Discovering Buddhism - Mind and Its Potential (4 December 2008)

0:02 Testing, testing. I usually do a mantra when I do the prostration, so that's what she's talking about. Do you want me to sing it for you? Report an error in the passage at 0:02 Highlight the passage at 0:02

0:25 So I've been baking a huge chocolate cake. Thank you for the volunteers who helped with the conference. So at some point, Chloe could come running over here and go like this, and that means I have to excuse myself and go peek at it. Om namo, my dear Shriya. Report an error in the passage at 0:25 Highlight the passage at 0:25

0:40 It's hard to leave it in somebody else's hand when it's still in the oven. But that's why I'm a little flushed. It's very hot in the kitchen. Oh, all right. Welcome. What's your name? Jane. Jane. Hi, Jane. So, you know, this is the fifth out of six classes. Okay, just so you know. Report an error in the passage at 0:40 Highlight the passage at 0:40

1:04 And my name's Chokyi. Um... Report an error in the passage at 1:04 Highlight the passage at 1:04

1:09 I'm assuming we'll have a couple people come wandering in. We usually have a pretty small class, but it's usually around seven people. So we'll see. We'll see if any of the rest are going to make it. I got one who said he couldn't come, but he could have a couple more people come. So we'll just welcome them if they come. Report an error in the passage at 1:09 Highlight the passage at 1:09

1:27 I always feel bad for people who enter late for all the times that I've entered something late. So we're going to start with a little meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:27 Highlight the passage at 1:27

1:38 Just kind of a way of letting go of the day. Report an error in the passage at 1:38 Highlight the passage at 1:38

1:46 I always like to start with some nice deep cleansing breaths, Report an error in the passage at 1:46 Highlight the passage at 1:46

1:56 just allowing the out breath to take away, dissolve and take away all the sluggishness that you might be feeling or distraction, things you might be working on like a cake in the oven. Report an error in the passage at 1:56 Highlight the passage at 1:56

2:12 And just imagine breathing them out with all the out breaths. And the in breaths, imagine bringing in fresh, bright alertness, curiosity, Report an error in the passage at 2:12 Highlight the passage at 2:12

2:26 presence. Report an error in the passage at 2:26 Highlight the passage at 2:26

2:48 And then after you've done that a few times, we'll just focus on the breath for a few rounds of 10. So just focus either at the level of your belly, your abdomen as it rises and falls, expands, or the level of your nostril. So the tip of your nostril, a little patch of skin, the sensation as the air passes over that, going out and coming back in through Report an error in the passage at 2:48 Highlight the passage at 2:48

· · · silence, 2 minutes

4:53 your consciousness or your mind. As whatever you're experiencing right now at this moment, Report an error in the passage at 4:53 Highlight the passage at 4:53

5:04 the sensations that you feel in your body, your thoughts, feelings, perceptions of sound and so forth. And Report an error in the passage at 5:04 Highlight the passage at 5:04

5:27 the nature of each of these experiences is clarity without any form or color, space like pure awareness. Report an error in the passage at 5:27 Highlight the passage at 5:27

5:43 So try to focus your attention on this clear, pure nature of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 5:43 Highlight the passage at 5:43

6:03 Sometimes it's hard to focus on the mind with your mind, so try to imagine instead that you're lying on a hillside and you're looking up into a clear sky free of all clouds. Report an error in the passage at 6:03 Highlight the passage at 6:03

6:25 Just concentrate on that clear, vast, unobstructed sky. Report an error in the passage at 6:25 Highlight the passage at 6:25

6:38 Imagine that it flows down and embraces you and everything that's surrounding you and everything becomes space-like. Report an error in the passage at 6:38 Highlight the passage at 6:38

6:53 And just hold this experience of your own mind, clear and vast, spacious, unobstructed, Report an error in the passage at 6:53 Highlight the passage at 6:53

7:12 completely pure. From Report an error in the passage at 7:12 Highlight the passage at 7:12

7:34 this vast, spacious mind, we can motivate whatever might have brought us here tonight to think about our minds and to think about the potential that we have, that we find buried within our mind when we start working with it. Report an error in the passage at 7:34 Highlight the passage at 7:34

8:03 So all of us have some reason that we came here, but think about not just wanting to have a little bit of peace and clarity ourselves, but also trying to extend that so that we can benefit others with this tool called our mind. Report an error in the passage at 8:03 Highlight the passage at 8:03

8:26 So may tonight's class, whatever insights we gain, whatever understandings, whatever experiences we have or discussions, may it help lead us. In a direction that will benefit others and increase our capacity for happiness and bringing that happiness to others. Report an error in the passage at 8:26 Highlight the passage at 8:26

8:57 And then when you're ready, you can end your meditation and open your eyes. And we'll do an opening prayer. Report an error in the passage at 8:57 Highlight the passage at 8:57

9:08 I'll just stop myself from saying the causes of happiness. The happiness and the causes of happiness. We just did a big conference called Happiness and its Causes. Report an error in the passage at 9:08 Highlight the passage at 9:08

9:19 We're all sort of, I'm at least coming, still coming up for air from that one. So this is the booklet that doesn't have page numbers. Tony, if you could open it for her and it's got the, can you find it for her? It's a little hard to find because we haven't paged, has no pagination. Report an error in the passage at 9:19 Highlight the passage at 9:19

9:43 Chris, the ones to use are the ones that have the cover sheet. Yeah, because I haven't put the pages in these and it's a little confusing. Sorry, we're handling it. We're watching our minds while we're handing out. So we'll do this little prayer by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and that also helps us set our motivation. Report an error in the passage at 9:43 Highlight the passage at 9:43

10:04 With the wish to free all beings, I shall always go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha until I reach full enlightenment. Inspired by wisdom and compassion, today in the Buddha's presence, I generate the mind of full awakening. For the benefit of all sentient beings, as long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world. Report an error in the passage at 10:04 Highlight the passage at 10:04

10:44 It was great. It was hard. It was a lot. Christine was one of my little assistant thingies. I grabbed her for as long as I could keep her. Report an error in the passage at 10:44 Highlight the passage at 10:44

10:58 We had a good turnout and everybody I think was pretty happy. We're doing a volunteer thank you party tomorrow. We had like a hundred and not counting staff of both centers. Report an error in the passage at 10:58 Highlight the passage at 10:58

11:12 Probably 125 volunteers, so quite a few volunteers. And most of the email responses that I'm getting are like, oh, I loved it. I had a great time. Thanks so much. So that's great. And the attendee responses have been phenomenal. Actually, we're going to read some of them out tomorrow night, so that's kind of cool. Report an error in the passage at 11:12 Highlight the passage at 11:12

11:30 And the speakers are all really happy, too. Not enough. It was like 210, I think, total registered. We really wanted about 400. Report an error in the passage at 11:30 Highlight the passage at 11:30

11:40 We lost money, but we reached a lot of people. We have a lot of happy volunteers. We have a lot of happy speakers. We made some good connections. We got into the New York Times. We did, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 11:40 Highlight the passage at 11:40

11:57 Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving itself, I'm pretty sure. Or the day before. It might have been the day before. Yeah, so we got some good press, I think, too. We kind of got our name out there a little bit, so that's good. We didn't see it. Yeah. Thanksgiving. Report an error in the passage at 11:57 Highlight the passage at 11:57

12:14 So right afterwards, after sleeping for a day, I went down to hear Jetsuma Tenzin Palmo speak in Santa Cruz. And who else? Does anybody else know who this is, who Tenzin Palmo is? Yeah, exactly, exactly. She lived in a cave or she did a long retreat in a cave and there's a book about her called Cave in the Snow. Report an error in the passage at 12:14 Highlight the passage at 12:14

12:40 She taught for us one long time ago, seven years ago. So it's cool to see her again. We did a series called Women of Wisdom, and she was teaching on meditation. And she started with, I thought it was a great quote, so I wrote it down and I bring it to you. Report an error in the passage at 12:40 Highlight the passage at 12:40

12:59 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 the sense stimuli, without... Now, without consciousness, even with sense stimuli, nothing would be registered. Then on top of this, we add our opinions, ideas, etc., etc., all constantly rushing around. Report an error in the passage at 12:59 Highlight the passage at 12:59

13:22 Normally, people aren't aware of how busy our minds are until we try to meditate. 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 stimuli. Report an error in the passage at 13:22 Highlight the passage at 13:22

13:50 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. Report an error in the passage at 13:50 Highlight the passage at 13:50

14:02 If we had a loudspeaker attached to our mind, wouldn't everyone want to learn to meditate? We spend a lot of time on external appearances but little on internal reality. We can never escape from our own mind. We must make the mind a place where we can live happily. Forget enlightenment. Is our mind what we want as our closest companion? Report an error in the passage at 14:02 Highlight the passage at 14:02

14:26 Isn't that great? I thought it was like a brilliant synopsis of why you would want to take this class and why you'd want to learn to meditate and the potential if you do and also the potential if you don't, if we don't get in control of our minds. Report an error in the passage at 14:26 Highlight the passage at 14:26

14:45 And she also really, really kept saying how urgent it was. I mean, we had to really get the urgency of the situation or we wouldn't want to learn to meditate. We wouldn't want to put the time into disciplining our mind. We wouldn't want to put the time into subduing our mind unless we could recognize that. Report an error in the passage at 14:45 Highlight the passage at 14:45

15:07 So I'm right now transcribing all my notes, so maybe I'll have another great quote next week. Report an error in the passage at 15:07 Highlight the passage at 15:07

15:16 The other thing that... What we have to think about in terms of working with our minds is not just the craziness of this life and all the problems that it can cause in this life to have an unsubdued mind or an uncontrolled mind or a wild mind, all of which we have. So it's not like you're horrible if your mind is like that because you're not alone. But also, according to the Buddha, Report an error in the passage at 15:16 Highlight the passage at 15:16

15:43 The state of our mind, really, and what we do with our mind, based on that state, also determines our next life. So there's additional impetus to work with our minds, and that's what we're going to spend some time talking about tonight. Report an error in the passage at 15:43 Highlight the passage at 15:43

