Discovering Buddhism - Presenting the Path (12 March 2009)

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1:03 Two days of driving down to Landa Medicine Buddha and back. I feel like I've driven from an understate or something. It's very nice today. Report an error in the passage at 1:03 Highlight the passage at 1:03

1:19 We're going to start with a meditation on impermanence that anyone who's done the drop-in meditation may be familiar with. Report an error in the passage at 1:19 Highlight the passage at 1:19

1:32 It's just a way, because these last two classes are going to be on, or at least beginning to familiarize emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:32 Highlight the passage at 1:32

1:45 We're going to start with impermanence because it's a way in. It's the way that we start seeing things is not quite as solid. Report an error in the passage at 1:45 Highlight the passage at 1:45

1:58 Some nice deep breaths. Report an error in the passage at 1:58 Highlight the passage at 1:58

2:06 David, could you do me a favor and lock that door now? No, no. Well, you could do, but I actually, yeah, do you know how to do it, Cindy? The lower lock, yeah. Because that way any residents can actually still get in, too. Report an error in the passage at 2:06 Highlight the passage at 2:06

2:25 I'm just keeping air out. I think most of us are here, though. So just take some nice deep cleansing breaths and let go of your day. Let go of my day. Report an error in the passage at 2:25 Highlight the passage at 2:25

2:45 And let this be a transition time between your daytime and this class. Let's dissolve away anything that might keep you from being here. Report an error in the passage at 2:45 Highlight the passage at 2:45

2:55 Let's Report an error in the passage at 2:55 Highlight the passage at 2:55

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3:33 begin with becoming aware of your body, Report an error in the passage at 3:33 Highlight the passage at 3:33

3:39 thinking about the different parts of your body, your arms, Report an error in the passage at 3:39 Highlight the passage at 3:39

3:48 your skin, your blood, your bones, your organs, your muscles and nerves. Report an error in the passage at 3:48 Highlight the passage at 3:48

4:01 And start looking at each one, one by one, probing in your mind, nature, Report an error in the passage at 4:01 Highlight the passage at 4:01

4:11 your skin. There's substance and texture, shape inside. Report an error in the passage at 4:11 Highlight the passage at 4:11

4:29 Everything that's going on inside your body will keep going. And Report an error in the passage at 4:29 Highlight the passage at 4:29

4:40 open your Report an error in the passage at 4:40 Highlight the passage at 4:40

4:46 breath, beating of your heart, Report an error in the passage at 4:46 Highlight the passage at 4:46

4:53 and your blood, and your nerve impulses. Report an error in the passage at 4:53 Highlight the passage at 4:53

5:18 Even the most subtle level, the cellular structure, a lot of these things. But everything inside of you, and your skin, and your hair, everything's made up of these cells. And these cells come into being, and abide. Go out of being, all the time. Report an error in the passage at 5:18 Highlight the passage at 5:18

5:47 Reproducing, abiding, and degenerating. Someone Report an error in the passage at 5:47 Highlight the passage at 5:47

6:07 went out. Report an error in the passage at 6:07 Highlight the passage at 6:07

6:21 And then think about your mind. It also is made up of all these little parts. Report an error in the passage at 6:21 Highlight the passage at 6:21

6:31 These parts are thoughts, perceptions, feelings, emotions, Report an error in the passage at 6:31 Highlight the passage at 6:31

6:40 one by one following each other endlessly. Report an error in the passage at 6:40 Highlight the passage at 6:40

6:49 One thought leading to the next. Report an error in the passage at 6:49 Highlight the passage at 6:49

7:13 Then turning attention to the world around us, the environment here in this room. Report an error in the passage at 7:13 Highlight the passage at 7:13

7:21 The seat that you're on, Report an error in the passage at 7:21 Highlight the passage at 7:21

7:25 clothes and ceiling here, Report an error in the passage at 7:25 Highlight the passage at 7:25

7:33 all the objects that are in that space, the shams of the earth, tonkas, the holy objects. Report an error in the passage at 7:33 Highlight the passage at 7:33

7:46 One of those is also made of all these particles, changing moment by moment. One Report an error in the passage at 7:46 Highlight the passage at 7:46

7:59 of those solid-seeing things, the floor that we're sitting on, the building itself. Report an error in the passage at 7:59 Highlight the passage at 7:59

8:13 The streets, streets and cars and trees around us, Report an error in the passage at 8:13 Highlight the passage at 8:13

8:29 people and animals, Report an error in the passage at 8:29 Highlight the passage at 8:29

8:34 people of the earth and hills, mountains, oceans. Report an error in the passage at 8:34 Highlight the passage at 8:34

8:46 far as your mind so I this whole planet. Report an error in the passage at 8:46 Highlight the passage at 8:46

8:58 touch and imagine. Report an error in the passage at 8:58 Highlight the passage at 8:58

9:02 at this very subtle level changing right now. Report an error in the passage at 9:02 Highlight the passage at 9:02

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9:43 understood how much things change at the time. Report an error in the passage at 9:43 Highlight the passage at 9:43

9:58 is beautiful and pleasing. Report an error in the passage at 9:58 Highlight the passage at 9:58

10:09 it as a form of blessed and happy. It's also true that whatever is displeasing and painful also changes. Report an error in the passage at 10:09 Highlight the passage at 10:09

10:25 Push it away. Report an error in the passage at 10:25 Highlight the passage at 10:25

10:35 Everything around us, including ourselves, isn't permanent. Report an error in the passage at 10:35 Highlight the passage at 10:35

10:46 isn't understanding emptiness, it's a step in the right direction. Report an error in the passage at 10:46 Highlight the passage at 10:46

10:57 probably not the way they're here. Report an error in the passage at 10:57 Highlight the passage at 10:57

11:05 each one of us realizing the prevalence. Report an error in the passage at 11:05 Highlight the passage at 11:05

11:10 Actualizing that realization and it in our lives. Report an error in the passage at 11:10 Highlight the passage at 11:10

11:44 own time if you're ready. With Report an error in the passage at 11:44 Highlight the passage at 11:44

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12:22 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 12:22 Highlight the passage at 12:22

13:06 to read it through your principal class. Do people bring great copy of that? If somebody could get a couple of black books out. Do you know where those are, certainly? The black books right next to the white books on that shelf. Can you get me one? Report an error in the passage at 13:06 Highlight the passage at 13:06

13:23 Does anybody else need one? I'm Report an error in the passage at 13:23 Highlight the passage at 13:23

13:32 going to leave a couple here. I'm going to Report an error in the passage at 13:32 Highlight the passage at 13:32

13:42 read it together. Report an error in the passage at 13:42 Highlight the passage at 13:42

13:46 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. Listen with the pure mind, fortunate ones, who have no craving for the pleasures of life, and who to make future and fortune meaningful, strive to turn their eyes to the path which pleases the victors. Report an error in the passage at 13:46 Highlight the passage at 13:46

14:14 There is no way to end without pure renunciation, this striving for pleasant results in the ocean of life. It's because of their hankering 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. Report an error in the passage at 14:14 Highlight the passage at 14:14

14:42 In the cycle suffering, stop desire for the future. When you've meditated thus and feel not even a moment's wish for the good things of psychic life, and when you begin to think both night and day of achieving freedom, you've found renunciation. Renunciation, though, can never break the total bliss of matchless Buddhahood unless it's found by the purest wish, and so the wise seek the highest wish for enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 14:42 Highlight the passage at 14:42

15:12 They're swept along the four years of recurrence, chained up tight in past deeds, hard to undo, stuffed in a steel cage of grasping self, smothered in the pitch-black ignorance. In the limitless round they're born, and in their births are tortured by the three sufferings without break. Think how your mothers feel. Report an error in the passage at 15:12 Highlight the passage at 15:12

15:37 Think of what's happening to them. Try to develop this highest wish. You may master renunciation and the wish, but unless you have the wisdom perceiving reality, you cannot cut the root of cyclic life. Make efforts in the ways then to perceive dependent arising. Persons enter the path that pleases the Buddhas, when for all objects in this cycle are beyond, he sees that cause and effect can never fail. Report an error in the passage at 15:37 Highlight the passage at 15:37

16:07 And when for him they lose all solid appearance, you've yet to realize the thought of the able, as long as two ideas seem to you discreet. The appearance of things, infallible dependent arising, and emptiness beyond taking any position. At some point they no longer alternate, come together, just seeing that dependent arising never fails. Report an error in the passage at 16:07 Highlight the passage at 16:07

16:33 Brings realization that destroys how you hold to objects, and then your analysis with view is complete. In addition, the appearance prevents the existence extreme, emptiness that of non-existence, and if you see how emptiness shows in cause and effect, you'll never be stolen off by extreme views. When you've grasped as well as I the essential points of each of the three principal paths explained, Then go into isolation, my son, make mighty efforts, and quickly win your ultimate wish. Report an error in the passage at 16:33 Highlight the passage at 16:33

17:14 So, first of all, are there questions or anything come up doing the thinking and meditating on bodhicitta? You smashed them last week on bodhicitta. Remembering, of course, as I said, bodhicitta is, I mean, you could meditate on bodhicitta for years and years and years. It takes a while for it to get really into our hearts. And so I'm just giving you the briefest overview of it. Report an error in the passage at 17:14 Highlight the passage at 17:14

17:49 So hopefully it's planting some seeds so that at some point we can meditate on it in much greater detail. It definitely takes time. And it really takes time. Just like with all of this, it takes time for each of us to make it our own. That's what meditation does. It takes it both from being an intellectual. Report an error in the passage at 17:49 Highlight the passage at 17:49

18:11 Understanding to being a gut level, something that really touches your heart. And there is an entire Disturbing Buddhism class on it. And Geshe-la is going to teach on the guide to the bodhisattva's way of life on Wednesday nights, probably starting second or third week in April. And he'll do maybe three and a half months on that. When he first taught it, he taught it in four plus years. This is the brief view. Report an error in the passage at 18:11 Highlight the passage at 18:11

18:42 He's used to doing this line by line, that's the traditional method of teaching a text, would be line by line, so that's the way he taught Shantideva, and I feel so fortunate that I receive teachings like that. But many, many of us don't have that kind of time, so we look at the briefer version, which still for him is three and a half, four months. Report an error in the passage at 18:42 Highlight the passage at 18:42

19:04 And that's, I think, a brilliant book on understanding, but just really not a chance to send any questions or anything that came up. Report an error in the passage at 19:04 Highlight the passage at 19:04

