Discovering Buddhism - How to Meditate (7 January 2009)

0:04 made a ride stir for tonight, but I forgot. you have? Report an error in the passage at 0:04 Highlight the passage at 0:04

0:28 My name is Chokyi, for those of you that I don't know. Do I know? I don't, except I told you where the bathroom is, so now we've bonded, so that's good. Got that out of the way. And I don't think I know you, actually, either. We're going to have a chance. Are you either? We'll have a chance to go around and introduce ourselves. It's that part of the class. Report an error in the passage at 0:28 Highlight the passage at 0:28

0:45 The only part you ever hear right is your own thing. You know who you are really well by the end of the class. But anyway, we'll just take a couple of minutes to go around a little bit later. My name is Chokyi and my position here is spiritual care coordinator and instructor. I'm also one of the instructors of basically the Discovering Buddhism program and then some one-ups like... Report an error in the passage at 0:45 Highlight the passage at 0:45

1:14 Like this weekend, how to do water bowls, you know, like those kind of things. I think I'm also doing this Sunday thing this weekend. can't. Report an error in the passage at 1:14 Highlight the passage at 1:14

1:22 So, you know, occasional things like that. But I also do, if students want to talk about the practice or figure out, you know, kind of like a guidance counselor, then I could be like that too. Or if there's like big things going on in your life, like some sort of big illness or a parent with big illness or a child with big illness or something like that. Life, kind of big life things, clearly death and dying issues as well. Report an error in the passage at 1:22 Highlight the passage at 1:22

1:45 That's also my responsibility. Report an error in the passage at 1:45 Highlight the passage at 1:45

1:49 um, Yeah, I'll say a little bit more about me when we go around too, but that's who I am. This class, hopefully you know, is how to meditate. Hopefully you're on the right plane. Report an error in the passage at 1:49 Highlight the passage at 1:49

2:04 And this class is where if you don't already have a daily practice, you'll develop one. And if you just want to know what meditation is, you'll find that out too. If you also just kind of wanted a way into the center, that'll also work. Report an error in the passage at 2:04 Highlight the passage at 2:04

2:28 And yeah, so you'll see what it's like. I'll talk a little bit about the class too. I'm just going to start with a little bit of a meditation. Those of you that have done classes with me know that I always start with just a little transitional meditation, mostly for me. Because I'm running around. It has nothing to do with you. No, I'm kidding. I also am very sarcastic, so please don't take me too seriously. Report an error in the passage at 2:28 Highlight the passage at 2:28

2:55 Yeah, it's really good. We all are kind of rushing around in life. And when you first sit down to meditate or for a class or to study or any kind of spiritual pursuit, that you give yourself a little transitional time. And so that little transitional time is where you stop doing one thing before you start doing something else so that you have a little time to switch gears. Report an error in the passage at 2:55 Highlight the passage at 2:55

3:22 One Report an error in the passage at 3:22 Highlight the passage at 3:22

3:26 of the ways I like to do it is just with some breathing. So just taking some nice deep breaths and imagining it going through your body and mind and just finding any blocks, distractions, any obstacles and just dissolving them. You can almost imagine it's like sugar and tea, just dissolving it, completely gone, no sign of it. Report an error in the passage at 3:26 Highlight the passage at 3:26

3:58 So you're breathing the air in, it does that, and then you breathe it back out again and it just disappears into the night. Report an error in the passage at 3:58 Highlight the passage at 3:58

4:10 You could even do it in the form of white light, dissolving anything dark, any worries or fears or, you know, we're all going through kind of troubling times right now, so maybe imagining that light. Just filling you up with light and dissolving anything that's blocking you from being present. Report an error in the passage at 4:10 Highlight the passage at 4:10

4:36 And you can also imagine breathing in fresh alertness or curiosity, presence, awareness. Report an error in the passage at 4:36 Highlight the passage at 4:36

5:14 After you've sort of arrived a little bit more, just taking some time to set a motivation for being here tonight. Report an error in the passage at 5:14 Highlight the passage at 5:14

5:27 We all have our own reasons for being here and they're all valid. Report an error in the passage at 5:27 Highlight the passage at 5:27

5:36 Maybe think a little bit about why you came. Report an error in the passage at 5:36 Highlight the passage at 5:36

5:48 One of the Buddha's most famous teachings is that all living beings just want to be happy. So something in our minds wants to be happy. And maybe that's part of why we're here. Report an error in the passage at 5:48 Highlight the passage at 5:48

6:09 And all living beings just want to avoid suffering. And maybe that's why we're here too. Report an error in the passage at 6:09 Highlight the passage at 6:09

6:27 We start with thinking about what we want for ourselves, and that's absolutely fine. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be happy and wanting to eliminate the suffering in our lives. Report an error in the passage at 6:27 Highlight the passage at 6:27

6:41 Then we also just start expanding it like a ripple in water, just start expanding it a little bit bigger. Maybe we're thinking, if I have a calmer mind, maybe I could be a more calming presence in my home or in my office, in my family. Just start rippling it out to people that we already love or care about in some way. Report an error in the passage at 6:41 Highlight the passage at 6:41

7:11 And then just start rippling it out even further. Because actually the calmer and steadier and more stable our minds are, we can be of benefit to huger and huger amounts of people. The Buddha would actually say that we could become of benefit to all living beings just by this work that we do on our minds. Report an error in the passage at 7:11 Highlight the passage at 7:11

7:43 So may it begin here. May it start with this class. And whatever seeds are planted or imprints are made or whatever we might learn or understand or get to know about our own minds and meditation, may Report an error in the passage at 7:43 Highlight the passage at 7:43

8:06 it become the seed for our own enlightenment, our own Buddhahood, for the benefit of every living being without exception. Report an error in the passage at 8:06 Highlight the passage at 8:06

8:22 And even though that may seem large, that may seem big, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, my main teacher, said everything exists on the tip of a wish. So it starts with an aspiration. Report an error in the passage at 8:22 Highlight the passage at 8:22

8:40 And so that aspiration can be our motivation for this class. When Report an error in the passage at 8:40 Highlight the passage at 8:40

8:58 you're ready in your own time, you can end your meditation. And we'll start with an opening prayer. In front of you, you have a white booklet. And on page 8... You should be able to find a picture of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. You can just grab one of these. Report an error in the passage at 8:58 Highlight the passage at 8:58

9:27 This is generating the mind of enlightenment. This is one that His Holiness the Dalai Lama does actually anytime he teaches, but also especially when he's trying to help those of us in the audience strengthen the mind of bodhicitta or cultivate the mind of bodhicitta. And we'll talk about more about bodhicitta as we go. But basically, bodhicitta is this mind that wants to get enlightened for the benefit of all beings. So it's like this really big, vast, brave G.I. Report an error in the passage at 9:27 Highlight the passage at 9:27

9:59 Jane kind of a mind, you know, it's like, bring it on. So we start cultivating that kind of a mind through aspirations or prayers like this. So we're going to start with this. We'll just do it once. Report an error in the passage at 9:59 Highlight the passage at 9:59

10:13 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. Report an error in the passage at 10:13 Highlight the passage at 10:13

10:41 remain and dispel the miseries of the world. Report an error in the passage at 10:41 Highlight the passage at 10:41

10:48 All right. Report an error in the passage at 10:48 Highlight the passage at 10:48

10:54 So we actually made Geshe-la a bigger throne so I could put more things on there. This is kind of spread out. Report an error in the passage at 10:54 Highlight the passage at 10:54

11:03 So this is a class called How to Meditate. It's actually going to have six sessions. I'm just going to get into a little bit of the logistics first. It actually has six sessions, six classes, but there's going to be one class on the 21st that I will not be here. And so instead of somebody else teaching class, Elizabeth Prather, our new program coordinator, actually said she would come in that day, that evening if anybody is interested and lead some meditations. Report an error in the passage at 11:03 Highlight the passage at 11:03

11:34 So if people want to keep it up, you know, you start out, you got your Wednesdays going, then she can lead some meditations if there's interest. Report an error in the passage at 11:34 Highlight the passage at 11:34

11:43 And then I'll just resume again the following week. It goes, it starts tonight and it goes through February 18th. Then we have, at the very end, we have what's called a practice day on a Saturday. And the date that we have set is Saturday the 28th. So people want to write that down and check your schedules and see how that's going to work. Report an error in the passage at 11:43 Highlight the passage at 11:43

12:05 And we can start that process now if it doesn't work for half of you. And I know that people sometimes can't come because they work on Saturdays or they're out of town or whatever, but it's a really nice way at the end of class to sort of bring it all together in a little sort of retreat day format where we do a lot of, especially for this class, a lot of meditation and discussion and things like that. Report an error in the passage at 12:05 Highlight the passage at 12:05

12:30 And we just do it here at the center. So it's like a little mini retreat. Report an error in the passage at 12:30 Highlight the passage at 12:30

12:37 And I will do a syllabus for you guys next week. So I'll put that date on there so that if you forget between now and then. Also, if you need to reach me for any reason, I'm really available by email. Although I have to admit I'm not as good as I used to be at keeping up with it all. But you can get my email address. It's just basically my name, chokyi, at seichenling.org. Report an error in the passage at 12:37 Highlight the passage at 12:37

13:01 You can get it on our website. So you can just go onto our website. I think if you just go in to contact us or something. Actually, I should know that. Is that it? Okay. Report an error in the passage at 13:01 Highlight the passage at 13:01

13:13 And if you can't find it, then contact Jane and then she'll send it to me. Yeah, so if you have any questions or anything like that. With all of the classes, my number one thing is as much as you can to try to come. I do give homework. Don't be scared. It's almost all meditation. A little bit of reading. You guys have a pretty small binder of reading. Report an error in the passage at 13:13 Highlight the passage at 13:13

13:38 And if you haven't done it and you haven't sat a single time, still come. Don't use that as your excuse. Oh, I can't possibly come because I didn't do my homework. Report an error in the passage at 13:38 Highlight the passage at 13:38

13:49 This just makes it more for you. I try to make it as much as I can. It's a pretty short class. It's less than two months. And so how to give you as much as possible without... It's overloading you. And so I try to give you homework. What's worked for me in the past with Western Minds, we work with homework. That's what we do. Report an error in the passage at 13:49 Highlight the passage at 13:49

14:11 I mean, I think a lot of times people go to Dharma talks and they just kind of bliss out and they leave, but then nothing really happens. So I try to give you something that you can kind of work with it between classes so it comes alive for you and really becomes a tool that you can use. I mean, that's the whole point, right? It's not just for you to... Report an error in the passage at 14:11 Highlight the passage at 14:11

14:31 I mean, you could just go on Wikipedia if you just want to find out what meditation was. So this isn't an intellectual type of a class. This is definitely an experiential type of a class. Report an error in the passage at 14:31 Highlight the passage at 14:31

14:42 But to be perfectly honest, I do it for all of my classes. So that being said, if you have to miss a class or you know you have to miss a class, that you have to travel on business or something like that, or you're sick, or just something comes up and you can't make it, email me. And then I can send you the notes that I use in class. And then you might not get the funny comments that Gina makes or something like that. You know, it might not be like you're here. Report an error in the passage at 14:42 Highlight the passage at 14:42

15:12 You'll still have... My basic notes, or at least what I intended to say, you actually might get more information than the people that are actually here. So at least you won't feel behind, and then you'll come the next time, and then you'll kind of still feel a little bit like you're part of the group. Report an error in the passage at 15:12 Highlight the passage at 15:12

