Discovering Buddhism - Presenting the Path (18 October 2007)

0:04 -guess all the little things that she does. Report an error in the passage at 0:04 Highlight the passage at 0:04

0:18 So Report an error in the passage at 0:18 Highlight the passage at 0:18

0:33 I have a very bad cold. I have taken many, many drugs in the hopes that I don't have a coughing fit, but I may have a coughing fit, so just be aware. Report an error in the passage at 0:33 Highlight the passage at 0:33

0:45 I have many, many, many lozenges to get me through the night. I'll have one ready just in case. We'll start with a little meditation, and then I have the elusive page 8. Report an error in the passage at 0:45 Highlight the passage at 0:45

1:01 And I'll probably wait and just give that to you on the break and also the practice day presentation ideas for those of you that can come or decide to do a presentation and then along with the homework and stuff. So I think rather than having you read it while I'm talking, I'll just wait and give it to you at a time when class isn't happening. So we'll just start with a little meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:01 Highlight the passage at 1:01

1:32 Just take some nice deep cleansing breaths and let each breath let go of, help you let go of whatever else you've been doing today. Report an error in the passage at 1:32 Highlight the passage at 1:32

1:46 Whatever work or study or even just the getting here, any conversations you might have just been having. Report an error in the passage at 1:46 Highlight the passage at 1:46

2:11 You can also, when you're doing those cleansing breaths, you can imagine breathing in whatever it takes for you to be present here, to be really alert and focused. Able to take in any information and breathing out anything that might distract you or keep you from being here, any obstacles, any obstacles, especially body and mind. Report an error in the passage at 2:11 Highlight the passage at 2:11

2:47 We'll just start with a short meditation on your breath. So just to review the posture again, for both seated in a chair or seated on a cushion, the most important one is having your back straight, your spine extended. Report an error in the passage at 2:47 Highlight the passage at 2:47

3:06 Shoulders level, heads slightly tucked under, Report an error in the passage at 3:06 Highlight the passage at 3:06

3:16 eyes either lightly open and unfocused or lightly closed. On Report an error in the passage at 3:16 Highlight the passage at 3:16

3:29 the roof of your mouth behind your front teeth but not touching. Report an error in the passage at 3:29 Highlight the passage at 3:29

3:41 Hands in your lap, right over left, thumbs touching lightly or on your knees. And Report an error in the passage at 3:41 Highlight the passage at 3:41

3:54 if you're in a chair, having your feet firmly on the ground and moving away from the back of the chair. If you're on a cushion, you just decide whatever position is most comfortable for your legs. Report an error in the passage at 3:54 Highlight the passage at 3:54

4:13 You're just focusing on the in-breath and the out-breath, either at the level of your belly or your chest or your nostril. The sensation of the air as it enters and exits your body, being one cycle and trying to count to 10 or 21 or whatever you'd like without losing it. You don't have to count either if that's distracting. The object is just to keep your mind focused and to keep bringing it back as many times as you need to. Report an error in the passage at 4:13 Highlight the passage at 4:13

4:51 I'll just do that for a few minutes. And Report an error in the passage at 4:51 Highlight the passage at 4:51

· · · silence, 2 minutes

6:48 as your mind begins to calm down, you can start cultivating a motivation. I'm Report an error in the passage at 6:48 Highlight the passage at 6:48

7:08 going to be talking about developing the mind of bodhicitta and what that means. One Report an error in the passage at 7:08 Highlight the passage at 7:08

7:17 of the most amazing aspects of the mind of bodhicitta is that it doesn't leave any being out. Not a single one, no matter what they've done to you personally, no matter if you even know them, no matter how small they are or large they are, how important they are, how unimportant they are. Report an error in the passage at 7:17 Highlight the passage at 7:17

7:45 This mind of bodhicitta covers them all. Report an error in the passage at 7:45 Highlight the passage at 7:45

7:53 And so just by presenting the main aspects of developing this mind, may it become the seed within each of us. To cultivate the genuine mind of bodhicitta in this very lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 7:53 Highlight the passage at 7:53

8:12 Because this is the mind that will take us all the way to enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 8:12 Highlight the passage at 8:12

8:36 I'll begin with the opening prayers, which I don't have. Report an error in the passage at 8:36 Highlight the passage at 8:36

8:46 Thanks, Olivia. Is Report an error in the passage at 8:46 Highlight the passage at 8:46

8:54 Jane here? No, Jane's not here. We actually said this in New York. Jane was in New York for His Holiness' teachings. Thanks, Olivia. Report an error in the passage at 8:54 Highlight the passage at 8:54

9:04 At the end, we cultivated this wish, and I thought about that, guys. Although Tipton Jimba translates it as enthused, he begins the second paragraph with enthused by wisdom and compassion, which is also kind of cool, rather than inspired. Report an error in the passage at 9:04 Highlight the passage at 9:04

9:25 So on page 8, with the wish to free all beings, I shall always go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha until I reach full enlightenment. Inspired by wisdom and compassion, today in the Buddha's presence, I generate the mind of full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. As long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world. Report an error in the passage at 9:25 Highlight the passage at 9:25

9:56 With a 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, for the benefit of all sentient beings, as long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain, to dispel the miseries of the world. Report an error in the passage at 9:56 Highlight the passage at 9:56

10:26 With a wish to free all beings, I shall always go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha, till I reach full enlightenment. Inspired by wisdom and compassion. Today in the Buddha's presence, I generate the mind of full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. As long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world. Report an error in the passage at 10:26 Highlight the passage at 10:26

11:07 Try this. That's going to happen periodically. I'll just leave it up there. Report an error in the passage at 11:07 Highlight the passage at 11:07

11:14 So, questions? Anything? It's been a couple weeks. Any questions? Sorry for my dean interrupting. He sent me this chat this week, and I'm sure it was His Holiness, right? Yeah, yeah. Everybody was wanting to know if I was watching. We had a member of our community who's been quite very close to death, actually, although today it seems like he's had a positive turn. So I've been really involved with this. Report an error in the passage at 11:14 Highlight the passage at 11:14

11:42 And then your email, your chat came through right then, and I'm like, I can't deal with this right now. And I thought afterwards, ooh, that wasn't very good. Report an error in the passage at 11:42 Highlight the passage at 11:42

11:52 Yeah, yours was like the fifth or sixth email about it. Hopefully somebody can watch it again this weekend or something when I have more time. His Holiness received the Congressional Medal of Honor yesterday. Sorry about that. Anyway, does anyone have any questions about the meditation or the reading or contemplating anything that we've... Report an error in the passage at 11:52 Highlight the passage at 11:52

12:19 Talk about with renunciation. Kimatha, could you grab the mic and pass it back to Matt? Thanks. You guys all have to move up one. The front row, except Jeff, is like empty. Report an error in the passage at 12:19 Highlight the passage at 12:19

12:34 Hold it right up to you. Yeah, there you go. I was a little confused on the wording. For the reading, it says verses 1 through 5 of the root text. The root text is the three principles of the path. It's that one sheet, the Lama Tsongkhapa. Okay. Yeah. That's what I'm calling the root text. It's what's called a really short or really brief lamrim, but it covers all the points in that whole lamrim chemo, which is a three-volume set, but it covers the same points. Report an error in the passage at 12:34 Highlight the passage at 12:34

13:14 Liberation is liberation in the palm of your hands or liberation in your hands, which is a text. And for those people that are doing the class basically for general interest, then... You don't need to read that, but it's sort of like I'm telling you what the required reading is for if you're doing it for a certificate or if you just have a profound interest because it's a little more heady, liberation is, but go for it. Report an error in the passage at 13:14 Highlight the passage at 13:14

13:45 I remember actually the very first class that I taught here on TV. Um, um, Somebody came in, Tim, who was just doing the spiritual teacher class again for the second time, he came in and said he had actually read all of Liberation in the Palm of Your Hands from start to finish, which I haven't even done. Report an error in the passage at 13:45 Highlight the passage at 13:45

14:10 So, I mean, it just depends on your personal interest. I just tell you what the reading is and then it's just up to individuals. I would say, probably to be realistic, most people don't do that reading. But I know Morgan's starting to do some side reading because of personal interest in how karma works and things like that. Report an error in the passage at 14:10 Highlight the passage at 14:10

14:28 So that's what that's referring to. On the syllabus, it actually has all of the reading. Report an error in the passage at 14:28 Highlight the passage at 14:28

14:39 Anybody else? Report an error in the passage at 14:39 Highlight the passage at 14:39

14:44 So in the root text and in Lama Yeshe's talks or the book, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 14:44 Highlight the passage at 14:44

14:52 He describes renunciation as it's not necessarily you're needing to give up your pleasure in life. And then you go right to the root text and it says, yeah, going for pleasures in life is not the right idea. Report an error in the passage at 14:52 Highlight the passage at 14:52

15:08 It's grasping at those. What's a small renunciation and what's a large renunciation? Well, I mean, clearly an outer renunciation is giving up the things. Right. So, can you just, a, like, Report an error in the passage at 15:08 Highlight the passage at 15:08

15:23 But what really matters is what's going on in your mind, which is what Lama Yeshe is getting at. So Lama Yeshe's point of view, for example, His Holiness can enjoy a wonderful dinner without grasping at it. Few of us actually can. We usually either want more or we have all these things that arise with whatever it is that we enjoy in terms of sensual pleasure. Report an error in the passage at 15:23 Highlight the passage at 15:23

15:49 But if you're actually renounced, then you have this sort of understanding of the impermanence of those things and the fact that they aren't going to give you lasting happiness. And in actuality, if you understand emptiness and karma and all those things, they don't even exist the way you are perceiving them. Report an error in the passage at 15:49 Highlight the passage at 15:49

16:05 And so it just sort of naturally you don't have any grasping at them. So that's actual renunciation. But for those of us that are in training, then we do things like... You know, formally giving up certain things because it's a way, it's like our training wheels. So it's sort of the external means to get to the internal means. Report an error in the passage at 16:05 Highlight the passage at 16:05

16:24 But you can't look at somebody who's got the external and assume, it's good for you to respect, but you can't assume that we're all renounced. I mean, we could go upstairs and like, you know, put away a pound of chocolate or something, you know, because you just, you know, we're trying, but it doesn't mean we're there yet. Report an error in the passage at 16:24 Highlight the passage at 16:24

16:41 This is just the means. Does that help? Yeah, so it's a way, renunciation is both a process, it's like a way of looking at, you know, because not everyone has a problem with food, not everyone has a problem with alcohol, not everyone has a problem with sex, not everyone has a problem, but we all have a problem with something that we're attached to. Report an error in the passage at 16:41 Highlight the passage at 16:41

17:05 So just beginning to just look at that and just think, okay, well it's not necessarily that I have to give up TV or movies or... The New York Sunday Times or whatever. But you might know yourself that you have a problem with it. And in that case, it could be useful. But it's not saying anywhere that you have to give up everything. But you can begin seeing how your own mind works and how you grasp at certain things as your means to happiness. Report an error in the passage at 17:05 Highlight the passage at 17:05

17:35 And you know that that's faulty. And so you're just kind of like, maybe for me it might be useful. But with that kind of mind, not thou shalt. You know, just like, maybe I'll try this out and see if I'm, you know, grasping at this too much. Maybe I'll try this outer means to get to the inner mind, you know. Report an error in the passage at 17:35 Highlight the passage at 17:35

