Discovering Buddhism - Presenting the Path (13 September 2007)

0:09 We'll Report an error in the passage at 0:09 Highlight the passage at 0:09

0:13 have binders for everybody tonight that we didn't have last time, but we'll do that probably on the break. Report an error in the passage at 0:13 Highlight the passage at 0:13

0:29 Hello. Money pay me who? Okay. It's working. Report an error in the passage at 0:29 Highlight the passage at 0:29

0:37 All right. Oops. I'll probably unplug it though at some point. It's sort of stretched. I think it's all right. I don't move that much. I don't like Fennibur Beaner or something. Report an error in the passage at 0:37 Highlight the passage at 0:37

0:53 You can pretty much just sit like this the whole time. Okay, so let's just start with a quiet meditation, calmer minds, and then we'll do a check-in. Report an error in the passage at 0:53 Highlight the passage at 0:53

1:07 So you just start with finding a comfortable position wherever you are. If you're in a chair, move away from the back of the chair so you don't get too comfy, especially after work when we're all getting a little bit relaxed. We don't want to get too relaxed. And if you're sitting on a chair, it's good to have your feet. Report an error in the passage at 1:07 Highlight the passage at 1:07

1:28 Firmly on the floor in front of you. If you're on a cushion, then you want to try to extend your back as straight as you can, but not in a rigid way that feels uncomfortable to you. Report an error in the passage at 1:28 Highlight the passage at 1:28

1:47 Your legs can be crossed in any position that you'd like that feels comfortable for you. We're not going to do a long meditation. But I always review the points of posture anyway. I think it's a good thing to do a mental check every time you sit down. Report an error in the passage at 1:47 Highlight the passage at 1:47

2:03 So you just kind of feel. Kind of curl your sits bones under a little bit so you really feel the cushion underneath you. Extend your spine. Have your shoulders back a little bit and level. Report an error in the passage at 2:03 Highlight the passage at 2:03

2:20 We sometimes can be a little torqued, especially if we work with our computers all day long. In this tradition, we have our hands in our lap, right over left, thumbs touching lightly. Report an error in the passage at 2:20 Highlight the passage at 2:20

2:36 So you can kind of have it resting in your lap or you can have it a little bit below your navel, whatever feels comfortable. Sometimes people like to have their hands on their knees and that's fine too. Report an error in the passage at 2:36 Highlight the passage at 2:36

2:52 You can either have your eyes open and unfocused, gazing off the tip of your nose. Or if you're like me, meditating in a group is a little hard with your eyes open so I usually have them lightly closed. Report an error in the passage at 2:52 Highlight the passage at 2:52

3:13 Your mouth and jaw are relaxed. Your tongue... It's on the roof of your mouth behind your front teeth. That allows your mouth to be moist without having to swallow so much. Report an error in the passage at 3:13 Highlight the passage at 3:13

3:42 And the final point is your breath. Your breath is just relaxed. You don't have to change it in any way. We're going to start with a short meditation on the breath and you don't need to make it more regular than you normally breathe or deeper than you normally breathe. Report an error in the passage at 3:42 Highlight the passage at 3:42

3:59 We're just bringing awareness to how you're actually breathing. The breath, the sensation of the breath itself. Report an error in the passage at 3:59 Highlight the passage at 3:59

4:10 And the way you do that is you just place your attention at either the level of your abdomen as it fills and then empties with each breath, or your chest as it does the same, or your nostril as the air passes over and then exits. And it's just the sensation of that air entering and exiting your body. That's the only thing that you're focused on. Report an error in the passage at 4:10 Highlight the passage at 4:10

4:41 You can count if you'd like, but you don't have to. You could try if that might bring more focus and attention. Some people like that. Report an error in the passage at 4:41 Highlight the passage at 4:41

4:54 But the main thing to remember is with each in-breath, you're bringing more awareness, more focus, more vigilance. And with each out-breath, you're letting go of any distractions, any worries, any thoughts, any ideas. Report an error in the passage at 4:54 Highlight the passage at 4:54

5:15 Conversations you might have just been having, whatever else is going on in your life, you can pick it up on your way out. You just breathe that out and breathe in fresh vigilance. I'm just going to do this for a few rounds of ten. If you can count your out-breath and your in-breath as one, and then just try to count ten breaths without losing it. Report an error in the passage at 5:15 Highlight the passage at 5:15

5:40 And every time you lose it completely, just start over. And every time you reach ten, just start over. This is the whole object. We Report an error in the passage at 5:40 Highlight the passage at 5:40

· · · silence, 3 minutes

8:21 just start with setting our motivation for being here tonight. Report an error in the passage at 8:21 Highlight the passage at 8:21

8:28 There's a lot of other things we can do with our time. So it's useful to think about what our intention is, what our motivation is. Report an error in the passage at 8:28 Highlight the passage at 8:28

8:42 The Buddha taught that we all just want to be happy. We all want to avoid all suffering. Not just humans, but all beings have this. It's like our baseline feeling for every day that we live. 24 hours of every day. Report an error in the passage at 8:42 Highlight the passage at 8:42

9:06 Trying to be happy and trying to avoid pain. Report an error in the passage at 9:06 Highlight the passage at 9:06

9:15 And he said there's nothing wrong with that actually. The goal of Buddhism is for all of us to be happy. But the problem is that now most of what we do, we do without any wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 9:15 Highlight the passage at 9:15

9:28 And so we actually create more suffering due to our ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 9:28 Highlight the passage at 9:28

9:40 So we can motivate to use this class to gain some deeper understandings about the Buddha's life and his teachings. Those things he decided we could hear that would actually help us get enlightened too. Report an error in the passage at 9:40 Highlight the passage at 9:40

10:04 So may we be able to use whatever understandings we gain so that we can benefit others and help them find that happiness and help them end their suffering. May Report an error in the passage at 10:04 Highlight the passage at 10:04

10:22 we use it for ourselves as well. And Report an error in the passage at 10:22 Highlight the passage at 10:22

10:35 when you're ready you can end your meditation and we'll start with an opening prayer. It's Report an error in the passage at 10:35 Highlight the passage at 10:35

10:50 feeling like it's like going... Here we go. I think it's kind of like up in my eye or something, but that's all right. So you should have a white prayer book in front of you, and there's a, on page 8, there's a little prayer by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. Report an error in the passage at 10:50 Highlight the passage at 10:50

11:13 We'll do that three times, and that's setting our refuge and generating a form of bodhicitta. With the wish to free all beings, I shall always go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha. Until I reach full enlightenment, inspired by wisdom and compassion, today in the Buddha's presence I generate the mind of full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 11:13 Highlight the passage at 11:13

11:42 As long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world. With the wish to free all beings, I shall always go for refuge. To Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha, until I reach full enlightenment. Inspired by wisdom and compassion, today in the Buddha's presence, I generate the mind of full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 11:42 Highlight the passage at 11:42

12:14 As long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world with the wish to free all beings. I shall always go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha until I reach full enlightenment. Inspired by wisdom and compassion, today in the Buddha's presence, I generate the mind of full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 12:14 Highlight the passage at 12:14

12:46 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 12:46 Highlight the passage at 12:46

13:05 So welcome. Welcome back to some of you and welcome for the first time for others of you. I apologize for having the soak last week because I think it sort of breaks the energy. We had one class and then no class and then the rest of the classes. But I couldn't figure out another way to do it, but I don't know that I'll do that again. Report an error in the passage at 13:05 Highlight the passage at 13:05

13:27 I think it's a little bit... But the good thing is we ended up gaining some people who might not have made it if we had gone in order and they might not have wanted to join if we had done more than one class. So we do have some new people in class tonight and others have expressed interest so they may come next week or they may come late. Report an error in the passage at 13:27 Highlight the passage at 13:27

13:50 So welcome. Welcome to everybody. And in fact, I think before we start tonight or at some point tonight, I may have you guys all go around again and say your names. I think I memorized most of you that were here last time, but I'll probably just call you all Henry. So does anybody have any questions from the reading that you guys have been doing so diligently and your meditation assignment or anything? Report an error in the passage at 13:50 Highlight the passage at 13:50

14:18 Anything that came up in class last week, anything that might have come to you that I haven't already answered in emails, just anything. And I do want to mention again that we like to use the mic because we upload all the teachings and then people can download them and so it's really helpful to hear the question. Report an error in the passage at 14:18 Highlight the passage at 14:18

14:36 So it's not that we're just being annoying, there's a purpose to our madness. Any questions? Report an error in the passage at 14:36 Highlight the passage at 14:36

14:45 Wow. Oh, there you go. Okay, could you pass Whitney the mic? It's right there in front of you. It's kind of caught under your little table, too, so careful of that little white thing. Report an error in the passage at 14:45 Highlight the passage at 14:45

15:04 Chad, could you? It's like a macrame project at this point. There you go. Hi. Report an error in the passage at 15:04 Highlight the passage at 15:04

15:17 I've seen two different spellings and two different ways of saying on my epitome. that's like a 10 yeah Report an error in the passage at 15:17 Highlight the passage at 15:17

15:22 One has the hoing? I don't know how to say it. Yeah, I guess Geshe-la actually says it's closer to the pronunciation to do it H-U-N-G. So he does it more like that. It's Sanskrit. Sanskrit and Tibetan don't really correlate with English 100%. And so what you'll see a lot of times is people's just ideas of how to transliterate it. Report an error in the passage at 15:22 Highlight the passage at 15:22

15:49 Sometimes they're trying to... Yeah, I mean. Report an error in the passage at 15:49 Highlight the passage at 15:49

15:51 To transliterate it in the way that you actually pronounce it. And sometimes they're trying to approximate so that you'll know if you had to spell it in the Sanskrit or the Tibetan what letters you'd choose. Jeffrey Hopkins, for example, uses that approach. So he'll put all those weird little like R-lung and stuff, you know, and you can't actually say it. Report an error in the passage at 15:51 Highlight the passage at 15:51

