Discovering Buddhism - Presenting the Path (5 March 2009)

0:18 Anybody else is going to frustrate. Remember that we're frustrated to the qualities that we ourselves embody to speech and mind. Or maybe just thinking about some quality that you admire and Report an error in the passage at 0:18 Highlight the passage at 0:18

0:36 bowing down to that. Or at least realizing that you might be really stubborn and proud and trying to cut that. Report an error in the passage at 0:36 Highlight the passage at 0:36

1:08 not, but I'm not straight, Report an error in the passage at 1:08 Highlight the passage at 1:08

1:18 Sushriye, Namo Uttamahasriye, Salud. Who Report an error in the passage at 1:18 Highlight the passage at 1:18

1:40 needs a binder? Report an error in the passage at 1:40 Highlight the passage at 1:40

1:49 Okay, sure. Sorry. It's like that on the weekends. I'm just like on straight and just don't even look at it. You're looking. I looked at it on Monday, actually. Kara needed one, but she doesn't seem to be here. Is there anybody else that did not get a binder who would like a binder? Report an error in the passage at 1:49 Highlight the passage at 1:49

2:11 I'm going to assume Kara's going to come. Report an error in the passage at 2:11 Highlight the passage at 2:11

2:25 Just in case people tell me something, I have to remember. I thought, why don't I just bring one of these every time? I'll just make a lesson with you. Report an error in the passage at 2:25 Highlight the passage at 2:25

2:42 So this is a really full class. We're going to review a little bit about renunciation and we're going to talk about bodhicitta all in one class. So it's a lot. So I am going to be really mean. I'm not going to let you ask any questions unless it's just so painful that you have to, in which case you just have to. Report an error in the passage at 2:42 Highlight the passage at 2:42

3:04 indicate that to me. But otherwise I'll let you have questions at the end. I'm just going to try to get through it and that way people can leave on time and if people have questions then you can stay and ask them. Report an error in the passage at 3:04 Highlight the passage at 3:04

3:15 We might finish it fine, but I just kind of want it to be comfortable instead of like, ah. Report an error in the passage at 3:15 Highlight the passage at 3:15

3:25 So we'll just start with a little meditation to bring our minds to the right place and motivation. Report an error in the passage at 3:25 Highlight the passage at 3:25

3:39 We're going to start with some nice deep cleansing breaths. Report an error in the passage at 3:39 Highlight the passage at 3:39

3:46 Just allowing your breathing to just... dissolve, anything that might keep you from being here. sluggishness or distraction. Report an error in the passage at 3:46 Highlight the passage at 3:46

4:00 way that your mind isn't 100 % I like to imagine Report an error in the passage at 4:00 Highlight the passage at 4:00

4:18 breathing in alertness and breathing out distraction. whatever, however it works for you, to do that with your breath for a few Report an error in the passage at 4:18 Highlight the passage at 4:18

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5:07 probably not that many other people in Report an error in the passage at 5:07 Highlight the passage at 5:07

5:35 Even if you don't really understand this mind, even if it sounds of weird. Even if you don't fully grasp it, because none of us really do. Marina says it's almost insane, this mind of bodhicitta, still to be able to talk about it tonight together is so rare and so precious. Report an error in the passage at 5:35 Highlight the passage at 5:35

6:09 It motivates to use whatever insights we understand, anything that we might glean from tonight, Report an error in the passage at 6:09 Highlight the passage at 6:09

6:24 that we actually use that as the seed of our own bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 6:24 Highlight the passage at 6:24

6:31 Whether it's in this life or next life, whatever we learn here tonight, I have this great, courageous mind. Report an error in the passage at 6:31 Highlight the passage at 6:31

7:01 We'll start with the opening prayer, which is in the white book. Tell Report an error in the passage at 7:01 Highlight the passage at 7:01

7:15 me your name again. Rico. Rico. Did I give you a binder? Yeah, you did. I did. Four weeks ago. Okay. Well, you know. Oh, well, I'd rather ask too many people. Thanks for asking. Eventually I'll get the right one. Okay, so we're going to read the one on page 8 of His Holiness. And this is especially strong tonight, generating the mind of enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 7:15 Highlight the passage at 7:15

7:46 The mind of enlightenment is bodhicitta. So actually, I don't know if all of you have heard that His Holiness is going to give a talk at the Greek theater in April 25th. Report an error in the passage at 7:46 Highlight the passage at 7:46

8:04 Whenever His Holiness does a big public talking, especially the kind that goes on for several days, and sometimes people stop the bells and things like that, this is the phrase that He usually has us do. Both this one to just, for those of us who have already taken it, to kind of recommit, and then for those who are taking it, He'll often use this, even the traditional. Report an error in the passage at 8:04 Highlight the passage at 8:04

8:36 So even though you may not be generating actual bodhicitta or even aspiring, Report an error in the passage at 8:36 Highlight the passage at 8:36

8:47 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 8:47 Highlight the passage at 8:47

9:33 A quick review, a little bit, because at the end we're sort of speeding through the suffering of saṃsāra. But hopefully at least a few of you have spent a little time suffering this week. Report an error in the passage at 9:33 Highlight the passage at 9:33

9:48 So we're going to just talk a little bit, just to kind of reiterate a little bit about renunciation. The reason that true renunciation requires that we look at the suffering that we ourselves experience as a starting place. And so it doesn't stay there to just become all mopey and just focus only on suffering. I think I may have mentioned that at one point my sister said, what is it about Buddhists that they always just think about suffering all the time? Report an error in the passage at 9:48 Highlight the passage at 9:48

10:23 And I just thought, well that's odd. I don't think of us as thinking about suffering all the time. But we actually do a fair bit. Well we have to start looking at our suffering because first of all we don't even know what the Buddha meant by suffering. We're not really getting into it. It's like with everything else. There are very, very precise definitions of suffering and dukkha and of these terms, even compassion and love. Report an error in the passage at 10:23 Highlight the passage at 10:23

10:46 They aren't just these really vague terms that I think they really are for ideas of what would... So this word suffering that the Buddha talks about is this word in Sanskrit, dukkha. And it really is referring to this kind of underlying... Report an error in the passage at 10:46 Highlight the passage at 10:46

11:16 Dissatisfaction. This actual inability to be satisfied. It's almost like this flaw in the production of our mind, you know. It's this flaw in samsaric mind that doesn't allow it to ever be satisfied. It's like intrinsic in the mind of a samsaric being to have. Report an error in the passage at 11:16 Highlight the passage at 11:16

11:37 And so we, you know, we have this mind of dissatisfaction underlying everything else that we do and it causes a lot of... So it behooves us to begin to look at it and to explore it a little bit. We keep thinking, you know, if I have that thing, what that thing is, I'll be happy. We do this day in and day out, everything from the half for lunch today to the job to the room in the house to the girlfriend to the coordination to whatever it is. Report an error in the passage at 11:37 Highlight the passage at 11:37

12:21 If I get that thing, then I'll be happy. And then we do have a momentary Feeling of happiness when we get it, and part of that is actually just a relief from all the wanting. We have all that wanting, and then we have this momentary relief, and we label that happiness. And then the mind starts wanting again. It's hard to just be satisfied with that thing. So we start wanting more and more, we start looking at another, begin seeing the faults of that one. Report an error in the passage at 12:21 Highlight the passage at 12:21

12:57 Because ultimately, it's not outside of us. Report an error in the passage at 12:57 Highlight the passage at 12:57

13:05 Teaching is that. It never, it feels like it's outside of us. In reality, We have to develop that happiness. Report an error in the passage at 13:05 Highlight the passage at 13:05

13:15 So we have to look at this suffering, and what this suffering is, and how it's caused, what it looks like, and all the different levels of it, and how it manifests. And again, it's almost like being a scientist. It's like really trying to analyze this in a different way than we're used to doing it, where we might just think, well, sure, this is just life. Report an error in the passage at 13:15 Highlight the passage at 13:15

13:42 But the Buddha's like, no, actually, If you look at it, there's three types of this and there's six types of this. It's very scientific in that sense of being, it's mapped out. We see how this one relates to that one. We see that this one is more gross and this one's more superficial and that they interrelate and they're interdependent and things like that. Report an error in the passage at 13:42 Highlight the passage at 13:42

14:05 We begin understanding how they might be caused and if we understand how they might be caused... We can understand whether or not there is a way to end them. And that's ultimately look at suffering. When the Buddha taught the Fort Noble Truths, he taught there is suffering. But then he went on. There is a cause to that. Report an error in the passage at 14:05 Highlight the passage at 14:05

14:32 There is a cessation or an ending. That cause didn't Report an error in the passage at 14:32 Highlight the passage at 14:32

14:41 just stop. And so we don't have to either. So renunciation is... Looking at our own suffering, getting it that we even are suffering. Most of us, I think, probably get it. But in reality, everyone is suffering. So, you know, everyone, you know, the people who look like they have it all are suffering. They're just suffering in different ways. They may not be like the beggar on the street, but they definitely are suffering because they've got this mind, this same mind. Report an error in the passage at 14:41 Highlight the passage at 14:41

15:14 And actually, this mind can be more painful if you have the means to actually get all those things. I mean, some of us have to put an end to it because we just don't have the money to keep getting all of those things. But if you have the money, then you just keep reaching for more. You buy more houses. You buy a house in Geneva as well as in Cancun, you know. And then you have all those bills that come in. Report an error in the passage at 15:14 Highlight the passage at 15:14

15:39 So, the point is if we don't look at the suffering, we don't understand the suffering, that we ourselves are suffering, then we can never end that. Report an error in the passage at 15:39 Highlight the passage at 15:39

15:49 And we can't liberate ourselves. And the point is that it is possible to be liberated. It is possible to cease. It is possible. Cessation is nirvāṇa. I mean, cessation is getting out of some sorrow. Report an error in the passage at 15:49 Highlight the passage at 15:49

16:08 So the final verse that we didn't have time to do last time, we did, might as well read that part. So if you open it, open up. Do you need one? It's Report an error in the passage at 16:08 Highlight the passage at 16:08

16:27 on the, Report an error in the passage at 16:27 Highlight the passage at 16:27

16:33 but if you open it up, you'll find three principal paths. I think it's like this. Report an error in the passage at 16:33 Highlight the passage at 16:33

16:41 So we'll read all the way until we get to the end of the one that ends with stopped desire for the future. I bow to all the high and holy Lamas. As far as I am able, I'll explain the essence of all high teachings of the victors, the path that all their holy sons commend, the entry point for the fortunate seeking freedom. Report an error in the passage at 16:41 Highlight the passage at 16:41

17:07 Listen with a pure mind, fortunate ones, who have no craving for the pleasures of life. And who, to make leisure and fortune meaningful, strive to turn their minds to the path which pleases the victims. There is no way to end without pure renunciation, the striving for pleasant results in the ocean of life. Report an error in the passage at 17:07 Highlight the passage at 17:07

17:28 It's because of their hangering life as well that beings are fettered, so seek renunciation first. Leisure and fortune are hard to find. Life's not long. Think it constantly. Stop desire for this life. Think over and over how deeds and their fruits never fail. End the cycle suffering. Stop desire for the future. Report an error in the passage at 17:28 Highlight the passage at 17:28