17:55 I don't know, that made it worse. Seemed like your face went to understanding to less understanding. Could you pass him back the mic? I have another question. Another question pops up when you describe that. So the means to achieve that, then we know that, you know, that there are these preliminary practices in meditation, but I've also heard of... Report an error in the passage at 17:55 Highlight the passage at 17:55

18:15 other types of trainings of you know reinforcing the opposite or of whatever the reinforcing the opposite reinforcing the opposite or to counteract oh like an antidote kind of thing yeah so so at this stage preliminary practices and the meditation are the means to reflect back on Which preliminary practices are you talking about? Meditation. Report an error in the passage at 18:15 Highlight the passage at 18:15

18:43 Like just the breath meditation, preliminary practices that we do, the prayers that we do. Is that the method to enter renunciation? No, not necessarily. Those are just to prepare your mind for meditation. It doesn't necessarily have to do with renunciation itself. I would say for renunciation, it's more contemplating why these things actually aren't going to be your... Report an error in the passage at 18:43 Highlight the passage at 18:43

19:10 Your route to lasting happiness. You know, it would be more like some of the meditations that we've had. You know, so you're really trying to examine. So it's more analytical, you know, contemplating even. It doesn't even have to be informal meditation, but just thinking about all this stuff a little bit more. Because often I think we just grasp after happiness without thinking. Report an error in the passage at 19:10 Highlight the passage at 19:10

19:33 We just don't think. We're just on autopilot, you know. We just go home and, you know, eat it. Bunch of food or whatever. We just immediately will go with whatever it is we've tried before, thinking this time that it's going to somehow bring us lasting happiness without thinking. So all the Buddha is saying is just think, just begin to think. Venerable Rubina actually had a good line on Tuesday night where she said, practice is basically changing how you think. Report an error in the passage at 19:33 Highlight the passage at 19:33

20:07 Which I thought was really, really profound because it really is. And it's that simple but it's also that difficult because we've been thinking the same way. Not just this whole life but if we're to believe the Buddha for many lifetimes. Report an error in the passage at 20:07 Highlight the passage at 20:07

20:21 Continuing to try repeatedly the same thing to give us happiness when even in this life we've seen that it doesn't work but we keep trying somehow that it's going to give us happiness. Report an error in the passage at 20:21 Highlight the passage at 20:21

20:35 Practice is actually just beginning to apply some of these teachings and shifting it, even just once, shifting how you approach, you know, whatever your particular thing is, you know, shifting how you approach somebody yelling at you, shifting how you approach, you know. know. Report an error in the passage at 20:35 Highlight the passage at 20:35

20:56 Whatever it is, however you might seek happiness, you know, just shifting a little bit and just trying it out, just trying something different once. And it's actually incredibly profound, but it takes remembering to do that. And that's what all those mindfulness things are about where you watch your breath and things like that. It's to develop this quality of mindfulness that we actually will remember to apply the teachings when we need them. Report an error in the passage at 20:56 Highlight the passage at 20:56

21:19 I mean, mindfulness is really just that. It's really just remembering. But we forget because we're so busy and we have so much information and data coming at us and we just forget. And then another day goes by and we get to the end of the day and we're like, hmm, actually I wasn't so nice today. Or I ate too much today or I drank too much today or I was mean to somebody. Because we just aren't mindful. We just aren't remembering to apply what we actually know. Report an error in the passage at 21:19 Highlight the passage at 21:19

21:45 So shifting the way you think, it's interesting. But that's really all it is. Beginning to develop a new way of thinking about things. That's why she's always talking about how Buddha was really just like a psychologist and what he wants us to become as our own psychologist. Report an error in the passage at 21:45 Highlight the passage at 21:45

22:07 Really just think about what it is we're doing and thinking and saying and, you know, like that. Anybody else? Tim, you want to come in? No, no, yeah? You sure? You know, pass him. Somebody pass him at least a cushion. Yeah, there you go. Report an error in the passage at 22:07 Highlight the passage at 22:07

22:32 Okay, so tonight we're actually getting into the second principal path, and we're only going to spend this class on it. So we have to pack all of bodhicitta in one class. So clearly, it's not going to be the most extensive presentation of bodhicitta you'll ever receive. Hopefully it'll just be, it'll wet your whistle. Report an error in the passage at 22:32 Highlight the passage at 22:32

22:30 cough, Report an error in the passage at 22:30 Highlight the passage at 22:30

22:54 And you'll get excited by it, as I do. Bodhicitta is one of my favorite aspects of Buddhism. And we'll talk a little bit about why. But just know, just like with everything else, that this is just an initial presentation of it. And that if you decide to take, there's actually two classes on bodhicitta within the Discovering Buddhism. Both of them will be offered in the spring. Report an error in the passage at 22:54 Highlight the passage at 22:54

23:22 I think the Developing Bodhicitta will be offered in March. And then the transforming problems, which is an aspect of bodhicitta, I think maybe may or something like that. So you can have a much more complete presentation of the methods to develop bodhicitta and why you'd want to do so at that time. But this gives you some taste of it. Because without bodhicitta, actually, you can never actually attain enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 23:22 Highlight the passage at 23:22

23:53 You need the mind of bodhicitta to get enlightened. So it's pretty basic. I think it's pretty important to develop. So we go back to the root text, which now we know what that is. Report an error in the passage at 23:53 Highlight the passage at 23:53

24:07 If you don't have it, that's okay. Just close your eyes and I'll just read it. It'd be like a bedtime story, but don't fall asleep. Report an error in the passage at 24:07 Highlight the passage at 24:07

24:20 So we're going to verses 6 through 8. Renunciation, though, can never bring the total bliss of matchless Buddhahood unless it's bound by the purest wish. And so the wise seek the highest wish for enlightenment. That's bodhicitta. They're swept along on the four fierce river currents, chained up tight in past deeds hard to undo, stuffed in a steel cage of grasping self, smothered in the pitch black ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 24:20 Highlight the passage at 24:20

24:51 In the limitless round they're born and in their births are tortured by the three sufferings without break. Think how your mothers feel. Think of what's happening to them. Try to develop this highest wish. Report an error in the passage at 24:51 Highlight the passage at 24:51

25:04 So this highest wish is referring to bodhicitta. And bodhicitta is Sanskrit. Jangsem is Tibetan. And it actually literally translates to the mind of enlightenment. But it's not necessarily an enlightened mind. It's a mind aspiring to get enlightened. So it's not talking about the Buddha's mind. It's talking about somebody who generates this mind of bodhicitta is actually called a bodhisattva. Report an error in the passage at 25:04 Highlight the passage at 25:04

25:37 So probably most of us have heard of bodhisattvas and that's who that's referring to. So you're trying to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. And as I said in the motivation, that's all beings without exception, without a single exception. So you're not leaving any sentient being out. Report an error in the passage at 25:37 Highlight the passage at 25:37

25:57 And that's an important point to note because that's why it's so powerful. Because you are having this virtuous thought. And towards every single being that there is. So it immediately multiplies it. It's sort of like if I wanted to benefit Charlie, that would be really great. If I wanted to help Charlie, if I wanted to dedicate my life to helping Charlie, that would be great. If I wanted to dedicate my life to helping all of you, that would be even better. Report an error in the passage at 25:57 Highlight the passage at 25:57

26:26 But now I want to dedicate to the entire, not just people of San Francisco, not just animals of San Francisco, not just insects of San Francisco, but go out. To the whole universe. So it's not even covering just this planet. It's almost unfathomable. And as Venerable Rabina was saying, it's almost insane actually. Report an error in the passage at 26:26 Highlight the passage at 26:26

26:46 It's almost like this. It's so radical that it's almost insane, this wish. But of course, that's what creates. That's why Buddhas aren't like us. They have this mind all the time. But you have to get there. And so what we're going to talk about is a little bit first about... The benefits of bodhicitta and then also how on earth we would develop this mind ourselves. Because it's just, the interesting thing is that once the Buddhas develop this mind, then they just tell us the methods and basically we then have all we need to develop it ourselves, but it takes our effort. Report an error in the passage at 26:46 Highlight the passage at 26:46

27:27 Then it takes our effort. Once we have the methods, it just takes over and over meditating on it. So what you'll actually get this week is one of the methods to meditate on it, which is called the seven-point cause and effect. I think it's six causes and one effect, which is from saṅgha, which came from Maitreya, Master of Saṅgha through Maitreya. Report an error in the passage at 27:27 Highlight the passage at 27:27

27:57 And then there's another one that's called Exchanging Self for Others and that came from Shantideva and it's taught in the Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. And then Lama Tsongkhapa combined the two into 11 points. So in the developing bodhicitta class we actually go through all 11 points so you can learn them and take time meditating on them. Report an error in the passage at 27:57 Highlight the passage at 27:57

28:22 It's not just meditating on one point once and then of course you'll develop it instantly, unless you have amazing karma. Most of us have to meditate on it again and again and again. Because we have our habits of thought are so ingrained that we have to change those habits of thought. So they say that bodhicitta is the single most powerful mind possible. Report an error in the passage at 28:22 Highlight the passage at 28:22

28:40 yeah. Report an error in the passage at 28:40 Highlight the passage at 28:40

28:51 The most powerful mind that exists. And that through it, it's how we can actually overcome all our negative thoughts, all our negative karma eventually we can actually overcome through bodhicitta. And it's like a 180 from how we normally think. So instead of holding ourselves as the most important and wanting... Report an error in the passage at 28:51 Highlight the passage at 28:51

29:15 The best of everything. And if there's like two pieces of cake and one slightly larger, we kind of go for that one or, you know, like just the way we normally think, looking out for number one. I mean, our entire culture is built on it, actually. It's taking that and reversing it entirely, not as a martyr, but simply because you honestly care about every other being as much as you care about yourself, which is actually. Report an error in the passage at 29:15 Highlight the passage at 29:15

29:38 Really huge. Because there's usually just some little bit that we usually care a little bit more about ourselves. So it's sort of changing that. It's beginning to change that. And it grows out of renunciation. So we've spent the last couple of classes talking about renunciation. And renunciation is learning to see the fact that, first of all, we're suffering. Report an error in the passage at 29:38 Highlight the passage at 29:38

30:06 He's going off. Which sometimes it's actually hard to even admit that we ourselves are suffering. But we've talked about the different ways that the Buddha meant that and that it's not always that we have a headache and it's not always that we have... My shoulder got really good, by the way, while I was traveling. Of course, I threw my back out and got this cold. Report an error in the passage at 30:06 Highlight the passage at 30:06

30:29 So it's not always these kind of sufferings. It's also just that underlying level of dukkha. Remember that we talked about that kind of dissatisfaction that's always there, that there's always something wrong, that we are always getting a little bit bored or a little bit impatient or a little bit fed up with whatever it is that we're doing or whatever it is we've gotten or whoever it is that we have finally obtained if we've been chasing somebody. Report an error in the passage at 30:29 Highlight the passage at 30:29

30:56 So renunciation is seeing our own suffering. And in saṃsāra and what that means, that samsaric mind. And making, you know, developing this desire, this wish to get out of saṃsāra ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 30:56 Highlight the passage at 30:56