16:09 And those in the know know they're not really supposed to say it exactly the way it looks. Yeah, so there's like different ways to do it. I choose that way. That was just the way I learned H-U-N-G rather than whom. I don't think it matters so much. But they mean it's the same thing. Yeah, it's the same thing and they know what we're trying to say. So the Buddhism bodhisattvas are pretty forgiving. Report an error in the passage at 16:09 Highlight the passage at 16:09

16:36 I had to find that one out actually because I, you know, it's like also Tibetan Buddhism hasn't been in the West for that long. so. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 16:36 Highlight the passage at 16:36

16:45 And so when it first came over, there were a lot of errors made. And so it's sort of still being cleaned up. And within this organization, like every time you get a translation memorized, they change it, you know. So it's just like, you know, and you try to work with the new one for a little bit and then they change that again. Well, the same is true for all this. Report an error in the passage at 16:45 Highlight the passage at 16:45

17:05 Approximations of how English might be able to say a certain mantra and things like that. So the first way that I memorized a certain mantra and then I did a retreat and then they changed it, I was like, oh my God, I did 400,000 of the wrong pronunciation. And I'm like, no, no, no, it's really okay. So, yeah. I guess it's the intention. Report an error in the passage at 17:05 Highlight the passage at 17:05

17:25 So. Report an error in the passage at 17:25 Highlight the passage at 17:25

17:29 It's always, yeah. That's a big part of karma. Karma is an enormous subject, and we'll talk a little bit about it in this class, of course, as always. But there's also the next class that's coming up on Tuesday nights. It's going to be all about karma. And 95 % of how karma is collected is based on your motivation. Report an error in the passage at 17:29 Highlight the passage at 17:29

17:56 Which is how they say Chad could do one act, I could do the same exact act, and Jeff could do the exact same act, and all three of us would collect different karmas because of our motivation. Jeff could be out of anger, he could be out of desire, I could be totally unaware. And we do that kind of stuff all the time. So motivation is everything. Report an error in the passage at 17:56 Highlight the passage at 17:56

18:19 Sure, yeah. So I'm very new at all of this, as I mentioned last week. When I was doing the reading, it talked about Buddha's birth and his life, but throughout that time, they talked about, well, you could become a Buddha. I thought he was the first one. I was confused. He's the historical Buddha for this particular eon, but he's not the first and he's not the only. Report an error in the passage at 18:19 Highlight the passage at 18:19

18:50 Okay, that's what confused me, because it sounds like there's a whole back history before him that I... Didn't know about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's the one who is the main, his story is our sort of inspiration for this particular eon, but it's not the, he's not the only one. Yeah. And he's certainly not the last one either, thankfully. Yeah, and also I think it is really important to know the Buddha started out, the historical Buddha started out. Report an error in the passage at 18:50 Highlight the passage at 18:50

19:21 Exactly like us with all of his delusions and everything. And then he became enlightened. So he didn't come to earth enlightened. And he wasn't like Christ or like God in that sense. He's not a supreme being in that sense. He became an enlightened being. But his main message is soak in all of us. And in fact, there's not one of us that can't. So that's pretty cool. That's really different. Report an error in the passage at 19:21 Highlight the passage at 19:21

19:49 That's what makes one of the things that makes Buddhism a really different kind of religion. We don't have, I can't say we don't have divine beings, but we don't have a universal creator god or anything like that. Karma is our creator god. And who creates the karma? Yeah, so it puts the onus on us. But that's a good question. Report an error in the passage at 19:49 Highlight the passage at 19:49

20:11 Yeah. Did anybody else have a question about their reading? Yeah. Oh, no, it's okay. If it's too random, I may catch up. Report an error in the passage at 20:11 Highlight the passage at 20:11

20:26 You're going to have to repeat it when the talking stuff gets to you. Is there any kind of particular etiquette to entering or leaving the room before and after class? You know, it's actually really good. It's funny because we have a teen group that meets on Friday nights and one of the moms always has the kids like stop because they're always racing at 150 miles an hour and most of them are like 13, 14 years old. Report an error in the passage at 20:26 Highlight the passage at 20:26

20:19 job. Is particular etiquette to Report an error in the passage at 20:19 Highlight the passage at 20:19

20:51 And so she goes, stop, now bow into the gampa. And I always think, God, you know, we should do that with the adults too. Because it is actually, this is a gampa, which is a meditation hall. Gom just means meditation, to familiarize the mind. So it is good to have a sense of respect when you enter the room. And Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who's my main teacher and the sort of head of all the centers in this particular lineage, he says whenever you see a holy object, You should always place your palms together. And this is really like a prostration. You know, we started with the prostrations. This is sort of the shorthand. He says even if you see one like on somebody's t-shirt, if you see someone, you know, because now we have this, right? Report an error in the passage at 20:51 Highlight the passage at 20:51

21:35 You see a sign up or something, a billboard. You see in a museum, you know, a Buddha. It's always good to do. So there's that reverence again, but with that idea, may I have what you have, may I attain your mind, may I attain your wisdom, may I attain your compassion. So there is that sort of thing, however, that being said, you're not going to see a whole lot of us doing it, but it's probably our own lack of mindfulness, so it's probably a good thing for you to do, and just maybe it'll make us remember. Report an error in the passage at 21:35 Highlight the passage at 21:35

22:07 But it is good to do, I think. And especially the first time you visit... A meditation hall. Or like, say, a teacher invites you up, you know, say you're going to have an interview or something. It's very good to do. You know, your first time in that holy space. And it's holy space, why? Because we can use it to get enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 22:07 Highlight the passage at 22:07

22:30 It's not holy in and of itself. It's holy because it's a tool that we can use to get enlightened. This space is holy because we can meditate, we can learn about the Dharma here and all that. So it's practically holy, not holy, holy because it's some mystical thing from its own side. Report an error in the passage at 22:30 Highlight the passage at 22:30

22:50 So, yeah? Sounds good. Okay. Anything else? So why don't we real quick just go around and say your names just so that those people that weren't here last time don't have to just say their names by themselves. Report an error in the passage at 22:50 Highlight the passage at 22:50

23:06 Yeah, John's still here. Okay, cool. Okay, why don't we start? I did, I did. I made myself do all of the names afterwards. I was like, okay, this person, this person. Report an error in the passage at 23:06 Highlight the passage at 23:06

23:36 Marlon's good. Report an error in the passage at 23:36 Highlight the passage at 23:36

23:47 Great. Thanks, you guys. There are a couple, at least a few people who aren't here tonight, too. So we're going to have a big class, especially compared to our Tuesday night. We have a very, very tiny little spiritual teacher class, literally four people. So it's very, it's like, I call it the senior seminar. Everybody gets like nice pluffy cushions because we stack them up to reward them for actually coming to the class. Report an error in the passage at 23:47 Highlight the passage at 23:47

24:10 So anyway. So tonight we're going to talk a little bit about some of the aspects of the historical Buddha's life story. And for those of you that weren't here, I have the handout that people were just referring to that they read. So you can read it this week. So the way that I like to present this is... Report an error in the passage at 24:10 Highlight the passage at 24:10

24:31 Looking at sort of the aspects of the Buddha, of the historical, who we call Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha's life story, that's simply to separate him from all the other billions of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas because there actually are many, many other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas around and they all have stories. Report an error in the passage at 24:31 Highlight the passage at 24:31

24:50 And some of them are great practitioners like Milarepa that you've heard of who attained enlightenment and then some of them totally quiet little yogis in some cave somewhere. Report an error in the passage at 24:50 Highlight the passage at 24:50

25:02 So there are elements of the Buddha's life story that we can actually look at and think about in terms of a blueprint for our own practice. And at first you might not think so because you might think I wasn't born in a palace, you know. Nobody made a great prediction about me at my birth, you know, and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 25:02 Highlight the passage at 25:02

25:24 But you can still look at some basic elements about his life and think about how that pertains to... Anyone's spiritual life, but also your own specific story, because everybody has specific things that led them here and leads them, continues to lead them on the path. Report an error in the passage at 25:24 Highlight the passage at 25:24

25:43 So the first one is just he did grow up in a family of privilege, which is, you know, he actually attained a very fortunate rebirth. But once we have some understanding of karma and once we have some... Report an error in the passage at 25:43 Highlight the passage at 25:43

26:02 Understanding of reincarnation, which is a real foundation of Tibetan Buddhism. You don't have to believe in it in order to apply the teachings, which is actually the good news, because you can just apply the teachings. Report an error in the passage at 26:02 Highlight the passage at 26:02

26:18 You know, sort of work on trying to get rid of anger or something like that without believing in reincarnation. But it definitely makes more sense of a lot of this stuff. And it also sort of gives you a little bit more spaciousness if you believe that this isn't the only chance you have to get it right. Report an error in the passage at 26:18 Highlight the passage at 26:18

26:38 But we do pray a lot for fortunate rebirth. Well, a fortunate rebirth would be definitely something that a life where we aren't... Totally focused on our survival 24-7. Because if you're in a situation where you're either entrenched in so much poverty or you don't have a home or you're ill because you don't have money for medicine or something like that, you're not going to have the chance. Report an error in the passage at 26:38 Highlight the passage at 26:38

27:08 To go and seek a spiritual life. It's just not going to be possible for you. It's not impossible because of your mind. It's just not something that you're going to have any kind of space or time to think about. So we pray for a fortunate rebirth, partly so that we'll have that chance to be able to meet the teachings and to practice them. Report an error in the passage at 27:08 Highlight the passage at 27:08

27:31 So he got that, and he got that big time because he grew up not just in a fortunate home but in a palace. He had everything he needed. He had shelter, he had medicine, he had education. Report an error in the passage at 27:31 Highlight the passage at 27:31

27:45 He had more than he actually needed. So even though his father tried to protect him from seeing any kind of painful things in his life, partly because he didn't want him to. To have a spiritual life. His father was working overtime trying to make sure that all of the roses were cut before they died and anyone who got sick on staff was off. Report an error in the passage at 27:45 Highlight the passage at 27:45