16:00 So David's not here, he must have known. I was going to get into these realms. But first I wanted to just open up. Does anybody have any questions about any of the stuff you've been reading or the meditations? Did you get that? I sent you that mental factor. Yeah, good. Okay. And I'll keep thinking if there's other ones, but that was just a good clear one from Emily's class. Report an error in the passage at 16:00 Highlight the passage at 16:00

16:26 Yeah, cool. Report an error in the passage at 16:26 Highlight the passage at 16:26

16:31 Now you have to use the talking stick. is this enough okay yeah so There are a lot of references to purification. I have a couple of questions, but they're all tied together. Report an error in the passage at 16:31 Highlight the passage at 16:31

16:43 for say you you know get in an argument with someone and then you know there's been references to you kind of go off and do a purification practice is that Yeah, and the reason is because we've done the interesting thing with purification, which we aren't getting into in here, but maybe I will include it on the practice day. Report an error in the passage at 16:43 Highlight the passage at 16:43

17:06 Ha ha, that'll be my little spur to get people to come to the practice day. Because it definitely affects, I mean, it has. It's related to the mind. We usually get into it in karma, in the karma class. But because we create, 95 % of all, whatever karma we create is due to our motivation. So no matter, like the argument, it feels kind of like it's verbal, right? But actually there's a mind motivating that or you wouldn't have yelled. Report an error in the passage at 17:06 Highlight the passage at 17:06

17:37 You know, like whatever punching or yelling or whatever comes out of the body and the speech is all. Motivated by the mind. So the mind ends up being behind it all. So when we do a purification, we can purify that. We ourselves can purify it. But part of that purification is the intent not to repeat the act. And that's what kind of saves it from just being like, well, I can yell at this guy and then purify it later. Report an error in the passage at 17:37 Highlight the passage at 17:37

18:01 Because, you know, it's included in the four steps that you have to take. The final step is not to. Well, the first is. Intense and earnest and sincere regret, you know, so you can't fake that because there's no other judge. It's your own mind. So if your mind is, it's not like there's an external Buddha with a big clipboard going, well, Christine, she's not doing this one very well. Report an error in the passage at 18:01 Highlight the passage at 18:01

18:23 I'm not going to give her much credit for that. It's your own mind. So if your mind recorded you're getting angry and your mind records you sincerely regretting it and making the strong intention not to repeat it, that's what purifies it. The other question was also if you could go through the steps. Yeah, which I think we'll do on the practice day just because of time. But it's actually quite easy. Report an error in the passage at 18:23 Highlight the passage at 18:23

18:44 There's just four steps. And what, of course, makes it powerful is just like with the argument, you know, or just like with punching the person or just like with stealing something or the killing or whatever. Is the intensity of your mind. So if you're focused and sincere and all those things are there when you purify, then you can purify very well. Report an error in the passage at 18:44 Highlight the passage at 18:44

19:04 If you're half-hearted, it's late at night, you're lying on the floor with the cats, it's not going to be as successful. What about the sense of if you do something to someone that really hurts them and they... they go off and they keep ruminating about it and thinking about That's their mind. No, that's their mind. I mean, you can see how your actions, you know, contributed to their, you're a contributing factor to their suffering. Report an error in the passage at 19:04 Highlight the passage at 19:04

19:35 But you can't cause another person to suffer, actually. Their own mind causes them to suffer. You can definitely own the part you can own and, you know, regret it and purify it and all that stuff. But you can't. Own somebody stewing about something for 35 years as long as you have, you know, sort of owned your part and purified that. Report an error in the passage at 19:35 Highlight the passage at 19:35

19:59 And even in Buddhism, it's not so much about going and asking for forgiveness. That's not really even a Buddhist concept. But I think it's often a good thing to do. I usually try to do it if I feel like I've contributed to something. But there is a certain amount that we have to realize. Just like I can't blame somebody else if I'm stewing about something. Really, my mind is my responsibility. That's that quote that keeps haunting me, this term by Lama Yeshe. Report an error in the passage at 19:59 Highlight the passage at 19:59

20:31 My mind is my responsibility. And in the same way, that person's mind is their responsibility. But on the other hand, you don't want to just go, oh well, you know, sucks to be them, you know, and not really care about them. This will be the last question though, but say you do something small to someone who's very sensitive and then something big or bad to someone who's not sensitive at all, because it doesn't affect the karma, their response? Report an error in the passage at 20:31 Highlight the passage at 20:31

20:56 Your karma is caused by a lot of factors, but they're all related mostly to you and your mind. So it's not like you get worse karma because that person took it worse. It's not like that. Unless you're getting into stealing, there are certain things I think that are affected by it because if, I know with stealing it's sort of like if that person really values that thing and you take it and it wasn't offered to you, then it would be considered stealing. Report an error in the passage at 20:56 Highlight the passage at 20:56

21:37 Whereas, you know, it's not so much that it's a value to the greater world. So if I absolutely love this cup that's probably, what, $3.95 in Chinatown, you know, and then Stephanie takes it home with her, knowing that I really liked it and also knowing that I didn't offer it to her, then that's pretty strong karma, especially with a nun. Report an error in the passage at 21:37 Highlight the passage at 21:37

22:02 But on the open market, it's not so expensive, you know, but karmically it's expensive. So it's like that. Karma gets very complicated that way because it's not like a straight answer so much. It's like we could all pick up something and walk out of here and we'd all get different karmas. Because you might be taking something home to cheer up Aunt Millie, you know, and you're just taking it because you really want it. And he might be taking it because he hates me. You know, so we all could have different motivations that contribute to our own particular karma. Report an error in the passage at 22:02 Highlight the passage at 22:02

22:34 But it looks like the same act to somebody else. So that's why I think karma is very, very interesting. It's not so, none of it's straightforward. And at the same time, you're probably doing like five other karmas just to do it, you know what I mean? Like it's like, it gets so complicated because the mind's involved, the body's involved, the speech is involved. While you're doing the one thing, you're like ignoring her and so then she gets offended and like it gets crazy. Report an error in the passage at 22:34 Highlight the passage at 22:34

23:02 But that's why it's really good to do a lot of purification. Every day, because we just get behind otherwise. It's like maintenance work after a while, actually. As sincerely as we can. No, good questions. And actually, that's a good point. So before, at the break, somebody remind me that I want to add a simple purification to the practice day. Report an error in the passage at 23:02 Highlight the passage at 23:02

23:28 And I'm happy to do that. Yeah, we can do, maybe we can do Vajrasapa. That's an easy one. Anybody else? Report an error in the passage at 23:28 Highlight the passage at 23:28

23:41 Okay. So let's just review a little bit about what we were talking about with the consciousness last time because it's been a while since we met. So with our sense consciousnesses, eye, ear, nose, touch, taste, we perceive directly the data or the stimulation without any concepts. But then in the very next moment, the mental consciousness jumps in. Report an error in the passage at 23:41 Highlight the passage at 23:41

24:13 And starts pulling up these concepts based on prior experience, prior lifetime experience, prior conditioning. And so we end up experiencing whatever through this filter of the concepts, but we're not aware of it yet. It happens so fast that we think, oh, I'm just seeing this cup and anybody that sees this cup is thinking the same thing. But actually you guys would all be thinking something different about this cup. Report an error in the passage at 24:13 Highlight the passage at 24:13

24:37 Some people might not even see it as a cup, especially once it has a lid on it. It's kind of strange to some people. Report an error in the passage at 24:37 Highlight the passage at 24:37

24:45 So most or much of our experience is through what's called presumption, guessing based on past experience and inference, where we take an educated guess about something like if there's smoke, then there's fire like that. Which is a big one. We all got into this huge discussion with Geshe-Lo about that one time. And that wasn't even the main point of his discussion, his topic. And he couldn't believe that we were denying that if there was smoke, there might not be fire. Report an error in the passage at 24:45 Highlight the passage at 24:45

25:14 And then we finally realized that in Tibetan, the word fire is really like combustion. It really means combustion. So like a cigarette would be fire as far as he's concerned, but we were thinking open flame. So we're like, no, no. No, no, no. And he's like... What's wrong with these people? But anyway, so most of how we're perceiving things are based on presumption and inference. Report an error in the passage at 25:14 Highlight the passage at 25:14

25:40 When we go deeper into analytical meditation, it's designed for us to go past our conceptual understanding of things and to try to get underneath those concepts a little bit. So that we can have more direct knowing and hopefully actually gain realizations through experience. For example, if we're thinking about impermanence, we can understand impermanence through presumption and through inference. Report an error in the passage at 25:40 Highlight the passage at 25:40

26:14 But Until you look deeply at impermanence in meditation, you don't have a direct experience of it. So it doesn't actually change your life so much. You can intellectually understand it. It's sort of like that example of understanding how sugar tastes. You know, we can study it. We can read about it. We can hear other people's experiences of how sugar tastes. Report an error in the passage at 26:14 Highlight the passage at 26:14

26:36 But until actually we taste the sugar, we don't really know how sugar tastes. Report an error in the passage at 26:36 Highlight the passage at 26:36

26:46 So they actually say there's a point when you have very high levels of shamatha or calm abiding meditation, very deep levels of concentration that you develop what's called yogic direct perception and you can actually see not just gross. Impermanence, but subtle impermanence in objects. And it's simply because your power of concentration is so strong. So you can actually see cells coming into and going out of being. Report an error in the passage at 26:46 Highlight the passage at 26:46

27:21 You can actually see degeneration happening in something. And it's because your power of concentration is so strong that you can actually see through the things that obstruct our minds now, the physical form that obstructs our mind now. Report an error in the passage at 27:21 Highlight the passage at 27:21

27:39 And then on top of all of this, we have all these concepts that are, you know, doubts and obstructions that just sort of cloud our ability to even see anything in any kind of direct way. We always are going through this filter. So this thing called saṃsāra, our cyclic existence is also another way that it's, saṃsāra is the Sanskrit term. Report an error in the passage at 27:39 Highlight the passage at 27:39

28:09 cyclic existence is how it's Mostly translated. Report an error in the passage at 28:09 Highlight the passage at 28:09

28:15 Saṃsāra, it's the opposite of Nirvāṇa. So most of us have heard of nirvāṇa. I think we started hearing of saṃsāra because I think somebody made a perfume called saṃsāra, which I thought was very odd. Report an error in the passage at 28:15 Highlight the passage at 28:15