19:20 In Report an error in the passage at 19:20 Highlight the passage at 19:20

19:42 meditation, talking myself through the meditations that we were, you know, said to do this week, it's a bit difficult for me because when I meditate, I just like to sit down and just meditate and clear my mind. And then if I have, I feel like I have to memorize something and then talk my way through it. So it was a bit difficult. Report an error in the passage at 19:42 Highlight the passage at 19:42

20:01 We've done these meditations before, but it's always with someone like you guiding us. So do you have any suggestions? You do kind of have to memorize it. It's an apt observation. Yeah, I mean, you could shortcut and record yourself and listen to that. I think ultimately it's better for you to memorize it because then you, when you hit a point that you might go deeper, Your voice isn't going to keep droning on, you know, which is also hard if I'm leading you. I can kind of think about where I might have paused and gone a little deeper, but that's not going to be true for all of you, I can guarantee you. Report an error in the passage at 20:01 Highlight the passage at 20:01

20:39 I have no other choice but to keep on plugging away. So really, when you get to know it, which is awkward at first, and that's true for all analytical meditations, it just takes some getting used to, looking at your notes and peeking and stuff like that. But when you get to the point where you know it, And you put away all your notes, then you can go really deeply into it. And then it can just become incredibly powerful because then it's like you can penetrate the words and you go very, very deeply in. Report an error in the passage at 20:39 Highlight the passage at 20:39

21:09 But it does take time. And I think that's part of why it takes time. It takes time for us to get familiar with it and then to be able to go beyond the way it's presented and to make it real with our own experiences and things like that. So it's okay to look at your nose. Totally okay to look at your nose. Yeah. Yeah, I think, I don't know if it was in here or if it's in the drop-in meditations, but I have mentioned before many times that for years I didn't think I was meditating because I was peaking. Report an error in the passage at 21:09 Highlight the passage at 21:09

21:41 So, please peak. I mean, there are ways to do it. And you definitely don't want to just be like, okay, I'm going to meditate now. You know, like, that's not right either. You want to try to have some... Reflection time so that you're not reading all of it. And it is hard to do. There's a balance. But the more familiar you get, the better. And eventually, I would assume, for me, because I've read this text, just this text so many times, and I've done the meditation so many times, then just even reading one verse begins to go in deep. Report an error in the passage at 21:41 Highlight the passage at 21:41

22:19 And that's what happens. The more times you go through a meditation and you have some experience, it's not so much true for the times that you don't have an experience, and you're just kind of like, she said to read this, I'm going to read it. But if you actually are spending some time and going into it to some degree, the more times you have an experience, they say, and I've had some experience of this, somebody just says the words bodhicitta or something like that, and you have some experience of that. Report an error in the passage at 22:19 Highlight the passage at 22:19

22:49 And then it means more to you than somebody saying bodhicitta. Then it's bodhicitta. You have some taste of it. And same is also true of impermanence. Report an error in the passage at 22:49 Highlight the passage at 22:49

23:03 So that's the point. It's for it to become something that's so meaningful to us that it begins to change. See the world. Report an error in the passage at 23:03 Highlight the passage at 23:03

23:14 They say, yeah, no matter what. Totally. And they say, no matter what. So there's never bad meditation. Even though we do the thing of going, well, that was horrible. Or, you know, that was really good or whatever. There's no bad meditation because you're always planting the seeds. You're always planting. Even with the meditation on the breath, as long as you have some sort of a bodhicitta motivation for it and some sort of a dedication for others, that you're still creating the seeds to have a stable mind Report an error in the passage at 23:14 Highlight the passage at 23:14

23:53 and attain mental concentration and meditation. So it's not wasted. It's never wasted. You are sure to have a profit at some point. Report an error in the passage at 23:53 Highlight the passage at 23:53

24:07 It's a good, you'll definitely invest well in this. Report an error in the passage at 24:07 Highlight the passage at 24:07

24:15 I don't know. Oh, profit. No, it's a profit, like a, oh, I see what you mean. Yeah, it isn't a profit. Report an error in the passage at 24:15 Highlight the passage at 24:15

24:26 Anything else? Report an error in the passage at 24:26 Highlight the passage at 24:26

24:30 The friend? Oh, wait. Report an error in the passage at 24:30 Highlight the passage at 24:30

24:37 What? It doesn't have to be. It has nothing to do with how profound it is. It's simply for, you could be asking what page number, blah, blah. Isn't it still useful for somebody to know? I was, well, there was a lot. A lot of things I was struck by, but it was always different because the friend, the stranger, the enemy was always changing. And especially with the stranger, I would review the events of the day and all these phases would come up. Report an error in the passage at 24:37 Highlight the passage at 24:37

25:09 So actually in a certain sense I found the meditation is always very different because I would follow loosely this procedure, but the phantasmagoria was always the Report an error in the passage at 25:09 Highlight the passage at 25:09

25:24 reactions to things. Yeah, and you can do it with the same person at all different positions. Report an error in the passage at 25:24 Highlight the passage at 25:24

25:33 It happens, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 25:33 Highlight the passage at 25:33

25:39 I think I might have, I don't know if I mentioned here, so somebody said at one point that they had done it with the same person in all three positions at the same time. It was their wife. Report an error in the passage at 25:39 Highlight the passage at 25:39

25:51 So, yeah, it's definitely very possible to see the same person. Oh, and actually, I want, you know, What if it is possible to meditate? Everybody's been our mother, everybody's also been our father. Yeah, and I mentioned that, actually. I mentioned that. They've all been our cousins. They've all been our brothers. They're our best friends. And one of those may hit you more profoundly than the others, too, depending on your relationship with those people. Report an error in the passage at 25:51 Highlight the passage at 25:51

26:19 I have a really close relationship, for example, with my sister. I'm just thinking of everyone having been my sister before. Especially because it gets past all the gender and the thing of now and what that person's like now because those are all accumulations of karma that have produced that and all those things exhaust and that person changes. Report an error in the passage at 26:19 Highlight the passage at 26:19

26:37 And it really gets you into some idea of looking beneath the surface and people a little bit more. It's very profound. Even if you can't quite get to the point of seeing an aunt as your mom. But in reality they say, yeah, of course. You know, every animal, every insect as well. Sometimes it's a little easier for us to start with people. Report an error in the passage at 26:37 Highlight the passage at 26:37

27:10 I'm still Report an error in the passage at 27:10 Highlight the passage at 27:10

27:16 frightened by smashing it above. I mean, the whole concept of karma still does something to my mind because it links up with, you know, guilt and retribution and moments of angry thoughts toward anybody. Am I condemning myself to hell for a thousand years because... that person shortchange me? You know, you know what I mean? But maybe that was just We are going to talk a little bit about karma. And definitely the karma class is coming up in June. Lama's going to teach it on Thursday nights. Report an error in the passage at 27:16 Highlight the passage at 27:16

27:55 And it's worth taking because karma is far more complex than we have any idea, which also sort of makes it a little bit more understandable in some way. you know Report an error in the passage at 27:55 Highlight the passage at 27:55

28:08 But it's also simple in a way too. It has more to do with that golden rule. If you have any idea that it feels like you do have some seeds or some imprint to understand it, then yeah, it does affect you on that level. Report an error in the passage at 28:08 Highlight the passage at 28:08

28:27 It's a good thing that you don't want to kill a bug. Maybe the fear isn't such a good thing. If it motivates you not to harm another, then it's a good thing. So it could be a good thing. And then just work on motivation a little bit so that it's compassion for that living creature rather than fear for your own suffering. Report an error in the passage at 28:27 Highlight the passage at 28:27

28:47 In reality, actually both could be true. But the good thing is that motivation, like I said, is 95 % of karma. So if you, I mean, there is mindfulness too. Like if we just sort of scratch and we... kill something it's really different karma then ah you know like that As far as the bug is concerned, the action is the same, but as far as what our mind has done, it's much, much huger negative karma to do it with this kind of hatred aversion, heavy, heavy hatred. Report an error in the passage at 28:47 Highlight the passage at 28:47

29:25 then, you know, but on the other hand, you kind of want to learn to be calm. That's why mindfulness, the meditating mindfulness, the mindfulness that we use in meditation actually helps us build the Mindfulness, and vice versa, in daily life as well, because the mindfulness of repeatedly bringing our mind back to the breath, noticing when it goes, it's the same, mindfulness, beginning to, oh, there's something itching, let me check first, before I just, you know. Report an error in the passage at 29:25 Highlight the passage at 29:25

29:54 And it's a slow, too. It's not necessarily a fast skill to learn the mindfulness of our speech and treat each other. It takes a long time, just like it takes a long time to keep our mind on the breath. Report an error in the passage at 29:54 Highlight the passage at 29:54

30:13 But it's... It's leading us in the same direction, exactly like John said, it's never wasted, because it does affect us in all those other ways too. Slowly, slowly, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 30:13 Highlight the passage at 30:13

30:29 Oh yeah, yeah, sure. Report an error in the passage at 30:29 Highlight the passage at 30:29

30:34 So this is going to reveal my ignorance totally, but... It should be fine, right, because I'm trying to cut down on my pride, so... That's right. Bodhicitta impermanent. Is bodhicitta impermanent? Well, any state of mind is impermanent, but... When I talk about when we realize something versus when we have an insight, they say that it is possible to have an irreversible realization of bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 30:34 Highlight the passage at 30:34

31:09 But I think you're constantly creating the karmic causes for it. So I think the difference is this word unchangeable versus permanent and unchangeable in Buddhist lexicon are not synonymous. Something can be... Report an error in the passage at 31:09 Highlight the passage at 31:09

31:32 Something can be impermanent and changeable. Something can be permanent and changeable. They don't have to be the same. Usually when they talk about things being permanent, they mean unchangeable. What's true in our mind is being unchangeable. That is, I mean, it's usually, when I, Report an error in the passage at 31:32 Highlight the passage at 31:32

32:00 No, I'm getting it reversed now. At any rate, when somebody generates bodhicitta, actual genuine bodhicitta, and there are levels of bodhicitta. So there are people who become bodhisattvas. You become a bodhisattva when you generate actual bodhicitta. There are levels. So there are actually ten, they call them bhumis, or levels, or grades, or stages of bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 32:00 Highlight the passage at 32:00

32:25 It still reverts back. It is possible, I should say. For it to revert back, like all the way until the final two levels. And they tell like this one story, there's a story of this bodhisattva. I think he's like, so he's not eighth level yet, so seventh level or, but he's quite high as far as we're concerned. Come on in, there's a couple. Report an error in the passage at 32:25 Highlight the passage at 32:25

32:50 Might want to keep your jacket on. It's pretty chilly. So there's a story of him walking along the road and somebody comes up and the bodhisattva, Sattvas basically get off on helping others. They get so much thrill out of helping others that it literally is so delightful that it really fuels their enthusiasm. Report an error in the passage at 32:50 Highlight the passage at 32:50