15:27 So do that, and please feel free to do that. It's also possible, because I print them every time, that if after class, if you would like me to just hand them to you, I'm quite happy to do. They just go into Dharma Burn. I don't save them. Report an error in the passage at 15:27 Highlight the passage at 15:27

15:43 I'm totally happy to share them with you, as long as you just keep them, don't publish them or anything. I have to say that because people do interesting things. The other thing, we do record all the classes, or we do try. you. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 15:43 Highlight the passage at 15:43

15:58 We do make mistakes sometimes. And then we upload them periodically. That's volunteer run too. One of our students uploads them to a site called archive.org. So we don't always get them up every week. So if you miss one, it may not be there yet, but they will be there at some point. So that's also an option if you miss and you just kind of want to hear how it sounded or you want to listen to it. Report an error in the passage at 15:58 Highlight the passage at 15:58

16:25 Or like if you know you're going to have to miss a couple of weeks or something like that. And I've taught it before, and I think Manlam has taught it before. One of us has, and so if you just go to archive.org, you could also, if you're really into it and you just want more classes, you could probably listen to that. Report an error in the passage at 16:25 Highlight the passage at 16:25

16:44 Although we change it, I change it every time. I think that's it, logistically speaking. I'll try to do a break. I usually don't do it exactly halfway through. It's more likely to be about two-thirds of the way through, something like that. And we have, our cafe right now is all volunteer managed. So Carla, I think you're going to be doing Wednesday nights, right? Report an error in the passage at 16:44 Highlight the passage at 16:44

17:11 And so Carla's here and she's happy to take your orders. And what time do you get here on Wednesdays? Okay, yeah, that's cool. We're going to try to have more food. At this point we're just like cookies, but we're getting there, we're getting there. We have a bookstore manager, but we don't really have a cafe manager. Report an error in the passage at 17:11 Highlight the passage at 17:11

17:31 So anyway. That's kind of where we are in that. But yeah, Carla's here and she can make you coffees or teas or whatever on the break. Are you staying for the class? Are you doing the class as well? Are you going to leave before? Not so sure. Okay. Answer unclear. Ask again later. Okay. We'll kind of just play it by ear, but if... Report an error in the passage at 17:31 Highlight the passage at 17:31

17:55 If you have a strong desire to purchase something and Carla's not here, then I will do my best to help you. And if not, I'll go get Mary, who happens to live here. And unfortunately, we don't get time off. No, she said that she would happily come up and make somebody a coffee or sell somebody a statue or whatever, you know, if you're like burning to buy it at nine o 'clock. Report an error in the passage at 17:55 Highlight the passage at 17:55

18:19 That's cool. I think that's it. logistics stuff. Report an error in the passage at 18:19 Highlight the passage at 18:19

18:27 The way that I'm going to cover this class, it's not so much like this week we'll do this and this week this. There's sort of a basic overview of instructions on how one develops a meditative... A meditation session and meditation practice. I'm going to cover those. There are about five different points that I came up with. Report an error in the passage at 18:27 Highlight the passage at 18:27

18:58 Of course, this being a Galupa tradition, we do a lot of lists. There will be some lists. Within this first list, there are many subsets. I'm just going to give it to you so you have an idea of what my goal is to give you in the next. Seven weeks. So the first one, and we're going to get into this tonight, defining meditation and its function. Report an error in the passage at 18:58 Highlight the passage at 18:58

19:25 What is meditation and why do we do it? And then preparing to meditate. Preparing to meditate is actually bigger than any other group. There is a lot to do with preparing to meditate. And interestingly enough, most of these things are not covered. In a non-Buddhist environment, I think. So we're going to get into all those things. They are considered very important. And they are considered to be equally important to the meditation itself. Report an error in the passage at 19:25 Highlight the passage at 19:25

19:58 My teacher, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who's now up there, sometimes he'll spend literally almost the entire teaching doing the motivation. You know, he'll just... Motivate us. And then he'll do the teaching really fast and then he'll spend the rest of the teaching dedicating it all. And I think his point is if we don't look at why we're doing something and we don't remember that we're generating positive karma and then dedicate that positive karma, what we're doing is really not as important as we might think it is. Report an error in the passage at 19:58 Highlight the passage at 19:58

20:41 So we'll talk about that a little bit when we get to that section and we're going to start that section tonight as well. That one includes, and you might have heard of some of these things, the six preparatory practices. We'll talk about that. Seven limb practice, seven limb prayer. The eight point posture, which of course we will start with that tonight actually. Report an error in the passage at 20:41 Highlight the passage at 20:41

21:06 I mean we will get to that tonight. And then the... The mental process that we go through during the course of trying to meditate includes its own list of various things. The five main problems that we encounter, the eight antidotes or corrections that we apply against those problems, and then there's a list of nine different states that our mind enters as we... Report an error in the passage at 21:06 Highlight the passage at 21:06

21:38 Deepen our meditation practice all the way up to what's called calm abiding or sort of the zenith of a stabilized mind. It's like the most, it's like the peak of the peak. So you guys will all get your own little like sort of posters to show you where you are on your little nine states of meditation. Report an error in the passage at 21:38 Highlight the passage at 21:38

22:03 Then we'll talk a little bit about the different objects of meditation because it's not always so clear. And then finally we're going to end, especially in the final class, we're going to spend a lot of time on that calm abiding meditation, single pointed meditation. And so we'll talk about the conditions that are traditionally taught that we need in place. Report an error in the passage at 22:03 Highlight the passage at 22:03

22:26 She's safe, I think it's the director. So we'll talk about the different conditions that we need. There are traditionally some specific conditions that are taught that are said to be necessary for us to develop single-pointed concentration. Report an error in the passage at 22:26 Highlight the passage at 22:26

22:42 And believe it or not, we can start developing them now. So we don't have to wait and go and meditate in a cave somewhere. So we can develop some of them now. We can start developing some of them now. Report an error in the passage at 22:42 Highlight the passage at 22:42

22:58 Lama Yeshe said, meditation is not on the level of the object. But on that of the subject, you are the business of your meditation. I like that because I think it kind of, it's a little unnerving. I think we think we get to meditate on the cup or we get to meditate on something out there. And actually the whole reason that we learn how to meditate is to turn inward. Report an error in the passage at 22:58 Highlight the passage at 22:58

23:25 So we're going to go deeper and deeper into our own mind. and familiar Familiarize ourselves with our mind and also then master our mind. So we will explain what that means. Report an error in the passage at 23:25 Highlight the passage at 23:25

23:41 So we started out with the motivation tonight talking about wanting happiness. You know, this idea that everyone wants happiness. The Buddha actually taught that all beings want happiness from the tiniest insect. You know, all the way through those beings who have what are called devas or godlike existences, you know. And there's nothing wrong with that. Report an error in the passage at 23:41 Highlight the passage at 23:41

24:06 But the problem is a lot of times that we go around about getting happiness in all the wrong ways. You know, we end up creating a lot of suffering for ourselves and everyone else, trying to get that happiness or hold on to that happiness or believing that it's somehow out there. Report an error in the passage at 24:06 Highlight the passage at 24:06

24:23 The reality is that any happiness that we'll ever get starts inside our own mind. And so meditation is a proven method of actually unlocking the key to that happiness and also beginning to eliminate the suffering that we feel because the suffering starts there too, even though we're really used to kind of, again, looking outside of ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 24:23 Highlight the passage at 24:23

24:47 Lama Yeshe, I'm quoting a few times, he's on that wall. He is the founder of the group of centers that this center is a part of, which has a real mouthful of a name. It's called the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahāyāna Tradition, FPMT. You may have heard that bandied about, and that's what it is. Report an error in the passage at 24:47 Highlight the passage at 24:47

25:09 He founded it with Lama Zopa Rinpoche. In the 70s, he passed away in the mid-80s, and Lama Zopa is still with us. This center was actually founded by Lama Zopa. Report an error in the passage at 25:09 Highlight the passage at 25:09

25:26 But Lama actually taught a lot about meditation and why we meditate and how we meditate, and he had a particularly unusual way of phrasing things, but he said, he's the one who said that meditation is like creating a laboratory with your mind, you know. Creating this safe space to begin looking deeply at these different things in the same way that scientists take things apart and look deeply with tools. Report an error in the passage at 25:26 Highlight the passage at 25:26

25:53 Our tools and the mind itself are the same. The tools of looking at our mind are actually our mind. We're looking at our mind with our mind, which is unusual. Report an error in the passage at 25:53 Highlight the passage at 25:53

26:07 And what we have to do to get to that point is to begin isolating our sense consciousnesses from our mental consciousness. And so this requires us to begin to get to know our mind a little bit better. He also said, I believe it was Lami Eshi who also said, that when we meditate it's a little bit like a busy office with all the phones ringing. Report an error in the passage at 26:07 Highlight the passage at 26:07

26:29 And that we begin to see, and part of learning to meditate actually is getting it, that we have the choice. Which phones to answer? That was really well done. I should have had several though ringing. That would have been better. So we can't, we won't necessarily stop all the phones from ringing. Report an error in the passage at 26:29 Highlight the passage at 26:29

26:51 But we can choose whether or not to answer and we can choose which ones to answer. And that of course takes practice. And one of the things that... Our meditation practice does for us is begins to let us realize those phones ringing basically are various mental moments going on within our mind, thoughts, memories, ideas, ideas, I'm like the queen of ideas, or to-do lists. Report an error in the passage at 26:51 Highlight the passage at 26:51

27:24 They don't have any real essence. Um, um, Report an error in the passage at 27:24 Highlight the passage at 27:24

27:26 And we give them a lot of power over us. And part of what a good meditation practice will do is begin to help you realize that, that these things don't have any essence in and of themselves. Which is the other aspect about meditation. Meditation really gets us closer to understanding reality. So it's a really big step in that direction of understanding how things actually exist. Report an error in the passage at 27:26 Highlight the passage at 27:26

27:55 Don't, according to the Buddhist perspective and especially according to what the Buddha observed when he got enlightened. So he didn't really teach meditation. The Buddha never really taught meditation for us to de-stress. His idea wasn't for us to be really calm and cool while we aged and died. That wasn't his point. His point was that every single one of us, every one of us right here in this room, If I knew your names, I could use them and that's really powerful. But every single one of us has the potential to actually get enlightened like he did. Report an error in the passage at 27:55 Highlight the passage at 27:55

28:36 He was exactly like us at one point and he used all these different methods and part of the methods included meditation to get to know how the mind works, to work with the mind repeatedly. Report an error in the passage at 28:36 Highlight the passage at 28:36

28:51 And to unlock this key of reality, beginning with our own mind. It begins with our own mind. So that's why I taught meditation. It's actually much huger than the way I think it's used at the Y or in a lot of yoga studios and things like that. And it's not to say that it doesn't have a side effect. Report an error in the passage at 28:51 Highlight the passage at 28:51

29:16 It has a side effect as we're going for enlightenment or whatever liberation, nirvāṇa, whatever we're shooting for, just a really calm, stabilized state of mind is a side effect of that. We actually get some sort of a peace on the way. But the Buddha was quick to point out that that's not the reason that we're doing it. Report an error in the passage at 29:16 Highlight the passage at 29:16

29:40 That's actually just... You know, a nice perk. So it's interesting. Meditation is simply the tool. And I like to say at the drop-in meditations, it's not anything that's particularly holy or religious in its own right. It's simply the method that we use to get to know our minds and to learn to stabilize it. Meditation... Report an error in the passage at 29:40 Highlight the passage at 29:40

