← Lobsang Chokyi

Transforming Problems into the Path - How Problems Help (27 January 2011)

Lobsang Chokyi · 27 January 2011 · 2 h 15 min · Tse Chen Ling via Internet Archive

Download audio

Automated transcript, estimated accuracy about 90% for this source; report an error.

Words the recogniser was unsure of are underlined with dots. Use “Report an error” beside any passage to tell us what the teacher actually says.

Key passages

The teacher's own words, quoted from the transcript below and chosen automatically as representative.

  • 37:49

    A little bit about self-cherishing mind. The blinders of self-absorption. So self-cherishing mind is this phrase sort of coined by the Tibetans. And you can kind of think about all these different ways to describe it. I mean, selfishness, I think, works to a degree. I think selfishness sometimes to us sounds more like miserliness or something heavier than we think we are. Although it actually is apropos sometimes.

  • 47:32

    And thank you, Eric, for copying it again and also for running next door and copying it. With the thought of attaining enlightenment for the welfare of all beings who are more precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel, I will constantly practice holding them dear. So we're just going to do that one verse. We're going to take it line by line. So it starts with this thought of attaining enlightenment for the welfare of all beings. That's bodhicitta, right? So we're starting with bodhicitta. So this is already assuming that with it, that we already have it, that we already have this motivation for our lives.

  • 1:14:38

    But let's go on with verse 2. Whenever I am with others, I will practice seeing myself as the lowest of all. And from the very depth of my heart, I will respectfully hold others as supreme. So this verse is not telling us to become a doormat. That's number one. It's dealing with pride. It's definitely dealing with the affliction of pride. So we're going to talk about a little bit later.

  • 1:21:15

    So you miss all those great opportunities to learn. I will practice seeing myself as the lowest of all is the antidote. I will practice seeing myself as the lowest of all. Does that mean all the time we're going to become a doormat? No, it's talking about as a direct antidote to this mind of pride. When the mind of pride arises, then it doesn't mean that we develop low self-esteem, thinking that we're really, really bad, a really bad Buddhist even, or incapable or whatever.

  • 1:56:56

    But we're training our mind over time to see each problem that arises as an opportunity. I mean, that's really what we're training our mind to do. It's an opportunity to practice. And that's everything. So that's, you know, we start little. Just like with patients, they say, you know, you start with little tiny things and we develop that patience. So in this case, we start with little tiny opportunities.

0:29 of here in the city, but it's just, Report an error

· · ·

1:06 All Report an error

· · ·

7:16 right, so we're going to start with a little meditation on the breath and set our motivation for the class. Hey, how are you? Report an error

7:29 And then we're going to open up with... Check in and some announcements and then we're going to sort of launch in. Eric, you're here. Did you make the copies? Cool. Great. Thank you for doing that. That was really kind of you. Okay, so we're just going to start. Just take some nice deep belly breaths and you can imagine letting go of the day. Report an error

7:55 Any distractions that you might feel that might keep you from being fully present. Report an error

8:02 Sometimes people imagine breathing in white light, all those qualities that you want and need, concentration, you know, centeredness, ability to think clearly, to listen, clarity. You can imagine breathing those in in the form of white light and you can imagine breathing out all the stuff you don't want. So that sort of distracted, sluggish, agitated mind, if you're still... Report an error

8:30 Thinking about a problem you might have left at work, just leave it at work. You can pick it up on your way out, actually, if you want to leave it outside the door. So just kind of work with that, breathing in white light, breathing out the yucky stuff. Report an error

8:45 If that doesn't work for you, you can just watch your breath. Report an error

· · ·

9:39 And then as your mind and your breath begin to calm down, just start formulating a motivation for being here. We all have different reasons for being here. Report an error

9:54 We're taught in this tradition to try to cultivate sort of the vastest motivation we can. So not just for our own happiness that we want to figure out how to work with our problems and become happier. Report an error

10:11 And not just for the people that we love. Report an error

10:16 We want to really try to cultivate this mind that doesn't stop with those, doesn't stop with me and mine, but stretches out and begins to include everyone. Report an error

10:36 We may be at the very beginning of our spiritual path, or maybe we want to move slowly, or maybe we just naturally move slowly. And that's okay. But we start, even at this point, cultivating this mind of bodhicitta, trying to imagine what it would feel like to have this mind that encompasses all other living beings without exception, works for their benefit, wants to work for their benefit. Report an error

11:07 Finds joy and happiness working for others and even takes this class for working for others to help us understand these teachings, to learn to apply them and begin to shape our mind, transform our mind, train our mind so that we too can become Buddhas, Report an error

11:37 so that we can benefit others beginning with ourselves. Report an error

11:57 So as you're ready you can end your... Meditation, and we'll start with the opening prayer, which is on page 8 of the white book in front of you. Report an error

12:24 Across from page 8, if you've got an interesting book like mine. With the wish to free all beings, I shall always go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha until I reach full enlightenment, inspired by wisdom and compassion, today in the Buddha's presence. I generate the mind of full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. As long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world. Report an error

13:21 She's on it, man. Thank you, Jessica. Report an error

13:28 We're going to take this show on the road. Um, yeah. Report an error

13:33 So we do have a seat available on the front if anybody in the back would like to be closer. I just wanted to let you guys know. And if when people come in, if people kind of help them find a seat, I guess there's another one next to you too, right? Yeah, that's probably the one they'll grab. And there's one there too. So that's good. This is always the more embarrassing one to move to if that's the only one in the room. Report an error

13:58 But I'm mentioning it so that you guys can help other people find their seat if they come in late. So check in. Have people been contemplating, especially this past week we were talking about the preliminary contemplations to the Lojang teachings and I'm wondering if people have any feeling about why these might be the preliminary teachings and if they sort of thought about them a little bit and if they had questions about them or if we need to talk about them a little bit more. Report an error

14:32 Anybody have anything that came up for them this week? Report an error

14:42 Marcella, yeah. Report an error

14:47 For me it was a very, very blessed week. Reading and trying to practice through the meditation about the points that you leave us. I believe for me it's like an introduction, you know, to be aware about how Why we have to transform our minds, be conscious about the important role that we're having now, the opportunity to serve others, and at the same time be more aware about why, because of the causes that I generate, I'm receiving now. Report an error

15:38 You know all the purification that I'm receiving Report an error

15:47 I was feeling more happy because I was more conscious about the opportunity that I'm having to be here until today. Excellent, yeah. So you covered actually all of them, except refuge so much, but you definitely covered precious human rebirth, right? You had this amazing opportunity, so grab it, you know. Report an error

16:20 A little bit of death and impermanence in there just because we don't know how long it'll last, right? And then karma, that we create the causes. So we have created the causes for whatever purification, which is often a code word for problems in Buddhist communities. is Report an error

16:41 But we also can create the causes for enlightenment and for good conditions and for all the stuff we want to happen. So we create those conditions too and that falls on us. And then refuge, just getting it. Even though we talk about the precious human rebirth and how great it is, obviously, ultimately, we want to get out of saṃsāra. Report an error

17:07 And refuge is sort of... Getting that situation and getting that the methods that the Buddha used can help us get out because he's used them to get out. It's like, you know, this guy's found his way to Paris and he knows the way. So I think I'll try that way because I've been trying to find Paris for a long time and haven't gotten there, you know, so it's very much like that. Report an error

17:30 It's not that the Buddha has anything over any of us except that he's done it. Yeah, so then we just take refuge in that. Yeah. Really great. Thank you. Anybody else? Anything come up for people this week when you've been contemplating these four? And I know you all have every single day. Report an error

17:50 David? Report an error

17:54 Yeah, earlier in the week then, we have, there's a couple that Susan and I are very close friends with, which, by the way, she extends her condolences. She's not feeling very well, so she's home with a good... Take care of our poodles. That's good. I hope they're on it. Yeah. Eight paws. Eight paws and they're big. So there's a couple that we're very close friends with and the husband, who's younger than the rest of us, got diagnosed with colon and rectal cancer. Report an error

18:26 And so, you know, it's kind of, it's one of those things where you look at that and you realize, I mean, being in the medical field, you... Sort of get these reminders all the time, but it's that ideas as stuff comes up. It's like, you know, I don't have time to goof around. You know, I just have to practice. Report an error

18:47 There's like, there's no time to spare. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you don't want to just get all freaked out about it either. It's just a reminder. Yeah, no, no. I mean, I don't. I'm the Energizer Bunny. Yeah, I mean, I don't get freaked out about that because I always, whenever that stuff happens, I see that as a, you know, it's just a, it deepens my practice and a confirmation of just truly the way things are, but it's always just a really good reminder. Report an error

19:08 That's it. You don't know, you know, and how important that is. It's just like when you say, well, how are you going to, what are you going to be doing when the plane's going down? Yeah. You know, it's not like sometimes you don't get to just sort of lie in a bed and like, you know, have your friends come by and put up a stupa. Right, right, right. You know, sometimes it's like. Report an error

19:27 Yeah, yeah. And there's been a few times actually where I've had, I think it's a very common nightmare, like you're in a plane and it's like, you know, and it's starting to go down and you're thinking. I've never had that nightmare. I've had it a number of times. It's good practice. Boy, I'll tell you. Report an error

19:44 And you're going down and you're thinking, well, is this a dream? Is it not? And is this going on? And then so there's been a few times it's like, well, just in case it's not. And then it's like, OK, I'm going to start taking refuge and things like that. Oh, that's so great. Yeah, you know, it's like, OK, here we go. That's really kind of that's what dream yoga is, that whole practice that it's a really quite advanced practice. Report an error

20:03 But really, it's starting to try to work with our minds, you know, all the time so that. When it really does happen, then we've gotten practice at it. I usually do it when I'm on a plane. First of all, when I start, I always motivate the plane ride. I take time and I'm like, if anything should happen, let me keep my mind so that I can help the people around me and not completely freak out. If I die, let my family not. Report an error

20:31 I do this whole little prayer. Then when you're on it and it starts going, or something weird happens, I'm just like, okay. Report an error

20:39 This could be it, you know, and so then I just kind of begin preparing my mind. Most of the time, obviously, it's not, but at some time it might be. And the more that you kind of get used to it, you know, the same in a car, something happens, it's like, okay, we got out of that one, but what if we hadn't, you know, just kind of like using all those little things, you know. Report an error

20:59 We start with the little stuff. If anyone wants visualizations on planes going down, I'll see me at the break and I'll give you some good images. Obviously, a common dream, huh? Wow. Report an error

21:09 Common dream, I haven't, yeah, I've never had that one. No, but good, yeah, good things to remember. Using all those things that we even just read about, hear about on the news, you know, everything, we can use everything, you know. Things that happen in our friends' lives, like you were saying too, yeah. Report an error

21:28 Anyone else? Anything come up for anyone this week? You want to say something? Well, I kind of don't, but I really want to share it because it's like bad Buddhist sharing. Uh-oh. Yeah, I feel... Should we all look away? I think something's wrong with me. I think so, too. We've all been thinking that, actually. Report an error

21:46 I know. It's too bad. Too bad you have to be you this life, but somebody had to do it. I want to be like the bad Buddhist in the room and share this. I mean, I actually have been thinking about... About the precious human rebirth and trying to work with that a little bit more. And so I can I can kind of get that whole urgency a lot of during the day, you know, like, OK, I got to focus more. Report an error

22:11 I've got to spend my time more wisely. And it always ends up making me stay up later than I should and all this stuff because I'm like, I should fit this and I should read this right now or whatever. But the problem is I've been trying to work with it in the morning. To get up and meditate, right? And so I'm like in bed, the alarm's going off and I'm thinking, you know, you could die any minute to get up and meditate. Report an error