28:30 Saṃsāra is sometimes called cycle of suffering life. I mean, it's like this continued cycling through these various realms that we're going to talk about a little bit tonight. Report an error in the passage at 28:30 Highlight the passage at 28:30

28:45 And it's completely created by the mind, according to the Buddha. So based on the three poisonous minds that we started talking about, these different mental afflictions, the three poisonous minds, does anybody remember what they are? Report an error in the passage at 28:45 Highlight the passage at 28:45

29:02 Close? Yeah, desire attachment. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 29:02 Highlight the passage at 29:02

29:09 Well done. Yeah, ignorance, we called it here. Yeah, good. I think they're translated in different ways and different. So clearly you've studied some. Yeah, aversion, I usually say, because it can be anything from not liking the yellow in the rug to, you know, punching somebody or hatred or resentment or, you know, all forms of aversion. Report an error in the passage at 29:09 Highlight the passage at 29:09

29:31 Attachment or desire attachment, sometimes I slash there because it's a little heavier than being attached to a cup or something. But it's everything from liking the color to... Report an error in the passage at 29:31 Highlight the passage at 29:31

29:44 You know, being so obsessed by somebody that you stalk them, you know, so it's like it's like everything in between that's attachment. And then ignorance is specifically a kind of ignorance about how things exist, how we exist, how things exist, thinking that they are what the Buddha says. Actually, they don't exist that way. These three create all these other negative states of mind that, you know, I just sent Tony this whole. Report an error in the passage at 29:44 Highlight the passage at 29:44

30:13 form with all these different mental afflictions that doesn't even have all the I think there's some estimate that there's 84,000 mental afflictions. So we just talk about the top three. Yeah, exactly. I'll just keep sending them. They create more and more. We get very, very creative with how we can have afflicted states of mind. Report an error in the passage at 30:13 Highlight the passage at 30:13

30:36 Fortunately, I think we can also create that many virtuous states of mind, too. But because we have all these states of mind that are negative, then of course we act based on them. So if we have afflicted states of mind or kleshas in Sanskrit, then we act according to those and then due to those actions we create negative karma and then that negative karma ripens and then that ripening becomes our experience. Report an error in the passage at 30:36 Highlight the passage at 30:36

31:02 And if it's negative, then it becomes suffering or pain or displeasure. And if it's positive, then it becomes pleasure or happiness. And based on this, we suffer lifetime after lifetime or have pleasure lifetime after lifetime. But since we're talking about suffering here, this actually is what saṃsāra is. You know, this is the cause of saṃsāra, but this is actually what saṃsāra is. Report an error in the passage at 31:02 Highlight the passage at 31:02

31:33 Saṃsāra isn't a place. It's not like... I'm in saṃsāra now and then I leave and I go outside and I'm in nirvāṇa or vice versa. A lot of times people think living here would be saṃsāra and going out on the street would be nirvāṇa. I mean the opposite. Living here would be not saṃsāra and out there is somehow saṃsāra. I've actually heard people say that. Now that Chris has worked here for a couple of days, he probably knows that that's not the case. Report an error in the passage at 31:33 Highlight the passage at 31:33

32:03 But saṃsāra is basically our own minds and what they create. So saṃsāra is, we have samsaric minds, so we are in saṃsāra. That's all that that means. A holy, enlightened being could be in San Francisco and not have a samsaric experience. I could be in a pure land, if I'm still an ordinary being, I could be in a pure land with a Buddha, but I would still have my own mind. Report an error in the passage at 32:03 Highlight the passage at 32:03

32:27 I'd be like... I'd still have my own anxieties and stuff. Oh my God, they can all read my mind. I would turn a beautiful experience like that into a samsaric experience because my mind is still samsaric. Once we transform our mind, we can be anywhere, even in the hell realms, basically, and not be having a samsaric experience. Report an error in the passage at 32:27 Highlight the passage at 32:27

32:51 So it all rests in our mind. Report an error in the passage at 32:51 Highlight the passage at 32:51

32:56 And the problem is, as Tenzin Palma so nicely put it, we don't have any control over our minds. And so at this point, we don't have any control where we take rebirth. Because if we don't have any control over our minds, you know, based on... The things that happen to us or the things that seem like they're happening to us and we get upset easily or we get depressed easily or whatever. The same is true at the time that we die. Report an error in the passage at 32:56 Highlight the passage at 32:56

33:28 Our mind is not necessarily going to be in a calm, peaceful state and it's due to our particular karma that we've created in this life based on our mind, but also at the exact moment of our death. The state of our mind. And then the way we react to the transitional phase between the time of death and the next rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 33:28 Highlight the passage at 33:28

33:52 Because that's still our mind, just going through that. It's not like this life ends and there's some sort of a gap. Our mind is just moving on to the next thing. So how we are in our mind now is going to be the same. I mean, if our mind is not calm and relaxed and, Report an error in the passage at 33:52 Highlight the passage at 33:52

34:14 know, curious but, you know, able to accept navigating difficulties while we're under the best of circumstances, it's going to be very difficult at those moments when things are actually very difficult and our body is dissolving and we're having to leave, you know, all the things that we find familiar. Report an error in the passage at 34:14 Highlight the passage at 34:14

34:35 So it's important to understand that this teaching One of the most important ones about the mind is that it's not just so much a state of having a better life and being able to not get angry during a conference or, as we all did, getting upset when things don't go our way, being depressed if we don't get a job. Report an error in the passage at 34:35 Highlight the passage at 34:35

35:10 Of course we suffer at that exact moment. We definitely are suffering in that exact moment. But the Buddha is pointing out that there's bigger things at stake here. Like if we're still getting upset at those things, and I'll be the first to admit that I am, that I do. Report an error in the passage at 35:10 Highlight the passage at 35:10

35:28 But the point is that if we aren't actively trying to subdue our mind and to control our minds and to understand our minds and how they work and to work with our minds, then at the time that we die, we will continue to be the slave of our mind. We'll just follow our mind into another rebirth that won't necessarily be positive. So it's kind of a warning that the Buddha is giving us. Report an error in the passage at 35:28 Highlight the passage at 35:28

35:54 But the good news, as Christine brought up, karma isn't destiny or fate. It constantly changes. That's the difference with Buddhism and other religions. Karma definitely can be changed. It can be purified. We can understand how it works and then put that understanding into effect so we can decide if we gain some sort of trust in this. Report an error in the passage at 35:54 Highlight the passage at 35:54

36:19 I don't want to create so much negative karma just because I don't want to suffer. I mean, just from that standpoint, I don't want to keep suffering. So I want to stop screaming at Christine. You know, I want to stop slapping people or whatever my particular negative act is. So I want to restrain myself from doing that. And I want to start creating positive karma because I want to have the results of positive karma in my life. So just from the aspect of my own. Report an error in the passage at 36:19 Highlight the passage at 36:19

36:47 Happiness and its causes and suffering and its causes. I can understand how karma works. I can decide to kind of subdue my mind through meditation and through working with my mind. And the Buddha is saying that and then we can take that and actually change our lives. Not just this life, but we can change the outcome. Report an error in the passage at 36:47 Highlight the passage at 36:47

37:08 It's not like things are set in stone and we can never change them again. So that's the good news from a Buddhist point of view. Report an error in the passage at 37:08 Highlight the passage at 37:08

37:18 And we started last week, we were talking about how to work with the delusions, which are the main cause for us to create the karma. Just developing that sort of mindfulness of how the different delusions work. And we get into this more in a class that's called Saṃsāra Nirvāṇa. But we started working with the anger meditation. Report an error in the passage at 37:18 Highlight the passage at 37:18

37:41 Do any of you guys have a chance to do that in the last couple weeks? This is putting you on the spot. Report an error in the passage at 37:41 Highlight the passage at 37:41

37:47 Or did you just work with the anger as it came up? Report an error in the passage at 37:47 Highlight the passage at 37:47

37:54 Yeah, yeah. Did you have a chance to? Yeah. No, it's okay. Tony, I'm going to call on you too. Did you have a chance to work with it at all? We did the one on anger. Report an error in the passage at 37:54 Highlight the passage at 37:54

38:12 Well, that's good. But the way that we actually start... Working with our minds with this is to notice what anger feels like in our mind, you know, to actually first just bring awareness. I'm angry. What's causing me to be angry? Because usually we just go with it. We don't even notice it. And we have to look at it. Report an error in the passage at 38:12 Highlight the passage at 38:12

38:33 That's mindfulness. This is really what mindfulness is, is developing an awareness of our mind off the cushion. And then when we're in meditation, we can sort of pull it apart. We can look at that state of mind. We can apply the antidotes. When we're not so upset, when we're fuming, it's not going to actually work. Report an error in the passage at 38:33 Highlight the passage at 38:33

38:56 But the more that we work on it in meditation, and we have to do it over and over and over and over again, like literally years, we have to do it because we're breaking old habits. This is worse than smoking. This is worse than crack. This is like worse than heroin. Our minds have been doing. These negative states of mind for lifetime after lifetime after lifetime. So we just have to keep looking at them, dissecting them, thinking about them, analyzing them. Report an error in the passage at 38:56 Highlight the passage at 38:56

39:25 This is what analytical meditation is. And then we go back out in the world and then we yell at somebody and then we're like... OK, let me take that apart, you know, and you do end up being able to stop yourself sometimes. And that's really I can't even tell you how exciting that is. It's so exciting, whether it's anger. I'm using anger as the example because we talked about anger last week. It can be any of your favorite mental afflictions. Report an error in the passage at 39:25 Highlight the passage at 39:25

39:54 It can be stopping yourself before you leap on the chocolate cake. You know, it can it can be. Backing off from a situation that you habitually fall into of jealousy or anger or whatever. And catching yourself before you go into that spiral. I call it spiraling down. And realizing that you don't have to and cutting it. And that's such a liberating feeling when you can do that. Report an error in the passage at 39:54 Highlight the passage at 39:54

40:20 And that's literally how we liberate ourselves from saṃsāra. This is the slow route. Report an error in the passage at 40:20 Highlight the passage at 40:20