33:15 They get so excited. So somebody comes along and asks for, says, you know, I want your eye. Give me your eye. I need your eye. And so he's like, great. So he reaches in, rips out his eye and hands it to the guy. And the guy goes, you did that with your left hand. And he got so angry, and then he has to start over again. But the good news is that he actually did generate it again. Report an error in the passage at 33:15 Highlight the passage at 33:15

33:41 But in that moment of letting go of that person's... You know how the whole thing we were talking about with bodhisattva bodhicitta is that it is... The scope of bodhicitta is so vast. That's what includes every single being without exception. If you lose one, you've lost bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 33:41 Highlight the passage at 33:41

34:05 Big. So... There are actually vows, and bodhisattva vows are open, you can study them before you take them. I remember when Geshe was talking about that, this term, when you lose bodhicitta, he said that's letting go of somebody for one day and one night. In other words, maintaining anger at somebody, thinking they're not worth the effort, which is what this guy, this story, he's like, studying it rings, they're not worth this effort, I gave this guy my eye. Report an error in the passage at 34:05 Highlight the passage at 34:05

34:39 So holding that kind of anger for one day and one night is going to reach the bound. It's so hard to do. But it makes sense, logically. If our mind is supposed to be so vast that it includes all beings, and we're getting caught up in these, and I mean, I'm as guilty as the next person, because they're training wheels, basically. Report an error in the passage at 34:39 Highlight the passage at 34:39

35:00 But they make you think, if I let go of you for one day and one night and don't care about your welfare, how am I going to take your all beings out there? I don't know. I mean, it makes sense. We have to grow into it. Report an error in the passage at 35:00 Highlight the passage at 35:00

35:13 So it is still possible to lose for quite a ways. And then they also have this one that they call candy cane bodhicitta, or sugar cane bodhicitta, where it feels like it's genuine, but it's just because something's happened that's really profound in your life, like your mom dies or something like that. Report an error in the passage at 35:13 Highlight the passage at 35:13

35:33 And so you change the way you are with people and you take care of people more, and then it wears off. And you start getting all cranky again. Report an error in the passage at 35:33 Highlight the passage at 35:33

35:42 That's why they call it that, yeah, so it's not the real thing. But even with the real thing, they say, yeah. But in general, I think most mental states are... Report an error in the passage at 35:42 Highlight the passage at 35:42

36:00 The thing that's interesting is Buddhahood is also impermanent, but it's changing. The mind is permanent, but it's changing. Report an error in the passage at 36:00 Highlight the passage at 36:00

36:12 You know, because the mind's constantly moving. And Buddhas are basically perfect minds. That's all they are. They manifest all these different bodies to help us. But the Dharmakaya... The Buddha's mind is actually just one. That's all the Buddha is. And so since mind moves, mind changes, Buddhists change. Report an error in the passage at 36:12 Highlight the passage at 36:12

36:31 But because they produce only pure karma, they can only stay in bliss. They couldn't, even if they wanted to, they couldn't suffer. Report an error in the passage at 36:31 Highlight the passage at 36:31

36:50 Yeah, it changes, but it stays. Yeah, you're not going to. They actually say, once you have a direct perception of emptiness, and we are going to talk about emptiness tonight. Report an error in the passage at 36:50 Highlight the passage at 36:50

37:04 One of the things that happens to you after you have this direct experience of reality as Buddhists perceive reality, not the way we perceive reality. Report an error in the passage at 37:04 Highlight the passage at 37:04

37:15 Now one of the things that happens is you actually see your own enlightenment. You know when it's going to happen, exactly how many lifetimes it will take for you to get enlightened so that you have no doubt anymore. You see what's going to happen. So they say it's sort of like you're on a conveyor belt from that point. Report an error in the passage at 37:15 Highlight the passage at 37:15

37:35 Will you still get angry? Will you still mess up? Yeah, you will, but you're on the way. Because with this direct perception of emptiness, you can start eliminating all those things one by one because every time I get angry, I can then see you as you really are, me as I really am. I can analyze my way out of it using reasoning and all because I've had that direct experience. It's like if you, what do they say, like with sugar? Report an error in the passage at 37:35 Highlight the passage at 37:35

38:00 You can read all about sugar. I can teach you all about sugar. But once you taste sugar, you have this totally different experience of sugar than anybody else can tell you. And you believe in sugar in a way, I mean if I could take that analogy one step further, in a way that you wouldn't if you had only read about it or thought about it or even meditated deeply on sugar. Report an error in the passage at 38:00 Highlight the passage at 38:00

38:22 It's really different once you taste it. And so once you taste emptiness, like that's the one affliction it wipes out instantly because you just don't have doubt anymore. You get it in this. You've been steeped in emptiness in a way. we haven't been unless guys are not who you seem As ordinary beings, we Report an error in the passage at 38:22 Highlight the passage at 38:22

38:51 you on your toes, doesn't it? So now we're going to start with verse 9 of the root text, where it's saying that, yeah, renunciation and bodhicitta are great. Oh yeah, you know the root text. Yeah, that's great. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 38:51 Highlight the passage at 38:51

39:16 Put the root text in my notes. Report an error in the passage at 39:16 Highlight the passage at 39:16

39:23 I think we're only going to do 9, 10, and 11. Report an error in the passage at 39:23 Highlight the passage at 39:23

39:31 So when it says the section, oh yeah, there you go, there, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 39:31 Highlight the passage at 39:31

39:40 I'm going to read that loud to you anyway. You may master renunciation and the wish, but unless you have the wisdom perceiving reality, you cannot cut the root of cyclic life. Make efforts in the ways then to perceive dependent arising. A person's entered the path that pleases the Buddhas, when for all objects in the cycle are beyond, he sees that cause and effect. Report an error in the passage at 39:40 Highlight the passage at 39:40

40:01 can never fail, and when for him they lose all solid appearance. You have yet to realize the thought of the able, as long as two ideas seem to you disparate, the appearance of things, infallible dependent arising, and emptiness beyond taking Do you need a copy also? So Report an error in the passage at 40:01 Highlight the passage at 40:01

40:31 what emptiness is and what it is not. Emptiness tends to be one of those things in Buddhism that sounds so mysterious and esoteric and woo-woo. Report an error in the passage at 40:31 Highlight the passage at 40:31

40:52 I think it sounds so philosophical and strange that it doesn't seem like it really applies to me. When you first start hearing about its emptiness, it's emptiness. And so you have to think, what is empty and what is it empty of? and you know. Report an error in the passage at 40:52 Highlight the passage at 40:52

41:08 Because it's just a term that they've chosen in English to try to fit with this term shunyata in Sanskrit. So in reality we have to know that everything in Buddhism works because of emptiness without the fact actually that things are empty of inherent existence or some solid intrinsic kind of concrete. Report an error in the passage at 41:08 Highlight the passage at 41:08

41:38 existence, then nothing else will happen. There would be no Buddhahood. We couldn't become Buddhists. Karma wouldn't exist. Saṃsāra wouldn't exist. Nirvāṇa couldn't exist. Everything requires emptiness to work. So we're going to talk a little bit about that. Master Nargajuna, who is one of the great pandits. Report an error in the passage at 41:38 Highlight the passage at 41:38

42:10 In our history, in our lineage, said, anyone who knows not emptiness has no hope of freedom at all. Left in darkness they will circle in the prison the six realms of pain. Report an error in the passage at 42:10 Highlight the passage at 42:10

42:24 So basically there's no way out of this mess without understanding emptiness. And even, they say, even the tiniest understanding of emptiness, even just the vaguest, even as much as you'll learn about tonight, puts a crack in saṃsāra. It begins to sort of unravel. Report an error in the passage at 42:24 Highlight the passage at 42:24

42:46 Slowly, but it does. Of course, it behooves us to actually remember emptiness, because that's what's going to do it, is our mind working with this stuff, not so much just some term out there in space. Because that term's been there out in space for a long time and affected our lives. So that's why we started tonight's class with this meditation on impermanence, because impermanence is especially subtle impermanence. Report an error in the passage at 42:46 Highlight the passage at 42:46

43:14 It starts to break down this solid way that we see reality, both our bodies, our minds, ourselves, you know, everything in this room, each other. When we think about it, even scientifically, from a Western point of view, every one of these things does not exist the way they appear to my eyes to exist. Report an error in the passage at 43:14 Highlight the passage at 43:14

43:35 You guys look pretty solid, you know. This table looks very solid. I feel pretty damn solid until my knee goes on. Or until I notice gray hairs. But in reality, we aren't solid at all. Actually, we're incredibly fragile. It's almost shocking, actually, that we last as long as we do. Once you get to a certain age, you start realizing that. If you even just look at the little tiny bones that are in your wrists or your fingers and things, it's kind of amazing that we last. Report an error in the passage at 43:35 Highlight the passage at 43:35

44:05 But yet, when we look with our eyes, it seems so solid. But then somebody dies and we're shocked. Completely shocked. Or I break something. I break a clock. Like even a crappy clock. I drop it in. Or I find a hole in some shirt that I wear all the time. Report an error in the passage at 44:05 Highlight the passage at 44:05

44:25 And clearly it's been working towards that for a long time. But it still shocks us. So that means we really don't get it, even though intellectually we get it. Which is why we spend a lot of time on it. Because it's just reality. It's not like a grand, amazing teaching. So getting that is a step towards getting emptiness because emptiness is simply getting, is penetrating that deeper and deeper. Report an error in the passage at 44:25 Highlight the passage at 44:25

44:55 What causes our suffering, the Buddha said, is this idea that I exist and that I am solid and permanent and unchanging and intrinsically real. You are solid and permanent and intrinsically real. This clock is solid and unchanging. Report an error in the passage at 44:55 Highlight the passage at 44:55

45:18 And then reifying all of those things, misperceptions lead to afflicted states of mind that cause me to act, that cause me to create karma, that karma then ripens, and then I suffer. It's all based on this misunderstanding of reality. So these teachings on emptiness basically is what liberate us. This is what allows us to be, this is what cuts, they say, this is what cuts the root of cyclic existence. This basic misconception is the root. Report an error in the passage at 45:18 Highlight the passage at 45:18

45:56 That's the ignorance that everybody has. It's not me not knowing span. It's this basic misunderstanding and grasping. So we'll keep talking, don't worry. If you didn't get it then, don't worry. It takes thousands of hours of study and contemplation and meditation to have a direct process. But they say that it is totally possible for us. So it's kind of one of the, it's like with calm abiding for those of us who did the how to meditate class. Report an error in the passage at 45:56 Highlight the passage at 45:56