22:35 And you're like, yeah, who cares? And I'm like, whatever, I'm okay with that. I turn over and I'm like, I can't get past it. I think I'm just not getting enough sleep. But the problem is that I'm trying to use this to motivate myself to get out of bed. And it is totally not working because I just am like, I'm at peace. If I have to, if I die right this minute, that's totally fine. You know what, I would totally just look at your overall sleep and just think, well, maybe if you could actually go to bed even a half an hour earlier, then you might be able to get up 15 minutes earlier. Report an error

23:09 Kind of like that, like do it in smaller doses rather than thinking, I have to get up at 430, you know, from now on, you know, it's just not going to work. That's not true, you know, so. Just do it in little tiny steps and make sure that you are getting enough sleep because often... Often it is just a physical thing. That's overwhelming, the idea that I could be wasting time. Because it's just like the force of that thought is not strong enough for me to actually like. Report an error

23:36 That's okay. So then I start figuring out other ones. So no, I'm sure you're not the only person in the room and everybody doesn't have to look at me to make eye contact. So I know it's not you, but I'm sure you're not the only person that it doesn't work for. Yeah. I would look at the overall sleep, see if you've gotten enough, make changes in small ways instead of feeling like you have to change it all overnight. Report an error

24:01 And also, it's sounding a little like you might be the Energizer Bunny on trying to like kind of getting a little bit frantic about it. Urgency is just trying to use our lives more meaningfully, but it doesn't mean we can't take breaks. Right, right. It doesn't mean that we can't. We have to become Mother Teresa. Yeah, I think I've mentioned that to you before in the class where it's like knowing what that balance is and really being comfortable about making the call about I'm not wasting time. Report an error

24:31 But I am still a lay person. I didn't get ordained that I remember. That's just a very tricky line for me to figure out. You don't want to push it too much. And I think this happens a lot with beginning students. Well, either they don't push it at all, in which case they're probably not in this class. But you don't want to push it so much that it takes the fun out of it, too, or the joy of it. Report an error

24:59 And you don't want to push it so much that you overdo it and then drop it altogether. So there is a balance. There's definitely a balance. Report an error

25:09 I mean, we do what we can. We get the lessons. We try to remind ourselves. We try to push ourselves. And we also have to kind of know when it's okay to just kick back a little bit. And then it's okay to kick back a little bit sometimes. You know, that really is okay. And I kick back sometimes too. But I'm constantly asking myself. Report an error

25:29 It's just constantly about... It is a little neurotic to do that, but I do constantly ask myself. It's kind of like... This is okay. Like you really just need to relax right now. But then it's kind of like four hours later. You don't really need to still be relaxing, you know. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, I would try those things. But just be gentle with yourself when you need to relax. That's actually a bodhisattva activity too. Report an error

25:53 I recommend you hit this news button. That's your reminder to dream about taking refuge. Dream about that plane crash maybe. My alarm says Buddha and it comes up on my phone. Buddha. Like I'm trying to like do all these things to like remind myself to maybe I should be like you can die any minute, you know, on my alarm. Report an error

26:11 I don't know. You could do Venable Rubina's ringtone, the one that Mary has on her phone. I think it's her doing the refuge prayer or something like that. Suddenly you're sitting there in a meeting and all of a sudden it's like Lama and you're like. Report an error

26:27 That might get it, especially with your particular relationship. Did I? Oh, sorry. I saw something in that area. Yeah, oh, that's right. I wish. Not yet. Report an error

26:44 Taking refuge in your sleep reminded me of something that I discovered this week, too. I'm working and I'm in school full-time, so I'm frenetic. So I'm trying to do my morning. But sometimes I just run out the door and I don't even realize that I haven't even done my practice, really, working on it. But a couple nights ago, I like to prostrate at night and just end the night on that. Report an error

27:12 And I have an altar and I do it there, but I've been just like passing out. But I remembered and I actually did it in my head. Report an error

27:21 And it was a really beautiful experience. And I realized that it was something I could take with me all the time. So I actually have like this little happy place that I go to now. I will do prostrations there. That's cool. Virtually, I guess. It was a really helpful reminder that you can take refuge at any time and it doesn't have to be formally with a certain verse. Report an error

27:44 And it was really interesting. It's a tool that I can use now all the time. That's just visualization. How do you get to? work or where it is you're running out the door do you get on a bicycle bicycle a little harder on bicycle probably than anything else but um I was just thinking sometimes when I run out the door and I don't have time to do as long a practice as I think you can probably to some degree do it, but just be safe. You know, when you're stopped, and hopefully you are stopping at occasional stop signs, then just... Report an error

28:16 Just contemplate something, you know, just think about refuge or something like you said, yeah. It doesn't have to be an enormously long practice for it to be a meaningful practice. And sometimes if I don't have time for anything else, and I got this from, I think it was actually one of the Discovering Buddhism videos, Venerable Roger, Lama Zopa Rinpoche's attendant for many years, said that... Report an error

28:40 With the schedule they keep, that he began to realize that the one thing he had to give attention to was motivation. So he spends 15 minutes sometimes really cultivating a really deep and profound motivation for the day. And sometimes that's all he does. And that's, I mean, that's all he does. It serves, I have to say, you know, day in and day out. Report an error

29:01 That's all he does is formal practice. And that was actually a really good thing for me to hear, especially when I was working full-time for the center and I would do that kind of thing too, or I'd fall asleep during my practice and things like that that I felt really horrible about. Report an error

29:15 But it's just like take one little tiny, and actually Lama Tsongkhapa says this too, take one tiny aspect of your practice and do that really, really well. And then the rest of it, if you speed read through and all that stuff, then it's okay. Just try to do one thing really, really well. Do your motivation in the shower even, you know. I'll do Vajrasapha in the shower. I'll do, you know, I do one, Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga a lot of times in the shower. Report an error

29:42 Sometimes when I'm doing my practice, then I'll take a certain section of it and then I'll do it very slowly. Yes. You sort of go through, but then it'll be like the four measurables. Yes, exactly. Which you guys will all get, the four measurables. Take time on it, you know, or, you know, things like that. Report an error

30:00 Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. So just pick one thing that means something to you. And I think, maybe it's Christine, the verse that we read at the beginning of the class, some people really connect with that verse. Taking that verse, that can be an entire practice in itself. It's such a beautiful verse, you know, or even just the final verse, you know. That's right. And that was like your, I think, initial connection. Report an error

30:24 So, I mean, there's so much there. Just contemplating that one tiny little verse can be. Your practice and just then go out to the day, you know, and do what you need to do. Any other comments or input or questions? And I know I have to respond to your email and I will. But I don't think you're alone, so don't feel bad. I'll just say that much. Report an error

30:53 I would say, probably across the board, anytime you think that you're a really horrible, bad Buddhist, you're just representing half the people in the class who just don't have the guts to say so. Report an error

31:04 This is all about baby steps and a little bit about faking it till you make it. We're going to talk about that one tonight, actually. Report an error

31:14 There's nothing wrong with faking it till you make it. That's actually how tantra is practiced. We do a lot of faking it till you make it. um, yeah. Report an error

31:24 Okay, so quick announcement, but exciting announcement, that we can finally let the cat, start letting the cat out of the bag. Report an error

31:34 Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who is my main teacher, who is this gentleman up here, Sherpa by birth, and the spiritual director of this center and of the whole Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahāyāna tradition, is coming within the month now. Um, um, Report an error

31:53 He's going to do a teaching weekend and do Medicine Buddha. She said looking meaningfully at Christine. Medicine Buddha, Jainang, which he's allowing people to come to part of the Jainang as a blessing. So if you have no desire yet to take Tantra, you can still attend it as a blessing. That will be the final weekend of next month, so February, February 26th and 27th. Report an error

32:22 It's going to be, supposed to be, I think it's 4 to 6 on Saturday and Sunday and then 7.30 to 9.30 on both days and then the Jainong after the 9.30 on the Sunday. Lama Zopa Rinpoche is known for many things. One of them is that he never starts on time. The other is that he never ends on time. Report an error

32:50 The third, yes, the third is that His name means patience, Zopa means patience, and that He is there to help us really recognize what is time, what is our relationship with time, what else is so darned important that we have to get to at a certain time. Letting go of time. Report an error

33:13 So anyway, it's very exciting. Even if you don't have a connection with him, at least you can see that he has a connection with you in that. This is his center, basically, and you guys are all here, so that's exciting. My role in this series of events is I just took back on the role of volunteer coordinator, let's say Chin Ling, ongoing, and I will be doing that for this event. Report an error

33:38 So I am... Really excitedly trying to pull together an enthusiastic, reliable, did I say energetic? Energetic team of volunteers. And so I'm going to start sending out emails, but if you are interested, then I'm going to, I should have actually printed a roster, but I didn't. I think I'm going to grab a piece of paper. Report an error

34:03 And if people would like to sign up, even if you don't know yet what of that weekend you can do, but if you just know you want to help, we need help before, we need help during and we need help after. So there's lots of ways to help. And if you know you just want to help the whole time, definitely put that next to your name because I definitely want to know that. Probably the way we're going to do it is to pick out areas and teams. Report an error

34:27 We'll sort of work on it in that way. But it's at the beginning, and of course, because he's coming in a month, it's at the middle as well of the planning stage. So we have to do it very quickly, but we also want it to be the best event that Seichen Lange has ever put on. We are not going to hold it at the center. Report an error

34:48 We are going to use an outside space. We found a new outside space, and we're going to hold it at the Baha 'i Center, which is over in Valencia. The first block of Valencia. Beautiful space and has room for up to 400 people. And parking across the street. Paid parking, but parking. So this is all very, very exciting and you're going to start hearing about it. I think Charles is probably right now writing the email. Report an error

35:17 He's going to send out an email with all the details this weekend and we're going to try to get it up on the website. by the weekend by the time he sends out that email but I wanted to give you guys a heads up in case you were interested and you can get back to me on that All right. Any questions about that? Okay. All right. Report an error

35:40 So tonight we're actually going to get into our root text, the eight verses. And I had this whole plan to try to create these. It's sort of a more keepable version of the eight verses, but that didn't happen. I hope to by next week, but I think Eric did make some copies of the eight verses, and you guys can each have a copy. Report an error

36:01 And actually, do you want to go ahead and hand those out? Or if somebody else wants to take them from? Thank you for even asking. He emailed me and asked if I had anything that needed to be printed for class tonight before class, and then he did it all from a distance. Yeah, that's it. That's it. So everybody can have a copy of the text as we go through it. Report an error

36:21 I think, actually, once you get it all right, as we start the eight verses, we can all read the verse one together. So I'll tell you that. And then at the end, we'll read all eight verses. And from now on, bring it to class, because when we do the opening prayer... Whoa. Did everyone take refuge? that was... Report an error

36:44 Refuge. Report an error

36:52 I remember we had an earthquake when I used to have, when we first moved in, I was the director of the center, I had the room that Single now uses as a bedroom as my office, and we had an earthquake, and we had an earthquake in there, and I kind of ran out of the office, and Rubina was in, at that point, the LPP office, and she yelled out, did you take refuge in your guru? Report an error

37:13 And I was like, I should have, shouldn't I? No, I didn't. It was actually a good reminder. So she would have loved that. Report an error

37:24 Oh, okay. Do you want to... Yeah. Do you know how to do it? No, I think we need two more copies, right? Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you, Eric. That's great. We have all these assistants. Yeah, yeah. If you've already got it, then... Anyway, so... Oh, I can make a copy if you want. I just thought you were going to need a Report an error

37:49 A little bit about self-cherishing mind. The blinders of self-absorption. So self-cherishing mind is this phrase sort of coined by the Tibetans. Report an error