17:52 Okay, stop there. And this final verse is referring to the measure of how do we know we've actually gotten this mind of renunciation. So we've been trying to work on it. We've been trying to analyze. We're doing a little meditation assignments. We've been contemplating it all the time. And then we wonder, well I wonder if I actually have renunciation. So this is how Lama Tsongkhapa phrases how we'll know. When you've meditated thus and feel not even a moment's wish for the good things of cyclic life, and when you begin to think both night and day of achieving freedom, you've found renunciation. Report an error in the passage at 17:52 Highlight the passage at 17:52

18:34 So that's our sign. So when you've gotten that, then you know. So what does this mean for us? Does it mean that we have to give up everything and go off into a mountain retreat or go live in a cave somewhere? It's important for us to know that renunciation is a mind. Just like bodhicitta is a mind. Remember when we talked about the three principal paths? There are three minds. Path here is talking about different translations. Report an error in the passage at 18:34 Highlight the passage at 18:34

19:08 Once I get enlightened, I can change it. So if saṃsāra is a mind, And Nirvāṇa is a mind. Renunciation is a mind. So what you're doing outwardly is not so much important as what's happening. So it's sort of about working with this stuff. Really, you can be quite hidden about it. Nobody has to know. They might notice that you're maybe not buying as many things. Or that you are and you're really analyzing it. Report an error in the passage at 19:08 Highlight the passage at 19:08

19:38 You know, it's our mind that has to change. I'm stopping grasping onto everything that's happening. Report an error in the passage at 19:38 Highlight the passage at 19:38

19:49 Renunciation is a mind. The most renounced person could be somebody like Richard Gere. He's got all the money, he's got the lovely wife, the jobs, but he could be the most renounced person on the planet. We just have no idea. Whereas the monk or nun could have this mind, believe me, just going on and on about what I could get. Report an error in the passage at 19:49 Highlight the passage at 19:49

20:21 Even somebody in a retreat could be just sitting there thinking. This retreat would be perfect if the caretaker would just bring me blah blah blah. Unless we have clairvoyance. Report an error in the passage at 20:21 Highlight the passage at 20:21

20:39 So it's important to know. Renunciation is a mind. And the next one is also a mind. Bodhicitta is also a mind. And we only have one class for this precious mind. There's actually a full Discovering Buddhism class on bodhicitta. And when I teach it, I usually make it about eight or nine classes. It's just so rich. Bodhicitta is rich. It's one of my favorite subjects. Of course, I think I said that for all of them. But it really is and it really requires, it's very, this is profound stuff and it takes us going through it over and over and over again. Report an error in the passage at 20:39 Highlight the passage at 20:39

21:24 It takes it in meditation really thinking. What I'm going to do is describe one of the methods that's been handed down to us to develop this mind. There are actually three methods. One is called the seven point cause and effect. Seven causes and one effect. Report an error in the passage at 21:24 Highlight the passage at 21:24

21:46 That's the one we'll talk about tonight because the imagery of that one corresponds so well with this particular text. Then there's one that's called exchange of self with others. Report an error in the passage at 21:46 Highlight the passage at 21:46

22:01 That one is described in a lot of detail in Shantideva's book. Report an error in the passage at 22:01 Highlight the passage at 22:01

22:13 Then there is one that combines the two, and that one is eleven points. Report an error in the passage at 22:13 Highlight the passage at 22:13

22:24 And that was done by Lama Tsongkhapa, 15th century. And so he took these two previous methods and put them together. When I teach the bodhicitta class, I'll go through that one, because it really includes everything. And it's just so beautiful. I mean, each point is really quite beautiful. So we're going to talk about this. Report an error in the passage at 22:24 Highlight the passage at 22:24

22:54 But first we can read these next three verses. Yeah. It's verses 6 through 8 of the root text. So we can read that together. Renunciation, though, can never bring the total bliss of matchless Buddhahood unless it's bound by the purest wish, and so the wise seek the highest wish for enlightenment. They're swept along on the four fierce river currents, chained up tight in pasties hard to undo, stuffed in a steel cage of grasping self. Report an error in the passage at 22:54 Highlight the passage at 22:54

23:32 Smothered in a pitch black ignorance. In the limitless realm they're born and in their births are tortured by the three sufferings without break. Think how your mothers feel. Think of what's happening to them. Try to develop this highest wish. Report an error in the passage at 23:32 Highlight the passage at 23:32

23:53 So, in Tibetan it's jangsem or bodhicitta in Sanskrit. Chitta is mind. Sem is also mind. Bodhi. If anybody sees the little cat that runs around with a loud voice, enlightenment is what bodhi means. Literally, bodhicitta or jangsam is referring to the mind of enlightenment, which doesn't mean that you're already enlightened when you have this mind. Report an error in the passage at 23:53 Highlight the passage at 23:53

24:21 It means that it's defined as the mind that wants to become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 24:21 Highlight the passage at 24:21

24:35 And sometimes it's defined as... The mind aspiring for or the mind wishing for. In the verse it's actually called this wish. They often call it the wish. I think wish sounds really vague. Because actually it's this fierce determination. I will become a Buddha for the sake of all living beings. It's actually this incredible, brave, courageous mind. Report an error in the passage at 24:35 Highlight the passage at 24:35

25:01 And this meditation that we'll do tonight, actually as I go through it, you can kind of just contemplate. But you can just contemplate it. This is going to be what your homework is going to be this week. And at the end, it culminates with trying to generate this wish. And it'll be contrived at first, and it feels a little like it's not really my mind yet. But it plants seeds every time you go through it for each of us to actually develop this wish. Report an error in the passage at 25:01 Highlight the passage at 25:01

25:36 And they say that it is the single most powerful mind you can generate. It's the one mind that its virtue is so strong that it can purify all other negative thoughts. It's very, very, very powerful. And it's because it's this complete 180 or revolution from this self-cherishing mind, which is basically the mind that cherishes the self 100 % of the time, to a mind that cherishes others all the time. Report an error in the passage at 25:36 Highlight the passage at 25:36

26:14 So it's this, it's, that's why venerable. It's almost insane, but it's insane in a good way. It's this huge leap beyond ordinary compassion, but we generate compassion as one of the stepping stones. Report an error in the passage at 26:14 Highlight the passage at 26:14

26:32 Compassion is Report an error in the passage at 26:32 Highlight the passage at 26:32

26:39 this huge, huge mind, and we can't even quite get our mind around it. Sometimes I think it also gets the short end of the stick. Report an error in the passage at 26:39 Highlight the passage at 26:39

26:56 Compassion, remember, is the mind that wants to remove the suffering. I think sometimes people think of bodhicitta as just people being nice. But sometimes bodhisattvas, because they might be doing something for your own benefit that doesn't look so nice. So that's, it doesn't always mean, I mean bodhisattvas have to be brave more than anything else. I don't think they're necessarily, but their compassion has to be at the heart of everything. Report an error in the passage at 26:56 Highlight the passage at 26:56

27:27 So there has to be a compassion. So bodhicitta grows out of renunciation. Renunciation is seeing our own suffering and the suffering of saṃsāra so that we, We want to liberate ourselves. That's compassion for ourselves, really. So renunciation is like compassion. And bodhicitta is then basically, so we start, if we don't see our own suffering, be able to seize in the same boat. Report an error in the passage at 27:27 Highlight the passage at 27:27

27:59 And there's all these terms of like bodhicitta, like us becoming sort of the big savior of everyone. It's kind of to build our courage, I think, because in reality everyone just has to be themselves. But we can help. And we get to call ourselves bodhisattvas even when we... I usually say baby bodhisattva, until you actually generate this amazing mind, which is quite an achievement. Report an error in the passage at 27:59 Highlight the passage at 27:59

28:29 I consider myself a true bodhisattva, but they actually allow us, those of us who are on the path, who have decided that this is what we want to be, this is what we want to generate, and we're taking the steps to try to generate it, we're allowed to call the bodhisattva, if you've taken the vow. And there are vows that we end up taking once. Report an error in the passage at 28:29 Highlight the passage at 28:29

28:53 Once we decide, well there's two levels. There's two levels of bodhicitta. One is what's called wishing bodhicitta or aspiring bodhicitta. And that's where you're like, yeah that all sounds really really great. I want to do that. But that's kind of where it stays. It's like, I really want to go to Paris. Report an error in the passage at 28:53 Highlight the passage at 28:53

29:12 That sounds like a really nice place. Yeah. But I'm not really doing anything to get there, right? Engaging bodhicitta, which is the second level, is where we just... We start getting the plane ticket. And the guide books and walking around talking French all the time. Report an error in the passage at 29:12 Highlight the passage at 29:12

29:36 So that's where we're taking a second step. And in engaging bodhicitta, that's where we start trying to act as though we are already bodhisattvas. And we try to act according to them, as much as we can to them. We take these bodhisattvas. And we would try to live by the bodhisattvas. it. Report an error in the passage at 29:36 Highlight the passage at 29:36

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30:12 Generosity, patience, joyful effort. Report an error in the passage at 30:12 Highlight the passage at 30:12

30:24 yeah, it's more than just wishing, trying to actually Report an error in the passage at 30:24 Highlight the passage at 30:24

30:35 So in the guide to the bodhisattva's way of life, which is basically the manual for the bodhisattva, Report an error in the passage at 30:35 Highlight the passage at 30:35

30:46 day to day manual for how to be a bodhisattva. I think it's just the most amazing. Report an error in the passage at 30:46 Highlight the passage at 30:46

30:56 He spends an entire chapter going through what bodhicitta is and the benefits Report an error in the passage at 30:56 Highlight the passage at 30:56

31:11 and then we study all those reasons why a This is the same. So they try to pep you up. It's like the advertisements first of why it would be great to have bodhicitta. So Lama Yeshe actually said that one of the reasons why it's amazing to have bodhicitta is that Even before anything else, like sort of one of the first levels, is that you can't really progress on the path without it. Report an error in the passage at 31:11 Highlight the passage at 31:11

31:41 Like you can't actually meditation practice or study practice or anything without bodhicitta or at least a bodhicitta attitude because all the good experiences that you might have meditating, you just think, oh that one was good, let me try to get that one again, you know. And it works against, it's counterproductive to a good meditation. Report an error in the passage at 31:41 Highlight the passage at 31:41

32:13 so bodhicitta is the Bodhicitta is the mind that actually allows us to become a Buddha, because it's the mind that wants to become a Buddha. It sounds kind of obvious, but it's true. Without the mind of bodhicitta, we have to get away from that idea of thinking if we're just really, really nice people for enough lifetime, some sort of a passive approach. Report an error in the passage at 32:13 Highlight the passage at 32:13

32:47 Understanding any amount that we know about karma, We have to create the cause. And part of the causes is that mind, like starting to develop this mind that recognizes the benefits of Buddhahood and starts moving towards it. That's very much what my teacher, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Report an error in the passage at 32:47 Highlight the passage at 32:47

33:11 bodhicitta is that wish. Report an error in the passage at 33:11 Highlight the passage at 33:11

33:16 And they say that it's the elixir that transforms our base metal into gold because it's the thought that transforms this. Report an error in the passage at 33:16 Highlight the passage at 33:16

33:34 And this is one of my favorite ones. You generate merit all the time, even when you're asleep or distracted. Just imagine this bunch of buddies sitting around watching TV and you're generating all this merit. Because I've actually watched TV with Lama Tsongkhapa. He doesn't watch it in a normal way. He's watching it, he's seeing the suffering of some animal that's being killed in Animal Kingdom or something, and he's seeing it in a completely different way. Report an error in the passage at 33:34 Highlight the passage at 33:34

