesn't just snuff out when I die, and if I were to die tonight, then all the negative acts I've produced, not just in this day, not just in this week, not just in this lifetime, but all the negative crap that I haven't yet purified, it's going to come with me and it's going to cause me tons of suffering because I don't even know what I've done. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:15 Highlight the passage at 1:48:15

1:48:39 I can't even remember everything I've done in this life. I can barely remember everything I've done in this week. I don't even know what kind of suffering lies out there. So I want to try to get rid of it as much as I can in this lifetime. And the way that I get rid of it is through purifying it. But the karma itself isn't lost until it exhausts. So it doesn't, you know... Report an error in the passage at 1:48:39 Highlight the passage at 1:48:39

1:49:05 That's why when sometimes we'll continue to have the problem after we've done, keep working with Vajrasafra for a few days, it's not like suddenly all of our money problems are gone because we've been working with Vajrasafra for a few days. Because we could have pillaged entire countries in a past life and just have no memory of it in this life. Why don't you, you want to ask your question? Report an error in the passage at 1:49:05 Highlight the passage at 1:49:05

1:49:30 I was just getting caught up a little in the talking about eliminating negative karma but then saying that it doesn't. Yeah, I know. It's the term with purification. You're diminishing it. It does exhaust and then it's gone, but it's only after it exhausts. And until it exhausts, it will just have a lesser form, like a flu rather than hell realm rebirth or something like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:30 Highlight the passage at 1:49:30

1:50:00 It would just take a lesser, it would manifest in a lesser way. So just terminology, yeah. And then the bigger part is, and maybe this will, or I need to think about it a little bit or it becomes clearer later, is what you were saying about how everything that's going on in this life was from past lives and whatever we do for the most part in this life will not have an effect until future lives. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:00 Highlight the passage at 1:50:00

1:50:26 And it made me feel kind of bummed out. Yeah, yeah. That's why you have to have the larger motivation and remember to dedicate and things like that because... If your motivation is bodhicitta, it's basically to help others, to help all beings as much as you can have that imagination. I guess at this point it is just contrived. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:26 Highlight the passage at 1:50:26

1:50:47 The more we can do that, the bigger the motivation becomes. So then any little act can then become a cause for enlightenment, which means it could ripen in this life. So that's why I stress that about having the larger motivation for our acts. And yet at the same time when you were talking about thinking of things that you regret, And you were using as an example, you know, always losing things because perhaps you've taken things in the past. So is that, that seems a more immediate kind of thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:47 Highlight the passage at 1:50:47

1:51:18 Seems a more immediate kind of thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:18 Highlight the passage at 1:51:18

1:51:24 No, no, no. I'm thinking that I must have taken, I didn't really take things in this life. I am supposing. Most of us have at some time or another. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, but I'm, yeah, exactly. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:24 Highlight the passage at 1:51:24

1:51:35 Actually, I think I did take a candy bar when I was like five or something. I remember being taken back to the store. No, but I'm saying that in that case, going back to that discussion, if you are sitting there and you're going to purify and you want to think, if I'm losing a bunch of things and people are keeping my belongings and not returning them or I'm not getting paid on time for work that I've done or something like that, those are from Stealing Karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:35 Highlight the passage at 1:51:35

1:51:59 And I can suppose then if I'm getting the result, it goes to this number third, you know, the third one. If I didn't create the karma, I won't experience the result. So if I'm getting the result. I must have created the karma. So I can suppose that in my prior lifetimes, in one of my prior lifetimes, I must have stolen if I'm getting that result. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:59 Highlight the passage at 1:51:59

1:52:19 That's what I meant in that case. Right, but I guess I'm taking it to a more immediate thing. Like, let's say you did take something like... Well, if you did take it, then you have something you purify. Yeah, then you might remember. Or you yelled at somebody or you said something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I started with. The first... Report an error in the passage at 1:52:19 Highlight the passage at 1:52:19

1:52:34 When I started with, when you first sat down, the best thing is to remember specific incidents and all the details. But if you can't or you want to take a different approach, the other idea is to look at where things are not great in your life and to purify the causes for those things. So those two separate things. Right, but they don't necessarily have to be. I guess I'm thinking of the more... Report an error in the passage at 1:52:34 Highlight the passage at 1:52:34

1:52:57 immediate one of something that you did just do or you did a while ago, something specific. You wouldn't be receiving the result that quickly. Somehow I'm missing this. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:57 Highlight the passage at 1:52:57

1:53:23 No, no, that's supposed to be next. So I'm just kidding. Maybe wait. Yeah, maybe wait. I think maybe it's better not to ask so many questions while I'm presenting because you probably will get the answer, actually. I bet. Yeah, because I think somehow it got confused during that portion of regret. If you can remember a specific incident that you regret understanding karma the way we understand it at any level that we understand it, definitely purify that. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:23 Highlight the passage at 1:53:23

1:53:50 That's great. It doesn't mean you have to sit there and think of everything you've done wrong, but simply think of whatever the incident is and purify it. But I was also just giving you this other idea that if there are things in your life that you know are karmically caused, you know, they have similar karmic causes, you can also purify that karma, even if you don't remember doing those acts in this life. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:50 Highlight the passage at 1:53:50

1:54:15 And even if you actually... You know you haven't done them. You know at least recently you haven't done them. As an adult or something like that, you haven't done these acts. Still, if we have any faith or any confidence in how karma works, we have done them in past life. So that's where you might not remember a single incident or a specific incident, but you can still purify even without and make that determination of not doing it again as much. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:15 Highlight the passage at 1:54:15

1:54:45 As you are able to make that determination. So those are two separate ways to approach it. And I'm sorry if I was confusing. But anyway, let's talk about the four opponent powers and see if it clears it up. And then we'll break for lunch. And then we'll do bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:45 Highlight the passage at 1:54:45

1:55:04 So the good news is that everything that we do, every act, and every act that we can't even remember that we've done, we can purify. And so the way that we purify is with these four opponent powers. So the first one is this power of regret. And Riba Rinpoche calls it the power of putting the blame. And the putting the blame isn't blaming me because I'm not a bad person because I stole things. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:04 Highlight the passage at 1:55:04

1:55:32 It's not like that. It's putting the blame on, how do I say this? It's putting the blame on the ignorance. It's putting the blame for problems on the negative karma that is creating our. So it's putting the blames back. It's understanding how it all works and going back to your understanding of karma and putting the blame there and deciding you want to do something to change that karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:32 Highlight the passage at 1:55:32

1:56:01 So this is, again, the most important because, first of all, it's going to cause you to want to sit down and do the practice. And then secondly, it's going to determine how powerful your practice is. Because if your regret is just kind of like, you know, well, I shouldn't have done that. And then, you know, your interest isn't so heavy and your visualization isn't so strong, which unfortunately happens, I have to admit, you know, especially late at night. But the point is, is that your whole, the whole other three powers won't be strong. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:01 Highlight the passage at 1:56:01

1:56:30 So this one is really, really pivotal. And so that's why I usually like to say, if you can think of, especially the beginning when you're first starting to do these practices, the more specific if you can remember that you stole something. Or you can remember that you screamed at somebody. So I usually like to say within the last day. So we don't even have to think that far back. And when you're in a retreat, all this other stuff will come up. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:30 Highlight the passage at 1:56:30

1:56:54 Believe me. But in our daily practice, just think about this day. You're sitting at the end of the day, right? So it's the perfect time to do it. You're just thinking through your day. Like, how did this day go? Oh, God, I probably shouldn't have done that. And what are you thinking I shouldn't have done that based on? Report an error in the passage at 1:56:54 Highlight the passage at 1:56:54

1:57:10 It's how karma works. I shouldn't have done that means, okay, I have enough wisdom to know that by doing that I've just created some negative seeds that are going to ripen as my own suffering. I'm not even getting to anybody else at this point. It's like they say it's like swallowing poison. It's like, shoot, I knew what was in there and then I just did it again. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:10 Highlight the passage at 1:57:10

1:57:31 That's what it's like. It's much more like, oh. I did it again. I want to get rid of it. So that this practice that we're doing is like taking something to nullify the poison before it hurts us. That's really what it's like. It's not about, I'm not doing it actually at that point for anybody else. I mean, you know, like the basics of this particular step is I'm simply getting at how it all works and I've just created my own suffering, you know, by screaming at Keith or anything else or stealing something. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:31 Highlight the passage at 1:57:31

1:58:04 And since I could die at any minute, I've got to get this out of my mind. That's why I'll run into the bathroom and do a quick Vajja Safa. And then I might do a longer one that night as well for the same act, if it's big enough to warrant it, just because I don't want to carry it if I should die in the middle of the night or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:04 Highlight the passage at 1:58:04

1:58:23 I just want to be done with it. I mean, that's the way you just, when you do these four steps, you are able to just let it go. We don't have to keep gnawing it to death. We don't have to carry it with us, either the act or the karma or the feelings about the karma. We don't have to carry it with us anymore. So it's not like when you're confessing, it's not like I'm a horrible person and I did wrong. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:23 Highlight the passage at 1:58:23