28:10 Anyone who got too old was off duty. But still, he managed to see an aging person. Somebody who had gotten old. And we can sort of think about how if... If we were raised in a situation where maybe a grandparent lived with us or near us, how that may have started making us think about how life isn't forever and how it's different and each generation may be different and things like that. Report an error in the passage at 28:10 Highlight the passage at 28:10

28:41 Just thinking a little bit outside the box from what the standard American and I am speaking about, especially in the West, the way that we are taught. Your main purpose in life is basically to have pleasure and to buy a lot of things. I mean, that's sort of the view that's given to us. And so the more ways that we are able to break outside of that box, even as a little kid, seeing somebody who's older or maybe comes from a different culture, like some of our grandparents may have come from a different culture, and so forth, starts making us think a little bit about how life works. Report an error in the passage at 28:41 Highlight the passage at 28:41

29:23 Then he saw a sick person and he started realizing that he couldn't take it for granted that he had his own good health. He didn't even know what this person was and he had to ask his attendant. Report an error in the passage at 29:23 Highlight the passage at 29:23

29:38 And sickness is really a part of our life but we don't always talk about it in the sense that it actually can be a spiritual tool. Like when we ourselves are sick, we can actually use it. To gain understanding about suffering, to actually slow down a little bit. As somebody who has, I have had chronic migraines since probably like 25 years I've had them. Report an error in the passage at 29:38 Highlight the passage at 29:38

30:06 And a lot of times people are like, oh it's so horrible that you have these migraines. And like conventionally speaking it is, but the reality is that you can learn so much about how to deal with pain, how you continue to go when you have pain. Report an error in the passage at 30:06 Highlight the passage at 30:06

30:23 When you can't continue to go, what your boundary is, what your limit is. You can also figure out, like when you're meditating, when I did a three-month retreat in India, purification retreat, and had massive migraines, like tons of them, almost back-to-back. It was just so intense. And at one point, I finally just thought, well, why not just focus on the migraine, you know, rather than on Vajrasapha. Report an error in the passage at 30:23 Highlight the passage at 30:23

30:52 And it was actually really amazing to see how pain isn't this solid wall that it seems like it is. So you begin to get a taste of reality that it's not this concrete, solid thing that you need to run away from. That it's actually something that ebbs and flows and grows and weakens. So pain is just like the rest of reality in that. Report an error in the passage at 30:52 Highlight the passage at 30:52

31:16 It's actually far more fluid and spacious than we allow ourselves to think about. You can also develop a sense of compassion because if you have a severe headache, for example, you can really think, wow, think about the people that have a headache and it never will go away until they die, for example. Report an error in the passage at 31:16 Highlight the passage at 31:16

31:37 Or think about the people who have some worse pain than this. So you can use it to develop compassion too. These are kind of radical ideas and actually they are part of a group of teachings called Mind Training or Lojong teachings in Tibetan Buddhism that are used to build your compassion, your bodhicitta, the mind of bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 31:37 Highlight the passage at 31:37

32:01 But they're also accessible. Like we can do them with nothing except lying in bed with a migraine. Like you don't really need heavy texts. You don't need to understand a whole lot. Report an error in the passage at 32:01 Highlight the passage at 32:01

32:14 Contemplate as you're lying there. Hmm, you know, what if this were my deathbed? You know, you can take that opportunity and you can use it. So actually sickness can be a way into a spiritual path. Some of us had a lot of sickness as little kids, or we may have had a parent or a grandparent sick around us that also made us think, might have changed our life in some way, we might have lost a friend to sickness or something like that. Report an error in the passage at 32:14 Highlight the passage at 32:14

32:40 So sickness actually can be a way into a spiritual path. And then he saw somebody who had died, and he had no idea what it was. Report an error in the passage at 32:40 Highlight the passage at 32:40

32:51 And this is actually, in this way, in a lot of these ways, it's very similar to life in America because we don't often allow ourselves to see people who are dying or have died unless we've decided that we want to work with that particular population. Or we happen to be there when, you know, Grandma dies or something like that. Or, you know, Mom or Dad dies. So often our entire culture... Report an error in the passage at 32:51 Highlight the passage at 32:51

33:20 In America is like trying to overly protect us from that, from seeing death and dying. And clearly that's an enormous field of spiritual growth. Being with somebody as they're taking their final breaths is an amazingly intimate experience that can profoundly change your life. Report an error in the passage at 33:20 Highlight the passage at 33:20

33:44 And working with people as they're dying, that... That aspect of all the things that come up for them if they know they're dying and they want to put their own lives in order and so forth, that can also be quite profound. So death is not just seeing that we all die, which is also quite profound. Getting that one, if that's all I get in this lifetime, that this life is finite, I have X amount of time to do something. Report an error in the passage at 33:44 Highlight the passage at 33:44

34:13 And then it's done. And that's, I mean, that's not even an enormously, again, complex teaching. Like, I think most of us would say that we understand that we're going to die, but we certainly don't use it all the time to keep from getting angry or to keep from holding on to anger or to change our life in some way. Report an error in the passage at 34:13 Highlight the passage at 34:13

34:34 You know, we aren't using it all the time. And really, you can. You can use death as a spiritual tool. So he also saw a renunciate, a person who's described as a spiritual seeker. This is really common in India, actually, do you see a lot of time, and especially at that time period where people would be walking around sort of, now I've forgotten what the term is, but sadhus, sadhus, yeah, with the ashes on their heads and the dreads and everything. Report an error in the passage at 34:34 Highlight the passage at 34:34

35:09 But, you know, we see spiritual people in our lives, too. When I was a little kid, I actually wanted to be a nun. Got my wish. But, of course, it wasn't a Buddhist nun. I wasn't raised as a Buddhist. I wasn't even raised as a Catholic. But I saw Catholic nuns. You know, we watched Sound of Music. And I had some sense of them, and I was like, I want to be a nun. Report an error in the passage at 35:09 Highlight the passage at 35:09

35:30 I remember I was like five or six, and my sister was like, you can't be. We're not Catholic. So you still can see something in somebody who's sort of left the norm and is doing something different than, you know, going off and getting married and getting a job and having a family or whatever. They're doing something different with their lives and you can see them and go, wow, you know. And I think that that may not be the way in for all of us, but it definitely can be a way into a spiritual path. Report an error in the passage at 35:30 Highlight the passage at 35:30

36:02 I went to a... Um. Report an error in the passage at 36:02 Highlight the passage at 36:02

36:05 Fall, right after I got ordained, I went to a monastic conference, which was a conference of not just monastics in this tradition, but in, I think it was all Buddhist though, but it was all, you know, Buddhism has been around longer than Christianity, so there's so many different traditions that are represented, and actually there were quite a few represented at this particular conference, but one of the things that we talked about was the first time we saw somebody who, had, you know, represented the spirit. Report an error in the passage at 36:05 Highlight the passage at 36:05

36:38 It was interesting to hear everybody's stories. For me, it wasn't a huge thing, a huge reason that I got ordained that I'm aware of. Report an error in the passage at 36:38 Highlight the passage at 36:38

36:52 But it definitely kept the idea alive, seeing different people, being inspired by people's stories, especially Western monastics who did not come from this. And I remember actually thinking, wow, like all the Western nuns I've met are so, you know, like Ben and Rubin are so tough and strong. I'm not like that. And then I finally realized that you can actually be who you are, you know. So in that sense, actually, it almost worked to the detriment. Report an error in the passage at 36:52 Highlight the passage at 36:52

37:25 But it doesn't have to be somebody who's necessarily left the... life either you know in a lot of um in our in this particular tradition the galupa tradition or galupa school of Buddha of tibetan buddhism we place a lot of emphasis on monks and nuns but in um you know kagyu and ningma tradition and all there's a lot of lay yogis a lot of lay lamas um who are married and so forth and have families um Report an error in the passage at 37:25 Highlight the passage at 37:25

37:53 Milarepa wasn't, but his guru, Marpa, was married and had. So there are a lot of stories of yogis throughout the history of Tibet who were married or just chose not to enter the monastery. Miller Ipin never became a monk, although I don't think he ever partnered up with anybody either. But anyway, maybe that's like a hidden volume we haven't heard about. Report an error in the passage at 37:53 Highlight the passage at 37:53

38:24 But you do sort of have to, I mean, and the Buddha does this, he decides. After he's seen all these different, you know, the four things, he sees somebody who's aging, somebody who's sick, somebody who's died, and then a renunciate or a spiritual seeker. And he decides, I can't continue living behind these palace walls. I need to break out of this. Does this mean we all have to, like... Report an error in the passage at 38:24 Highlight the passage at 38:24

38:51 I think he just wore a little loincloth and he went off and meditated by a river with some other aesthetics. We'll clearly know that that isn't the point of this class, that we don't have to all give up our apartments and take off tonight. But we do have to make time and space. Once you decide that you want to follow a spiritual path, you do have to give it. Report an error in the passage at 38:51 Highlight the passage at 38:51

39:15 Some space and time. And one of the ways is creating a place to meditate in your house, which some of you got the little handout on starting a regular meditation practice, and I'm happy to send that to anybody who didn't get it and would like it. But the basic thing is just sort of setting up an area of whatever room you happen to be living in. It doesn't have to be a separate room. Most of us can't afford that. Report an error in the passage at 39:15 Highlight the passage at 39:15

39:43 But just a place and a time that you use to meditate, contemplate, do your reading. Some place and time that you allow your mind to quietly explore some of these ideas. And explore your own mind. Because the object of your meditation most of the time is really your own mind. I mean, we kind of work in all these tricky ways to get you to look at your mind, but that's really the object of most meditation is really checking out your own mind. Report an error in the passage at 39:43 Highlight the passage at 39:43

40:17 And so, at some point too, once you decide this is your spiritual path, or that you want a spiritual path, you have to kind of figure out that your spiritual path may look different than... Your best friends or your partners or whatever your spouse is. So you might have to just remember that the speed of how quickly you get to certain levels of practice and so on and so forth might be different than those people. Report an error in the passage at 40:17 Highlight the passage at 40:17