40:29 Ultimately, we have to have a direct perception of the nature of reality. We have to have a direct perception of emptiness. That's really the way that we're going to cut these things at the core. But until then, it's not like we get off the hook and go, well... Until I have that direct perception of emptiness, I can still go out and scream at the cab driver because it doesn't work that way. We have to work on all the different levels, and this is where we are now. Report an error in the passage at 40:29 Highlight the passage at 40:29

40:54 So at this point, what really, really helps us is getting to know our mind, getting to know how it works. What do delusions look like? What do they feel like? What's my worst one? They say start with the biggest one first. You know, then I can be as a Libra. Let's see, which is my worst one and spend about a year trying to decide which is the worst one. But just picking out what you think is your worst one and just deciding, just making some sort of resolution. Report an error in the passage at 40:54 Highlight the passage at 40:54

41:21 I am going to work on anger this year or whatever. I am going to work on jealousy this year. I am going to work on depression. And then whenever it comes up. Report an error in the passage at 41:21 Highlight the passage at 41:21

41:29 Having the courage to look at it and to work with it. That's really the only way that we can't. Because they're really, what ends up happening, especially with, I think, certain states of mind, we really strongly identify. I think anger can be one. Depression can be one. Where we really identify with it so much that we can't look at it. We're embarrassed by it. Report an error in the passage at 41:29 Highlight the passage at 41:29

41:51 I think shame can be one. I mean, jealousy can be one like that where it's almost like embarrassing to even think that you have it. But it's just thoughts. It's simply mental energy and they have no power from their own side. That's the good news. They're impermanent. They are simply things that arise within our minds and fall away. They cause us to do great damage. Report an error in the passage at 41:51 Highlight the passage at 41:51

42:18 And usually our response to them is either ignoring them, repressing them. So ignoring them allows them to run riot, right? Repressing them is like, I don't really feel angry at her, but then this slow burn happens and then, you know, like three years later you realize you're still holding a grudge. Neither approach is going to help us, you know, neither is going to be a constructive. Meditation allows us to actually, it's almost like a scientific approach where we stop feeling like I'm a horrible person because I have anger. Report an error in the passage at 42:18 Highlight the passage at 42:18

42:56 This is just a thought. This is how mind works. So now we're taking more of the Margaret Mead approach with our little clipboard and we're like, oh, what does anger feel like when I have it? What does it look like? What kind of harm has it done in my life? So we're really kind of analyzing it in a way that is less I'm horrible because I still get angry. Report an error in the passage at 42:56 Highlight the passage at 42:56

43:15 So you see the difference where it becomes more of like a scientific experiment. Um, and, and It's not magical. It definitely takes a long time, and we have to gain a certain amount of courage to do this, to look at our own minds and to repeatedly go in and look at this. But it's really the only way to change our minds. It's really the only way that we can start breaking that. Report an error in the passage at 43:15 Highlight the passage at 43:15

43:49 Those habits that we've had for lifetime after lifetime of just giving in to whatever thought arises whenever it arises. As Tenzin Palma said, if we all could attach loudspeakers to our minds, we would all want to learn to meditate really, really quickly. Report an error in the passage at 43:49 Highlight the passage at 43:49

44:07 Wouldn't that be horrible? That would be so horrible if everybody could hear everything that was in your mind. I was reading something, actually, where there is some... I think it was a myth actually and I can't remember now what it was. And this person had to be chosen who was going into some realm of the gods and his mind had to be so pure because if he had any negative thought arise he would instantly... Report an error in the passage at 44:07 Highlight the passage at 44:07

44:37 And I thought, oh my God, how horrifying. And there'd be no way to get him out of there. So they had to like hook him on to some, I forgot. I can't remember the whole story now, but I just thought, how horrible. So I guess we'd learn to meditate pretty quickly then too. But just like with all the other things about Buddhism, understanding the process isn't doing it. Report an error in the passage at 44:37 Highlight the passage at 44:37

45:04 Understanding intellectually what we have to do isn't the same as actually doing the work ourselves. There are two steps with every part of the Buddhist path. One is understanding it, which I think this is pretty clear. And then there's like all the years of deciding to work with it. And that's where Tenzin Palma... Report an error in the passage at 45:04 Highlight the passage at 45:04

45:29 In her talk, Jess kept saying, this is what we have to recognize. Like you have to be able to recognize that having a wild, crazy, undisciplined mind is causing you some pain. Because otherwise you won't want to do this kind of work. It's not like it's as fun as watching a movie, you know. But it is satisfying. I can definitely tell you. Report an error in the passage at 45:29 Highlight the passage at 45:29

45:50 As imperfect as my mind is, it is very exciting when you stop yourself from spiraling out. It's such a great feeling. It's just like you save so much time. It's actually very efficient. We waste so much time on afflicted states of mind. Not only do we harm others and ourselves, and not only do we circle endlessly through beginningless time. Report an error in the passage at 45:50 Highlight the passage at 45:50

46:16 But we also just waste a lot of time. We waste a lot of time being pissed off. We waste a lot of time being resentful. And it affects our energy. It's like all those things that we just think it's life. We don't even question. So up until now, the Buddha is observing that we have just been following our karma and our delusions blindly without any attempts to stop the whole process. Report an error in the passage at 46:16 Highlight the passage at 46:16

46:48 And so his other observations were that the lack of discipline and this sort of blindly following whatever states of mind arise produces a certain suffering existence that we are in right now. So what I'm going to go into right now are... The way, the sort of Buddhist cosmology in terms of the realms that are created by samsaric mind. And so there are traditional ways. Report an error in the passage at 46:48 Highlight the passage at 46:48

47:21 I'm going to teach it first the traditional way. And then we're going to talk a little bit about other ways that you can approach these teachings. Because sometimes people have a hard time, which is why I'm making the jokes about David. I think David had a hard time with the hell realms. So we'll talk about that a little bit afterwards. Report an error in the passage at 47:21 Highlight the passage at 47:21

47:40 So the Buddha observed that actually there are three realms that we create with samsaric mind. The first one is called the desire realm, which is the realm that we're in right now. This is the desire realm. I'll explain what they each are in a minute. The second is the form realm. And then the third is what's called the formless realm. Report an error in the passage at 47:40 Highlight the passage at 47:40

48:07 And then within the desire realm, there are six sub realms, which we'll also get into. So the desire realm is literally permeated with desire. And it's gross desire. And it's usually in the form of desire for food or sex. This is like the two biggies. And this, as I said, this is made up of six sub-realms. Report an error in the passage at 48:07 Highlight the passage at 48:07

48:34 The form realm is more subtle. Report an error in the passage at 48:34 Highlight the passage at 48:34

48:41 There are still bodies in the form realm, but they're more subtle. And there's less obvious suffering, so there's not as much of the gross suffering that we experience. You know, pain, disease, the things that we have in this realm, they have less of that. But it's still created by ignorance and karma. It also is impermanent. They still have desire, but it's no longer for gross things like food and sex. Report an error in the passage at 48:41 Highlight the passage at 48:41

49:11 It's more subtle, like the bliss of higher meditational states. You know, they still have... Like, wow, she can meditate really long time, you know, so it's a little different than our kind of craving and grasping mind. And they say that this rebirth or rebirth into the form realm comes from practicing really deep states of concentration or stabilizing meditation without any kind of motivation to help others. Report an error in the passage at 49:11 Highlight the passage at 49:11

49:38 So you're just doing it either for the experience, you know, grasping at that bliss that you get from really deep states of meditation. Report an error in the passage at 49:38 Highlight the passage at 49:38

49:49 Or you're doing it for some sort of a self-absorbed reason, you know, I want to attain this high level so people respect me or something like that. All the people in town will bring me gifts. Report an error in the passage at 49:49 Highlight the passage at 49:49

50:08 They say that that's one of the last of the mental afflictions, like a yogi can be in a cave and they're still like totally aware of what all the people in the valley are talking about. the four The formless, oh and they say, one of the problems of course with the form realm, in the formless realm, is that, well you get, the reason that you get this, I mean it is basically a more positive rebirth in some ways than the one we have, because you don't have as much gross suffering, you don't have as much gross craving, but you end up just wasting a lot of really good karma. Report an error in the passage at 50:08 Highlight the passage at 50:08

50:50 I mean, that's basically it. It's just sort of a waste of all the good karma that you've created. And then you use it up and then there's nothing left. There's no more good karma. So then you just fall to a lower realm rebirth. The formless realm is somewhat like that. But the reason it's called formless is that the body is so subtle. Report an error in the passage at 50:50 Highlight the passage at 50:50

51:11 It's basically just mind. It's completely refined. But the mind is still controlled by subtle mental afflictions, but mental afflictions are the same, and by karma. So again, it doesn't last. Anything that's created by karma and delusions won't last. It's impermanent. And again, it's just a waste of good karma. And again, if you just use it up, and then it ends, and then... Report an error in the passage at 51:11 Highlight the passage at 51:11

51:44 You have no place else to go because it's like you've used all the diesel fuel and all you have left is really horrible fuel. And so you can only have a lower realm rebirth. And what's worse with the formless realm is that a lot of beings think that they've attained nirvāṇa. They think that they've been liberated altogether and then they aren't. And so then it actually... Report an error in the passage at 51:44 Highlight the passage at 51:44

52:13 They lose faith in the path and the teachings. There is no nirvāṇa. They begin thinking that there is no way out. There is no liberation. Report an error in the passage at 52:13 Highlight the passage at 52:13

52:25 You should use that microphone. Did it come out okay? Yay! Thanks, Chloe. Report an error in the passage at 52:25 Highlight the passage at 52:25

52:38 It's okay. Mary will take it from you later. Yeah, go ahead. Well, you said like in the form realm, you... It's more subtle, but the reason is that they meditate without the desire to help others. Well, in the formless realm, do they desire? I think it's the same, but it must be a different type of meditation. Actually, that's a good point. I'm not sure what the difference is in the cause between the two. Report an error in the passage at 52:38 Highlight the passage at 52:38

53:11 I just know that both of them are in those deep states of meditation. and with a not Not such a beneficial motivation, but I don't know the difference between the two. It's probably different levels of absorption, actually. They say when we get into the really high levels of mental absorptions, you know, there's like the nine levels of absorptions before you attain calm abiding, that you actually leave the desire realm and your mind is in the form realm. Report an error in the passage at 53:11 Highlight the passage at 53:11