31:10 And bodhicitta is then turning our minds and seeing that actually all beings are in the same boat. That there's no difference between the suffering of all other beings and ourselves. So it's the same mind but it's just a different object. Now you're just expanding it out towards others. Report an error in the passage at 31:10 Highlight the passage at 31:10

31:29 So there's two levels of bodhicitta, wishing bodhicitta and engaging bodhicitta. And actually later in the bodhicitta class, and also Geshe-la I think is going to give bodhisattva vows. There are what's called bodhisattva vows. There's a whole set of vows that help train your mind in this mind. Report an error in the passage at 31:29 Highlight the passage at 31:29

31:51 And you can take them in these two ways, wishing bodhicitta and engaging bodhicitta. Wishing bodhicitta is kind of like you're basically just trying to get the seed. You're just trying to get an imprint of this great wish. So you just kind of are aspiring to develop it. And engaging is when you really just decide, I'm going to go for it and I'm going to do whatever it's going to take. Report an error in the passage at 31:51 Highlight the passage at 31:51

32:13 Engage in the activities of a bodhisattva. I'm going to take these vows. I'm going to do the activities of a bodhisattva, like the six perfections. Have people heard about the six perfections? The actions of generosity, morality, patience, joyful effort. This is my test. Concentration and wisdom. I left something out. No, that's good. Did I get six? Okay, good. Thank you. I can't count without a calculator anymore. Report an error in the passage at 32:13 Highlight the passage at 32:13

32:42 So those are actions that you do in a certain way. I mean, we could start doing them now. It's certainly good to start doing them now. But there are certain ways that are described in the Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. And that's basically what Shantideva is getting at, is that you're doing these activities as a way to strengthen your baby bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 32:42 Highlight the passage at 32:42

33:03 Because that book is actually written for those of us. Who supposedly have already generated some form of bodhicitta. The rest of us can read it too, fortunately. And it plants a good seed. Geshe-la took four years to teach that, actually, and we've just requested him to do it again. Hopefully in two years, we're going to try to have him do it twice a week after he finishes the classes that he's on currently. It may take a while for him to get there, but when he does, if you guys are all still around. Report an error in the passage at 33:03 Highlight the passage at 33:03

33:36 I would highly recommend doing it. I think it's one of the best, most amazing books in all of Tibetan Buddhism, actually, if not all of Buddhism. Definitely one of those books that if you get caught in a desert island kind of thing, that would be like the one that you would want with you. So the benefits of bodhicitta. And again, you know, they always say they start with the benefits so that it inspires us to want it. You know, you do that with calm abiding, too. Report an error in the passage at 33:36 Highlight the passage at 33:36

34:03 And, you know, you want to learn, like, why would you want to? to develop bodhicitta. So Lama Yeshe says that if we want any kind of success, if we want just within our practice, if we want to become good meditators, if we want to become just generally nice human beings, that we need to develop bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 34:03 Highlight the passage at 34:03

34:28 And his point is that without bodhicitta, we still have this mind that clings, a little bit like what I was talking about with Dean. Report an error in the passage at 34:28 Highlight the passage at 34:28

34:36 That clinging to the really good stuff, so if you have a really nice experience in meditation, then you want it again and you keep trying and that really messes up your meditation. Basically, they say that that clinging actually causes your good meditation experience to disappear. We have to just begin to let go a little more, which is the mind of renunciation, actually. Just letting go a little bit more, having a little bit more relaxed attitude. Report an error in the passage at 34:36 Highlight the passage at 34:36

35:05 So he's saying, his point is that that clinging comes from that selfish mind, what the Tibetans say, call self-cherishing, the self-cherishing mind, but you can also just say it's selfishness or self-centeredness. Report an error in the passage at 35:05 Highlight the passage at 35:05

35:19 And this is like the direct opposite of that mind. So this is the mind that's rather than focusing on me, me, me and what can I get and how can I be happy and what good things can I experience, you're actually... Doing a 180 and you're starting to think about others to that same level. And it's not saying, by the way, that, you know, Lama Zopa actually always uses that by the way thing. Report an error in the passage at 35:19 Highlight the passage at 35:19

35:51 The byproduct of bodhicitta is that you yourself actually are in bliss. Like actually, you put yourself, you're thinking of all beings, but by the way. Shantideva phrases it, the path to bliss is bliss itself. You actually are lastingly happy by taking this approach. So it's not like you're leaving yourself out. It's not like you're a martyr in that sense. And I have to keep saying that because I think most of us come from some sort of Judeo-Christian background that has more of that kind of martyred thing. Report an error in the passage at 35:51 Highlight the passage at 35:51

36:26 And this isn't about that. But it does become very selfless. That selflessness though is based in wisdom as well. So we'll get to that a little bit more. So wishing bodhicitta and engaging bodhicitta. And then we go to how the benefit of this is that this actually allows us to have more success in our practice if we're able to generate it in any kind of genuine, sincere, lasting way. Report an error in the passage at 36:26 Highlight the passage at 36:26

37:03 The next benefit is that it allows us to actually become a Buddha, which is what we were talking about. Without it, you can't become a Buddha. And of course, that would, I would say, be the top one. Report an error in the passage at 37:03 Highlight the passage at 37:03

37:15 And so they call it the elixir that transforms base metal into gold. And that's because it transforms this ordinary body and mind into the mind of a Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 37:15 Highlight the passage at 37:15

37:27 This is one of my favorite ones. Once you attain it... It keeps generating more merit without interruption even when you're asleep or distracted. I just love that one. I just sort of imagine this bodhisattva sitting there watching TV and generating all this merit. Report an error in the passage at 37:27 Highlight the passage at 37:27

37:47 Once you attain this mind, you become a child of the Buddhas. It's sort of like with the godfather. You enter the family. you know. Report an error in the passage at 37:47 Highlight the passage at 37:47

37:56 You know, they like They see you, and actually they say, you know, when you take the bodhisattva vows, when I took the bodhisattva vows, the Lama that I took them from said, it's actually, they say that the earth trembles because it's so powerful for us to even want to take these vows, even if we can't possibly keep them perfectly. Report an error in the passage at 37:56 Highlight the passage at 37:56

38:19 Just having that wish, they say it's because there's just so much happiness in all the buddhism bodhisattvas. All over the world are just so happy that you are trying to attain this mind. Report an error in the passage at 38:19 Highlight the passage at 38:19

38:34 Bodhisattvas are always called, if you ever see, sons of the Buddha or child of the Buddha. That's what they're calling us. This is what this is referring to. The next one is that every action you do then becomes a cause for Buddhahood because you're doing it with this mind of bodhicitta. Even if I were to... Report an error in the passage at 38:34 Highlight the passage at 38:34

38:32 you're considered so they actually from Report an error in the passage at 38:32 Highlight the passage at 38:32

38:57 You know, go feed the pigeons in the park. I would be doing it with this mind of, you know, may I be, through this act, may I be benefiting all sentient beings. So it's just like every action you do becomes bigger. Getting up in the morning, I'm doing this for all sentient beings, you know. Whatever it is that you're doing, because the scope is so gigantic, it becomes that much more virtuous. Report an error in the passage at 38:57 Highlight the passage at 38:57

39:25 So it all becomes a cause for Buddhahood. So even just ordinary virtue just becomes this vast meritorious deed. Report an error in the passage at 39:25 Highlight the passage at 39:25

39:37 And through bodhicitta you actually are able to purify huge amounts of negative karma, which would otherwise be obstacles to understanding, you know, your understanding of the Dharma as well as your being able to act. Report an error in the passage at 39:37 Highlight the passage at 39:37

39:56 To your meditation, to your, like all the ways that obstacles act to keep us from getting enlightened. This helps blast through them. And one of the things that I actually really see with bodhicitta, especially with when I see, you know, my teachers who I think have already generated this mind, like Lama Tsongkhapa Rinpoche, for example, or His Holiness, it becomes this incredible fuel for our practice. Report an error in the passage at 39:56 Highlight the passage at 39:56

40:26 It really helps you get that tirelessness that they have, where they can literally go around the clock joyfully. It's not just going around the clock, because we can all do that, right? I mean, if we have to, we can go around the clock. But with delight, they're happy to do whatever it takes to help others. And I think it's this, this mind of bodhicitta, where they just... Report an error in the passage at 40:26 Highlight the passage at 40:26

40:50 Anything that they can do to benefit others, they're willing to do. So it's this mind that gives you this amazing energy to work for others. So that when you wake up in the morning, you just wake up with this joy, this powerful energy. You sort of leap out of bed. And they literally do. I mean, it's not that I'm in the same room as His Holiness or Lama Zopa when they leap up, but I definitely have spent time enough with Lama Zopa to see... Report an error in the passage at 40:50 Highlight the passage at 40:50

41:21 That there's never a moment that he doesn't have that same delight, you know. In the kitchen making butter tea, he has the same delight as, you know, teaching all night if necessary, you know. It's just, it's amazing actually. And the presence, if he stops right in the middle, if somebody really needs him to, you know, listen to their problem, he'll just, he's totally, you know, able to do so with like complete compassion and kindness. Report an error in the passage at 41:21 Highlight the passage at 41:21

41:54 So tonight we're going to just talk about this seven-point cause and effect, which is the oldest of the methods, mostly because the imagery in the root text really corresponds to this method the most. But they're both... Very cool methods. And actually, I think His Holiness said that he thinks that the exchanging self and other, which is Shantideva's method, is one that Westerners probably relate to a little bit more. Report an error in the passage at 41:54 Highlight the passage at 41:54

42:29 And I was thinking about doing that one, but I think it makes more sense to talk about this one because it relates more to the root text, so it kind of fits a little better. But if you're excited by bodhicitta, you should definitely come and do the bodhicitta class in the spring. We'll talk about the other. Report an error in the passage at 42:29 Highlight the passage at 42:29

42:47 Venerable Bina talked a little bit about exchanging self for other on Tuesday night, which she wasn't going to. She's actually going to talk a little bit about that mind in December when she does the day long, this 22nd. She's actually going to be doing it on the eight verses, which is a Lojong text, a mind training text. So if you're interested, just know that that's coming up. Report an error in the passage at 42:47 Highlight the passage at 42:47

43:13 So the foundation practice to this method, so the step 1A, the step before one, is what's called equanimity. And that's basically where you're trying to level the playing field a little bit. You're looking at how you normally view the world and how we normally tend to label like-dislike. Don't care. Like, dislike, don't care. Like, dislike, don't care. And we just do that all day long without even being aware that we're doing it. Friend, enemy, stranger with people. Report an error in the passage at 43:13 Highlight the passage at 43:13

43:50 Friend, enemy, stranger. Friend, enemy, stranger. And in reality, during this meditation, and it is a meditation, it's a separate meditation, and I think a really profound meditation, you just pull up examples of all three. You know, somebody in front of you who you think of as a good friend, somebody in front of you that you think of as an enemy or somebody who challenges you in some way, because a lot of times people don't like to think that they have enemies. Report an error in the passage at 43:50 Highlight the passage at 43:50

44:19 And then somebody that you think of as a stranger but you know a little something about, so maybe like the person that sells you coffee or something that you see on a daily basis but you really don't know them. And you just think about why you label them in that way and how also within the course of one lifetime somebody can be all three. Report an error in the passage at 44:19 Highlight the passage at 44:19