34:03 So it's all this amazing compassion. So it's not just like, ha ha ha, look at that. He's like this whole other level. Or he's generating some amazing creative idea for a new project-based show or something. Report an error in the passage at 34:03 Highlight the passage at 34:03

34:19 But you're just generating this constant positive karma all the time because everything that you're doing and seeing and thinking is pervaded by this mind. So it's sort of like steeping. It's like everything you're doing is steeping in bodhicitta. And so they say every action, every single action you perform becomes a cause for Buddhahood because everything's steeping in this mind. Report an error in the passage at 34:19 Highlight the passage at 34:19

34:51 So even, you know, for example, throwing food for the birds in the park becomes a cause for Buddhahood. Fixing lunch in the Dharma center because you're doing it all with this mind of wanting to get a lunch. They say when you attain this mind, and this is when they start using that code, You become a child of the Buddhas, you enter the family. It almost sounds like mafiastic actually. And they use that then, Report an error in the passage at 34:51 Highlight the passage at 34:51

35:31 the child of the Buddhas, really referring to them. Or an heir, as Lama Zopa says, it's more like an heir, more like a prince would be for a kingdom. Because why? A bodhisattva becomes a, Report an error in the passage at 35:31 Highlight the passage at 35:31

35:50 they become Buddha. And then you are able to purify all these stores of karma, past lives, all these negative actions. because of this mind, because you're Why is it so huge? If we can imagine having this amount of love and this amount of compassion and this amount of energy for one living being, which actually is a major achievement in one life, but we can kind of imagine that. Report an error in the passage at 35:50 Highlight the passage at 35:50

36:24 Then imagine having it for every single being. That's what makes it so huge. No one's left out. Not a single one is left out. And so it's so huge, that's why it's producing all this positive. Remember when we were talking about karma, and we were talking about how every single positive action results in something. Report an error in the passage at 36:24 Highlight the passage at 36:24

36:52 You're going to have a virtuous result from every positive action. So me just getting you a cup of coffee, in kindness, not nothing from you. Report an error in the passage at 36:52 Highlight the passage at 36:52

37:03 If I'm doing that out of some genuine kindness, or maybe I can see you're having a hard day, it's not a positive act that's creating a positive karma. Imagine if I decide I'm going to work no matter how many lifetimes it takes for the benefit of every living being. That's why it's almost insane. It's almost beyond what our minds can get around. It's just gigantic. Report an error in the passage at 37:03 Highlight the passage at 37:03

37:34 And so I see, that's what I think is the fuel. When I see beings like His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, or even the images that I've seen of any of my teachers. But I especially think of Lama Zopa and His Holiness because of that giggly energy that they have all the time, day in and day out, 50 years, 60 years. Report an error in the passage at 37:34 Highlight the passage at 37:34

38:06 This pace that would just drive me insane. Because I've tried it sometimes and it does. And I think what keeps them going is just this overwhelming love for all beings. It's like what we have for our most, for one person. You know, we might be able to have this for one person and how it just wells up and you're just willing to be with them. You would willingly give yourself for that person. Report an error in the passage at 38:06 Highlight the passage at 38:06

38:38 I think many of us have had that, at least for one. And the teaching is that if we felt it for one person, that just proves that we can feel it. Usually it's for a parent or child or a lover or somebody, a sister or brother, somebody that you would be willing to stay up all night for. You know, you would be willing to give your... Report an error in the passage at 38:38 Highlight the passage at 38:38

39:00 labor for or whatever, you know, Report an error in the passage at 39:00 Highlight the passage at 39:00

39:06 they say, if we can do it for one, we can train our Report an error in the passage at 39:06 Highlight the passage at 39:06

39:21 the foundation practice for these. Report an error in the passage at 39:21 Highlight the passage at 39:21

39:26 methods that we're only going to talk about one method going to talk about the seven point cause and effect a saṅgha of saṅgha given to him by Maitreya The foundation practice is the equanimity meditation. So we did that in how to meditate. Report an error in the passage at 39:26 Highlight the passage at 39:26

39:45 I'm not sure how many others of you have heard this meditation. Report an error in the passage at 39:45 Highlight the passage at 39:45

39:53 So anyone who's come to the drop-in meditation, you might have experienced it too. What we do in that one, and I'm not going to go through the whole one, but you're basically, you just kind of look at how your mind tends to always classify people in terms of friend, enemy, stranger, like, dislike, don't care. Report an error in the passage at 39:53 Highlight the passage at 39:53

40:20 We walk into a room, you know, this one smiles at me, this one looks away, this one is neutral. So then I, you know, these minds arise based on, I know nothing about these people. And my mind is just immediately like this. And I go through every moment of every day doing this with my mind. It's like a habit, really. Report an error in the passage at 40:20 Highlight the passage at 40:20

40:41 But it's based on this self-cherishing mind. I perceive that this one is my friend because he's benefiting me. And then the minute he upsets me, he's my enemy. I mean, it's really not a wise mind, it's just the mind that we operate under. We haven't really investigated it very much. Report an error in the passage at 40:41 Highlight the passage at 40:41

41:00 Everything is good, bad or neutral. And we do it through this filter of the self-cherishing mind and it's based on ignorance. It's based on, you know, it's not even if the perceived benefit were accurate, but it's not. You know, we would call somebody our best friend. We might be an alcoholic and we would... Report an error in the passage at 41:00 Highlight the passage at 41:00

41:19 We call somebody or best friend if they decided they were going to take us out drinking. And we call this other guy an enemy because he's trying to intervene. And actually, which one's the enemy? And later we might see it, but we may never see it. It's always through this. So this meditation is just a way of kind of examining a little bit. Report an error in the passage at 41:19 Highlight the passage at 41:19

41:40 In the meditation, you bring up somebody that you think of as a friend and somebody that you think of as an enemy, and that one gets loaded for a lot of people. But just think of somebody who annoys you. It doesn't have to be like this really big enemy with a big E. It just has to be. Report an error in the passage at 41:40 Highlight the passage at 41:40

41:55 Somebody who, if they were walking towards you, you might kind of, at least for an instant, be like walking the other way. I like that description because I think we can relate to that. Report an error in the passage at 41:55 Highlight the passage at 41:55

42:09 And then somebody else that you don't know very well. Somebody that you would think of as a... But somebody that you might at least know what they look like. So just, you know, somebody you might see in your hallway. Report an error in the passage at 42:09 Highlight the passage at 42:09

42:24 Regular races say they get on the same side. Report an error in the passage at 42:24 Highlight the passage at 42:24

42:34 It's a way of leveling the mind because if we don't look at the fact that we do this all the time and we don't try to investigate why we're doing it and that perhaps the reasoning isn't so solid, then it's hard to move on to trying to develop compassion. So they say it's very much like when you get a field and you're going to plant, you have to level it. This is literally leveling the field before we can build a house. Report an error in the passage at 42:34 Highlight the passage at 42:34

43:03 to have foundation, Report an error in the passage at 43:03 Highlight the passage at 43:03

43:09 So this week we're going to alternate with some of the meditations. I actually give you a plan for those of you who are actually doing the homework. You're going to do the equanimity meditation tomorrow morning. Report an error in the passage at 43:09 Highlight the passage at 43:09

43:43 And then we're going to do... to level them So this week Report an error in the passage at 43:43 Highlight the passage at 43:43

43:45 The first three steps of the seven point power. The next day, so Saturday. So the method, and remember that these are each very, very, very profound, and I'm going to just walk you through it. So just think about what I'm saying, hold your questions, and then at the end we'll... Report an error in the passage at 43:45 Highlight the passage at 43:45

44:10 The first one is recognizing all sentient beings as your mother. This is the hard one for most Westerners. Most Westerners have a hard time with this one. Well, I can't say most. Many. Some. At least a few. At least one in every class has a problem with this one. Report an error in the passage at 44:10 Highlight the passage at 44:10

44:32 Well, this one's based on, the reasoning for this one is based on something that we are not all that familiar with. People have problems with this one for a couple of reasons, actually. Some have a problem with it because of their relationship with their mother. But some have a problem with it because of this whole idea of what the Buddha observed. Report an error in the passage at 44:32 Highlight the passage at 44:32

44:59 So, this one, if you don't have any understanding of that and the whole thing seems like hogwash, just pretend. Well, what if? You know, just examine, just think, and just try to stay open, even if the whole thing... There's the other method, the exchange of self and others, which His Holiness actually says is useful, that if you decide to take the book class later in the year, you can learn that one. Report an error in the passage at 44:59 Highlight the passage at 44:59

45:30 But for this one, just play with it, just think about it. Just let your mind stay open to the idea of maybe what if, what if my mind is... The reasoning behind the mind stream being beginningless and endless, because there's always reasoning for everything, the logic is that mind Report an error in the passage at 45:30 Highlight the passage at 45:30

45:56 doesn't arise from a physical substance. Whatever comes from something else has to be of the same substance. So our parent sperm and egg created the body, no problem, but it didn't create the mind. The mind came from mind. Mind is of a difference than the body. So it's not a physical thing. It's not made of atoms. It doesn't have shape. The nature of mind is that it's just a stream of all these different experiences arising and passing away. Report an error in the passage at 45:56 Highlight the passage at 45:56

46:37 And every moment comes from the moment before which came. Report an error in the passage at 46:37 Highlight the passage at 46:37

46:46 And there is, have you done that one meditation that we've done in the dropping meditation? This class where you are going back, basically following these moments. It's called the continuity of mind. And it's a useful one for sort of getting some feel. But even if you just think about all the yous you've been in this life, all the many yous that we've already been, you know, that little one that was an infant that we might have seen pictures of ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 46:46 Highlight the passage at 46:46

47:14 And it's kind of hard to relate to at this point. You're like, that's me because everyone says it's me. I can kind of see something about the nose. But, you know, it doesn't. Feel like me. And then there's the little one and you might even start to have these memories of sort of trying to walk and having those kind of fat little legs that don't quite hold you up right. Report an error in the passage at 47:14 Highlight the passage at 47:14

47:36 And then being a little kid and being a teenager, being in your 20s and being in your 30s. Do you remember the meditation now? Yeah. But we can just think, even without that meditation, we can just think about all those different views that we've been. It's a funny word. Word didn't like it when I put it in there. Report an error in the passage at 47:36 Highlight the passage at 47:36

47:53 All those different beings that were you, that had the same mental continuum as you, but they aren't quite you now. But there's something that they had in common. And we can think about them as a way of just getting our mind around this idea of different incarnations. And I think the older you get, the more extreme. If you're in your teens or your twenties, you may not be that different. Report an error in the passage at 47:53 Highlight the passage at 47:53

48:28 From the little one running around on the swing set. But man am I different from them. I mean in some ways I can share some of the same characteristics but I sometimes feel like completely different incarnations. Just in my 20s and 30s I had many incarnations. Forget about before that. I mean I even had different names. I do now. Report an error in the passage at 48:28 Highlight the passage at 48:28

48:51 So it's kind of interesting to think that way and it allows me to imagine different lifetimes. You know, because I was so different in those and the kind of people I hung out with. Not necessarily in a bad way because I was never all that out there. Report an error in the passage at 48:51 Highlight the passage at 48:51