30:09 In and of itself isn't anything all that special. It's simply a method or a tool. That's all. So that's part of one of my little goals in life, is to kind of debunk that idea that meditation is something that's really holy or sacred. Of course, the end result of a good meditation practice can be. Very holy and sacred. But it's simply a method. So I wanted to give a really nice quote from Tenzin Palmo. Report an error in the passage at 30:09 Highlight the passage at 30:09

30:44 There's a couple of really great quotes. I went to see Tenzin Palmo right after Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving. She is an English nun who, there was a book that came out a few years ago called The Cave in the Snow. Anybody ever hear of that book? She did a meditation retreat in Lahul, which is like North India all the way almost to Tibet, for 13 years in the cave, literally, in the snow, most of the year. Report an error in the passage at 30:44 Highlight the passage at 30:44

31:14 And she is an amazing, very funny, very sharp, very clear teacher. Unfortunately, this was her last tour, and she said, I asked her, Well, she was asked actually why she was stopping touring and she said, I think I've said all I can say. I just want to go back and meditate. But she said there are two main purposes for meditating, to become the master of our own mind and to get to know our own mind, to understand the nature of mind. Report an error in the passage at 31:14 Highlight the passage at 31:14

31:48 She said, everything we know, we only know because we have mind. The senses receive the data and it moves through to the consciousness. Without consciousness, even with sense stimuli, nothing would be registered. Then on top of this, we add all of our opinions, ideas, etc., all constantly rushing around. Normally, people aren't aware of how busy our minds are until we try to meditate. Report an error in the passage at 31:48 Highlight the passage at 31:48

32:16 I can speak for them. We actually think we are in control of our minds, but if we were, we could set our motivation to keep our minds calm, loving and peaceful all day, and so they would stay. The fact that we don't manage to spend our whole day being loving and good-natured is because we are not in control of our minds. Instead, we have minds that go up and down depending on external and internal stimuli. Report an error in the passage at 32:16 Highlight the passage at 32:16

32:40 We are the slave to our mind. We allow it to be in charge. The closest thing to us is our own mind, our own mental states, and this isn't under our control. If we had a loudspeaker attached to our mind, wouldn't everyone want to learn to meditate? Report an error in the passage at 32:40 Highlight the passage at 32:40

33:00 We spend a lot of time on external appearances, but little on internal reality. The real level is our mind. How much time do we take to clean our mind? To decorate and fill it with only positive influences. How much of the useless, if not negative, influences do we ever toss out? How much time do we take to clean and scour our mind? Report an error in the passage at 33:00 Highlight the passage at 33:00

33:21 So it's a problem. We never can escape from our own mind. We must make the mind a place we can live in happily. Forget enlightenment. Is our mind what we want as our closest companion? First, we must learn to deal with our mind skillfully. We must quiet and calm the mind and get it to be single-pointed. So I thought that was good advertisement for this class. Report an error in the passage at 33:21 Highlight the passage at 33:21

33:50 So what is meditation? In Tibetan, meditation is gom, which is why we call this a gompa. And gom in Tibetan means to familiarize or habituate the mind with something or to get used to something by doing it over and over and over again. So in this case, we're repeatedly bringing our mind to an object until we get used to it. This is what it's talking about. And what are we getting familiar with? Report an error in the passage at 33:50 Highlight the passage at 33:50

34:18 We are actually getting familiar with how our mind works, but we're also getting familiar with what is true and positive and accurate. So we're also getting closer to our own wisdom. We're getting closer to our own wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 34:18 Highlight the passage at 34:18

34:34 meditation should actually... Help us undermine the harmful or negative habits that we have of mind. And it should also strengthen the positive states of mind. In other words, our meditation should affect our life and our life should support our meditation or something's not working. Like there should be some flow back and forth. It shouldn't be that we just... Report an error in the passage at 34:34 Highlight the passage at 34:34

35:05 just calm and clear and centered for that 15-minute little period or even two minutes of that 15-minute little period and then we go out and know lose it It doesn't mean that's going to happen immediately. That's why I think she uses that word master. There's something to that word master. It has more of this thought or this concept of... Report an error in the passage at 35:05 Highlight the passage at 35:05

35:32 It's almost like the great masters of something like, you know, becoming a great pianist or a great cabinet builder, you know, like somebody who's really mastered something. So not just somebody who can do something on Saturdays, you know, like that. It's something that we really know well and could do really, really well. Report an error in the passage at 35:32 Highlight the passage at 35:32

35:56 That word master. And that's what we want to be. We want to be masters of our mind. Plus, I think, too, of course, there's that idea of controlling or subduing our mind, not letting it just run us ragged like it usually does. Report an error in the passage at 35:56 Highlight the passage at 35:56

36:12 Meditation must have an object. There has to be an object of that meditation. It can be... A harmful object, which we've already gotten down, which is when we neurotically obsess about the chocolate cake or how much we hate our boss or something like that. We've gotten that part down. We don't have to practice that. We've already gotten that one. So now what we're moving on to is neutral object like the breath. Report an error in the passage at 36:12 Highlight the passage at 36:12

36:40 You know, we'll use that. That's the first object that we'll use. Most people have tried some sort of meditation on the breath. Pinson Palmo actually used a stone to develop calm abiding meditation. So you can also use a neutral object. Use the top of a lid of a cup, pen, a clock. Report an error in the passage at 36:40 Highlight the passage at 36:40

37:00 Some people I think have meditated on a candle flame, you know, things like that. So that's neutral. Or we can use a virtuous object. And they actually say for if we are trying to develop single-pointed meditation or calm abiding, the specific state of calm abiding, that it is really good to use a holy object because we're familiarizing our mind with it for so many hours. Report an error in the passage at 37:00 Highlight the passage at 37:00

37:24 We might as well be familiarizing our mind with a virtuous object. So it could be a visual object or it could be the mind of loving compassion or something like that, which is difficult because, of course, first you have to generate the mind of loving compassion before you get to know it so that you can focus your mind on it. Report an error in the passage at 37:24 Highlight the passage at 37:24

37:44 And the same is actually true for a visual image of the Buddha. You have to know all the details of it before you can hold that. Report an error in the passage at 37:44 Highlight the passage at 37:44

37:54 So meditation has to have an object and then meditation is the process of repeatedly bringing our mind back to that object. That's really what mindfulness is all about. That's really what mindfulness means. It's not so much this state of awareness, it's that repeatedly bringing to mind. In this case, in this context, it's specific to meditation. Report an error in the passage at 37:54 Highlight the passage at 37:54

38:28 Anything other than that object, whatever you decide that object is, is a distraction. So even if you have this thought, I think I really do want to become a Buddha. That's great, but have it off the cushion. Have it not when you're trying to meditate. Even if you have a really great thought of... Wow, I'm going to go help the center now. That's really great too and we'd love it. But anything that is not the object is a distraction. Report an error in the passage at 38:28 Highlight the passage at 38:28

39:00 Your knee hurting is a distraction. Thinking about what you did at work is a distraction. Thinking about the noise in the street is a distraction. Report an error in the passage at 39:00 Highlight the passage at 39:00

39:11 No matter how virtuous the thought is. Even if you have this beautiful image of the Buddha that arises in your mind, if your object is the breath, that's the object. And this beautiful image of the Buddha, that's great, but you've got to let it go. That's hard. But it's just another way that your mind is distracting you. Report an error in the passage at 39:11 Highlight the passage at 39:11

39:33 So that's really important to know because our mind gets creative in how it likes to distract us. And ultimately... Um. Report an error in the passage at 39:33 Highlight the passage at 39:33

39:45 We get to the point where as our concentration gets stronger and stronger, we can place our mind on an object and it will stay there. And we're going to talk about the different levels of concentration meditation later in this course. But basically we want to get to the point where our mind is a really, really strong tool. Report an error in the passage at 39:45 Highlight the passage at 39:45

40:10 That's basically what we're getting to with that particular type of meditation, where our mind is a really strong tool and then we give it an object that's going to literally transform it. So with the case of calm abiding, the object we will ultimately give to it is the nature of reality. We want to be able to have a direct perception of emptiness or selflessness, which I won't get into here. Report an error in the passage at 40:10 Highlight the passage at 40:10

40:38 But this process of repeatedly bringing our mind to the object and strengthening our concentration and getting this really strong hold on the object is simply the warm-up for this really important work that we're going to do with our mind a little later. So it's interesting. In this tradition, that's really how it's looked at. Report an error in the passage at 40:38 Highlight the passage at 40:38

41:09 And it also is really important and some of this stuff if you've been coming to the drop-in meditations you'll hear some of this is the same. I do want to say that there are two types in this tradition. There are two types of meditation. One I keep mentioning here, the concentration meditation or stabilizing meditation, whichever you want to call it, where the mind is placed on an object of your choice. Report an error in the passage at 41:09 Highlight the passage at 41:09

41:32 And at first you just have to keep bringing it back to that object. And eventually it stays for longer periods of time before you lose it and then it begins to stay for more times than you're losing it and then it becomes stronger and stronger and eventually you reach this point where you develop this state of meditative equipoise that's called calm abiding where you can keep it on an object of your choosing for as long as you want but the minimum is four hours. Report an error in the passage at 41:32 Highlight the passage at 41:32

42:05 Without any movement of your body or your mind. And, thank goodness, it comes with bliss. The act of being able to still our mind to such a degree and to concentrate it to such a degree is actually, oh surprise, blissful. Because what's happening is what else isn't arising at that time? All those crazy thoughts, all those stories that keep our mind so busy are subdued. Report an error in the passage at 42:05 Highlight the passage at 42:05

42:35 Experience is one of bliss. And interestingly enough, it comes with physical bliss as well. We have to get there first. So it's not instantly blissful by any means. But it does get that way. It does get easier. So that's the first type. And then the second type is what's called analytical meditation. And analytical meditation is unique to this tradition. Report an error in the passage at 42:35 Highlight the passage at 42:35

43:05 It's where we look at a teaching of the Buddha or a state of mind or a concept or a non-concept, something that's come from the teachings, and we try to analyze it so that we become more and more familiar with it or so that we understand it or so that we believe it, usually using some form of reasoning. Report an error in the passage at 43:05 Highlight the passage at 43:05

43:31 It's almost like having a debate with yourself. That's what analytical meditation is like. But it's where the mind actually is moving. So we're basically using our intellect to penetrate something. And then as we gain little moments of insight, we try to hold on to those moments of insight with whatever concentration we have. Report an error in the passage at 43:31 Highlight the passage at 43:31

43:53 So you have to have both. You have to develop both. And you have to do some sort of both kinds of meditation to get enlightened. So we will... We will talk about both types here and we'll do both types here. So that's important. But the realizations that we gain are actually non-conceptual and this analytical meditation is using our concepts or our conceptual mind to attain a non-conceptual understanding. Report an error in the passage at 43:53 Highlight the passage at 43:53

44:24 So it's interesting. We are conceptual beings and so this is kind of how we get close to these insights. So that's my immediate spiel before we start talking about preparing our mind to meditate. So why don't we introduce ourselves? By now you've had all this time to just ignore what I'm saying and think about how to describe yourself in a really great way. Report an error in the passage at 44:24 Highlight the passage at 44:24

44:52 So I'll just say really quick about me. Let's see. I've been a practicing Buddhist, I guess, 13 years. Uh... Report an error in the passage at 44:52 Highlight the passage at 44:52