44:37 Sometimes several times. Always starting as a stranger. I mean, we always know that, right? Whoever it is that we are with now as a close friend or a partner started as a stranger at one point. And if we've ever broken up, they end up as a stranger later. Or an enemy first. Sometimes an enemy and then a stranger. Report an error in the passage at 44:37 Highlight the passage at 44:37

44:57 Sometimes a stranger and then an enemy. Sometimes a friend again. So that kind of loosens it a little bit. And you're just kind of contemplating that. And then you begin to realize that actually what we tend to do is we look at the perceived benefit that that person brings to us. And if we don't perceive benefit at all, like if they haven't harmed us or helped us, then they're a stranger. So the guy in the street or, you know, some guy next to you on the N train or whatever, just that would be a stranger because they haven't helped you in any way. Report an error in the passage at 44:57 Highlight the passage at 44:57

45:30 But if you dropped your wallet and that person found it and handed it to you, then suddenly you label them friends. And it changes like that fast. And so it's kind of interesting to look at. But if they kept the wallet, they'd be the enemy. I remember once I was leading it and somebody said, I had one person and they were all three and it was his wife. Report an error in the passage at 45:30 Highlight the passage at 45:30

45:52 Since gotten divorced. but it's I think it's a very interesting meditation to do, and you can do it repeatedly with different people. You can also do it repeatedly with the same people, coming back to it and seeing how that changes. But basically, we begin to realize how limited our mind is, how we tend to just think, oh, this person's my friend and they always will be my friend. Report an error in the passage at 45:52 Highlight the passage at 45:52

46:17 But in reality, life happens and anything could happen. They could just suddenly... You know, decide that they are angry at you for something that you didn't do or, you know, something even that you did do and write you off or break up with you or, you know, never speak to you again. And that does happen. I mean, those of us over a certain age, I think, have already experienced stuff like this in our lives. But still we hold on to this inherently existent friend, enemy, stranger. Report an error in the passage at 46:17 Highlight the passage at 46:17

46:47 And so this meditation has a lot to do with just looking at how our mind works. And we do this with everything. We do it with things too, but I think usually we create less negative karma with things than we do with people. So the fact that we do it with people, and usually we can be quite harmful with people that we perceive as enemies. Report an error in the passage at 46:47 Highlight the passage at 46:47

47:13 So it's just a way to begin to break that down. Report an error in the passage at 47:13 Highlight the passage at 47:13

47:19 And the Buddha's point in having us look at how we do this wasn't to say that we can't have good friends. He's not like saying that it's, you know, bad to have good friends and it's probably not so great to have enemies. But his point is just that we actually are capable of caring for people limitlessly, but we just limit ourselves to friends. Report an error in the passage at 47:19 Highlight the passage at 47:19

47:43 You know, those people that we label friends are family, some people only with their family. And so then we're willing to create all this negative karma to anyone that seems to threaten those people or anyone that's seen as an enemy of those people or anyone who seems to... We tend to create a lot of negative karma to protect those people and he's just talking about how this is a really limited state of mind. Report an error in the passage at 47:43 Highlight the passage at 47:43

48:12 And that if we become more like, for example, His Holiness, who literally thinks of whoever is in front of him as a friend, he just immediately has this frame of mind. And then that person becomes a friend, whether it's the busboy in the kitchen or whether it's the limo driver or whether it's somebody asking the question or whether it's... Report an error in the passage at 48:12 Highlight the passage at 48:12

48:37 Somebody on stage, you know, stagehand or whatever. He just has this mind of openness and caring, like honestly caring about what happens to this person and this person's needs and wants. And so the Buddha's point is that we can all do that. We can develop this mind that like sort of begins to think of everyone as a good friend. Lama Yeshe called it big mind, big mind, developing big mind rather than little mind that we always tend to stay in. Report an error in the passage at 48:37 Highlight the passage at 48:37

49:06 So the method. The first step of the seven points is recognizing all sentient beings as your mother, or at least the idea that they could have been your mother. This is the part that I think His Holiness is getting at. It's a little difficult for Westerners. Sorry. Report an error in the passage at 49:06 Highlight the passage at 49:06

49:32 When you're meditating on this, you're basically analyzing this idea of... The beginningless and endless mind that the Buddha observed, this is one of his observations as an enlightened being, is that mind is beginningless and endless, sort of like the number line, like there's no, like it just extends out limitlessly behind us and limitlessly in front of us. Report an error in the passage at 49:32 Highlight the passage at 49:32

49:59 Even if we become enlightened, we still have mind. And so one of the ways that you think about that is just thinking about the fact Did we talk about that in this class? Just beginning to think back at the different mental moments that you've already had just since you've arrived and then you could go back further and how each mental moment actually was caused by the mental moment before and then you can go back to your young adulthood and then your teens and then your childhood and then your infancy if you can remember back or at least imagine what it might have been like and then... Report an error in the passage at 49:59 Highlight the passage at 49:59

50:35 Some people actually do have birth memories or, you know, in the womb or whatever, but you can always imagine what it might have been like. And then the Buddhist point is that that mind didn't just suddenly pop into being, that there was a mental moment before and that was the final moment of the being that your mind was in last life. Report an error in the passage at 50:35 Highlight the passage at 50:35

50:55 And that wasn't the first time either, and that that mental mind goes back through that being's life. Until the life before it and so forth. So if we've had these limitless births and we've had these different kinds of bodies and these different kinds of existences, we've had mothers in all those lives. Report an error in the passage at 50:55 Highlight the passage at 50:55

51:17 We've had mothers in every form, as every kind of human imaginable, every race, every ethnicity, every economic level. We've been every... animal that exists and so it actually is sort of calling upon you to just try And if you are estranged from your mother, which seems to come up a lot in the West, At least thinking about the fact that, I mean, no matter what, your mother has given you this body. Report an error in the passage at 51:17 Highlight the passage at 51:17

52:09 So you can still think about the fact that there was a kindness done by her just not aborting you, which you could have done. So it doesn't... This exercise doesn't so much require you to be really close to your mother. I think it helps if you were. I was very close to my mom, who just passed away last fall. Report an error in the passage at 52:09 Highlight the passage at 52:09

52:34 For me, this is such a profound meditation to just think of having that strong feeling that I have had for my mother in this life for other beings in other different forms. Just imagine having that same... the relationship you know and having Because mothers, they choose mothers, I think, not... Clearly mothers in Tibet, I think, have this certain view of being... Report an error in the passage at 52:34 Highlight the passage at 52:34

53:03 I mean, there's this idea of mothers in Tibet of being selfless and being nurturing and having this certain tenderness and also having this fierceness to defend their young and to protect their young. And it was a very dangerous... Report an error in the passage at 53:03 Highlight the passage at 53:03

53:21 And still is. Very dangerous land in terms of, you know, like you wouldn't leave a baby out in Tibet. The things, the examples they give often are like, you know, I mean, if a baby is left out, it could fall to a great depth. Well, clearly here, like if you left the baby out in the backyard, it wouldn't be a good thing, but most likely it wouldn't. Report an error in the passage at 53:21 Highlight the passage at 53:21

53:43 It would freeze in a couple minutes like it would in Tibet, and it wouldn't fall thousands of feet the way it would in Tibet, and it wouldn't be captured by large vultures and things like that. So it was slightly different, but even so, there's something different. This idea that the mother actually, if it's a birth mother, actually carries a baby inside of them. Report an error in the passage at 53:43 Highlight the passage at 53:43

54:13 You know, which is so extreme. Really, it's so extreme. You don't even think about it, but it's so different from the rest of our lives to even think about the fact that they feed you basically from their own body. Report an error in the passage at 54:13 Highlight the passage at 54:13

54:27 And so I think that's the reason why the mother is chosen as this example. There are other, you can also think of the fact that all sentient beings have been everything to you. If all sentient beings have at one point or could have at one point been your mother, they could have been everything to you. They could have been your best friend. They could have been your lover. Report an error in the passage at 54:27 Highlight the passage at 54:27

54:49 They could have been your father. So you can choose a different one. But the mother comes in a little bit later, and I'll talk about why, that sort of indebtedness that comes up from just having given you birth. Physically giving you this body that comes up. But if it's helpful for you, if you have problems with your mother or if you have had problems with your mother, I think it's important to just think that all sentient beings have been hugely important to you. Report an error in the passage at 54:49 Highlight the passage at 54:49

55:27 So you can think about it in that sense, that they have been somebody so significant. And if you have an example in this life of somebody who either raised you or... Report an error in the passage at 55:27 Highlight the passage at 55:27

55:37 That you'd have the same feeling of protection for or love for or caring for or tenderness for. Then you can use that person instead. Report an error in the passage at 55:37 Highlight the passage at 55:37

55:49 And then the next step is remembering their kindness. And that has two parts. One is remembering the kindness of the mother. And then the other is remembering the kindness of beings in general. And remembering the kindness of the mother is basically you're just going through all that the mother of this life did. Report an error in the passage at 55:49 Highlight the passage at 55:49

56:08 So you can just think everything from just carrying you in their body for as long as they did, going through labor for you, giving up certain foods so that you wouldn't get sick in the stomach, in the womb. Report an error in the passage at 56:08 Highlight the passage at 56:08

56:27 Doing whatever they had to do once you were born, because we were really defenseless when we were born. So even if they weren't a good mother, in your opinion, they still had to do certain basic things like wash you, change your diapers repeatedly through the night. Those of us who have been mothers or have watched mothers carefully can see all that's involved with a screaming baby. Report an error in the passage at 56:27 Highlight the passage at 56:27

56:52 um, they, They get up in the night, they sit up if we're sick, they do whatever's necessary if you have a fever, they feed us repeatedly, they calm us down, they dress us, they wash us, they teach us how to eat, how to speak, how to walk. Most of that is the mother, sometimes the father too, or grandparents. But basically you're just thinking back on all the ways this kind of... Report an error in the passage at 56:52 Highlight the passage at 56:52

57:25 Kindness that the mother showed to you when you were at a point where you were just completely defenseless and really dependent. Report an error in the passage at 57:25 Highlight the passage at 57:25

57:36 And again, if you have a really negative experience with your own mother where you felt like that mother was abusive or whatever, you can think of what somebody else might have done if somebody else stepped in for you at that point and cared for you. Like in my case, my grandmother. Also helped raise me. So you can think of an older sister or a grandparent or something like that who helped. Report an error in the passage at 57:36 Highlight the passage at 57:36

58:01 But there is something about the fact that the mother of this life, even if they just handed you over after birth to adopt out, they gave you this human body. And without this human body, we can't meet the Dharma and practice it. And so they say that there's this enormous debt that we have just for being able to do that, that we can honor. Report an error in the passage at 58:01 Highlight the passage at 58:01

58:31 So also you can see that the mother of this life and even the father and the grandparent, the big sister, whoever, they've all played this role for us over and over and over again. So it's not just if we've had limitless lifetimes. The same... One, the same being has been our mother over and over again, been our father over and over again, which is really hard to think about, but in all different forms. Report an error in the passage at 58:31 Highlight the passage at 58:31