53:41 And then the formless realm as you go into these states, which is kind of bizarre. So I think it must have to do with that. And to be honest, I don't know. I just know I don't want to end up there. I just try to motivate when I meditate. But I don't. You should use the microphone. What can be worse than not wanting to help sentient beings when you're meditating? Report an error in the passage at 53:41 Highlight the passage at 53:41

53:53 so... Report an error in the passage at 53:53 Highlight the passage at 53:53

54:11 Oh, what is it? What can be worse than being indifferent to compassion? What can be? Oh, I think it's just probably another form of that. It's probably a more subtle form. Okay. That's what I would think. It's probably a more subtle form. Like more hidden or secret? Yeah, so it's not overt so much. Yeah, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 54:11 Highlight the passage at 54:11

54:30 Probably the form realm motivation is a little grosser and then the formless one is, that's what I would assume. But actually it's a good question if I can remember, I can ask Geshe-la. He probably, he's never stumped for an answer, he would have one. I'm sure it's never the first time these things are asked. So within the desire realm there are these six sub-realms. Report an error in the passage at 54:30 Highlight the passage at 54:30

54:55 and... It is important to remember that even though there are really lengthy graphic descriptions, that these are as much states of mind as they are places. But it doesn't mean that they are only states of mind. Because this is, we're in, you know, the desire realm here. So we don't want to like diminish them and say that they're only a mental experience. Report an error in the passage at 54:55 Highlight the passage at 54:55

55:22 But clearly, you can see the role of mental experience. Even in our experiences right now, she did lock it. Yeah, if you're going to, he's taking his job seriously. Report an error in the passage at 55:22 Highlight the passage at 55:22

55:37 Because if you, I mean, just think about if we have all of us, say all of us go to India, you know, all of our mental experiences of that experience would differ. Some of us would have a horrible time. Some of us would have a brilliant time. Some of us would have yo-yo mind and it would go up and down. Report an error in the passage at 55:37 Highlight the passage at 55:37

55:57 And it wouldn't necessarily matter what was happening with our body, too. I mean, haven't we had the experience? I've definitely had the experience in, and in fact, in India, when your body is simply falling apart, but you're still like totally positive. You're like, hey, this is great. You know, I've lost 40 pounds, but hey, cool. You know, your mind is still positive. And then there are, of course, times that your body is absolutely fine and your mind is just like, I hate this place, you know, crappy food, you know. Report an error in the passage at 55:57 Highlight the passage at 55:57

56:24 So it's... It's not necessarily dependent upon our body. I would say it's 95 % if not higher dependent upon our mind. So when we talk about these different experiences, the teachings that I can relate to the most, because I have to say it is kind of bizarre to think about these different realms, although we of course see animal realms and human realms. Report an error in the passage at 56:24 Highlight the passage at 56:24

56:48 Um, but. We can see the experiences within our own reality and how our mental state plays a role in our experience. So that's one of the points I want to make. So let's think about these six different realms within the desire realm. And they are in order of... Actually, that's not true. I should do them in order. I'm going to do them in order of sort of the best to the worst. Report an error in the passage at 56:48 Highlight the passage at 56:48

57:22 I'll do it like that. So the god realm or the devas, sometimes you see it. I guess deva is Sanskrit. These are worldly gods. So very similar to the way that like the Greeks describe them. So they say this is again, this is for doing virtue, but without any, again, positive motivation. So you're doing, you know, like hardworking. Report an error in the passage at 57:22 Highlight the passage at 57:22

57:49 A good person who is generous or does all these positive things, but without any kind of a bigger vision. And they certainly aren't trying to become enlightened. They're just, you know, good, a good person. Report an error in the passage at 57:49 Highlight the passage at 57:49

58:01 So they have this blissful happiness. You know, they're physically gorgeous. They live longer lives. They have basically everything that they desire, you know. But in the end, it's like with the form and formless realm, it's just a really good, a really... A really big waste of your good karma. Because it's created again by karma and delusions, you are just spending a lot of really good karma and you use it up. Report an error in the passage at 58:01 Highlight the passage at 58:01

58:32 And what's worse, at least in the form and formless realm, you're in these really deep states of meditation most of the time. So you can't create any negative karma, at least in those realms, whereas these realms you can. You know, you can give in to your desires constantly, so you create more desire. And you have absolutely no interest in spiritual practice. They actually have, I shouldn't say absolutely no, you have very little interest in spiritual practice. Report an error in the passage at 58:32 Highlight the passage at 58:32

58:58 Because you don't have any suffering, so it's actually kind of hard to practice. And the Buddha, they say, went when his mother passed away. His mother passed away right after his birth. After he got enlightened, one of the first things he did within the first ten years of his enlightenment was he actually went to the Deva realm. Report an error in the passage at 58:58 Highlight the passage at 58:58

59:20 She became a god. Just for having created the Buddha, giving birth to the Buddha. He went to that deva realm to teach her. And so he actually taught the devas. And I'm assuming that because of all their good conditions, they actually had good results of those teachings. But usually they say that they just don't have any... Report an error in the passage at 59:20 Highlight the passage at 59:20

59:42 It's almost like they're deluged by happiness, that they don't have much interest. It's kind of like celebrities in a way. I think of this as sort of like, if I think about like all the people who have like a lot of money, have a lot of, you know, they can bring in their own teachers from India. You know, they could do whatever they want. Some people do a lot with that. You know, some people do a lot of benefit with that. Report an error in the passage at 59:42 Highlight the passage at 59:42

1:00:06 But a lot of people just waste it. And this is kind of similar to that situation where you're just so happy. You keep trying everything to be happy and you don't really have much interest in kind of getting into the finer aspects of working with your mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:06 Highlight the passage at 1:00:06

1:00:28 The movie Annie Hall. Woody Allen comes, there's this beautiful couple walking down and he's... Oh right, yes, yes, yes, yes, I know. You look beautiful, are you happy? And they said, oh yes. And he said, why are you, how can, you know, what's the secret? And he said, well, we're so shallow. That's very much like that. We're perfectly shallow. It's very much like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:28 Highlight the passage at 1:00:28

1:00:51 Yeah, and then the related realm to this is what's called the, so this is also called the shuras. Sometimes you'll see it as shura. The Asuras are demigods. I don't like demigods. It's odd. But that's an associated realm to this where they basically have this enormously wonderful rebirth, but they have huge jealousy for the gods. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:51 Highlight the passage at 1:00:51

1:01:13 So they're constantly jealous of everything that the gods have. And, of course, the gods always win. Like the gods have more things and more beauty and, you know, more beautiful women and more wish-granting jewels and all these things. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:13 Highlight the passage at 1:01:13

1:01:28 But the assurers just constantly want it, so they're never satisfied with what they have. So there's this constant fighting. And you can, of course, see that. It's like the grade B starlets who aren't quite the ones that can carry a picture, but they're definitely fighting with those who can. And the other ones always win. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:28 Highlight the passage at 1:01:28

1:01:51 And again, it's just a waste of their positive karma and they're creating all this negative karma and it's very hard to practice. They don't have any interest in practicing under those conditions. Then the next one is the human realm. And actually they say of all of these realms, including the form and formless realms, Report an error in the passage at 1:01:51 Highlight the passage at 1:01:51

1:02:15 That the human realm is the best one for studying and practicing the Dharma. And that's because we have, in not all forms of the human realm, because some humans have really horrible existences, but we have both suffering and happiness. Sorry, I didn't give you guys a break. I'll have to give you a break after this. We have both suffering and happiness. And so it's actually possible and more... Report an error in the passage at 1:02:15 Highlight the passage at 1:02:15

1:02:44 It's more possible for us to study and practice the Dharma because we can see that things aren't totally perfect, but we have enough mix of the two so that we aren't just so absorbed into suffering either. And that's, of course, different for each human. What they call a precious human rebirth, which we're going to get into, is what's called sort of the optimum, when you have the optimum. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:44 Highlight the passage at 1:02:44

1:03:11 Conditions to study and practice any kind of spiritual life. And so for that reason, it's actually said to be a really, actually the best rebirth to get for practicing the Dharma. But we have to create the causes for it because we create the causes for all of these things. They're just states of mind that have... Report an error in the passage at 1:03:11 Highlight the passage at 1:03:11

1:03:39 They've gone, you know, just developed strongly so that, you know, the Yashura or the demigods are this really, they've done virtue but they still have this jealousy, you know, so this jealousy has gone kind of wild and they've never done anything to sort of fight it. But they've created some causes to have a pleasurable, you know, more pleasure in their rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:39 Highlight the passage at 1:03:39

1:04:02 So they've done both, but they haven't actually been working with their minds so much. If we want to have the causes for a good human rebirth, we actually have to create those causes. Like we can't just assume if I go to church on Sunday and I'm basically a nice person, then I'll have a good rebirth. Like we actually have to actively create the causes. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:02 Highlight the passage at 1:04:02

1:04:26 And they say that causes of a good human rebirth are actually morality, which in the Buddhist sense is non-harm, and prayer, they say. So we actually prayed for this life. We prayed to have this kind of form. I think that's an interesting thing. And of course, some humans have a really miserable rebirth, and those are really often not much better than animal. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:26 Highlight the passage at 1:04:26

1:04:56 In fact, some animals have a better rebirth than human, which is where you get into like in the karma class, we talk about all the various combinations of throwing karma and completing karma and how, you know, you could have really great throwing karma. So you ended up as a human, but then you had really bad completing karma. So you ended up as a human in the streets of Calcutta or you had really horrible. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:56 Highlight the passage at 1:04:56

1:05:26 Throwing karma, so you ended up as a dog, but then you ended up with great completing karma, so you ended up as, you know, Geshe-Dakpa's dog or His Holiness' dog or something like that, or the cats upstairs. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:26 Highlight the passage at 1:05:26

1:05:40 So you ended up actually having a really good life with all these great conditions around you and being surrounded by monks or something like that. So karma gets very complicated that way. The animal realm, which is easy for us to see. They say that animals are, you know, it's considered a lesser rebirth, not that animals are lesser than people, because all of these beings have the exact same mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:40 Highlight the passage at 1:05:40