45:04 13 years. I've been a nun for nine years this year, so almost nine years. And I've been here about nine years. I became a nun and came here at almost the same moment. Report an error in the passage at 45:04 Highlight the passage at 45:04

45:16 And I am not the greatest meditator of all time. I will be the first to admit. But whatever I have learned, I will give. You know, so whatever. I am teaching. I have attentive to practice. So that much I can give you. It all comes through me. I'm not just saying the words, except when we get into what comabiding is like. Report an error in the passage at 45:16 Highlight the passage at 45:16

45:42 I have not gotten there. But I have had a practice of meditating for a long time, and I keep... Chipping away at it and it really does begin to affect your life. The thing that I find most interesting and I remember I mentioned this at the last drop in meditation that I left and one student said, you mean there's ever been a time that you haven't had a daily practice? Report an error in the passage at 45:42 Highlight the passage at 45:42

46:05 And she looked so wounded I felt like horrible that I never said that. But what the point of that comment was I can see it in my mind and my life when I don't meditate. So if there are points and yes there are. If we have a happiness conference going on or some other huge event, sometimes things get foreshortened. Report an error in the passage at 46:05 Highlight the passage at 46:05

46:29 And I can feel it. It really does affect the rest of my life. That much I can say, and I can say that wholeheartedly. And so even though it does take effort and it does take discipline, my personal experience has been that it really, really affects the rest of my life. Not even so much that, you know, it's not like I'm 100 % calm at all times. I'm not saying that. I'm not like walking around here in samādhi. Report an error in the passage at 46:29 Highlight the passage at 46:29

46:58 But my ability to deal with whatever comes up improves. This much I can say. And it, what's the opposite of improves? It deteriorates if I don't have a regular sitting practice. Report an error in the passage at 46:58 Highlight the passage at 46:58

47:13 Yeah, so I'm a firm believer in meditation and I am assuming that I will have a regular meditation for the rest of my life. And so I do things in my life based on that assumption. When I take yoga, I do it to support my meditation practice. You know, I sort of like the rest, everything that I am doing in my life, I sort of... Report an error in the passage at 47:13 Highlight the passage at 47:13

47:35 How am I going to eat? I'm going to eat in a way that's going to support my meditation practice because I'm going to have this practice for my life. If I have a problem with my body, I have to figure out how I can deal with that problem so that I can still meditate. Because this is something that's clearly somewhat important to me. It's like a career choice. So that's my personal spiel. Report an error in the passage at 47:35 Highlight the passage at 47:35

48:02 Who wants to start? Do you feel like it? Okay, cool. Report an error in the passage at 48:02 Highlight the passage at 48:02

· · · silence, 1 minute

48:42 Yeah, enlightenment, yeah. I've been able to interview you. Report an error in the passage at 48:42 Highlight the passage at 48:42

· · · silence, 1 minute

49:45 do the guided meditation Report an error in the passage at 49:45 Highlight the passage at 49:45

49:59 guide myself in the reasoning Report an error in the passage at 49:59 Highlight the passage at 49:59

· · · silence, 1 minute

50:53 we'll give you some there too. Report an error in the passage at 50:53 Highlight the passage at 50:53

51:18 Did you decide whether you're going to do this one or the...? We were shooting emails back and forth today. She was trying to decide. So my final one to you, I don't know if you got it right before class. It was sort of like you could sit in on both and see which one you want to do. Report an error in the passage at 51:18 Highlight the passage at 51:18

51:36 There's some time, yeah, so you can make a decision. Report an error in the passage at 51:36 Highlight the passage at 51:36

51:49 Oh, the lamrim retreat. Oh, well done. Very good. Report an error in the passage at 51:49 Highlight the passage at 51:49

51:57 Excellent. With Tenzin Chokyi, that one. Is it that one? Or with Venerable Vena. Okay, good, good, good. Report an error in the passage at 51:57 Highlight the passage at 51:57

52:11 That's about right. Yeah, that sounds right. Report an error in the passage at 52:11 Highlight the passage at 52:11

52:25 I'll try really hard to remember names. I'm just going to have to keep asking, but that's okay. You can ask me. Report an error in the passage at 52:25 Highlight the passage at 52:25

52:33 That's right. Yeah, no, it does. It sounds like cookie, but not quite. Report an error in the passage at 52:33 Highlight the passage at 52:33

52:51 the same thing that you've had and I'm meditating. Report an error in the passage at 52:51 Highlight the passage at 52:51

52:57 I came to my practice and to on Report an error in the passage at 52:57 Highlight the passage at 52:57

53:17 Bananas and cookies already. Report an error in the passage at 53:17 Highlight the passage at 53:17

· · · silence, 1 minute

53:57 We'll talk a little bit about that too. It's hard for me to look forward to it. Report an error in the passage at 53:57 Highlight the passage at 53:57

54:20 Good, you're welcome. yeah? Report an error in the passage at 54:20 Highlight the passage at 54:20

53:35 So we've been to meditate in Report an error in the passage at 53:35 Highlight the passage at 53:35

53:49 just find Report an error in the passage at 53:49 Highlight the passage at 53:49

· · · silence, 1 minute

54:27 In college, basically my best friend introduced me to Buddhism and told me the basics of it and helped me meditate a little bit. But it seems like ever since then, I'll start up, I'll improve, and then all of a sudden I'll stop. And so I never really get momentum going. And so I figure that this class is a good way to do that. Yeah, yeah. Very cool. You're welcome. Where in Texas? Austin. Report an error in the passage at 54:27 Highlight the passage at 54:27

54:54 Austin. Report an error in the passage at 54:54 Highlight the passage at 54:54

· · · silence, 1 minute

55:39 Very cool. Yeah, very cool. Well, I should say, yeah, I mean, clearly I'm teaching from a Buddhist perspective. And, you know, I have options. I could decide to not, but I'm going to. But that doesn't mean that, of course, you all have to convert to Buddhism if you're not there. So it's just sort of I'm going to come from that perspective, and then there are ways to sort of translate it where you can still take some of the aspects of it. Report an error in the passage at 55:39 Highlight the passage at 55:39

56:04 And have a fine meditation practice without getting enlightened in this lifetime. But maybe next lifetime. Plants a seed. I think this is a good time for you guys to take a break. Doesn't it seem like a good time? Why don't you just take a little break. Ten minutes. That's not good. And then Carla's here to serve your every need with happiness and a smile. Report an error in the passage at 56:04 Highlight the passage at 56:04

56:24 And then come back and we'll talk about getting our bodies and minds ready to meditate. It goes until nine. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 56:24 Highlight the passage at 56:24

56:59 Oh, pain management. Yeah. I thought you said. I thought you said pet and pain. That Report an error in the passage at 56:59 Highlight the passage at 56:59

57:15 sounds interesting. It's a really good book, actually. Well, if you think about Bring It Next Week, I think that would be cool. Because if I write it down, I'll just never do anything with that information. But if I see the book, I think I might be more... Report an error in the passage at 57:15 Highlight the passage at 57:15

57:38 Right, Report an error in the passage at 57:38 Highlight the passage at 57:38

57:55 but still could be so effective. surprised to find out that the do with Right. And, Report an error in the passage at 57:55 Highlight the passage at 57:55

57:57 Yeah, because it's your mind doing it, you know, so it's just telling you, kind of allowing you to access certain things that your mind can do. Report an error in the passage at 57:57 Highlight the passage at 57:57

58:13 Closet Buddhist. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I agree. And I think there are a lot of people doing that. Yeah, there's a lot of people Report an error in the passage at 58:13 Highlight the passage at 58:13

58:38 different in this way in that it's like 45 minutes. There's meditation, there's two different kinds, Report an error in the passage at 58:38 Highlight the passage at 58:38

58:59 and then moving all the way up to the top of your head. it wants to advance, know. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 58:59 Highlight the passage at 58:59

· · · silence, 1 minute

59:09 body and your breath. Yeah, I've done something similar to that. Report an error in the passage at 59:09 Highlight the passage at 59:09

59:40 Yeah, I'd like to see it. I mean, because, you know, there are so many ways. It would be interesting just to know different ways to manage. Report an error in the passage at 59:40 Highlight the passage at 59:40

59:54 Because that one comes up a lot. Physical and mental pain. Yeah, and I mean, it's actually, you know, it's, it can for it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, Report an error in the passage at 59:54 Highlight the passage at 59:54

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:00:05 don't work, I just, you know, I need instant relief guy, you know, and so I just kind of brush it off. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:05 Highlight the passage at 1:00:05

1:00:26 Yeah, Samantha is helping out on the reception one day a week. Also helped us during the conference. Yeah, Report an error in the passage at 1:00:26 Highlight the passage at 1:00:26

1:00:40 we'll see. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:40 Highlight the passage at 1:00:40

1:00:43 Seems a little less likely at this point than ever before, but we'll see. Not what we needed. we'll see. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:43 Highlight the passage at 1:00:43

1:00:52 To financially make it work, we just did a happiness and it's causes conference. Pretty big one. I mean, it was a huge effort. We had probably about 140, 145 volunteers, about 210 attendees, 40 speakers. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:52 Highlight the passage at 1:00:52

1:01:10 Successful in every way except financial. Financially, we really needed it to be about 400. So we ended up comping people. Felt full, and it definitely did feel, and everybody that attended, it seems like most of the feedback we've gotten is positive, except for the team leaders who are like, this should have gone like this, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:10 Highlight the passage at 1:01:10

1:01:33 But, yeah, we're getting really nice, and even the speakers are saying, like, it's the best conference I've ever been a part of, you guys are so amazing. Yeah, so I think we've made some really great, well that's, yeah, it's just, at this point we have sort of to pay off that one before we can begin raising, but we'll see. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:33 Highlight the passage at 1:01:33

1:01:54 I don't know if any decision has been made. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:54 Highlight the passage at 1:01:54

1:02:01 I think it's a great format. I didn't get to attend that much, actually. I think I went to one half-hour thing. And that was one of my things. I think especially team leaders, we should make a point, and all the volunteers should make a point of seeing some of it so that we know what it is that we're part of. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:01 Highlight the passage at 1:02:01

1:02:21 Because it was really cool, the part I saw. It was really nicely managed. It was a conversation. A lot of the workshops were these little... And I remember looking in the guide and thinking, oh, this wouldn't interest me because it's so short. But it's amazing how much information could come out of a conversation between two really, you know, well-spoken people who had prepared, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:21 Highlight the passage at 1:02:21

1:02:47 And so you felt like you got something out of that half hour, you know, that led you, that leads you back into something. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:47 Highlight the passage at 1:02:47

1:03:00 And good moderators. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:00 Highlight the passage at 1:03:00

1:03:08 were interested Report an error in the passage at 1:03:08 Highlight the passage at 1:03:08

1:03:13 For sure. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the questions and everything that attendees posed were also very, very good. So it really led to interesting topics. So, I mean, the whole thing was a great thing to be a part of. And we definitely learned a lot. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:13 Highlight the passage at 1:03:13

1:03:34 Yeah, yeah. Because you had to go to Bhutan. I'm sorry about that. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:34 Highlight the passage at 1:03:34

1:03:44 Not that I'm bitter or anything. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:44 Highlight the passage at 1:03:44

1:03:51 Did you really? I know, it's true. My first goal is to bet at some point. I don't know. It feels almost like we're on the edge of being too late. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:51 Highlight the passage at 1:03:51

1:04:17 Of course, I wouldn't, you know, it wouldn't be too shabby to go back to Nepal. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:17 Highlight the passage at 1:04:17