58:59 It's sort of asking you to open your mind and imagine the mother or the father or whoever it is in this life being your mother as a fox, being your mother as an insect, being your mother as a predator being, being your mother in all different forms, being your mother in Africa, being your mother. You know, in various different ethnicities, being your mother on the streets here or something like that. You know, imagining being homeless and having another being but that same being. Report an error in the passage at 58:59 Highlight the passage at 58:59

59:29 It's the same mental continuum, being your mother. So it's sort of like opening up your mind to this possibility. And in every time, caring for you in the best way that she knew how, even if you don't feel like it was good enough or whatever your own feelings are. Report an error in the passage at 59:29 Highlight the passage at 59:29

59:49 She did the best that she knew how to do. So yeah, so that's just kind of going through that bit by bit. And then the second part of that is remembering the kindness of beings in general. And this is kind of an interesting way of thinking about the way that we're so, really we're so interdependent with all beings, even though we like to think of ourselves as so independent. Report an error in the passage at 59:49 Highlight the passage at 59:49

1:00:14 So you just think about... Say the sandwich that you had for lunch and you just think about all the beings that participated in you getting that sandwich. So you can think about the wheat farmers who grew the wheat and then harvested the wheat and then... Report an error in the passage at 1:00:14 Highlight the passage at 1:00:14

1:00:34 Made it into flour and then made that flour into bread, so the bakers. And then those that delivered the bread to market and those who sold the bread. All of that's just the bread. And then you get into what's on the bread and those who raised the cows who milked them and created the cheese and then packaged the cheese and sold the cheese to market and then sold you the cheese. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:34 Highlight the passage at 1:00:34

1:00:57 And then same with the lettuce, same with the tomatoes. And you can go on and on and on. Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Can bring in thousands of beings for just rice. Because that doesn't even mention all the beings that lost their lives because they happened to be in the field that was plowed for the wheat to be planted or the lettuce to be planted or was sprayed or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:57 Highlight the passage at 1:00:57

1:01:24 And even if the chicken didn't really want you to take her egg, she still gave it to you. And there's still kindness involved in the fact that she still gave you her egg even though she might have not been happy about you taking it or the person taking it who brought it to the market that you bought it at. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:24 Highlight the passage at 1:01:24

1:01:45 So you're just kind of expanding your mind to think about everything involved in what you're eating for each meal. And of course you do that for every single meal. It's expansive. You begin realizing that we're so dependent on the kindness of others. You do the same thing with the clothes that you have on. Everyone that was involved in the growing of the cotton, and then the harvesting of the cotton, and then the preparing of the cotton into cloth, and then the cutting of the cloth, and this is all made in. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:45 Highlight the passage at 1:01:45

1:02:17 So then the tailors who cut it and sew it and usually in these outdoor platforms with these old-fashioned sewing machines that they're pumping with their foot and all the people who made the thread and the people who dyed it probably with some, I don't know what kind of thing they used as a dye and so on and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:17 Highlight the passage at 1:02:17

1:02:41 It's the same. It just goes out further and further and further. And, of course, many beings probably lost their life in that process as well. Those who were in the fields when the cotton was being grown and so forth are run over as the cloth is being taken to be sewn. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:41 Highlight the passage at 1:02:41

1:02:59 So everything, every single thing that we make use of comes to us through the kindness of other beings. So, I mean, this clock, our computers, you know, our tables. The electricity that we use, like everything that we use for entertainment, TV, you know, sports, everything involves so many beings. Even if you're just thinking about the humans, it's like literally thousands of beings every day that are keeping me entertained, keeping me fed, keeping me clothed, keeping me housed, keeping me with light, keeping me with utilities, with water and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:59 Highlight the passage at 1:02:59

1:03:40 So just thinking about the kindness of others. And that leads us to the third point, which is once you begin to recognize the kindness, you want to repay that kindness. And that's where I think it's useful with the mother thing, that sense of indebtedness. But if you can really meditate on it, I think you can actually get it for other beings too. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:40 Highlight the passage at 1:03:40

1:04:07 But there's something... I think there's something for me when I've meditated on this, there's some aspect of, you know, if I'm really thinking about the fact that she got up when she didn't feel like it. My mom actually found out she was pregnant with me about a month after her own mom died. And having gone through my mom's death, I know how sad, and I know she was very close to her mom. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:07 Highlight the passage at 1:04:07

1:04:31 And so I always think that there's this sadness. That must have gone through. And she probably just didn't feel like having another kid, you know. I was like the fourth. And this kid would be one that she couldn't introduce to her mom, you know. So there's probably this sadness about that. And I just think, you know, so everything she did always had that kind of tinge. And I didn't think of it until I was doing this meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:31 Highlight the passage at 1:04:31

1:04:55 Because you just take it for granted when you're a kid, right? Your mom's going to do everything for you. You just leave messes and she cleans them up and you somehow miraculously always get food and stuff like that. But when you start taking it apart and you just think, actually, she had to fight against her own fatigue. She had to fight against her own sickness. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:55 Highlight the passage at 1:04:55

1:05:13 She had to fight against her own sadness or any kind of, you know, difficulties she had to fight against in order to make sure that you were clean. Cared for and loved and all that stuff to give you attention. So when you think about it in those terms with an individual person, there's something very, very powerful. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:13 Highlight the passage at 1:05:13

1:05:34 And then you realize, yeah, that you would like to repay that kindness. You know, you do develop this kind of intimate kind of debt towards that person. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:34 Highlight the passage at 1:05:34

1:05:46 But, you know, so then you start thinking of how could I repay that person, you know, and you think about the different ways that you could. You know, get her in your refrigerator or something. You know, you're thinking about new things, things that you could get her that would help. And then you realize that actually those are all really limited, again, limited things. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:46 Highlight the passage at 1:05:46

1:06:04 They aren't going to bring her lasting happiness in any way. And I'm deluded right now. Like my, anything, I'm not going to be able to come up with something that's going to really help her. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:04 Highlight the passage at 1:06:04

1:06:20 In my current situation, I'm just another deluded being. So it's sort of like, yes, it is good to be kind to her and to treat her well and to give her time and attention and love and whatever she needs that you can help her with. But the reality is that actually we have to get out of saṃsāra ourselves in order to help her in any kind of lasting way. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:20 Highlight the passage at 1:06:20

1:06:45 And then that leads to the fourth step, which is called affectionate love. And that's that kind of really sweet sweetness, that really sweet love of where the person just appears so beautiful to you, no matter what they're doing. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:45 Highlight the passage at 1:06:45

1:07:05 And I remember when Venerable Neil Houston, actually, who taught the November courses at Copan that I attended, would talk about how he would... When he would look at his mother, and even though his mother was getting a little senile and doing some crazy things, he would just see her beauty. And as my own mother developed, she luckily didn't go senile, but she definitely had, I think once you hit your 80s, you definitely do some, you enter some sort of old age dementia. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:05 Highlight the passage at 1:07:05

1:07:36 So she would forget things, and she definitely was different than the mom that I had growing up. But still, all you see is her beauty. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:36 Highlight the passage at 1:07:36

1:07:44 I could really understand this, that you would just see the beauty. And you see that in moms, too, where the kid is really, like the rest of us just see this messed up kid. We just see this out of control, you know, convict or something. And the mother is always there going, you know, that's my Billy, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:44 Highlight the passage at 1:07:44

1:08:04 And all they see is all the positive. And that's really all they see. And they always see the potential. Billy can totally turn it around. I know he can, you know. And it's that kind of love. It's just this love that just sees beauty and all potential, like this precious jewel. And that's actually what we want to get for all living beings. We want to be able to develop that feeling for all living beings. But at this point, just learning or just trying to be able to see it for one being is... Report an error in the passage at 1:08:04 Highlight the passage at 1:08:04

1:08:38 is enough, you know, because the Buddha says basically if you can do it for one being, then you can eventually spread it out to all beings so just trying to feel this incredible love this sort of beautiful love, or affectionate love that's actually what bodhisattvas do feel for all living beings That leads to great compassion. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:38 Highlight the passage at 1:08:38

1:09:07 I want to define Venerable Bina did this on Tuesday night too. Love and compassion in Buddhism are really specific things. The Buddha really defined his terms quite clearly. Love basically means wanting the happiness of another, whether you're involved or not, which is, of course, what makes it difficult for anyone who's, if you're trying to have, Genuine love for somebody who will only be happy if they aren't with you, that's kind of difficult. And that's where our attachment often doesn't allow us to love like really clearly and genuinely and purely because we often, we want them to love. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:07 Highlight the passage at 1:09:07

1:09:59 We want their happiness as long as that happiness includes us. Compassion is defined as wanting to remove, or wanting... Wanting the others to be free from suffering. So my having compassion for Jeff would be wanting him to not suffer from any pain that he might be having. Great compassion is actually defined as wanting to remove the suffering of all beings. So every being. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:59 Highlight the passage at 1:09:59

1:10:30 So great compassion is huge. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:30 Highlight the passage at 1:10:30

1:10:35 Affectionate love for one person. Is having this really sweet, they actually say it's almost like an unbearable affection from the depths of your heart for one being now spreading out towards all beings. So you're trying to develop that same feeling that you would have for your mother or whoever raised you and did all this stuff. Or if you're a mother for your child. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:35 Highlight the passage at 1:10:35

1:11:02 If you have that feeling, you try now to affectionate love or loving kindness, it's sometimes translated as, is then spreading it out towards all beings. Compassion, again, wanting to remove another's suffering, which we've all experienced, right, probably in some form. Some form we've been with somebody who's suffering and really wanted them not to be suffering, but also that second step, wanting to actually remove their suffering if we could. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:02 Highlight the passage at 1:11:02

1:11:32 And I think especially parents experience that if their kids are sick. You want to remove that suffering. Or if you've had pets who are suffering in some way. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:32 Highlight the passage at 1:11:32

1:11:41 Now great compassion is now taking it to that next step of wanting to remove the suffering of all beings. So how do you develop it? You start with actually looking at an object of gross suffering. And the example that I was given... It's thinking about a sheep being led to slaughter. I remember seeing this in Greece, a lamb being tied onto this burrow and you knew where it was going and how confusing and how scary that is for the lamb. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:41 Highlight the passage at 1:11:41

1:12:19 The lamb may not know even where it's going, but it definitely is scared because it's being bound and it's upside down. So you're focusing on a particular helpless, unprotected... Report an error in the passage at 1:12:19 Highlight the passage at 1:12:19

1:12:33 Being and how it feels as it goes through that sort of process of really intense, gross suffering. And knowing as you're looking at this that it's not just a sheep, but it's actually your mother. It's actually been your mother. So you're already kind of shedding this. We normally separate ourselves very much from suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:33 Highlight the passage at 1:12:33

1:12:59 And now this is actually asking you to know, actually realize that not only does this kind of suffering happen, but that this is a being that has been so kind to you in so many ways. We've just looked at that. And then you're going, now you're extending out and you're thinking about all the other sheep in the field who are just kind of mindlessly grazing and not realizing that they could be next. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:59 Highlight the passage at 1:12:59

1:13:24 In fact, they probably will be next. And then generating compassion for them, remembering that they also have been your mother in the past lives. And then it's extending, because we like to actually just focus on the victim, right? We don't want to think about the victimizer. But now the Buddha is saying, okay, now you have to extend your compassion for the one doing the slaughter. Because they have no idea that they're creating negative karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:24 Highlight the passage at 1:13:24