1:58:49 It's more like, okay, I want to become a Buddha. This stuff is just going to block me. It's going to keep me from progressing on the path. I'm not going to be able to help people. I just want to get rid of it. It's more like that. So hopefully you guys can see the difference between those. And we can take some time after lunch for some Q &A. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:49 Highlight the passage at 1:58:49

1:59:11 And if you want the bodhicitta motivation, think, I want to become a Buddha. I want to be able to help people. I want to be able to understand the teachings. So that's why I want to clear it. So you can take that bigger step of like, this is why I want to purify. It's not just that I don't want to suffer. It's because I also want to be able to be of service. I want to help people. The second one is the power of reliance. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:11 Highlight the passage at 1:59:11

1:59:37 It's often called the power of taking refuge, but it really is both taking refuge and generating bodhicitta. And then when we do the practice after lunch, I'll explain that a little bit more. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:37 Highlight the passage at 1:59:37

1:59:54 Reliance. Sometimes it's called the power foundation too. But I like making them four R's so you can remember them. So it's regret, reliance. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:54 Highlight the passage at 1:59:54

2:00:07 And actually since all of our negative actions are done and reliance are in relation to either the all sentient beings or a sentient being or the triple gem, then it sort of includes everything when we clean it up. The third one is the power of remedy. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:07 Highlight the passage at 2:00:07

2:00:28 And this refers to any action or any antidote that we take to try to nullify that poison in our mind stream. And there were certain ones that were given by the Buddha, and the ones that we're doing today are part of that. They say, reciting the names of the Buddhas. It's supposed to be a really powerful one to do. So when we actually do the prostrations, we're focusing a lot on the prostration itself, but this particular practice is called prostrating to the 35 Buddhas and reciting the names of the Buddhas and trying to visualize them as much as we can. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:28 Highlight the passage at 2:00:28

2:01:12 This tanka here actually depicts those Buddhas. And so when we prostrate, if we can, I'm going to try to have us all, I'm going to have to move Gisela's throne out of the way a little bit. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:12 Highlight the passage at 2:01:12

2:01:22 I'm going to try to have us all sort of looking at that as much as we can. Are you prostrating? Sorry. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:22 Highlight the passage at 2:01:22

2:01:39 Almost. We have to get to the fourth hour. Okay, that's hot. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:39 Highlight the passage at 2:01:39

2:01:49 It's all right. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:49 Highlight the passage at 2:01:49

2:01:54 I'm just simply purifying. It's all right. I probably brought my teacher many, many hot beverages. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:54 Highlight the passage at 2:01:54

2:02:05 Reciting powerful mantras is another one. Sorry, I'm blowing my nose right in the mic. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:05 Highlight the passage at 2:02:05

2:02:15 I know I started to say when you're prostrating, yes, it's really important to think about how your prostration is done and to make it a nice offering, but also saying the names of the Buddha are really, really important. You won't know them now, so that's okay. But that's why we try to memorize it and say them. And if we're sick, and like I've had a bad shoulder all year. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:15 Highlight the passage at 2:02:15

2:02:38 Although I'm going to prostrate with you guys if it kills me. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:38 Highlight the passage at 2:02:38

2:02:46 This counts as a prostration too. So that you can prostrate and you can do your best to visualize and you can have your regret and do these four powers. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:46 Highlight the passage at 2:02:46

2:03:01 I hate it when this happens. Too hot. I will. Hang on. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:01 Highlight the passage at 2:03:01

2:03:09 That's faster. It's really important to... To try to actually say the names because that's what's purifying. You know, it's the purification. There's all of it that's purifying. The act is purifying. The words are purifying. Your regret is purifying. All of it's purifying. But saying the Buddha's names is supposed to be very powerful. Reciting the mantras is powerful. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:09 Highlight the passage at 2:03:09

2:03:33 Reciting sutras, actual words of the Buddha, they say, or parts of. So, and there are some short ones. Good in a jiffy. Like the Heart Sūtra or Diamond Cutter Sūtra. Meditating on emptiness in any way, any way that you understand it. And you should understand it before you try to meditate on it. So if you don't understand it, don't meditate on it because you could just do, you could just, it's not nothingness. And there's a great class coming up that you can take. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:33 Highlight the passage at 2:03:33

2:04:03 Actually, there's two great classes coming up that you can take to learn more about emptiness. But meditating on emptiness, studying emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:03 Highlight the passage at 2:04:03

2:04:12 Because that's going to cut our ignorance, which is the cause for us doing all this crap to begin with. Emptiness is wisdom. Whenever they say wisdom, it's a code word for emptiness. It's really talking about the nature of reality, the way the Buddha observed it. So anytime we study it, so say you've done something crazy, go home and get out some of your notes from some class that we talked about emptiness and reread them and think, okay, motivate and dedicate for that act to purify it. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:12 Highlight the passage at 2:04:12

2:04:40 You can use that as a remedy. Making offerings, whatever that means, helping with the flower boxes. It could be monetary offerings, it could be helping with the water bowls, it could be getting Geshe-la some socks, whatever it is, it's making an offering. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:40 Highlight the passage at 2:04:40

2:05:02 They often say to statues, stupas, holy beings and so forth. And making objects that represent the Buddha's body, speech and mind. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:02 Highlight the passage at 2:05:02

2:05:13 Painting tankas, making satsas, making statues, cleaning statues probably would also help. Sponsoring all these things to be done. Although I hate to get into that because then I think it starts getting like, let me just go off and pay somebody else to go do my work for me. But yes, you could do. You could do and we all probably end up doing that at some point. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:13 Highlight the passage at 2:05:13

2:05:38 So those are examples of remedy. There are other ones, but those are the main ones. And these, of course, Vajrasattva is reciting powerful mantras and the prostrations is reciting the names of the Buddhas. So those fit in with those. The fourth of the four powers is resolve, the power of determination not to commit the act again. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:38 Highlight the passage at 2:05:38

2:06:04 So sometimes it's called the power of determination. Sometimes it's called the power of restraint, but I actually like resolve better now because it's like the positive. It's like I'm resolving not to do it rather than I'm restraining myself from doing it, which almost, I think, doesn't quite cover it. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:04 Highlight the passage at 2:06:04

2:06:23 And without this one, it's sort of like we just keep doing the negative act over and over again. Because otherwise, a lot of times I hear people say, oh, I can always just do bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:23 Highlight the passage at 2:06:23

2:06:38 That wasn't the whole point of teaching us purification. The Buddha didn't want us to learn purification so that we could do a bunch of negative acts and purify them every night. Because that's basically all we're doing is wasting our time on this day rather than clearing up all the old crap of the prior lives. And they say it's like being a sick person who we're given the medicine, but then we just keep not taking it. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:38 Highlight the passage at 2:06:38

2:07:04 So it's not going to do so much. So why don't we take our break, which we're like 20 minutes late on doing, and I see all the fine women back there hovering and pacing. So let's do that, and then we'll just start. So on the break, you guys can think about all your questions and talk about it and come back with some great questions, and we'll start with question and answer, and then we'll do the short, easy Vajrasapha practice. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:04 Highlight the passage at 2:07:04

2:07:33 Okay? I keep making it shorter and easier, too. Just question, because I have three. We'll go with them, yeah. All righty. Karen's question now. Okay, so related to the third point of karma, which is if you didn't create the karma, you won't experience the result. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:33 Highlight the passage at 2:07:33

2:07:52 And you said you can't make others happy. I guess it's not a question. I'm looking at it, and it's like there's no question mark. I said compassion is not codependence. There, there's a good segue for Vinom Rubina's talk on the 19th. Kindness or codependence? I was going to give her that title. Yeah, we can't, we can't, I think the basic underlying thought is that we can't make anyone happy, as you know, in any relationship, right? Report an error in the passage at 2:07:52 Highlight the passage at 2:07:52

2:08:23 And we also know just by looking at people who are undergoing the exact same problems and some have a happy mind and some don't, the happiness actually comes from... Our minds, from a psychological point of view and from the Buddhist point of view, it comes from having created the karma that allows us to experience that happiness. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:23 Highlight the passage at 2:08:23

2:08:42 However, that doesn't mean that we get to treat people like crap. That's the caveat. Because from our side, we hopefully have some even baby bodhisattva ideal of wanting to help others and wanting to take care of others. Like that. And also, just from the karmic point of view, we don't want to treat people meanly because we'll get treated mean in the future. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:42 Highlight the passage at 2:08:42

2:09:05 So from either the selfish point of view, the wisely selfish, as His Holiness calls it, or the bodhicitta point of view, we don't want to be mean to other people. But our being mean to them isn't necessarily what makes them happy or unhappy. Because if we have a really stable mind, It doesn't matter what anybody does to us, which is kind of a trip, but you can see it in teachers, what they do. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:05 Highlight the passage at 2:09:05