46:28 It is an achievable goal. Like it is possible. It's not just something for the grown-ups. It is possible. So we start here. So the reality is, I mean what does this have to do with our lives? The reality is that we see things in terms of absolutes. I see things in terms of this is a good day, that's a bad day, he's a good person, she's a bad person. Report an error in the passage at 46:28 Highlight the passage at 46:28

46:59 I am this way and will always be this way. I am what I am. you know, Report an error in the passage at 46:59 Highlight the passage at 46:59

47:05 And things actually have never existed that way. Any of us that have lived for more than 15 years, 17 years, know that things constantly change, even if we just think about it in terms of impermanence. And thinking that things are solid and unchangeable like that and absolute and unchangeable like that actually takes away any power that we have. Report an error in the passage at 47:05 Highlight the passage at 47:05

47:32 It limits us. It keeps us really, really tiny, you know? So that's why even the tiniest understanding of emptiness begins to soften and open and we begin to realize that things are actually much more fluid and changeable. Report an error in the passage at 47:32 Highlight the passage at 47:32

47:54 So, let's see, so we're going to start. The basic way that I like to say what shunyata or emptiness, things don't exist the way they appear. Report an error in the passage at 47:54 Highlight the passage at 47:54

48:15 That's basically it. Things are empty of that soft, reified, concrete way that they say. That's what emptiness is referring to. They are empty of that. What we're going to talk about tonight is, well then, if they're empty of that, how do they exist? That's dependent arising. So in the text, you're talking about dependent arising. People talk about dependent arising. There are two sides of the same coin, but they are not. Report an error in the passage at 48:15 Highlight the passage at 48:15

48:47 Dependent arising is that things exist. Report an error in the passage at 48:47 Highlight the passage at 48:47

48:55 That's how they exist. And then emptiness is how they don't exist. Lack of inherent existence. Does this mean that nothing exists? No. This is the middle way. This is the alternate, you know, when he talks in the text, when you alternate between these two things. The middle way is referring to the fact that things do not, you know, that there's no lack of complete existence, which is nihilism, and that things... Report an error in the passage at 48:55 Highlight the passage at 48:55

49:28 don't exist in the way that they appear to, which is eternalism or is where it looks like if this throne looks like it's going to be around forever to me, that doesn't mean it will, but we base our reality on that, that's wrong too. it's not that and it's not nothing, it's something in between that. that's what usually when they're talking about the middle way, that's what they're talking about. Report an error in the passage at 49:28 Highlight the passage at 49:28

49:57 Things do not exist. Out there, in that way that they appear to, separate from me, my mind, my input in the situation, concrete permanently, everything is empty of this inherent absolute existence. That is how the Buddha observed reality to be. So, for example, there is no inherently existent, absolutely delightful cake out there, separate from me. Report an error in the passage at 49:57 Highlight the passage at 49:57

50:35 Separate from all of my feeling about what makes a good cake, what makes it delightful to my taste. It doesn't just exist separate from that. My mind and my karma mixes up all this collection of data, smell, taste, substance, sound if it had any shape, color. And it mixes it all up and it arranges it in a certain way. And as I eat it, I experience happiness. If I've created positive karma, I experience, you know, food poisoning if I create a lot of negative karma with the same shapes and sizes. Report an error in the passage at 50:35 Highlight the passage at 50:35

51:21 And we've all had this experience when we, you know, three of us will go to dinner at a restaurant and one person will just be like, oh, that's just great. And somebody else will be like. You know, I'm never sending anyone there again and then somebody else would just be like neutral. This happens all the time and this is, the Buddha would say, this has to do with the way that our karma forces us to perceive something. Report an error in the passage at 51:21 Highlight the passage at 51:21

51:45 So karma is created by acts, positive, negative or neutral acts, acts of body, speech and mind. So if we taste a cake and we see it as delightful. Or we experience a person as fun to be with, it's because we've created positive karma. We're having a positive existence. We're having a positive experience, I should say. If we taste a cake and it tastes horrid, or we experience somebody who's really, really difficult to be around, it's due to our karma. Report an error in the passage at 51:45 Highlight the passage at 51:45

52:25 It's due to the karma that we've created with our actions of body, speech and mind. What's good about this is that karma, It's also changeable. Karma changes. Karma is not destiny. I am not destined to always either love or hate chocolate cake or even be able to eat it. Report an error in the passage at 52:25 Highlight the passage at 52:25

52:45 It shifts and changes and it actually ultimately allows us to experience life the way Buddhists experience life. It's because of karma and because things are empty and inherent existence that we can become enlightened. Otherwise, if our mind were solid and unchangeable, we wouldn't be able to perfect it. We wouldn't be able to generate bodhicitta and go through the levels and generate actual bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 52:45 Highlight the passage at 52:45

53:16 We wouldn't be able to have a direct perception. So, ultimately, it's possible due to karma and emptiness to have the experiences that we want to have by creating the karma that allows us to have the experiences that we want to have. That's how our actions and what we do with our body, speech and mind purposefully, intentionally allow us to go from this to this. Report an error in the passage at 53:16 Highlight the passage at 53:16

53:48 It's possible. Report an error in the passage at 53:48 Highlight the passage at 53:48

53:54 Because of emptiness, any object that we choose is not going to be the same to any two different people or three different people or four different people because of our karma. We do have collective karma with things, and we all in the room may see this as a clock, for example, or a piece of paper. But our relationship with that clock or paper could be really, really different. Report an error in the passage at 53:54 Highlight the passage at 53:54

54:22 Some people in particular may really run this piece of paper and come up and wait for it after it clocks. So it's not the same thing for any person, for any three people. They actually have this one story. Report an error in the passage at 54:22 Highlight the passage at 54:22

54:38 From, I believe it's from a sūtra, where three different types of beings are experiencing the same liquid. So there's liquid in a glass and these three, it sounds like being a joke. Report an error in the passage at 54:38 Highlight the passage at 54:38

54:57 Proud of being a deva and a human walk into a bar. And they each pick up this glass and they all look at it and they see something completely different. The human sees it as water because that's the karma that I've created. as a human to see this. Report an error in the passage at 54:57 Highlight the passage at 54:57

55:13 The Prada sees it as something disgusting. The Pradas are sometimes called hungry ghosts. They are sentient beings. They are living beings. And our minds can go into that if we have a lot of craving. It comes from having a lot of craving in our mind. But they have the karma where they'll see liquid and they'll come up to it and it'll be, it's almost like a mirage. Either it'll disappear. Report an error in the passage at 55:13 Highlight the passage at 55:13

55:40 Or it'll be something really disgusting that they can't drink, like acid or pus or something like that. So he picks up the glass and he sees it as that. The Deva sees it as this elixir or ambrosia or something like nectar of the gods or something. And it's the same shapes and colors or lack thereof that are making this up. Report an error in the passage at 55:40 Highlight the passage at 55:40

56:04 And they all are seeing it validly for their karma. So none of them are wrong. They're just seeing it in a different way because of the karmic imprints that they've created due to their actions. The same is true for... I don't have a pen. I'm going to do the pen thing. I'll do this. Nah, pens are worse than you. That's pretty boring because it's so boring. Report an error in the passage at 56:04 Highlight the passage at 56:04

56:29 Actually, this is a kind of boring pen, sorry. So, the same is true for pen. One of my teachers always use the pen. I think because pens are so plain, you know. Report an error in the passage at 56:29 Highlight the passage at 56:29

56:44 So when we look at this, this object, we see pen and it seems like pen is coming from the object itself. But actually it's a cylinder. We might know that it's plastic. It has a certain shape. It has a point. It has a certain shape at the bottom. It has some writing on it. It has a lid that fits. Our eyes are actually only seeing... Report an error in the passage at 56:44 Highlight the passage at 56:44

57:11 Our eyes actually, when we use our eyes, our eyes tend to go like this. It tries to take in everything. You can't really see the back. But we fill in what we don't see and we pretend we see it. We do this all the time. We do this with the back of the cup too, although I did choose a clue. I didn't mean to do that. But we see what we don't see. Report an error in the passage at 57:11 Highlight the passage at 57:11

57:32 We kind of make it up. So even though we can really only see the front of the cylinder, we kind of fill in the back. In our mind, we see it as a total pen. We don't see it as anything less than a pen. In reality, it's just a cylinder. It's shapes and colors. We have the karma to see it as a pen. A dog would see it as a chewy toy. It would be perfectly valid for a dog to use this as a chewy toy. Report an error in the passage at 57:32 Highlight the passage at 57:32

58:00 It might make us angry, but it would work as a chewy toy. And he's created, he or she has created the karma to perceive it as a chewy toy. An ant might just see it as a barrier to food that it wants to get to. Somebody from a culture where there are no pens, a human from a culture where there are no pens, I don't know if there any exist anymore, might see it as a tool, like something interesting that you could kind of dig with. Report an error in the passage at 58:00 Highlight the passage at 58:00

58:27 And that would also be a valid way that their karma is forcing them to see this. So it's not inherently a pen. We have the karma collectively to see it as a pen. And we can use it as a pen. But none of those other beings are wrong in their perception. They just have the karma to see it in a certain way. Report an error in the passage at 58:27 Highlight the passage at 58:27

58:50 We can also talk about, if we're talking about the three beings in the water, if we're talking about the three beings in the water, we can also think about the screaming boss. And I think some people have heard the screaming boss thing. If I come into work and my boss starts screaming at me, it can be... Report an error in the passage at 58:50 Highlight the passage at 58:50

59:11 A completely different experience for three people that are there. For me, it's not so great. He's screaming at me and I'm not happy. Report an error in the passage at 59:11 Highlight the passage at 59:11

59:22 For Tony, it could be really great because he's just been waiting for me to get it. He's seen me coming to light every day and he's like, yeah, finally getting it. And then for Courtney, it's just kind of like, whatever. Things are a little bit loud in here, but she just continues to do her work. Completely neutral. Report an error in the passage at 59:22 Highlight the passage at 59:22

59:41 The reasoning is, you know, so from his side, from the boss's side, he's actually, I mean, he's not necessarily inherently evil, although when I go home that night, I'll be painting that picture, because that's the way I'm seeing him. I'm seeing him as horrible from his own side. I have nothing to do with the situation. I'm right, I'm the innocent victim. He's screaming at me. But from his side, you know, maybe I come in late all the time, and he's asked me repeatedly, and he finally is just kind of... Report an error in the passage at 59:41 Highlight the passage at 59:41