49:07 But I definitely went through so many different periods and phases of mine and groups of friends, you know, and firm beliefs and all these things that I went marching in the streets for and all that stuff, you know, and I do now. I have firm beliefs now, you know, so it's just interesting. I think it's interesting to look back at those me's. Report an error in the passage at 49:07 Highlight the passage at 49:07

49:34 So the Buddha taught that a mind is beginningless and endless. It's like a number line. It goes not just limitlessly back, it goes limitlessly forward. Report an error in the passage at 49:34 Highlight the passage at 49:34

49:47 And Buddhas have mental continuum too. And in fact our mental continuum, once it's perfected, will be our Buddha. It's the same mental continuum. We just cleaned it up a little bit. So if that's true... Then we've had many, many, many, many limitless lifetimes. And most of those lifetimes, we won't get into the ones, but we've had mothers. Report an error in the passage at 49:47 Highlight the passage at 49:47

50:13 And in all of those relationships, we've had relationships with moms. And moms have given birth to us in some way. Now maybe it's been an enormous litter that they left on a beach somewhere. But for the most part, we can think of a situation where all those different moms have cared for us. Report an error in the passage at 50:13 Highlight the passage at 50:13

50:35 So in this particular part of the meditation, we're simply opening up to this fact that we have taken rebirth in every possible form, even if you just think human. All the different types of families you've been born into in every possible social stratum, every possible ethnicity, every possible home, every possible kitchen. Report an error in the passage at 50:35 Highlight the passage at 50:35

51:05 Sometimes I'll just do it with humans and I'll just imagine myself being, you know, running around in a tent the way Shantideva grew. You know, she was in a nomad's tent in Mongolia. Talk about incarnations, you know. Single who works there. Sometimes I'll imagine sort of growing up in that environment. Report an error in the passage at 51:05 Highlight the passage at 51:05

51:25 And so just imagining that having the same... I actually had an incredibly great relationship. Report an error in the passage at 51:25 Highlight the passage at 51:25

51:34 And so imagining having that same relationship in all different... You can also imagine, of course, taking birth as an animal. And anyone that's ever seen animals with their babies see the kind of caring that happens there. It may not be love the way we see love. It's love the way it's described, though, in Buddhism. It's compassion in that way. They definitely want that little animals have to try to take away its suffering. Report an error in the passage at 51:34 Highlight the passage at 51:34

52:03 It may not have all that other personification that we put on it. But also they often, and we talk about watching the Nature Channel, they're willing to give up their lives. Report an error in the passage at 52:03 Highlight the passage at 52:03

52:16 And of course, even most... And it is possible that we may not have had a great relationship with our mother. And this does come up. This is the second. Report an error in the passage at 52:16 Highlight the passage at 52:16

52:30 Which is not so big in this part of the meditation, but it will come up. We can still think about the other. That's okay. We don't have to focus so much 100 % on the mother. There are reasons, and I'll get to it, but think about the other people there. Report an error in the passage at 52:30 Highlight the passage at 52:30

52:53 But if we think about the fact that we've had limitless mothers, and that all of these beings out there are also having limitless births. Then where are all those mothers now? They're also, they're all those beings that we see. And just opening yourself to that one is a really, it's a mind blower. Walking down the streets of San Francisco and just thinking, even just being open to the idea that this guy in the street was my mama. Report an error in the passage at 52:53 Highlight the passage at 52:53

53:25 That Malum was my mom. That you were my mama. You know, it's a softening. It's a softening of, you know, barriers that we have. Report an error in the passage at 53:25 Highlight the passage at 53:25

53:40 So. This is the first step, just recognizing that all sentient beings. The second step is remembering their kindness. And this one has two parts. One is remembering the kindness of our particular mother. This is the one that's difficult if you didn't think your mom was very kind. So that's when you can look at your relationship with whoever has cared for you. You know, so maybe I was fortunate enough to be co-raised by my grandma. Report an error in the passage at 53:40 Highlight the passage at 53:40

54:17 So you can think of maybe... Report an error in the passage at 54:17 Highlight the passage at 54:17

54:20 but it could be father or grandpa or you know uncle. The main thing is just thinking about the kindness. And the thing about the mother, I think the reason that the mother is used is because we're carried in their bodies. It's just such a primal relationship. And we're fed from their bodies. I mean, not so much. Report an error in the passage at 54:20 Highlight the passage at 54:20

54:51 In my generation, actually, but it's very much like a primal relationship, you know, where the mother actually carries us and gives birth to us, often enduring enormous pain, you know, to give birth to this thing that's really not that attractive when she gives birth to us, although we like to think that. Report an error in the passage at 54:51 Highlight the passage at 54:51

55:12 But in reality, we were just these defenseless lumps that this person, fortunately, had the hormones to be very, very bonded with. Report an error in the passage at 55:12 Highlight the passage at 55:12

55:25 for us. Because we would have just died. When a baby is first born, if the baby isn't kept warm and isn't fed, it's very easy for it Report an error in the passage at 55:25 Highlight the passage at 55:25

55:35 have any way to protect It doesn't have any way to move. speak or anything so we're at the Report an error in the passage at 55:35 Highlight the passage at 55:35

55:50 So, for the sake of this argument, each of us can fine tune it. Report an error in the passage at 55:50 Highlight the passage at 55:50

56:02 But just thinking about all the different things that they were... Able to do or willing to do. In my case, just thinking about all the ways that my mom, my mom actually got pregnant with me or realized she was pregnant with me. No, she got pregnant with me right after. Report an error in the passage at 56:02 Highlight the passage at 56:02

56:21 I thought about that after I became a Buddhist and I thought it was like a bittersweet thing. You know, I was the last. So I never knew that grandmother. And I always think she, but she had to be happy for this baby, but there must have been a sadness to it. So I just think about all the ways that she got up in the night and over and over and over. Report an error in the passage at 56:21 Highlight the passage at 56:21

56:42 Cleaning me. Actually, it's almost exhausting. This is an exhausting meditation. If you've never been a mom, and if you've been a mom, then you can have it in even more detail. Report an error in the passage at 56:42 Highlight the passage at 56:42

56:53 All the diapers and all the feedings and all the cleanings and all the ways that moms and dads get up in the night and care for this baby, all the way up until, I mean, really, a lot of times people say it ends at 18. It doesn't end at 18. It just keeps going and then the kids move back into the house and stuff and then you just keep caring for them. So really just thinking about in detail all the ways that that has been kind to us. Report an error in the passage at 56:53 Highlight the passage at 56:53

57:25 And again, you can also think about just like every one of these beings has been, they've also been everything else. They've also been our dad, our sister, our brother. Report an error in the passage at 57:25 Highlight the passage at 57:25

57:41 I mean, you can also just think about that in terms of all the people that wait on you and things like that. The waitress has been my mother many times, my father many times. The bus driver's been my mom. Dick Cheney's been my mom many times. I mean, it kind of is an interesting thing to think of. Report an error in the passage at 57:41 Highlight the passage at 57:41

58:02 So the second part of that is making it more general, is thinking about the kindness of sentient beings in general, or all beings. This word sentient just means anything. Report an error in the passage at 58:02 Highlight the passage at 58:02

58:14 And that's where we kind of think about all the ways that we are dependent, Report an error in the passage at 58:14 Highlight the passage at 58:14

58:23 whether it's, you know, for our food, our clothing, our shelter, our spiritual life. Our education, our work, you know, everything, everything. And we go into great detail about it. For example, with the food, if we think about just what goes into a sandwich. So think about a cheese sandwich and what goes into a cheese sandwich. So you take the bread and you take the wheat that went into the bread, if you had spelled a rye. Report an error in the passage at 58:23 Highlight the passage at 58:23

58:57 But just thinking about the grain and thinking about... The farmer that grew the grain and all the people probably employed by the farmer, you know, clear the fields, plant the fields. If you ever worked on a farm, there's so much involved, you know, harvesting the wheat and then preparing the wheat so that it can be made into flour and then all of that has to go, and it goes to two different places. Report an error in the passage at 58:57 Highlight the passage at 58:57

59:24 It's not done on the farm. And then that gets sold and then it gets made into bread and I used to be a baker for many minutes. Report an error in the passage at 59:24 Highlight the passage at 59:24

59:34 So... That's a huge process, to make it into bread, and to have it rise, and bake it, and slice it, and take it out to the store, and then it's sold, and then someone goes and buys it, Mary goes and buys it, brings it back here from Rainbow, and then we reach in and grab it, and then we put cheese on it. Report an error in the passage at 59:34 Highlight the passage at 59:34

59:57 Well, then you think about everything that went into the cheese, and you think about the cows, you know. Gave the milk and all they ate before they could and then, you know, all of their background. And then you think about, you know, all the people that cared for and milked the cows and then what they did to prepare the milk, make it into cheese and then that cheese, how it was all divided up into nice little slices and taken to the shop and then, you know. Report an error in the passage at 59:57 Highlight the passage at 59:57

1:00:21 Mary went and bought that too. And then you put the lettuce on there, and then the people that grew the lettuce, which is a different farm than the one where they grew the wheat, and then all the people that grew the tomatoes, and people who made the vegan-ays, and what they had to do to make that, and packaged it, and all the people that designed all the packaging for all these too. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:21 Highlight the passage at 1:00:21

1:00:44 So there's so many beans involved just so we could get a sandwich. That's the basic bottom line. And you can do that with everything. You can even do it with water. You can do it with every single thing that we use. It comes to us through the kindness of others. Whether it was consciously kindness or not, it still was their effort and energy that's from whatever it is that we're eating, our clothing. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:44 Highlight the passage at 1:00:44

1:01:12 I mean, you should hear Venom or Venus on her clothing. It just goes on and on and on. The levels of the growing of everything and the dying of everything. There's so many levels of... Sentient beings and involvement in Report an error in the passage at 1:01:12 Highlight the passage at 1:01:12

1:01:31 this lovely thing of paper, you know, people that made this table, people that, all the animals, all the insects that died in the making of Report an error in the passage at 1:01:31 Highlight the passage at 1:01:31

1:01:46 it, just when they were, you know, planting everything. My mistake killed all these beings, you know. So, and of course all the people that had to pick the things and hurt themselves, the white lung when they were baking and things. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:46 Highlight the passage at 1:01:46

1:02:03 So we're just thinking about that as just this kind of heart-opening exercise where you... It's like a very interesting thing to do in a place of grace. Before you eat something, it's just to think about all the beings that have had some part of it. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:03 Highlight the passage at 1:02:03

1:02:25 Just to think about it for a moment. Sometimes Lama Zopa Rinpoche will lead us in that before we're eating, and it'll take hours, literally. First you'll be like, oh, excited. She'll think you're going to eat something. They actually say when you go to Rinpoche's house, it's good to eat something first. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:25 Highlight the passage at 1:02:25

1:02:42 Because you're not going to eat it for a really long time. But he'll just go into it. I mean, you might just be having rice. And they would just go into everything that was involved and all the beings in the land and all that stuff. It's eye-opening. Because I don't think, I mean, he is just doing it as an exercise. He is playing with your mind. But he's also, I think that's how they see things. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:42 Highlight the passage at 1:02:42