2:09:33 Are some purification practices better for some particular remedy or, I said, offenses? Sometimes it gets translated that way. Good question. I have never heard that it does. I suppose if you had a relationship with a holy being like, you know, Fences. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:33 Highlight the passage at 2:09:33

2:09:56 Geshe-la or Lama Zopa Rinpoche or His Holiness or something and you could actually ask them. They could tell you what might work better. But for our basic everyday crap, then I think probably any of them will do. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:56 Highlight the passage at 2:09:56

2:10:10 Yeah, I've never heard that there is one. We asked Geshe-la before Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Or His Holiness. Yeah, or His Holiness. Exactly. I just screamed at my husband. What should I do? And my last question is that... You've mentioned a couple of times now going to the restroom and doing Vajrasattva mantras. It does sound funny, but it's just a place you can go. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:10 Highlight the passage at 2:10:10

2:10:37 Exactly. So my question is, I've often wanted privacy for practice, especially something like that where you want to do your mantras. But I thought you couldn't do Dharma-related things in the bathroom. No, you can definitely do Dharma. You can't take the text in. Well, no. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:37 Highlight the passage at 2:10:37

2:10:53 That's what I'm going to say. I know, you have to get it memorized, I know. I always thought, gosh, that's a shame because it'd be great to have, actually I should smush this. It'd be great to have a text. This needs to be a little smaller. There we go. It'd be great to have a text just up and then you're like sitting there and you're like, oh, okay, cool. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:53 Highlight the passage at 2:10:53

2:11:15 Because Lama Zopa actually suggests that. He's like, you don't even have to visualize. It all just comes out. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:15 Highlight the passage at 2:11:15

2:11:25 I love Tibetans, they're so earthy. But you have to have it all memorized, yeah, you can't bring it in there, so that's another good reason to memorize. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:25 Highlight the passage at 2:11:25

2:11:38 Sure, I mean, I suppose, if you want, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:38 Highlight the passage at 2:11:38

2:11:45 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:45 Highlight the passage at 2:11:45

2:11:55 She's been in there for an hour. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:55 Highlight the passage at 2:11:55

2:11:59 I know. No, I guess especially in a Dharma center, you never can rush anybody because that could be so much what they're doing. Luckily we have a lot of bathrooms here, so that's great. Do you want to pass it back to Cindy? Report an error in the passage at 2:11:59 Highlight the passage at 2:11:59

2:12:19 I think this is more of a comment. One of the karma payback is losing things. I feel that when I lose something, I always think that maybe somebody out there is needing it more than I do. Well, that's good. That's a nice way to look at it. Or you can just think, especially if somebody stole something, I just give it to you in my heart. Report an error in the passage at 2:12:19 Highlight the passage at 2:12:19

2:12:44 I just give it to you. But I never thought it was a payback. Yeah, they say karmically that it's... Oh, okay. So beneath it somewhere. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That it just creates a cause for losing things, having things taken, having things borrowed and never returned. Those are all... Or just not having enough. Report an error in the passage at 2:12:44 Highlight the passage at 2:12:44

2:13:03 Is another one for having stolen. So generosity is the way to counter all that. Giving, lending, all that stuff. Yeah, Report an error in the passage at 2:13:03 Highlight the passage at 2:13:03

2:13:19 pass it back to... Sorry, back to the you can't make people happy. What's a bodhisattva doing then? Bodhisattva is trying to bring happiness to others, but ultimately the best way that bodhisattvas or buddhas can bring happiness to others is to show us how, and then we have to do it. Report an error in the passage at 2:13:19 Highlight the passage at 2:13:19

2:13:44 But yeah, from a conventional level, we can try to be kind, we can try to help. We don't have the wisdom to necessarily back it up. Report an error in the passage at 2:13:44 Highlight the passage at 2:13:44

2:13:53 And we don't necessarily know their karma. We don't necessarily know what's really happening in their mind. We don't necessarily know what's going to be the most useful thing for them. But we can try, you know, of course we can bring them a cup of tea. You know, but from, so there's all these different angles. Report an error in the passage at 2:13:53 Highlight the passage at 2:13:53

2:14:10 Whenever you get Buddhist teachings, there's mostly the angle of working on your own mind. It's not so much looking at, you know, a lot of times when we first learn the teachings, it's really easy to see where other people are screwing up. And that isn't quite what the Buddha had in mind. So if we look at these teachings from that point of view, that ultimately nobody can make me happy or make me upset, I do it. Report an error in the passage at 2:14:10 Highlight the passage at 2:14:10

2:14:37 It's through my own mind, either in the moment, allowing my mind to be unsubdued, or karmically speaking, I've brought it on myself. Then I can stop blaming everyone else and just get down to the work of working on my mind. So it's more like that. Report an error in the passage at 2:14:37 Highlight the passage at 2:14:37

2:14:52 But from the standpoint of others, yes, like, you know, I was saying with Karen, it doesn't give us an excuse to just, like, be mean to other people, just because then we go, you know, well, it's your own mind that's making you upset, which actually I have heard Buddhists say, and I'm like, I know, it's like, again, missing the plot, as Ruby would say. Report an error in the passage at 2:14:52 Highlight the passage at 2:14:52

2:15:15 But, yeah, I mean. Ultimately the best, actually they say that the Buddha is the best thing, the most incredible activity that a Buddha can do is to teach us how to purify our own minds, accumulate karma, progress on the path and get enlightened ourselves. So teaching is their biggest, most productive activity. They have all these other amazing powers of being able to know our minds which help them teach better, show up in whatever form is necessary which help us do it better. Report an error in the passage at 2:15:15 Highlight the passage at 2:15:15

2:15:47 But ultimately we still have to do the work. Ultimately nobody can do the work for us. Not even a Buddha. Or he would have. And then we wouldn't have this class. We'd all be Buddhas. So, it's like that. Report an error in the passage at 2:15:47 Highlight the passage at 2:15:47

2:16:10 I have a question about frustrations. I'd always understood frustrations to be more of a way of humbling oneself. But I'm wondering after listening if frustrations could be a way of purifying. So purification for perhaps an act that one couldn't, was too painful to visualize or to think about or to verbalize. Report an error in the passage at 2:16:10 Highlight the passage at 2:16:10

2:16:32 Could that be, could prostration? No, you raise a good point. With prostrations, one of the great things about prostrations and probably why Westerners aren't so into them is that they are really good to counteract pride. So that's kind of... That's why we do them before teachings. That's why we do them before we sit and meditate or study. And so they are a really good antidote to pride. Report an error in the passage at 2:16:32 Highlight the passage at 2:16:32

2:16:58 In terms of, again, I'm not really so sure about which purification would work for which things. And I think this falls into that category. Like, when is it better to do prostrations versus something else? Maybe if you did the action with mind. Is that me? What happened? happening. stop. Report an error in the passage at 2:16:58 Highlight the passage at 2:16:58

2:17:24 So I'm not really sure if it's written anywhere, because I think that would be too much of a prescription. It's probably something you have to figure out. Maybe if your motivation was one of pride of doing the act, then prostration would make more sense. But I don't know. That's a very good question. Report an error in the passage at 2:17:24 Highlight the passage at 2:17:24

2:17:49 That might be more of a question for somebody like Geshe-la. I'm not really sure. I've never heard that one before. Report an error in the passage at 2:17:49 Highlight the passage at 2:17:49

2:17:58 You know, when is the fire puja better? Fire pujas are often done after a retreat as sort of a catch-all for all the things you did wrong in the retreat. In fact, at the end of Vajrasapha, you do a fire puja. So man, are you ever purified. You're like totally purified. And dojikajo is a fire puja. And I don't know what forms of actions require more fire versus prostrations versus mantra recitation, or if it even matters. Report an error in the passage at 2:17:58 Highlight the passage at 2:17:58

2:18:33 Maybe there's absolutely no difference and maybe they're just all forms of purification and we have to do them all and, you know, like that. I don't know. I would assume there's probably some specifics there, you know, that would make it one more. More the better tool. It was specific things. I was thinking about Mel Repa who was made actually to do lots of physical kinds of labor to purify headed karmat. Report an error in the passage at 2:18:33 Highlight the passage at 2:18:33

2:19:05 His karma was, well when you think about physical usually I move too much. That's probably it with this mic. I should be like this. Report an error in the passage at 2:19:05 Highlight the passage at 2:19:05

2:19:18 Because Rubina does the same because she's always moving around and then it falls off. He had to do a lot of purification that was physical, I think, because his acts were physical. He killed and he caused hailstorms and, you know, like they were really physical things. And so then he had to do all of these physical acts. Report an error in the passage at 2:19:18 Highlight the passage at 2:19:18

2:19:38 So maybe if the act was physical, then maybe prostrations makes more sense for it because it's a physical act. But I don't know with Dorji Kadro. Report an error in the passage at 2:19:38 Highlight the passage at 2:19:38

2:19:48 When is that better? And then maybe for speech? But see, I think with Vajrasafi you can do all three and we'll talk about what visualization is better for each one. So that, I don't know. I would bet that purification, that prostrations are really good for like heavy physical acts. Report an error in the passage at 2:19:48 Highlight the passage at 2:19:48