1:04:35 I went to... you very much. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:35 Highlight the passage at 1:04:35

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:04:19 all. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:19 Highlight the passage at 1:04:19

1:04:37 We have our sort of mother monastery, it's Kopan Monastery outside of Kathmandu, and there is a November course that's offered there every November, which is why it's called the November course. And it's a lamrim. I mean, that's really what Fenora Rubina was basing her course on, but it's a full month. And so I went to that in 96, and then I came back and I was like, oh man, I have to do this for like a year. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:37 Highlight the passage at 1:04:37

1:05:03 And so I just came back and saved money, and then I went. Nepal and India and I just try to do as many Copan-like experiences as I could which of course is pretty easy over there once you get there it's really cheap it's just the getting there but even comparatively now it's not even that expensive it's about $1,200 or something really? Report an error in the passage at 1:05:03 Highlight the passage at 1:05:03

1:05:26 no that was before So I went and I did a retreat, actually a number of retreats and then classes and another November course. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:26 Highlight the passage at 1:05:26

1:05:38 I never went back. I came back. I got ordained. That was the end of that. No more time to travel. No more time to travel. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:38 Highlight the passage at 1:05:38

1:05:51 Of course, that's now going out to international audiences. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:51 Highlight the passage at 1:05:51

1:05:59 We're Report an error in the passage at 1:05:59 Highlight the passage at 1:05:59

1:06:05 going to talk a little bit about things to consider before we meditate. and so We've sort of shorthand for some of the things that were mentioned in that first list and I like to call it arranging the body, arranging the place and arranging the mind. We'll talk more about the mind next week. This week we're going to talk more about the body and the place. So I'm going to go through the posture. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:05 Highlight the passage at 1:06:05

1:06:32 I'm going to just talk a little bit about the posture and then what I'll do each week when we do a meditation together. I'm not so sure if we're going to have time to meditate together today, but we'll see. I'll just kind of review the posture then each time. And if you guys know it, if you guys have been meditating for a billion years, then just ignore me and go into your meditation. But if you don't, I kind of like being reviewed because I tend to leave one out. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:32 Highlight the passage at 1:06:32

1:07:00 It always tends to be one that I leave out, so not always the same one. So anyway, we're going to talk about what those postures are and why we do them. Because they aren't just somebody making you sit in some weird way so that you're uncomfortable. That's not the point. It's actually the posture, meditation posture was developed with this idea that comes through, actually through tantra, through the tantric teachings that we have a gross body in mind and that we also have a subtle body in mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:00 Highlight the passage at 1:07:00

1:07:36 And the subtle body in mind is... Almost at an energetic level, and it's very similar to the Chinese system of meridians and energy that runs along meridians. It's called winds and channels in Tibetan Buddhism, but it's the same sort of idea. So a lot of the posture is designed to keep those winds and channels flowing freely rather than kinked. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:36 Highlight the passage at 1:07:36

1:08:05 I do see people meditating that way. Kind of like, whoa, how do you do that? So that's why this particular posture is developed. And then I'm going to go through the points and then at the end I'm going to mention if you need to sit in a chair or if you need to ever lie down and meditate. It will happen if it hasn't happened already. And just the things to bear in mind if that happens to you. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:05 Highlight the passage at 1:08:05

1:08:34 So the first one, this is actually called, usually it's called the seven point or the eight point Vajra posture. The eighth point, we'll talk about that. It's not always included as a point of the posture. The first is the legs. And so a lot of times if you look around at all these pictures of the Buddha, you see them sitting in this position where their feet are resting on the opposite thighs. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:34 Highlight the passage at 1:08:34

1:09:00 Actually all of them except Tara. And Maitreya, who's sitting in a chair, for those of us of a certain age. No, he's sitting in a throne. But most of the Buddhas, and some of the tantric images, they're actually standing. But most of the seated images, they're sitting in this full Vajra posture. And this is said to be the most stable posture for developing concentration. It does take some effort to get there. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:00 Highlight the passage at 1:09:00

1:09:31 It's like a yoga position now. Of course, I remember as a kid sitting in it quite easily. I wish I just kept practicing it, but who knew? Report an error in the passage at 1:09:31 Highlight the passage at 1:09:31

1:09:42 And there are times when I'm in retreat for some amount of time, then I just do like little sessions each day until I can hold it for longer and longer. Be very careful if you do that, especially if you are of a certain age, and I am now. Um, um, Report an error in the passage at 1:09:42 Highlight the passage at 1:09:42

1:09:56 Because you can do damage to your knees if you hold it too long or you don't have enough support under your knees. I actually tore a meniscus muscle that way, so just be really, really careful. It's very much like any kind of a yoga position. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:56 Highlight the passage at 1:09:56

1:10:17 Know your body. Know thy body. And listen to it. Yeah. So, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:17 Highlight the passage at 1:10:17

1:10:24 This isn't about hurting yourself for any reason. It's just said to be a very, very strong, stable position. And the idea, of course, is that if we reach that point where we're holding a meditation for four hours, which we have to just kind of, you know, let's put that thought out there. You know, everything exists on the tip of a wish. It may not be tomorrow, but then we want to be so stable. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:24 Highlight the passage at 1:10:24

1:10:51 You know what I mean? Like it's the most stable position. It's almost like they say it's almost like creating a mountain with your body so that you can actually hold that kind of position. Yeah. Why don't we pass it? Could you, Samantha, could you pass her that mic? I didn't send it around when you guys were giving your life story, but. I just have a quick question. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:51 Highlight the passage at 1:10:51

1:11:09 Yeah, that's okay. And that is, did your body tell you that you. You know, I think I kind of did. I thought I was going. I was really trying to keep it to 10 or only 10 or 15 minutes at a time. But yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I kind of didn't listen to it as well as I could have. And what I what I was trying to do actually wasn't even full. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:09 Highlight the passage at 1:11:09

1:11:33 It was just half what's called half lotus. And when you do half lotus, it's sort of in essence. You're off balance because you're only halfway doing it. So you really have to have support under that knee. And that's what happened is I just didn't have enough support under the knee. Could you pass the mic back? I just wanted to comment on that question because I actually tore my ACL and my lateral and medial meniscus from a skiing injury, but I'm pretty sure it was related to full lotus. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:33 Highlight the passage at 1:11:33

1:12:02 Everyone's going to be in a chair next week. So I can say definitely be careful. I pushed it and strained my knees and would sit in pain meditating, thinking that I need to hold this posture. And it was just a big lesson in humility. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that takes a while. Knee injuries just take forever. I mean, really, honestly, it do take a long time. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:02 Highlight the passage at 1:12:02

1:12:25 Yeah, there's like this balance. There's a huge balance that happens in meditation, just like in yoga. And I keep mentioning yoga because yoga really supports the sitting practice. It really supports. That's why it was created. That's why the yogis created yoga. The physical postures were to support the mental postures that were happening. But yeah, listen to your body. But there is this balance between shifting every five and a half seconds and... Report an error in the passage at 1:12:25 Highlight the passage at 1:12:25

1:12:56 You know, not paying attention as your muscles begin to rip. There's something in between there and that's kind of what we're shooting for. So a lot of times all the little shifting that we feel like we have to do, the scratches on the nose or the whatever, it's just our mind trying to distract ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:56 Highlight the passage at 1:12:56

1:13:18 So we really do have to come to figure out what is just to know the distraction and what is. um so Report an error in the passage at 1:13:18 Highlight the passage at 1:13:18

1:13:24 I can't feel my leg now. It's probably time for me to get a little blood into it. Good point. Thank you. The way that the full lotus posture, for those who can do it, it is great to do it. If you haven't done it in a long time or you want to build up to it, that's great. But build up in really tiny increments. That's okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:24 Highlight the passage at 1:13:24

1:13:51 We're not going to get enlightened overnight. This is a long process. So if you want to introduce your body to it, just like you would with anything else, first warm up, and then secondly do tiny, tiny increments of time. And of course some of us are more flexible than others. But it's also just fine to hold for our purposes in this class, just figure out a comfortable position for your legs. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:51 Highlight the passage at 1:13:51

1:14:18 And it could be just sitting cross-legged like you would if you were sitting in front of the TV. That's totally great. I tend to sit in what's called Tara position where one leg is in front of the other. And what I found over time with that position is nothing's crossed. So then nothing falls asleep. So that really works for me. You just figure it out. You just figure it out. You'll just figure out like what kind of works for you. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:18 Highlight the passage at 1:14:18

1:14:44 And there will be times that you're... Your body bothers you. So while you're meditating, that's par for the course. The more you meditate, the more your body relaxes into the position. So that's just like with anything else. It's just like when you first start going to the gym or anything else. Could you pass the mic to Gina? Report an error in the passage at 1:14:44 Highlight the passage at 1:14:44

1:15:07 I'm just curious because sometimes I find the tar position more comfortable too, but then it feels more stressful in my angles. So when you do it or when you've seen other people do it, Do you think it's more that your feet are, you can see my feet, like this on the side? She's now putting her foot, no I'm kidding. Describing it for the listener at home. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:07 Highlight the passage at 1:15:07

1:15:27 Or it's more that they're spun a little bit so it's as if the top of your foot is on the floor. That's what either your ankle's on the floor or the top of your foot. I tend to do the top. No, I don't know, it just goes that way. So I don't know if that's good or bad. And then of course it matters what kind of mat you have. If you have a very, very thin mat or just on the floor, then you might want a little something underneath your ankle. And you'll notice that too as people start meditating. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:27 Highlight the passage at 1:15:27

1:15:52 You might need additional pads here and there. Great. Do that for yourself. Put little pads underneath your knees. It might be shawls, it might be sweaters, it might be additional cushions. I always tease, there's a couple, Mary and Janet both do what we call Mount Meru. They have full cushions underneath their knees and underneath their rear end. The cushions that you choose are also really important. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:52 Highlight the passage at 1:15:52

1:16:18 So what kind of cushion works for each of you? Like I can't use that kind of cushion at all. I bring in a buckwheat hull. It's actually a wedge, but yeah, I also have one that's crescent shaped because I've had a couple of car accidents and my hips just aren't right anymore. And you can work with that. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:18 Highlight the passage at 1:16:18

1:16:37 So now I know that, and so I just looked until I found one that worked. And I just take it everywhere. I take it down here when I teach. I take it to somebody else's class. I always bring it down for Geshe's classes. I take it, if I were going to go to Atlanta Medicine Buddha, I take it to Atlanta Medicine Buddha. I know on that cushion, I took it to Colorado when I went for a month. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:37 Highlight the passage at 1:16:37

1:16:55 When I take it, I know I'm going to be able to sit for a long period of time and not be in utter misery. This is actually a new cushion, my other cushion too. No, I know that it works for my rear. And the thing that I like about buckwheat hull is that you can adjust it. You know what I mean? Like you fiddle with it and you get it right, whereas this is just kind of like, and you're just trying to work with it. And because of the shape, it being round, it actually can cut off circulation in your thighs, which is like, why? Report an error in the passage at 1:16:55 Highlight the passage at 1:16:55

1:17:28 Not that I'm prejudiced or anything. The hands are usually in this position. Okay, none of these guys have it. None of these holy beings have it. Usually we have it in our laps, right over the left, thumbs touching lightly. This is also based on... The system of winds and channels. And usually if our feet were, if we were sitting in full Vajra posture where our feet were actually resting on the opposite thighs, our hands would be resting on our feet. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:28 Highlight the passage at 1:17:28