40:53 So you can't always be waiting or you can't always be... You know, doing everything together. I remember actually before I got ordained I was studying to be a midwife and I remember at one workshop that I was at with other student midwives, the midwife who was leading it said, you're not going to all become a midwife at the same time. Report an error in the passage at 40:53 Highlight the passage at 40:53

41:14 Like you can't wait for your best friends. Like you're going to have to decide this is what you want to do and you're just going to have to go for it. And I've thought of that a number of times because I think it's really apt for your spiritual path too. Like you can't always be thinking, You know, especially if you've come here with a friend, that that friend will take every class with you or that that, you know, friend, you know, that you have to do. Report an error in the passage at 41:14 Highlight the passage at 41:14

41:35 If that friend doesn't want to take the class with you, that you can't do it or whatever. And some of you, this won't be pertinent to, but some of you, it will. And you just have to think about that. Keep that in the back of your mind. You're definitely not going to all attain enlightenment at the same time. Report an error in the passage at 41:35 Highlight the passage at 41:35

41:51 It would be really cool if you did. And please come back for me once you do. So one of the next things that Shakyamuni Buddha did is he started looking for a teacher. So this is a big one, right? A spiritual teacher. We were just talking about this with a student last night. And the entire content of the Tuesday night class is... Report an error in the passage at 41:51 Highlight the passage at 41:51

42:18 Looking for a spiritual teacher, how you know you're ready for a spiritual teacher. Are you even the proper vessel? Are you even a student yet? Have you even reached the point where you're a student or a proper disciple yet to even have a teacher? And then there's all these different kinds of teachers. Report an error in the passage at 42:18 Highlight the passage at 42:18

42:40 Alex Berzin actually has a great book. That's one of the required readings for that class called Relating to a Spiritual Teacher. And in it he has a list of eight different kinds of spiritual teachers that he's thought of. You know, I'm sure he's left out a couple too, but I found that quite useful and I always recommend people look at that because a lot of times people think basically anybody who's teaching at a Dharma center is fair game to be a guru and it's not true. Report an error in the passage at 42:40 Highlight the passage at 42:40

43:05 So it's kind of good to... And also that anyone who's attending a Dharma center... Is fair game to be a disciple? And that's not true either. You kind of need to be at a certain level where you actually even believe that you have a spiritual practice and that you have a goal of wanting to attain enlightenment before you even, you know, and that's huge already. Report an error in the passage at 43:05 Highlight the passage at 43:05

43:28 That's big to even be at that point. And then the whole time that you're checking out a teacher, they're checking you out. So it's not like it's just this one-sided thing where you get to kind of pick out the one you want. online and order it and have them just show up and do whatever it is that you want they're checking you out too and so they may not choose you if you're not ready so it's very much a dance you know um and preparation so When we're talking about this on Tuesday night, we're spending a lot of time thinking about when are we ready and what do we do to get ready. Report an error in the passage at 43:28 Highlight the passage at 43:28

44:05 Because there's a lot we can do before we find a teacher. A lot of times people spend a lot of energy just desperately seeking a teacher. And it's sort of like, just get started and they'll show up. That's just the way it works. It's a karmic. It's a cause and effect relationship. And they do come when you're ready. So if you're just chasing after them, it's sort of like a relationship, right? It's like any kind of relationship. Report an error in the passage at 44:05 Highlight the passage at 44:05

44:29 You can be out there desperately looking, but the minute you kind of calm down and stop, they just show up. It's very much like that. So just relax. But once you are serious about having a practice, the minute that you actually connect with a teacher, that practice just... Report an error in the passage at 44:29 Highlight the passage at 44:29

44:50 So there's something to be said about finding a teacher and working with that teacher and serving that teacher and relating and how you relate to that teacher that fuels your practice in a way that just sitting around and reading books or whatever on your own isn't going to do. You don't want to enter that relationship too soon, but on the other hand, you don't want to not enter it out of fear or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 44:50 Highlight the passage at 44:50

45:16 Because you'll miss out on some pretty amazing experiences that can help you progress on your path. The next step that he did is he really applied himself diligently to practice. He didn't just come to class and take notes. He really changed his whole life. Actually, he surpassed his teachers. He was able to accomplish. Report an error in the passage at 45:16 Highlight the passage at 45:16

45:43 More than they had been able to accomplish in years of practice. And the way he did that was sort of throwing himself into practice. He really, you know, took all the steps that they gave him on how to meditate and how to attain these different levels of cities of concentration and everything. He just threw himself into it. Report an error in the passage at 45:43 Highlight the passage at 45:43

46:04 And then he just surpassed them. And then he had to reach this point, and this happens, where it's kind of like, I don't have anything else to learn from this teacher, but I still respect this teacher. I've got to go find another teacher. And he had to do that a few times, actually. I mean, Shakyamun Buddha was pretty amazing. But the main thing is that he was really, really clear in his goals. Report an error in the passage at 46:04 Highlight the passage at 46:04

46:28 When he had seen these four different... Signs, you know, the aging person, the sick person, the dead person and the spiritual seeker. He got really clear on his goal was to reach a point where there was no more suffering. He wanted to attain total and perfect enlightenment. Somehow he knew it existed, but he was incredibly clear in his goals. Report an error in the passage at 46:28 Highlight the passage at 46:28

46:56 And that's a really important... Quality that we can cultivate is getting really clear on what our goals are and not having what one of my teachers calls a really wimpy practice. So it's not just being unclear, but it's kind of reminding yourself of what your goal is all the time. Report an error in the passage at 46:56 Highlight the passage at 46:56

47:22 That's why we start every class with our motivation. That's why we dedicate at the end of class. We're constantly sort of keeping that goal in our mind and keeping it really clear. Like, what is my main goal? You know, my main goal isn't necessarily getting off early tonight. My main goal is getting enlightened, and I have to think about what those steps are to get there. Report an error in the passage at 47:22 Highlight the passage at 47:22

47:43 And, you know, most of us aren't at the point where we're just going to give everything up and meditate day and night to attain these cities. But there are other ways that we can be clear about our practice and apply ourselves without doing that. So it's not like we have to suddenly race out and grow dreads and put the ashes on our foreheads and sit by the river. Report an error in the passage at 47:43 Highlight the passage at 47:43

48:05 We don't have to do that at this point, but we definitely do need to begin getting clear about what it is that we want in our lives and how our spiritual practice can help us get there. Because our spiritual practice is really how we attain whatever it is that we're trying to attain. If we're trying to attain a deeper state of meditation, then that's what our spiritual goal is. Report an error in the passage at 48:05 Highlight the passage at 48:05

48:27 And our spiritual goals change. It's just like life goals, right? Our life goals change with each passing day. The other thing that he did that was kind of interesting and also I think a lesson for us is that he was willing to both work in a group. And also by himself. When he realized at a certain point that actually working with the group wasn't really going to work as well for him, he was willing to just go off and work on it on his own. Report an error in the passage at 48:27 Highlight the passage at 48:27

49:00 And I think that's an important thing for us to know because sometimes group experience like this class, for example, or a group retreat experience or a long group retreat even, like the three-month retreat that I did for Raja Safa, Report an error in the passage at 49:00 Highlight the passage at 49:00

49:17 Which felt much longer than the three months. I think part of that is because you're with the group. There's a whole different energy in meditating in a group. But you can learn an amazing amount. Report an error in the passage at 49:17 Highlight the passage at 49:17

49:33 You can learn how to do retreat in a group retreat. You know, because you're rotating. People are... Different people are leading meditations. You're learning how to set up your altars. You're learning how to do fire pujas. Like all these amazing things that Tibetan Buddhism is just so filled with, all these various different ways of doing retreat. Report an error in the passage at 49:33 Highlight the passage at 49:33

49:54 You can learn as a group, and then you can go off and do it on your own, and you have more confidence. You've built that confidence up. Report an error in the passage at 49:54 Highlight the passage at 49:54

50:04 So he had to decide. When he actually started practicing, he realized that, The different practices, the really, really ascetic practices that the yogis that he was working with weren't working for him. He was just getting weaker and weaker and there's some great images actually of him in his ascetic phase where he's just skin and bones and he's just meditating. Report an error in the passage at 50:04 Highlight the passage at 50:04

50:33 And he finally realized that, wait, something's missing from this. This is just too extreme. And so he actually... Started combining more compassion and bliss with these yogic practices. And the way he did that was he decided to break his fast. Report an error in the passage at 50:33 Highlight the passage at 50:33

50:50 A young girl by the name of Sujatha brought him this concoction that they call sort of rice milk. It's like really, really cooked, boiled rice that's become kind of like this gruel. And he had it in like this sort of... Her kindness for giving it to him and also the way his body felt, the energy that his body got from going ahead and breaking the fast, he realized that he was on to something that he had to actually figure out a way in between his pampered palace life and this really extreme ascetic life. Report an error in the passage at 50:50 Highlight the passage at 50:50

51:24 And so he actually developed this middle way of practice that eventually got him enlightened. But he had to be willing to deal with the fact that all his ascetic friends, Thought he was just a total loser. They completely trashed him. They were like, yeah, he's nothing. He couldn't even hold a fast. This guy's nothing. Report an error in the passage at 51:24 Highlight the passage at 51:24

51:45 And not only did he break away from them and decide, okay, I need to find my own way, but he did it with total respect for them, and he cared for them. And those were actually his first students when he got enlightened. He went and found them, and he taught them, and he was able to help them attain nirvāṇa. Report an error in the passage at 51:45 Highlight the passage at 51:45

52:04 So So we think about the way that we might have to go against the grain from whatever group we're in or whatever relationship we're in, but to do it in a respectful, kind way and to hold whatever those people are that we're deciding perhaps we aren't going with anymore, to hold them with respect in our minds. Report an error in the passage at 52:04 Highlight the passage at 52:04