2:20:09 Yeah, that's a good question though. On the LPP calendar, they have fire puja days. Yep. But that's in, you're talking about in addition. I'm talking about if you were doing Doricicadro as a noon dural. You could actually do Doricicadro as a daily practice, too. That's what I was just telling Claire, who I always want to call Charlotte, who normally sits there, actually. Report an error in the passage at 2:20:09 Highlight the passage at 2:20:09

2:20:37 And all the names are C. But yeah, I am going to show her how to do the Dorja Kadro. You know, but if anybody else is interested, I'm going to do it before she goes back to school because I don't think it'll hit the calendar. So if anybody else is interested to learn how to do Dorja Kadro, there's a really short little version of it so that you can do it as a daily practice. And in fact, I've known people who have done it as a daily practice for at least a year or something like that or even six months. Report an error in the passage at 2:20:37 Highlight the passage at 2:20:37

2:21:06 And I've done it as like a monthly practice that way. It's a little fire puja one. Well, I shouldn't say little. The way I do it, it's a little fire puja one. You could do it as a big fire puja, but it's the fire. You don't need a big fire. You don't need a big fire. Yeah, you just make a little fire kit, and it's pretty self-contained. And as I was telling Claire on the break, I've known people who have done it on their kitchen table. Report an error in the passage at 2:21:06 Highlight the passage at 2:21:06

2:21:31 It's not small. We usually just do it out here on the porch because we just use a little tin that's like an old tea tin. We do it in the hour and at the end you just put the lid on and you're done. It's fun at the beach but you know it's practical in the little tea tin so yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:21:31 Highlight the passage at 2:21:31

2:21:48 Okay anybody else any questions? Yeah Marcel. When you have a negative thought and we let the thought rise and dissolve by itself and you just watch it is that thought is it considered as a negative mental action or since you just watch it and let it dissolve? Report an error in the passage at 2:21:48 Highlight the passage at 2:21:48

2:22:11 yeah that's a good point well that gets into some of the specifics of karma and that might be actually what you were getting at too and i don't know if you were so i could be guessing um you to make a complete karma there has to be like four different things in place which i'm not going to get into here because i don't want to complicate it too much but um still create karma even when you don't have all these things in place including your intention and and things things like like that that. So, for now, For example, say that I like to swear all the time. I might not have any intention to swear. I might not want to harm anyone. In fact, I may wish that I didn't swear. Report an error in the passage at 2:22:11 Highlight the passage at 2:22:11

2:22:48 But I still get some karma for it if anyone is... What's up here? Report an error in the passage at 2:22:48 Highlight the passage at 2:22:48

2:22:55 I'm offended by it, I should say, I suppose. It's still some form of harsh speech, but I don't have everything in place. Like I'm not intending it. I'm not like doing it to upset Keith because I know he hates swearing. And then I'm not, I'm not doing the whole act, but I'm still creating some negative karma. So even if just like the negative thought arises, it's still a negative thought. Report an error in the passage at 2:22:55 Highlight the passage at 2:22:55

2:23:17 So it still creates an imprint in your mind. It's like just a potential, a seed. Geshe prefers the word imprint to seed. But anyway, it creates this sort of potentiality in your mind that it's like an energy of potential in your mind. Report an error in the passage at 2:23:17 Highlight the passage at 2:23:17

2:23:36 And then that ripens and then that ripening causes some suffering to you at some point, probably mental suffering and probably in the form of anger arising again. And that's, that's. Report an error in the passage at 2:23:36 Highlight the passage at 2:23:36

2:23:47 So there's a lot of fine, they say karma actually is the most complicated of all the Buddhist teachings. There's so many ins and outs of it and there's so many specifics and in the Galupa tradition there's so many lists that you begin to memorize. Report an error in the passage at 2:23:47 Highlight the passage at 2:23:47

2:24:05 And all of those are additionally complicated by all the different conditions of the particular time and act and all that stuff. So it makes it very complicated. So we simplify it to talk about it, but it's never that simple. And sometimes I may create that act and then three lifetimes would go by and then I would feel a pang of sadness or something like that. Report an error in the passage at 2:24:05 Highlight the passage at 2:24:05

2:24:26 But they say that's how it works. Report an error in the passage at 2:24:26 Highlight the passage at 2:24:26

2:24:37 If you are generating that thought in order to work with it in meditation, it's probably different because it's not just arising of its own accord out of control. Or if you're looking, say, at a time that you were angry. Report an error in the passage at 2:24:37 Highlight the passage at 2:24:37

2:24:49 It's good when that happens that you don't spend a lot of time getting angry, you know, because you don't want to get yourself all riled up. But they do say that even like watching movies and things that are heavy, it can be heavy and heavy influence on our minds because our minds can get all riled up. Report an error in the passage at 2:24:49 Highlight the passage at 2:24:49

2:25:06 Like when we watch big adventure films and we're like, kill the guy! And they say that actually that's really negative because we're still creating seats, even though of course it's not as heavy because we aren't really wanting him to be the actor to be killed or anything like that, hopefully. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:06 Highlight the passage at 2:25:06

2:25:21 But if you've ever been in a theater where people are doing that, like, what was that movie? I mean, I remember everybody sort of jokes about it, but Saturday Night Fever? It's such a horrifying film, actually, when they were like raping that woman. And I just remember my sister and I were watching this movie and like all these guys were like just screaming like raper and all this stuff. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:21 Highlight the passage at 2:25:21

2:25:43 It was so heavy. This is like long ago, clearly. But I was like just we came out of the movie and we're just like completely like, and I just think about when I think about movies like that, if people allow their minds to get into that mindset of whatever the negative mind is of the protagonist or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:43 Highlight the passage at 2:25:43

2:26:01 It can be really yucky. And so we have to be really careful what we expose our minds to, whether it's TV or movies or, you know, reading material or whatever, because it does generate those negative states of mind. But if you're generating it to look at it and work with it and analyze it, then no, I don't think so. I think it's really different. OK, let's talk about Vajrasattva. Report an error in the passage at 2:26:01 Highlight the passage at 2:26:01

2:26:25 So you guys all have your own little Vajrasattva thing. And sorry, it's at a kind of funny angle. You have to put your little thing to the side. It's in the second to last of your little booklet. Report an error in the passage at 2:26:25 Highlight the passage at 2:26:25

2:26:42 It's as far as yourself a practice. And just kind of hold it open like, yeah, like that. Report an error in the passage at 2:26:42 Highlight the passage at 2:26:42

2:26:54 And we're going to do it as a practice and I'm going to talk you through it. Most, for the most part, you can actually just contemplate. You don't have to read along. If you want to read along, you can just read along. I think I just did it, the highlighted bits. Report an error in the passage at 2:26:54 Highlight the passage at 2:26:54

2:27:17 Yeah, it's just the highlighted bits that you can read and we can read those together. But if you prefer, you don't even have to. You could just contemplate the whole darn thing and it's just fine. So it's up to you. Report an error in the passage at 2:27:17 Highlight the passage at 2:27:17

2:27:35 So why don't we, we're going to do it as a practice. And so again, like with any practice, we're going to just take a moment to kind of, and I know that people get sleepy after lunch, so hopefully you won't fall asleep. But this is still better than having to prostrate after lunch. So, and there's a lot of visualizations to look at. Report an error in the passage at 2:27:35 Highlight the passage at 2:27:35

2:27:58 Think about, look at the guy on the back wall. Right above Charlotte. And Barbara. Report an error in the passage at 2:27:58 Highlight the passage at 2:27:58

2:28:11 So this is solitary, what's called solitary Vajrasapha. So that just means without consort. There are other images of Vajrasattva where he has a consort, but actually that's supposed to be for those with highest yoga tantra, so I didn't give you that image to have in your mind. That really, whenever you see images of deities with consorts, it's talking about the unification of method and wisdom, bodhicitta and emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 2:28:11 Highlight the passage at 2:28:11

2:28:38 So here we're just looking at him as combining both of those qualities. So he's holding the Vajran bell to symbolize those. So you see he's got the Vajra up in front of him and he's got the little bell to his side kind of jauntily raised at his hip. He always has his head kind of a little tilted, kind of rakishly. And he's pure white. He's got this pure white. Report an error in the passage at 2:28:38 Highlight the passage at 2:28:38

2:29:01 He's made of pure white light. All of them are made of light. So even though they look sort of solid for the drawing, they're just this energy. This enlightened purification energy. He's just embodying all these qualifications for us. So that's what he looks like. The pictures that I gave you were just sort of the best I could squeeze in and still have it stay one size. Report an error in the passage at 2:29:01 Highlight the passage at 2:29:01

2:29:25 So there's a line drawing in your text. And then there's also this other, it's a color drawing unfortunately, but I didn't get the color. Report an error in the passage at 2:29:25 Highlight the passage at 2:29:25