1:13:50 They have no idea. They're just doing this as a job. To protect their families or to raise money to take care of their families or whatever. And so they harden themselves to whatever suffering they see, you know, day in and day out to try to just do the job, not knowing that they're also creating this horrible karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:50 Highlight the passage at 1:13:50

1:14:14 So, I mean, from that standpoint, allowing yourself to develop compassion for them. And also then thinking about... Because they often, you know, you can also think about, for example, people like, say, in the war in Iraq. I mean, there's a lot of examples of that. Not just, you know, the innocent, whatever innocent means, innocent victims or civilians, but also those that are creating, those who are snipering, you know, those who are setting off bombs because they believe it's the right thing to do. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:14 Highlight the passage at 1:14:14

1:14:52 Those soldiers that are going over thinking it's a good thing to do and then killing based on this and creating negative karma based on that. So you're extending your idea of compassion to really encompass all. And then Bush, you know, creating enormous negative karma by thinking that this is a really good thing to do for the country. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:52 Highlight the passage at 1:14:52

1:15:14 Like having this enormous wrong view, feeling like sending all of these people. This is not looking at the action. This is looking at the people that are doing the actions. So really trying to generate compassion for all beings because not all beings are doing things that we agree with. Having compassion for your friends is not having this kind of great compassion. This mind of compassion is really... Report an error in the passage at 1:15:14 Highlight the passage at 1:15:14

1:15:49 Extending to all beings no matter how heinously they act in the world, which is enormous, which is enormous. But it's really the mind of like a Christ or any, you know, great being like Saint, the Buddha. This is the mind that is able to love and have compassion for all beings no matter what they're doing, not even just, you know, in the world, but to you personally. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:49 Highlight the passage at 1:15:49

1:16:17 If they are killing you, you can still love them and have compassion for them, which is enormous. Like Rubina said, it's almost insane. It's so extreme. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:17 Highlight the passage at 1:16:17

1:16:33 At this point, you are developing this mind where you are developing great compassion. Again, remembering that great compassion is wanting to remove the suffering of all beings. So first you're looking at the object of gross suffering, then you're looking at the other sheep, then you're looking at the people that do the slaughter. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:33 Highlight the passage at 1:16:33

1:16:57 And you're wishing, it's starting to develop from the depths of your heart this desire to stop all suffering, that all suffering is actually pointless, and that if you could, you would stop all suffering. If you had this ability, you would stop all suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:57 Highlight the passage at 1:16:57

1:17:14 This feeling then leads into what's called the extraordinary attitude or I think His Holiness may call it the attitude of ultimate responsibility I think or something like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:14 Highlight the passage at 1:17:14

1:17:31 Altruistic intention I think I've seen it also translated as. And basically you're getting to the point where you're thinking that it's completely unbearable that sentient beings have to suffer so much. It's unbearable to me that there's so much suffering surrounding me, that all of these beings are suffering and then creating more and more suffering for themselves because they don't understand how suffering is created. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:31 Highlight the passage at 1:17:31

1:17:54 So you are trying to get to this point, not just where you see that, not just where you feel that, but where you actually stop and say, I will help them end this suffering. I myself. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:54 Highlight the passage at 1:17:54

1:18:07 Must help them. It's my responsibility to help them. The same way that you would if your mother was in a burning house. You wouldn't expect, you wouldn't just stand there and watch her burn and think, well, somebody should really step in and do something. It's recognizing that your mom's in the burning house and then deciding that I have to go save her. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:07 Highlight the passage at 1:18:07

1:18:28 Like, of course I have to go save her. Who else would save her? So it's that strong, but for all beings. So it's this incredible mind. And Geshe-la always stresses it has to be really from the depths of your heart. This wish to remove the suffering of all beings and to bring them into lasting happiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:28 Highlight the passage at 1:18:28

1:18:51 And this is what we're starting. This is like an exercise. It's like gym exercises to strengthen this mind, to build this mind. It's really like you're trying to build new muscles in your compassion muscles. And you actually have to get to this point where you're just thinking no matter how difficult it is, no matter how long it takes, no matter how many billions of sentient beings there are, no matter whether they help me or they harm me, I myself will do whatever it takes to bring every lasting being to happiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:51 Highlight the passage at 1:18:51

1:19:25 So this enormous, courageous, vast, powerful mind. And then that is, of course, the direct cause for bodhicitta, which is the result, which is the seventh point. And bodhicitta is this mind that basically thinks, how can I do this? If I have this strong wish, I want to do this, I'm willing to do this, I'm willing to do it, no matter what it takes, no matter how long it takes, how do I do it? Because I'm still, you know, this deluded... Report an error in the passage at 1:19:25 Highlight the passage at 1:19:25

1:19:57 Poor little old me. I'm just this deluded being. I can't even help myself. I can't even remove my own suffering right now, right? I mean, I still have this bad croaky throat, you know. I still have the bum back and the bum shoulder, you know. I can't even remove my own suffering, so how on earth can I remove the suffering of all beings? And I look around and I think, well, who can? Report an error in the passage at 1:19:57 Highlight the passage at 1:19:57

1:20:18 It's only an enlightened being. So my method... Has got to be that I myself have to attain enlightenment in order to help them. So our goal is to help all sentient beings and the method to achieve it is to attain a fully enlightened mind. That's the way, that's how you take this mind of universal responsibility and you lead it straight into this mind that aspires to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:18 Highlight the passage at 1:20:18

1:20:53 Buddhas have limitless compassion and limitless loving kindness. They have limitless wisdom. They're actually omniscient. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:53 Highlight the passage at 1:20:53

1:21:05 Their minds are basically perfected mind. I mean, that's really what enlightened mind is. They say they have this ability to just effortlessly show up for any being in whatever form that being needs to help them without thought. So no conceptual. activity necessary. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:05 Highlight the passage at 1:21:05

1:21:26 They're able to know the minds of all beings and can manifest in whatever form most helps that being. And so this is really the only way to fulfill my goal. If I want to help all beings, then I need to have these powers. I need to have this ability to benefit in all these different ways. And so this leads to the thought, I must become a Buddha so that I can help all living beings without exception. And that's the mind of bodhicitta. And at first when we're doing these different steps, it's all really contrived. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:26 Highlight the passage at 1:21:26

1:21:59 And at first with bodhicitta, it's contrived. And that's okay. It's sort of like fake it till you make it. You know, it actually helps you develop this courageous mind by just stating it in your mind. I will do this. It's kind of like you're playing it on a stage, but the stage is your cushion in your mind, and you're just getting that strength of determination behind it. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:59 Highlight the passage at 1:21:59

1:22:27 But eventually it becomes effortless, and you don't have to. It becomes spontaneous. It just arises. And they say at some point it arises as naturally as the thought of food when we're hungry. It's just this mind of wanting to benefit others. And as naturally as wanting our own happiness arises. Because we don't have to put any thought into that. It just arises. We just immediately want our own happiness. So I think we should take a break. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:27 Highlight the passage at 1:22:27

1:23:01 I'm a little bit behind on that. And then what I thought I would do is try to lead you in a meditation on these points really quick. And that'll be your assignment. And because we have a makeup class on Saturday, Report an error in the passage at 1:23:01 Highlight the passage at 1:23:01

1:23:15 I had kind of this idea that you could do the first three steps and then just in one session and then the next day do the next. And I think you can still do it that way. We'll talk about that as your homework because I think you've got to get familiar with these. Once you're familiar with them, you can sit down and do all of them in a single session. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:15 Highlight the passage at 1:23:15

1:23:38 You're just touching on them and you can actually see how they build on each other. But at this point, you're still getting familiar with them, so I think it makes more sense to just do a couple of steps in one session, and then the next day do a couple of steps in the next session. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:38 Highlight the passage at 1:23:38

1:23:55 But since you'll get another meditation on Saturday, then probably just go through it once. But just know, and I put this on the homework too, just know that actually to attain genuine bodhicitta, you have to meditate on this for months and months and months and years and years, most likely. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:55 Highlight the passage at 1:23:55

1:24:12 To actually begin to have it become like a habit. To look around and see all beings as your mother. To actually have that tenderness as you're going through the streets. But you can play with it now. You can totally play with it now. When you're watching TV and George Bush irritates you, think, wow, he was my mother. I mean, it's an odd thought. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:12 Highlight the passage at 1:24:12

1:24:34 It's an odd thought. Or if your boss is screaming at you, it's like, wow, he was my mom. He cared for me with that same sweetness that a mom cares for a child. It's just an odd thing. It kind of breaks that down a little bit, you know, because it's not just this one life. The Buddha is saying that we have lived many, many lifetimes in many different forms. And this meditation, I think, is especially useful for that. Or an ant, you know, that falls into your tea or something, and you're like, oh my God, get it out, get it out. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:34 Highlight the passage at 1:24:34

1:25:03 And then you're just thinking, this little tiny defenseless being once cared for me. In that same way, there's like a tenderness that it gives you for all beings. So you can play with it even before you have an actual realization. Why don't we wait on questions and take a break and then come back and bring questions. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:03 Highlight the passage at 1:25:03

1:25:44 So why don't we start with questions, if you have questions. And then while you were gone, my lovely assistant, Jeff, put the homework on your desk. The elusive page 8, which you can now add to your, this is the lamrim, remember the lamrim article that was missing that one page? This goes there. And it's actually on the Bodhisattva practices, so that would be kind of cool for you to be able to read about. There he is. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:44 Highlight the passage at 1:25:44

1:26:17 I knew he'd come back. And then suggested presentation topics. Just to go over the schedule really quick. This Saturday from 10.30 to 12.30 is the makeup for the class that we missed when this student died a couple weeks ago. We had to have a makeup day and I know that all of you can't make it, but we just kind of had to go with majority. So if anybody is here tonight who will not be here on Saturday, I also have the homework for class 6 prepared if you'd like to get it. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:17 Highlight the passage at 1:26:17

1:26:56 A head start. Listen to that. Enthusiasm in the front row. That's why you're in the front row, isn't it? He's my plant. Saturday and next Thursday we'll be starting to talk about emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:56 Highlight the passage at 1:26:56

1:27:10 So this would give you... Actually what we're going to look at specifically is dependent arising. And so that's what this meditation is. So who here will not be here on Saturday but would like the... Class 6 meditation assignment. Okay, so Ray in the back row. Do you want to hand one to Ray in the back row? He's coming on down. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:10 Highlight the passage at 1:27:10

1:27:36 See, that enthusiasm is infectious. That's great. And then next week we'll do the last class for this course. And then next Saturday, the 27th, is the practice day. So again, the schedule, the way we kind of, and we're combining it with the spiritual teacher. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:36 Highlight the passage at 1:27:36

1:27:56 Four students. One of them is Chad. So we'll have three additional students come. And so in the morning, I'll lead you all on some meditations from our class and from the spiritual teacher class. And so it'll just be guided meditation. And it'll probably be 15 to 20 minutes per meditation. And then I'll say, this is a good time to stretch. And then we'll just keep it silent. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:56 Highlight the passage at 1:27:56

1:28:21 So it'll be a couple of hours like that where you'll just... Do a meditation and then do a stretch and then sit down and do a meditation and then do a stretch. And then we'll end with some discussion about experiences that people had and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:21 Highlight the passage at 1:28:21