1:06:07 So there's no difference between the mind. All of these beings that we're talking about, human beings, Asuras, gods, animals, all have mind that's just like ours. It's all clear. It's all, by nature I should say, clear and pure. We all have the potential to get enlightened. We all have the exact same types of afflicted states of mind that we give into. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:07 Highlight the passage at 1:06:07

1:06:33 We all create karma based on that. It all ripens. We suffer. We have pleasure. Whether that's a can of tuna or whether that's a better pleasure just depends on all the other karmic conditions of our existence. But we all have mind. Animal mind is just like our mind, it just has more obscurations, that's all. The dominant affliction in the animal realm and the dominant cause of the animal realm is ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:33 Highlight the passage at 1:06:33

1:07:06 And so we'll get into, these are now considered lower realms. And the reason is because they can't use this rebirth to study and practice. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:06 Highlight the passage at 1:07:06

1:07:21 Even the most intelligent animals can't transform, they can't use their rebirth to study and practice the Dharma. And that's the only reason that it's considered a negative. And often when we look at an animal rebirth, we're not so much talking about domestic animals, we're talking about all the other animals that are, and including insects. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:21 Highlight the passage at 1:07:21

1:07:45 That are dominated usually by humans, not always in a positive way. And especially if you ever have gone to a developing country and you see how animals are treated. It's intense suffering, often from the moment of birth until their death. But their mind is still clear and knowing. They still have the potential to become enlightened. It's just obscured in this lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:45 Highlight the passage at 1:07:45

1:08:10 And then when they finish, its karma is impermanent and that karma can end and exhaust itself and then their next rebirth could be a human. There's not any sense in this system that the Buddha taught of these different realms of always going in one direction. I remember when I was a kid, my parents believed in reincarnation, but they always had this idea that every time we reincarnated, we... Report an error in the passage at 1:08:10 Highlight the passage at 1:08:10

1:08:40 We always were going up. There was always some sense that we were always going up. In Buddhism, we were always going up and down. That's what saṃsāra is, that we don't have necessarily any control over how we take rebirth and what we end up as until we begin controlling our mind. That's part of the reason for wanting to control our mind. So the dominant mind in the animal realm is ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:40 Highlight the passage at 1:08:40

1:09:10 The next realm is what's called the preter realm or sometimes called a hungry ghost or spirits. And the dominant mind here is craving, always wanting more, always wanting. It's just constantly in torment by this mind of craving. So again, the mind creates the cause for this state and there's just this constant desire. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:10 Highlight the passage at 1:09:10

1:09:40 And that desire is never met in this particular rebirth. So you're always wanting something to drink. You're always wanting someplace to rest. And then everything, it's this series of mirages where you go, you can move quickly because you don't have the physical body in the same way that we do. They have a more subtle body. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:40 Highlight the passage at 1:09:40

1:10:06 Whenever they get to the thing, they can't drink it. They can't eat it. Something's wrong with it. It's like, you know, they just have the karma or something is physically obstructing them in their own bodies. Like they have very tiny little throats and they can't drink whatever it is that they've just found. So they can never satisfy that craving. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:06 Highlight the passage at 1:10:06

1:10:28 And then the final is the hell realms. And that is the cause of that of the hell realms is anger and hatred, especially hatred. Just pure, undistracted hatred, which is just causing this suffering, this literal hell. And you can't escape from it. So you're just caught in this mind of torment. But this time the mind is tormented by this mind of hatred and aversion, like aversion to its zenith. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:28 Highlight the passage at 1:10:28

1:11:02 And they go into all these discussions of all the different hell realms. Although, if it's any, one teacher pointed out, if it's any consolation, there are actually more god realms than there are hell realms. So it's more possible for us to create god realms with our state of mind than it is hell realms. But the hell realms are pretty horrific. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:02 Highlight the passage at 1:11:02

1:11:26 As I promised, there are three different approaches. We can think of these as literal teachings, that these are literal places, actual places. This is the way that they sort of teach it. But we have to remember emptiness and karma. We've talked a little bit about how karma and emptiness work and how we create this karmic appearance that feels really real and solid. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:26 Highlight the passage at 1:11:26

1:11:52 But isn't that real and solid? I mean, even just from the standpoint of impermanence, which we can't see, it feels like this stuff is going to be here forever. And then we're shocked when it breaks or when it dissolves or when it disintegrates or when I suddenly see a hole in my, I hate that, you know, and it's been happening for like months and we don't see it. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:52 Highlight the passage at 1:11:52

1:12:14 And then all of a sudden we see it and it feels like that. It feels like suddenly somebody dies and actually they've been getting old right in front of us, but we just don't see it. We're shocked when the flowers like, you know, wilt. So remembering that it's like this realm feels really real, but it's constantly changing, constantly, constantly changing. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:14 Highlight the passage at 1:12:14

1:12:36 So the other way we can think of it is that all of these realms can be contained in the human realm, you know, even just within one day. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:36 Highlight the passage at 1:12:36

1:12:47 Actually, that's the third way. If you think about like, Even within the human realm, there's just all these different levels of existence, like I was talking about with the celebrities, would be like the gods, and then the sort of B-level, you know, the near-famous, the wannabe famous, who are like the demigods, people who are so absorbed into their suffering or into their poverty. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:47 Highlight the passage at 1:12:47

1:13:15 That they're almost living like animals, even right here in the city, much less in a lot of developing countries or in areas of war. Or thinking about people that you know or that maybe you or yourself are, just constantly wanting more and more. Never satisfied, this mind of the Preda. Constantly wanting more. I had one friend who was like that. She would always be planning to get something else. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:15 Highlight the passage at 1:13:15

1:13:43 Whenever she'd get it, then she needed something else to show that. And then she'd have to get something else to encase that. It was just, she never, it never stopped. I think she had a really, really poverty-stricken upbringing, actually. But that was how it manifested. And when I first heard about this, I was like, whoa, it's like her mind was like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:43 Highlight the passage at 1:13:43

1:14:03 And then, of course, people that are in their own hells, right? So they're just constantly angry, constantly hating, just... Literally like living their entire life from the time of their little kid all the way through old age just in this constant hell realm. So you could actually say that all these different realms, we can see evidence of them just within the human. And that for me is a little easier. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:03 Highlight the passage at 1:14:03

1:14:30 I can kind of get that. Then the third way is just within our own minds. Right? Even within our own, you know, our own experience, we've all experienced that craving mind that just wants and wants and wants and isn't able to get anything that satisfies it, you know. Or that, you know, just being subsumed by this hatred or anger. All of those are hormonal. And it just feels like something, like some monster inside of you. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:30 Highlight the passage at 1:14:30

1:15:04 Or just dulled out. Like just not able to think clearly. Again, hormonal. Just completely unable to think and you're like trying to understand something and it just feels really, really dull and stupid, ignorant. know. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:04 Highlight the passage at 1:15:04

1:15:22 And then like, you know, the blissful happiness and, you know, when everything's going really, really well. And then when that begins to slip and you're a little jealous of the ones who are like blissfully happy and their life seems to be going well. So actually, even within a single day, we can experience all the different realms within our own minds. And in some ways, that's actually the easiest way to start thinking about these. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:22 Highlight the passage at 1:15:22

1:15:44 So we have any questions and I'm going to give you guys a break because I didn't mean to go on that long without giving you a break. Yeah, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:44 Highlight the passage at 1:15:44

1:15:57 So I think you were trying to explain this in the last little bit. I'm having a hard time getting my head around some of these things. I keep thinking of spirits. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:57 Highlight the passage at 1:15:57

1:16:10 You said hungry ghosts, and I'm like, well, are they here? Yeah, they actually say, you go like this, and we're actually disturbing a lot of different beings. We just can't see them. I mean, a lot of the stories in the sutras are like the Buddha actually taking disciples and showing them these realms. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:10 Highlight the passage at 1:16:10

1:16:29 Because otherwise we're like, yeah, right, you know? Because I can't see it, right? So that means it doesn't exist. Well, I can't see China either, you know? I have a lot of faith that exists. I've met people from it. But I mean, there's a certain amount of trust going on there too. So it's sort of like, these are the stories that enlightened beings have told. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:29 Highlight the passage at 1:16:29

1:16:51 And it is hard to get our minds around it. However, we also know, like if we know certain, I remember I was in one class for Geshe-la and... Some guy in the back raised his hand. He was talking about spirits. And the guy in the back of the class raised his hand and was talking about, I think his brother had died. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:51 Highlight the passage at 1:16:51

1:17:12 And there, you know, different activities of this spirit. And, you know, all the people in the class were like, you know, kind of rolling our eyes and looking around. Gisela's like, oh, yes, absolutely. You know, he was completely matter of fact. And it was very interesting because it was just this different approach. And often Tibetan... Report an error in the passage at 1:17:12 Highlight the passage at 1:17:12

1:17:30 Tibetans will talk about how there are spirits everywhere, we just don't see them. And the higher realized you are, the more you can see them. So I've heard some stories where Tibetan lamas or teachers will go into mental hospitals and they'll talk about how a lot of what we classify as mental illness is actually spirit possession. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:30 Highlight the passage at 1:17:30

1:17:53 And we just have no concept of that. We're just like, yeah, right. But again, it's sort of like... What do I really know? And what am I basing that knowledge on? So then it's just, you know, thinking about it, just being open about it and thinking about it. And so the other question I had was that you said these all have the same state of consciousness, right? I don't know if those were your words. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:53 Highlight the passage at 1:17:53

1:18:19 I guess what I'm trying to understand is I'm in the human realm, but I could... Oh, we all have the same type of mind. Yeah. That's it. So I could... I've become a hungry ghost. You could, yeah. Or I may have been my problem. We all have. I mean, that's the other thing. It's just that we've all had every kind of rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:19 Highlight the passage at 1:18:19

1:18:38 It kind of evens things out, you know, in a way. It's also kind of horrifying in a way, too. We've all done everything, they say. But that also could be a basis for compassion. You know, no matter what horrible thing that somebody has done in this life. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:38 Highlight the passage at 1:18:38