2:29:36 There's not that many great images of him solitary. Report an error in the passage at 2:29:36 Highlight the passage at 2:29:36

2:29:48 Okay, so then we do, with any practice, we would just sit for a moment and remember our motivation, why we're doing a purification practice. So just think about some of the things that we talked about this morning. Report an error in the passage at 2:29:48 Highlight the passage at 2:29:48

2:30:03 Even though we have all these great opportunities in our life, even though we have this amazing inclination or leaning towards wanting to, you know, study the teachings of the Buddha, wanting to put them into practice. Report an error in the passage at 2:30:03 Highlight the passage at 2:30:03

2:30:18 We have all these blocks, you know, our minds are sort of dull, especially right now, maybe obscured. We may not be able to understand certain things. It may be really difficult to understand certain things. Report an error in the passage at 2:30:18 Highlight the passage at 2:30:18

2:30:30 And it's taught that this comes from this sort of huge burden or load, baggage of negative karma that we've been carrying for many lifetimes, including this lifetime. Including probably today. Which blocks us. And unless we're able to purify it, not only will we carry it into the next life, so it could ripen at any time in this life or the next life as suffering, but it also makes it hard for us to study and progress on the path and develop compassion, develop our great qualities, wisdom, kindness. Report an error in the passage at 2:30:30 Highlight the passage at 2:30:30

2:31:13 And so forth. So unless we clear those obstacles, then we're sort of just, we just stuck. We stay stuck. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:13 Highlight the passage at 2:31:13

2:31:23 So wanting to be free of all these obstacles, then we do this practice together of Ajrasattva. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:23 Highlight the passage at 2:31:23

2:31:35 So I think actually before we start, you guys should all just take a few minutes and take as long as you need to. Well, within reason. Take a few minutes to just think about something that you regret. I should have actually reminded you to do that at lunch. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:35 Highlight the passage at 2:31:35

2:31:53 Something that you've done in the last day or two if possible so that you can really, it's really fresh in your mind. And remembering that regret isn't guilt. So you just are simply recognizing that this is just going to cause more suffering for you in the future if you don't purify it. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:53 Highlight the passage at 2:31:53

2:32:26 Who needs a few minutes more to think about something? Okay, so you guys all, that was easy, huh? We'll all have something that we want to purify. Report an error in the passage at 2:32:26 Highlight the passage at 2:32:26

2:32:45 Probably better right now just to have it be a one time. Yeah, I mean it's totally possible if you have a real problem with your speech or you have a real problem with whatever, an ongoing habit, definitely you can use this practice. Report an error in the passage at 2:32:45 Highlight the passage at 2:32:45

2:33:00 But why don't we, it doesn't matter, you can do it either way. I think it's easier to have it be something that has just sort of periodically happened or something that you're just sort of... One event that you're just sort of thinking of because then when we get to the point where we're resolving, it's not going to be quite as difficult. But I'll cover it either way. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:00 Highlight the passage at 2:33:00

2:33:17 So if this is an ongoing problem for you, that's cool too. If it's an ongoing problem, that means that you've created a lot of karma about it. So probably you would want to do this practice more than once for something like that. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:17 Highlight the passage at 2:33:17

2:33:35 Okay, so everybody has it in mind. So now we're going to start with actually the second of the four powers, the power of reliance. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:35 Highlight the passage at 2:33:35

2:33:46 So in this case, even though we're relying on, we're taking refuge in the Buddha, it doesn't mean we're asking the Buddha to clean our mind. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:46 Highlight the passage at 2:33:46

2:33:57 We're simply relying on his method, but we have to do the work. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:57 Highlight the passage at 2:33:57

2:34:05 And going for refuge is basically having an idea or some understanding of the kind of mess that we're in, where we keep creating these negative karmas, and then those negative karmas ripen, and then we suffer. And then based on them, we get angry or have some other mental affliction arise. And then based on that mental affliction, we create more karma and we just keep doing this. Report an error in the passage at 2:34:05 Highlight the passage at 2:34:05

2:34:29 And this is really what saṃsāra is. We just go round and around and around, unable to sort of get off the treadmill. So we take refuge because we're tired of that. We don't want it. We're relying on somebody who's figured out how to get off of the treadmill. Report an error in the passage at 2:34:29 Highlight the passage at 2:34:29

2:34:54 And then we also rely on other beings, so we generate bodhicitta by realizing that all these other beings around us, all the people in this class, all the beings we can't even see here, including insects, all the people in the city, in the country, in the world, all sentient beings, all beings with mind are in the exact same boat. Report an error in the passage at 2:34:54 Highlight the passage at 2:34:54

2:35:20 And they don't even have what we have, which is some understanding of what's going on and how to end it. Report an error in the passage at 2:35:20 Highlight the passage at 2:35:20

2:35:30 So out of compassion for them, we want to do this practice to get rid of our crap so that we can actually be able to help them as well. Report an error in the passage at 2:35:30 Highlight the passage at 2:35:30

2:35:47 And this is a form, at least some baby form of bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 2:35:47 Highlight the passage at 2:35:47

2:35:58 So we'll say refuge and if you want to you can recite it and if not just contemplate. Report an error in the passage at 2:35:58 Highlight the passage at 2:35:58

2:36:05 I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly. Was it different? Sorry. By my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly. By my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:05 Highlight the passage at 2:36:05

2:36:35 I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly. By my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:35 Highlight the passage at 2:36:35

2:36:53 So I'll set up the preliminary visualization for you. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:53 Highlight the passage at 2:36:53

2:37:01 Above the crown of my head appears a white lotus, which is clear and radiant and white. At the center of the lotus appears a white five-spoke vajra marked by a hum at the center. Report an error in the passage at 2:37:01 Highlight the passage at 2:37:01

2:37:18 Light radiates out from the Vajra into the Ten Directions, filling all of space. This light fulfills the two purposes of making offerings to all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and also purifying all sentient beings. And then it reabsorbs into the Vajra. The Vajra dissolves into light from which appears Vajrasattva. Report an error in the passage at 2:37:18 Highlight the passage at 2:37:18

2:37:46 He's white in color with one face and two arms. His left hand holds a bell slightly upturned at his left hip. His right hand holds a vajra at his heart. He's sitting in the full vajra posture and is dressed in robes of heavenly silk and adorned with precious jewel ornaments. Report an error in the passage at 2:37:46 Highlight the passage at 2:37:46

2:38:10 Remember that he's not solid at all, like us. He's completely made of pure, radiant white light. And if all you can imagine is white light, just remember that it embodies all these qualities of enlightenment, enlightened mind. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:10 Highlight the passage at 2:38:10

2:38:34 And his crown is a syllable om. At his throat, the syllable A, and at the center of a flat moon desk at his heart is the syllable HUNG. You can visualize them in English. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:34 Highlight the passage at 2:38:34

2:38:48 Around the edge of the moon desk, standing clockwise, are the 100 syllables of the mantra. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:48 Highlight the passage at 2:38:48

2:38:59 From the HUNG at his heart, much light radiates out, invoking the divine wisdom beings. The invoked wisdom beings come back. And become inseparable from Vajrasattva. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:59 Highlight the passage at 2:38:59

2:39:18 This is like turning on the power of your visualization. Report an error in the passage at 2:39:18 Highlight the passage at 2:39:18

2:39:25 Again, much light radiates out from the divine heart of Vajrasattva, invoking all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and the aspect of the five Dhyāna Buddhas. Report an error in the passage at 2:39:25 Highlight the passage at 2:39:25

2:39:35 These deities lift a vase filled with nectar and pour it on Vajrasattva's crown. The nectar fills his holy body. Excuse me. Report an error in the passage at 2:39:35 Highlight the passage at 2:39:35

2:40:08 And from the overflow on the crown of his head appears Akshobhya Buddha, who's blue in color. Report an error in the passage at 2:40:08 Highlight the passage at 2:40:08

2:40:17 Then meditating on the power of regret, especially call to mind the specific action of your body, speech and mind. And remember that this only will cause more suffering for ourselves if we let it remain in our mind stream. Report an error in the passage at 2:40:17 Highlight the passage at 2:40:17

2:40:43 Remember again that negative karma, the definition of negative karma, is any action that results in suffering. And any action motivated by ignorance or ignorantly liking things or ignorantly disliking things. And Report an error in the passage at 2:40:43 Highlight the passage at 2:40:43

2:41:08 most of the actions that I do 24 hours a day fall into this category. Report an error in the passage at 2:41:08 Highlight the passage at 2:41:08

2:41:24 It's like from birth to death in this life and it's been like this since beginning this rebirth. Nearly every action that I've ever done has been non-virtuous and so therefore it's the cause of my suffering. So having these negative imprints in my mind is unbearable. It's like I've swallowed a lethal poison and I must practice the antidote right away. Report an error in the passage at 2:41:24 Highlight the passage at 2:41:24

2:41:57 And this is why I want to purify without a second's delay. So Report an error in the passage at 2:41:57 Highlight the passage at 2:41:57