1:18:03 So that would be higher. If we aren't, then they're sort of hanging down there, which isn't very comfortable, I don't find. So I, what I tend to do is I'll bring a shawl and I'll sort of just, you know, mound it up and put it underneath and I'll just put it like that. And then, you know, it might be a shawl, it might be like a... Report an error in the passage at 1:18:03 Highlight the passage at 1:18:03

1:18:21 What do you call it, like a scarf or just something small like that and just put it underneath there. So it raises it up because the point is you want some air to go between your arms and your body. Sometimes that just doesn't work at all, period. And then just put your hands on your knees, you know, try something else. Yeah, but just try it, just try it because it may be different than the way that you started when you first started meditating. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:21 Highlight the passage at 1:18:21

1:18:49 I think some people do. Hands upward too. That's not really so much done in this tradition. These two are the ones that are most likely to be done. And this one also, sometimes people, Tenzin Chokyi teaches it that you actually just hold it to a point, about four finger widths below your navel, and you just train your arms to do that. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:49 Highlight the passage at 1:18:49

1:19:13 And I've definitely seen people do that too. Janet I've seen too, with a t-shirt, she'll simply... Make a little hammock. And she'll do that. And I think, oh, well, that's kind of, it doesn't work for my clothes, but it would work for most people who have T-shirts. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:13 Highlight the passage at 1:19:13

1:19:29 So you could do that, too. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:29 Highlight the passage at 1:19:29

1:19:33 This one we all are aware of. The third point is that the spine's extended, you know, the back straight, in other words. I say spine extended or lengthened because straight sounds like rigid, you know. We aren't talking rigid, we're just lengthening. Feel the difference of that word, so it's like imagining that your spine is this cord that's going out through the crown of your head, literally like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:33 Highlight the passage at 1:19:33

1:20:03 Again, this is also based to allow your winds and channels, the winds or the energy or chi in your channels to flow freely. The jaw should be relaxed, and the tongue is on the roof of your mouth. That's kind of where it automatically goes. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:03 Highlight the passage at 1:20:03

1:20:24 But I think they just mentioned it. It actually is said to keep your mouth moist and your throat moist so you don't have to swallow so much, which, you know, isn't such a big deal in 15 minutes, but it definitely would be in four hours. So I think this is preparing us for that. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:24 Highlight the passage at 1:20:24

1:20:44 We're breathing through our nose when we meditate. And I just mentioned that because I think sometimes that can be different in different traditions. And this is a way of sort of regulating that breathing. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:44 Highlight the passage at 1:20:44

1:20:57 The chin is slightly tucked under. And what that does, there's a couple of things. when our mind and when our Chin goes too far down, of course we're going into a big nod and so we're falling asleep. When our chin goes too far back, it actually overexcites our mind. So you might play with that if your mind is super excited and actually tuck it a little bit more. If you're really drowsy, maybe bring it back and it's going to be unique to you. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:57 Highlight the passage at 1:20:57

1:21:26 But it also is a winds and channel thing because it opens up the back of your neck when you sort of tuck it a little bit and keeps those channels open. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:26 Highlight the passage at 1:21:26

1:21:37 This is a hard one. In this tradition, the sixth point is that our eyes are actually open. And so for people who learn to meditate with your eyes closed, which was me too, I had to retrain myself. And it took me a good year. It took me a long time and I really resisted it. Speaking of resisting it. But it really actually does make, it has with me, at least I've noticed an effect of my ability to concentrate. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:37 Highlight the passage at 1:21:37

1:22:07 And I think what's going on there is that you are absorbing past your sense organs. You're absorbing past the sense information and ultimately we want to absorb way in beyond our senses. If you read any of those Monk in the Labs articles where they were doing all the tests on the long-time meditators, they were able to simulate the sound of gunfire next to... Report an error in the passage at 1:22:07 Highlight the passage at 1:22:07

1:22:37 The monks' faces, I mean, that close to them, and the only reaction was the slightest upraising. I mean, it wasn't like me where I'd be like, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:37 Highlight the passage at 1:22:37

1:22:49 So they were so far absorbed past their sense organs, their sense consciousnesses, that it just didn't even bother them. Let me talk about it. If you're looking for de-stressing, deep meditation is, I mean, that is definitely a side effect. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:49 Highlight the passage at 1:22:49

1:23:05 So I think that's part of it. So what we do in this one is we're sort of gazing off the end of our nose about two or three, more like three feet in front of us. And we're sort of picking a spot and then allowing our eyes to just unfocus. On this rug, there's a lot going on. It's actually a lot easier. In some ways, it's a lot easier on just a completely plain surface. Although if your mind is like mine, It can still find exciting patterns on the plain maroon cloth, but it can definitely find some exciting things in here because it's been looking at 5.30 in the morning. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:05 Highlight the passage at 1:23:05

1:23:51 But the main idea is that we're picking a spot and then we're just allowing it to unfocus. It's a little bit like square dancing. If anybody ever did square dancing or contra dancing or something like that or even like ballet or something where you're spinning and you're just... Picking a spot and just allowing it to unfocus. Your shoulders are level and back a little bit. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:51 Highlight the passage at 1:23:51

1:24:13 So what I usually tend to do is just kind of roll my shoulders a little bit, which tends to be a center of where I hold stress too. So that just part feels good. And then just kind of keep them back. And I noticed the two that are the best in terms of my own personal focus and concentration are shoulders and back. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:13 Highlight the passage at 1:24:13

1:24:32 And if those two go... Deal's done. I mean, it's just like as the meditation begins, you know, it just begins, everything just goes from that point. So there's some element of your mind that's just kind of keeping tabs on your shoulders and your back and kind of keeping it up there. And it's really okay to readjust. It doesn't have to be huge and it doesn't have to like completely shake your meditation if you just realize and then you just subtly adjust it and bring your shoulders back up. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:32 Highlight the passage at 1:24:32

1:25:04 The eighth point, so we just did the legs, the hands, the back, the jaws and what's going on with your tongue, the chin, the eyes, the shoulder. Those are the seven points and those are the seven points that are usually mentioned in all of the teachings. The eighth point isn't always mentioned but it's the breath. So your breathing itself is the eighth point. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:04 Highlight the passage at 1:25:04

1:25:31 You don't really... You don't have to change it anyway. It just sort of naturally becomes more relaxed. And as it becomes more relaxed, your mind becomes more relaxed. But you don't have to force it. And a lot of times people, the reason I always like to mention that, a lot of times people, when you first start meditating, you realize you're a really shallow breather. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:31 Highlight the passage at 1:25:31

1:25:53 You know, we're all up here. It's a symptom, I think, of the West and our lifestyles. That's okay. It'll calm down. And you will notice it calming down even in one session. I begin to notice my breathing begins to calm down. But don't like force it to calm down. You know, sometimes you'll hear when we're meditating on the breath, people are just like and like doing this weird big things with your breathing. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:53 Highlight the passage at 1:25:53

1:26:17 You don't need to do that. Just when we're watching the breath, we're literally doing that. We're just watching what is. It's just. What's coming out? So it's part of our beginning to be relaxed is our breathing, just allowing our breathing to just be what it is. Eventually we will do some certain breathing exercises, but for now at this point we're just observing the breathing as it is. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:17 Highlight the passage at 1:26:17

1:26:43 A couple other points. I just talked about the cushion a little bit. If you ever do have injuries or something like that, like I had with the experiences of the two different, I had a rear end, I was rear ended and then I had a head on like within about a year of each other. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:43 Highlight the passage at 1:26:43

1:27:02 Right around the time I got ordained. How interesting. So don't give up, you know, like just keep looking until you find something that's going to work for you. I was so happy to discover the difference between. The bean bag cushions and the cotton cushions because it allowed me to work with my hips the way they are. Now, and that gets us to a chair, which of course I had to do with the knee thing, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:27:02 Highlight the passage at 1:27:02

1:27:28 I had to sit in a chair for quite a while with a knee injury. If you sit in a chair, just make sure you pull away from the back. Like I saw you go and get the stool. Great idea because what happens is if we sit in a chair with the back, we get nice and comfy in the back. And then sometimes we even put the hands up on the armrest and it's just shot. I mean, you're just having a nice relaxing sleep, but you're not really going to meditate on anything. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:28 Highlight the passage at 1:27:28

1:27:54 So in a chair... Make sure that you are sitting upright and sit a little forward so that your feet can be firmly on the floor. If your feet don't reach the floor, for those of us of shorter stature, put a cushion underneath so that your feet can just be flat. That's important. And go ahead and have your feet in your hands, your hands in meditation posture, on your knees or in your lap. Don't put them up on something else, you know, so that you're really trying to sit in meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:54 Highlight the passage at 1:27:54

1:28:26 There might be times that you actually have to lie down, and this has happened to me if I have, because I sometimes get, or I haven't for a while now, thankfully, that's one of the joys of aging. I haven't had major, major, major migraines, but I have had migraines for many, many years, and there are just times that you just can't sit. So I actually have a couple of guided meditations that I have on tapes just to kind of get me through. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:26 Highlight the passage at 1:28:26

1:28:51 through those times. And you have to be able to meditate. Well, when else might we want to meditate? What if we're in the hospital or something? You'd want to know how to meditate and already have some tools to be able to meditate lying down. So it's not a bad skill to learn. Try learning how to meditate when you don't feel good, you know, because what are we going to do when we die, right? We might need to meditate at that point, too. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:51 Highlight the passage at 1:28:51

1:29:15 And being able to calm our minds. When we have the flu is a good step towards being able to do it when we're more seriously ill. So when you're lying down and you have to meditate, you just, the main points are, again, you're trying to keep those channels. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:15 Highlight the passage at 1:29:15

1:29:31 Sorry, I know it's getting late. You're trying to keep those channels flowing. You know, again, so you're trying to keep your spine straight. So you're not going to be like it's I mean, obviously, if you're like injured or something, you might not be able to move yourself. But just again, to try to keep your spine straight. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:31 Highlight the passage at 1:29:31

1:29:49 I would say for sure to keep your eyes open if you're lying down. We had a practice day for the Introduction to Tantra class and lost Cedric on the death meditation. He fell asleep during his own death. Cedric's our bookstore manager. I'm putting it on. I'm recording it loudly for all to know. So it's much easier, of course, to fall asleep if you're lying down. So just to be aware of that. I did read a really inspiring article. I think it was in Shambhalasana, this guy that had serious, serious back injuries. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:49 Highlight the passage at 1:29:49

1:30:23 And that's just the way that he, that's the only way he can meditate. And so he goes to a sitting, I think he's, Vipassanā is his tradition, and he'll have to lie down on the floor. But he does it, and he still goes, and he still meditates, and he's been doing this for years. So it's totally possible. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:23 Highlight the passage at 1:30:23

1:30:39 So you don't get off the hook if you have serious injuries. There are ways to do it. Arranging the place. This is part of what your assignment is going to be. Well, both of these things, you know, to review your posture and just start sitting. And so arranging the place has to do with... So deciding that you're going to sit every day, making some sort of a commitment to sit every day. Just, I mean, how long is this class, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:30:39 Highlight the passage at 1:30:39

1:31:08 Two months? It's not a huge commitment out of your life. But just deciding that you're going to do it and deciding that, I mean, I'm giving you the assignment, so. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:08 Highlight the passage at 1:31:08

1:31:21 You can, you know, it's not like you have to even come up with anything. You can just do your, which is how mine started. Actually, that's how my meditation practice started was through homework assignments through my teacher, who was also a Western teacher at that point when I was studying, beginning to study Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:21 Highlight the passage at 1:31:21