1:18:58 Just knowing that's sort of there, but for karma go I, you know. So, yeah, my mind at the moment that I die will go into another life. What kind of life will that be? So that's the question that's being raised. And this is just, these are different options that are out there. And so really, when I think about my mind just during the course of the conference, Report an error in the passage at 1:18:58 Highlight the passage at 1:18:58

1:19:28 It's actually a little bit sobering, you know. But then I see people, like I actually was watching Venable Chokyi, the other Chokyi, navigating a lot, a lot. She was the event manager for the whole thing, and I saw that it is possible to keep your mind very, I mean, I did hear her snap at a couple people, but over the course, I mean, this is literally over the course of a month. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:28 Highlight the passage at 1:19:28

1:19:58 I was very amazed, and it gives me great inspiration. And I can actually see the difference between my mind now and my mind 10 years ago. So it's just slow going. But when I see that and I think, wow, if I were to die in the state of mind that I had on Wednesday, are you in the state of mind that you had on Monday night or Tuesday night, whatever night that was? Report an error in the passage at 1:19:58 Highlight the passage at 1:19:58

1:20:21 I'm sending out these emails. That's That's, it's sobering because then I think, well, gosh, if I do create, if it's true, this is the question on the floor, if it's true and I do create reality with my mind and I were to die in that state of mind without any attempt at controlling it, what kind of rebirth would I create? Report an error in the passage at 1:20:21 Highlight the passage at 1:20:21

1:20:43 I can't imagine that it would be such a happy one. I would hope that my completing karma, because I've done some positive things in my life, would help, but, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:43 Highlight the passage at 1:20:43

1:20:54 I would, you know, it's like it makes me want to work in my mind more. I want to have, that was like a loudspeaker being attached to my mind and I felt like I want to have more control so things don't bother me so much. I would love that to be. That's my goal in this life. Forget enlightenment, as Tenzin Palma says. I want to create a mind that I don't mind having around. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:54 Highlight the passage at 1:20:54

1:21:16 You know, so just kind of like that. So just kind of being open to it. Just kind of being open to this, you know. That reminds me of another question. Sorry, I know it's supposed to go on break. Talking about that and anger, we talked a little bit about anger. So here's an example, and I'm just wondering how this could be transformed. So I was out surfing over the weekend, and I was with a friend of mine, and she let go of her surfboard at a very inopportune moment for me because it ended up hitting me, and I got a huge bruise on my leg. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:16 Highlight the passage at 1:21:16

1:21:52 So I got angry and I kind of repressed it in the moment, but I'm still been thinking about it and I'm going to see her this weekend and I'm like, I'm going to show her the bruise and say, look what you did. I don't know. I'm just wondering, as you were talking, okay, in that moment where I, for me, it's very difficult when I have physical pain. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:52 Highlight the passage at 1:21:52

1:22:15 Anger just kind of flares up like, oh, she let go of her board. It was a very... It brought it up in me. So how could that moment be different? Well, one thing that's different there is thinking about that response of blame, which is a really common response. That's what that is, really. It's blaming that external stimuli for your situation, for your pain, whatever. That, the Buddha is saying, is actually misperceiving reality because it's not understanding the fact that if you're experiencing suffering, You created the cause of that suffering through an action that you did. She's simply a condition of that. So actually, that kind of analysis, that's one of the things, you know, that we've talked about. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:15 Highlight the passage at 1:22:15

1:23:01 Did you do this? I'm sorry, Nirvāṇa class. One of the ways that we're talking about with anger is breaking it down in terms of karma, remembering karma. That's one possibility is actually examining it in terms of that. So whether it's a screaming boss or whether it's a shooting surfboard. Then the other possibility is things happen, like having compassion for her. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:01 Highlight the passage at 1:23:01

1:23:27 At that moment, she definitely wasn't intending to shoot a surfboard into your leg. So just kind of cutting her a little slack. So there's another way that you could just, if you had less anger in your mind, then it wouldn't arise so quickly. And I mean, I'm not saying that in a negative way because you are not your anger. You aren't your anything. This is just thoughts to arise. So it's just ways to analyze it. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:27 Highlight the passage at 1:23:27

1:23:55 If I didn't have that anger in my mind, then I wouldn't have gotten so frustrated at volunteers who canceled, you know, you know. So like that, the situation, they created the condition, but I must have been. A volunteer who canceled, you know, or I wouldn't have received that karma. There are certain laws of karma, of cause and effect, that I have to have some trust in after all these years of studying this. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:55 Highlight the passage at 1:23:55

1:24:23 So there are ways that we can analyze with that. The fact that you repressed it at that time, you could try to restrain yourself from getting angry. That might not be such a bad thing, but then the fact that you haven't gotten into it and looked at it on the cushion now just makes it fester. So actually restraining yourself from yelling isn't necessarily a bad thing, but then at some point you've got to open it up and look at it or it does just become resentment or, you know what I mean, a grudge or something. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:23 Highlight the passage at 1:24:23

1:24:58 So I think with the mental afflictions, what I like is to kind of look at all these different toolboxes. Um, Report an error in the passage at 1:24:58 Highlight the passage at 1:24:58

1:25:05 All these possible tools that I could apply to it. Compassion, that she lost control of her board and maybe was even scared, who knows, at that moment. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:05 Highlight the passage at 1:25:05

1:25:20 Karma, I created the cause for this to happen. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:20 Highlight the passage at 1:25:20

1:25:27 I don't know, I could probably think of different ones, but not on the spot. I have sort of... During the drop-in meditations, we talk about all the different antidotes that you can use towards these, and I could look one of those up and send that to you. But yeah, it's kind of like you just kind of look at your toolbox, because not every single one is going to work, but sometimes it does. Sometimes if you're just thinking about, or doing Tonglen, doing Tonglen for either taking it on for all the people who have, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:27 Highlight the passage at 1:25:27

1:25:58 Been surfing and gotten hurt, you know. Okay, well, I got hurt when I was surfing and so I'm just going to take this on for all beings, you know. I'm going to make this pain that I'm experiencing be bigger than me and I'm going to be really brave and take this on. All it's doing is changing your attitude. You've still got the bruise on your leg. She's still shot off her board, you know. But you're sort of making it into like this way of like... Report an error in the passage at 1:25:58 Highlight the passage at 1:25:58

1:26:21 Building this compassion in your heart, you know, so Tonglen could be a big one where you just, you know, breathe in all the suffering from all the surfers who have gotten hurt and give them all the happiness that they need or whatever, like better cords to hold onto their boards with or something, you know, so there are lots of different tools that you could do to, but it does require you actually opening it up and looking at it. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:21 Highlight the passage at 1:26:21

1:26:44 It doesn't just go away on its own, you know. And thinking about the disadvantages of anger, which is also one. You know, just thinking about I don't want this on my mind anymore. Just now even. Forget enlightenment. Yeah, yeah. Look at anger. Anger, like, causes me to destroy a great friendship. It causes me not to even see her good points because I'm pissed at her, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:44 Highlight the passage at 1:26:44

1:27:09 It destroys my peace of mind, you know, even however much it is, you know. However you're obsessing about it, it's definitely destroying your peace of mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:09 Highlight the passage at 1:27:09

1:27:20 So all that list that we went through last week with all the things that anger isn't a great thing health-wise for me. It's not the kind of person I want to be. I want to be more like Chokyi when I grow up. I want to be able to literally surf whatever arises. Because that stuff's going to come. We've created the karma for it. That's not going to change. This is just different ways to deal with what's already going to come. So it's just like... Report an error in the passage at 1:27:20 Highlight the passage at 1:27:20

1:27:48 Literally, and in fact, Tenzin Palmo gave a great surfing example. She was talking about the mind, you know, and it's very much like surfing, trying to stay balanced. And it's a constant, it's not like you get a balanced mind and you never have to move again, right? You just constantly have to be able to go with what's coming. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:48 Highlight the passage at 1:27:48

1:28:08 So surfing is actually a really apt analogy. Anyway, hopefully that helps. So you can . Report an error in the passage at 1:28:08 Highlight the passage at 1:28:08

1:28:15 Yeah, it's a bunch of different things. It's not necessarily any one. And on some days, some of them will work better than others. You know, if you have a real ongoing problem with somebody that totally irritates you, then Tonglen might be stronger for that. You know, and with your friend, then it might be the disadvantages of anger. You know, it sounds like. Compassion. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:15 Highlight the passage at 1:28:15

1:28:38 And I would want her to forgive me if it were me, you know. She might be feeling really badly about it. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:38 Highlight the passage at 1:28:38

1:28:48 Anyway, so why don't you guys take a break? Report an error in the passage at 1:28:48 Highlight the passage at 1:28:48

1:28:54 Can you give her the mic? Report an error in the passage at 1:28:54 Highlight the passage at 1:28:54

1:28:59 This is so selfish on my part because I have to leave at 9, so I sort of want everybody to not take a break until I leave. There's a concept, repression, where you don't feel the anger. You feel and you're squashing it down. Right, right. That's what she was talking about, actually, that she was repressing it until it began to fester. Okay, okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:59 Highlight the passage at 1:28:59

1:29:33 So what you're saying is that you need to... You need to analyze it. You need to look at whatever the feeling is that you're having that's causing you the suffering. So you don't repress it. You want it to come up. No, what I had said is our normal response is either to just... and... Report an error in the passage at 1:29:33 Highlight the passage at 1:29:33

1:29:51 Go with it, you know, or to repress it, and neither of those are constructive approaches. Yeah, so this isn't calling for repression, it's calling for you to analyze it, which is actually more courageous, you know, than just squashing it. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:51 Highlight the passage at 1:29:51

1:30:08 How long does this class last? It's supposed to end at nine. How long is the break? We'll just do a couple minutes, five minutes. I just like to give them a little bit of a break. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:08 Highlight the passage at 1:30:08

1:30:25 Like, I can't. function like what do I do I can't function you know so that's kind of just the looks for me but you know sometimes you do kind of you know out just because you're overwhelmed it's all about I think a lot of it too is forgiving ourselves when you know I mean I think because otherwise if we It's a form of having compassion for ourselves because these are simply... Report an error in the passage at 1:30:25 Highlight the passage at 1:30:25