1:00:10 From his side, maybe everyone else in his life sees him as wonderful. So he's not all evil. He's not inherently evil. But Tony has created the positive karma to see this as a really wonderful and delightful thing. I've created the negative karma to be getting blasted, probably by being a screaming boss. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:10 Highlight the passage at 1:00:10

1:00:32 And she's just neutral karma. Nothing bad or good in this whole situation. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:32 Highlight the passage at 1:00:32

1:00:40 um... Report an error in the passage at 1:00:40 Highlight the passage at 1:00:40

1:00:44 so he's gonna have that So what's this pointing to is that he's empty of any inherent reality. We're placing all these, I'm placing stories on him, Tony's actually even probably placing stories on him. He may be placing stories on himself and his own view of himself. Just the same way that this water is empty of inherent reality in the case of the three beings who are drinking it. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:44 Highlight the passage at 1:00:44

1:01:07 So this is just talking about the way that we place a story on... Everything that we come into contact with and then don't, which is bad enough, as Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, that's bad enough. But then we believe it to be inherently like that. So, for example, if I get into a fight with Stacey, I believe she's horrible from her own side. And I always see her that way. And then I begin telling all of you she's that way too. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:07 Highlight the passage at 1:01:07

1:01:35 Right? We all have done this before. Or maybe I'm the only one. But we see something where it doesn't exist. And then we believe that it exists that way. So sometimes it's as simple as the everyday stuff in our lives. But where it gets us into trouble usually isn't with a pen. It's not usually with a glass of water or a cloth. It's usually with how I perceive you and how I see you and whether or not I am actually able to see you at all. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:35 Highlight the passage at 1:01:35

1:02:08 And it starts getting into kind of woo-woo. stuff at that point because it's sort of like how much am I actually even and the Buddha would actually say we don't ever But Report an error in the passage at 1:02:08 Highlight the passage at 1:02:08

1:02:25 it begins with this whole view of I. This one here, you know, this one who has the thoughts and feelings and is worth defending and is worth getting into fights over and is worth quitting jobs over. You know, all the ones that we create, this whole view of ourselves that we then keep layers stories onto and then we believe it's like that we've actually layered it up with all this stuff Report an error in the passage at 1:02:25 Highlight the passage at 1:02:25

1:03:01 And it's not just the mind, it's something bigger than both of those things. And then based on that... All these afflicted states of mind arise because then we start defending this I, this self that exists so Report an error in the passage at 1:03:01 Highlight the passage at 1:03:01

1:03:25 worth everything that we do for it. And the Buddha then shines the flashlight and says, but actually it doesn't exist. It's just the stories. That's all that's there. So, you know, what do we do with this information? First we start where we are. We're going to start with understanding how things do exist. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:25 Highlight the passage at 1:03:25

1:03:50 If they don't exist like that, if they don't exist the way they look, how do they exist? So first we understand karma. We have to begin understanding karma. Even just knowing the basics. If I'm getting screamed at by the screaming boss, even if, you know, I'm not saying that you have to believe this right away, but start playing with it. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:50 Highlight the passage at 1:03:50

1:04:16 If I'm having an experience... Then, according to the Buddha, I created the causes of that experience in my past life. There are two reactions, right? Scream back, which perpetuates, keeps that experience in my life coming around again. Or, remember how it all works, which is applying wisdom. That's what wisdom is referring to. Remembering how karma and emptiness work together, and remembering it. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:16 Highlight the passage at 1:04:16

1:04:48 How I choose to react is what's going to shift it. And it's not easy. I'm not saying it's easy. It's simple to understand. Not so easy to do. So watch how we react to the stuff that happens. That's what allows it to change. We're not simple pawns and it's not destiny. But how we react to the stuff that happens to us is what allows it to begin to shift. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:48 Highlight the passage at 1:04:48

1:05:21 A lot of times people talk about free will. That's where the free will comes in. The free will comes in with how we respond to whatever is happening to us. And we've caused a thing that's happening, but we can also change what happens next. We are the filmmakers, you know. We may be watching the documentary that was made in The Last Life, but we get to make the next film, you know. And so everything that we're doing is creating the causes for the next film. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:21 Highlight the passage at 1:05:21

1:05:58 And Venerable René said, every time you act out of ignorance, you create more suffering for yourself. Every time you give in to desire, he said one time, you just create the causes for more desire. Every time you give in to anger, you create the causes for more desire. It's so hard. It's really hard because it's habits. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:58 Highlight the passage at 1:05:58

1:06:21 But even if you can remember it, you know, a day later. It's better than what we've been doing, which is just wasting lifetimes without ever even noticing that we're doing it. And I say that because it really is like that. I think the first thing that you can hope for is noticing it within a day or two and then noticing it within the same day and then noticing it within a few hours and then noticing it within an hour and then noticing it after you finish screaming at your boss and you're walking to the bathroom and then noticing it. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:21 Highlight the passage at 1:06:21

1:06:58 Why are you screaming at the boss? And you do these crazy things. Once you become a Buddhist, you do these things. Stopping in the middle of doing something that you don't want to do anymore. You want to break that habit. Because that's the only thing that's going to change it. That's the only thing that's going to change it. It's doing that, not because I'm telling you to do that, but doing it because you're getting how it works. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:58 Highlight the passage at 1:06:58

1:07:20 You're getting how karma and emptiness are causing you to suffer. We haven't even gotten anyone else yet. We're just trying to understand. How it makes us suffer. So dependent arising. Everything arises in dependence on something. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:20 Highlight the passage at 1:07:20

1:07:39 This is where we're starting to get to. Sometimes dependent arising is called dependent origination. I like dependent arising because it sort of makes more sense. They often use this term arising when they're talking about how the mind works. When I say they, I mean Tibetans when they're describing the mind. Let's say like an object arises in the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:39 Highlight the passage at 1:07:39

1:08:01 Kind of makes sense, but it's not something that we would say. I wouldn't normally say, you know, the cup rises in my mind, like it doesn't sound right, but when I study the mind, it does act like that word. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:01 Highlight the passage at 1:08:01

1:08:17 So dependent arising makes sense to me in that translation, but you will see it in other ways, interdependent, another way of describing the same thing. Nothing arises independently, everything arises dependent. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:17 Highlight the passage at 1:08:17

1:08:40 So this cup didn't come into being on its own. Somebody designed it. Somebody made it. Probably several people were involved in it. Somebody had to make the plant. Somebody had to train the people on how to make the cups. Somebody had to design that. Somebody had to market it. All these people and beings that were involved in the making of this cup and then the making of that factory and then the making of those people, their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents and all the food they ate. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:40 Highlight the passage at 1:08:40

1:09:11 So it's like this myriad of... of beings were involved in me having this glass And that's true for every single thing that we think of, or do, or everything, all the flowers. Millions of beings' lives have been affected by everything that we have in our lives. And none of us exist. No man is an island. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:11 Highlight the passage at 1:09:11

1:09:40 Whoever said that was absolutely true, was absolutely right. So, I mean, think about the pen. You know, the pen came about due to all the causes and conditions that created that pen. That's what's meant when you talk about causes and conditions. People use that term, too. All the things that went into the screaming boss. You know, all the things that, not just my own lightness, but everything, all the conditions that might have led to him screaming at me, which could have been, you know, his wife left him and he also has the flu. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:40 Highlight the passage at 1:09:40

1:10:16 You know, you can't stand, you know, nuns, you know what I mean? And then all the things that led to all of those, you know, and all the things that led to Tony being happy that I got screamed at, you know, so there's like this myriad of all these things that it's almost like this tapestry that's being created. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:16 Highlight the passage at 1:10:16

1:10:36 And none of this, I mean, it's profound, but it's also simple, you know, it's like, this is true for every cushion, you know, people, people. these cushions, they made these, we forget all that, and we look and it's just like, oh, there's the house. We just, it's almost like it's partless. There's the house. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:36 Highlight the passage at 1:10:36

1:10:53 We don't think about what went into the making of it. There's the water. We don't think about the fact that it came and there were rivers and beans and dams and... So the Buddha is simply pointing out that all these things are interconnected and all are interdependent and nothing It's just out there, me looking at it, Report an error in the passage at 1:10:53 Highlight the passage at 1:10:53

1:11:21 no connection between me. So, Gashula would say, when you talk about the term causes and conditions, Gashula says the main cause is always karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:21 Highlight the passage at 1:11:21

1:11:35 That's the main cause, but there are other causes, and conditions is everything else, and conditions is like billions, you know, like so many conditions. The meditation that you're going to do this week is a meditation on Dependent Arising by Vinaburvina. And she created it, I think, based on this one sentence that Kentsu Rinpoche said at one point when he was in a teaching, and he used her as an example, and he said, it can be said that everything in the history of the universe was a condition, a cause or condition for Venom Rubina. She wasn't for Venom Rubina, though. And so she took that and she just ran with it. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:35 Highlight the passage at 1:11:35

1:12:24 So that's going to be your meditation. And it is kind of, I mean, you can hear a voice in it when you do this meditation because she's talking about the mountain of peas and carrots that your mom ate and how everything that you're clothing and the hospital and the people who created the heaters in the hospital and it is, it's all, it's all apart and it is all interconnected. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:24 Highlight the passage at 1:12:24

1:12:48 We just don't see it that way. So it's like a completely different. There are three aspects of dependent arising. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:48 Highlight the passage at 1:12:48

1:13:00 Three aspects of dependent arising is explaining how things arise due to, the first is causes and conditions. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:00 Highlight the passage at 1:13:00

1:13:12 The second is that things arise due to parts. Everything that we see, even though it looks partless, there's a table, if I begin to look at it, I'm going to see not just the legs and the top and the sides and the screws and the wood and the, you know, whatever that white stuff is and the bottom of it, whatever that's made of, but Going down deeper, right? Like we did in the opening meditation, thinking about, okay, but it's also made up of atomic particles, you know, and then I go down deeper and they all have parts, and then it goes down deeper and deeper. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:12 Highlight the passage at 1:13:12

1:13:46 It's not the way it appears to, you know, it's not solid and partless. It's actually, everything can be broken down into parts. And actually, if I start looking for table, you know, where's the table? Where is the table on all those parts? You know, if I keep looking and going deeper and deeper looking for the parts, which one of them is the table, you know? Report an error in the passage at 1:13:46 Highlight the passage at 1:13:46

1:14:15 So, anyway, and then the, we'll talk about that actually in a second, a little more detail. The third level, so these are actually going from sort of gross to more, I'm sorry, from gross or more superficial to deeper. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:15 Highlight the passage at 1:14:15