38:01 And you can kind of think about all these different ways to describe it. I mean, selfishness, I think, works to a degree. I think selfishness sometimes to us sounds more like miserliness or something heavier than we think we are. Although it actually is apropos sometimes. I like self-absorption a little bit more because I think it's sort of a little bit more obsessed about me. But I like self-cherishing. Report an error

38:26 I think I just got used to the term self-cherishing. You can kind of decide what term works for you. It's basically just when, I mean, literally having the blinders of me, me, me, me, me on all the time no matter what else is happening, including somebody really might be in trouble in front of us. Basically, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. It's like, oh, me, me, me, me, me, me. So this is the complete opposite mind than the one that we're trying to cultivate here. Report an error

39:01 We've developed that one really well over lifetimes. And it is the direct opposite of the mind of bodhicitta. You know, it's this inward... Report an error

39:12 I'm either so horrible or I'm so good. It's one or the other. And they're both self-cherishing. And it's just focusing on me, me, me, me, me. And sometimes maybe extending to my family, my life, my partner, my dog. It might extend out a few, but rarely extending to all the people around us. Report an error

39:34 The one thing that His Holiness the Dalai Lama always talks about that kind of begins to break that a little bit We begin to open our eyes and, you know, begin to awake from this self-absorbed dream state, excluding all others, is when we start to notice that the one thing that we share with everybody is this wish to be happy and this wish to avoid suffering. Report an error

40:01 The wish to be happy at all times and in all ways, you know, and the wish to avoid every bit of suffering. This constant shifting that we do when we're meditating especially, trying to find the perfect position that's not going to bring pain. It doesn't exist. Report an error

40:23 Which is I think probably the best thing of the Vipassanā practice is just like, don't move. We don't really have that in the Tibetan tradition. But there's really no way that you're going to move that's going to get away that pain. you know Report an error

40:36 you know. But But every little pain, and I think in our culture especially, every little tiny pain, you know, there's a pill for, you know, there's a place you can go or entertainment you can do or something that you can do to get rid of that suffering, that little pain. And we try to be happy. We always try to be happy. And, you know, every single thing that we do is to try to be happy. Report an error

41:04 Even the stuff that looks like it wouldn't ever bring happiness, you know, like the crazy things that people do like, you know, robbing people and killing people or harming people or, you know, stopping eating or eating too much or sleeping all day or, you know, all of those things are also done to be happy. Report an error

41:29 They don't necessarily work to be happy, but they're trying to be happy. People want to be happy. Beings want to be happy. I mean, if we think about it, animals want to be happy. Insects want to be happy. It's not a conceptual thought, and it's not really a conceptual thought for us. It's just we go on this sort of auto-drive to be happy. Report an error

41:51 And the objects, obviously, will differ. What I think will make me happy may be something totally different than what you think might make you happy. And it's not wrong to want to be happy. And that's, I think, a really important thing, too. This is not a philosophy or a religion that says, no, you can't be happy. In fact, that's the sort of goal, is ultimate happiness, but for everybody, you know. Report an error

42:19 So it's like, yeah, that's great that you want to be happy, but we have to understand sort of the causes of that happiness and then apply those causes. We have to actually create the causes of our own happiness. Report an error

42:31 Geshe-la is always talking about that too. It's like, yeah, we want to be happy, we want to be happy, we want to be happy, but if we aren't creating the causes for it and instead we're creating the causes for more suffering, it's not even a profitable practice. We're not even doing what's going to bring us the result that we want in the short-term, immediate sense, much less liberation and enlightenment, just having a job and a house over your head or something. Report an error

42:59 have to start looking at... This mind that prevents us from thinking about others. And that's what the eight verses is really good at. That's what these Lojong teachings are really good at, is starting to think about how both, you know, when problems arise, our immediate thought is, it's suffering, I don't want it, right? Report an error

43:22 So it's immediately like obstacle, obstacle, obstacle. And it's usually an obstacle to me being happy. That's what's usually happening. So these verses and these teachings are all about these Report an error

43:39 little baby steps that we're taking as little baby bodhisattvas, protecting that bodhicitta, that little baby bodhicitta that's newly blooming in our mind and protecting it from degenerating by this self-cherishing mind. The self-cherishing mind... Doesn't really want to make the effort. Maybe the self-cherishing mind is what you can focus on instead of it. Skip precious human reward, go straight to self-cherishing. Report an error

44:10 No, but then that sometimes gets into like, I'm horrible, I am horrible, mea culpa, mea culpa too. We have to be careful of that one, that beating ourselves up. It can become self-cherishing, the guilt, yeah, versus just intelligent regret. Yeah, we have to be careful of that one, actually. Report an error

44:32 So self-cherishing mind, because it's the complete opposite of bodhicitta, if we want our bodhicitta to be stronger, we have to eliminate more and more of the self-cherishing mind. So when we see it arise, we have to apply the antidote. Obviously, we're supposed to be applying the antidotes for all of the deluded states of mind that arise. Report an error

44:51 Self-cherishing mind isn't actually considered a delusion. Which I think is kind of interesting. It feeds the delusions. Because of self-cherishing mind, I might get angry. Because of self-cherishing mind, I might be really greedy. I might want to keep all my chocolate and not share it. Because of self-cherishing mind, I might do actions that cause harm. But those are sort of triggered by the self-cherishing mind. Report an error

45:17 So it's sort of like this... Report an error

45:23 Deluded or illusioned. I mean, it's based on this illusion of a self that needs all this protection and all this cherishing that doesn't even fully exist. But that form of ignorance is the root of all the other deluded states of mind. So it's quite powerful. And they say that we've had this for lifetime after lifetime after lifetime. Report an error

45:47 So for this class, as I said, we're going to practice a little bit. We're going to do a little faking it until we make it. We're going to pretend that we have generated genuine bodhicitta. For the rest of this course, we can pretend that we're little baby bodhisattvas and that our bodhicitta is very tender and new. Report an error

46:04 You know, it's just like new sprouts that are starting to come up. And so we've decided, because it's so kind of new and tender, that we're going to embark on this exercise routine of the eight verses. This is our method for making our baby bodhicitta very strong and healthy and last. We want it to last. Report an error

46:25 We don't want it to be trampled by the self-cherishing mind. And, by the way, as Rinpoche would say, it actually helps us to develop bodhicitta on the way. So even though we're just sort of pretending that we've already cultivated it, we have had blips of it, even just selflessly serving one other being. Report an error

46:49 Whether it's a human or not. I mean, imagine it's an animal, an insect, anyone that we have been able to serve even for a moment without thinking about ourselves. Report an error

47:01 That shows, as Lama Yeshe says, that shows that we can do it. It's just a matter of degree then. We just widen that. We have that experience. So we've all had little blips of genuine compassion and love, and that's all we need to prove that we can actually become. Report an error

47:18 We can actually perfect our mind fully and become compassionate, loving, wise beings. So we're going to start with verse 1, if people want to read it with me. Report an error

47:32 And thank you, Eric, for copying it again and also for running next door and copying it. With the thought of attaining enlightenment for the welfare of all beings who are more precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel, I will constantly practice holding them dear. So we're just going to do that one verse. We're going to take it line by line. So it starts with this thought of attaining enlightenment for the welfare of all beings. Report an error

47:58 That's bodhicitta, right? So we're starting with bodhicitta. So this is already assuming that with it, that we already have it, that we already have this motivation for our lives. So it also then, therefore, is assuming that we have already done all those meditations. on the path to generate bodhicitta and then we have developed at least an aspiring bodhicitta at least the wish to have bodhicitta if we haven't actually developed it and remember it Genuinely developing any realization is really different than intellectually understanding the words. I'm going to keep repeating that because I do hear people sometimes who have studied, sometimes long-term students, who have studied the various topics on the lamrim and so they sort of get it intellectually, but that doesn't mean that they actually have genuinely generated bodhicitta. Report an error

48:56 And they say, of course, that it takes Many, many years of doing these meditations really, really constantly and continually, religiously, to generate this mind. And some would say lifetimes. There's probably a reason that we're all... I was very drawn to these teachings, more so than any other teachings in the Tibetan... Report an error

49:23 Canon of teachings, I was definitely drawn to the bodhicitta teachings and probably because of past life imprints and I think that that's probably true for many of us in this room. Report an error

49:34 So the next line compares, says that these all beings, these beings, you know beings meaning not just humans but all living beings, are more precious to us than a wish-fulfilling jewel. Report an error

49:52 So this gets into the meat of the matter. Why are the Ascenti beings so precious to us? What makes them so precious to us? Especially if they're being a pain in the butt, right? What makes them so precious? So these teachings talk about all the different ways, and some of this will be familiar to those of you who have taken other classes with me before, but all the different ways that we are dependent upon others for our happiness, and all the different ways that we... Report an error

50:23 I hate to say use others, but in some degree that's true. We rely on others for our happiness. We need other living beings to generate bodhicitta, for one thing. Report an error

50:39 We need other living beings to do good works, to do virtue, to avoid non-virtue. We need other living beings to... Achieve all the different levels of attainments on the path, all the realizations. We need living beings to practice giving. Otherwise, who would we give to? Report an error

51:05 And all the resources that we have now is, karmically speaking, the result of having practiced generosity in the past. So if we have enough now, or whether we have too much or not, if we have enough, Report an error

51:21 According to the Buddha, it came from having been generous in the past. And that required somebody for us to have given to, whether it's giving money or whether it's giving time or whether it's giving energy or whether it's giving words or giving an ear or giving a shoulder to cry on, whatever. It's still giving. For ethics, we also need others. Report an error

51:45 You know, we need to, if... Ethics is basically, in the Buddhist definition, non-harm. So we need somebody that we're not harming when we want to. That's usually really what it's all about. We want to harm somebody, but we stop ourselves, you know. That's the first level of ethics, as Venomurvina always says, zip your lip and keep your hands to yourself. Report an error

52:10 That's the first level of ethics. And that, I think, is shared in common with many religions, too. When we think of the Ten Commandments, a lot of that, zip your lip and keep your hands to yourself. So if we wanted to steal and we don't steal, that's the first level of ethics. If we want to kill somebody or harm somebody and we don't do it, we need a person that we're practicing that with. They say that the karmic result of having practiced ethics is this human body, especially the human body that we can actually practice with again this time around. Report an error

52:42 So we can have gratitude that we, not just to that being who was me who practiced this ethics, but all those beings that I practiced with, you know, that this one, this one that became the merrily labeled Lobsang Chokyi practiced with. Patience, we definitely need sentient beings. Patience is a really amazing practice. Report an error

53:06 Probably the most difficult. They often say, Geshe-la, when Geshe-la was teaching the chapter on patience in Shantideva's guide to the bodhisattva's way of life, said that patience was, up until you start practicing, I think it's shine, calm abiding, he says it's the most difficult practice. Because there's always levels of patience. Maybe you don't get really pissed off at the person in front of you who yells at you or something like that. Report an error

53:32 But then there's all these levels of being able to tolerate all you have to do to practice the Dharma and maybe you have to sit in a cold cave or without any food or something like that. So there's all levels of patience. Or maybe you can't stand the sound that mosquitoes make. You're totally patient all the way and then you sit down and then this thing starts going around your ear. Report an error

53:56 Or the dog barking next door or something like that. So, you know, it's every some tiny thing. Report an error

54:00 Realistically speaking, we absolutely need others to practice patience with. And if we don't have patience, we can't become enlightened. So if we don't get our patience tested, we don't see where we need to work. I know for me, when I lose my patience, I feel like a failure. And then I try to remember, wait a second, this is really great because it's showing me where my practice is weak and where I need to work. And so just trying to not be so attached to our, or identified with our delusions as they arise, but instead use them like that. Report an error