1:28:36 Then we'll have lunch. And the way that we're going to do it now is that we'll just... That's a good question. Is there a cost for the lunch if the cafe does it? I'll find out for you guys and tell you ahead of time. What we've done in the past is have a potluck. But we just decided just to have the cafe do everything. And I want to make sure that they get their costing, that they have the funds for it. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:36 Highlight the passage at 1:28:36

1:29:02 So anyway, I think that it'll be like seven bucks or something if you guys do get lunch. And, you know, if you can't afford the seven bucks, then that's okay. We'll figure out something. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:02 Highlight the passage at 1:29:02

1:29:15 Anyway, so we'll have lunch, and then what we've done usually is then we come in for our tea and dessert, back into the ganfa, and we sit and watch a film. Now, since it's for two classes, we'll actually watch the little Discovering Buddhism videos. They're really quite short. They're like 20 to 25 minutes in length, but they'll cover some of the subject matter, which now for this class will make more sense to you. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:15 Highlight the passage at 1:29:15

1:29:46 And for a spiritual teacher, it'll just plant the seed so that the next time that class is offered, maybe more people will sign up. It'll also kind of give you an idea of the importance of a teacher. And they're really well-crafted little films, actually. I think Christina did a great job with them. So we'll watch that together, and then it'll be time for student presentations. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:46 Highlight the passage at 1:29:46

1:30:08 And clearly, I think it's wonderful if everyone will do one. I can't force you guys to do one. I just think they're a good experience. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:08 Highlight the passage at 1:30:08

1:30:15 I've just given you different topics here on what you could do, and you could also choose another topic that's not here. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:15 Highlight the passage at 1:30:15

1:30:25 What would probably be good is if you bounce me an email and just ask, say, I'm thinking about doing this, is this okay? That way you're not doing something that's totally unrelated to the course. I'd like it to be somewhat related to the course, if that's possible. These are all ones that I would suggest, but then, of course, Report an error in the passage at 1:30:25 Highlight the passage at 1:30:25

1:30:46 There's lots of room. If there's something else that say you read and maybe one of the reading assignments that bounced out at you and you'd like to talk about that, that would be fine. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:46 Highlight the passage at 1:30:46

1:30:57 And I think one of, let's see where, there's one. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:57 Highlight the passage at 1:30:57

1:31:04 Lead a meditation, number 11. Lead us in a meditation of your choice. You can take any of the meditations and you can lead. The group in a meditation. And those are great, especially if you hate talking in front of people. That's like my favorite thing to do because then people all have to close their eyes. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:04 Highlight the passage at 1:31:04

1:31:21 So, and even if you guys don't worry about, don't feel like if I choose number 12, what if, you know, Charlie choose number 12 or something like that. You guys are all going to present it differently and that's fine. So that's fine. So you don't need to tell me in advance what you're going to do. But I wanted to give it to you in a little advance so that you had some time to think about what to do. Again, keep it short and sweet. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:21 Highlight the passage at 1:31:21

1:31:45 You don't have to go on adosium for hours. Try to keep it concise. But not so concise that you're not actually saying anything. But try to have fun with it too. And we don't do it where you don't have to stand up and do anything weird like that. You don't have to do anything like that. Just sit and do it. So that's fine. We usually just kind of sit in a circle and just go around. And we do it by choice. Like whoever wants to go first can go first and stuff. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:45 Highlight the passage at 1:31:45

1:32:15 If you want to do PowerPoint, you can. You can. Yeah. We have had students who use many, many props. And that's wonderful if you want to. Of course, everyone else feels really bad. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:15 Highlight the passage at 1:32:15

1:32:28 Especially if you use a lot of glitter. And I'm not naming names for those of us listening at home. But no, I think just have fun with it. I think it's great. It's also just a nice way to sort of see what you learned in the class and, you know, kind of ends the class in a nice way. So that's the 27th. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:28 Highlight the passage at 1:32:28

1:32:46 So we're sort of speeding up in these last two weeks and we're going to boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, have four classes together. So I'm going to just go through the, oh, sorry, questions. So we have questions about what was just presented. And I want to speed through that much. You guys all have bodhicitta already? Report an error in the passage at 1:32:46 Highlight the passage at 1:32:46

1:33:07 That's so cool. That's so great. So you're just all showing up to help me with my bodhicitta. Thank you. I need that. Nothing? Okay, well you probably will after meditating on it. So try it out. So... We only have 15 minutes left in the class, so I'm not going to be able to have a lot of time to do this. I'll probably skip the equanimity meditation, and I'm just going to lead you in the seven-point cause and effect. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:07 Highlight the passage at 1:33:07

1:33:35 The equanimity meditation is the friend, enemy, stranger one, and it's a great meditation to do, and you should just take one session and just do that. So you can have time with it. With all of these, you want to allow time. I made a suggestion that clearly if you have a little bit, say you have a day off and you have like an hour to just sit and get to know this, it would be great to do them all one after another. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:35 Highlight the passage at 1:33:35

1:33:58 That's wonderful. But it takes a while. You know, you've got to read your notes and think and your, you know, so all of that takes some time. And then once you've memorized it and you have specific examples from your own life, because that's what makes it real. It's not like you're just memorizing, learning something and then just, you know, that's called a review meditation. That's a different kind of meditation. That's like what we do with the 12 links, where you're basically just trying to memorize data that you've never learned before. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:58 Highlight the passage at 1:33:58

1:34:28 But with this, we're actually trying to bring it inside, like actually think about the fact that this mother raised me, like me, not just... I'm trying to think of my own experiences with it so that I have my own emotional reaction to that experience because that's what's going to make it more real for you. So you want to take some time with it. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:28 Highlight the passage at 1:34:28

1:34:52 So do what you have to do to get that. If you have to just do one step a day, that's fine. Just a Report an error in the passage at 1:34:52 Highlight the passage at 1:34:52

1:35:05 question in regards to someone who's maybe not on the Mahāyāna path and bodhicitta and maybe a solitary realizer. Someone who goes out, and maybe I'm not using the terms right, and a person who goes out and does their practice in a cave for 30 years, but not on the Mahāyāna path to come back, more focused on their own liberation. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:05 Highlight the passage at 1:35:05

1:35:31 Do they practice bodhicitta? No, bodhicitta is totally Mahāyāna. That's what makes something Mahāyāna, is bodhicitta. So that person who is on the solitary, or the... The nirvāṇa approach, the path of individual liberation, can't actually attain full enlightenment because they're missing this key ingredient. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:31 Highlight the passage at 1:35:31

1:35:54 But they can eventually, but at this point they're still just focused on their own. And the teachings actually describe that as a subtle form of self-cherishing. But they say that clearly if somebody has directly perceived emptiness and has these really high realizations all the way up to nirvāṇa, that actually they have amazing compassion. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:54 Highlight the passage at 1:35:54

1:36:18 So it's not that much of a leap for them to be able to develop bodhicitta. And if you've ever met anyone on these paths, actually incredible compassion for others, incredible kindness. So their qualities are quite advanced. So it's not at all to diss that. It's just different minds are attracted to it. Bodhicitta is what makes Mahāyāna Mahāyāna. Greater scope is talking about all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:18 Highlight the passage at 1:36:18

1:36:47 Maha is talking about all sentient beings. Not to go on with this, but just even us kind of as entering the path, are you saying that someone, because of, you said, their own self-cherishing, they wouldn't even have exposure to the path, a path of bodhicitta? If they've created all this merit to achieve nirvāṇa, right, in practice, but then they also still have this self-cherishing mind, is it that they don't have the concept or they would never be exposed to the concept? Report an error in the passage at 1:36:47 Highlight the passage at 1:36:47

1:37:23 At this point they aren't even exposed to the concept usually. Yeah, it's just not even taught in that particular type of Buddhism. Yeah, I think some types of Buddhism it's taught that not all beings can become Buddhas. Which is different than in this particular lineage where it's taught that all beings can become Buddhists. So yeah, I think it's just different interpretations of the Buddhist teachings. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:23 Highlight the passage at 1:37:23

1:37:48 Which would be karma ultimately, wouldn't it? Yeah, how you ended up on that approach versus this one. It's simply karma. And karma shifts, fortunately, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:37:48 Highlight the passage at 1:37:48

1:37:58 Anything else? Any other questions? Yeah, okay. Well, let's try it. Let's try it. I'll try to lead you. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:58 Highlight the passage at 1:37:58

1:38:08 So just take a moment, a Report an error in the passage at 1:38:08 Highlight the passage at 1:38:08

1:38:15 very short moment, to come into your posture. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:15 Highlight the passage at 1:38:15

1:38:25 New lozenge. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:25 Highlight the passage at 1:38:25

1:38:44 Letting all the ideas and thoughts just settle the way muddy water clears after a while. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:44 Highlight the passage at 1:38:44

1:38:56 All the sediment sort of settles to the bottom. Imagining your mind doing the same thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:56 Highlight the passage at 1:38:56

1:39:12 And then we just start with recognizing all sentient beings as your mother. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:12 Highlight the passage at 1:39:12

1:39:20 So the Buddha taught that the nature of mind is that it's a stream of experiences arising and passing away and that each moment comes from the moment just before. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:20 Highlight the passage at 1:39:20

1:39:38 Mind is beginningless and endless. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:38 Highlight the passage at 1:39:38

1:39:44 So if we've had limitless rebirths, we've had limitless mothers. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:44 Highlight the passage at 1:39:44

1:39:54 We've been born in every single form that we can imagine, every animal, every human. Every bird, every fish, Report an error in the passage at 1:39:54 Highlight the passage at 1:39:54

1:40:07 even pretas have mothers. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:07 Highlight the passage at 1:40:07

1:40:13 So you can imagine taking birth in every kind of way. Maybe imagine just one other way than how you are now. Maybe in some other country, some other race, some other level of poverty or wealth as Report an error in the passage at 1:40:13 Highlight the passage at 1:40:13

1:40:33 some other kind of animal. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:33 Highlight the passage at 1:40:33

1:40:41 Whatever kind of birth, we've had a mother who cared for us with such tenderness. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:41 Highlight the passage at 1:40:41

1:40:52 Undergoing pain and willing to undergo pain for us. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:52 Highlight the passage at 1:40:52

1:41:05 Sometimes even willing to give up their own lives for us. There Report an error in the passage at 1:41:05 Highlight the passage at 1:41:05

1:41:16 are all those mothers now. They Report an error in the passage at 1:41:16 Highlight the passage at 1:41:16

1:41:23 are every being you'll ever meet. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:23 Highlight the passage at 1:41:23

1:41:34 In the same way that your mother of this life is still your mother after she passes, all these beings are still your mother as well. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:34 Highlight the passage at 1:41:34

1:42:02 And then we remember their kindness. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:02 Highlight the passage at 1:42:02

1:42:07 Remembering first just the kindness of this mother of this life. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:07 Highlight the passage at 1:42:07

1:42:14 Thinking about her carrying us inside her, giving birth to us, Report an error in the passage at 1:42:14 Highlight the passage at 1:42:14

1:42:32 feeding us, cleaning us, changing us, Report an error in the passage at 1:42:32 Highlight the passage at 1:42:32