1:14:33 So causes and conditions is the first, but it doesn't include everything. It doesn't include anything that's unchanging. And there are a few things that are considered unchanging. Space is considered unchanging. We don't cause much negative karma based on space, but there is space. And so they had to keep sort of refuting and debating until they came up with the next one. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:33 Highlight the passage at 1:14:33

1:14:55 So the next one was parts. So that covers space, because space has directional parts. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:55 Highlight the passage at 1:14:55

1:15:05 Go deep enough. And so the third level is what's called the highest school. These are actually tenets of the different schools of philosophy within Buddhist thought. The most subtle view of how things arise is that things arise as a mere label on whatever arises due to causes and conditions. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:05 Highlight the passage at 1:15:05

1:15:29 In other words, the third level contains the first two, so it's not like you leave. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:29 Highlight the passage at 1:15:29

1:15:38 Spend more time on this one next week. So as we're studying these views of dependent arising or interdependence, it's important to keep reminding ourselves that dependent arising or interdependence is not the same as emptiness. They're actually ways for us to understand how emptiness works. I need your pen. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:38 Highlight the passage at 1:15:38

1:16:07 How emptiness works. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:07 Highlight the passage at 1:16:07

1:16:13 Spent three years studying the wrong kind of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:13 Highlight the passage at 1:16:13

1:16:19 Remember we were talking about the middle way. A lot of times when people start studying emptiness, they fall immediately into nihilism. Nihilism is thinking that nothing exists. If nothing exists, then why on earth do I need to be kind, treat you well, care about others, develop compassion, make good karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:19 Highlight the passage at 1:16:19

1:16:43 If nothing existed at all, nothing would matter. And that's where we don't want to go. So we start with studying dependent arising to keep from falling into the world. Lama Tsongkhapa, who is the founder of this particular tradition of Buddhism, said the easiest way to understand emptiness is through understanding how things dependently arise, how everything arises independently. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:43 Highlight the passage at 1:16:43

1:17:12 Because it keeps it, we are focusing on how things do exist other than focusing on how they don't exist. If we spend too much time focusing on how they don't exist, we keep falling into it. Oh, then nothing exists, and that's not it. It's just that they don't exist the way we think. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:12 Highlight the passage at 1:17:12

1:17:32 But the question does come up, so if the high school thinks this really subtle thing, why on earth do we spend time thinking about fussing additions and parts? Why do we spend any time here at all? The reality is, most of us still actually think, well first of all, most of us are really still stuck in materialism. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:32 Highlight the passage at 1:17:32

1:17:52 We aren't even at these more subtle, these are actually far more subtle than we actually think right now. But as we begin understanding Dependerizing, most of us kind of get stuck in the lower schools and they aren't useless. When I went down to Vajrapani for that weekend recently, that's what we were talking about were the four schools of Buddhist thought, you know, the two lower schools and actually the two lower schools and the one higher school that split. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:52 Highlight the passage at 1:17:52

1:18:22 And Venerable Rene was actually pointing out how each level allowed us to dissolve another way that we saw things concretely and inherently. So they're all really valid ways for us to get closer to how things actually exist. It's like the difference between, you know, if we want to study quantum physics, we usually start with something a little easier. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:22 Highlight the passage at 1:18:22

1:18:49 If we want to major in... In high levels of math, we're going to start with some sort of general math. And so the Buddha taught all of these. But we sometimes have to start, I would say probably, they usually are very kind, and they say most of us aren't really ready for the highest schools level of how things actually exist, because it's so subtle. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:49 Highlight the passage at 1:18:49

1:19:17 So we have to start where we are. So we start in the sort of grosser levels. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:17 Highlight the passage at 1:19:17

1:19:24 The less subtle ways of seeing how things actually exist. And then we go deeper and deeper until we are able to understand. Otherwise we do, we just fall immediately into sort of nihilistic thinking. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:24 Highlight the passage at 1:19:24

1:19:38 So all the ways of thinking help us break down the solid way that we see things now. Because the way we see things now is almost the most extreme way of seeing things. And that's the way most of us see things. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:38 Highlight the passage at 1:19:38

1:19:53 So dependent arising is parts. If we think about, this one we sometimes get caught up on, so I'll just mention this one specifically. If we think about something like one of these flowers, and we try to figure out, and it looks like as we're holding, well that's not a good flower, is it? This one's not bad. This one's got petals. Daffodils don't have petals. So if we are holding a flower, it looks like this flower exists from its own size. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:53 Highlight the passage at 1:19:53

1:20:26 It looks like it's just out there. First of all, when we first look at it, it doesn't even look like it's made up of anything other than it's just like flower coming at us, flower-ness, just like cup-ness or clock-ness. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:26 Highlight the passage at 1:20:26

1:20:41 And then we start looking and we're sort of like, well, is the flower in these petals? Is it somewhere in these petals? Report an error in the passage at 1:20:41 Highlight the passage at 1:20:41

1:20:52 So is it these, where is flower? You know, is it inside one of these petals? Is it in the thing that, what is that, this daemon? Report an error in the passage at 1:20:52 Highlight the passage at 1:20:52

1:21:03 Does anybody know flowers? Is it there? Is it inside of there? Is there flower in there? What makes us think there's flower there? Report an error in the passage at 1:21:03 Highlight the passage at 1:21:03

1:21:15 And if it's everything, the stem, Report an error in the passage at 1:21:15 Highlight the passage at 1:21:15

1:21:21 if it's everything together, then that should be a flower. There should be a flower right there. There's flower. Would you like a flower? Report an error in the passage at 1:21:21 Highlight the passage at 1:21:21

1:21:36 So it's not just everything together either. So it's like the flower exists in the parts. It's like nothing less than all the parts, but it's not just all the parts, there's something else. And that something else is that label that we're going to spend more time on. Us calling it flower, us being taught, and then like concept, that label or concept. We can say it's broken. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:36 Highlight the passage at 1:21:36

1:22:06 Yeah, it's non-working flower. Yeah, it's possible. And you could say, you know, it's sort of like with a broken car up on cinder blocks. It's still a car to some extent. But there's something about the function too. And we'll talk about that more because that's more of the level three. There's the function of, and it doesn't drive anymore. Or you can think about it with a body too, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:22:06 Highlight the passage at 1:22:06

1:22:31 I am a human. At what point do I stop being a human? Like if all my parts are required for me to be a human and then I lose my knee or I lose my leg or I lose... Did anybody ever read that Elton Trumbo book, Johnny Got His Gun? I don't know if it's still read anymore. It's a brilliant book. The soldier that basically loses everything. I think it's just a trunk in his mind, right? And he's in the hospital, and his mind is working very well. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:31 Highlight the passage at 1:22:31

1:23:02 But isn't everything else left? No hands, no arms, no legs, no... Even his face is destroyed, if I remember correctly. At what point does the human stop being a human? At what point does the car stop being a car? At what point does the flower stop being a flower? Sorry. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:02 Highlight the passage at 1:23:02

1:23:26 And then of course you go in deeper into the flower and it goes into each leaf, right? I'm not even going to pull out my handy dandy microscope and see all the cellular makeup of this flower. And then what goes into each of those? Cells. And then what goes into each of those? Atomic particles. It keeps going deeper and deeper. Oh, it's salad. That's what it is, salad. Now it's becoming salad. So, again, it's like our eyes collect all this data and then our mind labels it in a certain way and that we're going to talk about with that labeling process. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:26 Highlight the passage at 1:23:26

1:24:10 But we have, the thing that's missing is... was it. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:10 Highlight the passage at 1:24:10

1:24:16 Our karma is involved in this and our karma plays a role in how we perceive something and how we label it. And that labeling process we'll definitely talk about too. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:16 Highlight the passage at 1:24:16

1:24:28 And if this is true, then if everything is sort of just a bunch of raw data and our mind is allowing or forcing us basically, I mean they use this word forcing us to see things, perceive things in a certain way, hear things in a certain way. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:28 Highlight the passage at 1:24:28

1:24:49 Taste things in a certain way, engage in things in a certain way, but our karma is changeable, then we can change our experience. So it's actually incredibly wonderful news that we aren't stuck with whatever our experience is, we can change our entire experience, not just our experience of... Something as small as a flower or something as mundane as water, but our experience of our entire reality can shift if our karma shifts, which is how buddhavit happens. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:49 Highlight the passage at 1:24:49

1:25:27 So that's where how we live plays into how we create. It ultimately falls on us. This isn't an intellectual exercise. It actually is a way of understanding. If things exist in this very fluid and malleable way, then it's totally possible to perceive things in a completely different way than the way that we're perceiving them. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:27 Highlight the passage at 1:25:27

1:26:01 If this is true, if we take that as a proposal on the floor. And it begins with just starting to lessen our grip on how we see things so solidly. First examining how we see things and beginning to let go of that. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:01 Highlight the passage at 1:26:01

1:26:24 So either through that meditation on impermanence that we did, where you're just really beginning from the inside out, thinking about your own body, and then your own mind, and then the room that you're in, and then the environment that that room is in, the house, and then the street that that's on, and really spreading it out, and really seeing that every single thing is impermanent. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:24 Highlight the passage at 1:26:24

1:26:48 Or doing a contemplation like the one that you did this week on Dependent Arising, where you're getting that everything exists totally dependently on other things, despite how we see it. And both of those act to break down that really solid, inherently existing. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:48 Highlight the passage at 1:26:48

1:27:10 Vena Rubina actually said, probably just about six months ago, eight months ago, one time she was talking, she said, practice is simply changing the way you think. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:10 Highlight the passage at 1:27:10

1:27:23 Which I thought was really good because it's basically simple to understand and it's difficult to change those habits. We can get it how karma and emptiness work, but actually being able to take it from that understanding to changing what we do when the boss screams at us. That's what practice is. That's all practice is. Practice isn't something more holy than that. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:23 Highlight the passage at 1:27:23

1:27:49 It's simply getting it at the moment that you need it with the best you can do. That's what practice and thankfully our minds are completely changeable, so it is possible. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:49 Highlight the passage at 1:27:49

1:28:08 If we Report an error in the passage at 1:28:08 Highlight the passage at 1:28:08

1:28:16 include the changeability of everything in the way that everything is a composite, you know, then maybe everything is salad. Salad, not solid, but salad. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:16 Highlight the passage at 1:28:16

1:28:32 mean... Report an error in the passage at 1:28:32 Highlight the passage at 1:28:32

1:28:35 I guess it depends on salad. The dressing. I guess part of it would be chicken salad then. About Report an error in the passage at 1:28:35 Highlight the passage at 1:28:35