54:36 So if we kind of fly off the handle or get angry or lose our patience, then we kind of, we have this opportunity to work on our minds and we want to perfect our minds, right? So it's this amazing opportunity to perfect our mind. If we were constantly surrounded with really sweet, loving people that always agreed with us, it wouldn't work. We never could get enlightened. It would be fun for a minute, but it would probably even get boring for us. Report an error

55:03 That's probably what happens with kings and presidents, I think. Well, obviously not our current president, probably. He's not getting a lot of agreement. But the people that surround those in power often just sort of yes sir, yes sir, yes sir, yes sir. Report an error

55:19 You don't have people that actually challenge you. And we need that challenge. We absolutely need that challenge. So we need people to practice patience. For joyful effort, we need others. We can apply joyful effort on our own. These are all the six perfections that I'm naming here for those of you that are not familiar with it. Report an error

55:42 They're considered the bodhisattva activities once you generate bodhicitta. these are the ones that you start doing to to Put your bodhicitta to the test and to strengthen it. So joyful effort, the first three, giving ethics and patience, joyful effort is the fourth. You need joyful effort for those three and you also really need it to develop the final two. So it's put right. Report an error

56:07 Smack dab in the middle. So you can actually use joyful effort obviously with your own practice of meditation and doing a practice in the morning when you think about it. Report an error

56:19 You can use it in any way that you help people with a happy mind. I mean, so you can do it, you know, washing the dishes or something like that in the kitchen, which we often need. Report an error

56:32 But it's also great to... Use joyful effort with others, you know, to help others in some way, to support others in some way. And then meditation and concentration and wisdom, which are the final of the two perfections. We probably need others less for those two, but in our culture, we almost always have to go to a Dharma center or a retreat center and somebody has to run those centers. Report an error

57:01 So we do use, and then somebody. Even if we didn't, if we just did a long retreat or we did a short retreat and someone was helping us, we would rely on others. So there still would be somebody that was helping us. And probably we would rely on the teachings that we received from somebody to know what to do in that retreat and how to meditate and so forth. Report an error

57:23 So liberation and enlightenment are completely impossible for us to achieve without others, even though the whole reason that we want to attain liberation and enlightenment is to be able to help others. We need their help. So it's this funny catch-22 and this funny kind of circle, full circle. But also in a really mundane way, we rely on others all the time for all the simple things that we use because we're completely interdependent. Report an error

57:56 Even though we feel completely independent, we feel like... I am my own person and I do it myself and I make my money and I spend my money somewhere. Especially Americans, we're really big on that. We do it all ourselves and we don't need anyone else. Well, actually, realistically speaking, we totally need everyone else because we wouldn't be able to... Report an error

58:20 Everything that we wear, everything that we eat, everything that we use, everything we make use of, everything we... Partake of, everything is through the kindness of others. I mean, whether they intended to be kind or not doesn't matter. Report an error

58:41 From our standpoint, the result is the same, just like with the patience, whether the person pushing your buttons is intending to teach you patience, and we don't really know, right, because we're not omniscient yet. I'm not. We don't really know who that person is. They might be just trying to help us with our patience. But even if they're not, we can still be grateful because they are helping me. Report an error

59:04 The net result is the same. They're helping me practice patience. Or this is a great opportunity for me to practice patience. The same is true with all the little things that are done so that we are able to survive. So if we think about our food and we think about who grew our food and we think about, you know, Who made the wheat that went into the bread and who then milled it and baked it into loaves and sliced it. I used to be a baker, so I'm going to spend more time on that. Report an error

59:34 And then brought it to the market and kneaded it and then let it rose again and then kneaded it and then let it rest again. Report an error

59:45 And then brought it to the market and whoever made the things that went into it, like the cheese, you know, there's a cow, some cow created that milk, then somebody took care of her and milked her and made the cheese out of it. And all the other things that might be on our sandwich, like sprouts or lettuce and tomatoes and so forth. There's so many beings that were affected, even if we just think about the humans. Report an error

1:00:13 But then you think about all the living beings who are part of it. Again, whether voluntarily or not, some living beings gave their lives, even if it was a vegetarian sandwich. So many living beings are disturbed and are killed in the process of planting and harvesting and so forth. Report an error

1:00:35 Widening your awareness, every single thing that we make use of, and of course this is totally true for clothing, you know, for creating either the natural or the unnatural fabric that we have on. Report an error

1:00:50 Sometimes the situations that they're created in and sewn and put together are really, really horrific, you know, sweatshops. Even factories just exist that just make thread, you know. And some people spend their entire day and night and day and night for 30 years just making thread. If we're aware of that, it widens our understanding. Report an error

1:01:13 And everything that we make use of, the clocks that we use, the computers that we use, the paper, the books, the Dharma centers that we come to, the buildings that we work in, the jobs themselves, and whoever created those organizations or companies that we work for. Every single thing that we make use of comes from these living beings. And if we remember that and we make use of this recognition, that's how they become so precious. Report an error

1:01:46 It's this constantly, that's why they use the word constant. We constantly have to remind ourselves of that because the self-cherishing mind basically thinks that all of these living beings are there to serve me. Without really thinking it consciously, there is sort of this thing of like, I'm late so I should get to go through the stop sign first. Report an error

1:02:09 I should get that parking space because I'm late and because I'm me, whether it's really mine to take or not. So self-cherishing mind has its own... Report an error

1:02:21 And not the opposite of rose-colored glasses. The mind cherishing others and the mind recognizing interdependence and the mind recognizing how precious those jewels are has its own rose-colored glasses that we can put on and we can remember, oh yeah, this is one of those living beings that I'm going to hold precious. Report an error

1:02:40 So all sentient beings, when we use that phrase, all sentient beings is talking about any living being with a mind. Sam Chen in Tibetan. A living being with a mind, which is talking about all living beings, you know, from the point of view of insects and animals and spirits even and humans, of course. Report an error

1:03:02 It always sounds very sweet and romantic, right? So we can just be like, you know, I'll do this for all sentient beings, you know, and we forget all the people that we live with and we work with and we, you know, maybe carpool with and our boss and our neighbor and especially if they start annoying us. Report an error

1:03:19 But they are our sentient beings. So instead of this sort of vast, faceless, romantic view of all sentient beings, we want to start remembering that each one of us has our own personal set of sentient beings and that they are the ones that we can start applying this with. So it's not necessarily this huge, faceless, always wonderful, agreeing, sweet group of... Report an error

1:03:49 People or animals or whatever we might get along with better. It's probably the one you don't get along with. All the ones in our immediate vicinity are the sentient beings that we can start working with right now. And so when we are faced with an issue, it might be good to remember, oh yeah, this is one of my sentient beings. Okay. Report an error

1:04:12 Because our immediate thought is I want to get away from this. It's a problem. I'm having a problem. This person's annoying me or yelling at me or making me defensive. They're making me defensive. And the reality is that this is one of our sentient beings. Or maybe somebody is showing up with a problem and really just needs to cry in your lap and you're in a hurry. Report an error

1:04:37 That's one of your sentient beings too. So remembering that. So all the people in your world, those are your sentient beings. All of them, if we can practice with them, using them, helping them in any way, that's how we get enlightened. Report an error

1:05:01 That's actually it. There's not like some, I mean, yeah, we might have to become... Bigger than we are now, and we will over time, but of course it's gradual, but we start where we are, you know, we start with those living beings around us, you know, those that need us, those that, you know, usually we're thinking about this vast multitude, we aren't thinking about the people that we have to pick up after or clean up after or take care of when they're sick, you know, or people we have fights with or whatever, but those are our sentient beings. Report an error

1:05:36 So we start training ourselves. Remember, this is mind training. It doesn't mean we already have this ability. It means that we are beginning to train our minds to think this way, to think, oh, living beings are really precious to me for all of these reasons, right? I need them to develop my mind. I need them to... Report an error

1:05:57 To practice all these different things that I know that I want to be. I know that I want to become. I want to become more giving. I want to be ethical in this sense of not harming. I want to have patience. I want to have joyful effort. These are all qualities that I want to have. And look, here's an opportunity. Report an error

1:06:15 Here's somebody right in front of me that really needs me to have at least to try to have some of these qualities right now and to help me develop these qualities. That's why they're so precious. Report an error

1:06:28 And of course we can get this intellectually, and of course it's also really, really hard to practice it. So we kind of, the reason why we have these great little verses is to, when we read it in the morning, we kind of, sometimes what will happen is when you read it every day, a situation will come up where you screw up. Report an error

1:06:46 And then you'll hear your own voice going with the thought of attaining and you're like, oh, whoops. And that's okay. That's how we train our mind. That's how it works. It's not that we're going to read it once through and be like, great, I got it. It's a gradual technique. As Geshitashi calls it, it's like brainwashing ourselves, but we're doing it. It's not like anybody else is doing it. Report an error

1:07:15 And remembering to do it right when we most need to do it, like when we really don't feel good or we're really tired. For me, when I'm tired, that's when I do it. And that's when I have to check my sleep level, whether I'm getting enough sleep, because that's when I'm more likely to screw up. But what is a wish-granting jewel, a wish-fulfilling jewel? Report an error

1:07:35 Does anybody know, anybody remember from other teachings that you've heard? Tibetans are really big on this one. Anybody? Yeah, Eric. Report an error

1:07:43 maybe there shouldn't be a Disguise your voice. Sorry, Frank. Isn't it the Buddha, the Dharma and the Saṅgha? No, actually that's the three jewels. Close, you got the jewel. Ratna part. Strike. That was Eric. Report an error

1:08:09 It's kind of like Aladdin's lamp. It's like this thing that gives you everything you want. They usually talk about it in terms of... right. Report an error

1:08:18 Like all worldly things, you know, like all the beautiful jewels and home and dancing girls, because of course it's always from the point of view of man. Report an error

1:08:33 You know, and food and all this stuff. It's kind of like people, it's like, you know, in those old stories that I grew up with anyway of Aladdin's lamp, you got to make certain wishes and only certain people, I guess they find this jewel. So they always are comparing especially bodhicitta to this jewel because basically it will give us everything that we already want. Report an error

1:08:56 We want to be happy. We want to have happiness. We want to be free of all this suffering. And it's sort of like we get to rub this jewel and we get all that happiness because it's like the by the way part of taking care of other beings. Other beings and our kindness toward them, they become like the root of all of our happiness. And this path, and we're applying this path, actually gives us the capacity to create that happiness for ourselves through helping other people. Report an error

1:09:34 So that's how it becomes. It becomes like this source of all of that happiness that we already want. His Holiness always talks about being wisely selfish. If we want to be happy, then the thing that actually brings us happiness is the opposite of what the self-cherishing mind thinks. The self-cherishing mind thinks, I've got to take care of me. I've got to look out for number one. If I don't do it, nobody else is going to do it, and somebody else might get all the good stuff, so I've got to take care of myself. Report an error

1:10:06 And we're never really that happy with that outlook. We never really are. We actually think somehow, illogically, that that's going to bring us happiness, but what ends up happening is that our happiness comes when we forget that self for a minute and just focus on somebody else. Anybody else. So I will constantly practice holding them dear. This is just talking about how we familiarize ourselves with these contemplations and with this meditation of You know, of how precious they are and how beautiful they are constantly. So that means all the time, right? Constantly. Report an error

1:10:48 So it's not just, we start with, you know, contemplating this once or twice a week or thinking about it in the morning when we go out. Eventually bodhisattvas just have this sort of running underneath their thoughts all the time, you know. And you can kind of see it, you know, when His Holiness meets anybody, even if it's a heckler. Report an error