52:27 And for that we need a fair amount of wisdom and we need a fair amount of self-confidence. Pride isn't such a great thing on the spiritual path, and pride means really more like arrogance. That's where you think you already know it all, so then what's the point of being here? It's like you kind of have to let go of that because especially once you enter a relationship with a teacher, you have to be willing to receive the teachings. Report an error in the passage at 52:27 Highlight the passage at 52:27

52:54 It's not going to get through if you're really solidly hard-headed about it. But you do need spiritual self-confidence. You need to develop confidence in yourself. You need to kind of know what your limits are. You need to know what your strengths are and develop those strengths and know what your weaknesses are and kind of eliminate them or work with them. Report an error in the passage at 52:54 Highlight the passage at 52:54

53:16 And that comes from knowing your mind, working with your mind over time. And that takes some time. It takes wisdom. He definitely had an amazing amount of courage and determination. He definitely was willing to, the night that he... Meditated and attained enlightenment. He battled Māra, who is really just the embodiment of his own delusions, his own mental afflictions. Report an error in the passage at 53:16 Highlight the passage at 53:16

53:42 This term, kleshas or delusions or mental afflictions or afflicted emotions, it's all translations of the same term, kleshas, Sanskrit term. I like the word kleshas, actually. it's Report an error in the passage at 53:42 Highlight the passage at 53:42

53:57 It includes anything from the most major road rage to, I mean, actually worse than road rage, you know, like any kind of murderous rage, all the way down to just having minor irritation at the color of the rug, you know, or the fact that I'm going on and on. You know, I mean, it could be like some tiny little affliction or klesha, or it can be this enormous, like murderous, like I'm going to get a gun and kill him. Report an error in the passage at 53:57 Highlight the passage at 53:57

54:23 And it's not just anger, of course, I'm just using anger as an example. It can be jealousy, it can be attachment, which is a really big one for us in the West. It can be depression, it can be any kind of, anything they describe Ecclesia as anything that disturbs the mind, any state of mind that disturbs the mind. Report an error in the passage at 54:23 Highlight the passage at 54:23

54:46 Because the... The Buddha observed that our minds are actually, the nature of our minds is pure and basically pure and knowing is the way he described it. So it has the ability to know and it's pure, it's free of all taints, it's free of all stains. But these delusions are there now. They aren't an integral part of it. They describe it as pollution in water. The water's nature is to be pure and clear. Report an error in the passage at 54:46 Highlight the passage at 54:46

55:23 And like our mind, our mind's nature is to be pure and clear. And so you can actually remove these afflicted states of mind. You can remove... Anger, you can remove ignorance, you can remove attachment, you can remove jealousy, you can remove pride. They aren't a natural or integral state of our mind. Report an error in the passage at 55:23 Highlight the passage at 55:23

55:45 So, however, they can sure feel like it, can't they? I mean, they feel solid and heavy and when you wake up and you've got the blues and it's heavy blues. Or you are just caught up in anger at someone where you can just feel your entire body. They often liken anger to like a fire, the way it kind of rages through your body. And we've all had that. We've all felt that. Report an error in the passage at 55:45 Highlight the passage at 55:45

56:10 And how you can't make a clear decision. You can't even come to any kind of clear way to act because you're just caught up with this anger. And most of the time we just chew it to death too. So it's like weeks. Not every time you think about that person or whatever that event was, we just hold on to it forever. That's all just thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 56:10 Highlight the passage at 56:10

56:31 You know, and the Buddha's observation was that it's totally not an integral part of our mind. We don't have anything to fear of it. We can get rid of it all. He transcended it. How did he do it? He did it with amazing courage. And actually, sometimes when we think about courage, we think courage to face enemies that are external. Report an error in the passage at 56:31 Highlight the passage at 56:31

56:51 But the Buddha's main lesson, really, is that our worst enemies are internal, are the enemies of our mind. We can face them down and we can eliminate them. And if we don't have any enemies within our own minds, nobody else can hurt us. They might be able, this is where the belief in reincarnation can help you, they might be able to kill us, as Gisela always says, they might be able to kill us in this life, but they can do nothing to our minds. Report an error in the passage at 56:51 Highlight the passage at 56:51

57:18 Our minds are completely, you can't harm the mind itself. So he developed this amazing courage and determination and we need to do that to have a spiritual path. We need to have a certain amount of determination and we need to have a certain amount of courage to face our own minds, to work with our own minds. Report an error in the passage at 57:18 Highlight the passage at 57:18

57:40 Because sometimes it's yucky. Sometimes it's like, you know, it's funny, I just got back from a month's retreat this summer and so many people are like, how was your retreat? It's like, you know, you're just like... You're alone with your own mind and no distraction for a month. You know, it's got its good days and its bad days. Report an error in the passage at 57:40 Highlight the passage at 57:40

58:03 Sometimes the mind ain't so pretty. But you have to be willing to work with it. That's the only way you're going to get anywhere. You've got to be able to stare it down. This one friend of mine who did three years, three months retreat out in... She was in Arizona and then did another couple of years down in the Big Sur area. She said that's the only time she swears is when she's struggling with Māra. Report an error in the passage at 58:03 Highlight the passage at 58:03

58:33 And Māra's like trying to take her over and she's just like, and I'm not going to say the word. Imagine stars and X's and those little things. Report an error in the passage at 58:33 Highlight the passage at 58:33

58:42 But she's just basically like, you, you know, Māra, get behind me, you know, get out of here, you know, I don't need you here today. Because if you're going to get angry, Shantideva writes that way, Master Shantideva in The Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. If you're going to get angry at anything, get angry at the delusions that are keeping you stuck in psychic existence. Report an error in the passage at 58:42 Highlight the passage at 58:42

59:01 That's who your true enemy is. It's not anybody outside of you, despite what we believe. And then the final point is that he didn't rush right out. He got enlightened. He didn't run out and go, hey, everybody, you guys. The greatest thing happened to me last night. He didn't. He totally held it all together. He didn't want to talk. People came to him, actually, and asked for teachings, and he was just like, no, no, no. Report an error in the passage at 59:01 Highlight the passage at 59:01

59:28 And it wasn't just because he was so amazingly humble or anything like that. He really thought it was way beyond what we would ever understand or could work with, especially when you get into the teachings on the nature of reality. So, he... He wasn't sure if it was something that anybody could actually use. And then when he decided he would go ahead and teach, and that was only after repeated requests, he didn't teach everything he knew. Report an error in the passage at 59:28 Highlight the passage at 59:28

59:58 He didn't run right out and say, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, the way I do. He didn't just like, you know, go through every single thing he had experienced through the night. He actually thought about it. And only taught us what he felt would get us to the same state. So what would help us attain enlightenment too? So they say that actually once you attain full enlightenment, you know, you are omniscient. Report an error in the passage at 59:58 Highlight the passage at 59:58

1:00:29 You know all. Mind knows and it's basically freed now to know all. It's freed to know everything once it's been fully awoken up. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:29 Highlight the passage at 1:00:29

1:00:41 He didn't tell us all that other amazing stuff that he must have known. He instead only focused on what's going to get us to this state too. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:41 Highlight the passage at 1:00:41

1:00:51 So we can kind of look at the way we are once we gain certain understandings about our minds or certain understandings about Buddhism or any kind of insight or whatever. Do we just like run out and blah, blah, blah? Or do we kind of just sit with it a little bit and think, well, is there benefit? to sharing this? Is it useful? Do I need to go out and run out and talk about it? You know, maybe it's not so important to, if there's no So it's kind of a little bit of a lesson to be a little mindful about our speech and how to use it for the most benefit rather than necessarily blabbing everything that we know. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:51 Highlight the passage at 1:00:51

1:01:29 And that's a hard one. I think our entire culture is based on blabbing, actually. We create more and more devices so that we can blab. With multiple people in other countries. It's like we actually create more and more and more ways to blob. So this idea of kind of just sitting with understanding and realization a little bit before you share it or even just thinking about whether you ever need to share it. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:29 Highlight the passage at 1:01:29

1:01:58 Maybe you don't. At some point, I remember actually talking about this. A couple of days ago with somebody, I think actually you probably reach this point where you stop having to share. Like it's like you kind of, you know, like now we share it with like our Dharma friends or like our, you know, whoever our significant other is. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:58 Highlight the passage at 1:01:58

1:02:17 And then it becomes less and less, you know, and then it might be like one or two really good friends you might share with. And then it's like, you know, your teacher. And then it's finally, I think, your own inner groove. I think it's all, and you know it already. It saves a lot of time. Maybe that's how we have all the time to do all the meditation and everything. We stop trying to share it all through our mouth. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:17 Highlight the passage at 1:02:17

1:02:42 Anyway, so these were the main points about the historical Buddhist life story and how I think that it actually gives us a blueprint to practice. But you guys can all think about it a little bit. I had wanted to do a small group discussion tonight, and I'm not so sure if we have time for that. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:42 Highlight the passage at 1:02:42

1:03:02 I think I would rather, well we could do, we could do like a 10 minute one and then you guys could take like a 5 minute break, so you take like a total of 15. And just to think about some of these experiences that you read about, and you all have to actually say something, you can't just sit there and stare at each other. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:02 Highlight the passage at 1:03:02

1:03:26 So you have to have like a lively person in each group that's going to get things going. Yeah, I think it's kind of useful, actually, and I don't do small group discussions very often, but then again, we don't usually have such a large group, so it must be the reason. I think it's a karmic ripening. But just to think about the qualities that the Buddha had to develop in order to get where he got, and also then how those might relate to your own story, and try to encourage quiet people to speak up. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:26 Highlight the passage at 1:03:26

1:03:58 Don't let one person just sort of dominate the whole group. So what would be good, and I wrote all that down so you don't have to remember it. Everybody can have one of these exciting little pieces of paper. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:58 Highlight the passage at 1:03:58