2:42:09 then we do a mandala offering. And again, you can just visualize or you can take part. This ground anointed Report an error in the passage at 2:42:09 Highlight the passage at 2:42:09

2:42:32 with perfume, strewn with flowers, adorned with Mount Meru, the four continents, the sun and the moon. I imagine this as a Buddha field and offer it. May all living beings enjoy this pure land. Report an error in the passage at 2:42:32 Highlight the passage at 2:42:32

2:42:56 It's like a way of offering the whole universe. Then we do the request together. O Bhagavan Vajrasapha, destroyer of all defilements, you who have all realizations and have passed to the other shore. Edam Guru Adnam Mantala Kam Niriya Tayami Report an error in the passage at 2:42:56 Highlight the passage at 2:42:56

2:43:12 I request you to purify all the negativities of myself and all other sentient beings and to wash away the defilements that have resulted from the breach and degeneration of my Samaya. Samaya is when we make pledges or promises, especially to our teachers, and then we break them. So imagine that Vajrasattva comes to the crown of your head. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:12 Highlight the passage at 2:43:12

2:43:34 And also remember that he's the essence of your own teacher, whether you have a teacher right now or not. As well as the essence of the holy mind of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. And that he's manifesting in this form out of incredible compassion to help us purify. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:34 Highlight the passage at 2:43:34

2:43:55 And then we do the third of the four powers, which is the power of remedy. And in this case, it's the practice of Vajrasattva. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:55 Highlight the passage at 2:43:55

2:44:05 So make a request in your heart for Vajrasattvas to help you purify all your negative karma related to whatever action that you're thinking of. Or actions, if you're doing more than one. Report an error in the passage at 2:44:05 Highlight the passage at 2:44:05

2:44:21 After this request is made, much radiant light goes out from the hung and bodhisattvas heart into the ten directions. This washes away all the defilements and negativities of all mother sentient beings. It also becomes an offering for all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas. The essence of their transcendental wisdom comes back in the form of light and sinks into the hung and mantra garland at his heart. Report an error in the passage at 2:44:21 Highlight the passage at 2:44:21

2:44:53 A powerful stream of white nectar flows from the hung and the mantra garland. And begins to cleanse me of all the sickness, spirit harm, negative karma and obscurations. From the hung and the mantra at his heart, much blissful white nectar flows down and enters our bodies, purifying all the negativities and defilements of body, speech and mind. Report an error in the passage at 2:44:53 Highlight the passage at 2:44:53

2:45:17 So as we recite the mantra together, you can visualize in three ways. You can either choose one or you can alternate. So for actions that are physical, that you've done with your body, You can imagine the white nectar filling you up from your crown and all your negativities leaving your body like inky black liquid or soot and just going into the earth where it nullifies and disappears. Report an error in the passage at 2:45:17 Highlight the passage at 2:45:17

2:45:48 So it's sort of like filling a container from the top and all the negativities are kind of going out through the bottom, say through the lower orifices. Report an error in the passage at 2:45:48 Highlight the passage at 2:45:48

2:46:01 For negativities of speech, they say you can imagine... Nectar filling you up like you might fill a vessel and all the negativities are floating on the surface of the water and then coming out through your upper orifices, especially your mouth. Report an error in the passage at 2:46:01 Highlight the passage at 2:46:01

2:46:25 And then for the negativities of your mind, Report an error in the passage at 2:46:25 Highlight the passage at 2:46:25

2:46:31 you can imagine the nectar is more like light filling your body, like when you turn on a light switch and a dark room instantly becomes brilliant with white light. Report an error in the passage at 2:46:31 Highlight the passage at 2:46:31

2:46:58 So we'll recite the mantra together. And those who know it by heart can just recite it. And then otherwise we can read it and we'll read it slowly. We're going to go ahead and do 21 just because we can and we want to purify. Report an error in the passage at 2:46:58 Highlight the passage at 2:46:58

2:47:18 So try to do the visualization. It's hard when you're still reading the mantra. But just occasionally be really aware that this mantra itself has power. That your sincerity of your regret has power. That Vajrasattva has power. And just let yourself, it's sort of like surrendering yourself to the practice. Just allow this, just imagine this sort of really purifying white light nectar just flowing through you and just cleansing this away. Report an error in the passage at 2:47:18 Highlight the passage at 2:47:18

2:47:53 Om Vajra Safa Samaya Manupalaya Vajra Safa Denapatita Nidu me bhava Suto kayo me bhava Supo kayo me bhava Anuraktu me bhava Sarva Siddhi me paryatsa Sarva Karma Sutta me Chitam Shiram Kuru Hum, Ha Ha Ha Ha Ho Bhagawan, Sarva Tata Gata Vajra Mame Mutsa Vajra Bhava Maha Samaya Satva Ahum Bhed. Report an error in the passage at 2:47:53 Highlight the passage at 2:47:53

2:48:33 Om Vajra Safa Samaya Manu Palaya Vajra Safa Denupatita Nirume Bhava Suto Kayame Bhava Shippo kayo me bhava, Anuraktur me bhava, Sarva siddhi me paryatsa, Sarva karma susa me, Report an error in the passage at 2:48:33 Highlight the passage at 2:48:33

2:48:58 Jiram kuru hum, Ha ha ha ha ho bhagava, Sarva tatha gatha vajra, Mame mudza vajra bhava, Maha samaya sattva ahun pe. Om Vajrasaffa Samaya Manapalaya Vajrasaffa Denupatita Deedomebhava Suttokayo mebhava Suttokayo mebhava Anuraktum mebhava Sarvasiddhi meparyatsva Sarva Karma Sutsame Chiram Guru Hum Hahahaha Bhagava Sarva-tata-gata-vajra-ma-me-mutsa-vajra-bhava-ma-samaya-sapha-ahum-pe-om Vajra-sapha-samaya-manu-balaya Vajra-sapha-denu-patita-me-bhava-supa-kayo-me-bhava- Supo kayo me bhava, anurakti me bhava, sarva siddhi me parayatsa sarva karma suddha me, sitam shiram kuru hum, ha ha ha ha ho bhagavan, sarva tatha gatha vajra mame mudsa vajra bhava maha samaya sapva ahung pe. Report an error in the passage at 2:48:58 Highlight the passage at 2:48:58

2:50:33 Vajrasapha Samaya Manupalaya Vajrasapha Denupatita No me bhava Suto kayo me bhava Suto kayo me bhava Anuraktam me bhava Sarva siddhi me pariyatsa sarva karma suddha me Chitam shiram kuru hum Ha ha ha ha ho Bhagava Sarvatata Gata Vajra Mame Mutsa Vajra Bhava Maha Samaya Sapa Ahung Pe Om Vajra Sapa Samaya Manupalaya Vajra Sapa Dinupatita Bhava Suto Kayame Bhava Suto Kayame Bhava Anuraktume Bhava Anuraktume Bhava Sarva-siri me parayata sarva-karma-sutsa me sitam-shiram-kuru-hung ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ho bhagawan sarva-tata-gata-vajra-mame mutsa-vajra-bhava-mah samaya-safa-ahung pe om vajra-safa-samaya manapalaya vajra-safa-denu-bhatita. Report an error in the passage at 2:50:33 Highlight the passage at 2:50:33

2:52:00 Me bhava, suttokayo me bhava, suttokayo me bhava, anuraktu me bhava, sarva siddhi me parayatsa sarva karmasutsa me sitam siram kuru hum, ha ha ha ha ho bhagava. Sarva-tata-gata-vajra-mame-mudza-vajra-bhava-maha-zamaya-sapha-ahum-pe-om-vajra-sapha-samaya-manu-palaya-vajra-sapha-denupadita-shira-me-bhava-supakaya-me-bhava-supakaya-me-bhava. Report an error in the passage at 2:52:00 Highlight the passage at 2:52:00

2:52:47 Narakta me bhava sarva siri me parayatsa sarva karma sutsa me sitam shiram kuru hum ha ha ha ha ho bhagavam sarva tatha gatha vajra mame mudsa vajra bhava maha samaya sapa ahung pe om vajra sapa samaya Report an error in the passage at 2:52:47 Highlight the passage at 2:52:47

2:53:16 Vajra Safa, Dana. Vajrasafadenapatita, niru me bhava, sutto kayo me bhava, sutto kayo me bhava, nirakti me bhava, sarva siddhi me parayata, sarva karma siddha me. Chitam shiram kuru hoong, ha ha ha ha ho, bhagawa, sarvatata gatha vajramame, mudsa vajra bhava, maha samaya sapa ahum be, om vajra sapa samaya, manapalaya, vajra sapa denupadita, nirume bhava, suttokaya me bhava, Tsupo kayo me bhava, Anarakti me bhava, Sarva siddhi me parayata, Sarva karma sutha me. Report an error in the passage at 2:53:16 Highlight the passage at 2:53:16