1:11:07 In the audience, there's an inequality there, first of all. He doesn't look down on them. But there's a true joining, a true connection. Report an error

1:11:19 And he does see them as really precious and really sweet and really beautiful. So he does have that thing, that gift, that quality that we want to have. So there are a few ways to read this verse. The first is this one way of thinking of bodhicitta being the most precious. It's like more precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel, because that's the only mind that's going to get us enlightened. Another way is thinking about Buddhahood itself as the wish-fulfilling jewel, once we gain actual Buddhahood. Report an error

1:11:56 And then the third way is we can't really... We can't really get it how amazing it will be to be enlightened. They talk about a body of light, this body that can be anywhere, it can emanate in any form for any living being, filled constantly with bliss and love, amazingly wise beyond our conception. Even if somebody is able to explain that to us, it's like mind-blowing to imagine this. So anybody or anything that can get us to that state. Report an error

1:12:30 That's a wish-fulfilling tool. Anything that would get us into this amazing condition that allows us to emanate billions and billions of bodies wherever they're needed, in whatever form that they're needed, while simultaneously being in single-pointed meditation on the Dharmakaya. It's like this incredibly... Report an error

1:12:57 It's almost like beyond what our little ordinary minds can conceive of. Anyone that can get us to that state becomes precious. And what the Buddha is saying is that everyone can get us to that state, even that annoying guy in front of you, you know, especially that annoying guy in front of you. So that's why they become more precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel. Any questions about any of that? That's like a lot. Report an error

1:13:27 See, there's so much. These verses are so pithy, actually. Any questions about that one? First one. Report an error

1:13:39 There's hardly any questions tonight. Contemplating, yeah. I know, isn't it? Let's read it again, actually. Report an error

1:13:52 With the thought of attaining enlightenment for the welfare of all beings who are more precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel, I will constantly practice holding them dear. Report an error

1:14:04 You'll see a lot of different translations, too, of this text, and we have some books on it out in the foyer. And people will respond to different translations, which I think is the kind of interesting thing about being English. When we're English-speaking, we can find all these different translations. So definitely check up. I chose a translation that I really, really like, and it has a bit of an English sound to it, like holding something dear. Report an error

1:14:28 It's a very English way of saying things. So keep looking around if you don't respond to this translation. Let me do a little bit of verse 2 and then we're going to take a break. But let's go on with verse 2. Whenever I am with others, I will practice seeing myself as the lowest of all. And from the very depth of my heart, I will respectfully hold others as supreme. So this verse is not telling us to become a doormat. Report an error

1:14:57 That's number one. It's dealing with pride. It's definitely dealing with the affliction of pride. So we're going to talk about a little bit later. It's not talking about self-confidence. We all need self-confidence on this path. It's talking about afflicted pride that tends to be puffed up, superior to somebody else, actually requires somebody else to be superior to or you don't have it. Report an error

1:15:24 Sometimes you're superior to everyone. In general. But it's often taught that afflicted pride is the biggest obstacle to practice. It's this huge, huge obstacle to practice. It blocks us from being able to develop bodhicitta as well, but it's this huge obstacle to any kind of practice and to genuine humility and all the things that we need on this path. Report an error

1:15:53 But especially they talk about it being a real obstacle to studying the Dharma. Which is why we start with prostrations. Prostrations are actually meant to cut pride. Report an error

1:16:04 So when we come in and do... Teaching, teachers always do it before they sit down. But then also we as students often will do prostrations too and it's a way of cutting that down because if we're filled with really that kind of puffed up pride and then the teacher is telling you stuff and you're kind of like, well, what did she know? Report an error

1:16:21 I don't know why she, you know, then you start this mind where you just immediately cut off that teacher's ability to, you know, even instruct you in any way. Even the simplest teacher, it could be just somebody showing you how to do the water bowls or something and you're like, oh, that's not the way they're done. Report an error

1:16:36 Just immediately unable and you just block being able to receive teachings. But you also, if you think about the fact that anyone that we meet could be a teacher in some way, maybe they're teaching us patience, maybe they're showing us something about ourselves that we need to see, whether it's good or bad. Report an error

1:16:56 If we have a lot of pride, we block that. We won't be able to recognize those teachers along the way. So pride is really, really big. It keeps us from developing all those qualities that we want. It keeps us from being able to listen to and apply the teachings because we don't really see necessarily that they pertain to us or we think maybe we're doing better than we are. Report an error

1:17:23 And they say the karmic result of strong pride is rebirth in the lower realms or being if you're born human, then you're born in a really low, they say low caste, you know, in India, but low in a low position so that people are looking down on you. Right. So you're getting the exact opposite. If you've been looking down on others, then you get born in a situation where people look down on you. In mind and mental factors. Report an error

1:17:49 which is low rig we're talking low jang this is low rig The definition of pride is a mental factor that has the aspect of puffing up the mind upon observing a basis for puffing up. For instance, one's own wealth, qualities and so forth. But it's not a realistic assessment of one's own qualities. So I'll say that again. Report an error

1:18:14 A mental factor, pride is a mental factor that has the aspect of puffing up the mind upon observing a basis for puffing up. I love that, puffing up. For instance, one's own wealth, qualities and so forth, but it's not a realistic assessment of one's own qualities. So we have to constantly assess our own qualities and our abilities and our capacity and so forth, because we use it, right? We use it to help others. Report an error

1:18:43 But pride takes it to some degree and unrealistically assesses that we are superior as we are without any further improvement and gets all puffed up about it. You know, that kind of, I imagine like a big frog or something. It's also taught in mind and mental factors are in low rig that its function is twofold. Report an error

1:19:05 It acts as a support for disrespect and suffering. So pride acts as a support for disrespect and suffering. It obscures any new attainment of the Dharma due to its disrespect for those who possess excellent qualities. So these are the functions of pride. Interesting. So it obscures us from ever being able to improve ourselves. It acts as a support for disrespect and suffering. Report an error

1:19:32 I find that very interesting. Report an error

1:19:39 And again, it is really important to... We distinguish between afflicted pride and self-confidence. That's why I like using the term afflicted pride, because we need self-confidence. Obviously, this is not a path for the weak of heart. We need to have self-confidence. We need to become sure of ourselves and be able to lead. Report an error

1:20:05 We need to become leaders. There's nothing wrong with becoming a leader, and there's nothing wrong with knowing what you know and sharing it in some way. But that's not that feeling superior. That's not better than someone. That's not the puffing up. We don't have the puffing up with that. It doesn't have the puffing up aspect. And it doesn't put others down and rely upon that putting others down. It's taught that there's absolutely no value at all in afflicted pride. Report an error

1:20:34 There are certain of these afflicted states of mind that really there's no value to them at all. There's no value to this afflicted state of mind. So it's really important for us to really distinguish in ourselves, oh, that was that puffed up pride. Oh, no, that's self-confidence. That one's okay. I think it's good for me to get braver and stronger in that way. Report an error

1:20:55 You can kind of test it. Is it looking down on someone? Or is it... Is it blocking me from, you know, receiving a teaching or being able to develop a certain quality? And afflicted pride actually keeps us from being good students, you know, ultimately. So you miss all those great opportunities to learn. I will practice seeing myself as the lowest of all is the antidote. Report an error

1:21:26 I will practice seeing myself as the lowest of all. Does that mean all the time we're going to become a doormat? No, it's talking about as a direct antidote to this mind of pride. When the mind of pride arises, then it doesn't mean that we develop low self-esteem, thinking that we're really, really bad, a really bad Buddhist even, or incapable or whatever. Report an error

1:21:53 But it means that we begin to genuinely develop, well, we develop genuine humility. So it doesn't mean that false humility that's like, well, I can't do that because, you know, I don't know. What is false humility? Sometimes people think I am saying something falsely, being falsely humble, and I'm actually just trying to be honest. Well, no, actually I think so-and-so would be a better teacher for this class or something like that. Report an error

1:22:19 And it's not just like, oh, I don't have any skills or abilities. It's not like that. Sometimes I think it's really important to be able to assess what would be better in a certain situation. But there are times that we sort of fake that we have humility, but we don't really have humility. And I think we know when. Report an error

1:22:36 So we aren't trying to develop that, we're trying to develop genuine humility where we, and you can see it in llamas, llamas do it actually, where they will, you know, they aren't just saying, they'll just honestly say what their abilities are or their capabilities are without putting anyone else down, just stating as honestly as they can, you know. Report an error

1:22:59 And sometimes they wouldn't be the best one for a certain thing, and so it's better to... To try to recognize that as genuine when it arises. And to avoid, in this case, when you were saying, I will practice seeing myself as the lowest of all, really trying to hold others up. So focus on the others in this. I know a lot of times when we teach this verse, people are kind of freaked out and they think that, you know, basically they're going to have to be down on the ground prostrating to everyone. Report an error

1:23:27 Maybe in your mind, it could be useful. But no, this was talking about... Avoiding disrespecting people. Trying to generate genuine respect for somebody in some way. Especially somebody that you might have a relationship that's a bit more trying where you kind of think that you're better than that person in some way. Report an error

1:23:47 To try to respect something about that person. To try to really hold them up. Lift them up a little bit. Report an error

1:23:58 The only way that we can... our diluted states of mind is really just kind of head on. And so this verse is really talking a lot about... Beginning to shift an afflicted state of mind, a specific afflicted state of mind of pride and applying the antidote right there. And there are antidotes to all of these afflicted states of mind and a lot of our practice until we have this direct perception of emptiness or the nature of reality, a lot of our practice is... Report an error

1:24:32 Trying to remember these antidotes and applying them, trying to remember the antidotes and applying them. This is exactly, I mean one of my teachers calls it doing search and destroy missions for your kleshas, your afflicted states of mind. It's just like you just constantly have to be doing these search and destroy missions. You see one arise and you just shoot it down. In Shantideva they talk a lot in these terms of warfare, really going to war against your mental afflictions. Report an error

1:24:59 So not so much. Fighting other people, but rather fighting all those afflicted states of mind that keep us, that hold us back, that keep us from becoming everything we want to be, you know. Report an error

1:25:13 So Geshe-la has talked about some other antidotes for pride. One of them is really trying to, if you think you really, really know the Dharma, then... You know, attend one of Geshe's, he doesn't say this, but attend one of Geshe's really high level classes and it just shows you how little you really know. Report an error

1:25:33 Or really some complicated teaching like the 12 links, you know, really go deeply into that and see how much you know, you know. It kind of cuts it a little bit, you know, it's like, hmm, oh, all right, you know. Report an error

1:25:49 Really using analytical meditation. To examine that pride and you can use this for any afflicted state of mind, you know, like anger and so forth. Report an error

1:26:03 Thinking about in meditation, thinking about karma, you know, how things, you know, do I want to be creating this negative karma? You know, I'm definitely going to get some sort of a benefit. Or thinking about death. You know, applying, you know, if I know I'm going to be dying, do I want to have this really puffed up state of mind towards somebody, you know, and it definitely works with anger. Report an error

1:26:30 But it's also really, really important for us, we do have to chop down and eliminate these negative states of mind, but it's also really, really important for us not to identify so strongly with them as me. Report an error

1:26:42 If I notice that I have something like jealousy or I notice that I have pride or I notice that anger arises in me, that's not me. That's really different from the search and destroy mission is not shooting me. I'm just trying to get rid of all the crap that's holding me back. So it's really, really different. Report an error

1:27:05 And Venerable Bina does this really interesting thing when she catches something. She's just like, oh, wasn't that interesting what my mind just did? And I've started trying to do that. It's like, hmm, that was interesting. I wonder why I got so angry about that, you know? And it's just this, it's a thought that arises. And we've trained our minds really, really well to do negative thoughts, you know? Report an error