1:30:55 Habitual mental states that we just are going into because we've created that pattern. Because that's the other thing about anger. That's the one that works for me a lot is thinking every time I have anger, I create the seeds for more anger in my mind. Every time I give in to whatever jealousy or depression, I create more seeds for it. That's the way karma works. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:55 Highlight the passage at 1:30:55

1:31:16 We create that habit. So we strengthen that habit. It's like, oh, I don't want to do that. I want to break it, you know. So that's, I don't know, just being gentle with yourself. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:16 Highlight the passage at 1:31:16

1:31:37 And I think this is just more work that I need to do and more studying. But when you initially said, oh, well, that's karma, when something happens, to think of it like that. And then my mind immediately goes to, oh. don't... Report an error in the passage at 1:31:37 Highlight the passage at 1:31:37

1:31:51 I'm a bad person. I guess I deserve it. I know that's not what it is. There's no concept of blame with karma. It's simply cause and effect. We create a cause. We receive a certain effect. There's nothing about I'm a bad person. That part is not at all. But we go there. That's exactly what we do. And that's just a form of ignorance, actually. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:51 Highlight the passage at 1:31:51

1:32:20 So it doesn't mean, I'm not saying you're ignorant because you can take that one home and go, but no, it's simply misperceiving things, misperceiving reality, you know. So there's no concept of blame. It's simply if I create certain causes, then I will experience certain results. And it's not even I, it's more like my mind, you know, because this mind has been in all different bodies. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:20 Highlight the passage at 1:32:20

1:32:45 And we're constantly creating causes and we're constantly experiencing results. Before we've finished experiencing results, we've created some more causes. It's just constant, you know. And that's just the way it works. And karma is a working of the mind. And so it's really interrelated with everything that we're experiencing. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:45 Highlight the passage at 1:32:45

1:33:03 Getting angry creates one of the causes. I mean, one of the things that the results of getting angry is... Planting a seed to get angry again, you know? So it works like that. It doesn't mean I'm an angry person. It just means that my mind has anger in it. It's like my garden has weeds in it, but I don't start feeling guilty about that or upset or feeling like blaming my garden, you know? Report an error in the passage at 1:33:03 Highlight the passage at 1:33:03

1:33:29 I planted those seeds, so that's why it has weeds. I've got to just pull out those weeds. If I want roses, if I want, you know. I've got to plant them. That's all. It's much more like that. It's more like we just have to become really great horticulturists in our mind. So just the end, because you guys are going to do a meditation, and I know you're going to do it, called Appreciating Your Human Life. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:29 Highlight the passage at 1:33:29

1:33:57 So it's just talking a little bit. We talked a little bit about human life, but there are differences between human life. This one that's called Precious Human Rebirth is really saying that There is a certain type of human rebirth. You know, some humans are so pulled down by poverty and lack of education and suffering and pain and illness and war and famine and all these other horrible situations that there's no space. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:57 Highlight the passage at 1:33:57

1:34:25 There's not even an interest in developing a spiritual life. There's just no, you can't. It's like you're just trying to survive. We're free of that. So from that angle, we are free of that. So one of the things that we think about is these different leisures or freedoms, and we're not going to get into them in the sort of traditional way. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:25 Highlight the passage at 1:34:25

1:34:50 We're just going to take some time to contemplate that we're free of the kind of hindrances that would hold us back from having a spiritual life in that sense. Um, no, Nor do we have such a wonderful, desirable life that we're traveling all the time and we have tons of jewels and parties every night. And so we aren't like that extreme either. So we're free of that. And we have a little bit of suffering, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:50 Highlight the passage at 1:34:50

1:35:21 We get a surfboard in the leg, you know. I get overtired, you know, so I have a chance to work with my mind and I actually think about that there might be, I think about the question of what's the meaning of life? Like this comes up for me. And the reason is because I've had some suffering. I've lost people. You know, I've, we've all had some sort of pain and suffering in this life by now. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:21 Highlight the passage at 1:35:21

1:35:49 And so right now, I mean, the teaching of The Precious Human Rebirth is just basically, we're always thinking that at some point we're going to have this perfect situation to work with our minds. Like, I'm always going to live in a better place, right? This is an incredibly loud building to meditate in. There's always this thought that I'm going to have more time at some point in the future. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:49 Highlight the passage at 1:35:49

1:36:15 But we'll just... At some point we're going to wake up and our life's over. So the point of this meditation is basically, look, yeah, you might live in a loud apartment. You might live in a loud city. You might work a lot of hours. You might, you know, have limitations of your body or your mind even. I don't think I'm the keenest of all students. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:15 Highlight the passage at 1:36:15

1:36:38 But go for it. You still have some basic conditions that are positive. You still have some inclination. You've connected with the Dharma. You have some inclination to work with your mind. So just go for it. It's sort of like that. I mean, that's sort of the way you should come out of this meditation going, yeah, you know, yeah, I'm going to go for it. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:38 Highlight the passage at 1:36:38

1:36:59 It's more like that. It's like, oh, wow, I don't want to waste this opportunity. I have this great opportunity. I want to go ahead and go for it. So that's kind of the sense that it should be a positive experience when you contemplate this. So I'm going to end with a little poem that ends up sounding like a poem. It's actually more of an inspiration or motivation. I actually used to start my practice with this. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:59 Highlight the passage at 1:36:59

1:37:23 I still have it up on my wall to look at when I first wake up by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. And I put it on the bottom of your homework so you guys will have it too, along with a great little picture of him. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:23 Highlight the passage at 1:37:23

1:37:36 Every day think as you wake up. Today I'm fortunate to have woken up. I am alive. I have a precious human life. I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to use all of my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I'm going to have kind thoughts towards others. I'm not going to get angry or think badly about others. I'm going to benefit others as much as I can. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:36 Highlight the passage at 1:37:36

1:38:07 So that's our dedication to who has that. We actually have about five more minutes, but I think it would be too quick to try to do this meditation. So I just encourage you to give it a try. It's mostly a contemplation rather than a deep meditation. It's just thinking about your current situation and how it is good, no matter what. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:07 Highlight the passage at 1:38:07

1:38:32 Kind of hindrances you might have still compared with the bulk of humanity. We have some really good thing going here. It's just kind of like looking at it and recognizing that and going for it. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:32 Highlight the passage at 1:38:32

1:38:48 Announcements before we end. So the practice day is the 13th, which is a week from Saturday, as I was reminded nicely on the break. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:48 Highlight the passage at 1:38:48

1:39:03 So I think what I'm going to do, I should have handed out to you the ideas for the presentation topics. The way that the practice day is going to go is the morning we'll spend doing these meditations together and we'll try to stay in silence. So it'll be like from 1030 to 1230. Actually, it'll be more like from 1030 to 12. We'll just do a series of meditations. You've done it before where we do like 15 or 20 minutes and then I'll just say, OK, you can stretch and then. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:03 Highlight the passage at 1:39:03

1:39:32 Stretch, but you stay in silence and then we'll do another one and then we stretch and then do another one and then we stretch. So you don't have to sit for an hour and a half. And then we'll come together and just kind of, if people have insights or questions or whatever, we'll sit and then we'll go and have lunch together. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:32 Highlight the passage at 1:39:32

1:39:52 And then we'll come back after lunch and we'll watch a little film. And then you guys will do a little short presentation. Based on something that clicked with you in the class. So it might be, you know, what is a precious human rebirth or something. You know, it might be leading a meditation, which is always my, the one I always opt for because everybody has to close their eyes, right? So then nobody's looking at me. It could be whatever, but I'm going to give you some ideas and you could choose one. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:52 Highlight the passage at 1:39:52

1:40:26 And then if you choose something that's not on that list, run it by me first. Because sometimes people are like totally out in left field and I want it to relate to your mind in some way. It might be, this is my situation and now I'm going to lead a meditation that is one that I would want for this situation. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:26 Highlight the passage at 1:40:26

1:40:46 So that could be, you could totally do something like that. So you can personalize it or you can just do straightforward. You know, sometimes it's like, what are the six realms that are the sub, you know, sometimes people do like more like a report or something like that. But I'll send it to you by email because I should have given it to you tonight. So I think what I'll just do is send it out by email tonight so that you'll have it in your inbox tomorrow morning. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:46 Highlight the passage at 1:40:46

1:41:13 And then just shoot me ideas if you have other ones that are not on that list. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:13 Highlight the passage at 1:41:13

1:41:21 And what else? If you haven't heard, Venomorbena canceled. She was supposed to do a day-long talk on the 20th, which is the following Saturday after that, on relationships. So that's canceled. So that's not going to happen. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:21 Highlight the passage at 1:41:21

1:41:39 What else? Oh, we're going to have another. There's two Discovering Buddhism classes. This is in the Discovering Buddhism program, this class is. So there will be two more in January. I'm talking to Joanna about dates right now. I'll be teaching both of them. One of them is how to meditate, which is six weeks. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:39 Highlight the passage at 1:41:39

1:42:00 I'm going to go into the different forms of meditation. And one of them is presenting the path. Hey, um, Report an error in the passage at 1:42:00 Highlight the passage at 1:42:00

1:42:08 Which might be the one that you took last time, yeah, which is an overview of the whole Buddhist path, using the Buddha's life and just kind of giving you an overview of the whole lamrim. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:08 Highlight the passage at 1:42:08

1:42:22 And those will both be starting in January. I think one of them is six weeks and one of them is seven weeks, I think. So like that. I think that's it. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:22 Highlight the passage at 1:42:22

1:42:32 So we dedicate, oh sorry, so we dedicate. So just like we motivated, we want to end by dedicating to something bigger than just our own happiness or our own peace of mind or our own positive rebirth. Now that we know that that's a possibility too. Those are not bad things, but we want to just extend it out. So may whatever insights or understandings or thoughts or new questions we created tonight. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:32 Highlight the passage at 1:42:32

1:43:02 Or seeds for understanding. May they grow into the ability to transform our minds so that we can actually benefit not just ourselves, but bring benefit to everyone around us. And ultimately to all living beings, those we can see and those we can't. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:02 Highlight the passage at 1:43:02

1:43:32 Okay, here's your homework. And it's nine on the dot. How's that? Report an error in the passage at 1:43:32 Highlight the passage at 1:43:32