1:03:05 They see things differently than we do. We think that Lama Zopa or His Holiness the Dalai Lama or even Geshe-la, Just walks into a room and sees things and says, well they don't. They see things totally different because of this mind of bodhicitta. They're constantly aware of all living beings all the time in a way that's completely different. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:05 Highlight the passage at 1:03:05

1:03:25 We're just like, give me the sandwich, you know. I don't want to eat it. I don't want to think about all this, you know. That's the selfish mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:25 Highlight the passage at 1:03:25

1:03:36 So then this kind of naturally, if you've done these first two steps with some sincerity and some energy. You sort of have this mind of indebtedness. That's, I think, also why we usually use the mom. But you can get that same mind with whoever it was that cared for you. This mind of, they say it's sort of like you have some sort of a debt, like if somebody helps you in some really big way. And for anyone that's moved recently, I just feel like that's like the absolute worst thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:36 Highlight the passage at 1:03:36

1:04:11 I haven't thankfully had to move since we've lived in this in almost six years. I just think it's the most horrible thing to have to ask. And I've moved probably 20 times and it's just, it's so cool. And you're asking these people to just give up all this time and to carry on your crap. And you know, you always think it's like, oh, I don't really have that much. And then you have like these enormous things and you're never together. And then they come and they're kind of like, you haven't. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:11 Highlight the passage at 1:04:11

1:04:43 I just think it's horrible. So that's like that kind of indebtedness. I can imagine that. It's like bigger than that. This huge debt. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:43 Highlight the passage at 1:04:43

1:04:53 And they say, so wishing to repay the kindnesses, getting that, recognizing that debt that we want to give. And they say, sort of imagine if your mom or your child, if you didn't like your mom, or somebody that you really, really loved was blind and crazy and walking near a cliff. You know, you'd want to go save her. You wouldn't wait for you to go save her. You wouldn't go, hey, could you go get her for me? Report an error in the passage at 1:04:53 Highlight the passage at 1:04:53

1:05:27 because I'm busy. gotta finish this. wouldn't think it was anybody else's sensibility. They say it's like if your mom was in a burning house. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:27 Highlight the passage at 1:05:27

1:05:45 Like I wouldn't send you in to go get my mom. I would be like, oh my God, you know, or like, you know, and they say it's like if it's your only child, that feeling. When you hear about these moms who their kid is inside, they don't even care. Like they're not. supposed to go in there again because it's unsafe, just have Report an error in the passage at 1:05:45 Highlight the passage at 1:05:45

1:06:06 and they wouldn't just say you know oh my god it's my kid could you go get her i really want her okay it's just this thought of like oh my god have to save this one then ultimately what we're have that for Report an error in the passage at 1:06:06 Highlight the passage at 1:06:06

1:06:25 This analogy is blinded by ignorance. Crazy with delusions, you know, delusions again, remember places, there's my anger, jealousy, depression, hatred, grasping, obsessive attachment, like all those things that make us do crazy things. Crazy with delusions, and they're in a dangerous situation because they're on the brink of falling into all these really unfortunate states of rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:25 Highlight the passage at 1:06:25

1:07:05 But what can we do? We're in the same thing, right? I've got ignorance, I'm blind, you know. I'm deluded, and I'm also in a dangerous circumstance. But the one thing that's different is that we have somehow come into contact with them. We have somehow met up with them. We have somehow begun, even in tiny baby steps, working with our minds. We've started that process. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:05 Highlight the passage at 1:07:05

1:07:32 We have this opportunity to transform our minds. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:32 Highlight the passage at 1:07:32

1:07:40 And it isn't saying that we don't try to help them in these little ways, because sometimes when you're meditating on the wish to repay the kindness, you might think, You know, maybe there's some little things I can do until I get there. I remember I would spend some time thinking, you know, what I do. Well, once your mother gets to a certain age, there's not anything that you can do anyway. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:40 Highlight the passage at 1:07:40

1:08:02 You know, I remember spending a long time on that one just thinking there wasn't anything she needed anymore. You know, I mean, actually that's true for all of us and probably most of the time. But there is a certain point where you really get it that the only thing you can give them is time. Just giving them time is probably... Report an error in the passage at 1:08:02 Highlight the passage at 1:08:02

1:08:22 So I would think about that, but ultimately that wouldn't be enough either really to give her any lasting happiness. Sure, I could buy her a new refrigerator or something, but ultimately the only way that I'm going to help her in the bigger way is to be able to help her get it. I Report an error in the passage at 1:08:22 Highlight the passage at 1:08:22

1:08:45 have to figure it out myself. So wishing to repay the kindness is sort of getting that, getting that debt, wanting to do something about it and realizing that I can't right now, but what's next? So then the fourth step is this affectionate love. This one has a hard title. Sometimes it has, sometimes it's called affectionate love, sometimes it's called great love, sometimes it's called loving kindness. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:45 Highlight the passage at 1:08:45

1:09:16 I think loving kindness is usually the one. Loving kindness, I like, well I like affectionate love and I like great love I think. Affectionate love is, they say it's almost an unbearable affection. You're developing this for Every single being. And when you're doing the meditation, of course, you're just trying. You're just pretending. Because we don't have it already. I don't have it. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:16 Highlight the passage at 1:09:16

1:09:40 I'm sorry to tell you. I don't have it for all of you guys yet. I'm working on it. But they say that it should be like the love that a mother feels for her only child. So it's really profound. And we're trying to pretend that we have it for every living being. Where you look at that child and it just seems like that child is so beautiful. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:40 Highlight the passage at 1:09:40

1:10:01 And you just feel this immense love. And you would do anything for that child. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:01 Highlight the passage at 1:10:01

1:10:09 And so sometimes we can imagine just feeling that for one person, which I find useful to at least express somebody that I already feel some amount of that towards. And they say that the sentient beings should appear very beautiful to you, like a precious jewel, and seeing only goodness and beauty in the other. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:09 Highlight the passage at 1:10:09

1:10:35 The way that a mother does. Because you know when you see those courtroom dramas where this kid is a mess. And everybody else in the room sees this kid as a mess. And the mother is just like, oh, it's my... And that's all she can see is she just sees this heart and she sees this potential. And some of it is deluded. It's true. Some of it is from attachment. Some of it is for love. Some of it is this hope that she still has for this... Report an error in the passage at 1:10:35 Highlight the passage at 1:10:35

1:11:06 That she still sees him as junior. She still remembers those little things. So that's the way we're trying to have this amount of love. We're trying to generate this amount of love. This type of love. This is the kind of love that bodhisattvas have. It doesn't mean that they are unwilling to stop them if they're doing something dangerous or harmful. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:06 Highlight the passage at 1:11:06

1:11:31 But they can still love them. It is still possible to love that being, even when that being is going berserk. That's interesting. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:31 Highlight the passage at 1:11:31

1:11:42 And then once you generate this love, of course, the wish to devote yourself to their happiness Report an error in the passage at 1:11:42 Highlight the passage at 1:11:42

1:11:50 will more easily arrive. And then this leads to great compassion. So we'll do great compassion and then we'll take a break. And you'll come back for the extraordinary attitude of bodhicitta. So great compassion is, I think we mentioned it before, compassion is wanting to remove the suffering of another. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:50 Highlight the passage at 1:11:50

1:12:13 Great compassion is wanting to remove the suffering of all others. It's just a huge leap. It's not like you have medium compassion. It just goes straight from compassion to great compassion. Well, the way that you, again, it's just the same thing. If you can develop compassion for one being, then we can extrapolate it for all beings. So the basis of it is, of course, this mind of renunciation, this strong aversion to our own suffering and this strong longing for liberation. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:13 Highlight the passage at 1:12:13

1:12:54 So it's a compassion for us. In this meditation, we take an obvious object of suffering, of gross suffering. So we talked about the three different levels of suffering last week and the gross suffering, the kind of suffering that we can kind of imagine, not this more subtle kind that we're going to take some. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:54 Highlight the passage at 1:12:54

1:13:16 So they say, for example, thinking about a goat that's been slaughtered. I actually saw an image that stuck with me the other day of two goats being dead. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:16 Highlight the passage at 1:13:16

1:13:32 And so we're actually thinking about this goat and we're thinking about all the details of it. We're thinking about its mind. Did everybody see Babe? You know the confusion in Babe's mind when they came and got his mom? It's like that, because they don't really understand. They have a lot of obscurations. Animals have a lot of obscurations. They don't quite get what's happening, but they know loss. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:32 Highlight the passage at 1:13:32

1:14:03 When the mom goes and doesn't come back, they know that. They may not know how to say it. But there is fear. There is confusion. And so we can imagine that being in the mind of this animal. And remembering again, this isn't just a goat. This is our mother. This is a mother of ours. This is an animal that we have some karmic relationship with that has this really horrible... Report an error in the passage at 1:14:03 Highlight the passage at 1:14:03

1:14:35 Ending to its life. You know, there's a lot of confusion. They don't understand what's happening. The person doing it doesn't really have much understanding about it either and maybe is pretty mean about it, you know, because they don't understand anything about karma. And then we think about all the other goats that are waiting in the field and they're completely oblivious to it. Just eating, you know, not really knowing, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:35 Highlight the passage at 1:14:35

1:15:03 Maybe they have a little bit more room now that that other goat's gone, you know, so they don't really have any understanding that the very next day they could be taken to. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:03 Highlight the passage at 1:15:03

1:15:14 You can think about this, of course, with anything, but this is just... Report an error in the passage at 1:15:14 Highlight the passage at 1:15:14

1:15:22 And the only difference is between them and that one goat is just time. And we're the same. I mean, actually, they often use this example for us. You know, we see all around us people dying, but we don't really do anything. We just keep eating in the field, you know, and then our time is up, and then we disappear, and Courtney just takes more of my room, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:22 Highlight the passage at 1:15:22

1:15:47 I mean, actually, we're very similar, so we aren't so much more intelligent than those goats. But then, you know, we don't want to leave out, when we're contemplating this, we don't want to leave out the people that work in these places, you know, that slaughter the goats or the sheep or the cows or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:47 Highlight the passage at 1:15:47

1:16:07 They don't have any understanding of karma, and they don't. They may see that they have to harden themselves to it. They may even experience doubt that maybe they shouldn't be doing this. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:07 Highlight the passage at 1:16:07

1:16:21 And they may even have suffering from it. It may actually cause them suffering. But karmically speaking, they're actually creating enormous suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:21 Highlight the passage at 1:16:21

1:16:33 And so we can have compassion for them too. So it's like we can actually think about all of the different parts of this picture. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:33 Highlight the passage at 1:16:33

1:16:45 Remembering again exactly what compassion is, is wanting to remove this being. So we start with a really obvious one, and then we think of the ones waiting in the field who take them. And do this day in and day out, picking up this animal. It was a big animal, leading them in there, making sure they're on the machine properly, sending them on the way. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:45 Highlight the passage at 1:16:45

1:17:14 And day in and day out, that must just do to your mind. I can't imagine that it doesn't. So having some compassion for them, not just for the feeling that they have to have that kind of a job, and horrible that is, but also just for any negative karma that they're creating. They just don't even have the karma to have understood. And of course you can think about it in other ways too. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:14 Highlight the passage at 1:17:14

1:17:45 You can think about, this is just an example, you can think about any kind of being who, Report an error in the passage at 1:17:45 Highlight the passage at 1:17:45