1:27:27 So the negative thoughts are really ready. They're all at the gate. And the minute anything happens, these negative thoughts arise. That's not us. That's not who we really are, you know. They're just these negative states of mind and they arise and we've trained them really well and they arise and we think that they're our friends and so we keep letting them arise, but they're holding us back. Report an error

1:27:47 We don't need them. So when we apply these antidotes, we can have that sort of warrior attitude of just, you know, shooting them down and getting rid of them. I remember one of my friends in Long Retreat was saying, The only time she ever swore was when she'd think about Māra or the afflicted states of mind and she'd just be like... Report an error

1:28:12 It's kind of get thee behind me, Satan. It's like that same thought. It's like, no, I am not going to let you rule me. You could try this when you can't get up in the morning. It's like, no, self-cherishing mind, I'm not going to listen to you anymore. And I loved that thought of her doing that. It was just like, yeah, I'm not going to give in to you anymore. Report an error

1:28:32 I've been listening to you for lifetime after lifetime. So try that one, you know, you can actually get pissed off at your mental afflictions. The other thing you can do too, one thing that catches, if you catch yourself being really prideful, especially or feeling superior towards somebody, take a moment to rejoice at their good qualities. Report an error

1:28:52 Find one, you can always find one good quality in somebody, even if you just think they're completely worthless. Take a moment right then and there to just rejoice in something that that person is or does. Really, really well, you know. And then it's amazing how that begins to shift your mind. If you do it on a regular basis, it really can shift your mind towards that person. Report an error

1:29:14 At least it can maybe cut a little bit of that puffed upness, you know. Report an error

1:29:23 It is 8.30 actually. Before we finish this, I think why don't we take a little break and then we can come back and finish it and end in good time. Do people have any questions about just some of that that we've been talking about? Before we take a break. Yeah, Christine. Eric, you want to pass that to us? Report an error

1:29:49 So if you're trying to hold them up above you as an antidote, if you were to say you were getting annoyed and you did like a Tonglen practice, would that not be enough because you're just equalizing? I mean, did you have to? Well, in this case, actually, that would be a good place to start. Tonglen would be lovely, actually, if you can. And we will talk about Tonglen in this. Report an error

1:30:10 It's a practice because it's brought up in some of the other verses. But yeah, Tonglin, the practice that Christina is talking about is basically taking whatever suffering you see in the other as a way of building your compassion and giving whatever you think that they need or whatever qualities you have. Report an error

1:30:33 And so you can do that with a visualization. Imagine pulling all this sort of black smoke, using it to destroy your self-cherishing. So remember that aspect of it makes it really quite appropriate for this. Report an error

1:30:47 And then giving them back everything and you can do it in the form of white light or whatever. So yeah, that could be a really powerful one. It's not specifically for cutting pride, but it can help you. Report an error

1:31:03 Change the situation. I think change the energy of the situation because suddenly this is somebody then that you are developing compassion and love based on, right? So then it doesn't become this inferior being. But cutting the pride in yourself, I think it might be useful for you to examine why those qualities are arising. Report an error

1:31:26 And I think in that aspect, lifting that person up higher is just for that moment. It brings them above you. It doesn't mean that you have to always go around on your knees, but it does mean, I think at that moment, lifting them up above you. Yeah, so then in that sense, maybe, yeah, making them superior to you. And I think in that aspect of respect, really from an aspect of respect, respecting the other. Report an error

1:31:55 No matter who they are. Again, thinking about His Holiness, he'll walk through the kitchen and chat with the busboy. He'll talk with the president of whatever. And then the next breath, he'll be talking with the elevator operator. Completely the same. So he does have that equanimity with everyone. Report an error

1:32:20 But he also obviously doesn't have this sense of puffed-up-ness. And I think if any one of those people had some idea about how he could solve the problem of Tibet, he would listen to them. It wouldn't necessarily be, well, you, I've been trying to work at this for 50 years. I think he would just be like, oh, and whether he used it or not, he would listen and he would be present. Report an error

1:32:44 And so he doesn't have that puffed-up-ness. That keeps him from hearing the other person. So I think we start with holding the other person up and then really respecting them. Starting with that and that kind of helps deflate us a little bit from the puffed up in this. But good question and good practice too. Anybody else? I see this puzzled look. Paul, wait. Report an error

1:33:12 Hand him the mic. Report an error

1:33:20 Thank you. Report an error

1:33:26 I think one of the hard parts that always arises, of course, is that there are people who, much as you want to respect them and like them and even admire certain of their traits, you don't want them anywhere near you. Report an error

1:33:43 And for good reason, right? And so I think that always seems like it's a hard part of this type of... Give an example. Well, how about thug? Yeah, well, I think if it's a situation where somebody's actually mugging you, yeah. Or just, they're going to feel friendly for you, but they might just, you know, while you're there, decide they want to harm somebody else. Report an error

1:34:10 They're, you know, they're just, you know, there's nothing you can do about it. And you do have to keep some people a little bit away from you. But that's not so much about pride. No, no, it's not about pride. I think that's not so much about pride, yeah. I think... We do have to use our wisdom, obviously. We're not going to just run out and just hug everyone. This is mostly talking about people that we have everyday relationships with and transforming those everyday interactions in that way. Report an error

1:34:38 So it's not so much talking about Hitler or somebody who's... Beating people up on your street or something like that. But I think, you know, one way that kind of allows us to deal with those people is honestly, first of all, not knowing who they really are. And then secondly, developing compassion, understanding karma, because we understand that that attitude, whatever is causing them to harm others, is a really... Report an error

1:35:09 Yeah, and I'm saying my response to that is, you know, start where you are. Most of us, I don't know about you, but most of us aren't really trying to deal with. thugs on a daily basis. I'm trying to deal with the people I live with, the people on the bus, the people I work with, like that. And so we start with them, and we're going to try to transform our attitudes in those situations. Report an error

1:35:47 It's just like with Tonglin. We start with one level. We start doing the practice with people that we love, and then we start doing the practice with people that we find a little bit more challenging. It takes a while to get to those people. But it is interesting when you read about people that do certain things, like the guy that did the shooting spree in Arizona and things like that, really taking a moment to try to have some compassion for that person instead of all the compassion being on the victims because that person has just created a whole round of lifetimes of suffering for themselves completely ignorantly. Report an error

1:36:23 So taking a moment to kind of look at the news. From a standpoint of karma makes things very interesting, you know? And that person that you're describing, Paul, is a person that is continuing to create more and more and more suffering for themselves. Yeah. I mean, it's not just thugs, but it's people. And you do have to realize that people are acting from causes. They're not acting... Report an error

1:36:48 You can't possibly read their minds and know completely why they're acting the way they are. And from their personal situation at some point in their life, it might have been a rational self-preservation thing that they were doing. So you can't really judge them. I'm not saying that you shouldn't. I'm simply saying that it's something that has to be, you know, sometimes it looks a little harder than it... Always looks a lot harder. Report an error

1:37:24 No, it always looks a lot harder. That's why I keep stressing, we can talk about this and intellectually understand it, but actually applying it day in and day out. And they always use, in all the verses, they'll always use terms like constantly. You know, constantly. That comes up a lot. And this is talking about we want to train ourselves, our minds, to the point where this is second nature. Report an error

1:37:46 We don't have to even think about it. But that takes lifetimes, you know. So obviously, if you're in a situation where you might be harmed, let me just be the one to tell you, please back off. I mean, actually, even Gishla was talking about in the teachings on patience, there are times where it is the wisest thing to just... Report an error

1:38:07 Get away from the object. If you really honestly haven't been practicing long enough or whatever, and when I say the object, I usually am talking about the object that makes you angry. So the person that the minute they walk in the room, you just can't deal or they bring up all this stuff, you get really defensive. Report an error

1:38:27 Sometimes separating yourself from the object is a useful thing to do. Obviously it's not a long-term approach, right? We can't run away from everybody or at some point we won't have anybody else left around us. So we do want to figure out a way to work with our own minds so that what they're doing or whatever they're saying doesn't affect us in that same way. Report an error

1:38:50 So at this point, that's really what we're focusing on. It's less even who it is in our lives that we're... Applying these teachings to, it's mostly us. It's looking at us in our mind and what's going on in our mind and that's kind of why we're doing this practice. Paul? Yeah, it's what you're saying though, but you're not necessarily doing someone a favor by allowing them to harm you. Report an error

1:39:15 Obviously, yeah. Probably doing them more harm than good in that respect. So you have to take that into consideration. Right, right, yeah. So let's take a break. But let's just do, can we just do five minutes? Okay, because it's already getting late. Report an error

1:39:42 Oh, thank you. Report an error

1:39:47 I can see, yeah. Did you get a copy of this? You had the PDF or the score. Okay, great, thanks. Report an error

1:39:59 If anyone has to leave on the break, don't forget your homework. And if anybody needs the binder readings who did not get the binder readings. Yeah, you didn't because you weren't here last week. That's all the readings. It's just not in a binder. We're calling it the binder reading. Report an error

1:40:22 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, wait, that's two. Sorry. I think, did you get one? You got one. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Are you joining the class? Oh, good. Okay. So we can talk. Yeah. Oh, good. And what's your name? Yes. printed out what you sent me. Report an error

1:40:40 Barbara, nice to meet you. I'm Chokyi. Hi. Welcome. Yeah. So I can get your email address. Did you? And you get one? I have one now. Oh, good. I've still got two more. So if anybody. Yeah, I should get your email address. It's on my registration. Should I give it to you separately? You know what I should do is get. Report an error

1:41:04 Yeah, why don't you give it to me because I can add you to my list. And that way everybody's all in one place. And then what I can do is, somebody get me a pen. Report an error

1:41:14 Then what I can do is send you the homeworks from the first two classes and the notes. And then you can read it and just kind of get more out of it. Yeah, yeah. Report an error

1:41:43 Right, yeah. Report an error

1:41:59 Right. Report an error

1:42:04 Yeah, yeah. got this call at 5 o I said, oh, my Report an error

1:41:55 another, another issue, another something, another something, Report an error

1:42:01 book weddings and at Preservation of Art and Health. Right. Report an error

1:42:07 Basically, she had to cancel her Report an error

1:42:12 realized that fiancé probably to with the relationship the so she was just kind of falling apart. It was like I just, you know, I was so ready to just move through this phone call. Right. Having to stop and say, okay, if I'm late to this thing tonight, I'm late. Right, right, right. It's just, you know. Yeah, no, I remember one time there was like a whole group of us going to these teachings down in Santa Cruz area in Tenzachoki at that point, before she became Tenzachoki, this friend of mine. Report an error

1:42:47 A friend's daughter had disappeared, and so she kept, we had to. deal with this whole issue, and we're all sitting there, and Dreamy has this nun who's down in the South Bay, we're all sitting in She said, Report an error

1:43:02 I wish all these sentient beings would stop suffering so that we could get to our class on helping suffering sentient beings. And we all just busted out laughing because it was what everyone was thinking without saying it. It was like, yeah, you're right. If we're late to this class on compassion, I guess we have a good reason. Yeah, it's funny, isn't it? But it's almost like we don't, kind of waiting for Tenzin Choki to come out. And she just said, it's really dry. Report an error

1:43:21 Take that opportunity if it doesn't slap us in the face, you know. It's true, but I think it's because I was so intent on getting here and I was anxious about getting here on time. Well, and the timing, five o 'clock and all that, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I just, my afternoon, which was totally free of any appointments or anything, I just had, it was an explosion. Report an error