1:04:10 What would be good, I think, is just to count starting, maybe it was Stephanie, you'd be one, one, two, three, and then one, two, three, and then one, like that, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. Hey, that's good. And all the ones go into the bookstore. For that group, and all the twos can be maybe right here. You make a little circle right here, and all the threes maybe back near that little sofa, that little love seat in the back. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:10 Highlight the passage at 1:04:10

1:04:48 And just take a few moments, just think about, you know, how these kind of points in the Buddha's life story relate to your own. And also just kind of qualities or just anything at all that you want to talk about that relates to this. Don't go off on the mantra spelling or any of the other hundreds of interesting things that you could talk about. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:48 Highlight the passage at 1:04:48

1:05:11 Just take a few moments to talk about it. So why don't you do that? And then afterwards, you know, I'll tell you just to stop and you guys can go and go to the bathroom and get a cold drink or something, you know, the cafe. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:11 Highlight the passage at 1:05:11

1:05:23 Does anybody have a question before you do that? Okay. Okay, one's in the bookstore, Report an error in the passage at 1:05:23 Highlight the passage at 1:05:23

1:05:32 twos can go maybe like right here near Jeff. Jeff's a two, yeah, gather around Jeff. And then threes maybe at the sofa back there where Cedric is now standing. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:32 Highlight the passage at 1:05:32

1:05:47 So first you have to introduce yourselves to each other and then just take off. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:47 Highlight the passage at 1:05:47

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:07:11 know what we're talking about, but yeah, no, but we can talk about it. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:11 Highlight the passage at 1:07:11

1:07:19 Round two. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:19 Highlight the passage at 1:07:19

1:07:24 Haley, are you arranging a group of people to go to another April movie? Yes, we are. So when is that happening? On Friday, September, so a week from this Friday. Is it the evening show? It is the evening show. However, they only post the days one week in advance, and so they're not going to be posted, actually, I think until Tuesday and next week. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:24 Highlight the passage at 1:07:24

1:07:48 But I figure that the show will probably be sometime around 7, so I imagine we'll be here sometime around... Okay, so people want to go to the Melarepa film, which is opening as a film of the first. This director is making, he says, two films. I don't see how he's going to fit it all, everything else. I saw the first film and it doesn't even, it just gets to the point where by the end of it. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:48 Highlight the passage at 1:07:48

1:08:13 So there's like tons to put in the second film, Report an error in the passage at 1:08:13 Highlight the passage at 1:08:13

· · · silence, 2 minutes

1:09:53 which is really, Report an error in the passage at 1:09:53 Highlight the passage at 1:09:53

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:10:59 and is anyone else, Report an error in the passage at 1:10:59 Highlight the passage at 1:10:59

1:11:16 so if anybody's in, Report an error in the passage at 1:11:16 Highlight the passage at 1:11:16

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:11:59 did I say anything bad? Yeah, go ahead and send that around. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:59 Highlight the passage at 1:11:59

1:12:33 I didn't know a last name. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:33 Highlight the passage at 1:12:33

1:12:38 So if Report an error in the passage at 1:12:38 Highlight the passage at 1:12:38

1:12:43 you see your... Report an error in the passage at 1:12:43 Highlight the passage at 1:12:43

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:13:25 Does anybody want to do a report back on group one, like what happened in group one? Yeah? Oh, use the talking stick. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:25 Highlight the passage at 1:13:25

1:13:36 I just made Stephanie your report back first, and I don't know if there's a problem with that. You know, you guys can have a feelings meeting afterwards. We had a very nice discussion. We kind of focused a bit on the first question. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:36 Highlight the passage at 1:13:36

1:13:53 And Robin and myself brought up the fact that we both had some low back pain issues and how that's really, like you were talking about your migraines, how that's really opened up, like for me, and we talked about this just a door to compassion. You were talking about that and just this notion that, you know, of aging and you can't stop the aging process. You can't will your pain to go away. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:53 Highlight the passage at 1:13:53

1:14:21 And we also got into the notion of aversion to pain and how there's sort of this, you know, you talked about how Buddha, the notion that we're all supposed to be happy and that we don't, you know, pain and suffering, we shouldn't have to experience that. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:21 Highlight the passage at 1:14:21

1:14:41 I think a middle piece of that where you need to have the courage to face the pain. To face it, exactly, yeah. So we talked a little bit about that, you know, and we did relate it to the physical pain that all of us have felt at some point or another. Yeah, being able to look at your own suffering and the suffering of others is huge. Yeah. Spiritual training, I think. I'm learning that. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:41 Highlight the passage at 1:14:41

1:15:03 And then we talked about the third questions about... Spiritual experiences that might be better left unspoken and three of the people in our group were here on Saturday. I was not here so I can't comment on that but they said they had very profound experiences and it was interesting to notice how they didn't feel like going out and blabbing about it and just kind of letting it seep in. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:03 Highlight the passage at 1:15:03

1:15:31 We talked about that and how it is kind of nice to keep some of that to yourself for a little while. Brought up a little bit about the vulnerability that you can sometimes feel when you do talk about those things and sort of fear of judgment and the wacky religious people are talking about their stuff. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:31 Highlight the passage at 1:15:31

1:15:52 So it was good. We could have sat there. Does anyone else from group one want to talk? I don't want to dog. Does anybody else from group one want to add on anything to what she just said? It sounds like you guys. A lot talked about. That's great. I'm sorry it wasn't as long as I would have liked it to have been. I, of course, had to keep blabbing so you didn't have enough time. How about from Group 2? Report an error in the passage at 1:15:52 Highlight the passage at 1:15:52

1:16:18 Who's brave? He's from Group 2. That was a plant, wasn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:16:18 Highlight the passage at 1:16:18

1:16:27 Well, in Group 2, we really got into the first question. Maybe from group two. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:27 Highlight the passage at 1:16:27

1:16:36 Interested all of us. We had, we talked about the experience of illness with ourselves and with other people that we knew that were close to us and just about... Holding it up to your, yeah, because that way at least people in the back row can hear. And just the aging process and, you know, just coming to terms with we're not getting any younger. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:36 Highlight the passage at 1:16:36

1:17:03 Right, which is shocking. you. Thank you. We all talked about our experiences around death or loved ones passing away or just being around actual dead bodies and how that really brings it all up for you and what happens. Totally. Yeah, yeah. What's next? Yeah, exactly. But also... Report an error in the passage at 1:17:03 Highlight the passage at 1:17:03

1:17:36 Someone shared about being with someone when they passed away and how moving that was, how peaceful it was, what an incredible experience that was. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:36 Highlight the passage at 1:17:36

1:17:51 Yeah, we kind of found ourselves in the same position as the historical Buddha. We'd come up against these experiences with the aging and the illness and the death. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:51 Highlight the passage at 1:17:51

1:18:10 And, you know, we're looking for, you know, something, you know, past, you know, the ordinary, you know, result, which is, you know, more, you know, to shun it or, you know, to seek more sense of reputation or, you know, get into more delusions. And we, you know, I mean, I think I'm lucky to have ended up here, you know, to where I can, you know, kind of hopefully resolve, you know, and, you know, continue. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:10 Highlight the passage at 1:18:10

1:18:43 We'd call that your good karma ripening. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:43 Highlight the passage at 1:18:43

1:18:48 Yeah, yeah. No, that's great. How about group three? Anybody in group three? Any brave people in group three? Oh, come on. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:48 Highlight the passage at 1:18:48

1:19:08 Oops, sorry. The large knot goes with it. Continue, right? The process. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:08 Highlight the passage at 1:19:08

1:19:13 In the group three we have a great experience talking and we unify our minds for the time that we spend that everybody was so happy. I feel that and they even say it. But I would like some of you to share what we were sharing briefly and I'm going to give it to you. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:13 Highlight the passage at 1:19:13

1:19:36 She's chosen who the spokesperson is. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:36 Highlight the passage at 1:19:36

1:19:42 Well, if I remember, I'll talk about you first. Marlene had a lot to say about her experience with death and how Buddhism could really help us to prepare for what's inevitable. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:42 Highlight the passage at 1:19:42

1:20:07 And whereas ordinarily we're not ready for that, but this is a way of kind of... Working with the fact of it and dealing with it. And then Olivier talked about sort of the balance that the Buddha had between there was one extreme asceticism and the other of his previous life and just finding the balance. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:07 Highlight the passage at 1:20:07

1:20:38 John talked about... That's great. I'll never even remember. Sort of. Now we know I'm our land victim. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:38 Highlight the passage at 1:20:38

1:20:53 Well, it was the fact that the Buddha actually evolved in his thinking that he went, the way in which his insight developed over time. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:53 Highlight the passage at 1:20:53

1:21:11 Yeah, it wasn't static. He didn't get it all at once. Yeah, built on each other. I hope I'm getting anyone's positions right. If we hear any tears, we'll know. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:11 Highlight the passage at 1:21:11

1:21:25 When I first read the story, what struck me was his reaction to materialism and how his initial dissatisfaction had to do with the life around him and how there wasn't any lasting happiness that he found in it. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:25 Highlight the passage at 1:21:25

1:21:46 And... Maybe she can, if you want to speak about what you're saying. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:46 Highlight the passage at 1:21:46

1:22:02 First of all, I was kind of amazed how we just started talking with each other and we'd forgotten all about reading this and then when we went to go and read this, we'd already been following the outline. Excellent, excellent. And for me, the thing that struck me was that first... Report an error in the passage at 1:22:02 Highlight the passage at 1:22:02

1:22:24 Question about how he was so affected by those dying and aging and seeing the spiritual seeker and how deep those connections with those scenarios are for life. And I haven't seen all of them yet. I haven't been around a lot of elderly people. I haven't come that far. close to death before and with this small brief encounters that I've I can feel that there's some something so profound to be gained from them Report an error in the passage at 1:22:24 Highlight the passage at 1:22:24