1:17:57 and then just thinking about how you wish that you could stop all of this pointless suffering somehow. Just from the depths of your heart, wanting to remove the suffering of all beings. That's great compassion. But it comes kind of through those steps. You know, you can't just start wishing like that. You kind of have to build it. And I'm telling you, of course, in the words, you have to have some sort of taste. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:57 Highlight the passage at 1:17:57

1:18:24 You have to have some sort of... Report an error in the passage at 1:18:24 Highlight the passage at 1:18:24

1:18:29 And it can be very powerful. And then it moves into these bigger minds that Report an error in the passage at 1:18:29 Highlight the passage at 1:18:29

1:18:40 take a... Actually, can I just finish? Only two more steps. Is that alright? I don't want to leave you in this. Because it is, I mean actually it can be quite emotional. If you allow yourself to really contemplate this, this one's the one that always gets me crying. Well, the mother does too. I'll admit. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:40 Highlight the passage at 1:18:40

1:19:04 But then it turns it around. Because the very next one is what's called the Extraordinary Attitude, or His Holiness calls it, what does he call it? the, the, in, in the. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:04 Highlight the passage at 1:19:04

1:19:20 Who calls it something like that, the altruistic attitude or something like that. But anyway, so when we think, it's totally unbearable to me that sentient beings have to suffer. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:20 Highlight the passage at 1:19:20

1:19:38 Everything from the goat to the killing it to everyone. Everything from the person on the street, you know, who doesn't have shelter or medical care at all, to the guy in the mansion. There's some amount of suffering in all beings. If we understand exactly what's suffering. And we reach this point where we just feel like it's unbearable to me that beings have to suffer so much. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:38 Highlight the passage at 1:19:38

1:20:06 I myself alone will help them. I have to do this. I get to this point where I just think I have no choice. It's my responsibility to help them. I'm not going to wait for anybody else to help them. I'm not going to wait and see what my friends do in the class. I'm going to do it. It's like what they say. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:06 Highlight the passage at 1:20:06

1:20:29 If a good child sees their parents suffering, then they want to do something about that. They don't wait for somebody else. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:29 Highlight the passage at 1:20:29

1:20:40 It's that strong. And you actually get to this point where from the depth of your heart, think no matter how difficult it is and no matter how long it takes, I'll do what's necessary to take away this pain. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:40 Highlight the passage at 1:20:40

1:20:59 And this leads to the mind of bodhicitta. Because the compassion is the whole reason. That we do it. The method is Buddhahood. Because we begin to realize, yeah, I want to do this, but I can't. Who can do it? The only ones that can do it are these enlightened beings that have all these amazing capacity for energy and compassion, you know, limitless compassion for everybody and limitless wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:59 Highlight the passage at 1:20:59

1:21:30 And they know how to do it. Skillful means they know they have creativity in the way that they can help people. They can manifest all these different kinds of bodies, you know. And so the method, the way I'm going to attain my goal or fulfill my goal of enlightenment, reason is compassion. My reason is wanting to take away this suffering. My reason is finding that suffering of other beings. So it's compassion. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:30 Highlight the passage at 1:21:30

1:22:01 That's the main reason. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:01 Highlight the passage at 1:22:01

1:22:08 So you have to just kind of go through this thinking process where you're just like, I want to do this. This is unbearable to me. I want to change things. But I can't. I mean, I can't even take away my own pain right now. Realistically speaking, I can't take away my own suffering. When I get depressed or when I even just have a stomachache or something, I can't take that away yet. Who has that capacity? Report an error in the passage at 1:22:08 Highlight the passage at 1:22:08

1:22:38 So I must become it. It becomes like that. I must become. And that's bodhicitta. That's the mind. That's when you generate, even in a contrived manner, that's when you generate this mind. Wanting to get enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:38 Highlight the passage at 1:22:38

1:23:01 But you have to think about it as sort of the reasoning involved. So at first it's contrived and we just sort of go through these steps and we try to imagine all the different elements involved and we try to imagine having this mind. And when you're doing this meditation, you do have moments where it gets emotional but the goal is not the emotion. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:01 Highlight the passage at 1:23:01

1:23:27 The goal is not, you know, tears or anything like that. The goal is actually this amazing, it's actually quite powerful and almost, it actually is blissful, I think, the times that I've done this meditation. It's sort of like you're going through this process and you begin to get braver and braver. You're like, yeah! I mean, when I come out of this meditation, I'm like, you know, it's really quite powerful and you're really quite happy. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:27 Highlight the passage at 1:23:27

1:23:55 Because it feels really clear, like, yeah, this is what I'm going to do. I get really strong in that mind. It's quite brave, I think, too. And it kind of summons up any bravery that you might have. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:55 Highlight the passage at 1:23:55

1:24:08 So it gives you a lot of energy, I think. So there are points in the meditation that you kind of are sad or you feel sad when you're looking at, for example, that goat or whatever it is that you're contemplating. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:08 Highlight the passage at 1:24:08

1:24:26 But you don't stay there. You have to keep moving. So don't just spend forever just going around and around. Remember the Buddha went on, he said there is suffering, but then he went on to the other four points of the Four Noble Truths. For this meditation, we have to keep moving on, and you should come out of it with this powerful mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:26 Highlight the passage at 1:24:26

1:24:53 So that's a better place for a break. So why don't you take a break and then come back with all your 79 questions. Because we got through it. Actually, I'm impressed. And then if we have time, we'll actually try to meditate. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:53 Highlight the passage at 1:24:53

1:25:35 I think. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:35 Highlight the passage at 1:25:35

1:25:40 But we can print that maybe one just to use as our guide. You know what, I forgot to see if Gina came in today. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:40 Highlight the passage at 1:25:40

1:25:55 Somebody ever told me if she came, but she knew where she put the paper. I took it out of the closet upstairs to make sure because somebody put something on top and it got kind of bent. I thought I heard it when I was sitting in here. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:55 Highlight the passage at 1:25:55

1:26:04 Well, we'll see. If she did whatever, then you'll do some. If we have some to put up, then that's good. And then if we, you know, then we can always do more in the first couple hours. How are we going to fasten them? I would say either duct tape or staple gun. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:04 Highlight the passage at 1:26:04

1:26:27 I should make sure that Mary knows where those things are. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:27 Highlight the passage at 1:26:27

1:26:33 Duct tape, staple gun. She loves the staple gun. So I know it's not really what we're supposed to do. But it has to be wood then, with a stable gun. Yeah, if it's like a foam pole or something like that. Yeah. String. String, yeah. Do we have string? Yawn. You know, I think a roll of yawn. Maybe just bring that. Yeah. Anything you see that might get. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:33 Highlight the passage at 1:26:33

1:26:59 I know we have like masking tape. If it's wet, it's harder. It's going to be harder. Yeah. But we'll just do the best we can. Duct tape, pretty much you can do anything with. But you can go Saturday morning. Yeah, because I think if we do it Friday night, then it suddenly rains and we're just a disaster. So I'm just thinking, worst comes to worst, and we'll just do a few tomorrow night so we know we have enough to get started with. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:59 Highlight the passage at 1:26:59

1:27:22 And then we Report an error in the passage at 1:27:22 Highlight the passage at 1:27:22

1:27:27 have some really bright, she's got some really bright paper too. We'll put some of that right behind it. Oh yeah. I'm like, look, right here. And then I thought we'd also set up, we have a bunch of eight foot tables. All along, you know, right out front where that stone wall is. Because we're, you know, if you go down the stairs, right there at the base of the stairs, we'll just lay out like three levels. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:27 Highlight the passage at 1:27:27

1:27:54 And most of the stuff we'll put, the small stuff we'll put on tables. It's easier for people to. And then we have that little, what do you call it? Yeah, cart table. And so any baked goods that we, Report an error in the passage at 1:27:54 Highlight the passage at 1:27:54

1:28:15 there won't be so many of us actually. But I actually think that in some people, when Garrett's coming, like between Report an error in the passage at 1:28:15 Highlight the passage at 1:28:15

1:28:29 Chad's, Chad's going to help you. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:29 Highlight the passage at 1:28:29

1:28:41 Because I'm not so good at it anymore. Mary knows she's going to help us. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:41 Highlight the passage at 1:28:41

1:28:53 There are not that many people. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:53 Highlight the passage at 1:28:53

1:28:59 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have a feeling that someone's just going to drop off. I mean, worse comes to worse, we'll just help. And then sell them. I mean, because we promised it's a big sale. Right, right. But I know that Samantha's making some, so at least we'll have hers. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:59 Highlight the passage at 1:28:59

1:29:20 Anything that we have in the cafe, we'll just take down there and sell. I was thinking of Costco for that. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:20 Highlight the passage at 1:29:20

1:29:31 Let's see, because I have a feeling people will just show up. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:31 Highlight the passage at 1:29:31

1:29:36 Yeah, and actually, you know, the worst comes to worst. If we ever have, like, enough people, then I can always run in and make some brownies, or you could use the kitchen here, you know what I mean? So, it's all right. What about change? Hopefully, we'll bring some change. Oh, we should have some change. We have some, that's a good point. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:36 Highlight the passage at 1:29:36

1:30:03 I mean, we probably, actually, I'll ask Janet, because she might even have Report an error in the passage at 1:30:03 Highlight the passage at 1:30:03

1:30:29 Oh no, it's not over, we're just on a break. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:29 Highlight the passage at 1:30:29

1:30:34 I'm really sorry. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:34 Highlight the passage at 1:30:34

1:30:44 Oh, there you go. It's almost over. It's almost over. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:44 Highlight the passage at 1:30:44

1:30:54 Now, we end at 9, so it was just in about 25 minutes. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:54 Highlight the passage at 1:30:54

1:30:35 sorry. I'm a student. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:35 Highlight the passage at 1:30:35

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:31:06 I owe you? Did you get the homework? time we should get our heart happy. I supposed to send it to? Yes, no, you were going to send it to John. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:06 Highlight the passage at 1:31:06

1:31:23 What's that? I thought I was like, oh, is there more homework than this? No. Oh, actually, let me go ahead and give this to you. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:23 Highlight the passage at 1:31:23

1:31:39 It seems thoroughly overwhelming, as is my want to do. I always have to give you guys more information than anyone ever needs. It's just like my one chance with you. So I want to make sure you have the right amount and then like either get overwhelmed and we plant some seeds or you actually have it and then at some point you think, well, you know, this would be kind of fun to meditate on this week. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:39 Highlight the passage at 1:31:39

1:32:01 I'm hoping that happens for some of you. The way that it works. So Elizabeth, you're still here after we had a really big goodbye. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:01 Highlight the passage at 1:32:01

1:32:16 You know the theory, the larger the goodbye, the more likely you are to see the person again. Is that right? It worked tonight. Yeah, it worked. The way that it works is I could give you, if you're interested, actually if you're interested, let's meet for tea. Because in that way I could sort of give you the little handout that tells you all of the required coursework that you do. And basically it's just slightly more. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:16 Highlight the passage at 1:32:16

1:32:46 Right. Than the average person going to the class. All of the required reading you do. So there's more reading. And then at the end, there's a couple things. At the end of each class, there's actually a sheet that you sign off, that you get signed off. So I would sign off. Like, for example, you've meditated once. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:46 Highlight the passage at 1:32:46

1:33:08 And it's really pretty. They don't make it too difficult. You've meditated on, you know, the seven point. You've read, Report an error in the passage at 1:33:08 Highlight the passage at 1:33:08