1:28:53 karma, let's say if the boss yells at me, I'm the cause of him exploding. My action. Yeah, action. I actually, what, is it a double whammy? I'm accumulating more karma. And he can accumulate karma. So wait, how are you accumulating? Because I caused him to explode. You created the karma, but how are you accumulating more in that situation? Report an error in the passage at 1:28:53 Highlight the passage at 1:28:53

1:29:27 Unless you're getting kissed. Oh, I see. It's just exhausting itself. What usually happens is, you can't actually cause somebody to act in any way, to be honest. You can contemplate that when you're thinking about compassion, and you're having compassion for somebody, you don't want to be the cause for them. But in reality, I can't cause you to do anything by my actions, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:29:27 Highlight the passage at 1:29:27

1:29:56 Because if that were true, if that were true, I mean, I can do actions that might upset you and stuff like that, but in reality, you're the one, you're the one who is really, we're all in control of the life. We're bringing up the commas too by our actions. But when we're in the bodhicitta teachings, we definitely spend time thinking about, yeah, it's great. If I am screaming back at him, it's definitely going to cause him more suffering if it escalates his anger, for example. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:56 Highlight the passage at 1:29:56

1:30:29 But in this teaching, let's just stick to the karma teaching. I can't create any karma for you guys. And you can't for me. You can't take on my karma either. Karma is working in the mind, so it stays with the mind stream. in which it was created. However, because things are interdependent, all these things are happening simultaneously. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:29 Highlight the passage at 1:30:29

1:30:49 If I'm screaming back, Report an error in the passage at 1:30:49 Highlight the passage at 1:30:49

1:31:00 I'm creating more negative karma. Or just stewing, I'm also creating negative karma. karma and how I react. if I'm screaming back, Report an error in the passage at 1:31:00 Highlight the passage at 1:31:00

1:31:06 Yeah, well, could be, especially if I'm stirring those up, you know, oh, God, here I am again. Failure, you know, yeah, that's true. But if I'm going, oh, okay, wait a second, this is what she was talking about last night, you know, and I'm trying to get it even slightly in that moment, which is so hard if somebody's screaming at you. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:06 Highlight the passage at 1:31:06

1:31:27 That's kind of why I use that example. It's actually, it's like the hardest, I think. Who's getting angry is that eye that you've painted all this stuff onto. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:27 Highlight the passage at 1:31:27

1:31:38 It's just a round, just like a pink round face and decibels coming at you. It's raw data, shapes and sounds and colors. And my karma is forcing me to see this horrible experience. Experience this is horrible. But in its own sight, sticks and stones will never hurt me. It's actually not harming me at all. I'm allowing it to harm me or I'm whatever. It's all that stuff. It's not. Tony's still having a great time over there. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:38 Highlight the passage at 1:31:38

1:32:05 He's just thinking it's great. Yeah, it's like the same shapes and sounds and colors are like... You know, glory to his ears. So, you know what I mean? So it's, it's, our creating more karma is going to be how we react to that and trying to remember that even for a second. And it's, I'm not saying it's easy, but it's the only way is to begin to shift it. That's, that's how we're going to create the next batch of karma. So yeah, this is coming at us. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:05 Highlight the passage at 1:32:05

1:32:32 Whatever's coming at us, we have created, but it can end here. We can change it. We can shift it. All Report an error in the passage at 1:32:32 Highlight the passage at 1:32:32

1:32:51 the negative karma that we experience in this life. you mentioned it's from a path slide, or is It could be from this life if it's powerful enough. Karma is very complex, but what makes it stronger is the strength of your intention. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:51 Highlight the passage at 1:32:51

1:33:10 For example, again, a lot of anger, a lot of cruelty, a lot of love, a lot of compassion. Those things will make it stronger. And the object... So there are particular objects that they say are strong, like your teacher, for example. Killing your teacher is going to be very, very powerful. And the same if you're serving your teacher with your whole heart. Your parents are also said to be quite high and quite powerful because they gave you a human body for no other reason. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:10 Highlight the passage at 1:33:10

1:33:48 So there are certain ways that you can increase it. If you try to have a bodhicitta motivation for everything, That's a way of having it stronger and more powerful. This is the way Tantra works, actually. You know, the thing with Tantra is they say that you can have powerful results in this very life, and it's because everything is done with the bodhicitta motivation. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:48 Highlight the passage at 1:33:48

1:34:09 You shouldn't even enter Tantra without bodhicitta, without some form of bodhicitta. So you're doing it for all other beings, so that immediately makes it bigger and powerful, and then it can ripen in this lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:09 Highlight the passage at 1:34:09

1:34:23 And certain things, I think, also, I mean, like if you hear about, well, like this, This guy in Alabama, he started killing his mother, right? Very, very powerful. And that could have negative results in this lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:23 Highlight the passage at 1:34:23

1:34:38 So both positive and negative. But once you learn how it works, you can increase the probability that you can get results in this lifetime, which is how tantra works. And how even the bodhisattva activities work. By understanding the laws of karma, then you... Report an error in the passage at 1:34:38 Highlight the passage at 1:34:38

1:34:56 bigger, better karma, usually though it's lifetimes. It could be Report an error in the passage at 1:34:56 Highlight the passage at 1:34:56

1:35:15 accurate, you could have done nothing wrong in that particular way. Maybe you never did scream at employees in this life, you know. But we did go through, right, the four aspects of karma. If you are experiencing it, then you created the causes, basically, and that's the positive version of that, somewhere along the way. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:15 Highlight the passage at 1:35:15

1:35:47 So getting that allows us to get past the victim line. I think actually the teachings on karma... Really go a long way of getting us out of that victim mind, that self-pity mind. Because I think we can get really stuck in that. So if we just kind of go, okay, so I created this somewhere, you know, somebody not appreciating what I do or whatever it is, you know, I created that cause so then I can stop blaming that person who happens to be bringing it to my attention so kindly. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:47 Highlight the passage at 1:35:47

1:36:26 And instead, you know, just begin working with me on that. Which is really, this is what all of this is about, is working with our own lives. We aren't changing the world out there yet. You know that Shantideva has that great quote when he's talking about patience in the chapter on patience and the bodhisattva's guide to the bodhisattva's way. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:26 Highlight the passage at 1:36:26

1:36:47 And he's like, the ground is covered with thorns and stones and we can, you know, we can try to cover the whole earth with leather or we can start with covering all the feet and then we can walk anywhere. So we can try all we want to change everyone around us. it'll never work, but start with ourselves. Then it's all possible. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:47 Highlight the passage at 1:36:47

1:37:19 make a lot of sense, but we're all really hoping for you that it's done. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:19 Highlight the passage at 1:37:19

1:37:29 So is the goal, it seems like the idea is to change perception, to change how you perceive your point of view. And so I guess I'm wondering, like when you're talking about the three people who go out to dinner, is the goal to be the person who is neutral about the dinner? Is the goal to be the person who enjoys whatever the dinner is? I see what you're saying. Actually, the goal is not, that's just an example. When someone's yelling at you, is the goal to be like, wow, I'm so glad that this farm is getting burned out? Report an error in the passage at 1:37:29 Highlight the passage at 1:37:29

1:38:00 Yeah, yeah, to some degree, it's to get it. Yeah, to some degree, it's to get it. So the same is true if you go out to dinner and it tastes really horrible to you, and everybody else at the table is like, isn't this wonderful? And you're just like, you know. To not be like, they're all insane, you know, and to just be like, wow, this is interesting because I'm tasting this as really kind of yucky, you know, but to not blame and to not, you know, to just be like, wow, what an interesting karma that is, you know, or like you stay in a place and everyone else sleeps really wonderfully and you had a horrible night and all you got was like, like the sound of the disco or something underneath you, you know, they actually still call it that in New York. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:00 Highlight the passage at 1:38:00

1:38:39 It's like... You can have those experiences where you're the only one that's experiencing things in a negative way. Get it that it's your karma ripening and it's done. And then you can just be like, good, that one's done. That karma's finished. And so you don't get all riled up about it. You don't rally everyone to your side. You don't get so upset. But the same is true when something really wonderful happens. It's like... Report an error in the passage at 1:38:39 Highlight the passage at 1:38:39

1:39:07 Wow, that's cool. So I created this positive karma. So I had this great dinner. Nobody else at the table did. Everybody else hates the restaurant. But I thought it was really good. Okay. So you're not so excitable. Yeah, but you can appreciate. Oh, okay. Well, if I want more of that, then I have to create positive karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:07 Highlight the passage at 1:39:07

1:39:26 If I want less of this, then I have to restrain myself. So it's like that. It's getting how it all connects. That you have something that's not just happening. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:26 Highlight the passage at 1:39:26

1:39:40 It's that getting it. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:40 Highlight the passage at 1:39:40

1:39:43 And I think actually, because we rarely look at why good things happen to us. But that's really a good place to start. And actually our mind is usually a little calm over good things. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:43 Highlight the passage at 1:39:43

1:40:02 Maybe dedicated or something, you know, like kind of keep it going. Just getting it. We don't want to get to a point where we're just aloof. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:02 Highlight the passage at 1:40:02

1:40:13 Buddhahood and even just high level bodhisattva and high level like Arya being. We don't want to get to the point where we're just like aloof. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:13 Highlight the passage at 1:40:13

1:40:23 Because they're really... They are passionate about their work and they are really loving. Look at His Holiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:23 Highlight the passage at 1:40:23

1:40:32 He lives every minute. And when somebody from Tibet comes and tells their story of their torture, he cries. He doesn't want them to suffer. So he's not completely devoid of all feelings. We don't want to be like that. And I think that sometimes people kind of think that that's the goal. All the Buddhas have these pure lands of name. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:32 Highlight the passage at 1:40:32

1:40:58 It's like land of bliss, a bliss land. It's like they aren't detached. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:58 Highlight the passage at 1:40:58

1:41:09 So, but they get it how to create that. They get it that to have bliss all the time they have to create the causes of that. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:09 Highlight the passage at 1:41:09

1:41:28 How do you break? Yeah. Seems to be a positive and affirmative and bad. I'm going to give you guys your comments. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:28 Highlight the passage at 1:41:28

1:41:44 The last minute I think I did mine and I think that's what we have. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:44 Highlight the passage at 1:41:44

1:41:58 One person has it as two pages and the other... It won't happen. Why don't you take the person so you know if you're alright with that. Take the bullet, Connie. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:58 Highlight the passage at 1:41:58

1:42:16 I didn't have yours. I'm going to do five minutes on this. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:16 Highlight the passage at 1:42:16

1:42:27 Kara's in that white chair. And David's on a stool. Done. That Report an error in the passage at 1:42:27 Highlight the passage at 1:42:27