1:43:43 I mean, it was one thing after another. I could not, in fact, I left all this work on my desk, which I told Marcella, this is the worst night for me to come. Because Thursday nights is my catch-up night and I stay late to do my stuff. And so I thought, I don't know if this is going to work. You know, I can really see the benefit. Report an error

1:44:01 I mean, just, I'm trying to hang on to as much concept as I can because some of the terms are not coming to me. But I do get the gist of what you're saying tonight. I can really see the shift in mental attitude. It's something I really need. Yeah, yeah. Well, give me your email address. Report an error

1:44:23 I think so, because I might give these notes away, and then... But I just want to, when I go upstairs, I can just go ahead and send that out. And I'll send you my notes from tonight, too, if you want. I can just give you my notes from tonight. So tell me. Report an error

1:44:45 Ackerman preservationpark.com. Preservationpark.com. Okay. So send first three notes and first three homeworks. Thank you. Sure. And I'll go ahead and send. And so you got a reading packet and I'll send you a syllabus too. So this is homework for this week. No, this is just for the whole course. Yeah, and I just tell you in the homework which to read. A lot of people just go ahead and read the whole thing, but I usually just try to pick the parts that have to do with what we're really talking about. Report an error

1:45:23 Yeah. Well, it's, you know, Buddhism has been around a really long time, so there's like 2,649 years or something. You know, if Gisela was here, he always gives it exactly. Report an error

1:45:37 There's a lot of writings on it and some of those writings are just so amazing that we try to give you a package of it without overwhelming you, so just take it in dips and dabs, you're alright. Report an error

1:45:54 Oh good, yeah. But I love first two. Report an error

1:45:55 I mean, but how deeply you can It's amazing. It looks really small. One of the classes I was talking about how a student who was contemplating it years and years and years ago. He was so struck by the fifth verse that he went off in search of the author to try to get teachings and came after the author had passed away. And so his disciple, he asked if he would take him on as a student. Report an error

1:46:23 He's the one who actually then wrote a commentary on this whole practice that became the seven-point mind training. It's amazing, actually. So, yeah, there's so much depth to these verses. And I could only pay them a little. I can't even do them justice. But it gives us a start. We start getting some tools, yeah. Well, welcome to the class. Yeah, yeah. Report an error

1:46:47 Hey. You can indeed. Yeah, do you mind this funky one with the weirdo staple or would you prefer? Yeah, that was the one. It was your binder. Sure. Report an error

1:47:08 Well, you know how we started the main class and kind of set a motivation for the class. What do you mean by that? So setting a motivation for the class is really just about putting... Recognizing what it is that you're doing and trying to make your mind positive about it. So even as much as getting up in the morning, setting, like recognizing that it's opportunity, setting your mind Report an error

1:47:37 in order to place. Often my motivation is to be helpful to others to Report an error

1:47:45 that simple and broader motivation Report an error

1:47:51 in billions of ways. So it can be a little motivation or a big motivation. But that's all it is. It's just setting this strong intention. Report an error

1:48:05 Lama Zopa Rinpoche always talks about how most of the stuff that we do, we forget to motivate. So it has some motivation just by default. Most of the time if I get up in the morning, you know, I want to go to the bathroom or something. It doesn't necessarily have this really profound, wonderful. So I try to take a moment at some point and it Report an error

1:48:31 becomes more intentional. Report an error

1:48:35 So I really like the full thought during meditation this week because I felt like I was kind of a possible bit. So it's always my default thing. Right. But anyways, I took the thing and I was thinking about the questions and sitting there and all of a sudden, of course, it Report an error

1:48:59 was great because I've been bedding. Report an error

1:49:06 So I was just like, you know, because usually I go on for lunch or something. And it was so funny because I was so into my worrying and drama of whatever. And then there's like 20 seconds left. I remember the theme was. And then I got back to it. And then all of a sudden I hear the timer and it's like, I was like, well, I got back to it before the timer went off. Report an error

1:49:29 It's always a good time, right? Yeah, it's a good day. I wanted to talk to you about death and impermanence. After class, I came home and had a stroke and he was probably going to die. Report an error

1:49:47 I was like, oh, Report an error

1:49:53 he's old. It's his time to die. Report an error

1:50:00 It made about me. I'm feeling guilty that I wasn't sure if it's Report an error

1:50:15 going well. almost it was like I was like about it. I was like... Report an error

1:50:15 You know, grief can affect people in a different way. Right, and my boyfriend's like, well, wake me up your new dog, you know, and then, you know, and then I wasn't sure if, you Report an error

1:50:43 less emotional to others, to my own. That's kind of cool to recognize. Report an error

1:50:52 Sometimes it might be just too much to feel and so you're kind of avoiding the feeling. It's a hard thing. you know, and then we try to be Report an error

1:51:02 And it's totally complicated. And we don't learn how to behave very well in our culture, you know, and I'm saying American culture. So I would just examine that a little bit. Maybe that can be a contemplation, like what's really, what's going on? Don't let yourself get away from thinking about it by saying, you know, maybe I'm just avoiding thinking or whatever. Report an error

1:51:31 Try to examine it a little bit, like maybe it's big and it feels scary and so you're not going. Is he close? Are you close to him? Not so much anymore. When I was a kid. When you were a kid, yeah. And he was there for you when you were a long time? And he's grandpa, which is not really. I mean, he's physically there. Physically there, yeah. I don't know. Anyways, I was just like, yeah, he's just like, whatever. I don't know. Report an error

1:52:05 It's like, come on, am I impartial and it's supposed to be that? I just, I don't have, I don't know. Part of me is always like, why are we trying to make people with their bodies going? Right. Well, and all those things are true, but there's also this aspect, yeah, I mean, all of it is true. It is the time, death happens to everyone, but... Report an error

1:52:32 We try to recognize that being fully present. So if there's any part of us that's avoiding any of the feeling that arises, then we're probably denying a little of that feeling. That's what I would explore a little bit. Maybe that sort of acceptance is... Sometimes externally, especially with Buddhists, I think we're not supposed to feel, we're not supposed to be so attached, we're not supposed to love someone. I think reality is that we do, and then we just don't talk about it. Report an error

1:53:09 And if we do talk about it, then we get attitude. So it's kind of like, all of those things are very true, and you may come back to that, but it's also you've just found out, and there's that kind of space of dealing with the news. and that might be a place of healing. I think it might be a place of healing. And that's what it's like. I think also it's like, it's like. Report an error

1:53:38 The Vietnamese way to deal with death is to basically give money for the funeral. And there's a Vietnamese sign of people in Vietnam and people in America and they expect that the relatives in America do this. Report an error

1:53:53 And then it's like suspicious. of like past family things and people actually hoarding money and taking it away and it's actually not going to that. I should be careful. And I was just like, it started going totally one direction and I was just like, uh. To see all of that is very interesting to work with and to look at. Report an error

1:54:11 It's just interesting to see where our mind goes. As Rubina said, we're just like, isn't it interesting how the mind goes? Not being so attached to it, but my mind. It's just like, look at what the mind does. Because whatever our mind does, everyone else's mind does too, in just some other way, you know. But this is just how mind works. You can kind of use it to examine. Report an error

1:54:29 It's interesting how your mind is doing. it. I notice sometimes, because I do the thing through the internet where I go online and just start investigating or researching something. If I get a disease or somebody else, I go online. That's the way I'm dealing with it. I'm not looking at the feeling. I'm avoiding the feeling. So then it's just sitting over there. We can talk about it. Report an error

1:54:55 That Report an error

1:54:59 was a 10 minute break. Actually, it was probably more like 12 or 15 minute break. Report an error

1:55:24 Oh, okay, yeah, we can put it, or I can announce it, you mean to announce it? Okay, yeah, yeah. Report an error

1:55:38 So we're kind of out of time. Report an error

1:55:43 I mean, the main thing about pride, that this verse, you know, we wanted to spend a little time this week thinking about these two verses, and that's going to be your homework this week. But one of the things about pride, too, that can cause problems, it cuts us off from being able to learn from each other or from... Report an error

1:56:04 Being able to connect with each other, for sure. It also can become a source of anger, right? Because if our pride gets wounded, if we become defensive, the ego sort of arises up and we can cause harm because our pride has gotten smacked in the face. So it's important to see how pride can be a disservice or can kind of wrongly serve us in that way too. Report an error

1:56:34 But the main thing, if we're talking about these verses and this type of teaching as being mind training, what are we training our mind to do in this case? Basically, we're training our minds to see every single problem that arises. We have to do this over time and gradually and be patient with ourselves and all that stuff. Report an error

1:56:56 But we're training our mind over time to see each problem that arises as an opportunity. I mean, that's really what we're training our mind to do. It's an opportunity to practice. And that's everything. So that's, you know, we start little. Just like with patients, they say, you know, you start with little tiny things and we develop that patience. So in this case, we start with little tiny opportunities. Report an error

1:57:20 Don't assume that you're going to be perfect. Getting, you know, a terminal diagnosis, you know. We're not going to be perfect getting a terminal diagnosis if we haven't practiced with the little stuff, you know, the little stuff that happens where people, you know, bail on us or, you know, when we were really hoping that we could do something with them, you know. Report an error

1:57:43 Or, you know, if some situation goes wrong in some little way, that's when we can practice. Let's start with the small stuff. And then when the big stuff happens, we've practiced a little bit and maybe we'll be able to deal with it a little better. And if we don't, that's okay too. If we even remember, oh, I should have transformed that. You know, I had this one teacher who would say, you know, you start thinking about, he would always give references to an angry boss, which fortunately I've been always fortunate. Report an error

1:58:18 Not to have an angry boss. But he would talk about you go into work, you know, the angry boss yells at you, you know. At first you start with preparing yourself because it happens every day. So you imagine what the angry boss looks like, how the veins stick out, how his eyes look, how the color of his face. And you prepare yourself for that for when it arises that you're not going to respond back. Report an error

1:58:42 First, you know, you might be sitting and thinking about it three days later and go, oh, I guess I shouldn't have yelled back, you know. And then you remember it, you know, when you're on your way home from work. Oh, I guess I shouldn't have yelled back, you know, that he was the creation of my karma. You sort of analyze the whole thing. Then you remember it in the bathroom like an hour later, you know. Report an error

1:58:59 Then you remember it like after you turned away from yelling back and you've gone back to work, you know. Finally, at that moment of yelling back, you catch yourself. Before the mouth has even opened and the words have spilled out. And that's what we're trying to do is training the mind means there's going to be a couple of screw-ups along the way of remembering when and where to apply these teachings. Report an error

1:59:23 But basically everything that happens to us is an opportunity to practice. Whether we do it well almost doesn't matter. It's the intention, and we're talking about the intention, the motivation. Report an error

1:59:35 That's like 95 % of karma, right? So if the intention is good, then no matter what happens, we can still develop our mind based on that situation. So that's what we're trying to do with these different teachings. We are not going to perfectly be able to hold all beings up at all times right away, but I have full faith in you guys that we will at some point, and how amazing will that be? Report an error

2:00:03 you know. And we won't remember at first to hold every living being as precious as a wish-fulfilling jewel, but we will at some point. And how amazing will that be? When you actually are able to apply this teaching in that moment, it's so amazing. It can just completely stagger your mind. These are really, really, really strong and powerful teachings. Report an error

2:00:33 And they take time. You've got to cook them. We've got to cook them. Anyway. So we'll talk a little bit more about self-cherishing mind next week. It comes up more. You'll be surprised. It comes up all the way the rest of the course. But we've run out of time tonight. So I just wanted to say, just to be... Report an error

2:00:56 It's like we have to always have this balance. It's like what Jessica and I were talking about. This is balance of both pushing ourselves and also being kind to ourselves, being gentle and being realistic. This situation is too powerful for my baby bodhicitta. I need to remove myself from the room. And then eventually, when we actually are in a situation that's... Report an error