1:33:24 there's a presentation that we... Report an error in the passage at 1:33:24 Highlight the passage at 1:33:24

1:33:33 yeah, we came up with some good ideas Report an error in the passage at 1:33:33 Highlight the passage at 1:33:33

1:33:48 Christine, yeah, Report an error in the passage at 1:33:48 Highlight the passage at 1:33:48

1:33:54 pretty, they're done. All right, well, maybe Cindy can make them prettier tomorrow. Thank you so much, Report an error in the passage at 1:33:54 Highlight the passage at 1:33:54

1:34:08 thank you, really appreciate it. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:08 Highlight the passage at 1:34:08

1:34:21 was it? Yeah, he does his days differently. I make everyone come. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:21 Highlight the passage at 1:34:21

1:34:29 I give everybody homework. No, that was just the way I learned. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:29 Highlight the passage at 1:34:29

1:34:37 Did he do it every day, every week? Report an error in the passage at 1:34:37 Highlight the passage at 1:34:37

1:34:46 But yeah, so it's just basically like that. And then at the end of the 13 classes, there's a fourth of experiential stuff, and that's where you do practicing. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:46 Highlight the passage at 1:34:46

1:35:00 And then I think a two-week lamrim retreat. And I think they would like you to do Report an error in the passage at 1:35:00 Highlight the passage at 1:35:00

1:35:12 the city centers with us doing like a weekend here. But Bajra Pani, we are fortunate to live in the same area as Bajra, and they try to have at least a 10-day lumber retreat every year that satisfies. Actually, I guess they do, you do a 10-day and it takes the place of a two-week, but anyway. And so this year actually, that's actually a good point, you're the plan. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:12 Highlight the passage at 1:35:12

1:35:41 This year they are having Geshe Tashi Tsering, who is a resident Geshe of the Lama, who created an entire class called Report an error in the passage at 1:35:41 Highlight the passage at 1:35:41

1:35:55 Which now the foundation had the rights to that. But he's going to lead the retreat. And he's a Lurampa Gachet. Young Gachet who speaks English though. Young meaning it is. Yeah, so that should be amazing. But I mean, you know, it always is. Last year, I think it was Tenshokyi, right? I think last year was Tenshokyi. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:55 Highlight the passage at 1:35:55

1:36:27 And then sometimes it's got a Mobina. You know, so it's just like, it's like that. So you're basically in a lamrim retreat of that length of ten, to 14 days, you're going through all the topics of Report an error in the passage at 1:36:27 Highlight the passage at 1:36:27

1:36:43 you're just getting that experience under Report an error in the passage at 1:36:43 Highlight the passage at 1:36:43

1:36:47 I'm happy to meet with you and go through that with you, but what I could do is Report an error in the passage at 1:36:47 Highlight the passage at 1:36:47

1:36:57 send you the electronic version of the summary sheets. But anyway, it's a summary for each class, what you do. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:57 Highlight the passage at 1:36:57

1:37:29 Oh, sure. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:29 Highlight the passage at 1:37:29

1:37:35 No, I'm going to do it tonight. Well, I'm going to try to do it tonight, especially tomorrow, this weekend with the garage sale and everything. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:35 Highlight the passage at 1:37:35

1:37:49 So you guys are happy to go? Yes. I have no idea. Cindy asked me the same question last month. I have no idea. I do need to go down to the garage sale. Yeah, I know we have because we've also got, we've had like three, four people move into the house in the last, so I'm sure we have all of their stuff. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:49 Highlight the passage at 1:37:49

1:38:10 And then of course, we've downsized. To some degree, getting rid of offices and stuff like that. So we have shelves and things like that for St. Evelyn. And then people have brought over stuff. I just haven't managed that. I've just told people, you have to put it in the garage. But other than that, I haven't looked at it. So I do need to look at it, but I have no idea what we have. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:10 Highlight the passage at 1:38:10

1:38:31 We'll have something to sell. What about tomorrow night then? This is all the posters at night. Maybe look at the posters and see if they look clear enough to see if you were driving by. That's the thing. Okay, I'll come back to that Yeah, I Report an error in the passage at 1:38:31 Highlight the passage at 1:38:31

1:38:49 Yeah, and if I have a moment, then you and I can run down to the garage together and just see what we're going to be up against. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:49 Highlight the passage at 1:38:49

1:38:58 Whitney, are you up for getting up and settling in a bed and helping drag things up? Yeah. Whitney lives here now. Now you get to see what's going to happen. At least in the morning. At least in the morning for a while. Yeah, yeah, the morning is the hardest, I think. Usually with garage sales, most of the action happens. And then you get like this, they come. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:58 Highlight the passage at 1:38:58

1:39:30 And normally I stupidly have it go. And fortunately this time I do. And then let's just like slow motion start loading it. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:30 Highlight the passage at 1:39:30

1:39:45 That's the way it is. It's really like that. It's like, you know, I just come and I stand there and look like I'm buying something. And then comes running up and I'm like, weird mind, competition. So actually we should have hired, we should have had Tony come up and just look like he wanted to buy things. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:45 Highlight the passage at 1:39:45

1:40:03 money out of it. Just kind of say, show what's happening. I'm really good at being a shield, actually. Just constantly pulling that wallet out. And then we just change his shirt. He goes around the corner, comes back again. Come up with this camera. Wow, this is so great. Oh my god, I have to show. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:03 Highlight the passage at 1:40:03

1:40:21 And then it disappears and somebody else comes in mind. Did everybody get a homework? Oh, you didn't? No, you didn't. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:21 Highlight the passage at 1:40:21

1:40:33 You're the only one? I did not get a homework. It's right there today. uh, Report an error in the passage at 1:40:33 Highlight the passage at 1:40:33

1:40:39 I get one from Report an error in the passage at 1:40:39 Highlight the passage at 1:40:39

1:40:56 yours to Cindy I can give one to you more after class I can just make Report an error in the passage at 1:40:56 Highlight the passage at 1:40:56

1:41:16 Do you mind just making a quick copy of this? We're just short one. Actually, let's do two. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:16 Highlight the passage at 1:41:16

1:41:28 One to two, kind of two-sided. Do you know how to do it? Between one and two. thought Report an error in the passage at 1:41:28 Highlight the passage at 1:41:28

1:41:39 Thank you. So in your homework, now I need somebody else's homework to look at. I drafted my homework. So in your homework I did it like, because it's too overwhelming to start with doing everything all at once. So I tried to assign it like, okay, if you can go through it twice, if you want to do it a little bit each day, you're going to do tomorrow morning, you're going to do equanimity. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:39 Highlight the passage at 1:41:39

1:42:08 And then Saturday morning you'll meditate on the first of the steps one, two and three. And steps one, two and three are marked as meditation two. So that's recognizing all beings as your mother, remembering their kindness and wishing to repay their kindness. And then Sunday you'll meditate on the remaining four. And that's marked meditation three. So that's affectionate love, great compassion, the extraordinary attitude and bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:08 Highlight the passage at 1:42:08

1:42:33 If you do it like that... When you sit down Sunday morning, you might have to remind yourself why you have affectionate love for all these beings because you have to kind of build it again because you're not doing it all in one sitting. So you might have to kind of remind yourself a little bit of why you care about all beings. But I think it's easier. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:33 Highlight the passage at 1:42:33

1:42:55 Once you've done it a few times like that, then you can do it all in one sitting because then you'll know it a little better. And the more you get to know it, actually you can do it in like 20 minutes or something. But you have to know it. The more that you have done it, the more that you will know the different steps and you won't have to spend so much time reading your notes. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:55 Highlight the passage at 1:42:55

1:43:15 You know what I mean? So it's just kind of like that. It's just like memorizing a piano piece or something like that. Then when you get to know this meditation really well, it really does only take about, actually for me it takes about the Report an error in the passage at 1:43:15 Highlight the passage at 1:43:15

1:43:33 end and I just relax into it. Because there are parts that you kind of want to, but that may not happen for you for a while. You may not. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:33 Highlight the passage at 1:43:33

1:43:45 I was fortunate enough, actually, to be a part of a study that was done where they were trying to see the effect on the mind, Report an error in the passage at 1:43:45 Highlight the passage at 1:43:45

1:43:59 chemical effect. And I was part of this study, and so my assignment was to meditate on this all the time. And in fact, Rinpoche, those of us that were doing this, those of us who were doing this study had to take, we had to do like day-long retreats once a week. Stop everything and just... meditate on compassion thing over and over again because at the very end they hooked us Report an error in the passage at 1:43:59 Highlight the passage at 1:43:59

1:44:32 then they had us meditate on I'm Report an error in the passage at 1:44:32 Highlight the passage at 1:44:32

1:44:40 so thankful for it now because who would have ever done that? Not me. I was the director of the center. I wouldn't have taken like, you know, a day, let me take Tuesday off and meditate on compassion all day. Okay, you know. And then we'd all go down to like Land of Medicine Buddha and like meditate together on compassion. I mean, it was so skillful. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:40 Highlight the passage at 1:44:40

1:44:59 Actually, when I think about it in retrospect, I'm like, what was that all about? I never saw any studies published. Who knows who he hired? It's like this fake professor. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:59 Highlight the passage at 1:44:59

1:45:11 But I'm so thankful for it now because I feel like now I can do this meditation and it does plant the seeds, even though I'm not saying that I have generated even actual compassion, much less anything else. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:11 Highlight the passage at 1:45:11

1:45:33 Thanks, Tina. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:33 Highlight the passage at 1:45:33

1:45:45 Well, no, I have the originals. Oh, Whitney, yes. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:45 Highlight the passage at 1:45:45

1:45:54 Anyway, so when you meditate on this, you do have to meditate on it over and over and over again to actually generate, to have the actual realizations of these. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:54 Highlight the passage at 1:45:54

1:46:07 But you'll get some taste. You'll still get a taste. You'll still get the beginnings of. And the more you do it and you have some experience of compassion, then it takes less work to generate it the next time. Do you know what I'm saying? So it actually, it actually, every time you do it, they say that it sort of plants the seeds. So it's never wasted time. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:07 Highlight the passage at 1:46:07

1:46:28 You know, there may be some times you feel like, wow, that was so profound. And there may be some times you're like, you know. It doesn't matter. Every time that you're doing it, it is still laying the groundwork for developing the Lama. So it's all good. Okay, now questions. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:28 Highlight the passage at 1:46:28

1:46:53 Everyone begins shuffling their papers. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:53 Highlight the passage at 1:46:53

1:46:58 There's no? Report an error in the passage at 1:46:58 Highlight the passage at 1:46:58

1:47:05 That's the answer. I make people wait till the end and they forget them. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:05 Highlight the passage at 1:47:05

1:47:16 He's trying so hard. You have to say it into the mic though. I Report an error in the passage at 1:47:16 Highlight the passage at 1:47:16

1:47:26 don't want to say it into the mic because I'm recording it. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:26 Highlight the passage at 1:47:26

1:47:33 If you don't, then somebody else will start talking over you. I'll tell them. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:33 Highlight the passage at 1:47:33

1:47:47 Sometimes, you know, like when you're watching a commercial on TV or a movie, you know, you experience, you know, sentimentality, you And I feel like sometimes these things, advertising, themes of music, I have an emotional response to that, but I don't like that emotional response because it seems forced or syrupy or sentimental. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:47 Highlight the passage at 1:47:47