1:42:45 caring for us when we're sick, when we're sad, when we're needy, Report an error in the passage at 1:42:45 Highlight the passage at 1:42:45

1:42:58 getting up in the night over and over again, Report an error in the passage at 1:42:58 Highlight the passage at 1:42:58

1:43:10 sitting up with us until we calm down, Report an error in the passage at 1:43:10 Highlight the passage at 1:43:10

1:43:17 comforting us, dressing us, Report an error in the passage at 1:43:17 Highlight the passage at 1:43:17

1:43:28 teaching us everything we know about feeding ourselves, speaking, Dressing herself, even Report an error in the passage at 1:43:28 Highlight the passage at 1:43:28

1:43:50 as we got older, she continued to wash our clothes, cook for us, clean for us. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:50 Highlight the passage at 1:43:50

1:44:15 Even if we disagreed with how she raised us, we can see that she tried with whatever she knew to Report an error in the passage at 1:44:15 Highlight the passage at 1:44:15

1:44:26 care for us. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:26 Highlight the passage at 1:44:26

1:44:35 And then Lama Zopa Rinpoche always says to remember that this mother of this life has also been our mother many, many, many times. In all different forms. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:35 Highlight the passage at 1:44:35

1:44:51 She's done this before in all different forms. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:51 Highlight the passage at 1:44:51

1:45:08 And in the same way we can think our best friend of this life, our teachers, our neighbors, even the teller of the bank, have all also been our mothers in many, many lifetimes. And Report an error in the passage at 1:45:08 Highlight the passage at 1:45:08

1:45:45 then we wish to repay that kindness. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:45 Highlight the passage at 1:45:45

1:45:50 And this comes more naturally as we meditate on those first two points. We start to feel this sort of debt. Like if somebody helps us in some big way, Report an error in the passage at 1:45:50 Highlight the passage at 1:45:50

1:46:06 like if we need help moving and someone comes through and helps us move and we feel this sort of debt to them. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:06 Highlight the passage at 1:46:06

1:46:26 But what can we do right now at this moment? We're in the same situation. We're ignorant and we're deluded. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:26 Highlight the passage at 1:46:26

1:46:39 But one thing's different. We've actually met spiritual teachings. We're open to working with our minds. We have this opportunity to use these teachings to transform our minds. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:39 Highlight the passage at 1:46:39

1:47:02 Of course we should try to help them in little ways if they need something from us or Report an error in the passage at 1:47:02 Highlight the passage at 1:47:02

1:47:14 just spending time with them as they grow older. But we have to understand that those are limited ways of helping. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:14 Highlight the passage at 1:47:14

1:47:30 The best way that we can help them is getting out of saṃsāra altogether, getting liberated ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:30 Highlight the passage at 1:47:30

1:47:44 So we start helping them by helping ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:44 Highlight the passage at 1:47:44

1:47:58 The next step is affectionate love. Remembering again that love is wanting others to be happy. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:58 Highlight the passage at 1:47:58

1:48:13 So if the object of our love is the mother of this life, we can remember all she's done for us and feel this love more naturally. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:13 Highlight the passage at 1:48:13

1:48:24 But ultimately we want to turn this love out towards every living being, Report an error in the passage at 1:48:24 Highlight the passage at 1:48:24

1:48:31 knowing that each one of them has also played this role for us. Each one of them has also born us, cared for us, sat up with us, nursed us. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:31 Highlight the passage at 1:48:31

1:48:53 Ultimately this should become like the love that a mother has for an only child. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:53 Highlight the passage at 1:48:53

1:49:01 This immense love that sees only beauty and potential. This love that would allow us to do anything to care for that being. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:01 Highlight the passage at 1:49:01

1:49:19 To try to generate this same kind of love towards all beings where they all appear so beautiful to you. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:19 Highlight the passage at 1:49:19

1:49:31 Try to imagine this love that sees only goodness and beauty in another spreading out for you. For all beings. This is the sort of love that bodhisattvas feel for all beings. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:31 Highlight the passage at 1:49:31

1:50:05 And the next step is great compassion. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:05 Highlight the passage at 1:50:05

1:50:14 We remember again that this mind of renunciation is the basis of compassion because first we see our own suffering and desire to be free of it and desire to attain nirvāṇa, to be completely out of saṃsāra for ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:14 Highlight the passage at 1:50:14

1:50:33 Compassion is simply wanting the same for all beings, recognizing that all beings are suffering in the same way that we do. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:33 Highlight the passage at 1:50:33

1:50:50 So the way we develop this is by looking at an object of gross suffering, like using the example that we talked about in class, a sheep being taken for slaughter. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:50 Highlight the passage at 1:50:50

1:51:13 And in this situation, the sheep is completely unprotected and defenseless, and the people killing it are impersonal. They're just doing it as a job. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:13 Highlight the passage at 1:51:13

1:51:32 And as it dies, it's so confused and so fearful. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:32 Highlight the passage at 1:51:32

1:51:43 Try not to turn away from looking at the suffering that it feels. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:43 Highlight the passage at 1:51:43

1:51:51 And now remember that this isn't just a sheep. This being has also been your mother many, many times. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:51 Highlight the passage at 1:51:51

1:52:01 Cared for you in so many ways. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:01 Highlight the passage at 1:52:01

1:52:17 And then don't forget all the other sheep in that field. They're just grazing ignorantly, not realizing. They will be next led to the slaughterhouse. It's just a question of time. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:17 Highlight the passage at 1:52:17

1:52:40 Generate compassion for them, remembering that each one of them has also been your mother. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:40 Highlight the passage at 1:52:40

1:52:59 And then remember the workers, the people working in the slaughterhouse who never even realize for a moment that they're creating negative karma and how that's going to cause so much suffering for them later. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:59 Highlight the passage at 1:52:59

1:53:17 They just see it as a job. It's a hard job, and so they harden themselves to it. But they just do it day in and day out. They might even have nightmares about it, but then they force themselves to go back. Maybe it's the only job they can get and generate compassion for them. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:17 Highlight the passage at 1:53:17

1:53:47 Think about how much you wish you could stop this pointless suffering right now. And really try to feel this from the depths of your heart. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:47 Highlight the passage at 1:53:47

1:54:07 This leads to the extraordinary attitude. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:07 Highlight the passage at 1:54:07

1:54:15 Think that it's totally unbearable that sentient beings have to suffer so much. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:15 Highlight the passage at 1:54:15

1:54:24 I think I myself alone will help them and must help them. It's my responsibility to help them. I won't wait to see if anyone else does it. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:24 Highlight the passage at 1:54:24

1:54:43 If I don't do it, who will? Report an error in the passage at 1:54:43 Highlight the passage at 1:54:43

1:54:52 We have to get to the point where we feel this strong determination deeply. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:52 Highlight the passage at 1:54:52

1:55:01 The wish to remove the suffering of all beings and to bring them lasting happiness is our ultimate goal, no Report an error in the passage at 1:55:01 Highlight the passage at 1:55:01

1:55:12 matter how difficult it is, no matter how long it takes. No matter how many sentient beings there are, whether they help me or harm me, I myself will single-handedly do all the work needed to bring every living being to happiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:12 Highlight the passage at 1:55:12

1:55:36 This is the mind of great compassion. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:36 Highlight the passage at 1:55:36

1:55:46 And the result of this mind is bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:46 Highlight the passage at 1:55:46

1:55:59 If we have this thought, we have to look at ourselves and think, how can I get there? What method can I use? How can I help all beings? Report an error in the passage at 1:55:59 Highlight the passage at 1:55:59

1:56:11 If I look around and think, who can do this? It's only an enlightened being. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:11 Highlight the passage at 1:56:11

1:56:22 Only they have this capacity. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:22 Highlight the passage at 1:56:22

1:56:28 They have this ability to manifest in whatever form necessary. They have this ability to manifest wherever needed, without thought, without effort. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:28 Highlight the passage at 1:56:28

1:56:42 They know the minds and the karma of every living being. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:42 Highlight the passage at 1:56:42

1:56:48 So I have to become enlightened so that I can help all beings without exception. I must become a Buddha. This is the only way to achieve my goal. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:48 Highlight the passage at 1:56:48

1:57:11 This is the strong, courageous mind of bodhicitta. Just rest in that mind for a moment. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:11 Highlight the passage at 1:57:11

1:57:24 Imagine what it would feel like to wake up with this mind tomorrow and have it pervade everything that you do. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:24 Highlight the passage at 1:57:24

1:57:42 So let's dedicate this class to each one of us being able to truly, genuinely generate this mind of bodhicitta so that we can each become enlightened in order to benefit all beings. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:42 Highlight the passage at 1:57:42

1:58:08 Thank you. Sorry, I went a little bit over. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:08 Highlight the passage at 1:58:08

1:58:16 I'm sorry that my throat kept going out. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:16 Highlight the passage at 1:58:16

1:58:22 So that's a very quick way of going through it all. But if you have more time, clearly it makes a deeper imprint. And as Charlie is demonstrating, it does get quite emotional. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:22 Highlight the passage at 1:58:22

1:58:37 When I do this meditation, I sob. So it's really okay if you do. That's actually part of it. What it does is it's generating emotion, which is an experience. So we're not just trying to generate an intellectual idea, we're trying to generate a feeling. So later, as you're continuing to go through this meditation, and I hope that you do continue after this class ends, you're able to keep bringing up that same feeling, that each time you're able to resurrect that feeling, because that's what gives it power. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:37 Highlight the passage at 1:58:37

1:59:12 That's what's going to cause a realization. You know, in your mind. So thank you. So I'll see you guys who can on Saturday. And the others of you I'll see next week. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:12 Highlight the passage at 1:59:12

1:59:33 Yep. So I'll see you Thursday. Yeah. But still work on this. Meditate on this. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:33 Highlight the passage at 1:59:33

1:59:51 Yeah. Mm-hmm. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:51 Highlight the passage at 1:59:51

2:00:12 Have you ever had anybody nurture you? class is going to be after Saturday, Thursday. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:12 Highlight the passage at 2:00:12

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:00:20 There was nobody like a grandparent or a sister or a neighbor. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:20 Highlight the passage at 2:00:20

2:00:36 Maybe just try to think about people who have helped you. Has there been anybody in your life who have helped you, like a teacher or a really good friend who cared for you or a partner? Report an error in the passage at 2:00:36 Highlight the passage at 2:00:36

2:01:00 It's better if it can be a human. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:00 Highlight the passage at 2:01:00

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:01:08 That would be your assignment then this week is to try to think about anyone who's cared for you. It doesn't have to be a mother or even family. It can be anyone who's cared for you in any way. If you've been sick or if you've been going through a hard time and somebody's stepped in to help you. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:08 Highlight the passage at 2:01:08

2:01:27 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because basically you're just taking that feeling of recognizing somebody's kindness. And wanting to repay that kindness so it can be anybody who's cared for you. You're not alone, I'm sure. You're just the only one speaking it. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:27 Highlight the passage at 2:01:27

2:01:51 Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:51 Highlight the passage at 2:01:51

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:02:30 clarity to Report an error in the passage at 2:02:30 Highlight the passage at 2:02:30

2:02:41 think it won't say your object. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:41 Highlight the passage at 2:02:41

2:02:54 How about for this meditation? Report an error in the passage at 2:02:54 Highlight the passage at 2:02:54