1:31:41 And he gave his homework assignments. His were actually even much less structured than mine. It would be like, sit and think about... Report an error in the passage at 1:31:41 Highlight the passage at 1:31:41

1:31:50 I don't know what he would do. He would just give you like one line sentence. And you'd be looking at it and you'd be like, 15 minutes. And he actually had us too. Gosh, I should do this. He had us write down start time, finish time for each day, and you had to do it for all seven days. So you had to do something, right? You were just sitting there for 15 minutes. If you didn't know exactly what he meant, then you still had to do something. So at least I'm not having you do that. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:50 Highlight the passage at 1:31:50

1:32:18 This is very much like deciding that you're going to go on a diet or you're going to start going to the gym. It's very much like that. Like the change happens here. The change happens with the mind. I should say here. The change happens with the mind itself. You've got to make this commitment. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and try this for seven weeks. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:18 Highlight the passage at 1:32:18

1:32:36 I'm going to go ahead and just do this. I'm going to sit every day for... You know, 15, 20, 30 minutes, whatever you decide that you can do. I'm going to try to do it at the same time every day. And if I forget to do it, I'm going to do it. So you give yourself an out in case it doesn't happen when you intend to do it. It takes a shift and it won't always be easy. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:36 Highlight the passage at 1:32:36

1:33:01 And if you share space, it's great that you guys are at least doing it together. It's hard sometimes if you share space and you have to explain to somebody, but it can be done. You just decide what time it is and that you're not available during that time to that person and you just do it. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:01 Highlight the passage at 1:33:01

1:33:21 And it just becomes part of your daily routine. And then you don't have to deal with that whiny little voice going, ah, should I get up? I don't know why to do it. You just do it. And you just do it. And if you forget to do it in the morning, like I said, you just do it before you go to sleep. And it's really not that big a deal. It's not like I'm telling you, you have to start meditating for four hours every day, starting tonight, no matter how long it takes. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:21 Highlight the passage at 1:33:21

1:33:46 So it's really in the scheme of things. It's like... what, you know, like five commercials? Report an error in the passage at 1:33:46 Highlight the passage at 1:33:46

1:33:54 There you go. I'm just translating it. The main thing is just deciding to do it. Just do it. Just try it. It might mean that you have to try to figure out a way to get to bed a little bit earlier. Or you might decide, I mean the best time they usually say, traditionally they say it's best to do first thing in the morning before our minds get too wrapped up in the day. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:54 Highlight the passage at 1:33:54

1:34:20 But I have known people that are great meditators that meditate at night. Maybe it's easier with your life and your schedule to meditate when you first come in from work before you do anything else. You just have to decide. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:20 Highlight the passage at 1:34:20

1:34:34 They usually say morning because I think it's easier for us to do it about the same time every morning. Like we can go to bed all over the place. But we pretty much get up. Well, I don't know what you guys do. But I think it's easier for us to set a certain time each morning that we do that we can kind of keep it a little bit more consistent. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:34 Highlight the passage at 1:34:34

1:34:54 And they do say that that's really important to try to keep it at about the same time each day. But don't flip out if it's not. You know, um, allowing it's. It's important for us to be really disciplined and it's important for us to be really gentle. So we've got to cultivate those same qualities that we're doing with our body. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:54 Highlight the passage at 1:34:54

1:35:12 Like we don't want to rip our muscles out, you know. One of my teachers, Venerable Renee at Vashrapani, says that our mind is very much like a cat. And so we have to coax it. We have to be very sweet. We have to be very gentle. And if we start jerking it around and like yelling at it and, you know, it's not going to do anything we want it to do. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:12 Highlight the passage at 1:35:12

1:35:33 I mean, I've got two upstairs and they won't, you know. They just go under the bed or they're, you know, mean or bite you or something. So we don't want our minds to bite us. We don't want our minds to get really tight. Just, you know, trying to keep that gentleness to it. We'll talk more about the preliminaries before you meditate. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:33 Highlight the passage at 1:35:33

1:35:55 If people know what those preliminaries are, I'll go ahead and just say really quickly what you could start and only if it feels like this is something that you want to do. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:55 Highlight the passage at 1:35:55

1:36:09 But interestingly, one of the first ones, and we'll talk about it a little bit more when we get into the specific practices called the six preparatory practices or the six preliminary practices. The very first one is to clean up your space. So that doesn't mean you have to get out the Hoover. It just means the place should be uncluttered and sweet. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:09 Highlight the passage at 1:36:09

1:36:31 I mean, if you're going to spend some time there... And then, you know, Buddhism, we're also inviting like our teacher or, you know, the Buddha to come and meditate with us. So it's kind of like what would you do if you're going to have company over, right? There's also an element, you know, traditionally that you would actually sweep. You would actually take, you know, a broom and sweep. And there's something to that because when I'm in retreat and I actually bring out a broom, there's something to that. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:31 Highlight the passage at 1:36:31

1:36:57 So I actually got like a little... What do you call those little carpet? They aren't electric, but they're just like carpet cleaner ones. I actually do that just to have that feel of like cleaning up that space because it's like you're cleaning your mind, you know, before you sit down. So there's something to that. But even just psychologically speaking, it's just calmer for it to not, you know, have like all your stuff all piled up, which is, of course, my MO. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:57 Highlight the passage at 1:36:57

1:37:24 So it's just like keeping that area clean and straightened. Then making some sort of a little offering. Maybe that little offering is lighting a candle. Just keep it simple. Don't use these things to procrastinate. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:24 Highlight the passage at 1:37:24

1:37:40 Cleaning for seven hours, putting out a full and extensive, don't do that. Just keep it really sweet and simple. Then sitting down. And the way we started tonight, we set a motivation. So the motivation can be really, really simple. May whatever comes of this meditation, may it help me get to know my mind so that I can help others. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:40 Highlight the passage at 1:37:40

1:38:02 It could be something that simple. It doesn't have to be really, really huge. You might find a quote when you're reading and go, oh, that's kind of cool. I use that as a motivation. I do that a lot, especially on days that you're really dull. You just can't even think of one. So reading that quote inspires your mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:02 Highlight the passage at 1:38:02

1:38:21 And so you could do that too. So you might find some quotes or something that are inspiring. We'll talk a little bit about more of the other ways that we prepare the mind next week. So I'm not going to go into those. And then it's good to do a simple breathing meditation. And that's basically all you're going to do. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:21 Highlight the passage at 1:38:21

1:38:40 And you could just do it for two minutes. It doesn't have to be that long. But just meditating on the breath. And the way that we usually do it is... Focusing on one or two places. The belly, the abdomen, as the abdomen rises and falls with each breath. And that's really good if you're anxious or if you're in your head a lot. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:40 Highlight the passage at 1:38:40

1:39:03 You tend to be a really analytical person. Then that one's a really calming one to do. And that's just simply focusing on the sensation of the belly as it rises and falls or expands and contracts or however you want to see it. The other one is more subtle. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:03 Highlight the passage at 1:39:03

1:39:20 And with that one, you're focusing on the air as it enters and leaves your nostrils. So you're focusing on a little patch of skin inside the tip of the nostril and the sensation of the air as it enters and leaves your nostrils. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:20 Highlight the passage at 1:39:20

1:39:39 And then you're basically counting an in-breath and an out-breath or an out-breath and an in-breath, whichever works for you. That cycle is one breath and you're trying to count to five breaths, ten breaths, twenty breaths, whatever you decide you're trying to count to. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:39 Highlight the passage at 1:39:39

1:39:57 If that works for you. And I say that because when I first started I resisted that one too. I definitely have the resistor's mind. I was a bookkeeper and I thought there's no way I can handle more numbers. Like don't tell me we're going to have to count things. They're ridiculous. But I did notice that it helps anchor your mind because the mind does tend to do its thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:57 Highlight the passage at 1:39:57

1:40:19 And then one of the ways you find out that it's doing its thing is when you get to 15, 16 and you're supposed to stop at 10. And you're like... Oh yeah, right, okay, then I start over. So when you get to the top number, whatever that number is, and I would suggest it's smaller than 21 or 20, do 5 or 10. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:19 Highlight the passage at 1:40:19

1:40:39 Just start over, that's all. I mean, all it is is just a tool to keep your mind anchored, you know, so you're counting to 10. And if you get totally off and you're in Bali or you're planning your next vacation, start over, you know, just that's okay. I've had times where I just keep counting one. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:39 Highlight the passage at 1:40:39

1:40:59 One, one, one, one. I remember one of my friends saying, when you can count to three, it's a good day. And that's the way it is. And that's really okay. Because all you're doing in that breath meditation is you're just calming the mind down. And then you're going to do whatever your meditation is if you have an analytical assignment. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:59 Highlight the passage at 1:40:59

1:41:23 For this course, I'm going to suggest, and that's all I'm going to do is just suggest that you keep some sort of a meditation journal. Nobody's going to see it. It's not like, you know, we're going to pass it around and somebody's going to read it out loud or something horrifying. You could actually buy a journal, which is kind of a commitment to your practice, you know, deciding. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:23 Highlight the passage at 1:41:23

1:41:43 Or you can just grab some paper. And that's fine. You can put it in the back of your binder. Actually, there's a front pocket. You can put it in there. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:43 Highlight the passage at 1:41:43

1:41:53 Or you can just, you know, use a notebook that you have around. And I'll put it, it's on your homework. So just noting really simple things, the date, the time, how long you meditated for, what your object was, any challenges that you might have had or breakthroughs. Let's focus on success as well. Something that might be weird, like just ate a 10 slice pizza. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:53 Highlight the passage at 1:41:53

1:42:21 Don't know why I can't meditate tonight. So just focusing on that and how that might affect because you'll see some correlations with that. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:21 Highlight the passage at 1:42:21

1:42:33 And it might not even be food. It could be some, you know, like the lights were out or something, you know, some weird thing that was happening on the street, you know, construction at the neighbor's house or something like that. Anything else that comes up for you. And again, it's just your personal. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:33 Highlight the passage at 1:42:33

1:42:50 But it is a nice way for you to begin tracking your meditation. So I wanted to end with this, another quote from Tenzin Palmo, just because I just think she just clearly has spent a lot of time with her mind. And so here's a really good meditation, I mean a really good, another good advertisement for learning how to meditate. And she talks here a little bit about why it's not just important but actually urgent. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:50 Highlight the passage at 1:42:50

1:43:20 for us to learn to meditate. So she said, Report an error in the passage at 1:43:20 Highlight the passage at 1:43:20

1:43:47 He said, Of course, everything else is caught up in that vortex. Our planet is run by people who do not control their minds. So we owe it to the planet itself to control our minds. It's not some quirky little new age thing. I love that. Meditation is a way to learn to uproot negative qualities and develop the good. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:47 Highlight the passage at 1:43:47

1:44:12 If we really want to do something well, we must give it time and attention so we have to believe it's important. Otherwise, we'll give up. Even one person with a mind that is clear and peaceful and sees things well ripples out and affects so many others. We must really want to meditate. We must really see the need. Whether or not we feel like it, without ever asking, do I feel like it? It's the same as with yoga. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:12 Highlight the passage at 1:44:12

1:44:38 You just do it. You make a routine for yourself. It's no good sitting only when you feel like it. It's leaving it up to the ego and it makes it sporadic. Meditation is to cut the machinations of the ego, so we must recognize it and continue to bring the mind back. Don't just think, oh, I'm a distracted person, I can't meditate. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:38 Highlight the passage at 1:44:38