1:48:17 And so one of the things I was thinking about when you were talking was how I mean, okay, I'm going to try to generate compassion. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:17 Highlight the passage at 1:48:17

1:48:31 And I can, for a cute goat. Make it an ugly goat. Well, yeah. Yeah, I only, it passed my mind, but it wasn't like it created a quandary, because I know that, well, you just persist. Or pick another thing, you know. It's harder to do it for the guy that's out there killing goats, or the guy who's killing them because he loves to kill them. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:31 Highlight the passage at 1:48:31

1:48:56 But the point is ultimately we should be able to have compassion for him too. So yeah, you start with a cute goat for that exact reason because it is easier to have compassion for that. And then you're trying to begin to open that. But it's not just the sentimental reaction. That's why I keep repeating the definition of compassion. Wanting to remove that. So it's not the empathy. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:56 Highlight the passage at 1:48:56

1:49:27 It's not even sympathy. It's not just some emotional reaction, although you may have an emotional reaction, and I think that's totally fine. And I'm saying it because in most of our experiences of what we think of meditation, we might not think shedding a tear is going to be part of it. I didn't. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:27 Highlight the passage at 1:49:27

1:49:48 But I don't think there's anything wrong with that, because that is getting it in a gut level that I might not have had if I was just keeping it either in intellectual exercises, which we don't want to do, or... Something sort of above our Report an error in the passage at 1:49:48 Highlight the passage at 1:49:48

1:50:09 This is a gut level thing of wanting to take away that and finding it so unbearable that that thing, person, being, is suffering and being unable to do anything. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:09 Highlight the passage at 1:50:09

1:50:24 Because that's the urgency. Then we get into that urgency and develop the tools basically, the ability to do something. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:24 Highlight the passage at 1:50:24

1:50:37 like when you see somebody on the street you know panhandling or whatever you know suppose that you give them money you But it's never enough, of course, and they continue to make their appeal. And so at any point, you know, you have to say any time in the street, you know, it's got to be, at least I'd say, okay, no, I'm not responsible for that. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:37 Highlight the passage at 1:50:37

1:50:55 You know, you just have to, you know, I'm not responsible for, you know, I have to say no to, you know, I had this change, you know, but I can't get, you know, I mean, you know, you could just empty your wallet. I mean, and so at a certain point you have to say no. Is that no? Not, you know. I think you can say no in a really kind way. But knowing that you're... But I mean, I think there is a real difference. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:55 Highlight the passage at 1:50:55

1:51:22 I think you can say, I have to say I don't have any money sometimes. Because I don't have any money. Actually, I wish I had money. And that's actually the mind of generosity, by the way. When you're developing the mind of generosity, it's not even that you've given anything. It's that you want to give everything. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:22 Highlight the passage at 1:51:22

1:51:41 That's the mind of generosity. You're still going to be poor people. But... You want to develop the mind of generosity. And so that's your mind. So what's going on in your mind is what's more. So if I'm giving, if I don't have any money, then I just look them in the eye and I say, I am so sorry, I don't have any money. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:41 Highlight the passage at 1:51:41

1:52:01 I treat them like a human because my God, you know, there but for the grace of karma go I. And believe me, that's getting closer and closer these days. So it's like, I just try to be really human. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:01 Highlight the passage at 1:52:01

1:52:14 And I just try to, and often the reaction is just they're so grateful. And the reality is I'm a bodhisattva trying me out, you know. That could be my teacher manifesting as this annoying old lady, you know. I don't know who that is. So I'm just going to try to treat them as kindly and as humanly as I possibly can. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:14 Highlight the passage at 1:52:14

1:52:37 But yeah, I'm not at the point right now where I can give everything I possibly own. But I can get there, I can treat them. Because it's like the two wings of the bird. Remember when we talked about the mind of wisdom and the mind of wisdom? The mind of compassion is wanting to remove that suffering. The mind of wisdom is knowing how. And also knowing that you will turn away. And that you will turn away from them and continue on your way. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:37 Highlight the passage at 1:52:37

1:53:01 Only if it's not as beneficial. Maybe at some point it would be more beneficial for you to sit down and talk to that person. But at this point I don't have that wisdom so I don't really know. But I mean, you walk through the streets with Geshe-la, he may do things differently. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:01 Highlight the passage at 1:53:01

1:53:17 She might actually just sit down and talk to that person and take him out for a coffee. Which I don't have. yet you know so So I don't think there's anything wrong with setting boundaries as a bodhisattva because you'll be able to, when you have the wisdom, you'll be able to see what's the most beneficial thing for you to do. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:17 Highlight the passage at 1:53:17

1:53:37 That's often the question that I don't know yet. I can kind of go with my baby wisdom. I still have tons. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:37 Highlight the passage at 1:53:37

1:53:52 But it may be giving this guy everything that's important. Because this may be a bodhisattva. And it may help me get more generosity. And then again, it may be just somebody who's, you know, not going to use it for anything. But I don't know that yet. And I can have anything I do at this point, it's just going to be judgment-based. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:52 Highlight the passage at 1:53:52

1:54:16 So since I don't know, I might as well just use it. Which means accepting the uncertainty that what you're doing may be or may not be. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:16 Highlight the passage at 1:54:16

1:54:30 Yeah, because it won't be. I can guarantee you that much, actually. But I can do the best I can. And I get a little bit wiser. But Report an error in the passage at 1:54:30 Highlight the passage at 1:54:30

1:54:43 those are good things to be thinking. And it could be different every time you see somebody. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:43 Highlight the passage at 1:54:43

1:54:56 They say not to, you know, I mean, we want to be, you know, there's a certain point that we want to be like our teachers. We see our teachers, we see His Holiness, we see His ability to just go for hours. We're not there Report an error in the passage at 1:54:56 Highlight the passage at 1:54:56

1:55:15 yet. I've tried to push myself, and sometimes it is great to push yourself, you know, and test yourself, and, you know, but if we keep doing that and we're not ready, we'll just give up. And that doesn't help anybody in the end. Then we just, then we not only give up, which is, but then I start telling all you guys is all just, you know, and then it changes all your minds and then it just, so it's really not beneficial at all. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:15 Highlight the passage at 1:55:15

1:55:44 So that's wisdom in that case is me saying, okay, now I don't have this and I don't have this. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:44 Highlight the passage at 1:55:44

1:55:59 It doesn't always look like, Report an error in the passage at 1:55:59 Highlight the passage at 1:55:59

1:56:07 and they say, actually I heard a story of this woman who, she was so inspired by all of this that she gave her house. Lama thankfully was like, what? Report an error in the passage at 1:56:07 Highlight the passage at 1:56:07

1:56:18 And wouldn't take it, because he knew two bad months later that she'd be regretting it and that she'd hate it. And she, like, dissed him to everybody and be like, he took my house. I mean, it was great, though. And he praised her, you know, for wanting to. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:18 Highlight the passage at 1:56:18

1:56:43 And then sometimes they kind of play, like, you give them, you know, some gift that you think about it. There's this great story, actually. Michelle gave this stuff once Lama Tsongkhapa plastered. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:43 Highlight the passage at 1:56:43

1:57:05 She made this one, and she brought it back. some things from Kailash and she put it into it and making it with all these prayers and she gave it to Geshe-la Geshe-la gave it to the first guy that came in the guy comes down the stairs and says Geshe-la gave me Michelle's like Report an error in the passage at 1:57:05 Highlight the passage at 1:57:05

1:57:23 really great. He's pointing out all the details and there's something in it for Mount Kyla. So they play with your mind sometimes too, you know. And Lama Zopa is very good on that. You know, you give him something and the guy right behind you gets it. and they're all dancing around all happy in So it's just like, it's the mind of wanting to give without any repercussion, any expectations. That's what we're trying to do. So actually, you're delighted when he gives it to me, you know? Report an error in the passage at 1:57:23 Highlight the passage at 1:57:23

1:57:57 Well, it's nine, so we're not going to do it together. Just do the best you can with it. Really do try. If you don't have six full days that you can do, then at least go through it all once. Just try it out. But really knowing in your mind that you do need time to have some sort of actual experience, you need to do it over and over and over. I mean years, really. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:57 Highlight the passage at 1:57:57

1:58:24 So you just get a taste. And you'll figure out kind of which ones you're more drawn to and which ones are harder for you and stuff like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:24 Highlight the passage at 1:58:24

1:58:34 So let's dedicate whatever Report an error in the passage at 1:58:34 Highlight the passage at 1:58:34

1:58:39 we have gotten out of this class tonight, me included, Report an error in the passage at 1:58:39 Highlight the passage at 1:58:39

1:58:46 that plants the seed for genuine bodhicitta. So first aspiring bodhicitta, actual. The actual realization of bodhicitta to arise in our mind. They say at some point it will arise as spontaneously as the desire to go get a meal for ourselves when we're hungry. We don't have to think about that. We don't have to plan that. We don't have to meditate on what that would be like. It just arises in our mind. It's that same thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:46 Highlight the passage at 1:58:46

1:59:17 Bodhicitta will at one point arise for us just that naturally. And we've just planted those seeds tonight. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:17 Highlight the passage at 1:59:17

1:59:27 And may this be for you. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:27 Highlight the passage at 1:59:27

1:59:40 Rico, I was going to write down something for you and I forgot. I'm sending you last week's notes and homework. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:40 Highlight the passage at 1:59:40

2:00:07 And then John, maybe in the next couple weeks we could set up a tea date and we could go through the... Yeah, I like it. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:07 Highlight the passage at 2:00:07

2:00:43 David, Report an error in the passage at 2:00:43 Highlight the passage at 2:00:43

2:00:52 I'll put this right here. Thank very much. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:52 Highlight the passage at 2:00:52

2:01:01 another up in the back, another one in the swings to knock it. A secret homework. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:01 Highlight the passage at 2:01:01

2:01:10 We'll bring it to class next week. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:10 Highlight the passage at 2:01:10

2:01:25 It's from the unknown bodhisattva. Maybe they just couldn't believe I actually just wanted hot water. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:25 Highlight the passage at 2:01:25

2:01:42 shelf, top shelf towards the window. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:42 Highlight the passage at 2:01:42

2:01:58 the front door? Report an error in the passage at 2:01:58 Highlight the passage at 2:01:58

2:02:10 I put a knopped up tractor turn. Oh, good. Wow. Then you can do it for both classes. For that day? Report an error in the passage at 2:02:10 Highlight the passage at 2:02:10

2:02:23 Just kind of at midnight and stay through the next night? No, no. I mean, you could do the presentation. Or make it for both classes. They probably totally relate to both classes. You could do an academic or something like that. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:23 Highlight the passage at 2:02:23

2:02:42 find that equanimation. Isn't it? It's really, it's amazing. It's very powerful. It's Report an error in the passage at 2:02:42 Highlight the passage at 2:02:42

2:02:53 interesting how they keep circling around into each other. You know, working with renunciation this week. I would realize how it's all hooked together. It really is starting to hook together. It's sort of a nifty feeling. It's true. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:53 Highlight the passage at 2:02:53

2:03:25 It is a nifty feeling. It's true. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:25 Highlight the passage at 2:03:25

2:03:46 turn this off. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:46 Highlight the passage at 2:03:46