1:23:12 this kind of confirms it. Yeah, yeah. That's great. Anybody else from group 3? Did we cover everyone? John? That's great. Well, it was just a beginning, you know, it was a beginning to start talking about this. This is actually part of your homework this week is to continue contemplating it and to contemplate it in the form of analytical meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:12 Highlight the passage at 1:23:12

1:23:40 Analytical meditation is basically a meditation where you're sitting and contemplating. So it's not like you're trying to still your mind of all thoughts. You're just trying to control what it is that your mind's thinking about. So rather than thinking about what's for dinner or something, you're actually focusing, which is normally what could be on our mind. You're focusing on these things and contemplating in a controlled way. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:40 Highlight the passage at 1:23:40

1:24:01 That's really all analytical meditation is. So we have run out of time. I was going to talk a little bit about... How the teachings of the Buddha have come down to us in a way, organized in a sort of methodical way that we call the lamrim now. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:01 Highlight the passage at 1:24:01

1:24:24 And I guess I'll just really quickly say the sort of the essence where it's broken into the three scopes of practitioner. And then I'll just kind of give you guys an overview of the Lamrim at the beginning of the next class, really, really briefly before we go into it, into the subject of the next class. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:24 Highlight the passage at 1:24:24

1:24:45 But one of the ways that you can take the Buddha's teachings, the teachings of the Buddha are vast. I mean, once he did start. He gave us quite a few teachings. But for our purposes, sometimes it can be like there's just so many, if we were just let loose, first of all, if we could read them, if they had been translated into English, which not all of them have been, the same is true actually from all the Tibetan commentaries and things, haven't all been translated into English either. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:45 Highlight the passage at 1:24:45

1:25:18 However... If we were let loose by ourselves in a library that's just filled with the Buddha's words, it's kind of overwhelming to just like there's just sūtra after sūtra after sūtra and what are they about and what do they actually mean and what did he mean because he taught in all these different ways depending on who the audience was and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:18 Highlight the passage at 1:25:18

1:25:36 The audience, the students. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:36 Highlight the passage at 1:25:36

1:25:41 So there have been many masters over the years who, especially within the Tibetan tradition, which is the one that I'm the most familiar with, who have taken these teachings and the commentaries on these teachings and the points on the path, basically, and they've condensed them in a way that we can meditate on them and study them and analyze them and contemplate them and then gain some understanding on them and then move on to the next. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:41 Highlight the passage at 1:25:41

1:26:09 Level on that path. This is what's called the lamrim. Lamrim, lam is path and rim is like graduated or gradual or steps on the path, you know, you take in a gradual way. Who was it who said, John, apparently you were talking about in the group, the gradual way that he came to his realizations. Studying and contemplating and meditating on the lamrim is one way to do that in a gradual way. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:09 Highlight the passage at 1:26:09

1:26:39 These, as I talked about a little bit in the first class, these come down to us through Atisha, who is the master who brought, who's Indian master, Indian pandit, who was brought to Tibet to reintroduce the Dharma after the first Dharma had begun to degenerate within Tibet. And people couldn't remember. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:39 Highlight the passage at 1:26:39

1:27:05 They had a lot of confusion about certain points and things like that. And so they sent off for this great master, brought him there. And I'll tell you that story at the beginning of the next class. But the main thing that he did is he organized these teachings in a way that he felt the Tibetans, who were considered to be quite a wild bunch, could understand. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:05 Highlight the passage at 1:27:05

1:27:24 I think it's very apt for our minds as well. So I think we must have something in common with the Tibetans. And one of the ways that these are divided is you'll hear people refer to lower scope or lesser scope practitioner, middling scope or middle scope practitioner and great scope practitioner. And so that's based on the people practicing it. So it's like from our side, it's divided up. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:24 Highlight the passage at 1:27:24

1:27:55 So the first level. It's called the lower scope practitioner. And at this level, which we'd actually be really happy if we had gotten to this level yet. At this level, we're seeking a basic understanding of the nature of mind, which includes this understanding that the mind is beginningless and endless, which is what the Buddha observed mind to be, which is different than our view of mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:55 Highlight the passage at 1:27:55

1:28:27 It is dependent upon the brain, but it's not the brain. And that this life itself is impermanent. So they've gained some realization of death itself. Now, actually that's huge. As I said, if this is all I could get in this life, that things are not permanent. And like you get it intellectually, but to get it gut level that I myself am going to die. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:27 Highlight the passage at 1:28:27

1:28:31 Um. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:31 Highlight the passage at 1:28:31

1:28:55 And that everyone I love is going to die. To actually get that and be able to use it for my spiritual path is pretty enormous. That's an enormous realization. And it's still considered this lower scope practitioner. So when we say lower scope, we aren't saying that they're to dismiss them. They're actually pretty cool people. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:55 Highlight the passage at 1:28:55

1:29:14 And I want to be one. The other thing that they have gotten is how karma works. So they understand the law of cause and effect, which we aren't going to get into in a lot of detail right now, but it basically has to do with the actions that we do, net certain results, and we experience those results later. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:14 Highlight the passage at 1:29:14

1:29:36 Unfortunately, there's a lag time, and so we often experience the results of actions that we've done in the past life. So now everything that we're experiencing is actually based on actions that we have already done. But what we are doing now with not just our bodies but our minds and our speech are creating what's going to happen in future lives. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:36 Highlight the passage at 1:29:36

1:30:00 So they say if you want to know what your past life was like, look at the life you have now. You've created it in your past life. If you want to know what your future life will be, look at your mind right now. And that's what we can do now is to work with our minds in order to create the kind of lives that we want. So they get this understanding. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:00 Highlight the passage at 1:30:00

1:30:23 They have this understanding of the nature of mind. They have an understanding of impermanence, especially of death. And they have this understanding of karma. And they also, based on all those things, they have a level of refuge. They understand the situation that we're in is based on karma and that it's finite due to death. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:23 Highlight the passage at 1:30:23

1:30:45 And they take refuge in those beings like the Buddha who have been able to transcend this whole system of what's basically called saṃsāra, psychic existence, taking rebirth after rebirth at the mercy of our karma because we haven't figured out how to control it yet. So they take refuge in order to avoid a lower room rebirth. All of that is a lower scope practitioner. So that's pretty cool. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:45 Highlight the passage at 1:30:45

1:31:11 Like if I could just do that. I'd be a happy person, you know, like just to get that you'd already have a seriousness of practice that would be pretty amazing. The middle scope practitioner no longer is thinking, has all of those, so starts with all the same as the lower scope. So they often say it's like the practice that's shared with the lower scope. Then the middle scope takes it another notch up and they say, well, it's not enough for me just to not be born as an animal. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:11 Highlight the passage at 1:31:11

1:31:44 It's not enough for me to just seek a better rebirth. But all of cyclic existence is suffering. So even if I'm a king, I still have to die. Even if I'm a god, because there's this whole cosmology in Buddhism that believes that there are these really incredible rebirths too. People always focus on the hell realms, but there's actually far more god realms than there are hell realms. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:44 Highlight the passage at 1:31:44

1:32:08 But still, you're just wasting positive karma. You know, blissing out for a few yons and then that karma is done and then you have a lower rebirth. So it's the middle school practitioners getting it that all saṃsāra is suffering and that based on this they sort of they develop what's called the state of renunciation which we're going to talk about in a lot of detail in the next class where you are getting it that Report an error in the passage at 1:32:08 Highlight the passage at 1:32:08

1:32:43 That all of saṃsāra and all of cyclic existence is suffering and so I'm setting my goal on something beyond this. I'm setting my goal on getting out of this. And that's really when you become a serious seeker of Buddhism. And understands that the cause for this suffering are these kleshas that we talked about, these delusions, these mental afflictions, these things that disturb our minds. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:43 Highlight the passage at 1:32:43

1:33:10 They're the ones that cause us. To create this negative karma in the first place. When my anger flares up, I punch Jeff. I create negative karma. You know, when my attachment comes up, I steal the clock. You know, it's like stuff like that. We do this all the time. I'm using larger examples for entertainment purposes. But I mean, we do it, you know, where you just decide. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:10 Highlight the passage at 1:33:10

1:33:35 It almost feels like, as Venerable always says, it's like that chocolate cake is screaming your name. You have no control. From its own side, you have to shove it all in, even if you know it was a birthday cake for somebody's birthday and they aren't going to be able to taste it because of your greediness. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:35 Highlight the passage at 1:33:35

1:33:53 So the kleshas actually, they say, are the main cause for our suffering because we give in to them. These deluded states of mind, we act on them, then we create this negative karma that just keeps us in this cycle. So this middle school practitioner gets that, and they get that those kleshas aren't a part of the mind permanently, and so they set their goal on liberation or nirvāṇa, which is to free their minds from all these negative states so that they can actually attain this blissful release from the suffering of saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:53 Highlight the passage at 1:33:53

1:34:26 Sounds pretty good, right? But the greater scope practitioner takes it another notch higher. They have to get all of those things that we just talked about, the nature of the mind, death, karma, refuge, and then they get how we keep ourselves here. They get nirvāṇa, they understand nirvāṇa, and they understand the concepts of the nature of reality, which is of emptiness, wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:26 Highlight the passage at 1:34:26

1:34:52 But they take it this other stuff and they say, wait a second, if I'm suffering like this, all other beings are in the same boat. I can't just think about myself here. I can't think about just getting nirvāṇa myself. I have to attain enlightenment so that I can help all of them. So it's this huge mind of bodhicitta where you're thinking, I will attain enlightenment because it's the best tool. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:52 Highlight the passage at 1:34:52

1:35:20 For me to be able to help every other living being. It's not because you just think it'd be really cool to have a body made of light and, you know, be able to walk through walls and show up wherever anybody needed you or anything like that. It's because it literally would give you the capacity and the tools to be able to help every being end their suffering and help every being gain that happiness that they want, which is where we started, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:35:20 Highlight the passage at 1:35:20

1:35:45 So that's the greater scope practitioner. They are the ones who are seeking full enlightenment so that they can benefit every living being. So those are the three scopes and that's how the different topics of the Lamrim and the different topics along this graded path to enlightenment are divided usually is they start with, which is of course these Discovering Buddhism classes are based on the Lamrim. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:45 Highlight the passage at 1:35:45