2:54:13 Shittam shiram kuruhoong ha-ha-ha-ha-ho-bhagawa Sarvatata gatha vajra-ma-me-mutsa vajra-bhava-maha-samaya-sapha-ahung-phe Om vajra-sapha-samaya-manabalaya Vajra-sapha-denupatita-me -bhava-supokaya-me-bhava Supo kayo me bhava, Anarattu me bhava, Sarva siri me parayatsa, Sarva karma susa me, Sritam shiram kuru hum, Ha ha ha ha ha, O Bhagavan, Sarva tata gata vajra, Mame mudza vajra, Bhava maha samaya sapva ahung pe, Om Vajra Safa Samaya Manapalaya Vajra Safa Denupadita Jidho me bhava Suttokaya me bhava Suttokaya me bhava Anurakti me bhava Sarva Siddhi me Paryatza Sarva Karma Sudha me Sittam Shiram Guru Hoong Ha Ha Ha Ha Ho Bhagawan Sarva Tata Gata Vajra Malme Muta Vajra Bhava Mahasamaya Sattva Ahum Phe Om Vajrasattva Samaya Manupalaya Vajrasafadenupatita Jidomebhava Suttokayo mebhava Suttokayo mebhava Anuraktum mebhava Siddhi me parayata sarva karma sutta me sitam shiram kuru hum ha ha ha ho bhagawan sarva tata gata vajra ma me mutta vajra bhava ma samaya safa ahum peyam vajra safa samaya Manapalaya Vajrasafadenu Bhattita, Vido me bhava, Sutto kayo me bhava, Kayo me bhava, Anarakti me bhava, Sarva siri me parayata, Sarva kama suta me, Sthitam shiram kuru hung, Ha ha ha ha ho bhagavan, Sarva tatta gatha, Report an error in the passage at 2:54:13 Highlight the passage at 2:54:13

2:57:00 am Mutzah Vajra Bawa Maha. Report an error in the passage at 2:57:00 Highlight the passage at 2:57:00

2:57:06 Vajra Saffa Samaya Manipalaya Vajra Saffa Denipatita Dido me bhava, Suto kayo me bhava, Supo kayo me bhava, Anurakta me bhava, Sarva siddhi me pariyatsa, Sarva karma siddha me, Sitam shiram kuru hoong, Ha ha ha ha ho, Bhagavan, Sarva tata gata vajram ame mudsa. Ava Mahasamaya Safa Ahung Pe Om Vajra Safa Samaya Manupalaya Vajra Safa Denupatita Dido me bhava Suto kayo me bhava Suto kayo me bhava Anurakti me bhava Sarva Siddhi me Paryata Sarva Karma Sutta me Sritam Sriram Kuru Hoong Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ho Bhagavan Sarva Tata Gata Vajra Mame Muta Vajra Bhava Maha Samaya Saffa Ahum Bhai Om Vajra Saffa Samaya Manu Balaya Vajra Saffa Denu Bhatita Hiru me bhava, sutto kayo me bhava, sutto kayo me bhava, anurakti me bhava, sarva siri me parayata, sarva karma susa me, sitam siram guru hum, ha ha ha ha ho, bhagawan, sarva tatha gatha vajra, mame mutsa vajra bhava ma, Samaya Saffa Ahum Phe Om Vajra Saffa Samaya Manapalaya Vajra Saffa Denupatita Mebhava Supo Kaya Mebhava Supo Kaya Mebhava Anurakta Mebhava Sarva Siddhi Me Parayasa Sarva Karma Siddhi Me Shittam Shiram Kuruhum, Ha-ha-ha-ha-ho Bhagawan, Sarvatata Gata Vajra Mame Muta Vajra Bhava, Maha Samaya Saffa Ahum, Phe Om Vajra Saffa Samaya, Manapalaya Vajra Saffa Denuvadita, Niro me bhava, Suttokaya me bhava, Suttokaya me bhava, Anuraktam me bhava, Sarva siri me parayatsa sarva karma sutsa me sitam shiram kuru hun ha ha ha ho bhagavan sarva tata gata vajra mame mutsa vajra bhava maha samaya satpa ahun So Report an error in the passage at 2:57:06 Highlight the passage at 2:57:06

3:00:25 visualize the final purifying stream of white nectar and light pour forth from Vajrasattva's holy body and mind. Imagine it like a very, very strong shower, completely cleansing our mind and our body of every single negativity, every single mental veil. Report an error in the passage at 3:00:25 Highlight the passage at 3:00:25

3:00:44 These completely wash away and our body and our mind become completely calm and clear like crystal. Report an error in the passage at 3:00:44 Highlight the passage at 3:00:44

3:00:56 So you feel that you're completely purified and feel very happy. And Vajrasapha is very happy too. Report an error in the passage at 3:00:56 Highlight the passage at 3:00:56

3:01:10 And from the crown of your head, Guru Vajrasapha says, My child, your negativities, obscurations and broken and damaged pledges have been completely purified. Generate strong faith that all is completely purified, exactly as he said. Report an error in the passage at 3:01:10 Highlight the passage at 3:01:10

3:01:30 Then we bring to mind the fourth of the four powers, the power of resolve. The determination not to harm with our body, speech and mind again. Report an error in the passage at 3:01:30 Highlight the passage at 3:01:30

3:01:42 Without this, we just keep doing the same negative things again. Report an error in the passage at 3:01:42 Highlight the passage at 3:01:42

3:01:48 But if we make this resolve, it's like a beacon. It guides us in a new direction. Report an error in the passage at 3:01:48 Highlight the passage at 3:01:48

3:01:56 With some acts, we can actually say, I'll never do this again in my life. Report an error in the passage at 3:01:56 Highlight the passage at 3:01:56

3:02:04 But be realistic. Report an error in the passage at 3:02:04 Highlight the passage at 3:02:04

3:02:08 If you can make a determination of time, like I won't do this again for six months, one month, one day, one hour, ten minutes, two minutes. Report an error in the passage at 3:02:08 Highlight the passage at 3:02:08

3:02:28 Just pick a time that you know you can keep it and keep it purely. And make it realistic depending on what the problem is. Report an error in the passage at 3:02:28 Highlight the passage at 3:02:28

3:02:49 So before Vajrasapha, I vow again never to commit these negative actions, which I can easily abstain, and not to commit for whatever amount of time, those that I find difficult. Report an error in the passage at 3:02:49 Highlight the passage at 3:02:49

3:03:07 And then imagine that Vajrasapha is very, very pleased and melts into white light and dissolves into you. Report an error in the passage at 3:03:07 Highlight the passage at 3:03:07

3:03:19 And your body, speech and mind become inseparable with Guru Vajrasapha's holy body, speech and mind. And meditate on that union. Report an error in the passage at 3:03:19 Highlight the passage at 3:03:19

3:03:41 In emptiness there is no I creator of negative karma, no action of creating the negative karma, and no negative karma created from its own side. Report an error in the passage at 3:03:41 Highlight the passage at 3:03:41

3:04:05 Neither we or our actions or the thoughts that provoke them exist in this solid, absolute, unchangeable way that they see. Report an error in the passage at 3:04:05 Highlight the passage at 3:04:05

3:04:31 And then take a moment to truly rejoice and to feel, really honestly believe that you're purified. They say that this is actually the hardest part. Report an error in the passage at 3:04:31 Highlight the passage at 3:04:31

3:04:44 To really believe it, that it has power, that doing it has power, that it works. Because then this is where we get to let go of that negative act forever. Report an error in the passage at 3:04:44 Highlight the passage at 3:04:44

3:05:00 And then we do these dedications. Through the merits of this virtuous practice, may I quickly attain the state of a Guru Vajrasapha and lead all beings without exception into that enlightened state. May the precious bodhi mind, not yet born, arise and grow. May that born have no decline, but increase forevermore. Report an error in the passage at 3:05:00 Highlight the passage at 3:05:00

3:05:31 So do people have any questions about that practice? Report an error in the passage at 3:05:31 Highlight the passage at 3:05:31

3:05:40 Oh, okay. Sorry. I'm sorry. I was like still in my little state. Report an error in the passage at 3:05:40 Highlight the passage at 3:05:40

3:05:48 Feeling clean, clear, like crystal for a moment longer. So we don't need to have had empowerment? No, actually. I think traditionally, yeah, you did. But I was telling Karen actually on the break, in this, in Lama Yeshi's lineage, he had people start doing Vajrasapha from the very beginning. And he had us actually visualizing with consort, which I feel uncomfortable. So I always have people visualize solitary. So I think he felt like in his wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 3:05:48 Highlight the passage at 3:05:48

3:06:22 There was a lot of merit, especially for Westerners, because he was encountering this kind of guilty mind that so many Westerners have, that there was a lot of merit for us to just start practicing right now. Report an error in the passage at 3:06:22 Highlight the passage at 3:06:22

3:06:37 At Copan, they teach it from the very first day. That comes from a different... Yeah, no, I think probably to do the retreat, it's best to have the empowerment, for sure. So doing a practice in that sense, but doing it as a daily practice, nope. It's just always been taught in all the FPMG centers, you can just go ahead and start practicing it. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 3:06:37 Highlight the passage at 3:06:37