1:45:01 Your distracted mind shows how much you need to meditate. With meditation, the mind should be spacious and peaceful, but also clear, bright and aware. Our awareness should be vivid, unwavering, shining and sharp. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:01 Highlight the passage at 1:45:01

1:45:19 There is a sense that a light has gone on in the mind. It's very bright and clear. When we get up from meditation, we should be vivid, clear and bright, not spaced out. I think that's important to say. We're not becoming a bliss cloud. We are trying to become more present, more crisp, more aware. Is this happening for us? If we just get blissed out, hazy and cloudy, it's not working. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:19 Highlight the passage at 1:45:19

1:45:46 Our thoughts are serious business. Everything we say and do comes from our thoughts. People kill for their thoughts, so it's very important to step back and see that thoughts are just thoughts and feelings are just feelings. You must see the urgency of this. You must want to do this. We have to see how our mind is being out of control as one of the causes of our problems, and in fact, it is the cause of our problems. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:46 Highlight the passage at 1:45:46

1:46:10 We're so used to blaming others and seeing things outside of us as the problem. The world is just the world. There are six and a half billion people on this planet and no way is everyone going to do what we want. Remember Shantideva. This world is full of thorns and sharp stones. Do we cover the world with leather or cover our own feet? The problem is in our mind, not out there. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:10 Highlight the passage at 1:46:10

1:46:34 And this is the good news because we can't change the whole world, but we are capable of getting our own minds into good shape. It is possible. Millions have done this. It is possible. But it takes effort, like with the body. And if we do it, like the body, it becomes more enjoyable and the mind becomes more energized and flexible. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:34 Highlight the passage at 1:46:34

1:46:56 As the results begin to come, we gain confidence in our own abilities and we can view problems with some dispassion and even compassion. Self-confidence is essential. We must trust or we won't even try. It's like a baby learning to walk, repeatedly trying again even though it falls. This is like us. We must believe we can do it. The baby never thinks, good for them, they can walk, I can't do this. It never doubts itself but it keeps on trying. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:56 Highlight the passage at 1:46:56

1:47:25 This is like us. If others can do it, it means it's possible. We put so much effort into so much else. Why not this? So that's your advertisement. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:25 Highlight the passage at 1:47:25

1:47:39 So why don't we just end with, just so we can end on time, and if people have questions, I'm around. But we're just going to focus on a, this is kind of similar to what you were describing, actually, Corey, a little bit on sort of a sweeping through the body and, you know, relaxing, which is a good thing to do before you meditate. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:39 Highlight the passage at 1:47:39

1:48:04 We don't have so much time to do it, so I think... I think I'll just do like a couple minutes on that and then we'll just end with a couple minutes on the breath itself. And then we'll end. And then those people who need to leave can leave. And if anybody else has questions, then I'll take questions. So just focus again on your posture. And we'll spend more time on posture. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:04 Highlight the passage at 1:48:04

1:48:28 But just the main things, remember being the spine being extended, shoulders being back. And if you can do it, try doing this one with your eyes open because it's not very long. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:28 Highlight the passage at 1:48:28

1:48:44 And remember that eighth point, letting your breathing be relaxed and natural, not trying to deepen it or make it more rhythmic. And maybe even starting with just taking a nice deep belly breath and releasing it. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:44 Highlight the passage at 1:48:44

1:49:07 We're just going to start, as I mentioned, each part of the body. Just try to place your awareness on that part of the body and then consciously relax that part as much as you can. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:07 Highlight the passage at 1:49:07

1:49:19 So we just begin with the head, crown of the head. Letting go of any tension that you might find there. Really bringing your whole awareness to that area of the top of your head. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:19 Highlight the passage at 1:49:19

1:49:40 And then moving down to your forehead. Relaxing your forehead. Letting go of the worry lines. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:40 Highlight the passage at 1:49:40

1:49:52 Just imagining them being swept away. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:52 Highlight the passage at 1:49:52

1:50:02 And then relaxing your eyes and the muscles that surround your eyes. Your Report an error in the passage at 1:50:02 Highlight the passage at 1:50:02

1:50:16 jaws or cheeks. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:16 Highlight the passage at 1:50:16

1:50:21 We hold so much tension in our jaws. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:21 Highlight the passage at 1:50:21

1:50:32 Relaxing the sides of your head, the temples and the back of your head. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:32 Highlight the passage at 1:50:32

1:50:53 Allow your awareness to travel down your neck, relaxing your throat in the front and the neck and the back. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:53 Highlight the passage at 1:50:53

1:51:13 Traveling down your shoulders and the space between your shoulders. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:13 Highlight the passage at 1:51:13

1:51:26 Just letting go of any worries that you might have. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:26 Highlight the passage at 1:51:26

1:51:37 Your awareness to travel down your back, the upper part of your back, all along your spine. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:37 Highlight the passage at 1:51:37

1:51:51 Into the lower back, into the hips, and Report an error in the passage at 1:51:51 Highlight the passage at 1:51:51

1:52:09 then coming down both of your arms, the upper arms, at the level of the elbow, the forearms, and into each finger, your hand, palm. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:09 Highlight the passage at 1:52:09

1:52:24 Your hands do so much, Report an error in the passage at 1:52:24 Highlight the passage at 1:52:24

1:52:33 just releasing each finger. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:33 Highlight the passage at 1:52:33

1:52:48 And then inside of your chest, relaxing your lungs and your heart, Report an error in the passage at 1:52:48 Highlight the passage at 1:52:48

1:52:58 any tension in your stomach. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:58 Highlight the passage at 1:52:58

1:53:07 Also remembering to relax your mind, letting go of any worries, any problems, any tension. Then Report an error in the passage at 1:53:07 Highlight the passage at 1:53:07

1:53:26 continuing to allow your awareness to travel down into your hips and down both of your legs, relaxing your thighs and your knees, calves, Report an error in the passage at 1:53:26 Highlight the passage at 1:53:26

1:53:45 ankles, feet, the soles of your feet, arches and releasing each toe. If Report an error in the passage at 1:53:45 Highlight the passage at 1:53:45

1:54:05 there's any other place that... I didn't mention where you're holding tension. Place your awareness there and just release it. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:05 Highlight the passage at 1:54:05

1:54:28 And then bring your awareness back to your breath. Just placing your awareness on the breath at either the levels that I just mentioned, the level of your belly as it expands and contracts, or that little patch of skin inside your nostrils, the sensation of the air as it passes over, cool air coming in, warm air going out. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:28 Highlight the passage at 1:54:28

1:54:57 And just try to focus on a few rounds of your breathing. Just repeatedly bringing the mind back, firmly but gently, as many times as you need to. And Report an error in the passage at 1:54:57 Highlight the passage at 1:54:57

· · · silence, 2 minutes

1:57:00 we'll dedicate the merit, Report an error in the passage at 1:57:00 Highlight the passage at 1:57:00

1:57:04 all the things that we've talked about in the last couple of hours since you first came through the door. We've already started making imprints or seeds in your mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:04 Highlight the passage at 1:57:04

1:57:18 And so we can dedicate that positive karma that we've just created. To each one of us being able to work with our minds, develop the discipline we might need, and the joy, the joyous effort that it takes so that we can master our minds and get to know our minds so that we can benefit ourselves and others. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:18 Highlight the passage at 1:57:18

1:57:45 Thank Report an error in the passage at 1:57:45 Highlight the passage at 1:57:45

1:57:57 you. I had to go really fast through that, but sorry about that. Just wanted you to get a taste. Could somebody help? And everybody should get one of each. And I think I have plenty. I did ten. And then, you want to do this? Report an error in the passage at 1:57:57 Highlight the passage at 1:57:57

1:58:23 Everybody gets one of those, too. This is your homework. So we didn't really talk about setting up an altar. If you want to, you can. It can be really simple. So don't feel like you have to do this. It can just be... A place where you, I mean the main thing with an altar is just to have it be an inspiration to your mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:23 Highlight the passage at 1:58:23

1:58:52 So if it helps you to have a picture of somebody that's inspiring or a picture of the Buddha or a picture of the Dalai Lama or your third grade teacher, whoever, put that up. So it could be, do you need another one? You're okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:52 Highlight the passage at 1:58:52

1:59:09 But otherwise, you can just keep it really simple. The main idea is that it's someplace that you want to be and someplace that inspires your mind. So that's kind of the idea of that. We'll talk more about that. And then it has the details about a meditation journal and then a little bit about what you can do at that altar. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:09 Highlight the passage at 1:59:09

1:59:26 So just try it. Bring your questions or send me emails. All right. Thanks. All right. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:26 Highlight the passage at 1:59:26

1:59:48 Sure, if you say so. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:48 Highlight the passage at 1:59:48

1:59:52 I know we're going to do Chenresik. I had that one planned, I think, for the fifth class. But we can always do it again on the practice day if anybody else is interested. We can always add it there. Yeah, okay, good. We'll do it on the practice day then. Yeah, there's plenty of time because it's a short practice too. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:52 Highlight the passage at 1:59:52

2:00:14 The final, yeah, the final day of the class is on a Saturday and we do it like a little retreat. Yeah. Oh, okay. And you didn't have, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:14 Highlight the passage at 2:00:14

2:00:34 Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, happy to do. Bye, Christine. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:34 Highlight the passage at 2:00:34

2:00:58 No, let's, let's, we can use it for tomorrow. That's great. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:58 Highlight the passage at 2:00:58

2:01:26 For the full day retreat on the Report an error in the passage at 2:01:26 Highlight the passage at 2:01:26

2:01:31 teacher and our middle school admissions day. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:31 Highlight the passage at 2:01:31

2:01:42 Or, you know, I mean, yeah, for sure. I mean, the one thing that we do do on that day. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:42 Highlight the passage at 2:01:42

2:01:59 And so what we might do as we get closer to the end, we might decide, Report an error in the passage at 2:01:59 Highlight the passage at 2:01:59

2:02:28 is it, what tradition does it mean? Report an error in the passage at 2:02:28 Highlight the passage at 2:02:28

2:02:33 So actually I've received empowerment for two different dundra, Report an error in the passage at 2:02:33 Highlight the passage at 2:02:33

2:02:41 which has a more concise mandala offering. So I, you know, I started one and then I busted my knee, and I was halfway done by prostrations, and then I started another, but I can't, I don't know if I do prostrations, and then just Report an error in the passage at 2:02:41 Highlight the passage at 2:02:41

2:03:01 in general, I think my shama took back. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:01 Highlight the passage at 2:03:01

2:03:19 And then, of course, I Report an error in the passage at 2:03:19 Highlight the passage at 2:03:19

2:03:30 don't know. Yeah. I mean, I can do, we can talk a little bit, and then if you feel like it, you can also make a point with Report an error in the passage at 2:03:30 Highlight the passage at 2:03:30

2:03:42 it. But I feel like, do you think that just working on following my practice is probably what I need to do? They say in terms of bringing in the details of the clarity, and they Report an error in the passage at 2:03:42 Highlight the passage at 2:03:42

2:04:03 say sometimes if you try to bring in the other things. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:03 Highlight the passage at 2:04:03

2:04:17 So right now, just because I want to keep my commitment going, I've been doing that in the morning. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:17 Highlight the passage at 2:04:17

2:04:47 That whole thing was just recorded. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:47 Highlight the passage at 2:04:47

2:04:51 You can disguise your voice. that's Report an error in the passage at 2:04:51 Highlight the passage at 2:04:51