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:43:52 sound. I was thinking it sounded like a little kid. I realized it's Courtney on the cell phone on the front porch. I'm like, why is there a kid? Report an error in the passage at 1:43:52 Highlight the passage at 1:43:52

1:44:06 I don't know how old or two. One child. I think that's when she's talking to a child. Yeah, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:06 Highlight the passage at 1:44:06

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:44:55 probably, yeah, I need you to email me. Okay. Yeah, if you do, then I'll remember. I'm getting caught up now, but I'll forget. The minute I get in front of the screen, I just fall into like, solve this, solve this, and then I forget. That's why I have to help. If you send me an email, I will. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:55 Highlight the passage at 1:44:55

1:45:19 Is there anybody else who is lacking notes or homeworks or syllabus or readings or anything like that? I still have my binder. Okay. I have a binder for you. I had it last week. If you wait, I'll go after class. If Report an error in the passage at 1:45:19 Highlight the passage at 1:45:19

1:45:46 you find that you are lacking something. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:46 Highlight the passage at 1:45:46

1:46:02 All right. Let's end with a quick meditation on dependent arising. Seven minutes. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:02 Highlight the passage at 1:46:02

1:46:15 And if you know, you'll hear her voice in this. That's part of why I love it. I actually Americanized it a little bit, but she used some terms. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:15 Highlight the passage at 1:46:15

1:46:29 Anyway, this is just one way to look at dependent arising, but I think it's a very powerful way because it's so simple. So we're going to just start with finding our posture again. It's going to be a quick little meditation. That's great. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:29 Highlight the passage at 1:46:29

1:46:29 um anyway Report an error in the passage at 1:46:29 Highlight the passage at 1:46:29

1:46:47 Stay as alert as we can in the final five minutes. And again, you just do one deep breath in and deep breath out, just as a way of cleansing away or washing away any sluggishness or overwhelm or confusion, all of which, of course, is appropriate at a time right now. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:47 Highlight the passage at 1:46:47

1:47:24 As Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, we live in a world made up by our own minds. According to Lord Buddha, all our sufferings and fears are rooted and are deeply held in utterly irrational belief in solid, real things existing out there, in and of themselves, independent of everything else. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:24 Highlight the passage at 1:47:24

1:47:44 This delusional way of seeing the world and ourselves is so pervasive that initially it's impossible to protect. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:44 Highlight the passage at 1:47:44

1:47:54 So take this body of ours. This is what we believe in the most as something real from its own side. What we cling to the most, take care of, identify with. Through our hallucinating minds, it's the one thing that is definitely new. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:54 Highlight the passage at 1:47:54

1:48:17 But think, how is it my body? It's come into being and continues to exist in dependence upon countless causes and conditions. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:17 Highlight the passage at 1:48:17

1:48:30 You cannot find my body among any one of those causes and conditions. Yet it's nothing other than those causes and conditions. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:30 Highlight the passage at 1:48:30

1:48:43 Geshe Jamba Tekchok says, It can be said that everything in the universe before this body came into being is a valid cause and condition for the existence of this body. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:43 Highlight the passage at 1:48:43

1:48:58 Think my body began with the egg and sperm of my kind mother and father. So where is my body? Report an error in the passage at 1:48:58 Highlight the passage at 1:48:58

1:49:08 Without the mother and father's parents, there would be no mother and father. Without the mother and father, there would be no my body. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:08 Highlight the passage at 1:49:08

1:49:19 Where is my body apart from these beginningless mothers and fathers? Report an error in the passage at 1:49:19 Highlight the passage at 1:49:19

1:49:29 Without my mother's womb, the egg and sperm could not join and develop. Without the food my mother ate, every day the egg and sperm would not grow into a fetus. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:29 Highlight the passage at 1:49:29

1:49:41 Where is my body apart from all the food she ate? My body is nothing other than a mountain of carrots and potatoes and chicken and bread. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:41 Highlight the passage at 1:49:41

1:49:52 Without the earth, the gardener, the sun, the water, the fertilizer, there'd be no carrots. Without the carrots, there'd be no mother. Without my mother, there'd be no my body. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:52 Highlight the passage at 1:49:52

1:50:05 It does not exist. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:05 Highlight the passage at 1:50:05

1:50:10 My body would not exist without the clothes my mother wore to keep her warm in the winter. The clothes would not exist without the sheep who provided the wool, the sheep shearers, the sheep shearers' mother, the owners of the sheep, the people who processed the wool, the people who turned it into cloth, the truck drivers who took the cloth to the factory, Report an error in the passage at 1:50:10 Highlight the passage at 1:50:10

1:50:36 the clothes designers, the tailors, the sewing machines. The designers of the sewing machines, the shops that sold the cloth, the people who made the racks, the cloth tunnel. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:36 Highlight the passage at 1:50:36

1:50:55 Where is my body apart from all of these? Report an error in the passage at 1:50:55 Highlight the passage at 1:50:55

1:51:05 My body would not exist without the cotton bushes, the people who planted the cotton, the farmers who nourished the cotton bushes, the people who picked the cotton, the people who drove the trucks who took the cotton to be processed, the architect of the factory where the cotton was turned into cloth. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:05 Highlight the passage at 1:51:05

1:51:31 The people who turned the cotton into cloth, the people who dyed the cloth, the people who made the dye, the Report an error in the passage at 1:51:31 Highlight the passage at 1:51:31

1:51:46 person who designed the packet that contained the dye, the printer who printed the packet, the people who made the printing machine. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:46 Highlight the passage at 1:51:46

1:51:58 Where is my body apart from all of these causes and conditions? It does not exist. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:58 Highlight the passage at 1:51:58

1:52:07 My body would not exist without the doctors and nurses who helped to come out of the womb. The soft cloth that protected it and kept it warm. The crib in which it was put to sleep. The milk from my mother's breasts. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:07 Highlight the passage at 1:52:07

1:52:23 The food that my mother ate that transformed into the milk that nourished my body. The nurses who checked this body while it was sleeping to make sure it did not suffocate. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:23 Highlight the passage at 1:52:23

1:52:36 The heating in the hospital that kept the body warm. The electricity that kept the heaters burning. The electricians who did the wiring. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:36 Highlight the passage at 1:52:36

1:52:49 The colleges they went to to learn to become electricians, the teachers in those colleges. Where is my body apart from all of these countless causes and conditions? Report an error in the passage at 1:52:49 Highlight the passage at 1:52:49

1:53:08 My body is nothing other than all the food I ate as a child, the milk and rice and peas and lamb and apples and eggs. My body would not exist without the food, the farmers, the people who trucked the vegetables to market, people who sold the vegetables. People made the shelves at the market that held the vegetables off the ground, Report an error in the passage at 1:53:08 Highlight the passage at 1:53:08

1:53:36 apart from all of this. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:36 Highlight the passage at 1:53:36

1:53:44 My body would not exist without the mountains of morality practiced in a previous life that is its main harm and cause. The morality could not have been practiced without the kindness of the gurus who showed the path to the person in a previous life, without the kindness of the Dharma friends, the books in which the Dharma was printed, the people who printed the Dharma books. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:44 Highlight the passage at 1:53:44

1:54:09 The person who designed the typeface used in the Dharma books, the people who made the paper, the people who chopped down the trees from which the paper was made, Report an error in the passage at 1:54:09 Highlight the passage at 1:54:09

1:54:22 the previous parents, the food the previous mother ate to nourish her body so that the body in her womb could grow, so that the previous person could survive, to practice morality in order to create the cause to have my body in this life. It Report an error in the passage at 1:54:22 Highlight the passage at 1:54:22

1:54:45 is clear that there is no my body apart from these beginningless causes and conditions. So what is there to claim to? Can Report an error in the passage at 1:54:45 Highlight the passage at 1:54:45

1:55:06 we dedicate any merit? We're going to talk about emptiness and karma and kind of arising tonight. Beginning to develop some kind of a correct view, which is the cause of our own liberation. May whatever seeds that we've planted, just since we've been here tonight, grow into that direct perception of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:06 Highlight the passage at 1:55:06

1:55:33 Allow us to be liberated, attain nirvāṇa, leave some stuff completely behind so that we can benefit all living beings with that exception. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:33 Highlight the passage at 1:55:33

1:55:55 Okay, I believe 902. Did my best. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:55 Highlight the passage at 1:55:55

1:56:11 I'm lapsing on, what's the settlement prayer? Um, the preliminary. Is that the refuge? Yeah, you know, yeah. Frustration, making offerings, yeah. If you need another coffee, I can send Report an error in the passage at 1:56:11 Highlight the passage at 1:56:11

1:56:40 it. Yes. Yeah, that way. And Tara, wait, and I'll move it to your glider. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:40 Highlight the passage at 1:56:40

1:57:14 I know, it's just the way I like to sit, you know, it's been so long. Moving to a chair. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:14 Highlight the passage at 1:57:14

1:57:33 It's not. I think I tore, and this was, Report an error in the passage at 1:57:33 Highlight the passage at 1:57:33

1:57:40 sorry. I already did that. Did you? Is that what you did? Yeah, I completely destroyed my knee. Oh. Yes, then they had to replace it. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:40 Highlight the passage at 1:57:40

1:57:52 What did you do? Go down the foot of stairs at work. Oh, ow. Or to ACL, torn my skull, crack my finger, took a chip out of my cellar. Oh, my God. I just said that. But I actually think it was wrong. Because this happened about three years ago. couldn't find it here, but I knew it to her own life. I didn't feel it. Yeah, that's what I kept telling them. I didn't feel it. Yeah, because it was so small. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:52 Highlight the passage at 1:57:52

1:58:22 didn't do anything, but I think it just, and then I just, all I do is I kind of sit like this. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:22 Highlight the passage at 1:58:22

1:58:35 but I'm old I don't want a new knee actually I wouldn't mind figuring out what makes it hurt When did that happen? Five years ago. Oh, God. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:35 Highlight the passage at 1:58:35

1:58:53 I can tell people I'm bionic. Yeah. You probably are at this point. I look sitting across there and getting, you know, a long time. I feel the pain. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:53 Highlight the passage at 1:58:53

1:59:08 This, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:08 Highlight the passage at 1:59:08

1:59:12 Fortunately, I think we can still get enlightened in a chair. Yeah, I think so. I'm leaving the flower. Some sort of message for Janet and I tomorrow morning. I ripped a flower and Oh, man. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:12 Highlight the passage at 1:59:12

1:59:34 fall is very reluctant to run anymore. Walk slowly. Oh, the light's off. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:34 Highlight the passage at 1:59:34

1:59:48 Oh, I left the, yeah, that was recorded. Cindy, you shouldn't say things like that. See you. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:48 Highlight the passage at 1:59:48