3:07:04 Karen, did you have a question? Report an error in the passage at 3:07:04 Highlight the passage at 3:07:04

3:07:11 How do we shorten it? Report an error in the passage at 3:07:11 Highlight the passage at 3:07:11

3:07:16 Just the way I said earlier. Visualize, do the four powers, do the mantra and be done. Dedicate. Don't forget to dedicate. And don't forget to motivate. So the key points are motivation, four powers, including the mantra, feeling like it worked, dedicating. Report an error in the passage at 3:07:16 Highlight the passage at 3:07:16

3:07:44 Do people need another break before we start prostrations? I mean, we're not going to start the prostrations. I'm going to tell you about them first. Okay. How about a five-minute break? Report an error in the passage at 3:07:44 Highlight the passage at 3:07:44

3:07:58 And then I'm just going to tell you about them, and then we're going to do them. And it really honestly only takes about 12 minutes to do the actual practice of the prostrations. So don't get too worried. Start removing all your clothes or something. Because it is a hot day. Could you get me some hot water? Would you mind? Yeah, because I realize I don't have any more. Report an error in the passage at 3:07:58 Highlight the passage at 3:07:58

3:08:17 I always just sit here and people do ask questions. If somebody says something really private. So the question is, for the listener at home, why do we do 21? And then also there's why do we do 108, which is always a question for me. I think they're just numbers that have strength because they're numbers that are brought up in the sutras for some reason. Report an error in the passage at 3:08:17 Highlight the passage at 3:08:17

3:08:38 But, you know, who knows? There's also seven sometimes they say. 28 of the short mantra. If you do the short mantra, that's something actually I didn't mention. If you do the short mantra, they say you do 28 times. Why? Who knows? You have to do it seven more times because it's short. I don't know. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 3:08:38 Highlight the passage at 3:08:38

3:09:03 Yes, it's very long, but you do memorize it. Once you memorize it, it's, yeah, then it's fast. When you're doing the retreat, of course, you don't just say it out loud. Like we do it as a, I really love the practice saying it out loud, I have to say. When I first learned it at Copan. Report an error in the passage at 3:09:03 Highlight the passage at 3:09:03

3:09:19 We, you know, you chanting it together in a group I just love. I absolutely love that. So when we went and did it, I did a group, this group retreat. You know, we're all doing it just quietly. You're just, you know, you're doing your mantras all quietly. Well, there's one girl, there's one girl who thought she was supposed to be singing it like that in her head. So she's, you know, the rest of us are all like stressed out about numbers and everything. Report an error in the passage at 3:09:19 Highlight the passage at 3:09:19

3:09:39 She's just like, you know, doing the whole thing, you know, and doing the, and it was really honestly like in the end of the second month when she finally figured out that she wasn't. Because she was like so far behind everybody else in a time when we were not supposed to be talking about it, but we were where we were and how close we were. I think somebody had finished and left already. Report an error in the passage at 3:09:39 Highlight the passage at 3:09:39

3:09:57 That's how we knew. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 3:09:57 Highlight the passage at 3:09:57

3:10:02 Yeah. The chanting is great, but doing it as a daily practice, you don't have to. My point was you can just, you just do, yeah. And you're doing it like that. Yeah. And it's quite fast too that way. Even that didn't take so long. It doesn't take long at all. Yeah. And if you're doing it by yourself and you think it's going to take really long as an evening practice and it honestly takes no time. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 3:10:02 Highlight the passage at 3:10:02

3:10:30 Yeah. Yeah. I know you think. Yeah. By the time, especially if you haven't done it before, by the time you're two thirds through, you start hearing the fidgeting started. Right. Right. I know. Report an error in the passage at 3:10:30 Highlight the passage at 3:10:30

3:10:49 Yeah. Exactly. And I can feel the energy change in the room too. There's like people are first reading it and there's some kind of concern and then you really start hearing people relax into it. I love that because you just feel that energy and people are just starting, people start getting louder. I started hearing Keith a lot more and I was like, yeah, when I lead chanting and we only get through seven, you don't get to that place. Report an error in the passage at 3:10:49 Highlight the passage at 3:10:49

3:11:14 It's really nice to just go for the 21. But I remember one New Year's Eve I was leading it and Joanna, who now is our education director at that point, she was our office manager, she stayed and she was doing the mantras and I'm sure she thought I was just going to do 21. But I was like, it's New Year's Eve, let's go for 108. And I passed 21 and you could just feel her tense up. She was like, oh God, because she knew there wasn't anything between 21 and 108. Report an error in the passage at 3:11:14 Highlight the passage at 3:11:14

3:11:38 But I'm like, you know, it's the end of the year, let's get rid of it all. Report an error in the passage at 3:11:38 Highlight the passage at 3:11:38

3:11:45 Just doing it. Just doing it. Yeah, just doing it. There's no shortcut. Where it's recorded? Sure. I actually just noticed that there's one out there that says Prostrations to 35 Buddhas and it's probably got it recorded on there. And I bet you could Google too. Just listen. And also I bet on Tipton Children's. She probably does. Check on Tipton Children. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 3:11:45 Highlight the passage at 3:11:45

3:12:14 You can also check on ours. Yeah, and you can also check on archive.org because, you know, Rubina has led Daylongs before. We've had other teachers lead Daylongs, in which case you could just chant along with it at home, which is really nice. Like this. This will be recorded and uploaded, so you can recreate the moment at home and just listen to this. Report an error in the passage at 3:12:14 Highlight the passage at 3:12:14

3:12:40 It is. When you're at Copan and you're doing this. Thank you, sweetie. Okay, I'll just. Let it stay open for when I need it. When we're doing it as a group at Copan and it's an entire room of like 200 people from all different nations all chanting it together, it's just lovely. And often when we are just doing it here, that whole feeling comes back to me, that feeling of just like filling this huge compa with our voices. It's really great. Report an error in the passage at 3:12:40 Highlight the passage at 3:12:40

3:13:11 And we just do that every night. So by the end of the month, man, you totally got it down. You got the visualizations down, the mantra. Report an error in the passage at 3:13:11 Highlight the passage at 3:13:11

3:13:28 Om Vajra Safa Hum. Yeah, yeah. That's usually what it is. Yeah. They say it doesn't have quite the purifying power or something, because otherwise we'd all do that. Report an error in the passage at 3:13:28 Highlight the passage at 3:13:28

3:13:44 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it works in a pinch, and especially if you're at work or, you know, like on the bus or something. Report an error in the passage at 3:13:44 Highlight the passage at 3:13:44

3:13:55 Sometimes. It depends on what I've just done. Report an error in the passage at 3:13:55 Highlight the passage at 3:13:55

3:14:00 No, because I do it pretty fast. So I can do the long one pretty fast, actually. If I've just done something and it's, it depends, it totally depends on the moment. If we're in the middle of a meeting, I'm not going to sit in there and do 21, although I can do 21 fairly fast because I've done so much of them. Report an error in the passage at 3:14:00 Highlight the passage at 3:14:00

3:14:18 I would think the four, the same that I told her, motivation, the four powers, the, you know, one of the powers is the mantra and the visualization and then the dedication and that'd be pretty much it, yeah. But you can do it. You can go through it pretty fast. It doesn't sound like it. Like right now, you're just getting familiar. But, you know, if you've done something, say I just have been in a meeting and Cedric brought up some things and it made me defensive and I yelled at him or something. Report an error in the passage at 3:14:18 Highlight the passage at 3:14:18

3:14:45 And I'm like, you know, and I'm like, excuse me a moment. I mean, you know, if we're not in a Buddhist center, I could actually just, we could probably even do Vajrasana together. But I'm going to go into the bathroom and just going to go, okay. I don't want this in my mind stream because I don't want to stay in saṃsāra any longer and I want to benefit beings. I'm going to go ahead and take refuge and generate bodhicitta, understanding what that means. Report an error in the passage at 3:14:45 Highlight the passage at 3:14:45

3:15:07 I'm going to go ahead and issue my regret, generate that regret as genuinely and strongly as I can, do the mantras and then resolve. For the rest of this meeting, no matter what Cedric says, no matter how many of my faults he brings up or points out, I am not going to get angry. I'm just not going to get angry because I don't want this in my mind anymore. That's my resolve. And then I dedicate. And then I'm out of there. So it really can be that fast. Report an error in the passage at 3:15:07 Highlight the passage at 3:15:07

3:15:33 Yeah. That's where the own Vashya Safahun could come in handy. Because otherwise Cedric might come to the room and be like, Chokyi, we have to finish this meeting. Report an error in the passage at 3:15:33 Highlight the passage at 3:15:33

3:15:50 Okay, so now prostrations. Report an error in the passage at 3:15:50 Highlight the passage at 3:15:50

3:15:56 My voice carried, actually. I just had to swallow a billion times. Report an error in the passage at 3:15:56 Highlight the passage at 3:15:56