2:01:21 That we remember to apply the antidote and we remember what the antidote is. That one comes up for me sometimes. It can really be amazing. It can really be amazing. But we have to be gentle with ourselves at the beginning. This is a new practice for most of us. And even those of us who have been practicing it for a long time, we haven't perfected it. Report an error

2:01:43 So push and then retreat a little bit. And then push and then retreat a little bit. Any last questions before we end the class? Anything that came up on the break or while you were sitting here if you didn't go take a break? Report an error

2:02:00 Yeah, pass that back to Fred. Report an error

2:02:06 Yeah, on the break I was looking at this, The Attention Revolution. Yeah, it's a great book. And it's talking about lucid dreaming. And not that I know what that is, but from what I understand. It's kind of like what we were talking about at the beginning, what David was talking about, where... When a situation comes up with a dream, having the presence of mind to apply what you would hopefully apply in waking state. So it's like another way of training the mind, but obviously if we haven't trained the mind too much in waking state, then we won't have good luck in our dreams. Report an error

2:02:40 There's a specific method that is referred to here, which is state checks, which is consistently on some self-chosen pattern, every hour or every impulse or every negative experience or whatever we choose to. And examine that state we're in and then get some nice guides. I haven't read the whole thing, I just kind of skimmed it, but it was on target because it talks about ways of differentiating when we are in a dream versus when we are not or in an hallucination or a deceit. Report an error

2:03:08 Right, yeah. Great little, seemed to be right on. No, and it's also really good. I mean, his main thing is, this is Alan Wallace, his main thing is developing concentration. I mean, and so he gives you like all these little tidbits on developing your concentration practice. But he's written it in a way that's not necessarily Buddhist, you know, because he's taken all the teachings on calm abiding and put them into sort of ordinary English, you know. Report an error

2:03:37 So, yeah, it's a great book. Yeah, Katya. I actually have a question about the reading and the part about wishing to take upon yourself the suffering. suffering others or all the suffering of others. It's a bit confusing to me because one of the premises of Buddhism, it seems, is that everybody wants to be happy. So the practice, it seems contrary to that, an unnatural wish to be. Report an error

2:04:06 Are you talking about a future verse? Oh, I don't know. We haven't gotten to that one yet. No, it was in the homework reading. keep reading. Report an error

2:04:18 Yeah, it's talking about the practice of Tonglen. So if we're going to address it, that's fine. Yeah, we will address it for sure. For sure, yeah. It is contrary to what the self-cherishing mind believes, but yeah, actually being willing to take on the suffering of others, whether we actually do or not, it's talking about the mind willing to take on the suffering of others. Report an error

2:04:37 It helps create a stronger, braver, more powerful mind. It's opposite of what we think, right? So we'll get to that. Yeah. Report an error

2:04:48 I have a question based on Christine's comment that since Tonglen just came up again, I was thinking about it in the break after you guys were talking about it before. Report an error

2:04:58 And it seems like if, maybe I'm wrong, but I was just thinking about it. If you're practicing Tonglen and you're not applying antidotes to pride, Could you get into a situation where, you know, you still have a lot of, I mean, it seems like you could still have a lot of pride in thinking, like, I'm really this great person because I'm practicing Tonglen and I want to take on all these people's all sentient beings suffering and kind of get a little bit off track if you didn't. Report an error

2:05:25 I just started thinking about how, you know, you could almost start to... Well, that's why when we're practicing Tonglen, and I think it's not stressed enough when it's taught. You don't remove anything from anyone. You always use it to destroy your self-cherishing. Destroy what you taught us in the last class, the black self-cherishing mind. Report an error

2:05:48 In that imagery, it becomes like this rock at your heart. Basically, if we aren't using that suffering of others to destroy our self-cherishing, we're missing that really key step. Then it's not that. Then all we're doing is some imagery. There are plenty of Dharma students. Quote unquote, who aren't really applying the teachings or trying to, and all they are is getting more and more puffed up. And, you know, either they are taking this as all intellectual, so they're becoming more and more sort of academic, or they're just, you know, kind of lording it over. Report an error

2:06:20 I mean, often it comes up when we're teaching the Dharma that people will spend all the classes on karma talking about other people. And it's like, you guys, these teachings are for us to understand. Our minds and our karma that we've created not to use it to judge other people on what they're doing. So that comes up a lot in the Dharma, especially as we're excited and we're getting into it, right? Report an error

2:06:42 You spend all the time looking around at all the people at work and finding out all their faults, but that's not what we're here to do. We're really supposed to be focusing on. And yeah, if we aren't using these teachings correctly, then they just become another source of saṃsāra. Right, but using that, really focusing on the self-cherishing, abolishing the self-cherishing as part of your Tonglen, which is part of it, of course, but I feel like having that emphasis there, that makes a lot of sense from what you said earlier. Report an error

2:07:09 Yeah, yeah. And I think, yeah, we'll just wait and we'll talk about Tonglen later, but yeah, it gets lost, I think, in some of the instructions on it. David? Do it quick because we're really late. One of the things that comes up for me when I do Tan Lin or those kind of practices I think about suffering of others is as I look at that, I end up spending time thinking about the inherent emptiness of self so that as you can realize emptiness then it's more like you can be a filter for their... Report an error

2:07:43 Right. You know, because it's not like I'm taking this on. Right. It's not like there's me here. Either from a prideful or from a fearful way. Yeah. Because there's not a, so it's. But that's all. Yeah. So, I mean, obviously the, we haven't gotten into emptiness that much. And so for some people that's, you know, that things don't exist the way we think that they do all solid and concrete and absolute the way we think that they do. Report an error

2:08:06 That's really all emptiness is referring to. But yeah. So what David's saying is that when you do these practices, trying to remember, The emptiness of this I who is either fearful or prideful of doing this practice to begin with. And that is a step. I mean, that is actually one of the steps of Tonglen that's not always taught either. Report an error

2:08:27 But yeah, I mean, I think that... We can do any of these teachings getting that kind of puffed up mind, but that fearful mind also is self-cherishing. It's just another form of self-cherishing. It's like protecting this self that doesn't actually exist in that way. So even whether it's being really proud of doing these practices and getting all puffed up about it, or whether it's being fearful and averse to. Report an error

2:08:56 That's still coming from that I and protecting that I and that sort of egocentric view. So it's still worth analyzing and trying to figure out how that's blocking me from doing this. But yeah, we'll talk about how ultimate happiness actually does come from just even for a moment wanting to take away the suffering of others. Report an error

2:09:18 Yeah, Marcela, yeah. It's not regarding the class, but I know we have to go. Report an error

2:09:27 You guys didn't have a single question earlier. It's Gabby. Gabby, my friend, who came the first time. She got very sick. She got a virus. She's having a lot of sickness. She lives by herself. I want you to... I know, listen Report an error

2:09:45 Ask you please if we can pray for her. Okay, let's dedicate for her actually tonight. It's two weeks already. Yeah, she said. She's not getting better. That's what she said. She sent me an email today. Yeah, she told me. She's Gabriela Raid. Yeah. Okay, thank you. So why don't we end with that? So let's dedicate all the merit that we created. And we created quite a bit. Report an error

2:10:08 Even if we're having resistance to the teachings, which is actually not a bad thing, because at first the Buddha always said, don't just accept this because you like me or because you believe in me or because you like what I say. We have to test these out. So let's dedicate all the merit that we have created tonight in this class, and we dedicate it to all of us, but especially to Gabby. Report an error

2:10:36 Healed as quickly as possible so she can come back. And I'll keep sending her the homeworks and the notes so she can keep transforming this experience. Because again, we don't do these teachings just when they're easy for us and when things are going our way. These teachings especially are for when things are going wrong. Report an error

2:10:59 So we do this for Gabby. And we do it for every suffering sentient being everywhere. Especially those that don't even know that they're suffering. Report an error

2:11:12 Thank you. Report an error

2:11:18 Yeah, the homework. And if anybody, does anybody still need binder readings? Because I have some extra copies if people do. Report an error

2:11:37 Oh, and I wanted to announce, sorry, Ann, I just immediately forgot. Heart Shrine Relic Tour is going to be at a temple in San Jose this weekend? This coming? Next weekend. Next weekend. Well, this coming weekend. It is this coming weekend, yeah, 28th, 29th and 30th, yeah, yeah, at the Dilak Temple. So if people are interested and they'd like to go and read something about it, come up and read this or talk to Ann. Report an error

2:12:11 Are we okay on homework? Do we have enough homework? Report an error

2:12:19 Looks like, yeah, okay. Marcella, you got a homework? Okay. Fred, you got a homework? Okay. I wasn't going to, but do you need one? I've got an extra one if you need one. Yeah. Report an error

2:12:40 Thanks, you guys. Report an error

2:12:48 So we can put this up, actually. Yeah, do you want to put it up on the... Report an error

2:12:58 Oh, and this belongs to you. Report an error

2:13:04 Barbara, if you want to take my notes from tonight, you can go ahead and have those and I'll email you the other two. No, no. I have them on the computer, so... So you're taking off tomorrow? Yes. Okay. Thanks and welcome. I'll send you the other ones. Oh, good. We'll come to Salk tomorrow. Okay, good, good, yeah. Report an error

2:13:33 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Children's back. So I talked to children a couple of nights ago and I told her you were here and she goes, well, isn't he up here? And I said, normally he's up there, but now he's down here. Report an error

2:13:49 There you go. You got two pages. Most people have it front and back. I just copied it right before because I was hoping I'd have time to leave the meditation, but I didn't, so then that's what that is. Report an error

2:14:13 Oh, Report an error

2:14:21 I forgot to get a piece of paper for people to sign up for volunteering. I don't know how it is, but yeah, yeah. Report an error

2:14:12 yeah. so last class, yeah, go right here. Report an error

2:14:32 to do it. Oh. Oh. can do it. Do you want a piece of paper? You know what, I'll send out, I'm going to send out an email to all you guys. How about I do that? Count me in. Okay, that'd be great. I'm in too. Yay! Thanks, you guys. Report an error

2:14:51 Your car. Oh, good. That'd be great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That'd be great. Okay. That's great. Next thing I'm going to talk to my daughter. Report an error

Report an error

Passage at . Please listen to the audio before you suggest a fix.

Suggest a fix

Passage at . Please listen to the audio before you suggest a fix.

Related talks

  1. Transforming Problems into the Path - How Problems Help (24 February 2011)

    Lobsang Chokyi · 24 February 2011 · 2 h 3 min

  2. Transforming Problems into the Path - How Problems Help (20 January 2011)

    Lobsang Chokyi · 20 January 2011 · 2 h 13 min

  3. Transforming Problems into the Path - How Problems Help (17 February 2011)

    Lobsang Chokyi · 17 February 2011 · 2 h 12 min

  4. Transforming Problems into the Path - How Problems Help (13 January 2011)

    Lobsang Chokyi · 13 January 2011 · 1 h 57 min

  5. Transforming Problems into the Path - How Problems Help (3 March 2011)

    Lobsang Chokyi · 3 March 2011 · 2 h 2 min

  6. Transforming Problems into the Path - How Problems Help (6 March 2011)

    Lobsang Chokyi · 6 March 2011 · 1 h 54 min

Talk by Lobsang Chokyi, recorded 27 January 2011. Original at Tse Chen Ling Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/LC_LoJong_20110113. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. Transcript generated automatically and may contain errors; the audio is the authoritative version.

Recorded at Tse Chen Ling Center, San Francisco, and archived by the center on Internet Archive. More from Tse Chen Ling

Listen on Internet Archive · CC BY-NC-ND 3.0