1:36:11 So the classes that we started with in the early part of the summer were the mind and how to meditate. So we get an idea of how the mind works. And then we're this. This is actually just an overview of the path. It's not really a lamrim topic in and of itself. But then we have the spiritual teacher, which is once you get serious, then you've got to get a teacher. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:11 Highlight the passage at 1:36:11

1:36:32 And so then we start moving along the different, so we have karma coming up, death and rebirth will be coming up later on this fall, like that. Refuge will be coming up in January, and so forth. So then we begin sort of following the lamrim and how we present the topics, and they all move along this lower scope, middle scope, ending with... Report an error in the passage at 1:36:32 Highlight the passage at 1:36:32

1:36:51 The great scope practitioner, which is all the bodhicitta classes. There's a couple of bodhicitta classes. That's that. The alarm room in five minutes. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:51 Highlight the passage at 1:36:51

1:37:03 Does anybody have any quick questions? Then we'll just close. I was going to lead you through the one that's your homework assignment, but you'll be all right. If anybody has any quick questions, we can try to answer them. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:03 Highlight the passage at 1:37:03

1:37:19 Whitney, can you do your hand in the hand? Report an error in the passage at 1:37:19 Highlight the passage at 1:37:19

1:37:24 It seems that when you're talking about karma and the seeds of karma, it seems that once someone's on the path and you're planting those seeds of karma, it doesn't seem like they could go back into lower realms. And I know you told the story or Rabina told some stories about kind of Buddha's concept being the sailor or the merchant and what it was, but what would cause them to go back if they're already further on the path? Report an error in the passage at 1:37:24 Highlight the passage at 1:37:24

1:37:50 It's not like you're progressing in the sort of upward motion all the way. It has more to do with you've created over many, many lifetimes. If you actually buy the idea that our mind is beginningless and endless and we've already had zillions of lifetimes in all different forms, so not just humans that were ignorant, but like, you know, cats catching mice or whatever like that, you know, just out of ignorance causing negative karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:50 Highlight the passage at 1:37:50

1:38:17 We've created so much and one with so much negative karma that it's hard to purify at all. So even if you're on the path and you're purifying on a regular basis or you're doing that three-month Roger Sapphire retreat that I was talking about and you're purifying massive amounts and they say actually it's quite good to do once you understand how karma works to purify on a regular basis because we do create it even as practitioners all the time. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:17 Highlight the passage at 1:38:17

1:38:45 You've just created so much negative karma that it's sort of like all these planes are sitting on the runways and you don't know which one's going to take off. So if you die before you purified all your negative karma, which as I said is difficult to do anyway, at the time of your death one of those negative karmas could ripen, especially if you had a really violent death or a death that allowed these really negative states of mind to arise. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:45 Highlight the passage at 1:38:45

1:39:13 It could trigger a negative rebirth. So yeah, you can still have negative rebirths even once you're on the path. But you're creating positive karma just being here tonight and then we'll dedicate this class. We dedicate all the positive karma that from all the ideas and thoughts that have come into your mind tonight and made imprints, we dedicate that to enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:13 Highlight the passage at 1:39:13

1:39:34 So at some point... It'll ripen in your next rebirth and you'll be like, huh, there's a Buddhist center. I don't know why I'm drawn to it, but the same with me. And then all of a sudden I ended up getting regained. It's not a coincidence. It's karma ripening, according to the Buddhist perspective. So does that help? Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:34 Highlight the passage at 1:39:34

1:39:56 So that's kind of where it's sort of like you're in this balance between the urgency of using your life well. And also, as His Holiness the Dalai Lama always says, having this long view that it could take you lifetimes. And most likely, except for the very, very highly realized beings amongst us, and all of you could be. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:56 Highlight the passage at 1:39:56

1:40:19 I don't know. I'm assuming you're ordinary beings, but who knows. It probably will take us. Several lifetimes, if not many lifetimes. And so he says, have this long view too. Use your life to the best of your ability. Practice the best you can. Learn the most you can. Help the most you can. But also have this view that it's going to take you a while. Don't be so freaked out that you run out tonight and get a cave. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:19 Highlight the passage at 1:40:19

1:40:44 I think you've got to become enlightened tonight. It's like you've got to balance those two together. But that's why, because you just don't know what's going to ripen next. And it could be positive. Just as easily. So anything else and then we'll just dedicate. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:44 Highlight the passage at 1:40:44

1:41:05 So we will just take a moment to let Report an error in the passage at 1:41:05 Highlight the passage at 1:41:05

1:41:13 our minds, it's sort of like our minds are kind of like this water in the glass and we've been shaking it all and so they're all kind of like all these different thoughts and ideas and images are racing around in our mind and we just let that settle for a moment and see the clarity and the purity that That is our mind. That the Buddha is able to see is our mind. And know that that's our mind. And also know that the other aspect that the Buddha pointed out is that all of us have this thing that's called Buddha nature. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:13 Highlight the passage at 1:41:13

1:41:47 We all have this potential to become fully enlightened ourselves. It's not just for the really smart people or the really amazing people. It's all of us have this. And nobody can ever take this away from us. It's ours until we get enlightened. So we can really rejoice in those two aspects of our mind. And we dedicate any positive karma that we created just through talking about these teachings, the life story of the Buddha, our own interpretation of them, our own spiritual path. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:47 Highlight the passage at 1:41:47

1:42:24 We dedicate any positive energy or any positive karma at all to each one of us attaining our full potential, which is full enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:24 Highlight the passage at 1:42:24

1:42:35 So that we can perfectly benefit every living being. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:35 Highlight the passage at 1:42:35

1:42:45 Thank you very much. So I wanted to give, here's the homework, Report an error in the passage at 1:42:45 Highlight the passage at 1:42:45

1:42:57 maybe we'll split, it's just one page. Oops, this one's my original. So maybe just, everybody grab that. And the binders are here, so everybody can grab a binder. I think that's 15 there, and I think 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:57 Highlight the passage at 1:42:57

1:43:20 15, perfect. So everybody can grab a binder. If you don't want a binder and you want a loose set of readings, for those of you that say during the Tuesday night class, if you want to just put it in the same binder, I have a couple like that. So Chad and Cedric, if you guys want to just have the loose readings and stick it in your Tuesday, then you can save binders. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:20 Highlight the passage at 1:43:20

1:43:41 Yeah, but otherwise you can grab a binder and your homework. Now if anybody needs the reading of the sort of condensed version of the life story of the Buddha, I have a couple of extra copies of those. And if anybody doesn't get one, I can make you another copy. So, okay. You guys got one last time, right? Yeah, okay. So maybe give that. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:41 Highlight the passage at 1:43:41

1:44:00 Morgan and then also Hantapala and Whitney, did you want one? Yeah. I don't know if I made enough, but go ahead. Cedric needs one. Oh, John needs one. I'm going to make some extra copies. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:00 Highlight the passage at 1:44:00

1:44:20 Actually, everybody on this side of the room, I think, except Jane, and I just gave you one, right? Is there anybody else that did not get a copy of the Buddha's Life Story that needs one? Report an error in the passage at 1:44:20 Highlight the passage at 1:44:20

1:44:34 There's like some rodent thing happening going on in the wall. Oh, money pay me home. So we don't know. He might be in our class next time. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:34 Highlight the passage at 1:44:34

1:44:45 I don't know what's going on in that wall, but it's sounding alive. Okay, so great. So it sounds like I might have to make a couple of copies for anybody who's new to the class next time, but it sounds like everybody here got one. Good, thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:45 Highlight the passage at 1:44:45

1:45:06 Oh, syllabi, syllabi. Those of you who weren't here last time, yeah. So the same people who got the life story should get one of those. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:06 Highlight the passage at 1:45:06

1:45:18 So just grab binders for yourself. Everybody grab, maybe you start, maybe hand them to people. Yeah, because everybody should get a binder. Oh, thanks. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:18 Highlight the passage at 1:45:18

1:45:36 Binders all around. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:36 Highlight the passage at 1:45:36

1:45:43 And if you don't want an actual physical binder and you want loose readings, I've got some loose readings too. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:43 Highlight the passage at 1:45:43

1:46:03 want syllabus that did not get it last week? Report an error in the passage at 1:46:03 Highlight the passage at 1:46:03

1:46:29 Yeah, they are. You can always turn about an one. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:29 Highlight the passage at 1:46:29

1:46:38 I'm fearful if someone's going to trip because my left hand. non-binder-less version? A binder-less version? Would you like a binder-less version? You know what I did? I just took it on. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:38 Highlight the passage at 1:46:38

1:46:54 No, that's okay. That's great. As long as I know, then you want the attractive coat, There you go. I wanted Report an error in the passage at 1:46:54 Highlight the passage at 1:46:54

1:47:14 to ask a pretty cool reason. know. I am bummed that I'm going to miss out, though, because it's extremely helpful. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:14 Highlight the passage at 1:47:14

1:47:39 but I just wanted to ask you you've been, and I know your trips have been very different from the trips I'm going to take, but I'm thinking about how long are you going to? I'm going for five weeks. Oh, that's okay. Yeah, if you have a chance about that, yeah. Yeah, that's where I really want to go. I have a little bit of fear, though. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:39 Highlight the passage at 1:47:39

1:48:01 What time is it? I wanted to go first. Yeah. I have a little fear about that one. They're on my own. Well, for one thing, you'll probably be in other westerners. Okay. Yeah. So, go to Dharamsala first. I'm not going to make it up there. Oh, really? Yeah, I've been there before, but on this trip, I have to go to the school. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:01 Highlight the passage at 1:48:01

1:48:24 I don't have to. I'm going to the south because I foster a child down there. Okay, yeah, yeah. So, it's going to take a while to get it. Yeah, so I'm going down to there. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:24 Highlight the passage at 1:48:24